Emma Willibey

North Kansas City’s Staley High School will host a ceremony next year in which seniors present freshmen tokens representing the school, trusting the new class to preserve Staley’s reputation.

Sound familiar?

Principal Clark Mershon adapted the ritual from STA’s “passing of the legacy,” which he discovered while visiting STA with local educators March 4-5. The visit’s goal was to ensure STA met academic standards, and president Nan Bone said STA’s unique environment overwhelmed the team.

“[The team came in] knowing that we were good, but I think they were just blown away,” Bone said.

Junior Micah Welch, who participated in a student interview designed to gage girls’ perceptions of STA, agreed STA impressed the team. According to Welch, when the team asked a few students to name favorite attributes of STA, “sisterhood” was a common response. Welch said the team could sense students’ pride.

“They told us that the reason STA works is because we all want to be here,” Welch said. “In most schools, 40 minutes [per class] doesn’t work. [Students] don’t want to be in class, so they do things to try to get out.”

According to Bone, the team’s concluding presentation confirmed its positive view. Bone said each school’s presentation typically includes two “powerful practices” and two areas of improvement. However, Bone said STA merited six powerful practices, including “sustaining a culture of excellence,” and one area of improvement. The team had never granted this honor elsewhere, Bone said.

“[Mershon] said he had never been to [such] an amazing school,” Bone said.

Global organization AdvancED arranged the visit to renew STA’s accreditation, or stamp of approval confirming STA is a functioning school. Since accreditation implies fulfillment of minimum standards, Bone said she was not concerned with whether STA would receive this status. Rather, Bone was interested in the team’s specific feedback.

“Really, going into [the visit], we had no worries about being accredited,” Bone said.

Bone said AdvancED teams visit schools every five years. According to AdvancED’s website, each team judges its school on five standards: purpose, leadership, teaching, resources and self-improvement. To conclude the visit, each team proposes goals for the school to fulfill during the next five years, Bone said. In this period, the school updates AdvancED on the goals’ progress. Finally, another team visits the school and establishes new objectives.

“Basically, five years ago we were given some goals, and we looked at how we could implement those goals in the best possible way,” Bone said.

According to principal of academic affairs Barbara McCormick, the administration sifted through standardized test scores to identify areas of improvement. ACT results caused concerns, as 36 percent of STA’s 2009 test-takers met the science Benchmark, or minimum score indicating college preparedness. Likewise, 55 percent of test-takers met the math Benchmark.

“[The process] just started as data-digging,” McCormick said. “Look at your current reality. Where are your students?”

According to Bone, the administration focused its five-year plan on familiarizing students with scientific tables and nonfiction passages. As a result, 70 percent of STA’s 2013 test-takers met the science Benchmark, while 73 percent met the math Benchmark.

“[The teachers developed plans like] ‘expose our girls to more charts and graphs’ or ‘expose our girls to more nonfiction reading,’” Bone said.

Bone said faculty must now collaborate “so all teachers are using the best instructional research-based practices,” which AdvancED designated STA’s next five-year action. However, the administration has paused accreditation efforts to recover from previous years’ work. Meanwhile, Bone said STA’s environment will resonate at schools like Staley.

“[AdvancED’s team was] fascinated by what a school like this offers,” Bone said.