Clayton County schools lose accreditation

[sinkingfeeling]

Source: ajc.com

Clayton County schools have lost accreditation. The 50,000-student school system is the first in the nation to lose accreditation since 1969, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools announced today.

No accreditation means students will have a tougher time getting into some colleges and universities. They may also have difficulty obtaining scholarships.

Without accreditation, Clayton will also lose pre-kindergarten funding and some teacher benefits. The county also expects more students to flee. About 2,000 students have already left, superintendent John Thompson said.

In March, the national commission unanimously voted to revoke accreditation unless the school system met nine mandates by September. The first mandate was to establish a board that fulfills its roles and responsibilities.

This is the second time is five years SACS cited Clayton for micromanaging, abuse of power, conflict of interest and other unethical violations.



Read more: http://www.ajc.com/services/content/metro/clayton/stories/2008/08/28/clayton_schools_accreditation.html

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Clayton County is near Atlanta.

[DaDeacon]

1. Clay CO! damn

I grew and still live in the Atlanta metro area and I hate to say it but this whole story has become a witch hunt. The Clayton county board had bent over backwards of this and to get shafted like this is just crap.

[screembloodymurder]

2. I live in PA. Many of my areas finest schools are failing because

special education students (as a whole) are not capable of learning what is required of them. NCLB is a Republican ploy meant to discredit public education.

[jwirr]

3. As the mother of a special education child I have always wondered

why they are tested in the first place. We have spent 50 years teaching my child to squeeze an object in her fist. There are children who never reach the testing level but they should still be helped with learning things they need to survive in this world. To penalize the whole school because of this group is WRONG.

I also think that the pugs have been trying to destroy the school system since the 50-60s and when vouchers did not work now they will try this way. I want that idiot *ss to take those tests. I doubt he would be able to pass after the third grade.

[benld74]

4. NCLB was first tried in,,,

Texas when Bush was govner. IT was called something elses back then. I recall reading about it prior to 2000 and what a fiasco it was in Texas THEN. He then pushed it into the rest of thae nation. Check out the declining ACT scores since he took over and you will see what has occurred since its inception.

[ikojo]

5. St Louis City public schools have also

lost accreditation. There is even a state appointed school board for the city. A friend of mine, who teaches in the city schools, thinks this is a means of introducing charter schools and breaking the teacher union.

[RebelOne]

6. Our local Atlanta radio station said that

this will affect property values in Clayton County. Already low, they will go lower.

[bean fidhleir]

7. Anyone see a parallel with what's going on elsewhere?

Accreditors were particularly concerned that the board gave away its governing authority to superintendent John Thompson, Elgart said. In April, the board signed a contract that allowed the superintendent to violate board policies and circumvent the board, as long as it doesn’t violate state law.

“The current contract cedes authority to the superintendent,” Elgart said. “It not only violates standards for accreditation, but board policy and violates state law.”

[AlphaCentauri]

8. A Georgia School System Loses Its Accreditation

Source: NYT

ATLANTA — A county school system in metropolitan Atlanta on Thursday became the nation’s first in nearly 40 years to lose its accreditation, and the governor removed four of its school board members for ethics violations.

The school system in Clayton County, just south of the Atlanta city limits, was ruled unfit for accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, 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.

An investigation by 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, Mark A. Elgart, the chief executive of the association, announced Thursday at a news conference.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/29/education/29clayton.html?ref=us

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This does not have nothing to do with Putin but::

Snip..
The case contains undercurrents of racial tension. The board members who were removed are black, and the five Clayton residents who filed a complaint against them that led to Mr. Perdue’s decision are white. During a state hearing this month, Mr. Moore accused the residents of trying to remove board members because of their race.

[emilyg]

9. May I add

The case contains undercurrents of racial tension. The board members who were removed are black, and the five Clayton residents who filed a complaint against them that led to Mr. Perdue’s decision are white. During a state hearing this month, Mr. Moore accused the residents of trying to remove board members because of their race.

George Brown, one of the people who filed the complaint, dismissed Mr. Moore’s accusations. Both black and white members of the Clayton school system testified against the board members at a state hearing, Mr. Brown said. “This was not racially motivated at all,” he said. “That’s ridiculous.”

The troubles that culminated Thursday began

[toopers]

16. Further, an independent judged ruled . . .

that the board members should be removed. This is not a racial issue. This was poor management. What is unfortunate is that the students are stuck in a school system that failed them. If the parents cannot afford to move then they are screwed. This is why there should be school vouchers -- at least for specific incidents like this.

[countmyvote4real]

10. This is too vague. What are the alleged ethics violations? I need to know that.

And I mean the reporting from the NYT is too vague.

[toddGA]

13. Here's some info on specific allegations against the school board from the AJC.

http://www.ajc.com/search/content/metro/clayton/stories/2008/02/15/accreditation_0216.html

high (or low-) lights about some board members:


Haynes, who serves as executive director of the union Metro Association of Classroom Educators, voted for raises for union members and against companies that his union doesn't support.

Johnson voted for a raise that would benefit his wife, a teacher.

Strong voted to hire her husband, a graduation coach.

The board never addressed allegations that board member Baines-Hunter may live in Fulton County. County Commission Chairman Bell said the tax commissioner and police are looking into residency issues.

Scott pushed for a Morrow football coach to be fired after he refused to hand over game tapes of her son

[toddGA]

11. the Entire School Board needed to go.

this is all happening down the street from me in clayton county GA, where i teach at a University System of GA unverity (we're not affected by this, thankfully). the tragedy here is that the people on the board had a chance to step down in order to save accreditation, but refused to put the needs and best interests of the local students first. this is a seriously underfunded, poorly operating school system, and the school board was a huge part of the problem.

[npk]

12. I don't believe the racial undertones led to the loss of accreditation though.

This school board was a mess, for a long time. They were given several opportunities to get the accreditation standards up to code and couldn't. I also live in Atlanta and have followed this. I believe this was simply a case of too many people trying to make decisions and no real leader that could handle the situation. Even if the five white parents that filed the complaint did so because they were racists, it still doesn't explain the overall sloppy job by the Clayton County School board members.

[WriteDown]

15. Sounds like the school board here in...

Dallas, the DISD. An utter disaster. I've never understood why many school boards attract these low lifes.

[cliffordu]

14. What?

Did the Russians do THIS, too??