AdvancED accreditation group to return to Wake schools

Ann Majestic, an attorney for the Wake County Board of Education, said Monday that members of AdvancED are scheduled to meet with school officials and school board members Nov. 29-30 and review steps the school system has taken to try to keep its accreditation.

AdvancED placed the school system under the warning status for what it called a "lack of effective governance and leadership" as well as a "climate of uncertainty, suspicion and mistrust throughout the community."

The special accreditation review was launched after the North Carolina NAACP, which fears the board's new student assignment policy will segregate schools, filed a complaint in March with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, a subdivision of AdvancED, and the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights.

Concerns about whether AdvancED was overstepping its bounds with the review had board members debating whether to drop the accreditation, but ultimately, all board members agreed to cooperate with it.

Accreditation is important, because it can be used in determining a high school student’s acceptance to a higher institution of learning. How institutions use it varies, however.