大咖陪你聊国际学校认证那些事儿 All About Accreditation (Bilingual Version)
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龚老师说：今天给大家请来了一位学术大咖。John是我作为学校认证官时认识的一位朋友，他既是老师同时也是图书馆馆长。当别人问他作为图书馆长的工作时，他习惯回答“我教书呢。” John喜欢将自己视为一名老师，而其擅长的专业在于通才而非专才。John曾分别在赞比亚，英国，马拉维，德国及土耳其学校工作过，现在是自由职业者，为图书馆顾问，培训师及演讲师。John曾是CIS(国际学校委员会)及IB图书管理员委员会成员，并当选为2011-2012年国际学校图书管理员协会年度奖得主。除此之外，John还是IB认证的培训官，擅长拓展论文，图书馆管理员，及学术诚实方面的培训。John至少已为CIS及NEASC (美国新英格兰院校协会)担任过不下15次的学校认证服务。他还专门针对学术诚实开了一个博客http://read2live.com/，笔耕不辍，有兴趣的读者可以去看看。
John Royce is a dually-qualified teacher and librarian. When asked what he does as a librarian, he says, “I teach.” He regards himself as a teacher whose specialism is generalism. John has worked in schools in Zambia, UK, Malawi, Germany and Turkey, but is now a freelance library consultant and trainer/presenter. He has served as a member of the ECIS and IB Librarians’ Committees, and was the IASL International School Librarian of the Year laureate for 2011-2012. He is an authorised IB workshop leader for Extended Essay, Librarians and Academic Honesty workshops. He has served on at least 15 accreditation visits for CIS and NEASC. He blogs on matters of academic honesty at http://read2live.com.
文 John Royce / 翻译 龚琴 (Helen)
Many private schools choose to be accredited by an outside agency. Such schools are typically in a competitive situation, competing for enrolment with other schools in the area. Accreditation provides a measure of quality control and seal of approval, recognition that the agency’s standards of education and governance are met – or exceeded. Parents choosing schools for their children have an assurance of the quality of education at accredited schools, and so do teachers considering appointment.
（许多私立学校选择经由一个外部机构来进行资格认证，这样的学校通常都处于一种竞争比较激烈的情况，需与其它学校争生源。认证提供了一种质量控制的标尺及许可证，即认可其达到或超出了认证机构的教育标准及管理水平。家长们为孩子择校时通常倾向考虑已获得认证的学校，教师选择工作的单位亦如此。）
Many agencies provide accreditation services to schools at home (in whichever country “home” is) and abroad. My own experience has been with the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) and with the Council of International Schools (CIS), and while much of what I discuss in this article does apply to other agencies, I do not guarantee it.
（许多国内外机构为学校提供认证服务，我自己曾分别担任过NEASC及CIS的认证成员，在接下来的文章里，我讨论的情况适合于大多数认证机构，但并不能全然保证如此。）
One thing to be very clear about: accreditation is not the same as inspection. An inspection may be something to be worried about: it often feels as if inspectors visit a school looking to find fault, they want to seek out anything “bad” and to punish the school for it. The standards against which a school is evaluated are often set by an outside agency and are interpreted in much the same way regardless of a school’s individual situation and circumstances.
（首先，有一件事情需要明确的是：认证不等同于检查（视察）。检查听起来是一件可能会让人担心的事：经常让人感觉检查员来参观学校是为了找茬来的，他们想找出任何可能的“坏”的东西，然后惩罚该校。学校被一套外部机构设定的固定标准来评价，一视同仁，不考虑学校的个体或特殊情况。）
An accreditation visit is the opposite: accreditation visitors visit a school looking to support it, to praise that which is good and to offer recommendations for improving areas which are weak. The standards are the same for all schools but are interpreted in the light of each school’s situation and circumstances. Accreditation is all about school improvement; in fact, the full title of the accreditation NEASC/CIS guide (8th edition) is Main Guide to School Evaluation and Accreditation: “Journey to Excellence in International Education” : School Improvement Through Accreditation.
（而认证恰恰相反：认证成员参观学校是为了给该校提供支持，表扬其做得好的方面，对不足的方面则给出建议予以改进。认证的标准对于所有学校是一样的，但是对标准的诠释则会考虑各学校的特殊情况。认证是为了学校的持续改进。事实上，NEASC/CIS指南(第八次修订版)的全称即为“学校评估及认证主要指南：国际教育通向卓越之旅：通过认证学校不断进步”。）
This is not to say that schools are automatically accredited, regardless of how good or poor a school they are. Schools which fail to meet some of the standards may be denied accreditation – or lose their accreditation if they already are accredited – if the problems are serious, or they may be granted accreditation only on condition that they immediately carry out the most urgent of the recommendations.
（当然，这并不是说学校不管好坏都会自动获得认证。没有能达到某些认证标准的学校可能无法被授予认证，而且如果问题严重的话，有些学校甚至会失去先前已经获得的认证资格。当然，如果学校能对认证团提出的一些最为紧急的改进建议立即采取行动，也是有可能获得认证的。）
Clearly, accreditation is a serious business with implications for schools which do not meet the standards. Even in the best schools, teachers and administrators are nervous when the Visiting Team comes visiting. The team is made up of teachers and administrators from schools around the world, and usually includes between 8 and 15 team members. Very large schools and schools with several campuses may host even larger teams. The visit lasts a week, and the visitors look into every nook and cranny of school life, from governance and leadership and finances through to educational activities and school facilities and employment conditions and professional development experience. There is, of course, much attention given to teaching and learning, to classroom practice and to student life. All are considered in light of the school’s stated mission and values.
（很显然，对于没有能达到认证标准的学校来说，认证是一件非常严肃且影响深远的事。即使是在最好的学校，当认证团队参观学校时，教师及管理团队都会变得比较紧张。认证团队一般是由来自全世界不同学校的教师及管理人员组成，人数介于8到15位左右。规模非常大的学校及同时有好几个校区的学校有可能需要迎接更大的队伍。学校参观通常会持续一周，认证官会对学校的方方面面做出观察，从领导团队，财政，校园活动及设施，员工雇佣条件及职业发展经历等等各个方面作出考察。当然，这其中教与学，课堂时间以及学生校园生活是重中之重，所有的方面都会联系学校的使命及价值观来考虑。）
The visit is just one stage in a cycle of school improvement, and understanding the cycle can allay those nerves. Once it makes application for accreditation, a school is visited by a small team, usually just two people, who check that the school is ready for a full visit and advise on what they feel might need special attention. Accreditation is not just a serious business; it is an expensive one as well, since the school has to pay transport and accommodation and other costs for the visiting team as well as fees to the accrediting agency. Knowing this, the small team making the preliminary visit will not recommend that a school proceeed with its application unless and until it is reasonably certain to gain accreditation.
参观只是学校不断提高自身的循环阶段中的一个阶段，而了解整个循环阶段有助于缓解这些紧张情绪。一旦学校申请认证，起初通常会有由两个人组成的小团队来学校参观，查看学校是否已经为全面参观做好准备，并对其需要特别注意的地方提出建议。认证不仅是一项严肃的工作，而且对于学校来讲，亦是一次昂贵的支出，因为学校需要支付认证团队所有成员的交通，食宿及其它费用，而且还需向认证机构缴纳费用。鉴于此，先前提到的小型两人团队只有在比较有把握确认学校很可能获得认证的情况下才会建议学校继续申请。
今天先聊到这，下次我们会带大家扒一扒各学校为通过认证进行的self study，传说中的自我学习，我理解为自省环节。是一个让很多协调员，教职员工一听就头大的几个字，真的有这么恐怖吗？敬请关注！
图片来源：百度 & topit.me