SFDS and California Association of Independent Schools (CAIS)

Nancy Clark & Sue Collentine
Upper and Lower Heads of School

At SFDS, as in every independent school, teachers and administrators have the freedom to shape the program, practice, and methods of the school, but every 6 years we have the responsibility to explain and justify those choices in order to remain members of the California Association of Independent Schools (CAIS).

2011-2012 is an accreditation year for SFDS so all faculty and staff members are involved in the preparation of the 200-page document that will be submitted for review.  The questions in the self-study guide are all encompassing and compel us to see for ourselves what is bedrock at SFDS and what changes and innovations have taken place in the intervening years since the last review.  For the two division heads, the Program section shows these developments most clearly. For example, a question asks, “Describe and evaluate the means by which the school helps students to develop good study habits.”  Study skills have always begun with kindergartners learning to take objects and belongings to and from school. What has changed since 2005 is that we support even more fully the development of “learning to learn.” Now, the expansion of the Learning Resource Program, the addition of after-school homework support, and the use of learning style inventories and explicit strategies for organizing and completing top quality work are implemented at every grade level.

In the months to come, the challenge of teachers across the grades and grade levels will be describing, analyzing and assessing all aspects of our curricular and extracurricular program.  While teachers will devote most of their energies to the Program section, administrators in all departments of the school will respond to the probing questions in each of the 14 chapters of the self-study.

Our exhaustive ‘self-studying’ must be completed by late November at which time the massive document we have created is submitted to the CAIS.  The team at CAIS selects a team leader, usually an experienced head of school, as well as a team of 4 or 5teachers.  Their task is to read and evaluate our self-study and, in early spring of 2012, spend several days visiting our school.  Their conclusions, based on what we have described about our programs, policies, and practices, together with insights they glean from their visit form the basis of their evaluation and report and our future accreditation.

Two upper school teachers have accepted the charge to keep us all on task and on deadline.  Many thanks to Anne Paine and Chris Corrigan for technical help and precise interpretation of requirements; we hope to share our work proudly with everyone when it’s completed next fall.