THOMSON, Ga. (WJBF) – School accreditation is a process where veteran educators come to school districts to see if the practices utilized by the school district are effective in meeting the need for all students.

McDuffie County schools accreditation took place in March and it’s safe to say they’re happy with the results.

“We are pleased to say we had our highest accreditation to date. Out of 400, our score was 386.94. We were rated on 31 indicators, 30 of those being the highest level possible by our visiting team of educators,” said Superintendent, Mychele Rhodes.

The external review team commended the system for it’s outstanding leadership.

“We are very, very strong with our board. Our board is very involved, very informed in what happens with the district, and they have empowered our superintendent, as well as our principals to make the best instructional decisions, as far as students,” said Director of Curriculum and Instruction, Lynn Cato.

McDuffie County schools is proud of it’s accreditation score and is succeeding in all levels of school, including elementary school.

“In our elementary schools we for quite some time have had direct reading instruction. Small groups of students, individualized for them based on their individual needs. Those students are reassessed, regrouped, and retaught. At the beginning of last school year 29 percent of our kindergarten students were not reading on grade level. At the end of the school year 99 percent of our children were reading on grade level here in McDuffie County schools and we attribute that to the direct instruction our students receive on a daily basis,” said Rhodes.

McDuffie County schools high accreditation score lets parents know that the programs and practices in place are meeting the needs of students.

“It assures our community that our students are graduating with a quality education that is recognized worldwide. It empowers our students as they matriculate towards college and career to be engaged stakeholders in our community and productive citizens of our world,” said Cato.

“We want to be sure that we are preparing these children to be ready for college, careers and life. It is very important to me for the future of this community that the children that matriculate through this school system are prepared to do just that, and we’re going to strive on a daily basis to offer all that we can to make sure that, that happen,” said Rhodes.