Starting Point
A New World for Accreditation
School Administrator, August 2020
revisits a subject we’ve pretty much overlooked for the past three decades: the role played by regional accreditation bodies. School Administrator’s last concentrated attention came in a theme issue way back in September 1993. That issue addressed the whats and the whys of gaining accredited status for schools, and the superintendent in Temperance, Mich., Herbert Moyer, contributed an article about what it took to lead his district’s four schools to full accreditation.
At that time, six accrediting bodies that operated within well-defined geographic regions ruled the day. That landscape has changed markedly, as documented in several articles about school accreditation by freelance reporter Linda Chion Kenney. In a related piece, the heads of two of the four remaining accrediting agencies discuss a series of misconceptions about the high school accreditation process.
Of course, you shouldn’t overlook our lead piece by veteran educator Ray McNulty, “Operating in a VUCA World,” drawing on a concept long familiar to military tacticians. It’s a fitting descriptor for the current place of education leaders, too.
Jay P. Goldman
Editor,
School Administrator
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