SACS, NCATE Look Into U of L Accerditation Problems

This from C-J:

U of L could face sanctions over one-semester Ph.D.
One-semester degree violated agency policy

By awarding a doctoral degree to a student enrolled for only one semester, the University of Louisville violated an accrediting agency's rules and could face sanctions, the agency's president said yesterday.

The Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, which accredits schools in 11 Southern states, including Kentucky, requires candidates for graduate degrees to earn the majority of their credits at the university awarding the degree.

In a telephone interview yesterday, commission President Belle S. Wheelan said that if U of L is found out of compliance, her agency could, at its next scheduled meeting in December, put the university "on warning or probation" or revoke its accreditation, although she said the last option would be highly unlikely.

Wheelan said she plans to contact U of L President James Ramsey on Monday "to ask what happened and what the university is doing about it." She said she also will request a written report.

The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education also will review the matter, as it begins considering reaccreditation of the university's College of Education and Human Development next spring, said James Cibulka, the group's president...

A Georgia School System Loses Its Accreditation

This from the New York Times:

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.

A school board member-elect, Jessie Goree, right, with State Representative Mike Glanton, after accreditation was lost.

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.

County officials said they were planning to appeal the decision.

The loss of accreditation could impair the ability of Clayton County students to attend some colleges and earn scholarships. It could also prevent teachers from receiving benefits if they change school systems, and could mean a loss of money for pre-kindergarten education.

Two hours after the accreditation agency’s announcement, Gov. Sonny Perdue of Georgia removed four Clayton school board members...

Wholesale Resignations Needed Immediately

This from the Los Angeles Times - Photo by Erik S. Lesser:

Georgia students ponder future as schools court disaster

JONESBORO, GA. -- Kyanda Daniels, a junior, ran for miles with the Jonesboro High School track team the other day. When she was done, she stood above the stadium, gasping for air, and wondering what on Earth she was striving for.

"We're in school for nothing, basically," said Daniels, 17. "When I get out my homework, I think to myself, 'Man, why am I doing this?' What college is going to accept us? Who would give us a scholarship?"

Anxiety has engulfed students across Clayton County, a predominantly black area south of Atlanta, ever since they learned their school district could become the first in the nation since the 1960s to lose its accreditation.

Last month, the Southern Assn. of Colleges and Schools recommended that the district's accreditation be revoked Sept. 1 because of ethical violations by its board. The national accreditation commission will vote Saturday...

...Clayton County Public Schools' nine-member school board is so "dysfunctional" that it has had difficulty recruiting a superintendent, teachers and bus drivers.

It accuses board members of nepotism, conflicts of interest, micromanagement, lax fiscal responsibility and failure to audit school attendance. One board member, who was ousted this month, is not a legal resident of the county. Another spent more than $500 in taxpayer money at a hotel less than half an hour from her home. Another pushed for a football coach to be fired after he refused to provide her with highlight tapes of her son.

The board, the report said, is inappropriately influenced by "detrimental" outside influences: Four board members are linked to a local for-profit teacher's union called the Metro Assn. of Classroom Educators, which regularly pickets Clayton schools calling for the resignation of principals.

The report cited the case of a board member, who heads the union, steering the board to cancel a successful program in mid-contract because the union did not endorse it. The cancellation, which cost taxpayers more than $1 million, deprived schools of a key academic curriculum.

The school district has the opportunity to "show cause" that it has improved before Sept. 1, but Mike Elgart, president and chief executive of the accreditation association, said that the school system did not seem to be able to repair itself...