A six-member AdvancED engagement review team presented Fayette County Public Schools with a positive report from their reaccreditation visit during a called Fayette County Board of Education meeting on October 24.

The purpose of the meeting was not to disclose the team’s reaccreditation recommendation, but to give an overview of what they witnessed while observing classrooms and interviewing stakeholders during their three-day visit with the school system.

The team visited eight schools that were chosen as a demographic representation of Fayette County. Team members conducted 80 student-learning observations that lasted 20 minutes each, a total of 27 hours were clocked by the team in Fayette’s classrooms. Also, 315 stakeholder interviews were conducted that included school board members, the superintendent, district and school administrators, teachers, parents, community members and students.

The school system was measured against 31 performance standards in the areas of leadership capacity, learning capacity and resource capacity. The AdvancED performance standards are research-based statements that describe conditions that are necessary in order for institutions to support organizational effectiveness and improve student performance.

The standards are placed into one of three categories: initiate, improve and outstanding. None of the 31 performance standards were placed in the initiate category, which indicates activities a school system is not doing but needs to in order to be successful.

Standards such as collaboration, creativity, student support, and technology integration were placed in the improve category, and not because they do not exist in the school system, but due to the fact that programs and activities supporting these initiatives have not been implemented long enough to be measured for success. Initiatives must be in place at least three years to produce measurable results. Many of the school system’s initiatives outlined in the standards are only one or two years into implementation, and some were just implemented this year.

In the outstanding category, the school system was praised for its continuous improvement process; policy review, revision and implementation; supervision and evaluation processes; succession planning; and having leaders of influence at every level: teacher leaders, student leaders and parent leaders.

Also noted in the outstanding category was demonstrated high expectations and implementation of curriculum aligned to standards for all students.

Lead evaluator Darrell Barringer had rave reviews for the school system, remarking that there are high expectations demonstrated across the school system with powerful instruction happening in the classrooms.

“I have eight grandchildren, six who are school-age, and I would put any of them in your schools,” Barringer said. “Thank you for an amazing adventure, we have enjoyed being in your system.”

The school system will receive the evaluation team’s official report in several weeks. The six-member team hailed from other accredited school systems from across the United States including Michigan, Illinois, South Carolina, and Georgia.