District Accreditation by the Commission on Public Schools (CPS), indicates that a school district has worked to align its practices with the Standards for Accreditation. Accredited districts have completed a multi-school, community-wide self-assessment process, and have hosted a visiting team of peers who review the individual schools and the district office in terms of common goals and the Standards for Accreditation. The award of District Accreditation signifies that the schools in the district have met the Standards for Accreditation at an acceptable level and are committed to maintain those Standards. Continued Accreditation is dependent upon the schools and the district demonstrating ongoing, reflective progress to improve teaching and learning and the support of teaching and learning within their schools throughout the K-12 continuum.
District Accreditation is possible because only one set of standards, the 2020 Standards, are now used for all three levels of schools accredited by NEASC-CPS: elementary, middle, and high schools. Previously, a school system would have used two different sets of standards and scheduled a separate review visit for each school.
Districts pursuing accreditation will use the NEASC-CPS "Vision for Learning" framework. To accommodate the different sizes of districts and varying number of schools within them, the planning is personalized for each school district to facilitate a streamlined process. Regardless of size, the schools in a district work together on a single Self-Reflection, with a committee drawn from each school and the central office. In addition, only one collaborative conference and a combined decennial visit for all the schools in a district are required, making the district approach a much more viable option for many school systems.