PORTLAND — The city's public high schools will no longer seek accreditation through the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, under a policy to be developed by Superintendent Jim Morse.
Morse and the principals of Portland, Deering, Casco Bay and Portland Arts and Technology high schools plan to use other organizations to assess the quality of their programs.
They said the NEASC accreditation process, which takes two years and happens every decade, is time-consuming and ineffective. It also costs the district $49,000 per high school.
They want reviews to be more frequent, useful and tied to what's actually happening in the classroom. And the agencies they plan to hire would charge less than half as much as NEASC.
"It's a different take on a process that's been institutionalized across the region for decades," Morse said Friday.
The School Committee learned about the pending move away from accreditation during a workshop on Wednesday. Morse said he wanted members to understand and support his decision even though he doesn't need their approval.
The committee directed Morse to develop a policy that will require city high schools to be reviewed every five years, said Peter Eglinton, who was elected Wednesday to be the committee's chairman for another year.
"I'm strongly supportive of a regular evaluation process, especially as a means to foster improvements in the schools," Eglinton said. "We shouldn't be doing anything that would disadvantage our schools. I am encouraged by the high school principals' support for this change because they have a lot at stake to get it right."
Eglinton said NEASC officials have asked to meet with him and Morse to discuss the benefits of their services. No meeting date has been set.
NEASC officials could not be reached for comment Friday. The organization provides accreditation services to more than 2,000 public and private schools.
Four-year-old Casco Bay High School, which follows an expeditionary learning model, will be the first to have its programs reviewed by an alternative organization.
The Great Schools Partnership, a nonprofit educational consulting firm in Portland that coaches schools across the country, will begin a yearlong review of the 250-student high school in January.
Great Schools would do a yearlong review of the high school's curriculum, teaching methods, organizational design and leadership. It would evaluate each area based on research into best practices and the firm's goal to support programs that prepare students for citizenship, college and work.
Great Schools would issue a final report next fall identifying areas where Casco Bay succeeds and others where it needs improvement.
Casco Bay Principal Derek Pierce emphasized that Great Schools wouldn't provide accreditation credentials.
At least one committee member, Marnie Morrione, said she has concerns about giving up accreditation. She worries that it may dissuade people from sending their children to Portland high schools, hurt students' chances of getting into good colleges or diminish the high schools' ability to get grants and other outside funding.
"I really would like more information," Morrione said Friday. "Even when people are looking for child care, they look for an accredited day-care facility. It gives that assurance of higher standards."
Pierce and the other principals said the lack of accreditation wouldn't hurt students' chances of getting into college. They surveyed admissions officers at 29 New England colleges and universities; 18 said a lack of accreditation wouldn't be an issue; six said it would be OK if they knew the high school was reviewed by an outside agency according to established standards; five didn't respond.
The principals also noted that high school accreditation is more common in the Northeast.
Comparing costs, Great Schools would charge $12,000 for its review of Casco Bay High. Executive Director David Ruff said his firm likely would charge more to review Portland and Deering, which have 900 and 1,075 students, respectively, and much larger staffs.
Portland, Deering and PATHS spend about $49,000 each to renew their NEASC accreditation every 10 years: $20,000 for an accreditation team's visit and $2,900 for annual membership dues. Each school's teachers and administrators spend thousands of hours preparing accreditation reports, the principals said.
PATHS, which serves students from 23 high schools, is up for NEASC review in 2011-12. The district plans to use a program review process offered by the Maine Department of Education that costs $500 and happens every two years.
Staff Writer Kelley Bouchard can be contacted at 791-6328 or at:
kbouchard@pressherald.com
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