The Lowndes County School District has been ranked above average and received accreditation for the next five years by a national organization.
The AdvancED Accreditation Commission spent several days within the district, speaking with students, faculty and members of the community. The commission, which has accredited over 32,000 school districts nationwide, also conducted a review of the impact of teaching and learning, the capacity of leadership, the use of resources, student performance results and instructional quality.
The findings were presented Wednesday during a specially called school board meeting.
Dr. Drew Moore, a retired educator from Louisiana who gave the presentation, said he and the four other members of the commission saw “exemplary” teaching at each of the schools within the district.
Moore said the commission felt the district was “poised to launch.”
“There are so many good things waiting to happen,” he said.
Under the Effective Learning Environments Observation Tool, LCSD earned a score of 3.29 for supportive learning environment. The national average score is 3.05. The district also earned higher than average scores in equitable learning environment, high expectations environment, active learning environment, progress monitoring and feedback, well-managed learning environment and digital learning environment.
Dr. Robin Ballard, deputy superintendent and curriculum coordinator, said the commission granting the accreditation spoke to the caliber of the district.
“We’re compared against 32,000 schools and our scores indicate that we are better than average of those 32,000 so it’s just a huge feather in our cap to say that what we are doing is worthy of accreditation for another five years,” she said.
Superintendent Lynn Wright echoed Ballard and said he feels the district is on the right path.
“We feel like we’re headed in the right direction and it’s evident of all the hard work everybody has put forth,” he said. “We want to keep moving forward.”
The district will be accredited through AdvancED until July of 2019.
Sarah Fowler covered crime, education and community related events for The Dispatch.
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