FOR RELEASE
February 19, 2007

Northbrook, IL -------- Averroes Academy, a small, private Islamic school located in Northbrook, IL has entered into a partnership with the NSSE (National Study of Student Evaluation), to be a pilot school for the NSSE’s Breakthrough for School Improvement System. The NSSE, a Schaumburg, IL based research arm of AdvancED, the regional body that awards accreditation to worthy schools, chose Averroes to test its Breakthrough tools after a chance meeting with Averroes’ Project Director, Kismet Oz at a recent education conference. The school has been undergoing the rigorous process of becoming accredited over the past several months. Oz relates, “We were literally in the right place at the right time. The NSSE wanted a school like ours as a pilot school, and we were embarking on the development of our first school improvement plan to fulfill the requirements of accreditation.”

The match has sparked energy and excitement at the seven-year-old school that has set its sights very high in preparation for the ground breaking of its new school building to happen in the coming months.   During the process of preparing for accreditation, Averroes has refined and elevated its mission to become a model for similar schools in the country. The pilot project helps Averroes achieve its mission and affords many benefits to teachers and students alike. Teachers will now be performing classroom action research and also become participants in NSSE’s own research on the most effective ways to improve schools in terms of curriculum, quality of instruction, and student performance.  Students benefit by having programs implemented based on the best research and data available in the world of education today. “This project is nothing but positive for everyone involved”, relates Anjum Ali, Secretary of the Board of Trustees of Averroes Academy.  “All of us at Averroes feel very fortunate to have this opportunity.”