BOHS: Why did you decide to seek accreditation?
JG: We decided to seek accreditation for a couple of reasons: 1. We wanted to be sure that our customers saw us and their school as committed to continuous improvement; and 2. We wanted the recognition that accreditation brings – recognition for our online school as a quality educational institution; recognition for our learners as they graduate from an accredited/recognized school; and for our mentor teachers, who deserve to work in an environment that is committed to high quality.
BOHS: Please describe the process.
JG: The process began over two years ago when we opened our doors. We sought out many options for recognized accreditation, and we settled with (at the time) CITA. We felt that being a school without boundaries, we would need to have a recognized accreditation that would be recognized world-wide. The process began with our intent; we were a dues-paying school for about 8 months. We received an onsite visit in 2008, and were approved as a “Candidate” school. The Candidacy Period allocates time for the school to conduct an intense self-study around the seven standards for accreditation. We began that study immediately. During the candidacy period, we recognized that the standards were a very traditional set of standards – that is, they were set up for a brick-and-mortar setting. We went on with the self-study, and we had some very serious internal talk about how we could apply all of the standards to our virtual school setting. We were finally notified in November of 2009 that we would received an onsite Quality Assurance Review visit. In the meantime, during our Candidacy, CITA was absorbed into the new organization called Advanc-ED. We learned that Advanc-ED would be the parent organization for SACS/CASI, but that the state office would not handle a visit to a distance learning institution. The visit was organized by the National Office. Three visitors came to our headquarters in Midland, Texas, where they spent three days with us going over our self-study and proof of adherence to the standards.
The visitors learned that there is a significant difference between traditional “distance education” and virtual schooling. They learned that they could indeed “visit” classrooms, and were able to see high quality mentoring and learning going on right before their eyes, in a virtual environment. They commented that the uniqueness of Orion is in our 1-to-1 mentoring – that our mentors are true mentors. They learned that high quality support for teacher-mentors can happen in an online environment just like in a face-to-face environment. Most importantly they heard from our learners that they (our learners) felt supported, and that they learned more about learning than any time before. One learner commented, “I have taken Advanced Placement courses at my regular high school – my regular English course at Orion is by far more rigorous that my AP course was.”
BOHS: What value do you think this gives your current and potential students?
JG: I think that the value is that Orion cares about quality; about being unique; and about furthering the process of providing a high quality, viable alternative to schooling.
BOHS: Anything else you would like to share?
JG: We will be sharing our experiences with other distance learning providers, at the AdvancED conference. We would be glad to share our insights with anybody seeking regional accreditation.
We would recommend the process for any online school.