Annoor Academy

Thank you for applying for accreditation with CISNA.

Accreditation is a must for any private institution that wishes to remain competitive and maintain a legitimate reputation. Today’s parents are asking more questions about accreditation than ever before. School accreditation provides a national protocol for schools committed to systemic, systematic, and sustainable continuous improvement. The process supports, enhances, and stimulates growth and improvement throughout the school. It requires that a school focus on continual improvement of programs, services, and teacher quality through regular evaluation, data analysis, professional development, and long-range strategic planning. The accreditation process examines the whole institution—the program, the cultural context, and the community of stakeholders—to determine how well the parts work together to meet the needs of learners. While the accreditation standards of a state or regional agency address general areas of institutional quality, the CISNA standards address all areas through an Islamic lens and the process focuses on the spiritual life of the school.

The CISNA standards were revised in 2020 after consulting with experts in the field of education. These standards are categorized under four domains: Governance, School Leadership, Teaching & Learning, and School Culture & Environment. These domains provide a systematic
framework for self-evaluation and the improvement of programming and services. The first part of the CISNA accreditation process includes a thorough self-study based on the CISNA Standards and an Islamic Identity Survey administered by the school. The second part of the accreditation process consists of a review visit by the CISNA executive director, an Islamic school educator, and/or a CISNA board member. The visit serves to ascertain how the components of the school’s mission statement are integrated into the entire academic program and the culture of the school.

To successfully complete the CISNA school accreditation requirements all schools must complete all the steps. Click on "Learn More" next to each step to understand the requirements for each step. When you're ready to submit your response, click on the step and respond with your answer. Please create a Google Drive folder and share access with cisnaoffice@gmail.com. If any document, evidence, etc. is needed for any of the steps, please upload that document to the Google Drive folder and share the link the document in response to the step where it is required. If you have any questions, please contact cisnaoffice@gmail.com. 

- $250.00 CISNA one-time Accreditation Application fee.

- Schools completing accreditation through Cognia (formerly AdvancED) may be able to complete a streamlined accreditation review visit with CISNA members serving with the Cognia team. Please contact the Executive Director at cisnaoffice@gmail.com for more information.

- Schools who are already accredited by a regional accrediting agency must provide CISNA with the latest accreditation report from the regional or state accrediting agency.

Once the application is received the CISNA Executive Director will provide the school with the standards and guidelines and schedule a meeting to review the process.

An important part of self-evaluation is to collect valuable feedback about the school’s purpose and impact from stakeholders. Surveys are administered to parents, students, staff, and alumni.

The data is analyzed by the school to interpret the impact the school is making in each standard. A summary of the results is to be provided to the CISNA team.

After these steps, please make sure the numbers for the following steps have been updated to reflect the change

Please create a Google Drive folder which contains any and all pertinent documents, evidence, etc. and share the links in response to this step. Ensure that each document is viewable.

One or more CISNA representatives, depending on the size of the school, will visit the school to conduct a review. The team assesses the quality of learning environments to gain valuable insights and gain a broad understanding of institution quality to target improvements. The review team gathers valuable evidence and information by:

- Interviewing school leaders, staff, students, parents, and alumni.
- Conducting classroom observations
- Examining artifacts and evidence

Schools must cover the cost of travel, meals, and lodging for the CISNA review member(s). Travel may include roundtrip economy fare from team member’s origin to school location. School will cover individual hotel rooms for each team member.

- Up to 300 students – one team member
- 300-700 students – two team members
- Over 700 students – three team members

At the end of the visit, the team will present their preliminary findings to school leadership. The team will prepare a thorough report of their findings which will be submitted to the CISNA Board for approval of accreditation. Follow up virtual meetings may be conducted with CISNA Board members following the onsite visit.