Tala Qudah highlights her experience of CIS International Accreditation and being a CIS Evaluator and the impact on her school, their community, and for her personally.

As a new year dawns, here's a round-up of our most popular blogs in 2022, in case you missed them.

As a membership organization offering school accreditation internationally, we have a significant role to play as we guide and support schools to foster inclusion across diverse communities. 

Young children’s voices matter. By extension, the voice of those who work closely with young learners matters too. Their pedagogical insights are rich in considerations for what constitutes the foundation for lifelong learning. Hear these voices from the field.

We previously asked 'What is well-being in education?' and looked at the associated challenges for schools as they align with CIS International Accreditation standards. Now, we reflect on what is driving change and consider how to react.

What does well-being in education really mean? How can we give it a mandate and support it in our school communities? The purpose of this post, the first in a series, is to move the well-being conversation forward and share some practical resources and stimuli. Let’s start at cloud level by looking at concepts and theory.

The cyclical nature of school accreditation and curriculum evaluations can be challenging for schools to coordinate when working with multiple organizations. That’s where our partnerships with the IB and other accreditation agencies help schools to manage that their evaluation cycles more efficiently and effectively. Here’s how it works.

From guiding statements to student learning, what’s your school’s ‘golden thread’? Is it linear or complex and messy? How does it guide your school? Simon Camby presents key questions for you to reflect on as you think about your school.

Peer evaluation is at the core of the CIS International Accreditation experience—educators lead, strengthen and shape international education together. Our new Director of School Evaluation & Development Services, Simon Camby, explored how peer evaluation training works from the inside.

Six months ago, educators from different parts of the world signed and made their voices heard through a petition. They strongly recommended all accreditation agencies and organizations that accredit and evaluate international school quality worldwide to ensure the explicit inclusion of anti-racism and anti-discrimination principles against all forms discrimination in their accreditation standards.

CIS International Accreditation standards are continually reviewed to ensure their relevance to our school community’s needs. In recent years, we worked to embed new protocol requirements on inclusion, diversity, and equity and have now strengthened them further around anti-racism. Learn more from Chris Durbin, Direction of International Accreditation at CIS.

There’s a lot to reflect upon from the past extraordinary year. Carole Denny takes a moment to acknowledge the accomplishments of our community, some lessons we've learned from virtual school visits, and inspiring moments that have motivated us through it all.

Leo Thompson starts his post with the bold claim: High-quality learning and teaching (HQLT) is both context and culture dependent and cannot be defined and measured in absolute, universal terms. He unpacks his claim in this post and offers guidance to help school leaders and educators to approach the challenge it presents. 

Anyone anywhere can open a school and call it international. Some schools are financed by companies, others by individuals, and some by groups of parents, but there is no apparent guarantee of quality in any of these schools. Or is there? 

Reputation management is crucial for international schools, whether they're thriving, beginning or developing. Right now, benchmarking and managing a school’s reputation has become even more critical for some as they face a myriad of risks, some associated with COVID-19 and others that were already building. Stephen Holmes outlines risks, responses, benchmarking processes and recent examples.

In the middle of the pandemic, a dedicated group of 102 educators from 71 schools in 39 countries across every continent found the energy, time and commitment to complete an online training course in April to develop the skills and attributes of a CIS accreditation team evaluator. School improvement and learning from each other, right now, is more critical than ever.

What does this new reality mean in terms of school reputation and what lies ahead for international schools? Marketing and reputation management consultant, Dr Stephen Holmes, reflects on the situation and offers some advice.  

As some of us pack away the fairy lights, baubles, and tinsel from the festive season, we also try to find time to pause and reflect. We reflect on what we do, what we have achieved, and where we are going. Occasionally we may go one step further and reflect on why we do what we do? 

Life is made up of a tapestry of transitions, big and small, simple and complex. By developing ways to positively navigate transitions as early as possible in life we are in a far stronger position to deal with future significant ones as they occur.

An experimental and ambitious initiative was launched in 2008 to reform secondary education across Kazakhstan. Just over a decade later, a network of 21 “beacon” schools are setting standards for education, both across and beyond the country.