Schools Are SACS Accredited
The Jasper County School District has received accreditation by the Quality Assurance Review Team (QAR) team , of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Council on Accreditation and School Improvement (SACS/CASI) announced at a called board meeting last Wednesday, Oct. 26. This is a huge accomplishment at this level for a system new to this process, said the spokesperson for the QAR team.
The review team spent October 23-26 in the Jasper County School System and found that there was a system-wide approach to continued improvement and accountability. The committee made up of school teachers, officials, and principals from Georgia and surrounding states based their findings on the AdvancED program. This is the largest education network, and bases its findings on Accreditation, Professional Learning, Innovation and Information and Education Technologies.
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The team interviewed 144 people in the school system, and all five board of education members. In their findings they commended the system on the knowledge and actions to support the school’s motto “Our Children, Our Community, Our Responsibility.” They found that Supt. Dr. Mike Newton was indeed the instructional leader of the district and all of the teachers were committed to improvement.
They also found that the Title IID Grant monies were being used effectively to provide an improvement in teaching through technologies.
They also pointed out some actions to be addressed such as see and incur broader stakeholder involvement for the continued success of improvement. The team suggested breaking down the barriers and making people in the community feel more welcome to walk through the doors of the schools. They suggested that the central staff seek to not intimidate people who are already weary about entering an unknown.
They also suggested maintaining and expanding the Continuous Improvement Plan and include teacher development and professional development. They urged the promotion of instructional coaches, as they are the “pulse of improvement,” the spokesperson said.
Some of the feedback that was received from the students included the communication of building partnerships with local entities so that students may access WIFI in order to use the NETbooks to complete assignments.
Dr. Newton thanked the team for their time and their findings, and said that “we’ve got the who, to produce the what.” He thanked all of the board members, teachers, faculty, staff, and students for their patience and participation throughout the week.
