| Forsyth schools pass tough trials for accreditation
By Lara Moore Staff Writer The Forsyth County school system has a new accomplishment for its trophy cases. "It is with great pleasure, and without hesitation, that we recommend Forsyth County Schools for district accreditation," said Linda Warfford, associate vice president for the Eastern region of AdvanceEd, at a called board of education meeting Wednesday. AdvancED is a parent company for the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Council on Accreditation and School Improvement, the association that outlined the steps Forsyth County Schools had to take for accreditation during the last several days. District accreditation is regarded as a high bar for school districts to clear, in part because it's a voluntary process and generally considered difficult to achieve. There are 64 schools in Georgia that SACS has accredited. The process involves detailed scrutiny for three days from the accreditation group to see if schools are: engaging in continuous improvement; meeting the group's 10 standards; and demonstrating quality assurance through institutional integrity, peer review and hard documentation or proof of results of its improvement efforts. Group members also interview everyone they can within the time frame, which totaled about 401 interviews with district and school-level administrators; the superintendent; the board of education; representatives of local businesses; and parents. The school system has followed some of the accreditation guidelines for the last 10 years, even though the concept of formal district accreditation was not proposed until 2004. Because of this, school board member Mike Dudgeon said he was confident of success from the beginning. "I'm excited. This is just really cool and it validates how we feel about the system ... It was easy for the accreditation because we didn't have to pretend to be something we're not," he said. In addition to pride, district accreditation also means local schools will receive an onsite Quality Assurance Review visit every five years; and automatic accreditation for all the schools in the district, among other benefits. SACS is scheduled to mail an official District Accreditation form to the board of education in roughly 30 days. With that comes responsibility. Warfford outlined some recommendations for the system after the team's findings. The recommendations include: # Devise a transition plan for superintendents to maintain quality learning and superior education for all. # Implement a high school improvement plan. # Explore more strategies to support student diversity as Forsyth County grows. # Make more avenues for community input on school improvement plans that would keep stakeholders informed. Warfford said within roughly two years the district will report back to SACS, "a progress report," on how the system is implementing these recommendations. She was careful to point out that the recommendations were just that, and administrators could do as they see fit. All the school board has to do is explain which suggestions they chose to uphold and why, she said. Superintendent Paula Gault said she intended to uphold each recommendation. The suggestions were based on areas where the team noted limitations and challenges. The two most notable were issues with growth, because, according to Warfford, it virtually affects everything: roads, traffic, state legislation, state funding, increased diversity and price and availability of land. But the good far outweighed the bad at this meeting. "I wish you (the Board of Education) could have heard the comments. We didn't hear anything negative," Warfford said, "and everybody's top quality." The list of systemwide strengths took up several slides on Warfford's PowerPoint presentation to the board. This includes: a degree of confidence in leadership and administration; the system's evident belief in its mission statement ("Quality Learning and Superior Education for All"); a clear future roadmap; highly advanced technology; data-driven decision making; transparency of decision making; large input from stakeholders; curriculum maps for instructors; accessibility of data and information for teachers and families; and a community-oriented central office. At the meeting's conclusion, Gault thanked the team. "I had no idea the depth with which you've explored the school system but we really appreciate this and we'll take the recommendations very seriously," she said. |