A study in school accreditation and student outcomes

Accreditation holds a place within accountability systems as a mechanism to evaluate quality that leads to the practices that certify credentials. In K-12 school district these credentials manifest in curriculum, instruction, standards, and ultimately the certifying of credits that lead to receipt of a diploma. School district leadership would find it important to make a well-informed decision on the process used to complete accreditation as there is potential impact on student outcomes and investment of time and talent by stakeholders in the process. Public K-12 school districts in Indiana have the option to utilize a third-party accreditation agency as part of the accountability process. Accountability and school accreditation are necessary tasks as outlined by federal and state statute. The purpose of this quantitative, correlational study was to examine if there is a significant difference in student outcomes between public K-12 school districts that have completed a formal accreditation process utilizing a third-party agency and those public K-12 school districts that have utilized internal processes for accreditation. Archival data, found on the Indiana Department of Education data warehouse, was used to examine the relationship of student outcomes when considering use of a third-party accreditation agency (Indiana Department of Education, 2022e). Cognia was used as the accreditation agency for this study. Results of the study suggest that the key variable in this study, Cognia status, does not have a significant relationship with achievement when considering assessment scores, attendance rates, and graduation rates.Ph. D