School Accreditation

With the development of the Christian education movement over the past quarter century, there has at the same time developed the need for assessing the quality of the educational programming in Christian schools. That need has been recognized by the leadership of the North Carolina Christian School Association. Therefore, a strong commitment has been made within the association to develop a program of voluntary school accreditation. Accreditation is viewed as one means for improving the quality of a school’s curricular and instructional programs.

The leadership of the North Carolina Christian School Association is aware that accreditation never has and never will assure the educational quality of any school. It will, however, cause a Christian school to self-evaluate its educational process and to receive counsel from experienced Christian educators. The accreditation process will also help a Christian school identify its programs’ weaknesses and offer suggestions on how these areas can be strengthened. In this way, accreditation should assist a Christian school in enhancing its educational program. The North Carolina Christian School Association is committed to helping Christian schools produce a quality product; therefore, the NCCSA encourages its schools to go through the Voluntary Accreditation Program, whether they become officially accredited or not. This program is not a governmental accreditation program and is only available to NCCSA member schools.

The NCCSA School Accreditation Program has been formally recognized by the North Carolina Division of Non-Public Education and is also approved by the National Council for Private School Accreditation (NCPSA) through a co-accreditation agreement with the North American Christian School Accrediting Agency (NACSAA). As a member of the National Council for Private School Accreditation, NACSAA partners with the Middle States Association Commission on Elementary and Secondary Schools (MSA-CESS) and Cognia to provide co-accreditation to NCCSA and NACSAA member schools desiring to pursue regional accreditation.

For more information regarding the NCCSA Voluntary Accreditation Program, please contact the NCCSA State Office.