The New England Association of Schools and Colleges has placed Cape Elizabeth High School on warning status for its re-accreditation because of shortcomings in written curriculum and assessments.

Cape Principal Jeff Shedd said he was surprised at the status, but was aware Cape needed to spend time developing its curriculum.

“We need to do a better job documenting the flow” of curriculum, “so the kids have a coherent experience,” said Shedd. “They’re pushing us to be better, which is fine.”

Shedd and Curriculum Coordinator Sarah Simmonds said the demands of state testing requirements distracted them from developing curriculum and led to an unfavorable accreditation review for the high school.

At a school board meeting earlier this month, Shedd told the school board that the district focussed in on assessments because of a state directive. Assessments also did not meet the accreditation firm’s standards. That focus on assessment, he said, caused the district to swing away from curriculum development.

Parent Jeff Stevenson had not realized Cape High was on warning status with their accreditation. When he found out, he was unpleasantly surprised. “It raises alarm bells for sure,” said Stevenson.

For Stevenson, accreditation is equivalent to credibility for his daughter Gina’s education. His daughter’s ability to get into a good college partly hinges upon Cape high schools reputation. “It means a lot that my child graduate from a well respected establishment.”

Superintendent Alan Hawkins said there is already a committee working on crafting curriculum for all grade levels. They’ve been meeting since January, before there was any indication that the high school’s accreditation was floundering because of curriculum and assessments.

Stevenson said he feels confident that the district will address this problem soon. “I can’t imagine that they would not take this seriously,” he said.

A red flag

New England Association of Schools and Colleges Deputy Director Janet Allison couldn’t talk specifically about Cape Elizabeth because they hadn’t received written notification but talked generally about warning status.

Warning status, she said, is just that, a warning, a red flag, pointing to deficiencies. Warning status can be reversed with some focus shifted toward that deficiency. A school on warning is not in danger of losing its accreditation, said Allison, unless they ignore the problem. About 120 schools out of 650 are now on warning status. In Maine, 14 schools are on warning status.

If the high school didn’t move to remedy the shortcomings, they could be put on probation, which is a more serious status. Schools on probation are in danger of losing accreditation. Only about 25 schools out of 650 are on probation at any one time, said Allison.

Allison said for many parents accreditation is important because of college admission. If their child graduates from an accredited high school, their chances of getting into a good college increase.

For schools though, the value of accredidation is embedded in its standards. Working with an accreditation firm and meeting their standards forces schools to better themselves.

It is a system of self-improvement, said Allison. About 97 percent of Maine’s high schools are accredited. The New England Associaton of Schools and Colleges is one of six accreditation firms nationwide.

State mandates a problem

Shedd said that though he hasn’t received official notification of the re-accreditation status, he is expecting it any day. Though he is less certain about the accreditation firm’s assessment requirements, he anticipates they will want a written curriculum established in six months to a year.

A curriculum outlines a set of skills students should learn in any one given class. It doesn’t tell a teacher how to teach those skills, only that they should be taught. Teachers are then free to craft their lesson plans around the curriculum.

These overarching goals, for learning, are necessary and important – especially for new teachers, said Hawkins.

When Simmonds was hired five years ago, she, with a committee, embarked on revamping the curriculum. It was outdated and needed remodeling. However, they soon were led off course.

With the onslaught of state standardized learning mandates, called the Learning Results, the committee regrouped and began a new mission: to develop testing. “We were derailed,” said Simmonds.

Allison said the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, based in Massachusetts, follows individual state education initiatives. For the most part, said Allison, schools in Maine have been successful using the Learning Results to meet the accreditation firms standards.

Simmonds said the sate’s micromanagement approach to education has contributed to the High School’s current predicament. “We have taken a hit because of state requirements…We clearly knew that we were not done with curriculum, but felt like our hand was kind of forced” to abandon it, she said.

The New England Association of Schools and Colleges is requesting written, formalized curriculum – what Cape intended on crafting five years ago, according to Simmonds.

The teacher team has already crafted a curriculum blueprint, a kind of standard template, usable across disciplines. Simmonds estimates it will take this summer and all of next year to develop individual department curriculum for each school.

Simmonds said that after spending three years developing assessments, people began joking that she should be called the “assessment coordinator.”

“I’m happy to be going back,” she said.

Jeff Shedd