Continuous School Improvement and Accreditation are two of the primary vehicles by which Camp Lejeune Schools as part of the North Carolina District (NC DDESS) of The Department of Defense (DoD) Domestic Dependent Elementary and Secondary Schools (DDESS) operated by the DoD Education Activity works to meet the goals of the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) Community Strategic Plan (CSP). Click here to be directed to the DoDEA website where you can download this information.
All NC DDESS schools are fully accredited by AdvancEd. Effective April 2006 the Board of Trustees of the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement (NCA CASI) and the Board of Directors of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Council on Accreditation and School Improvement (SACS CASI) have voted to bring together NCA CASI, SACS CASI, and the National Study of School Evaluation (NSSE) into one strong and unified organization named AdvancED, which will serve as a national leader for quality education. This unification creates the world’s largest education community, representing over 27,000 public and private schools and districts in 65 countries, serving over 15 million students. While large, the organization is uniquely positioned through strong state presence and volunteer network to deliver the powerful combination of accreditation, research, and school improvement in a customized way to every school and district served. In earning accreditation, NC DDESS Schools meet NCA’s quality standards and implement rigorous, high standards, continuous school improvement process focused on increasing student performance. Accreditation assures NC DDESS Schools are focused on raising student achievement, providing a safe and enriching learning environment, and maintaining an efficient and effective operation. Accreditation provides an independent, non-governmental validation that our schools are effectively delivering quality education services to our students. With the shared mission of advancing the quality of education, NC DDESS will work to enhance the three pillars of accreditation – high standards, quality assurance, and continuous improvement - while providing a more unified and national voice for the profession on issues of educational quality. Accreditation eases the transition of students as they move from one accredited school to another. The regional nature of accreditation allows a receiving school in the same or another state to assess the quality of a sending school and accept the incoming student’s credits and academic record. This ease of transfer applies across the nation through reciprocal agreements between the regional accrediting agencies. The 2006 NCA CASI, SACS CASI, NSSEE unification under AdvancED will deliver enhanced research-based resources, tools and services, to help NC DDESS Schools maximize and sustain student success. Benefits include:
	High-quality researched-based standards that are directly focused on the factors that impact student learning
	A broad base and array of research-based products and services designed to help schools and districts with continuous improvement efforts
	The largest education network that can be tapped for shared best practices
	Expanded professional services including workshops, audit services, consulting, and conferences aimed at helping schools and districts improve
	A commitment to a higher quality standard of service that will be immediately evidenced through nationally certified team chairs trained to deliver the highest quality service and review to schools and districts
A Continuous School Improvement (CSI) Team leads the school improvement process in each school. CSI membership includes the principal, teachers, parents, a local military commander representative, and at the high school level, a student representative. The responsibilities of the CSI are to provide leadership throughout the entire school improvement process, to maintain constant community focus on improving student learning, and to monitor progress and document change in student performance.

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