69传媒

A newly signed law in Georgia that gives the governor the power to remove school board members in a district that does not have full accreditation is bringing fresh scrutiny to the role of AdvancED, a private agency that accredits schools in that state and 48 others.

The target of the , signed by Gov. Nathan Deal last week, is the 48,000-student Atlanta public school system. In putting the district on probation earlier this year, the accrediting agency cited fierce infighting on the school board and a breakdown in district leadership.

The Georgia legislature passed a last year that gave the governor similar powers, but it applied only to board members elected after July 2010. The new law is retroactive to July 2009, which means all the school board members in the Atlanta district are subject to its provisions.

In a signing statement, Gov. Deal, a Republican elected last fall, said that using the power in the bill would be a last resort. 鈥淏ut with the future of Atlanta鈥檚 students hanging in the balance,鈥� he said, 鈥淚 believe it is better to be prepared with more options on the table than with less.鈥�

The governor鈥檚 actions, which he acknowledges were influenced by the critical accreditation report, point to the growing influence of , the nation鈥檚 largest accreditor of school districts and individual K-12 schools.

Some observers are asking, though, whether the accrediting agency has overstepped its bounds by getting involved in politics and governance matters that may not directly affect education鈥攁 charge that AdvancED leaders strongly dispute.

AdvancED has expanded across traditional regional boundaries for accrediting agencies, which are funded by schools and districts that voluntarily submit to the evaluation process. As the result of a 2006 merger, the Alpharetta, Ga.-based AdvancED now encompasses the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement and the Southern Association of Colleges and 69传媒 Council on Accreditation and School Improvement, known as NCA CASI and SACS CASI, respectively, and accredits more than 27,000 public and private schools and districts across the United States and overseas.

Discord in Atlanta

AdvancED, which accredits the high schools in Atlanta, reported in January that the decision to place the district on probation was driven by the problems among the board members.

The report said that when a review team visited the district in early December, it heard about board votes being taken without proper approval and continuing fallout from an investigation into allegations of cheating on state tests. The district鈥檚 spokeman said that the school board 鈥渆mbraced鈥� the assessment and would work to make improvements. AdvancED gave Atlanta a September deadline to make changes.

State Sen. Vincent D. Fort, an Atlanta-area Democrat who was against the newly signed bill, is among those who criticize the organization鈥檚 reach.

鈥淚t is this unelected, unaccountable group that is allowed to dictate how members vote and who they are,鈥� he said.

An in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that probed AdvancED鈥檚 actions in the district said that Mark Elgart, its president and chief executive officer, drafted a memo to the school board chairman, saying that he should step down and that his predecessor should regain the seat. The chairman did not do so. Three months later, the organization released its critical report.

Some who have grave concerns about the influence of AdvancED acknowledge that the recommendations in its reports are reasonable.

In Wake County, N.C., AdvancED asked to visit the school system after the board voted to dismantle a busing policy that was based in part on maintaining socioeconomic diversity in schools, a vote that caused communitywide consternation. The school board fought the visit before relenting and allowing the organization to send a team in February. The district鈥檚 high schools are accredited by AdvancED.

Chris Malone, a Wake County school board member, likened the interview process to 鈥渋nterrogations.鈥�

鈥淏ut at the end of this, I have to say, despite the blistering comments during the interrogations and the white-hot rhetoric that was in the report, the findings were nominal,鈥� Mr. Malone said. 鈥淚n four or five of the [required actions], any reasonable person might have come back and said that.鈥�

Mr. Elgart rejects accusations that AdvancED is playing politics. Of the 6,000 districts it accredits, 10 percent are facing some sort of adverse action. Only eight have been sanctioned for 鈥済overnance and leadership鈥� issues, he said.

And in his view, the governance issues flagged by the agency go beyond robust debate. For example, the organization plans to visit the Montgomery County, Ga., school system, a 1,000-student district that is on its fifth superintendent this year. And the five-member board of the Randolph County, Ga., schools, a 1,200-student district the agency has placed on probation, had split into two factions, each holding separate meetings and voting on actions.

鈥淚n these eight, it鈥檚 not just debate, it鈥檚 destructive,鈥� he said.

In the 13,400-student Burke County, N.C., district, the accrediting agency cited school board mismanagement as one of the reasons it was placing the district on probation.

Superintendent Arthur W. Stellar, who joined the system in September 2009, said the board has made great strides since it was placed on probation in 2009. 鈥淚n terms of how we operate, the decorum, we may be slightly above average,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut [AdvancED鈥檚] standards for the boards are slightly above that.鈥�

In the abstract, he said, such standards are desirable, but they may be hard to meet in the real world.

Still, despite Mr. Stellar鈥檚 disappointment that the organization did not lift its sanctions after a December monitoring visit, 鈥淚 have no great problem with the AdvancED process,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t is extremely time-consuming, and it鈥檚 pretty tedious, and they have pretty high standards. But it has helped us get better.鈥�

Regional Agencies

Regional accrediting agencies have a history in the United States that reaches back more than 100 years. The oldest, the , in Bedford, Mass., was formed in 1884. The others are the Middle States Association of Colleges and 69传媒, in Philadelphia; the Western Association of 69传媒 and Colleges, in Burlingame, Calif.; and the Northwest Accreditation Commission, in Boise, Idaho.

About a fifth of the nation鈥檚 schools are accredited, most of them at the secondary level, according to research gathered by Richard Rothstein, a researcher with the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank in Washington. Participation varies among states, he noted in his 2008 book Grading Education. For example, all schools participate in Alabama and Wyoming, but in Texas only 4 percent do.

There鈥檚 no legal requirement for the accreditors to stick to a geographic boundary, and many don鈥檛, accrediting schools that are in other countries or programs that operate across state lines, for instance. But Jacob Ludes III, the executive director of the New England accrediting agency, says his organization doesn鈥檛 want to venture beyond its six-state area of focus.

鈥淥ur process is intensive, and it鈥檚 important for us to know these institutions,鈥� Mr. Ludes said. The visiting teams 鈥渒now these institutions. They know the idiosyncrasies within a community.鈥� The organization wouldn鈥檛 be as helpful if its focus were national, he said.

In contrast, Mr. Elgart said that AdvancED鈥檚 wide scope gives his organization a stronger voice in advocating on behalf of its schools. AdvancED intentionally brings in evaluators who aren鈥檛 from the area, in a bid for objectivity, he said. The merger also allows the agency to provide more resources to its members, he said, because of its larger fee base.

Currently, losing accreditation means that high school students enrolling in colleges or being eligible for scholarships that are dependent on graduating from accredited schools may have a harder time. But complete loss of accreditation in a district is rare. The 49,000-student Clayton County, Ga., district, which lost its accreditation in 2008, was the first in the nation to face that sanction in 40 years.

Mr. Elgart said that most of the districts under sanction are in Georgia because residents became aware of AdvancED鈥檚 work after the Clayton County situation, and now come to the agency with complaints about school boards.

Force for Change

Mr. Rothstein has suggested that accrediting agencies could serve an important role in supporting school quality, if they became state-funded, mandatory programs with well-trained evaluation teams and strong tools that measure educational outcomes.

In some cases, those partnerships are already occurring: The Georgia education department, for example, has entered into a formal partnership with AdvancED in school improvement and peer review.

Such a program might be more expensive than the current accountability system, but 鈥渕ore and more evidence has accumulated about the dangers of accountability by scores alone,鈥� Mr. Rothstein said.