8 Utah schools could lose their accreditation

Eight Utah public and private schools are not living up to accreditation standards, mainly because teachers are deemed underqualified or overloaded, the State Office of Education reports.

The State Board of Education will receive the accreditation report today. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Patti Harrington believes fingered schools — a fraction of those identified as not up to snuff last year — will work to fix problems.

Accreditation standards aim to ensure students receive a quality education and that student credits are transferrable, state associate superintendent Brenda Hales said. It is a rigorous process, taken seriously by schools and the state.

"To get that approved status is quite a feather in a school's cap," Hales said.

Hundreds of Utah public and private schools were approved in the latest accreditation review. Four — Granger, Provo, Hillcrest and Navajo Mountain high schools — were placed on advised status, meaning they need to address problem areas.

Meridian private school in Provo, in its first three years of accreditation, received advised-provisional status, said Georgia Loutensock, education specialist for accreditation and state chairwoman for Northwest Association of Accredited Schools.

Last year, 30 schools were placed on advised status, Hales said. Accreditation reviews changed this year to include a point system that essentially gives less weight to criteria such as teacher workload — a problem for Utah, which has the biggest class sizes in the country.

Teacher workloads under Northwest standards cannot exceed 210 students for those working an eight-period block, 180 students for those on a traditional schedule, and 160 if they're on a trimester schedule, Loutensock said.

Granger, Provo and Hillcrest each had some overloaded teachers.

Workloads can be exceeded when teachers choose to earn extra money by teaching during one of their preparation periods, Provo District assistant superintendent Ray Morgan said.

Indeed, Granger High doubled the number of teachers with excessive loads to 30. Teachers have taken on intervention classes for students who may struggle to pass the Utah Basic Skills Competency Test required for high school graduation, Granite assistant superintendent Linda Mariotti said. The school also has a new weekly advisory period for teachers to mentor students.

"That would be showing up for all those teachers as an additional load," Mariotti said. If that were better explained, "I don't think they would get dinged for that."

Both Granger and Provo are in the third year of advised status; if they don't improve next go-around, they'll be warned — one step above losing accreditation.

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