The Application Process
Schools interested in pursuing CESA membership should be encouraged to have conversations with the Katie Wiens, CESA’s Executive Director, and a current Member of Council Head of School about CESA’s mission. We also strongly recommend school leaders to discuss the mission and standards of CESA with the school’s Board of Trustees. Once ready to apply to become a provisional member, please complete the Application for Membership and submit it to Katie Wiens (kwiens@cesaschools.org).
Becoming a Member School
All interested schools must complete the CESA Application for Membership. Once the application is completed, the Executive Director or Director of Institutional Review will connect with the school and review the standards with the administrative team. This will help the school understand their ability to seek full membership over the next two years. After this call, the Executive Director and Institutional Review Director determine approval of the application, and if approved, the school will become a Provisional School.
Provisional status will give the school full rights and privileges of a CESA member school. The school and its faculty may attend CESA-only events and receive the latest research and publications as a CESA member. Once the school’s application has been approved, the school will be invoiced $2,000 for the Application Fee and will pay 50% dues annually as if they were a full CESA-member school. Annual members are billed on July 1st for the upcoming year. If a school applies during the school year, their dues for that year will be prorated.
A Provisional School is one that has committed to completing an on-site Institutional Review, and subsequently submitting a Standards Achievement Plan (SAP) for review by the Board of Directors within the next two years.
Schools must complete all three components of the Institutional Review process within two years unless an extension is granted. If they should fail to complete the process within two years, or if they should fail to receive approval from the Board of Directors, the school will forfeit any fees or dues paid to CESA and will not attain the Member of Council designation. In concert with the Executive Director and Director of Institutional Reviews, a plan will be agreed upon for schools to be reviewed again.
All Institutional Review components and approval by the Board of Directors are required in full before being considered a Member of Council. Provisional Schools may not promote themselves as being a “CESA School,” “Member of Council”, or any other official or unofficial CESA designation, including the display of the CESA logo or links on the schools’ website.
The purpose of the Institutional Review is to gain a perspective on the institution and where it performs in relation to research-based best practices nationally for Christian schools. The goal of CESA is to enable leaders to lead high-performing Christian institutions that deliver the best education to students across the country. Using the CESA Institutional Standards, schools use rigorous, research-based standards to measure their school against objective standards.
The Institutional Review Visit will include a team of four individuals. The team will be composed of the Institutional Review Director and/or the Executive Director of CESA, 1 or 2 heads of school, as well as an expert in independent school academics. The Institutional Review Visit will give an opportunity for the school to better understand the main areas of success as well as improvement, hopefully resulting in membership of CESA. All visits and questions about Reviews should be directed to Jim Marsh, Director of Reviews (jmarsh@cesaschools.org)
**Note: The CESA Institutional Review may be scheduled to coordinate with an accreditation process of another accrediting organization, if appropriate. Additionally, schools may obtain AdvancED accreditation by passing the CESA Institutional Review process (no AdvancEd team will visit, only the CESA team). This is a joint accreditation and schools will become a CESA Member of Council and receive AdvancED accreditation. While this step is not required, it is an option for schools interested in AdvancEd accreditation.
The purpose of the Institutional Review is to gain a perspective on the institution and where it performs in relation to best practices nationally for Christian schools. The goal of CESA is to have high-performing Christian institutions delivering the best education to students across the country.
Jim Marsh, the Director of Institutional Reviews, will facilitate the process of preparing for the review.
The Institutional Review Visit will include a team of four individuals. The team will be composed of the Institutional Review Director and/or the Executive Director of CESA, 1 or 2 heads of school, as well as an expert in independent school academics. The Institutional Review Visit will give an opportunity for the school to better understand the main areas of success as well as improvement, hopefully resulting in being welcomed as a Member of Council.
A full narrative of the Institutional Review Visit can be found here.
**Note: The CESA Institutional Review may be scheduled to coordinate with an accreditation process of another accrediting organization, if appropriate.
After the Visit, the school will have 60 days to provide their School Achievement Plan report to the CESA Institutional Review Director, Jim Marsh.
A template for the SAP can be found here. After the SAP is submitted, CESA will regularly follow-up with the leadership team to provide support in continuous improvement. We desire that this is a dynamic process, and we hope to support schools in whatever way needed, including connecting schools with their peers in Member of Council schools who may be able to provide targeted support.