An accreditation review team toured the Brookhaven School District this week and offered school board members and district administrators a largely positive evaluation on Wednesday.

     A review team from AdcancED, a school accreditation agency, toured the district from the beginning of the week through Wednesday and then met with board members and administrators during a Wednesday school board meeting.

     Review team leader Andre’ Harrison said his team would recommend the Brookhaven School District receive renewed accreditation, though formal action on the matter won’t be taken until June.

     Additionally, he shared with board members a number of ratings the review team assigned to the district, highlighted some positive areas and discussed places of growth.

     The team’s goal, Harrison said, was to evaluate the “effectiveness and efficiency of a school system.”

     Key elements of the review included a self-assessment by the district and an external review by the team, student performance results, and the perceptions of students, teachers and parents.

     In all, the review team visited six schools and observed 31 classrooms chosen at random.

     They also conducted interviews with 126 teachers and professional support staff, 11 administrators, 4 board members, 87 students, and 60 parents as well as other community members.

     The interviews were with subjects selected by the district, said Stephanie Henderson, the district’s director of assessment and accountability.

     The review singled out several “powerful practices” for praise.

     These included the development of a media platform to communicate district news, a sense of pride and allegiance by community members, and a culture of collaboration and respect among school board members.

     Harrison also discussed several “required action,” steps the district must take to improve.

     The required action is the implementation of a “quality assurance process” to monitor district and school improvements.

     Similarly, the team concluded the districts must develop a way to evaluate how well programs and services improve student learning.

     Finally, Harrison said the district should expand the use of collaboratively developed assessments to measure student achievment.

     The team assigned ratings to the district in a number of categories: Purpose and direction, 2; governance and leadership, 2.17; Resources and support systems, 2.25; Using results for continuous improvement, 2.2; and teaching and assessing for learning, 2.03.

     Harrison said ratings of 2 or better put the district in line with other districts.

     He further praised what he perceived to be the equality of the education provided by the district to its students.

     Fiscal management was another area singled out by Harrison for praise.

     “We were pleased with how you’re watching your money,” he said.

     Within 30 days the AvancED accreditation office will send a full report back to the school.

     In June, the agency will vote as to whether to extend accreditation to the district as the team will recommend.

     The review team was composed of educators and administrators drawn from a number of school districts, including districts from Mississippi and Alabama.