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PSS accreditation renewed
The CNMI Public School System’s national accreditation has been reaffirmed for another five years, according to Education Commissioner Glenn Muña last week.
Muña affirmed that AdvancED reaffirmed PSS’ accreditation for an additional five years during a Board of Education meeting on Capital Hill last week.
“Being an accredited institution is something that is honorable because it val-idates the work that we do and that we meet the standards set by AdvancED,” he said in a later interview with Saipan Tribune. “…They visited our classrooms and met our stakeholders, students, parents, and principals asking about what is hap-pening.”
Some of the benefits of being an accredited educational institution is that PSS is in good standing with grantors.
“We are meeting the services and standards that we are expected to pro-vide,” said Muña.
Information about the re-accreditation, according to Muña’s report, was re-ceived last March 18, 2019. The new term would expire on June 30, 2024, with no midterm review.
A 10-member team from AdvancED visited PSS schools in October 2018.
“[This accreditation] shows that we are continuing our work to-ward…providing the best quality services [for our students],” he said.
AdvancED sent a 10-member team to the CNMI for a one-week visit in mid-October 2018. They collected data by interviewing over 500 individuals through-out Saipan, Tinian, and Rota. The team was led by lead evaluator for AdvancED Agnes Smith.
Smith had noted several infrastructure upgrades since their previous visit to the CNMI in 2013. A total of six recommendations were made to PSS; during their previous visit in 2018, only four recommendations were made.
