Middle-States Accreditation and Wootton

As of June 2009, MCPS will no longer participate in the Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools Accreditation for Growth (AFG) process.  The function of the AFG committees was to show how Wootton was achieving its stated goals to gain accreditation.  In addition, some AFG committees existed prior to our participation in accreditation and served the needs of our school not addressed by our AFG goals.  ILT recognized that while the work of our AFG committees has been valuable in helping us gain accreditation, not all committees will continue to function in support of AFG.  This situation presented us with an opportunity to reflect on our current committees.  We know that committee participation is a contractual obligation, and that MCPS has asked us to develop and implement a School Improvement Plan.  At Leadership Week, ILT decided that we wanted to foster purposeful conversation that would support our School Improvement Plan, and that one way to do this was through Professional Learning Communities (PLCs).  Together, these interdisciplinary groups of teachers will study what a PLC is and how they can work toward our SIP goal of promoting student achievement.  It is expected that all staff will participate in PLCs.  ILT is in the process of identifying those former AFG committees which need time to continue to work on issues important to our school.

From April 19-April 22, 2005, a Visiting Team of Middle-States Evaluators reviewed the work done by the Wootton School community as a part of the Middle-States Accreditation process. During their visit, they spoke with parents, students and staff to determine how the Wootton Community plans together to meet their stated objectives. As an important part of the Wootton Community, we want you to be well informed about Wootton’s plans and objectives in particular.

Past Middle-States Evaluations were detailed studies of such things as facilities, services, departments and programs done by parents, students, staff, central office staff, and general community. The AFG process takes a different approach. Rather than taking a snapshot of the school at a particular moment in time, the AFG process calls for the school community to look at what they are doing and how they want to improve it, developing objectives, programs and timelines towards that end.

Our AFG Planning Committee and Action Teams have been at work since the summer of 2003, determining school-wide objectives and working in action teams to create and implement action plans so that we can attain those objectives. This work is monitored monthly by our action teams and planning committees. In addition, the Middle States Organization will be tracking our progress through reports and site visits over the next 7 years.

We hope you will take the time to be fully informed about the AFG Process at Wootton by reviewing both our mission statement and our objectives below. Please forward any suggestions or questions you might have to Wootton’s AFG Internal Coordinators: Dr. Doran, Dr. Pohl, Mr. Swift and Mr. Owusu. In addition, please look for updates and further details about the AFG process and our progress towards meeting our two stated objectives in the PTSA newsletter and on Wootton’s web-site.