BERKS CAREER AND TECHNOLOGY CENTER RECEIVED MIDDLE STATES RE-ACCREDITATION

June 30, 2004

The Middle States Association’s Commission on Secondary Schools has announced that BCTC has been re-accredited for the period ending May 2014.

The decision to re-credit the Berks Career and Technology Center was made following a three and one-half day visit to the school in February, 2004 by a visiting team of educators from member schools of the Middle States Association appointed by the Commission on Secondary Schools. Fewer than ten percent of the career and technical centers in the commonwealth have acquired this accreditation status.

During the visit, the Middle States team met with and interviewed representatives of all the school’s stakeholders, including teachers, students, parents, and administrators, as well as representatives of the Joint Operating Committee. Team members also toured the school’s two facilities, studied the school’s plans for school improvement and other documents related to the school’s work, and observed teaching and learning in the classroom.

To be accredited by the Commission on Secondary Schools, a school must meet the Middle States Association’s standards for each major area of a school’s work and activity. These areas include the school’s philosophy/mission/beliefs/objectives, governance and leadership, organizational design and staff, educational programs, learning media services and technology, student services, student life and activities, facilities, health and safety, finances, assessment of student learning, and planning. However, because the Berks Career and Technology Center elected to use the Reflections on Standards of Quality protocol for accreditation, the school was required to do more than meet the Commission’s standards to be accredited.

Reflections on Standards of Quality (Reflections) is an accreditation process that requires a school to establish and implement a ten-year, cyclical improvement plan based upon its determination of both the present and future needs of students. The school must develop an improvement plan that includes three to five objectives, two of which must be focused on student performance. Other objectives can focus on organizational growth issues. Plans must be developed to achieve the objectives in the first five years of accreditation. At the end of the five-year period, a review committee will visit the school to determine the progress toward achieving the goals and to review the school’s new objectives for school improvement for the second five-year accreditation period.

"The Berks Career and Technology Center is to be congratulated for having completed the rigorous and demanding accreditation review process successfully," said Susan K. Nicklas, Director of the Commission on Secondary Schools. "By meeting the standards of the Association and by having a comprehensive and challenging strategic plan to improve targeted areas of student performance, the Berks Career and Technology Center has joined a growing number of schools in the Middle States region that are committed to public accountability for their results. The Commission encourages the entire Berks Career and Technology community to join in supporting the school as it seeks to achieve its goals over the next five years"