School Board Agenda Item

DATE: Tuesday, March 4, 2008
TO: School Board Members
FROM: MaryEllen Elia, Superintendent

Approve District Accreditation Process for All Hillsborough County Public Schools with the Southern Association of Colleges and School Council on Accreditation and School Improvement (SACS CASI)

We request approval of the District Accreditation Process with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Council on Accreditation and School Improvement (SACS CASI) for all Hillsborough County Public Schools. The accreditation process will have a positive impact on our district, as it will guide district-level staff and school sites to continually ask, “What more can we be doing to benefit our students?” Not only will district accreditation ensure instructional and organization effectiveness, but it will greatly remove from the high schools the immense man-hours it takes to conduct individual self-studies, fill out the required reports and carry-out the site visits. With district accreditation, the preparation, report-writing and site visit are the primary responsibility of the district, not the schools. The aim of district accreditation is to minimize additional paperwork for the school system and allow the use of existing materials and artifacts to assure that the standards are being met. The attached documents provide additional information about the District Accreditation Process.

Attachment A: Benefits of District Accreditation
Attachment B: AdvancED Advancing Excellence in Education Worldwide Standards Assessment Report. Additional information can be found on the website AdvancED Advancing Excellence in Education Worldwide home page.
Attachment C: Projected Annual Dues
Attachment D: Estimation of the Projected Five-Year Accreditation Cost Comparison between High School and All Schools

On May 29, 2007 the School Board approved the concept of seeking district accreditation for all Hillsborough County Public Schools (instead of just High Schools) through the Southern Association of Colleges and School Council on Accreditation and School Improvement (SACS CASI). Through a letter to SACS CASI, district leadership expressed an interest for exploring the possibility of accrediting all schools in our district. As a result of that letter, a readiness visit was conducted between SACS CASI and district personnel to outline the requirements of the accreditation process.

Accredited school systems pay accreditation fees that are used to provide districts and schools with research-based standards, nationally-trained quality assurance review team chairs, high-quality resources and tools, and staff development. The annual dues for the school district are based on the number of schools. In addition, the district is responsible for a District Accreditation Quality Assurance Review Visit fee assessed once every five years. Communication has occurred with Dr. Mark Elgart, President of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools/Advanced ED and Dr. Pat Wentz, Florida SACS Director regarding a phase-in fee structure. See the attached Projected Annual Dues Fee Structure for 2008 and 2009 for detailed information.

All District Goals and Critical Success Factors

Currently, the district and individual high schools together spend an average of $50,000 per year to accredit high schools. To accredit all the schools in the district annually, the SACS accreditation fee will increase to an average of $118,000 per year. The major reason there is not a huge difference between the Accreditation Process of 25 high schools versus the Accreditation Process for 225 schools is due to the fact that the district will only incur the cost of one SACS CASI site visit every five years as opposed to 25 site visits over the course of 5 years. See Attachment D: Estimation of the Projected Five-Year Accreditation Cost Comparison between High School and All Schools for detailed information.

Currently, $50,000 is allocated to Secondary Education for SACS accreditation fees on an annual basis. This money will be diverted to the District Accreditation Process. The additional money needed to accredit all schools is available from school improvement funds set aside from Discretionary Lottery dollars.

Deborah H. Rodgers, Ed.D. Administrator on Special Assignment, School Improvement (813) 272-4224	Michael A. Grego, Ed.D. Assistant Superintendent, Curriculum and Instruction (813) 272-4221
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Hillsborough County Public Schools (Florida) * Mtg.#20080304_289 * Section A Item# 1.06