Southwestern Association of Episcopal Schools (SAES)
The Southwestern Association of Episcopal Schools (SAES) was founded in 1958 and has its headquarters in Austin, Texas, USA. Its membership includes episcopal schools along with early childhood educational institutions operating in the Southwest regions of the United States, such as New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, etc.
SAES and its Origin
The Texas Association of Episcopal Schools (TAES) was formed in 1957, to celebrate the collective identity of schools spread across a vast geographic region. TAES acknowledged the need to certify the Episcopal identity and academic standards through the review and approval of specific documentation by an authorized governing board.
With the expression of interest from the Episcopal schools of Louisiana and Oklahoma in TAES’s vision and mission, in the early 1970s, the Southwestern Association of Episcopal Schools (SAES) was formed. Subsequently, schools from other states such as Arkansas, New Mexico, and Arizona joined the association expanding it further.
SAES Accreditation
The accreditation process of SAES is governed by its Board of Directors. It has a Standards Committee which looks after the applications and reports during the accreditation process.
- The accreditation exercise starts after applying along with the fee for accreditation. Once the application has been approved, SAES provides one year to complete the initial documentation.
- The SAES Self Study is the next step, which takes place through a year-long process. The school is required to prepare for the On-Site Visit, which is a 3.5-day-long assessment visit by a team of SAES evaluators.
- Once the visit is over the Visit Report is compiled and submitted to the Standards Committee for recommending accreditation and that will be acted upon by the SAES Board of Trustees.
It takes approximately three school years for the entire process from application to accreditation before a final decision, although the experience for individual institutions may vary.