CSIP Update for April 2022

Thank you for your participation in the Christian School Improvement Platform over the last 18 months! It has been a huge blessing to work more closely with our partner organizations and member schools as we consider how to serve together in each country and language context for quality, Christ-centered education. 

The ACSI Europe team continues to monitor the use of the Platform as we connect with individual schools who have made use of the self-assessment in the last year. We view this process as a shared responsibility with our partner organizations and, because of this, we will share our insights periodically with these partners. This will help each of us to plan our services and events even better in the coming year as we use the quality input from our member schools.

Increasing the usefulness of CSIP

We would like to briefly highlight what has been developed in the CSIP since March 2021 when it was opened for testing.

• We received a lot of useful feedback in March and April 2021 from our partners, some of which has been integrated already into the Platform.
• A User Guide was developed as well as a Glossary and Appendices to help clarify many of the terms and ideas behind the self-assessment.
• A 3rd stage of translation was completed in most of the 9 languages during the summer of 2021. 
• On September 1st the CSIP was opened for access to all our member schools.
• All of the school membership forms were moved to the CSIP to facilitate integration between schools and their user accounts.
• A notifications page was added for users in order to provide all relevant information about their work in the CSIP in one location after login.
• The Support page was further developed in October and November with several tutorial videos. This includes a short promotional video with subtitles in all 9 languages. 
• A chat module was also implemented to further support the communication options.
• A statistics page was introduced in November for our partner organizations to help us all better understand our member schools and develop appropriate services for them.
• In January 2022 we introduced a School Partnership page to help facilitate connections between schools with certain types of interests.

An ongoing conversation with one of our service partners has shown that this tool can be a valuable key to encouraging school growth and meaningful engagement between schools. Professional services which focus on the CSIP Standards (among others) can lead to strategic conversations about how each school understands Christian education both in terms of its mission as well as its practical application in the school environment. Key words within the indicators have been carefully defined in each language and provide a foundation and common understanding for these conversations to take place.

Utilizing CSIP data

As of 1 April, 2022, there are several schools that have completed self-assessments. These schools are located in 6 different countries including Czechia, France, Hungary and the Netherlands. Although many schools have expressed a desire to complete the self-assessment, there have been limitations for them which have delayed their use of CSIP. We trust there will be a significant increase in use of the Platform during the coming year. Schools generally complete the self-assessment process in about 2 weeks with direct input from at least 3 people who discuss the Indicators together and evaluate the current condition of their school. Most schools are in the "developing" or "maturing" stage in each Standard, although schools often have Indicators in the "forming" and "flourishing" stage as well.

The objective in this process for us and our partner organizations is to initiate conversations with each of our schools who have engaged in the self-assessment. We are available to help them understand their individualized results and encourage appropriate questions about why these strengths and weaknesses exist, what might be done to capitalize on their strengths, how to address key weaknesses and how to make wise use of the resources available to them for strategic improvement.

Evaluating the maturity of CSIP

As service partners and maturing member schools add their own services to CSIP, it will further promote collaboration and community support as well as providing quality services for all our schools in their own languages. We have established a clear process for this which is accompanied by a downloadable worksheet in the Professional Services module of the CSIP. The community of support is growing but it takes time and investment from each of us.

There are additional integrations currently being planned for CSIP, including the Peer-review process with an accompanying training module. Each addition to CSIP is being carefully designed so that the vision of CSIP is faithfully followed and is contextualized for Europe. 

Encouraging school improvement through CSIP

If your school leadership team is unsure about how to use CSIP or organize the self-assessment process, ACSI can coordinate an online training with you. There is so much value in growing and learning together. We also suggest the use of CSIP at a specific time of year, either late fall or early spring, when the results can be reviewed together as a group within your community of schools. Using CSIP in May or June will also have value because the results can be used in strategic planning and for teacher development during the next school year.

It is important to remember that CSIP is a key benefit of ACSI Europe membership. If you are not using CSIP, your school is not leveraging the full impact of ACSI membership or the community of support provided through this tool and the related services. 

We believe strongly that this tool is a result of much prayer and a growing vision for quality, Christ-centered education here in Europe. We are so thankful for your vital role in this ministry and allowing our ACSI team to partner with you in your efforts for God’s glory.

The ACSI Christian School Improvement Platform is a community where ACSI member schools can engage in self-assessment, define strategic goals and contribute to strategic development in partnership with other schools as they implement a Christian vision of education.