I remember breathing a sigh of gratitude as I skimmed Measuring the Mission, one of CSI’s Accreditation protocols, for the first time in January 2020. Southwest MN Christian Schools was amid organizational change, and Measuring the Mission would become a roadmap that would help guide our path as we restructured.
Our school community, with long-standing commitment to Christian education, had approved a consolidated PK–12 school structure. The decision marked a change from the century old K–8 elementary schools that graduated students to a common 9–12 Christian high school. Through a series of decisions spanning a decade, four distinct Christian schools would become Southwest MN Christian Schools, a PK–12 in Edgerton, Minnesota.
We planned to make this merge official on June 1, 2020 and follow with K–12 accreditation through Christian Schools International (CSI). CSI Accreditation had been newly recognized in the state of Minnesota. We were excited to be working with an organization that we believed understood our foundations of faith and connected us with like-minded schools in the process.
Little did we know what was looming in March 2020, when educators across our country were asked to re-imagine what teaching and learning looked like in the midst of a health crisis. We all remember the surge of time and energy demanded during this period. For brevity’s sake, I’ll leave you to imagine the complicated timing and challenges of these two events culminating simultaneously.
Southwest MN Christian Schools had a great deal going on. But in a space that felt like organizational chaos, God proved himself abundantly good. We also found ourselves abundantly grateful for this new CSI Accreditation tool, Measuring the Mission, that arrived at our fingertips. We were beginning to understand its value not only as an accreditation requirement, but as a guide during the restructuring process.
Here are a few ways CSI Accreditation’s protocol, Measuring the Mission, supported the important work that Southwest MN Christian needed to accomplish as we planned for the future.
Measuring the Mission Is a Vehicle for Consensus Building & Collaboration
As school leaders, we had been considering ways in which we could maintain the historical identities of our schools while moving forward with a unified vision. We had been working toward this moment for some time already. Yet, we were nervous about “getting our ducks in a row” in a timely manner and with the validity that would receive a stamp of approval from a new accrediting organization.
What we quickly learned was that Measuring the Mission already had a prepared process and appropriate steps for us to pull our people together, including:
- Comprehensive surveys that gathered feedback from varied communities of stakeholders.
- Teams of staff, board, and parents that evaluated and reflected on that feedback.
- Rubrics and processes provided in Measuring the Mission that provided clear guidance to accomplish these practices in a way that naturally led to common growth targets.
These were crucial activities for Southwest MN Christian while we remembered our pasts and envisioned our future.
Measuring the Mission Empowers Autonomous School Improvement
As Southwest MN Christian made our way through the survey and feedback stage of accreditation, our appreciation for Measuring the Mission grew for another reason. I think when many of us imagine accreditation, we find ourselves fearful of this outside evaluation. Rather than experiencing the pressure of an outside organization bringing eyes of judgment to our school community, it became clear that the first and most important process was internal reflection and feedback. What Southwest MN Christian experienced through Measuring the Mission was a vehicle that empowered us to evaluate ourselves internally. We became the creators and owners of our School Improvement Plan, rather than the recipients of it. Due to our context, this was an invaluable gift for us to determine in more detail what the path forward would look like for our school. Ultimately, we realized that Measuring the Mission creates a framework that trusts the accrediting school to self-evaluate and draft a School Improvement Plan before affirming accuracy and validity with an accreditation site visit team.
Measuring the Mission Provides Affirmation & Refining Insights
By October 2021, Southwest MN Christian School had accomplished a thorough process of internal reflection, evaluation, and planning for our school. It was time to host a CSI Accreditation site visit team. What we experienced in this step of the CSI Accreditation process was a site visit team who:
- Was clear about their intention to affirm our findings and clarify our goals for the future.
- Was made up of thoughtful and qualified individuals who demonstrated care for our school and support for our improvement.
- Provided keen insights on how our improvement plan could be refined and improved, which was a valued and gracious gift.
Measuring the Mission Is A Rubric for Excellent Christian Education
As I reflect on our first journey with CSI Accreditation, I realize that it was the perfect tool for Southwest MN Christian at a needed moment in our school’s story. As I look ahead, I’m confident that Measuring the Mission will continue to be a great tool for us in the future. Measuring the Mission provides a robust but flexible template to reflect, plan, and determine an improvement plan. It also provides the appropriate accountability for organizational and educational excellence for our Christian schools. In short, Measuring the Mission provided a process and framework that can be well-applied to any educational institution that desires to accomplish the important work of school improvement. I trust that desire exists in all of our Christian schools!
If you find yourself hesitant, weary, or even fearful of the accreditation process, my encouragement would be to embrace CSI Accreditation’s Measuring the Mission. Southwest MN Christian found it to be a valuable tool to help us reflect on our past, envision our future, and focus our mission of being “Rooted in Christ, Growing in Wisdom and Bearing Fruit.” I believe it can accomplish similar results for your school. You may even find yourself breathing a sigh of gratitude in the process.
About the author: John Top serves as the director of learning at Southwest MN Christian Schools in Edgerton, MN. He holds a BA in Business Education and a Master of Education in Educational Leadership. He has served at Southwest MN Christian for fourteen years, seven of them in administration. John enjoys spending time with his wife, Jana, and their five children, the most recent child being welcomed in December! He also enjoys fishing and challenging himself and others to be fishers of men.
If you’re interested in learning more about CSI Accreditation and Measuring the Mission, visit our CSI Accreditation webpage or contact Sheryl Jo, director of accreditation.
Southwest MN Christian found Measuring the Mission to be a valuable tool to help their school reflect on its past, envision its future, and focus on its mission.
CSI’s Measuring the Mission protocol gave Southwest MN Christian a resource that empowered the school to evaluate themselves internally.
Measuring the Mission provides a robust but flexible template to reflect, plan, and determine an improvement plan.