NCSSM uses the accreditation process to help guide enhancements to the way students are served. (photo: John Hansen)
When North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics finally received word earlier this year that it had received accreditation by Cognia, one of the nation’s most respected accrediting agencies, the team at NCSSM who worked on the project did two things: first, they exhaled, knowing that the work of getting accredited had paid off. Then, they inhaled – deeply – when they realized just how well NCSSM did on Cognia’s review of all submitted materials: In nearly every measurable metric – and there were 10 – NCSSM exceeded, often considerably, the average score for all other Cognia-accredited schools. The final tally – Cognia calls it the “Index of Education Quality Score” – was 380 points out of a possible 400, besting the average high school’s score by more than 80 points.
“I appreciate Cognia’s thorough accreditation process,” says Todd Roberts, NCSSM’s Chancellor. “The accreditation process, which occurs every five to six years, provides us with an opportunity to review holistically the many things we do as an institution each year to support teaching and learning. It is great when external reviewers validate the good work and planning we believe we are doing, particularly with this being our first accreditation cycle that included our Morganton campus.”
As explained by Cognia, the accreditation process “probes the whole institution—from policies to learning conditions and cultural context—to determine how well the parts work together to meet the needs of every learner.”
They weren’t kidding when they said “the whole institution.” From beginning to end, the evaluation process took nearly a year and half, and required a team of more than 40 faculty, faculty emeritus, and staff members who worked directly on the collection, assessment, and delivery of information drawn from nearly every department across the school to determine NCSSM’s effectiveness in creating a culture that allows its students to thrive. Many more staff aided in support roles as needed. From the health of the school’s budget to the soundness of the curriculum to the dynamics in the classroom, nearly every facet of the school’s student-centered operations were investigated and evaluated.
“This was a heavy, heavy lift that required a true team effort,” says Angela Teachey, NCSSM’s Interim Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Programs, who served on the accreditation core planning team.
Under the guidance of now-former NCSSM Provost & Vice Chancellor for Academic Programs Katie O’Connor, and now-former Executive Director of Institutional Effectiveness & Chief Research Officer Krissi Hewett, the team at NCSSM began organizing in the spring of 2023 for data collection that began in the spring of 2024. NCSSM faculty emeriti recruited for the team joined with current staff and community partners to collect data through classroom observations, while another group of team members did a deep dive into the school’s practices and policies while assessing NCSSM’s alignment with 30 standards for effective schools using a rubric provided by Cognia. The written report, which considered 170 pieces of evidence and ran to more than 80 pages, was submitted to Cognia in the fall of 2024. Site visits from Cognia officials followed soon thereafter, with accreditation granted in April of 2025.
Accreditation is a badge that schools proudly wear as confirmation the institution is a valid, accomplished entity that effectively fulfills its mission of educating our state’s and nation’s students. That NCSSM consistently achieves such has never been in doubt, however. The tremendous amount of work required to receive accreditation was less about convincing an accrediting agency of our value, but more about presenting the proof of it.
“We had to work hard to pull all the information together,” Teachey says, “but we didn’t have to work hard to show evidence of excellence. It’s all right there, and it always has been.”
| Standard | NCSSM Score (Section Average) | Cognia Network Average (Section Average) |
| Culture of Learning | 4.0 | 3.1 |
| Leadership for Learning | 3.7 | 3.0 |
| Engagement of Learning | 3.8 | 2.8 |
| Growth in Learning | 3.6 | 2.8 |
For the team at NCSSM, accreditation carried value beyond its powerful testament of NCSSM’s worth.
“It could be very easy to just rest on our laurels, but we use this process to get even better,” says Tonya Little ’84, Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Programs and another member of the core accreditation planning team along with NCSSM-Durham Academic Programs Office Manager and Coordinator Matt Boerner, and NCSSM-Morganton Academic Programs Office Manager and Coordinator Suzanne Lambert. “We all live in a world that’s ever changing, and doing so quickly, and if we are not reflecting on how we can better prepare our young people for the next step in their lives, then we’ll become antiquated. The accreditation process helps us live the cycle of improvement. It’s not just jargon. We are actually living that.”
While the heavy lifting is over, NCSSM will continue collecting data, working on the improvement areas identified in the assessment, and preparing mid-cycle reports to submit to Cognia.“My greatest source of pride is that the accreditation self-assessment and the planning and implementation of the site visits were truly institutional accomplishments,” Teachey says. “Every division contributed meaningfully to this work, and I am very thankful to be a member of this community. All of us are thankful, though, that we only have to go through the full review process every six years.”
