By Lisa Morales - Archbishop Curley Notre Dame HS
Photographer: Tom Salyer
Established in 1953, Archbishop Curley Notre Dame Prep has been able to preserve its family environment and Catholic traditions while advancing its technology-based individualized learning program. The AdvancEd accreditation recognized the technological infrastructure that supports the school's teaching and learning goals.
MIAMI | Archbishop Curley Notre Dame Prep, a 6 to 12 Archdiocese of Miami school, has earned accreditation from AdvancEd for a five-year term. In Miami, 337 public, private, charter, and Catholic elementary schools hold this prestigious designation.
“As the first Archdiocese of Miami school to implement the Individualized, iPad Learning program, I feel that this designation is a reinforcement of our commitment to a new brand of learning that maximizes technology in a small, one to one, environment,” said Douglas Romanik, ACND principal.
The review recognized ACND Prep’s family environment and authentic Catholic identity. The accreditation process also includes eleot (Effective Learning Environments Observation Tool). The purpose of eleot is to identify observable evidence of classroom environments that are conducive to learning. The focus of the tool is to ensure that learners are engaging, acting, reacting and benefiting from various contexts or seven environments (A through G) that should be evident in all effective learning settings.
ACND Prep scored well above the national average in five of the seven environments. The accreditation report stated: “The school utilizes a range of media and information resources to enhance teaching and learning. The technology infrastructure supports these goals.”
“Thanks to our alumni benefactors, each year we are able to improve our technological resources and ensure that each student receives an iPad and e-texts,” said Romanik. “Having many low-income families, we are fortunate not to limit our students' learning resources just because of the costs associated with technology.”
ACND Prep will continue to improve its learning strategies as part of the accreditation requirements. Among the immediate goals, school administration plans to develop and implement a long-range, professional development plan that will continue to improve student achievement.
For more information on ACND Prep, visit www.acnd.net and watch the “One to One Learning” video at: https://vimeo.com/98047678.
AdvancED is the parent organization for the North Central
Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement, the
Northwest Accreditation Commission, and the Southern Association of
Colleges and Schools Council on Accreditation and School Improvement. For more information, visit www.advanc-ed.org.
