ACE Learning Protocol

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A fundamentally different approach to school accreditation

While traditional accreditation asks schools to focus on what they do for students, ACE Learning invites schools to reflect internally on what actually impacts learning. At NEASC, we define Impact as a long-term transformational change we wish to see in learners over time. Schools have often gauged their success as outputs like standardized test scores, university admissions, summative assessments, or similar forms of traditional academic achievement. NEASC encourages schools to expand their understanding of success to include impacts that describe the school’s highest aspirations for its learners — and encourages schools to look for ways to measure aspirational statements and design programs and structures to do so.

ACE Learning offers a framework for schools to reflect deeply on their 1) foundational structures and processes, and 2) their effectiveness as a learning community.

Being accredited on the ACE Learning Pathway:

• strengthens both the school’s Foundations and their approach to transformational learning
• focuses on the Impact of actions on student learning
• asks schools to work toward a “Shared Understanding of High-Quality Learning” using the ACE Learning Principles as a catalyst
• utilizes a transformational continuum to help schools think about effective change processes in their school
• helps schools identify drivers of change and barriers to change utilizing the 4 Cs (Conceptual Understanding, Commitment, Capacity, Competence)

While documentation (curriculum, policies, plans, procedures) is needed on a foundational level, the ACE Learning protocol prioritizes observation of learning and teaching over voluminous documentation that may or may not reflect what actually happens in practice. With ACE, the learning community’s energy is concentrated on defining, understanding, reflecting on, and embedding learning as its central purpose and goal. ACE invites all schools to reflect on how learning should illuminate the path to a better world for the next generation.