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2007-03-06 issue:

K-12 schools now evaluated by MC USA

Mennonite Education Agency’s first-ever accreditations use Catholic protocols.

by Gloria Y. Diener

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Mennonite Education Agency has granted accreditation to four schools following a new review process designed to strengthen Anabaptist-Mennonite influence in Mennonite elementary, middle and secondary schools.

The four schools are Christopher Dock Mennonite High School in Lansdale, Pa., Lancaster (Pa.) Mennonite School, Warwick River Christian School in Newport News, Va., and Western Mennonite School in Salem, Ore. Accreditation certificates were distributed at the Feb. 2-4 Education Leaders Gathering 2007 held in Pittsburgh. Six additional schools are now engaging in the process.

Schools receiving MEA accreditation must meet academic and Anabaptist-Mennonite value-based standards as outlined in The Mennonite Edition of Validating the Vision: An Assessment Protocol for Mission Effectiveness, Institutional Accreditation and Strategic Planning. The protocol was adapted from an instrument created by the National Catholic Education Association.

The protocol can be used as the self-study document for a full accreditation review, a tool for strategic planning or an internal assessment of mission effectiveness.

MEA implemented the protocol after Mennonite Schools Council (MSC) and its predecessors, Mennonite Elementary Education Council and Mennonite Secondary Education Council, asked the agency to provide oversight to and ownership of the process. There are 34 MSC preK-12 schools in the United States (including Puerto Rico) and Canada.

Mennonite Schools Council, currently led by J. Richard Thomas, Lancaster, Pa., recognized the need for Mennonite accreditation during conversations with Elaine Moyer, principal of Christopher Dock, as she led the school through its most recent secular accreditation process.
“I was hoping to find a way to streamline our work by finding a protocol that would strengthen our faith perspective,” says Moyer.

“While looking at the Catholic model, I realized the protocol would serve our Anabaptist-Mennonite schools well if adaptations were made to reflect the values and vision of Mennonite Church USA.”

Thomas says the council sees Validating the Vision as a tool to help Mennonite schools develop as missional centers of the church and to develop a greater sense of cohesion. As superintendent of Lancaster Mennonite, he saw the accreditation process as “a real gift.”
“We updated our foundation documents,” Thomas says, “connected with our community in new ways and developed a unified plan for educational growth on all of our campuses.”

The protocol states that Anabaptist-Mennonite education finds its center in Jesus Christ and the call to follow Jesus daily. Schools receiving MEA accreditation commit to a pattern of discipleship nurtured in the ordinary routines of school life and shaped by restorative discipline practices that respect students as individuals within a faith community.

Anabaptist-Mennonite distinctives identified in the protocol also include a vision of teaching reflecting an Anabaptist understanding of life together in community. In this vision, teachers, on behalf of the church, offer instruction that inspires students to commitments running counter to cultural expectations.

Before receiving final approval, schools seeking MEA accreditation must submit official documents to a review committee, which includes Moyer, Yoder and Connie Stauffer of Lancaster, Pa., and a member of the MEA board of directors. Committee recommendations go to the MEA board of directors for action.

Schools that have received MEA accreditation say their programs have been affected by the process.

“Christopher Dock has experienced a double blessing,” says Moyer. “In addition to providing a comprehensive review of our total school program, we have sharpened our school programs around Anabaptist-Mennonite beliefs about the person of Jesus.”—Gloria Y. Diener for Mennonite Church USA

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