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Sisters High School wins state recognition
By Jim Cornelius

Principal Boyd Keyser announced that Sisters High School was accredited with merit -- a signal honor in Oregon.

Sisters High School was "accredited with merit" by the Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges this month.

SHS was the only high school in Oregon to be so honored this year.

Schools must be accredited in order for students' transcripts to be accepted at other institutions. To be accredited, schools must meet basic standards in student/teacher ratios library services facilities and the like.

To receive a notice of merit, a school must exceed those standards and reach a level of excellence.

According to SHS Principal Boyd Keyser, schools apply to be accredited with merit in a "blind" process, where reviewers rate qualifications without knowing what school they are reviewing.

Sisters based its application on its improvement in state assessment test scores in math and science. According to Keyser, the school boosted its already high scores by 18 to 20 percent.

"We had significant improvement in those areas," Keyser said.

What impressed reviewers, Keyser noted, was that the improvement was not a fluke; it came as the result of a concerted plan to sharpen instruction and students' skills.

As part of that plan, every teacher became a certified scorer for Certificate of Initial Mastery (CIM) tests. Their intimate knowledge of the standards helped the school meet those standards.

"They really are clear about what the goals are we're trying to achieve," Keyser said.

The principal also credits cross-curriculum teaching of communication skills with helping students perform better.

Keyser was proud of the school's accomplishment.

"Its about as high an honor as we can receive," he said.

The school was also honored in 1994.

"It's rare for a school to receive (Accreditation With merit) more than once," Keyser said.

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