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Accreditation may be less important than school officials think

Tuesday September 18, 2001

Kimberlee Bortfeld, Carole-Anne Elliott, Bruce Gerstman, Hadas Ragolsky and Rachel Searles 

Special to the Daily Planet 

 

For months, Berkeley High School administrators and board members have warned that if they are unable to make the Western Association of Schools and Colleges happy, the school would lose its accreditation and its diplomas would be worthless.  

But college admissions officials from Harvard, Brown, Dartmouth and both California public university systems said that high school accreditation has no bearing on admissions decisions.  

“The fact that the school might lose its accreditation would not affect an individual student’s chances for admission,” explained Michael Goldberger, director of admissions at Brown University. “We evaluate students, not high schools. In fact, we often do not know the accreditation status of the school.”  

For the University of California, which conducts its own yearly evaluation of each California public high school, it is the school’s curriculum that matters, not its accreditation status. “The university has a long-standing history with Berkeley High and its curriculum,” said Carla Ferri, Director of Undergraduate Admissions. Ferri said she was unaware of Berkeley High’s accreditation problems.  

This spring, the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, one of six regional accrediting associations in the United States, gave Berkeley High School a one-year out of a possible six-year accreditation. The decision served as a warning to many worried faculty, staff and parents that if the school does not make significant changes within the year it could lose accreditation altogether. 

“Every high school and college goes through the accreditation process,” said Principal Frank Lynch. “If you don’t have accreditation, it means that your diploma isn’t worth anything.” 

When told that college admissions directors said students would have no trouble with Berkeley High diplomas, Lynch was resolute. “Until you call every school in the country and ask them what they think, I will hold on to what the association has told me – that accreditation is important.”  

Berkeley Board of Education Director John T. Selawsky was surprised by what college officials had said. “Everybody told me that accreditation would affect students applying for college,” he said. “I didn’t question it. Now, I’m going to check it out.” 

According to the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, accreditation indicates that a school has met the association’s standards and is achieving its own stated objectives. But while a loss of accreditation would undoubtedly tarnish Berkeley High’s reputation (the school has been accredited since 1967), its impact on students appears vague at best. And, most importantly, while there is concern about losing accreditation, Berkeley High has failed to make great strides in resolving problems – an achievement gap between white and minority students and a lack of school-wide vision – that the association has been pointing out since the mid-1990s. 

Dr. George Bronson, associate executive director of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, maintained that a loss of accreditation would hurt students – at least in terms of financial aid.  

“When you fill out the form for your Cal Grant, they ask you right on the form if your transcript is from a WASC-accredited school,” he said. “If it isn’t, you’re either refused the funds or you’re bumped way down the list.”  

Carole Solov, Communications Specialist at the California Student Aid Commission, however, said that students from unaccredited high schools are still eligible for Cal Grants, though the process is slightly different.  

In place of the required “verified GPA” from an accredited high school, students from unaccredited schools may “provide a test score from one of the commission's approved test alternatives.” Among the tests are the SAT and ACT, which are already required by most colleges. 

Bronson also said that the military looks unfavorably at students from unaccredited schools. However, Gil Hogue, public affairs officer with the U.S. Army Recruiting Battalion in Sacramento, said that an unaccredited diploma would not necessarily be a disadvantage for recruits. In such a case, the army would most likely visit the high school and determine the quality of its curriculum. Thus, a recruit could still be accepted into the army even if his diploma was not from an accredited school 

Statewide, there are approximately 900 public high schools (including K-12 schools), of which 872 are accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. While accreditation is voluntary, it is not free. Schools must pay $575 a year to maintain membership with the nonprofit, non-governmental association. In addition, they pay for site visits, a required part of the three-year accreditation process. A school with a student population of 3,400 like Berkeley High pays $4,000 ($500 per visitor) for an eight-member team. The association is exclusively funded through these fees. 

Despite the costs, though, Berkeley High wants to retain its accreditation. “We’re going for a multi-year accreditation this time,” Selawsky said.  

Parents are also taking it seriously. Kristin Shepard, co-president of the Parent Teacher Student Association, said that the group mailed out copies of the last visiting report from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges to every Berkeley High household last April.  

However, it is still not clear how the accreditation process improves a school. Berkeley High has been under the association’s scrutiny since 1996 when it first lost the maximum six-year accreditation and instead received only three years. Since then, the achievement gap between students of different racial groups, one of the key issues brought up during the 1996 visit, has not narrowed, according to the 2001 Western Association of Schools and Colleges report. And since then, the association has made several trips to the school at a cost of thousands of dollars.  

For Lincoln College Prep High School, which along with the entire Kansas City School District was stripped of its Missouri state accreditation in 1999, loss of accreditation had little impact on students. Gwen Grant, President and CEO of the Urban League in Kansas City, said that there were few consequences for students, except that it might have “impacted the psyche of students who felt they were associated with being under a negative cloud.” Grant’s daughter, Lincoln class of 2000, applied to about 15 colleges and was accepted to every single one. When Grant heard about Berkeley High’s situation, she exclaimed, “That sounds so familiar!” and laughed. 

Grant said that when the district lost accreditation “lots of parents jumped ship” and sent their children to charter schools. But many ended up sending their kids right back to public schools. “They were looking for a panacea that did not exist,” she said. Later, the school got accreditation through the Northern Central Association of Schools and Colleges, the region’s counterpart to the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. The district must still regain its state accreditation by 2002 though, or the Missouri Department of Education will come in and take administrative control.  

California does not have a similar law that would have the state take control of a district, nor is accreditation required. Instead, the state requires that schools undergo self-conducted Program Quality Reviews at least once every three years to help them analyze student achievement and build action plans to improve performance. Schools with accreditation, however, do not have to go through the review as they already implement self-study reports through the accreditation process. 

Among the problems the Western Association of Schools and Colleges 2001 report faulted Berkeley High on was the absence of a single school-wide vision plan, a lack of collaboration among faculty and staff, and an achievement gap between white and minority students. The school has also had frequent changes in its formal leadership, with five principals in the last six years and three superintendents in the last nine months, one of whom was interim superintendent.  

The association plans to revisit the school in October 2002, and it is uncertain how the school will measure up. Administration officials, however, continue to stress the importance of having accreditation from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, the only accreditation agency in the region that the U.S. Department of Education recognizes.  

When asked how the association acquired its lofty position, Executive Director Dr. Donald G. Haught said that it is largely because it was the first professional organization in the region that encompassed high schools, junior colleges and colleges. The association was established in 1962, and as an agency, gained recognition throughout its years.  

“WASC exists for a reason,” maintained Lynch. “We all pay good money for them to visit and accredit us. Accreditation validates what we are doing. It’s a good housekeeping seal of approval.”