1 NAD Education Taskforce Final Report October 2016 Table
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
NAD Education Taskforce Final Report October 2016 Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................... p. 2 Executive Summary of Recommendations ................................................................... p. 3 Context ......................................................................................................................... p. 6 Process ......................................................................................................................... p. 7 Additional Research ..................................................................................................... p. 9 NADET Recommendations ........................................................................................ p. 10 Appendix A: Current Landscape ................................................................................ p. 22 Appendix B: NADET Members .................................................................................. p. 25 Appendix C: Spiritual Education of All Children Proposal ......................................... p. 27 Appendix D: NADET Preliminary Recommendations, 2015 ...................................... p. 33 Appendix E: Strengthening Adventist Education Report ........................................... p. 35 Appendix F: GIS Mapping ......................................................................................... p. 51 Appendix G: Financial Dashboard ............................................................................. p. 59 Appendix H: Funding Models .................................................................................... p. 61 1 NAD Education Taskforce Final Report October 2016 Introduction A primary focus of the NAD Administrative Summit in May 2014 was to consider the future organization and governance of Adventist Education in the context of changing demographics, financial indicators, and emerging technologies (See Appendix A). The Seventh-day Adventist Church must adapt in order to fulfill its education mission effectively, efficiently and excellently. Adventist Education requires a significant commitment of financial and human resources for the important task of bringing young people to faith in Jesus and excellence in learning. As it looked ahead to the future, the NAD Administration felt that the creation of a taskforce was necessary to adequately address all facets of this ministry. Thus, the NAD Education Taskforce (NADET) was appointed. Elissa Kido was appointed chair of the NADET and Larry Blackmer as secretary. Other members of the NADET were nominated through union and conference recommendations (See Appendix B). The NADET began working together in an official capacity in December 2014 and presented preliminary recommendations at the Year-end Meetings in November 2015. This document is the result of two years of collaboration through videoconferences, meetings, and subcommittee work. It is our hope that the final recommendations included here will be prayerfully considered as the church continues to strive towards strengthening and supporting this vital component of God’s work – the Adventist educational system. 2 Executive Summary of Recommendations The following is a brief summary of the recommendations that are further described in this document: 1. THE CHALLENGE: DECLINING SUPPORT FOR ADVENTIST SCHOOLS • We recommend that there be a renewed emphasis on Adventist education at all levels of the NAD, from the Division to the local church. We recommend that there be a strong focus on (a) the value of belonging to the Church, (b) the mission and importance of Adventist education to the entire membership, (c) the stewardship responsibility of all church members to support Adventist schools, and (d) the full commitment of all teachers and administrators to Adventist education. 2. THE CHALLENGE: RELATIONSHIPS OF PASTORS AND EDUCATORS • We recommend the adoption by each Conference of a formal, proactive initiative to bring pastors and educators together into a cohesive ministry partnership to improve the well-being of Adventist schools. Both groups should view their roles as complementary and supportive of each other, working together to strengthen a collaborative partnership. These proposals include: o Creating conditions that will encourage and support collaboration o Allocating resources for training in and development of ministry team partnerships o Fully supporting Andrews University Seminary in its initiative to train and educate seminarians specifically in the partnering ministry of pastors and teachers 3. THE CHALLENGE: FINANCIAL INSTABILITY AND LITTLE TRANSPARENCY • We recommend that financial transparency, accountability and stability be improved by the following: o Adoption by all NAD schools of a standard financial dashboard o Adoption of a new financial model in which all churches and conferences would share in the support of Adventist schools 3 o Development of an objective strategic plan for the geographic placement and broader financial support of boarding academies, recognizing that there is insufficient demand for the boarding academy product to warrant the operation of 27 boarding academies in the NAD o Adoption of a new standard accounting/financial reporting system by all elementary schools and standardization of the subsidy formulas for elementary and secondary schools o Development of objective measures of sustainability and viability of schools to guide constituencies in making decisions to determine whether to close or consolidate schools in order to improve sustainability o Adoption of a financial component in the school accreditation process 4. THE CHALLENGE: LACK OF COHESIVENESS IN THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM • We recommend changes in the accreditation process that will be oriented toward more rigorous and objective criteria to ensure adherence to high quality standards and school viability. These proposals include: o Inviting independent experts on accreditation teams -- people who are not engaged in either Adventist education or church administration, including Adventist lay persons o Highlighting financial viability as a component of accreditation o Strengthening “systemness” in Adventist education by instituting accountability for adherence to standards across organizational boundaries within the NAD, including a restructuring of the evaluation process for elementary schools to align with the current secondary/junior academy model 5. THE CHALLENGE: SEVERE SHORTAGE OF EDUCATION LEADERS • We recommend the development of a proactive system/process for the identification and development of educators who have leadership potential. Resources should include a Leadership Institute, active mentorship, ongoing professional development, and a compensation policy that will incentivize potential leaders to assume the greater responsibilities of leadership. 4 6. THE CHALLENGE: NEED FOR WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT • We recommend the development and implementation of proactive practices to develop future and current teachers and educators, including recruitment strategies, influencing undergraduate and graduate level curricula, professional development programs, and certification of school board members. 7. THE CHALLENGE: EXTENDING THE REACH OF ADVENTIST EDUCATION • We recommend expanding the availability of distance learning to Adventist children by a) increasing funding and development for distance learning resources by the Adventist Learning Community, Griggs International Academy and other providers and b) encouraging collaboration among approved distance education providers. • We recommend that the NAD appoint a separate task force to focus solely on strategies for the spiritual education of all our children, especially those not attending Adventist schools. (This initiative was voted as the number one priority by attendees at the 2015 NAD Year-end Meetings, and NADET sent a proposal to the NAD Admin in February 2016. See Appendix C.) 8. THE CHALLENGE: NEED FOR MORE EFFECTIVE MARKETING • We recommend development of marketing capabilities by schools and conferences based on the benefits of demonstrated quality, student data bases, conference-wide capabilities, and a clear rationale about the value of Adventist education. 5 Context The NADET was charged with strengthening the NAD educational system. To do its work, the NADET had to operate within the context of the following existing organizational constraints: 1. Institutional structure of the NAD 2. Rising financial costs and limited models to increase funding to the local schools or conferences 3. Changing demographic realities within the church Given these challenges, it was difficult to develop strategic recommendations that could be implemented without major organizational, cultural and structural changes. For instance, the current constituency model makes it difficult to effect system-wide change because it requires local entities to vote themselves out of existence before the next higher organization is able to make any changes. As the NADET met, worked and discussed the various issues concerning the NAD educational system, it also became clear that a recurring theme throughout the conversations – and, subsequently, the recommendations – was that the educational quality and sustainability of the schools would be greatly enhanced by the cooperative development of division-wide systems that would allow better alignment of process, procedures, structures, curriculum, standards, finances,