The DeKalb County School System has regained full accreditation. The district was slapped with a probationary sanction in 2012 after a scathing report from its accrediting agency, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, or SACS.
Mark Elgart, the CEO of AdvancEd, SACS’ parent company, said the school board worked to achieve its new status by establishing policies, improving operations and stabilizing the district’s leadership.
He said the school board’s decision to hire Superintendent Stephen Green also seemed to help.
“Certainly, [Green] is trying to create a different pathway forward for DeKalb than its past, and that is necessary,” Elgart said. “I mean, if they’re simply going to repeat their past and continue to do things the way they have been doing them, they shouldn’t expect and won’t get any different results.”
Shortly after SACS placed DeKalb on probation, Gov. Nathan Deal replaced six of the nine elected school board members with appointees from the community. Former Superintendent Cheryl Atkinson left the district before her contract ended. The board tapped former Georgia Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond to act as the interim superintendent. Thurmond later took the job full-time. He stepped down last summer.
Last spring, the board began a national superintendent search to look for Thurmond’s replacement. Some parents – and one school board member – charged the process was rushed and poorly executed. Several board members said they were drawn to Green, and knew he was right for the job.
Green previously led the Kansas City, Missouri schools and worked in as an administrator in the New York City school system. He pledged the district will not revert to old habits.
“The DeKalb County School District will be relentless in sustaining the work completed and remain focused on the quality of instruction in the classroom and thereby raise the bar for teaching and learning,” Green said in a statement. “ Our students will rise to the level of expectation that we set. We are locked in on this mission.”
DeKalb will undergo an accreditation review during the 2016-2017 school year. Elgart said it should show whether DeKalb is stable enough to keep making progress.
“We’ll have a real clear sense of whether the changes on the board, the changes in policy and the appointment of a new superintendent have been sustained and that not only is this leading to better governance, but more importantly, the system’s performance as a whole, especially as it relates to student learning, is progressing in a positive direction,” Elgart said.
SACS has four levels of accreditation: Accredited on Probation, Accredited Warned, Accredited on Advisement and Accredited. DeKalb has gradually worked its way up each rung of the ladder to receive the “Accredited” status.
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