Dougherty County Schools awarded re-accreditation

ALBANY — The Dougherty County School System has been re-accredited by the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement, the Northwest Accreditation Commission and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement. All organizations fall under the banner of AdvancED.

According to AdvancED, accreditation “signifies (the district’s) commitment in pursuit of educational excellence.”

In October, a team of school experts from AdvancED visited the district to observe Dougherty County teachers and staff in action. All told, the team visited six schools, observed 54 classrooms and conducted 116 interviews of DCSS staff, parents and community partners.

What they found, according to their report, were practices that included the district’s supportive-learning environment and the district’s focus on building community engagement and partnerships.

The team also noted some areas for growth that included the need for a districtwide system for assessments, a coherent system of instruction, and a way to monitor progress toward school and district plans, goals and priorities.

“This is a great accomplishment for the faculty, staff and students of the district,” DCSS Superintendent Kenneth Dyer said. “The comments from the AdvancED team validate much of the work we’re doing here in the district, and they support our efforts to create a coherent instructional system for our teachers and leaders. We’ll continue working every day to provide new opportunities for our students and to support our employees in our mission to grow student achievement.”

For more than 100 years, AdvancED, through its accreditation division of Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), has served as the primary accreditor of public schools and districts in Georgia. Through this work, AdvancED has provided the vast majority of Georgia schools and districts with a research-based framework for continuous improvement that incorporates third-party evaluative feedback through external engagement.