A bill that would change the way schools are accredited in Georgia is moving through the state legislature. Senate Bill 498 would require 80% of school accreditation to be based on academics and 20% on fiscal management. Currently, state law requires accreditors to include board governance in their evaluations of schools and districts.
Sen. Lindsey Tippins, R-Marietta, is the bill’s lead sponsor. He says accreditors should focus mainly on school performance and how well students are prepared for life after high school.
“Some of the actions I’ve seen in accreditation in the past years…the accreditation process has much more to do with the behavior of the adults than it does the academic performance of the students,” he said on the Senate floor.
Tippins said board governance has little to do with how well students are educated. He said a recent study showed 61% of students who received Georgia’s HOPE scholarship lost it within two semesters. Just 15% of those students were able to regain the scholarship.
“Clearly many of these students were not prepared for [college] rigor,” Tippins said.
Mark Elgart is the president and CEO of Cognia, a regional accrediting agency that accredits schools in Georgia and other states.
He says SB 498’s 80/20 formula could have unintended consequences, including awarding HOPE.
“[The 80/20 calculation] is similar to how the state determines low-performing schools today. And if it focused on high schools, approximately 50 high schools across the state would not be accredited as a result of this bill,” Elgart says. “And therefore, individual students who earned the HOPE scholarship in these schools would not be eligible for it.”
SB 498 was introduced shortly after Cognia revised a special review it conducted of the Cobb County School District. The accreditor dropped its original recommendations regarding financial management but kept in place suggestions to work on cooperating and following its code of ethics.
Elgart says there’s no evidence that problems between board members affect classrooms. The recommendations in the special review were meant to help the school board improve, he says. The district’s accreditation was never at risk.
“I think the bill, quite frankly, if it was triggered by that, it’s unfortunate,” Elgart says. “I agree with legislators, let’s talk about accreditation and the role it plays in Georgia, and let’s look for ways to improve it. But I don’t think you start with a piece of legislation that is triggered by a circumstance in Cobb County which was purely designed to help Cobb improve, where no action was taken.”
Elgart says Cognia has offered to work with lawmakers on the bill.
The measure unanimously passed the Senate but hasn’t had a hearing in the House yet.
