Photo of redevelopment task force, summer 2018 Perhaps the most significant difference between the new Standards and previous ones is that these Standards focus first and foremost on educational principles, rather than on institutional practices. That focus not only allows these Standards to be more succinct (the first set of standards in ATS history to be briefer than their predecessors); more importantly, it allows these Standards to address a much greater range of diversity than practice-based standards. This focus on general educational principles, rather than on specific institutional practices, gives each member school the freedom and flexibility to find the most appropriate ways to implement those principles in light of that school's unique mission and distinctive context.

Because these standards focus on principles, they do not assume one particular type or structure of school to be “the norm.” For example, previous versions of the Commission standards assumed that most schools were freestanding, and that any other type of school must then explain how it differed from that norm. These new standards attend to the reality that a majority of member schools are in significant relationships with other partners, whether a university/college, a denomination/ecclesial body, another ATS school, a consortium of schools, or some other model.

(photo is from a Redevelopment Task Force meeting in summer 2018)

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