Last fall the Governing Board charged the administration with a lofty goal - study the highest performing educational service agencies in the country and develop a framework of what our agency should know and be able to do based on the benchmarks of those peers selected for the study.

We set off to learn about standards for educational service agencies and learned there really was no aspirational target. Recognizing that criteria exist in many industries and professions for monitoring performance, we researched criteria such as Baldridge and ISO 9000 but found that our constituents were more interested in our affiilation with a criteria for accreditation.

As a customer-driven organization, we know that the response had to include a criteria that could be recognized for excellence in education. Ultimately, we determined that accreditation was the approach we would take to demonstrate our attainment but also to:

• set quality standards for our services and products;
• provide external review and validation of our programs;
• accredit our entity if we meet the standards established;
• challenge our organization toward continuous improvement; and,
• provide a framework by which we benchmark our progress.
 
The North Central Association (NCA) of Schools and Colleges Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement was chosen because of their knowledge in school improvement and due to their experience in both K-12 and higher education. NCA did not have an accreditation process or standard for educational service agencies, or educational service centers as we're known in Ohio.

After much discussion and interviews and negotiations, NCA determiend that they would build an accreditation process and standard cooperatively with our agency. We began the work last fall in conjunction to our bencharking process and a draft of the standard has been released for vetting through educational groups this spring.   
 
Beginning in early April, we will prepare for our accreditation visit in late August. While undertaking the accreditation process, we have generated quite a buzz with other educational service agencies and also the school districts we serve in their interest about our work. I will continue to keep you informed of the progress and look forward to many of you participating in the activities as we validate the important work done in our agency. Our goal is to meet the Governing Board's challenge by becoming the first accredited service agency before fall 2008.

I urge you to learn more about NCA and also to prepare for the constituent involvement that will be necesasry this spring for our preparations. We will be asking your thoughts around several areas in our accreditation process.

Thanks again to each of you for your continued high quality work.

In service to children,
Bart Anderson