Mission and Values
Mission and Values
Mission Statement
NEASC partners with schools to assess, support, and promote high quality education for all students through accreditation, professional assistance, and pursuit of best practices.
Approved by the NEASC Board of Trustees on December 13, 2018
Our Goals
The New England Association of Schools and Colleges aspires to provide a process for meaningful, ongoing whole school improvement and growth while honoring the unique culture and context of each institution we support.
In this spirit, NEASC:
- encourages the pursuit of a unique mission in distinctive circumstances by each member
- advocates for thoughtful self-reflection guided by objective peer review
- promotes public recognition of the challenges that accredited institutions face both in common and in particular
- elucidates the value, philosophy, and practice of accreditation for our member schools, the public, legislative bodies, and governing boards
- assists member schools in navigating accreditation in a context often dictated by federal, state, or local mandates and by limited means
Our Assurance
"Accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges" assures that our members:
- Strive to achieve rigorous and common standards in education
- Demonstrate substantive institutional commitment to continual improvement
- Commit to balancing the creative tensions that exist between local autonomy and public authority
- Nurture individual creative accomplishment
Accreditation is a catalyst for school improvement and growth.
Equity Vision
NEASC promotes equity and inclusion to ensure that all learners belong, thrive, and succeed.
NEASC believes that
- A sense of belonging is foundational for effective learning.
- Honoring the uniqueness of each individual builds inclusive communities that will prepare students for lives in a multicultural society.
- Personal and social identifiers, such as gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, economic status, language, ability, and religion must not be barriers to educating students.
- Uncovering and addressing implicit bias is an ongoing process in equity work.
- Working towards equity permeates all aspects of the organization and is everyone's responsibility.
- Achieving equity requires the inclusion of historically marginalized groups.
- Advancing equity reduces the predictability of who succeeds and who fails by ensuring every learner has access to the resources they need at the right moment.
- Achieving equity requires challenging and redesigning structures of power and privilege.
NEASC commits to
- Embracing diverse identities, values, and perspectives
- Creating time and space for difficult but essential conversations on diversity, equity, and inclusion
- Developing equitable and inclusive policies and procedures, practices, and opportunities
- Supporting communities that aspire to learn and develop the skills necessary to promote inclusion, honor diversity, and advance equity
How do the NEASC Commissions implement our commitment to equity in the accreditation process
Recognizing that each of our member schools have distinctive circumstances and aspirations, NEASC is fundamentally committed to ongoing school growth while honoring each school’s unique culture and context. In that spirit, the NEASC Equity Vision, Beliefs, and Commitments were designed to be a shared foundation from which NEASC operates as an organization. We use the tools of accreditation, professional assistance, and the pursuit of best practices to support schools working towards creating communities of belonging for all students
How does NEASC implement these commitments within our own organization?
Though supporting all learners in all educational systems has always been foundational to our work, we at NEASC are deeply committed to intentional and action-oriented work needed on both a personal and organizational level to advance educational equity.
In addition to continued engagement in dedicated learning, discussion, and reflection as a staff — we are also purposefully engaged in direct actions to make our organization more equitable and inclusive. These actions include:
- Training with external support on inclusive practices
- Review and revision of policies through an equity lens
- Revision of hiring guidelines and practices to prioritize increasing the diversity of our applicant pool and equitable hiring process
- Increase diversity among trained volunteers to ensure diverse perspectives and representation on NEASC Visiting Teams
- Amplification of diverse voices and perspectives through our professional learning opportunities
- Ongoing professional development for staff
We commit to continuous improvement in this area and will monitor our goals as well as be held accountable with regular reporting to our board, and transparent dialogue with our membership.
Our definitions
Diversity
The existence of a range of human differences and aspects of identity, including but not limited to gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, economic status, language, ability, and religion.
Equity
Ensuring that everyone has what they need to fully participate. Equity is achieved when disparities of historically under-represented groups are eliminated and therefore outcomes cannot be predicted by identity.
Inclusion
All members of the community/organization are actively and intentionally made visible, heard, considered, and valued, and recognize the unique experiences of historically marginalized groups.