Accreditation of charter schools

[Snowball]

Are charter schools in NC regionally-accredited (by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools), as are other public schools? Specifically, are Chatham Charter and Woods Charter regionally-accredited?

[girlfrompbo]

if you google "southern association of colleges and schools" you can find a list of accredited schools.  Chatham Charter is accredited, Woods Charter is not. 

[Snowball]

Any particular reason why Woods Charter is not accredited? I'd like to hear from someone in-the-know.

[girlfrompbo]

I would assume because it is relatively young.  accredidation is a laborious process, many charter schools are not accredited simply because they don't have enough history yet.  woods particularly has only been around for 8 years or so I believe, and of course as you would expect the first few years were pretty bumpy.  Chatham Charter only received accreditation recently, and I believe was a private school before it became a charter school, so I'm sure they were more prepared for the accredidation process. 

i assume that students from Woods are moving on to college, or else we would have heard about it.  Assuming the students are having continued success I don't see the accreditation issue as a big deal.

[Snowball]

girlfrompbo,
I don't doubt that your assumptions are at least partially correct, but accreditation is indeed a big deal, especially when a school hasn't gained it. Does anyone have the FACTS? Has Charter ever applied for accreditation? Is it in the process? Perhaps someone at the school level could answer.

[girlfrompbo]

how is it a big deal, other than impacting college admissions?  its true that coming from a non-accredited traditional high school can have a serious and negative impact on a student's college applications, but MOST charter schools are not accredited, and as I said as long as students from Woods are being admitted to college, what is the big deal?

I assure you my assumptions are informed.  If you are ONLY interested in information from a school official maybe you should email them directly.

[Snowball]

It's a big deal because there are certain minimum qualifications a school must meet to become accredited. Among them are physcial space, textbooks, library resources and, perhaps most importantly, teacher licensure. I'd be concerned about a school that doesn't meet the minimums.
But you're correct - I should contact the school administration - and I will!

[girlfrompbo]

yeah, but if woods is demonstrating success then it doesn't matter how they do it.  thats the whole point of a charter school! for example, teachers in charter schools don't have to be "highly qualified" as teachers in traditional schools do, but they are held accountable by their results.

[integrityticket]

Snowball just seems to have an issue with the concept of a charter school. 

[munn5]

Woods is not accredited by the Southern Association and has not pursued accreditation. Looking briefly at the requirements, Woods is missing a full-time librarian, the required number of library books, and a full-time counsellor. Most charters schools are not accredited by the Southern Association or the other regional organizations.

But, charter schools are reviewed and approved on a regular basis by the state. Charter renewal includes many of the features of an accreditation review. Charters are typically granted for 5 years, but the state can give a longer renewal for schools that are especially worthy. Woods recently received a 10-year renewal of its charter from the State Board of Education. Woods asked for and got this longer period because of its consistent high performance.

Woods lack of accreditation has had NO impact on its students. No student has been refused admission at any college because of Woods lack of accreditation. In the class of 2006, every student who applied to UNC and NC State were accepted. 100% of the seniors graduated. All but 2 went directly to 4 year colleges, including 4 at Carolina and 1 at State. One of the two others went to a 2-year school, and the last took a semester off and is at a 2-year school now. 100% of the seniors took the SAT, and they ranked 5th of 373 schools in the state in Writing, 8th in Reading, 36th in Math, and 7th overall.

On the 2005/06 ABCs, Woods has the highest composite scores on both reading and math (grades 3-8) of any school in the county, 95+% proficient in reading and 84.3% proficient in math. These are also higher than the Chapel Hill/Carrboro district overall (93% reading, 82% math). In high school, Woods had a 95+% proficient rate in English I (higher than the other Chatham high schools or CHCCS), and rates in the 80s and 90s for the other courses, comparable to the other schools in some subjects (notably Chemistry) and much higher in others (notably US History and Biology).

[settled]

Who cares. Woods is doing a great job.

[Snowball]

I really don't have an issue with charter schools, but I do have an issue with unaccredited schools in general. The criteria for accreditation are so very minimal that it's difficult to understand why any school wouldn't want to pursue the accreditation process. And, for the record, I'll end my part in this thread by saying that applicants to colleges from unaccredited schools are at a disadvantage. As a University system admissions officer, I can assure you that the applications of students from unaccredited schools undergo a much tougher evaluation process than do applicants from accredited schools.

[girlfrompbo]

the whole point of charter schools is to free them from things like accreditation and other regulations.  hardly any charter schools are accredited, so if you have a problem with that then you DO have a problem with charter schools.

[integrityticket]

Woods lack of accreditation has had NO impact on its students. No student has been refused admission at any college because of Woods lack of accreditation. In the class of 2006, every student who applied to UNC and NC State were accepted. 100% of the seniors graduated. All but 2 went directly to 4 year colleges, including 4 at Carolina and 1 at State. One of the two others went to a 2-year school, and the last took a semester off and is at a 2-year school now. 100% of the seniors took the SAT, and they ranked 5th of 373 schools in the state in Writing, 8th in Reading, 36th in Math, and 7th overall.

Snowball makes a good point - not having accreditation just sucks.

Don't you just feel the pain for the the students mentioned above.

I guess they were just plain lucky that none of their applications landed up on snowball's desk. 

[munn5]

I'll end my part in this thread by saying that applicants to colleges from unaccredited schools are at a disadvantage. As a University system admissions officer, I can assure you that the applications of students from unaccredited schools undergo a much tougher evaluation process than do applicants from accredited schools.

Snowball,
I don't know what college you work at - have you seen any applications from Woods students (or from other charter schools that are not accredited)? Has their school's lack of accreditation stopped those students from being admitted, or do you, as an admissions officer, know the reputation of the school and consider that reputation in making your decision?

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