Chambers County Schools trending up

Published 4:29 pm Monday, March 25, 2019

Reviews are necessary in all areas of life. They’re needed to reevaluate how well something is working — if changes are needed, what can stay the same and how to improve.

If we didn’t review, how would we ever be able to assess our progress?

Even when those reviews are positive, there’s usually something that can be improved. That’s the case with the Chambers County School District.

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The district was recently reaccredited for five more years by AdvancED, a nonprofit, non-governmental organization that accredits primary and secondary schools throughout the United States and internationally.

It shouldn’t come as a shock that the school system was accredited, something we should all expect. But the report did more than just that — in many ways it validated the hard work that many men and women do every day in our schools, work that often goes unnoticed.     

Chambers County scored high in its Index of Education Quality, which is a measure of overall performance based on the standards and criteria set forth by AdvancED.

This is saying the district is beginning to have practices that should be sustained over time and became ingrained in the culture of the institution.

However, within that same range, the report from AdvancED is also candid, saying the district has several standards to improve upon, but it is making improvements and demonstrating sustainability.

Also, encouraging is that the leadership grades provided by AdvancED were the highest within the report.

“That is from teacher leaders, principals to central office directors, to superintendents to the school board,” Chambers County Superintendent Kelli Hodge said. “That is all the leadership in the district. I was so proud of this.”

As positive as the first part of the report sounds, there were still plenty of areas AdvancED felt the district could improve as well.

Areas where the district could improve included holding higher standards for students, better communication with parents and finding creative ways to integrate technology in the classroom.

It’s hard to argue that those are things that shouldn’t be happening in classrooms already and Hodge felt similarly.

We commend her on her honest and forthcoming report to the board of education this past week.

She identified many areas where the district could improve that aligned with the

AdvancED report.

It’s crucial for us all to know how our school districts are performing, and it feels even better when it seems like those districts are trending upward.

Chambers County schools still have some work to do, but it looks like the direction is clear.