Nearly four years ago, Garden City Middle School began a middle level philosophy restructuring process to move the school further into best practice education. The implemented best research changes found their foundation within the New York State Education Department's Essential Elements of Middle Level Education. After the fundamental changes were made, the faculty - led by Principal Peter Osroff, welcomed the opportunity for the school to have its programs independently evaluated by the most respected accreditation agency for the region - the Commission on Secondary Schools of the Middle States Association. Even though no other Long Island public middle school (sixth-eighth) had earned accreditation, it was felt that the bold step of accreditation would validate for the Garden City community that the restructured progress programs were the best practice in education.

To lead the school through the accreditation process, a Planning Team, led by Assistant Principal Stephen Kimmel, undertook all aspects of working toward this goal. The faculty members of the Planning Team were Linda Kastner, Susie Lee, Sue Shea, David Strauzer, Jennifer Pollack, Susanna Sheehan and Vinny Tumminello. The parent representative was (former) PTA Director Angela Heineman.

This past week, Garden City Middle School has moved one step closer to achieving full accreditation by the Commission on Secondary Schools of the Middle States Association. A validation team from Middle States visited the school Nov. 14-17 to review and evaluate its qualifications for full accreditation. This validation team, led by Jon Kirsher, upon completion of the visit has recommended that Middle States fully accredit the middle school. The Middle States' Board will vote on the recommendation in spring 2006. Members of the Middle States' Validation Team, which visited the school, were Chairperson Jon Kirsher, Gail Stewart, Debbie DeSaulniers, Rebecca Troup and Sue Ellen Bennett.

Accreditation is the affirmation that a school provides a quality of education that the community has a right to expect and the education world endorses. Accreditation is a means of showing confidence in a school's performance. When the Commission on Secondary Schools accredits a school, it certifies that the school has met the prescribed qualitative standards of the Middle States Association within the terms of the school's own stated philosophy and objectives.

The chief purpose of the whole accreditation process is the improvement of education for youth by evaluating the degree to which a school has attained worthwhile outcomes set by its own staff and community. This is accomplished by periodically conducting a comprehensive self-evaluation of the total school. Through the accreditation process, the school seeks the validation of its self-evaluation by obtaining professional judgment from impartial outsiders on the effectiveness of the total school operation. The intent throughout the process is more than to focus on shortcomings; the chief goal is to seek remedies for inadequacies and to identify and nurture good practices.

Accreditation of a secondary school is on an institutional basis. It should be noted that the whole school, not just one program such as the college preparatory courses, is covered by the accreditation.

The following are some of the many benefits of accreditation: greater clarity of purpose; stronger internal relationships; wider professional participation; more effective methods of planning for school improvement; and improved consistency between educational purpose and practice.

Garden City Middle School selected the Accreditation for Growth protocol. This protocol is a forward looking approach that requires the school to establish measurable goals and clear action plans to achieve them. Th faculty, recognizing the responsibility to be reflective and accountable practitioners, is pleased that the Middle States' Validation Team has determined that the school should receive accreditation.