MA High School Accreditation at Risk

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A high school gets more than it bargained for after eliminating its media specialist

By Meg McCaffrey -- School Library Journal, 12/01/2004

Holbrook Junior-Senior High School in Massachusetts could lose its accreditation after recently axing its media specialist.

The New England Association of Schools & Colleges (NEASC), the nation's oldest regional accrediting agency, has pretty tough standards for its schools, including the need for a full-time certified media specialist in buildings with more than 400 students.

The $30,000 position was eliminated at the start of this school year due to district budget cuts, and the librarian was reassigned as a social studies teacher. While Holbrook's library remains open to teachers and students, it's still unclear whether the school plans to hire another media specialist, says Susan Martin, Holbrook's superintendent of schools. The school now risks being placed on probation if it doesn't prove to NEASC that it's still providing students with adequate library services, says Janet Allison, NEASC's deputy director of public secondary education.

Schools must meet a set of strict NEASC guidelines in order to attain accreditation, and high schools without a certified media specialist are "an area of concern," Allison adds. Although accreditation is not mandatory, losing that cachet will weigh negatively on Holbrook's prestige, particularly since more than 85 percent of colleges and universities prefer to accept applicants from accredited schools. NEASC oversees the accreditation of more than 95 percent of secondary schools in New England.

Fortunately, Holbrook's 600 students still have access to books, resources, and librarians at the nearby Holbrook Public Library, which also caters to two elementary schools with no librarian. The public library has been purchasing less fiction and more non-fiction to accommodate the students' needs, says Library Director Ruth Hathaway, adding that she now sees more young people coming to the library to conduct research.