DECATUR — The Standards Team from the Arkansas Department of Education visited the Decatur School District on Nov. 17 as part of the school’s accreditation process.
The Department of Education is required to send a team to visit each school district in the state every three to four years to monitor how schools are implementing state standards, superintendent Larry Ben explained.
The final report of the Standards Team’s findings will not be issued until later this month, but during the exit report the team commented that everything was in order and well organized, Ben said.
“We were well prepared,” he said.
The only problems the team found were that a couple of minor changes in the wording of the school’s handbooks needed to be made. The changes are limited to rewording and will not require an action of the board, Ben said.
The Standards Team reviewed whether the Decatur School District was meeting state standards in the areas of community involvement, curriculum, class size, instruction time, attendance, enrollment, student performance, graduation requirements, whether teachers are working in the area they are licensed, the number of librarians, school counselors and nurses, facilities, equipment and special education among other things.
Ben said he expects to get a final report from the team before Christmas break.
Community, Pages 11 on 12/08/2010