After weeks of reviewing the Selma City School System, the AdvancED organization announced Wednesday that the district earned the distinction of accreditation.

The group mentioned that while the district met its standards, AdvancED would be assigning an advisory committee to monitor the Selma City School Board for a five-year term that expires June 30, 2019.

During that period, the group will review the board’s procedures, actions and policy direction to assure that all actions embrace the district’s mission.

“The final thing that I’m proud of is that they put a monitoring piece in there, because the general public is concerned about a reversal,” said Larry DiChiara, the acting Selma Superintendent of Education and state intervention team leader. “With a monitoring piece in there with AdvancED, as well as whatever monitoring the state is going to require, it should give the public confidence that the good stuff that is happening right now can sustain itself. “

AdvancED is composed of a team of education professionals who conduct rigorous, on-site external reviews of PreK-12 schools and school systems to ensure that all learners realize their full potential, according to the agency’s website.

Accreditation is recognition that an institution maintains standards essential for its graduates to gain admission to other reputable institutions of higher learning or achieve credentials for professional practice, as defined by the U.S. Department of Education.

Selma City Schools received an Index of Education Quality overall score of 214.63, while the AdvancED Network average is 282.45.

Aside from appointing an advisory committee, AdvancED announced three other “opportunity for improvement findings.”

The first mentioned was “to research a system-wide policy that provides a continuous improvement process for professional learning, support services and improvement data that include readiness for and success at the next level.”

The second listed was to “develop and implement a district-wide policy that provides a collaborative learning organization through structures that support improved instruction and students learning at all levels.”

The final one was to “review, revise and implement the district’s technology plan to improve services and infrastructure interfaces so as to provide a process that supports the system’s teachings, learning and operational needs.”

AdvancED Lead Evaluator Steve Oborn said he realizes that the scores are much lower than the average, but the district should be proud to learn they have come so far since the last external review.

“You’re work moving forward is incredible,” Obron said.

AdvancED also applauded the school district for much of the positive aspects noticed throughout the review.

For instance, the sole “powerful practice” listed stated that the organization honors the school system for its collaboration with Concordia College Alabama, Selma University, Wallace Community College Selma and the other collegial relationships that have provided a pool of elementary teachers to prepare work and serve Selma students.

The Selma High Training Table, state intervention team and Byrd First-Class Early Learning Center were also recognized, because each has contributed to the success of the system.

Overall, DiChiara was impressed with how well the employees within the Selma City School System were able to honestly identity the issues within the district.

Oburn said the personal scores the school employees and public gave the city school system were nearly identical to AdvandEd’s scores in 36 out of 37 indicators.

“In order to self-improve, you have to first admit that we’ve got some areas to improve in, and the temptation is to often try to paint a rosier picture than what it might actually be,” DiChiara said. “That’s a credit to our people for saying, we don’t want credit for something we’re not doing.”