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COMMENTARY
Relinquish accreditation from private agencies
To the editor,
What is the proper role of an accreditor?
In the Dunwoody Reporters’ July 12-25 editions, we heard
from Mark Elgart, the CEO of AdvancED, parent company of
the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) about
the “proper role of a board member.”
With the power and influence that AdvancED wields in Geor
gia why is it that our state is permanently parked at or near last
place in student achievement? This is especially troubling because
our spending on education remains in the Top 10 in the nation.
What is being accredited and what does it mean? What is the
proper role of an accreditor?
AdvancED/SACS has a great deal of power in our state. There
are laws linking the HOPE scholarship to graduating from an ac
credited school.
Ironically, there is no law that requires a school or district to
be accredited at all. Most people seem to believe that accredita
tion means something about the quality of the academic prod
uct within the schools and some minimum standard for results.
Unfortunately, this commonly held belief is wrong. SACS
“accredits” schools and districts based on “standards” and “indi
cators,” none of which require rigorous instruction or basic pro
ficiency for students.
SACS’ accreditation methods were criticized by a former U.S.
Senator from Colorado, Hank Brown, in a Wall Street Journal
article earlier this year. Brown decried the lack of objective mea
surements by SACS, as well as their bullying tactics used to pro
tect college administrators. He’s seen this first hand. In addition
to being a former senator, he was also the president of the Univer
sity of Colorado. In his article, Sen. Brown pointed out that re
gional accreditors have threatened removal of accreditation based
on salary and benefit cuts to administrators.
The American Council for Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) has
also illuminated the shortcomings of the accreditation process
and the political agendas that play out with AdvancED/SACS.
ACTA has filed an official complaint with the U.S. Department
of Education regarding accreditation as currently practiced by our
regional accreditor.
These critiques and others emphasize that accreditation is
meant to be a designation of quality assurance but has strayed
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from this responsibility. ACTA calls for a reformation of the ac
creditation process so that Americans can rely on objective mea
surements of academic rigor and success.
Many states accredit their own K-12 schools based on objec
tive criteria. Virginia’s state Department of Education has a page
with listings of their accreditation standards and the accreditation
status of all schools in the state.
Recently Virginia’s DOE revoked the accreditation of a high
school in Manassas because their achievement levels failed to
reach the state’s standards. In an interesting twist, after losing
state accreditation, the high school community contracted with
AdvancED/SACS in an effort to buy their accreditation product.
AdvancED/SACS found them highly functional and granted ac
creditation to the school.
Our state doesn’t require a school or district to be accredit
ed, but links accreditation by a private agency to receiving the
HOPE scholarship and then doesn’t even keep a public list of
these schools. This doesn’t even begin to address the fact that
HOPE is a merit-based scholarship and accreditation is not based
on any objective measures of student achievement and/or aca
demic rigor.
There is a wide gap between what the public generally
believes accreditation means and what is really going on.
Shouldn’t the proper role of accreditation be to convey
an objective assessment on the quality and outcomes of a
school?
Our state should quit abdicating this role to a private agen
cy and, as many other states do, accredit our own schools
based on concrete, objective standards and achievement data.
It is clear that the recent declination of Georgia’s academ
ic standing has come in tandem with the growth and power of
AdvancED/SACS. It’s time that we join with other states and
informed leaders to restore the proper value to accreditation.
Our taxpayers and parents deserve real quality assurance
and our children’s futures can only be built on these honest
assessments.
-Rick Callihan
Reporter
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6 | JULY26-AUG. 8,2013 |
Some of us value
lifestyle over
development
To the editor:
Regarding Economic Development
Director Michael Starling’s “Major Im
pact” article [Dunwoody Reporter, July
12-25]:
While it may be true that pawning off
homeowner tax responsibilities on busi
nesses moving to Dunwoody (assuming
no tax concessions were made to get them
to come) expands the tax base, it is defin
itively not “highly beneficial to each and
every resident.”
In fact, the quality of life in Dun
woody has been seriously diminished
by traffic congestion, pollution, litter,
noise and overcrowded public facilities,
to name just a few, resulting drawbacks.
Simply because it is possible to raze one
house and squeeze in nine, doesn’t mean
it is beneficial to the community. How
many Dunwoody residents feel good
www.ReporterNewspapers.net
about another hotel, apartment complex,
or high-rise office building in the neigh
borhood? This attitude of “lower taxes by
growth of any sort” as the be-all and end-
all of Dunwoody city policies is foolhar
dy at best.
As a Dunwoody homeowner for more
than 25 years, I would like Mr. Starling to
know that I did not move to Dunwoody
because the jobs were here or because I
might save a buck on my tax bill. I came
because it was a lovely, quiet residential
area, mostly single-family homes, conve
nient location, great schools, ample access
to mom and pop shops as well as Perime
ter Mall, which we could actually get to in
five minutes in those days.
While then, like now, there was a
dearth of sidewalks, we could cross the
street without fear of being run over, and
calling DeKalb County actually got a re
sponse when a repair was needed.
Now we are paying for the abomina
tion referred to by concerned citizens as
the “Brook Run Anti-Nature Pave Over”
(i.e. the council-misnamed Multiuse
Trail, of which it is neither, unless the sec
ond “use” is economic benefit of the ce
ment company) rather than fixing dan
gerous sidewalks and potholes.
The loss of our other green spaces (the
so-called “Dunwoody Park” and former
Shallowford Hospital grounds) to devel
opers, will bring more taxpayers, but not
enough to offset the impact of their cars,
congestion and demands for more ser
vices and infrastructure... all of which in
creases the tax burden on citizens, while
lowering the quality of life in Dunwoody,
not improving it. Mr. Starling’s “confi
dence” in the opposite is sorely misplaced
as demonstrated by the evidence of cur
rent circumstances.
If he wants to live next to the parking
lot of a corporate headquarters, he is free
to do so (hopefully elsewhere) and take
advantage of whatever tax saving putting
up with that brings, but please do not try
to justify imposing that lifestyle on those
of us who moved here because we value
peace and quiet more than having “one of
the lowest mill-rate of any similarly-sized
city” in the Atlanta area.
Economic development has a major
impact on the community, just not the
feel-good, free-lunch, propaganda the di
rector pretends.
—Siuan Andre
DUN
