Carson High accredited for six more years

Carson High School is accredited and meeting standards set by the Northwest Association of Accredited Schools team, but is having to address questions raised in an "accreditation with comments" ranking given last spring.

Accreditation means that when students transfer to other schools or move on to college, the work they've done - their high school credits - count.

"(Carson High) has been accredited," said Pam Salazar, chairwoman for the state accreditation committee. "'With comments' simply means that the school has been given recommendations it needs to address."

Carson High needed to provide more long-range materials and more information on student and staff surveys, according to Mike Watty, associate superintendent of educational services for the school district. A presentation, now scheduled for August, should also have been given to the entire staff earlier about the accreditation process.

"The school has put its nose to the grindstone and is collecting binders of materials," he said. "We're really confident when (the team) comes back they will find a much different picture."

Watty has met with Carson's subcommittees that worked on accreditation for two weeks after the school year ended to make improvements. The accreditation team will return the first few weeks of the school year and Carson High will present supplemental materials - binders, according to Principal Fred Perdomo - in hopes of meeting the team's recommendations.

"There's no question (we'll receive full status)," he said. "This is probably one of the better documents we've ever put out. We've checked and checked: 'Are we doing this right? Is this what you want?' They just want to make sure what you put on the document is done. It's like an audit in that respect." The accreditation is good for six years.

According to Perdomo, the accreditation process recently changed, complicating expectations. Northwest Accreditation is not allowed to release the detailed results of its rankings.

"We were under the assumption that the old process was acceptable," he said. " And the people that came down to look at it said they weren't familiar with the old process and they were familiar with the new process."

The Northwest Association, has been in existence for about 90 years and accredits schools in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah and Washington as well as Nevada.

"(Accreditation) means a couple of things," Salazar said. "First and foremost, it means that the public has trust in the school - that it is providing the type of education students deserve and have the right to have. The second piece is that it says to other schools when students are transferring in that they are indeed going to a school that meets the standards of regional accreditation."

Many institutions, like Sylvan Learning Centers, seek accreditation so that student credits are transferable. Northwest Association teams are made up of area administrators, who visit schools for one to two days. If Carson High doesn't meet expectations, it could be given a warning status, something Salazar has never seen given in Nevada.

"Unless something unique and without precedence happens, without a doubt, starting in the 2006-07 school year, the school will retain it's accreditation status," she said.

• Contact reporter Maggie O'Neill at moneill@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1219.