Forsyth County Schools Receive District Accreditation

Last week, Forsyth County Schools (FCS) underwent the rigorous district accreditation process and on Wednesday, Feb. 15, the Quality Assurance Review Team (QAR) from AdvancED recommended full accreditation status for the district through 2017.

The FCS Quality Assurance Review took place on Feb. 12-15 by a team of eight educators from five states. During the review, the QAR teams formed two-member teams and visited a sampling of Forsyth's 35 schools (each visiting one secondary and one elementary school).

Lead Evaluator Dick Spohr, chose the following sampling of schools:

• Brookwood Elementary
• Coal Mountain Elementary
• Forsyth Central High (secondary)
• Lambert High (secondary)
• Liberty Middle (secondary)
• Mashburn Elementary
• Midway Elementary
• Piney Grove Middle (secondary)

The QAR Teams interviewed a wide range of district staff and stakeholders, examined artifacts, conducted school visits, and engaged in professional deliberations to determine the degree to which the district met the AdvancED standards.

The QAR included a review of the district’s processes and programs that make up the system as a whole, in each of AdvancEd’s seven Standards:

• Standard 1 - Vision & Purpose
• Standard 2 - Governance & Leadership
• Standard 3 - Teaching & Learning
• Standard 4 - Documenting & Using Results
• Standard 5 - Resource & Support Systems
• Standard 6 - Stakeholder Communications & Relationships
• Standard 7 - Commitment to Continuous Improvement

These standards were rated by the QAR team on a scale of Highly Functional, Operational, Emerging Practice and Not Evident. The QAR Team identified the district as Highly Functional for Standards 1, 5, 6 and 7.

The QAR Team identified the district as Operational for Standards 2, 3 and 4.

Accreditation is a voluntary method of quality assurance developed more than 100 years ago, and designed to distinguish schools adhering to a set of educational standards. The accreditation process is also known in terms of its ability to effectively drive student performance and continuous improvement in education.

A final written report of the QAR Team assessment of the district will be submitted to FCS within 30 days.