What Does Accreditation Mean - Kerr-Vance Academy

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools accredits institutions from Pre-Kindergarten to the university level in 11 Southern states and in Latin America. Regional school accreditation is non-governmental and totally voluntary. Schools do not have to become accredited; those that do seek accreditation, however, find it guarantees students, parents and teachers an environment of quality educational experiences.

Accreditation means a school meets or exceeds standards established by educators, administrators, parents and the public, and that the school has a plan for continued improvement. Accreditation means a school meets at least minimal staffing requirements, including a student-teacher ratio that guarantees students a level of service necessary for their success.

Accreditation means a school's teachers and administrators are qualified and competent based on professional standards and continuous professional renewal of licenses and certificates. An accredited school responds to the concerns of parents and the needs of the school community, and it can document continual educational growth for its students.

To become accredited, a school must meet a set of standards appropriate for its level of education; it must conduct a self-study that begins with defining a mission, a statement of beliefs, and a set of desired results for student performance and discovering what the school needs to do to fulfill its mission statement; it must be evaluated on site by a peer review team that verifies the findings of the self-study and makes recommendations for improvement; and it must develop an improvement plan that addresses its needs and moves the school toward achieving its goals.

Additionally, accreditation does not stop with the single act of becoming accredited. The process guarantees that institutions continue to strive for improvement as demonstrated through a regular cycle of annual reports, interim reviews, and periodic evaluations.

Parents will find the accredited school is devoted to its mission; it is student-oriented; it knows itself; it is self-correcting; it delivers what it promises; it accepts objective evaluation; it plans for its future; it examines its outcomes; it participates in the self-renewing activity of evaluation and accreditation; and it is recognized by one of the six regional accrediting organizations in the United States and it is listed as an accredited school in a registry available throughout the world.