In early November, a team from AdvancED will be visiting Horizon Honors High School for the purpose of reaccrediting the institution.  According to AdvancED’s site, “Accreditation is designed to help educational institutions boost their ongoing performance efforts for the benefit of their students…Accreditation matters because our students deserve the highest level of educational excellence possible.”

Accreditation is a process that a school goes through to guarantee that all high school credits will be recognized by colleges. “It’s a method of insuring a quality of schools,” says Vice Principal Scott Gotham.  The visiting team “focuses on your vision and goals, evaluates teaching and learning, and examines how results are documented and resources are allocated” (advanc-ed.org).

Every five years, a school must be reaccredited to ensure that the instructional environment meets standards of quality that have been determined through research and practice.  Gotham and the secondary leadership team have been working tirelessly for the past several months preparing the lengthy document that is required prior to the visit.  Gotham adds, “No matter how good the education system is, the Reaccreditation team is always going to find one or two things that we can improve on.”

The visiting team will be at Horizon Honors Nov. 12 and 13.  They will conduct interviews of staff and administration, and will visit various high school classrooms in order to get an idea of the campus and classroom environments.