Spalding Education School Accreditation Can Boost School Ranking, Teacher Morale
Spalding accreditation was recently bestowed upon two Arizona schools, bringing to 12 the total number of Spalding accredited schools in the US. One school is located in Phoenix and the other in Queen Creek. According to Spalding, this designation signifies a school is committed to proficient implementation of Spalding’s curriculum, which meets or exceeds Common Core State Standards.
Two Arizona schools — the Benjamin Franklin Charter School (BFCS) – Crismon Campus, in Queen Creek and Adams Traditional Academy (ATA) in Phoenix — recently joined an elite group of Spalding Accredited Schools. Spalding Education International (SEI) now has 12 Accredited Schools located in four states. The other states are California, Utah and Wyoming.
SEI says its language arts curriculum, “The Writing Road to Reading,” meets or exceeds Common Core State Standards, making it easier for its teachers trained in The Spalding Method to teach the Common Core English Language Arts Standards (watch video).
“Having two more Spalding Accredited Schools means we have more examples of the effectiveness of The Spalding Method,” said SEI CEO Jim Sexton. “These schools are especially helpful when we have educators visiting who want to see Spalding in action.”
Educators won’t have to travel far as ATA and a previously accredited school, Valley Academy Charter School, are both within a mile of SEI’s headquarters.
Accreditation by SEI is a voluntary process that signifies a school has formally adopted The Spalding Method as its basic language arts program. In addition, the school has at least three Spalding Certified Teachers and one Spalding Certified Teacher Instructor (SCTI) for initial accreditation. The SCTI’s role is to provide on-site Spalding training for teachers. Accredited schools qualify as Spalding Demonstration Schools and are eligible for a discount on SEI’s classroom instructional materials.
“Accreditation is a significant event for a school,” said SEI Executive Director for Educational Services Janie Carnal. “It signifies a school is committed to proficient implementation of The Spalding Method. Schools that implement our Method with fidelity tend to rank among the top schools in their state.”
4 BFCS Schools Now Accredited
BFCS Crismon, which began implementing Spalding in 1996, held its accreditation ceremony April 24. Diana Dana is the school’s principal. BFCS Crismon is currently in the process of relocating to a new, updated facility that is expected to serve more than 800 kindergarten through sixth grade students. It’s the fourth school in the BFCS organization to become Spalding accredited. The others are the Mesa, Gilbert and Power campuses. The Spalding Method is the foundation of the traditional, back-to-basics curriculum offered through BFCS’s four locations.
ATA Proud of Accreditation
ATA’s accreditation ceremony was May 16. It’s a publicly funded, non-profit charter school owned by Choice Academies Inc. and is located in the North Phoenix area. It serves children in grades kindergarten through eighth.
“This accreditation means a great deal to me,” said ATA Principal Sharon Malone. “I’ve been involved with Spalding for a long time. I helped Valley Academy get through the accreditation program. To be able to do it to a school that I helped found, I feel like we can now say to the world, ‘We do something better than a lot of schools do.’ My teachers and my kids have worked hard for this, so I am very excited — and just a little bit proud.”
Malone added that because charter schools are businesses, the Spalding accreditation would do two things for the school. First, it’ll help to attract more customers. Second, it will communicate to the teachers and parents that what the school does, it does well.
“Spalding accreditation helps morale,” said Malone. “The children were part of this process. They became a team. Their goal was to get their teacher certified. They were going to learn and do as much as they had to — to make sure it worked. This process was a uniting factor for the school.”
SEI hopes to have at least three newly accredited schools annually.
“Our goal is to have more and more Spalding Accredited Schools so that we can showcase different types of student populations and show how Spalding works despite ethnicity or income bracket,” added Sexton.
More schools are currently involved in the accreditation process and will soon be added to this growing list.
“For any school, Spalding accreditation is well worth the effort,” said Malone.
“The Writing Road to Reading” uses the principles of learning and instruction in The Spalding Method to teach an integrated, research-based curriculum of speaking, spelling, writing and reading. “The Writing Road to Reading” textbook, now in its 6th revised edition, was originally written by Romalda B. Spalding in the 1950s.
Jeff Pizzino, APR
480-606-8292
jeff@pizzinovations.com
About Spalding Education International
Spalding Education International (SEI) is dedicated to teaching all students to spell, write and read. The organization was founded in 1986 by Romalda B. Spalding, author of “The Writing Road to Reading” — a comprehensive K-6 total language arts curriculum that incorporates the teaching philosophy of The Spalding Method. Spalding’s curriculum closely aligns with and often exceeds the Common Core State Standards. In The Spalding Method, instruction is explicit, systematic, interactive, diagnostic and multi-sensory. SEI courses are accredited by the International Multisensory Structured Language Education Council (IMSLEC) for its literacy instructional programs for teachers and Spalding teacher trainers. Classroom and resource room teachers, adult educators, as well as home educators in the United States, Canada, Australia, Central America, Europe, Singapore and Taiwan are currently using The Spalding Method. SEI is a nonprofit, tax exempt 501(c)(3) corporation based in Phoenix, Ariz. For more information, call 1-623-434-1204 or visit www.spalding.org
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