MVCA receives ACSI, AdvancEd accreditation
courtesy photo
Peggy Mathiason and MVCA Curriculum Director Carolyn Hall visit during the event while Chris Martineau talks with MVCA students in the background.
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News from Mission Valley Christian Academy
The Mission Valley Christian Academy (MVCA) has been a candidate for accreditation with the Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI) and AdvancEd for the last three years. The K-12 Christian school of 59 students and ten staff members has served Mission Valley families for the past 24 years. This last week, a team of educators from around the Northwest came to Polson to visit the school and complete the accreditation process. The accreditation team spent three days (April 19-21) at the school interviewing students, staff and parents and observing a variety of classes. The team had lunch with students and met with the MVCA board and leadership team.
This final step of the process helped the visiting team determine whether areas of compliance were reached by the K-12 school. A self-study and documents that showed evidence of compliance MVCA has achieved over the last three years were uploaded on the ACSI e-platform site. By examining the uploaded evidence and viewing onsite documents, the team was able to verify the areas of compliance.
On Friday, April 21, the team gathered MVCA leadership, staff and parents to announce that based on review of evidence, the team recommended Mission Valley Christian Academy to be accredited, pending further review and final action by the ACSI Regional Accreditation Commission.
“After four long years of preparation and hard work by an amazing team of parents, staff and board members, we have finally achieved our goal,” MVCA Director Christian Bumgarner said. “I am so pleased that the visiting team recognized the quality of the staff we have at MVCA and their commitment to continue to grow and improve as educators. Having AdvancEd and ACSI as accountability partners in this process will help us continue to have high standards in our school.”
Dr. Ken Townsend, the lead team member and Northwest Regional Director of ACSI from Vancouver, Washington said it was really remarkable that MVCA, while being one of the smallest of the 3,000 ACSI schools in the United States, achieved this honorable accreditation distinction. Dr. Townsend was joined on the visitation team by Peggy Mathiason from the Billings Christian School, Dana Hashley from Stillwater Christian School in Kalispell, Chris Martineau from Valley Christian in Missoula and Chris Finch from Genesis Christian School in Post Falls, Idaho.
The team gave the following commendations to the school: School stakeholders collaborated to write and communicate the school mission, the Board and leadership of MVCA are steadfast in maintaining the school’s distinctively Christian mission, the leadership team at MVCA has been responsive for the necessary changes in the school improvement process and MVCA is commended for having highly qualified, committed, Christ-centered teachers.
The following are recommendations for MVCA to address in the next school year: Create a plan to increase and stabilize enrollment, create curriculum maps that drive instruction and include the following components: (1) measurable school-wide expected student outcomes, (2) scope and sequence of instruction for each subject area at each grade level, (3) biblical integration concepts, (4) school-selected standards, and (5) assessment, train teachers to utilize more formative assessment during lessons and to analyze student performance data, and use interpretations to help the school make sound decisions regarding students, instructional strategies, and programmatic improvements.
The advantages of the AdvancEd/ACSI accreditation are numerous but include allowing students to transfer to any private or public school and being assured of full credit of classes, being eligible for various local scholarships and removing the stigma of not offering a quality education. MVCA would like to thank the communities of the Mission Valley for their valuable support and encouragement during this accreditation process. A celebration of this remarkable achievement is planned for Saturday, May 13 at the school.
