Six months ago, a team from the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commissions on Elementary and Secondary Schools conducted an evaluation of St. John Neumann Regional School sites in Palmerton and Slatington to determine compliance with a defined set of research-based performance standards.

Sister Virginia Stephanie, principal of St. John Neumann, and the advisory board, reported that the school has been awarded a seven-year accreditation through Dec. 1, 2022, for grades K-8.MSA-CESS has been based in Philadelphia for over 125 years, and performs accreditation surveys on more than 2,700 schools in 34 states and almost 100 countries.The weeklong visit by the MSA-CESS team is the first step in the process that evaluates 12 basic components including mission, governance and leadership, health and safety, school organization and staff, student activities - as well as educational program and student learning.The MSA-CESS process is the "gold standard" for measuring and evaluating elementary school performance.In the present class of 2015, the Commissions awarded accreditation to 211 schools and school systems in 18 states and 20 foreign countries.A review of the full list of schools is available on the MSA-CESS website.For information on St. John Neumann Regional School and its goal of student achievement, call 610-826-2354.