Assist Your School to Become SACS Accredited

The Acronym, SACS stands for the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and it is one of six private, voluntary, nonprofit regional accrediting bodies in the United States. This association is fully recognized by the United States Department of Education, SACS is comprised of three divisions: the Commission on Elementary and Middle Schools, the Commission on Middle and Secondary Schools, and the Commission on Colleges (COC). Becoming a SACS accredited teacher enables you to access to employment in the over 23,000 SACS accredited schools in this country alone.

To assist a school become SACS Accredited, teacher one must first become a fully certified teacher. To complete this step the aspiring teacher should enroll in an accredited 4 year Teacher Education program and attain a degree in their chosen fields of expertise.

After graduation with a suitable Bachelor’s degree one should approach the Department of Public Instruction in the state where teaching work is required and obtain the relevant Teacher Certification, This may require talking a Praxis test in you chosen field to demonstrate your knowledge in the area.

With the Teaching Certificate in hand teachers should approach individual school districts in which they wish to teach, and begin teaching in their field in order to gain experience with the practice of teaching. While at the school a number of professional dev elopement courses at local community colleges will become available to practicing teachers and these should be taken advantage of even if they are not as most of them are, compulsory.

Once a teacher is fully accredited by the Sate Department of Education, he/she is entitled to teach within any school system in that state whether the school is SACS accredited or not. This accreditation process is to ensure that the same standards are being followed in any school which holds SACS documentation. In order to attain SACS accreditation, certified teachers can and should involve themselves in the process.

Teachers can volunteer to lead or serve on their School’s Improvement Teams (SIT). Assisting with or leading an outside reviewing team. Assist other schools with their continuous improvement efforts. Integrate school-wide interventions into classroom instruction. Be collaborative by sharing your best practices with fellow teachers. Monitor student learning to determine if the interventions used are working. Speak to the PTA and other associations about the importance of SACS for your school.