Star Staff Reports
The Millington Municipal School District is 1 step away from becoming an International Accredited School System through AdvancEd. AdvancEd is made up of three organizations that merged together in 2006, one of which is the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, Council on Accreditation and School Improvement (SACS CASI). All four Millington Municipal Schools have maintained this accreditation since the departure from Shelby County Schools in 2014. There are multiple steps in acquiring this Performance Accreditation with the most rigorous step involving the AdvancEd Accreditation Review Team. This team banded together in Millington from Tennessee, North Carolina, and Arkansas. During their three day stay in Millington, the accreditation review team interviewed 262 people including teachers, staff, students, parents and community members. The Lead Evaluator had several notable statements in the exit report of what was observed in the district. “Words that we heard from those we interviewed: passionate, proud, fiscally responsible, collaborative, and family. Family, we heard that everywhere we went.” She proceeded to mention specifics about the feedback and evidence the team saw as they visited each of the schools and affirmed “You have camaraderie here that is amazing.” The team decided the Powerful Practice for the district was “Leadership capacity – this one really impressed us. In January of 2014 it was you (Dr. Roper) and a desk and a chair. No phone, no computer, no staff. Then we heard you had to replace about 70 teachers, but you were ready to open schools for students in August. So yes, you get a Powerful Practice.” The concluding report which was presented at the Special Called Board Meeting last Wednesday afternoon excited those who were present when the Lead Evaluator crunched the numbers on the different Evaluation Standards and said, “Your overall score is higher than the AdvancEd Network Average.” The AdvancEd Network Average is not based on just schools in Tennessee or even across The United States, it is based on an international average including over 32,000 schools and districts all over the world. Now that the final review has been completed, the final step will take place in January 2017 when the findings will be presented for approval by the AdvancEd Accreditation Commission.
Although there are some areas of improvement, the Lead Evaluator ended with “I think you have the right people in the right seats on the bus, and you are going places.”
