NOTES FROM THE FIELD
Written By: Christian Talbot, President & CEO, MSA
In the last two months I have served on two accreditation visiting teams—one to the American School of Tangier (Morocco) and the other to Pope John Paul II High School (Pennsylvania). Each school is staffed by devoted educators and staff members, and it was a joy to observe them bring out the best in their students.
I had an amazing experience on both teams for three primary reasons:
1 | Professional Development
At Middle States, we often say that serving on an accreditation visiting team is the best form of professional development. I can confirm that this is true—by a wide margin. In my 27 years in education, I can’t compare it to any other professional development.
No other form of professional learning can enable you—in 3 short days!—to “see the system” of a school, and certainly not while embedding you in real time. It’s like high intensity cross-training. You may come to the team with experience in teaching and learning, but you’ll also learn about governance, finance, facilities, and other foundational elements of running a school. I wish I had participated on more visiting teams before I had become a Head of School the first time—nothing would have been better preparation.
Just as important, you do this learning within a team whose members bring diverse viewpoints and experiences. And the school you’re visiting will undoubtedly do things differently than your own. This diversity of perspectives, insights, and practices functions like a professional learning multivitamin.
2 | Relationship Building
Visiting teams provide another major professional growth opportunity: relationship building.
In Morocco and Pennsylvania, I relished spending “deep time” with professional peers from varied backgrounds and institutions. The best forms of education are relational, not transactional, a fact brought home by countless conversations with my teammates about their personal and professional journeys.
And while I’m an extrovert, even the introverts on my two teams seemed to draw nourishment from quiet, intimate conversations about the things that matter most to us.
Beyond that, I know that I can stay in touch with each of my visiting team colleagues when I have questions or ideas in the future. One of my two teams even maintains a WhatsApp group chat for exactly that purpose!
Middle States has over 3000 member schools in 115 countries, so it’s not hard to imagine how you can grow from such a rich network of professional peers.
3 | Practicing the Keys to Change Leadership
On my two visits, I loved seeing teachers and students shining and thriving, and I valued just as much hearing about each school’s change agenda.
Among other reasons, accreditation is beautiful because it celebrates achievements and prompts visions for growth. As you walk around a school and interview its stakeholders, you ask questions that help them to clarify the optimistic future that they want to create.
This is a unique opportunity to practice change leadership, because you can help your peers while sharpening your ability to develop shared understanding of and commitment to a vision.
Intensive, embedded systems thinking. Relationship building. Change leadership practice. You couldn’t buy that kind of professional learning even if you wanted to! And even if you could purchase a professional learning experience with that depth, it would likely cost several thousands of dollars.
We have an exciting announcement coming soon about our visiting team experiences, but in the meantime I encourage you to sign up to join a visiting team in the Fall of 2024 and forward this email to the one person you know would make a great visiting team member.
P.S. I am deeply thankful to the American School of Tangier and Pope John Paul II for hosting my visiting teammates and me. I am equally grateful to my teammates, from whom I learned so much. Thank you Sarah Toa, Meg Savane, Tommy Meyer, Mary Ann DeAngelo, Mary McClory, and Jacqui Gosselin!
