Analysis of the impacts of accreditation in terms of system elements

This research is a qualitative multiple case study aiming to examine the input, process, output, feedback and environment elements of the school system. The data were collected from three private primary schools with Primary Years Programme (PYP) accreditation of International Baccalaureate (IB) Organization have been identified as cases through interview, observation and document analysis in the 2020-2021 Academic Year. Thematic analysis was utilized as the data analysis method. "Open System Theory" by Katz and Kahn was used as the data analysis framework. The findings obtained from the research were first presented one by one for each case and then the effects of the accredatitation on the elements of the school system were discussed by comparing the cases. According to the research results, very similar findings were obtained from the three schools. It is seen that the impacts that PYP has on the school system are similar despite the differing characteristics of the schools. Administrators and teachers think that accreditation has positive effects on the the input, process, output, feedback and environment elements of school system. However, in the formation of these positive effects and the successful implementation of the program; it is seen that the issues such as the staff's professional competence in the implementation of PYP, adaptation to the change, communication and teamwork skills play a decisive role together with the attitude of the school community comprised of students, parents and all the staff towards the successful implementation of the program. It is seen that the teachers and administrators working at PYP schools feel tension while embedding the national curriculum with PYP and balancing the academic expactations for success and the outcomes of the program. It is necessary that the accredited schools should devise strategies to manage the dilemma they experience between the national system and exam pressure and the goals and outcomes of the program. Moreover, it is crucial that the schools wishing to be accredited analyze their contexts with regard to their visions, economic conditions and parents' expectations from their schools. It can be suggested that these schools initiate their accredation tasks after assessing the criteria like sustainability, benefit-cost and the readiness of the school community. Keywords: Accreditation, IBPYP, Quality in education, Open system theory