Broward Schools Try to Keep Accreditation

T he Broward County School District in Florida is scrambling to meet an increase in the number of school library books required under new school accreditation standards. Many of the district's 38 middle schools must boost their collections—some by as much as 50 percent—by June 2003 in order to retain accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), which sets the standards for schools in 11 southern states. The Florida district will need to spend up to $800,000 by the end of the 2002–2003 school year to meet the new requirements.

SACS's Commission on Elementary and Middle Schools' 2002–2003 standards require that each accredited middle school provide a collection of 2,000 library volumes, up from 1,500 volumes stipulated in 1999. And libraries in middle schools with 1,500 or more students must have 15,000 books, up from 10,000 volumes required by the old standards.

Barbara Correll, Broward's director of learning resources, says she learned of the revised standards in the summer of 2002, when she revisited SACS's Web site. Since then, the district has used state money to help the 10 most needy schools, which have each received between $15,000 and $60,000. Other Broward County schools have been asked to find other funding options.

"We certainly support what the association was trying to achieve," by increasing the size of book collections, but tight budgets have made compliance difficult, Correll says. Still, she expects Broward will meet the implementation deadline.

Although accreditation isn't mandatory, it's prized by schools as a symbol of high educational standards. Broward is most affected by the new requirements because 19 of its schools have 1,500 or more students.