Inspectors from the BC Ministry of Education and Child Care gave SelfDesign® Learning Community two commendations on the school’s annual external evaluation from the Ministry, this year a Monitoring Inspection.
“The external evaluation process is an opportunity to reflect on how we’re doing,” says SelfDesign Learning Community Principal Catherine Dinim. “This year, it coincided with our re-accreditation meetings with Cognia, so the timing worked really well. Everything we had gathered for Cognia was ready to also be presented to the inspector.”
One of the Ministry commendations was for how the SelfDesign seeks continuously to improve its programs, offerings and services, gathering data from learners, families and educators to identify where and how things may be tweaked to improve learner experience and outcomes. In his report, the Ministry inspector specifically mentioned the recent re-accreditation process that SelfDesign was engaged in with Cognia — a process whereby we had to demonstrate to Cognia continuous improvement from year to year.
The other Ministry commendation was for SelfDesign’s criminal record check tracking processes. As with all schools in B.C., SelfDesign educators, service providers and contractors are required to undergo a criminal record check before working with children, youth and vulnerable adults to provide services to SelfDesign Learning Community learners.
“The inspector noted that we’re tracking criminal record checks at least six months out from their expiry and that we’re sending people emails when they need to renew,” Catherine says. “The SelfDesign Procurement team has a robust system, and everything is filed well. When they came into the meeting with the inspector, he was wowed by how everything is at their fingertips and how everything is automated.”
SelfDesign did not receive any recommendations or statutory requirements from the inspector, meaning that he identified no deficiencies that needed to be addressed.
This is the first Ministry external evaluation SelfDesign has undergone since becoming an independent provincial online school last July. Independent schools in BC have had an external evaluation framework for many years. That framework is now part of the Ministry of Education and Child Care’s new Accountability and Quality Assurance Framework that applies to all provincial online schools — independent and public.
