Since 2014 the Office for Catholic Schools has asked that all WCEA accredited schools participate in annual progress reports that align with the goals and outcomes of the accreditation self-study for both the ISL and E3 protocols. In 2021, we have fully adopted the NSBECS for the work that we do in the office and at all of our Catholic Schools. In that spirit, we have updated the progress report to align with the NSBECS, not necessarily the WCEA process. Luckily, the WCEA is currently piloting a new protocol (called Standards of Excellence) which are rooted in the NSBECS, therefore the new OCS progress report aligns perfectly with the standard progress reporting for WCEA. It’s all God’s work!

Beginning January 2021, in regards to Progress Reports – ALL schools will be completing the entire Progress Report, including Section I: Goal Setting and Section II: Catholic Identity. Catholic Identity Standards (Section II) will continue to rotate and are required by ALL schools as they have always been. An additional CI reflection question will be added to the end of the progress report. As has been in the past, schools who are either in their visit year or self study year will not have to complete the Goal Setting portion of the progress report as they will be working on those sections within their Accreditation work. Every school, regardless of their accreditation status, must complete Section II: Catholic Identity Standards every year.

All schools will receive their progress report template no later than January 14th from Janeal Grosinger.  Please have these completed by March 1st 2022. 

Beginning in 2022 –

Per our principal meeting in early January 2022 – [see at about the 25 minute mark: (https://trello.com/c/BhQ82ybU)] we will be shifting from the ISL/E3 framework to the SE framework in our annual progress report structure.

In general, we are shifting all schools to the Standards of Excellence model and supporting the NSBECS framework in all initiatives going forward as our guiding framework for successful Catholic schools. In that spirit, this year we have changed the progress report to be organized in the domains/standards instead of just over-arching goals. For some school that will mean that most of the goals they have been working on will fall into the Domain 1 and Domain 3 sections – as that is something the ISL and E3 squarely focused on.

We are asking that if schools currently do not have any goals in Domain 2/4 to start looking at those and where there is areas of improvement. School’s objective for this year in those domains may simply be to identify and create a plan in working towards a specific standard. That’s fine– this year’s annual progress report will look a little different than in previous years.

If schools have more than one goal for a specific domain (maybe a school had four goals that would now fit under Domain 3 only) writers can do one of two things:

1. Tie those several goals under a wider umbrella (let’s call it “curricular review in Science, Math and Social Studies” instead of “goal 1: align our current science curriculum in 6-8 with NGSS” “goal 2: implement Writing Without Tears in all K-2 classes” etc.” and list those previous goals as action items in how to obtain that goal. (This part is still a work in progress with the pilot, but that’s currently how schools are rectifying the differences in protocols).
2. If they’re already fairly broad and will take long to successfully implement, writers can add them as additional Academic Excellence (Domain 3) goals as a Goal # 5 and Goal #6.

The main point of this year’s exercise is to prepare schools for their inevitable transition to the SE protocol and to support the NSBECS framework as well as the larger goals for the OCS.

From March to May, the Assistant Superintendent for Academic Excellence and the Superintendent for Mission and Catholic Identity will be working on reading through schools progress reports, connecting with school leaders for discussion and providing feedback on their work. Please connect with any of us at OCS if you have questions or concerns.

We look forward to partnering with all schools on this process.