Montgomery Public Schools accreditation status changed to ‘under review’

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It’s been a tumultuous year for the Montgomery County Board of Education. On Wednesday, they received a report from AdvancEd, a non-partisan organization that accredits the school system, that found the school system “needing improvement”  after conducting a special review in late March.

The report, conducted by a six-member team of educators, thus resulted in the change the status of Montgomery Public Schools (MPS) from from “accredited” to “accredited under review.”

AdvancEd rated MPS in 31 areas within three categories: leadership capacity, learning capacity and resource capacity. The results were reported in four ratings:

  • Needs Improvement: Identifies key areas that need more focused improvement efforts
  • Emerging: Represents areas to enhance and extend current improvement efforts
  • Meets Expectations: Pinpoints quality practices that meet the Standards
  • Exceeds Expectations: Demonstrates noteworthy practices producing clear results that exceed expectations

MPS received the lowest possible ranking, ‘needs improvement,’ in an overwhelming 19 areas, ’emerging’ in 11 area and ‘meets expectations’ in only one area.

For now MPS has not lost its accreditation. The team presented MPS with six improvement standards that they will return in December to access and track the progress made by MPS.

What state officials are saying

New State School Board Superintendent Dr. Eric Mackey said it’s one of the worst reports ever released by AdvancEd.

“It is one of the worst reports that AdvancED has ever done, and they cover multiple states throughout the southeast and beyond,” he said. “And so it’s not a good reflection on where we are in our community.”

Montgomery Mayor Todd Strange encouraged Montgomery residents to vote Tuesday for a more unified school board.

“The vote you make Tuesday, in the local board of education, is our future,” commented Strange.

View the full report below: