The Educational Audit

One element that I deeply appreciate (and on some days I'd even say enjoy) about the American educational industry (both preK-12 and higher education) is accreditation. If a school is regionally accredited, it is required to host an accreditation visit every 5 years to maintain accreditation. The elements of this process are what I appreciate the most:

1. Private - Regional accrediting bodies are private, non-profit organizations and are not run by the state or federal government. Although America has both a federal Department of Education and each state has its own Department of Education, as of yet, politicians are not running these accrediting organizations.
2. Peer Review - Accreditation visits are "peer reviews" with the visiting team made up of professionals from different educational institutions. For example, our most recent accreditation team was made up of a principal, head of school, and teacher from missionally similar schools in our state, and an education professor from a private university ... all volunteers, passionate about education and willing to give their time to help us improve as a school.
3. Mission Driven - For the most part, the accreditation process requires a school to evaluate its programs in light of the mission statement and foundational documents. The primary question asked is, "Is the school delivering the education that is 'promised' to their stakeholders?" 
4. Reflection - The lion's share of the accreditation report is a self-assessment. The school collects evidence to demonstrate its progress against a standards-based rubric and "grades" itself; the accreditation visit team, then, investigates the evidence to affirm or reject the school's self-assessment. The process of reflection is more important than the final product as each stakeholder group (staff, teachers, students, parents, board) reflect deeply and intentionally about their school and standards of educational excellence.  
5. Growth Focused - Accreditation is based on a growth-mindset. The members of the accreditation team are educational experts who provide "outside eyes," with the primary intent of helping the school improve. The school, by participating in this process, is acknowledging with humility the need to always improve; humility is the key posture. In fact, in my experience, accreditation only goes poorly when a school does not enter the process with a growth-mindset or with humility. 

An aspect of the accreditation process is the review of a financial audit. Unlike accreditation visit that occur every 5 years, independent financial audits are required each year for non-profit organizations (depending on the state, size of the non-profit and fund-raising levels). Fiscal accountability is vital to any organization, thus, an annual audit is wise. 

The concept of an audit, inviting independent experts to look at an organization with "outside eyes" to help it improve, is a powerful practice that should be done more often than every 5 years. Inviting "outsiders" to look at your program and give input can be intimidating, but growth demands it. While it is not required, "educational audits" should be a part of every school, every year.

What would an Educational Audit Involve?

Here are three areas that could be improved with an educational audit:

1. Policies and Procedures 

All schools have handbooks (employee, student/parent, faculty, etc.) describing how they "do school" at that institution. These handbooks are definitely not the most exciting part of education, but they are a vital foundation for any educational institution to operate effectively. Incomplete or poorly worded handbooks can lead to employee, student, and/or parent frustration and negatively impact morale and school culture.

Additionally, each year, schools add items to their handbooks due to changing situations, federal/state/local laws, student/staff behaviors ... and, frankly, "things that they didn't think of" when the handbook was first written. An educational audit focused on policies and procedures will catch those items, as well as, clarify the language so that everyone fully understands expectations. Internal reviews of handbooks are an important first step, but they are not as effective as an educational audit because of the prevailing culture of institutional assumptions and "that's how we've always done it" mindsets. 

An educational audit of policies and procedures can be completed by an independent school administrator who understands your school's mission/culture, but it also may need to include a lawyer who focuses on employment or education to make sure the school is covered from a legal/liability standpoint. 

2. Data Analysis

The lifeblood of any school is student learning. Assessment of this learning is vital to evaluate the impact of educational programs; data are the results of informal and formal assessment. 

Most independent/private schools are "data rich" and "analysis poor." This means that schools collect data from standardized test scores, formal assessment in class, student surveys, matriculation and graduation rates, and alumni results, but they rarely analyze the data to improve programs. Time often is a barrier to meaningful, internal data analysis, but sometimes "researcher bias" seeps into data analysis. Teachers and administrators who analyze their own data, risk entering the process with bias; they may become defensive, or draw conclusions that are more favorable because they were so invested in the learning process and the data collection. In research, an analyst must enter the process with a "blank slate" or epoche' in order to uncover unbiased findings and make conclusions.

An educational audit focusing on deep data analysis is best done by an independent educational professional with "outside eyes." Of course, the analytical report is then used by school administration and teachers to set goals and action steps for improvement.

3. School Leadership Evaluation
Each school has its own employee annual review process; however, the review of the head of school is unique. School boards evaluate the top school leader. Independent, private, and/or faith-based schools are often run by school boards consisting of primarily parents. Although passionate about the school with professional expertise, school board members usually have little educational experience, but they are charged with the task of school leadership evaluation.

School board members are volunteers and are usually very busy with their own professional and personal lives. For them to conduct a thorough and helpful review of the head of school is difficult and, unfortunately, rarely done well. Adding to the complexity of this task, board members (who are parents and volunteers) collecting performance data from staff members in order to conduct a review of the head of school is awkward at best. An independent educational expert would be able to collect more accurate (and more "anonymous") data from staff members and would be able to recommend meaningful educational goals for the head of school.

Using an education audit to review the school leader is not abdicating the school board's responsibility to evaluate the head of school, rather it is using "outside eyes" to inform this performance review process. An experienced and independent educational leadership expert, through the completion of an educational audit, may be able to recommend meaningful goals for the head of school and identify accountability measures that the board can use to impact school improvement.


Internal program evaluations are still valuable, but attaining a fresh, independent perspective is often what helps move an institution forward. Annual educational audits in the areas listed above can be beneficial to school improvement, provide an outside perspective, and stretch educators to think deeper about their school. If a school truly has a growth mindset, it won't hesitate to invite an educational audit with the goal of school improvement.