Accreditation with Distinction is an award received when a district, organization or school does not only meet but exceeds the expectations and standards of accreditation. Every year districts receive an accreditation rating. Accredited with Distinction is the highest. Ratings are based on the state’s standard tests.
Manitou Springs School District 14 received the Accreditation with Distinction award on Sept. 3, and MSHS and the other district schools took many steps towards receiving this level of accreditation.
The ratings come from the PSAT and SAT, which superintendent, Sean Dorsey, feels that students have been excelling at. “Students are performing really well on PSAT and SAT,” Dorsey said, “as well as graduation rates being super high, and the dropout rates are super low. So there is excellent data going on there.”
Tiffany Selz is a math teacher at MSHS and the head of the math department. Selz has recently changed her lesson plans and made improvements to help students do their best on these state tests.“In the math department, we have been working really hard to incorporate SAT prep within our classes,” Selz said. “Additionally, last year we held a SAT class during advisories to help students learn to better understand the math concepts presented on the test.”
Every year, the Colorado Department of Education looks for multiple qualities when scoring each district’s accreditation. “The CDE Organization looks at academic achievement, academic growth and post secondary and workforce readiness,” Anna Conrad, the principal of MSHS said, “specifically at the high school level,”
Teachers at MSHS have taken big steps towards achieving this award and excelling in those various factors. “Many of the teachers offer tutoring or extra help outside of class time,” Selz said, “plus the labs during advisory give students opportunities to check in with teachers and receive additional support if needed.”
Conrad was thrilled when District 14 received this award. “I think that it has supported and continued to strengthen a really deep sense of pride and ownership across our students and staff,” Conrad said. “I’m just so grateful to our students and to our staff, whether they are teachers, coaches, folks in the front office, counselors or custodians. This is a huge team effort, and really reflects a lot of collaboration.”
