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RALEIGH – The organization that accredits Wake County high schools is investigating whether the new school board's policy changes violate national standards.

AdvancED is the parent organization for Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Council on Accreditation and School Improvement (SACS CASI). AdvancED accredits high schools to ensure they meet national education standards.

The organization is looking into a complaint filed earlier this year by the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP.

The complaint claims the new school board majority's decision to end the student diversity policy will lead to a re-segregation of schools and different qualities of education for students. In addition, it alleges the school board has violated open meeting laws, failed to follow it's own policies and procedures, and breached ethics by hiring a company that financially supported the new school board majority in their election campaigns.

An AdvancED special review team will spend three days in Wake County sometime in late September or mid-October to investigate the school system.

“We're going to be looking for evidence as to whether or not the school system is following its own adopted policies,” explained AdvancED President and CEO Dr. Mark Elgart. “Secondly, when they change policy or they change procedures they have with regards, in this instance, to student assignments, we want to look at the impact and influence of those changes on students.”

“At this point we're not overly concerned, but we're taking it seriously,” said Michael Evans, a spokesman for the Wake County Public School System. “We believe we have an obligation to comply and cooperate with them.”

AdvancED administrators say once the investigation is done, the organization will give the school system time to make the necessary changes, if any are required, to come back into compliance with the accreditation standards.

“If they do not follow through on the actions we're expecting them to take, it could threaten their accreditation,” Elgart said. “It could result in accreditation sanctions and ultimately, if no action is taken by the district or inadequate action, it could lead down the road to a loss of accreditation. But it's much too early in this process to make that type of projection.”

Many colleges, like all of the public institutions in Florida and California, only admit students from accredited schools.

If Wake County high schools lose accreditation, students would not be allowed to attend those colleges and would not be eligible for some scholarships that also require it.

Elgart said 98 percent of the time, AdvancED is able to work with school systems to keep their accreditation.

However, the organization has previously revoked accreditation for Clayton County Public Schools in Georgia, a system similar in size to Wake County.

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