Representatives of AdvancED are in Winchester today to begin the process of district accreditation for Clark County schools.
The school system was accredited in 2008 and the process is repeated every five years. The accreditation is voluntary and acts as quality assurance to distinguish schools and districts. Today, the five-person review team will be provided an overview of the district and will conduct interviews. The team will also visit the Preschool Center and Phoenix Academy.
Wednesday, the accreditation team will visit Central Elementary, Conkwright Middle School, Fannie Bush Elementary, George Rogers Clark High School, Hannah Mcclure Elementary and Pilot View Elementary.
On Thursday, the team will wrap up interviews and prepare an exit report, which will be presented at 3 p.m. in the Central Office. The report will give the district an idea of how they fared on the review, but the final report won’t be issued until July.
The five-member team is made up of two in-state representatives and three from elsewhere. The team leader is a former superintendent from Illinois.
Clark County Superintendent Elaine Farris said that while the accreditation process doesn’t cost the school system money if failed or gain any benefits if passed, it does allow a set of external eyes to come into the district and present an objective view.
Farris was recently a member of a review team in the Jefferson County school system, giving her a unique perspective of the process.
“All team leads do it differently, but the overall concept is the same,” she said.
The actual review process isn’t as tough as the preparation, Farris said.
“You want to make sure you’re getting a fair look at the things you do,” she said. “We want them to get a true picture of what we do.”
AdvancED will judge the district on five standards: purpose and direction, governance and leadership, teaching and assessing for learning, resources and support systems and using results for continuous improvement.
Contact Casey Castle at ccastle@winchestersun.com.
