Dear Families and Friends,

At a point during our beautiful Memorial Day weekend, I thought about how one of the longest series of internal reviews in the recent history of the Academy is nearly concluded. That realization felt as good as the warm sunshine and soft breeze in the air!

Our series of reviews began in July 2006 with an intensive self-study of the Upper School required for accreditation by the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO). That study took six months to complete and was followed by a three-day site visit in February 2007. Three months later, in May, we were notified by the IBO’s director general in Geneva, Switzerland, that the Academy was approved to offer the Diploma Program. Of course, that was great news – one review down, but two more to go!

In March 2007, shortly after the IBO evaluation team completed its site visit, we began the reaccreditation process through the Pennsylvania Association of Independent Schools (PAIS) and the Middle States Schools and Colleges Association (MSA). Our entire faculty and staff completed the self-review part of the process over a five-month period and submitted our report to PAIS and MSA in October 2007. Because PAIS and MSA accreditations are awarded for 10 years, it had been some time since we entered into our last school-wide self-study.

As you may remember, an evaluation team comprised of 15 members visited our school last December for three days. Two weeks ago, we were informed by PAIS and MSA that we had passed the test and that the Academy is an accredited member of those associations until 2018! This also puts us in good standing with the National Association of Independent Schools. (Please see The Explorer newsletter for a link to the entire report. This link will be available to our school community for two weeks.) Because PAIS and MSA are the “gold-standard” for independent schools in the mid-Atlantic state region, we can all feel a sense of pride in receiving this stamp of approval. Great news, again, but one more review to go! More…