Full Accreditation Awarded to St. Francis Seraph School

During the past two school years, the staff at St. Francis Seraph was involved in an intense process seeking accreditation through the Ohio Catholic Schools Accrediting Association. The model designed for accomplishing full accreditation is comprised of several phases.

The first phase included an in-depth self-study. The St. Francis Seraph staff divided into teams assigned to verify the eleven accreditation standards and supply documentation of compliance to these standards. The Archdiocese of Cincinnati’s Catholic Schools Office further examined the documentation to verify that all standards were in compliance with accreditation requirements.

Using the information derived from the self-study, St. Francis Seraph staff developed a Preliminary School Improvement Plan that an External Validation Team examined. An administrator from the Columbus Diocese facilitated the two-day external review conducted by a five-member team of local school administrators and a St. Francis Seraph parent. The External Validation Team made recommendations to strengthen the Preliminary School Improvement Plan. St. Francis Seraph staff considered the recommendations, made alterations, and submitted the Final School Improvement Plan to OSCAA that approved the plan and granted full accreditation. Other schools undergoing a similar review are using our plan as a model.

St. Francis Seraph will implement the plan over the next five years. The plan includes three goals with identified strategies for accomplishing the goals. After two years, a review committee will assess progress toward the goals and the OSCAA Commission will issue a progress report. At the end of the five years, St. Francis Seraph will be required to repeat the process.

The examination identified the strengths of staff and programs, areas of concerns, and commonalities of strengths and weakness throughout the standards. Designed to address areas of concern, the staff chose the selected goals by consensus. Implementation of the goals begins August 2002.