Georgia district loses accreditation

NBC Nightly News (8/28, story 8, 0:25, Williams) reported, "In a rare move, a big school district south of Atlanta has lost its accreditation partly because of what's been called a dysfunctional school board."

The New York Times (8/29, A12, Brown) reports that Georgia's Clayton County school system is "the nation's first in nearly 40 years to lose its accreditation [ note: according to Associated Press, it is the 3rd in 40 years  ], and the governor removed four of its school board members for ethics violations." The county's school system "was ruled unfit for accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), one of the nation's six major private accrediting agencies, after school board members failed to meet the group's standards for leading a school system." During a prior investigation, "the agency found that county officials had not made sufficient progress toward establishing an effective school board, removing the influence of outside individuals on board decisions, enforcing an ethics policy or meeting other requirements for accreditation." Following the agency's announcement, Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue (R) "removed four Clayton school board members...for violations of the state's open meetings act and ethics code.

The AP (8/29) notes that SACS has given "the district until Sept. 1 to overhaul the system." Unlike the Times article, the AP reports that Clayton County is the third district "in 40 years to lose its accreditation," not the first.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution(8/29, Matteucci, Diamond) adds, "The loss of accreditation means students could have trouble getting into some colleges and universities, or receiving scholarship money." However, the state's "public colleges have promised to accept Clayton students," and "students who graduate before 2010 will still receive their HOPE scholarships, thanks to new legislation signed by Perdue this year."

Labels: accreditation, clayton county, every child left behind, school board