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County schools meet standards Accreditation panel gives Ashland, Crater and Prospect perfect marks By VICKI GUARINO All Jackson County high schools earned passing grades from regional examiners, but three earned perfect marks -- including two schools that struggle with disadvantages. The Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges commended Ashland, Crater and Prospect high schools for meeting all 10 accreditation standards. The remaining seven high schools missed just one point. The reports, now being distributed to school officials, were released earlier this year. They cover the current school year. Prospect, with an enrollment of about 70, has struggled to hire sufficient teachers to give students a full range of required and elective subjects. Crater, with an enrollment of 1,430, has been scrambling to meet the scheduling demands of an overcrowded facility. The school was built to accommodate 1,200. Crater has students on waiting lists, even for required classes like ninth grade physical science. Finding sufficient classrooms has become a challenge, says Crater Principal Ron Williams. "We have more and more teachers who don't have an assigned classroom -- they're transient, so to speak," says Williams. "They move from room to room. It's a scheduling nightmare." Scant quarters is one of several problems Oregon high schools face as they work under tightening budgets to accommodate the growing academic demands of students -- as well as the requirements of accreditation, says Diane Baldwin at the state Department of Education. Baldwin reviews for the state the accreditation reports of the regional association. The organization is part of a nationwide system examining the qualifications of public and private high schools. In Oregon, 202 high schools were measured for 10 standards. Reviewers found faults at 33 schools serious enough for the agency to issue an advisory or warning. Ashland, Central Point and Prospect meet all 10 standards, Baldwin says; remaining high schools, including St. Mary's, also were approved, missing only one of the standards. Although the standards are designed to gauge a school's ability to teach students, some faults are more technical than academic, Baldwin says. For instance, St. Mary's didn't file a school-improvement plan -- a minor fault common for private schools, Baldwin says, not because private schools have no such plans but because they don't routinely catalog them as public schools must. Schools also often miss a perfect score because staff in the school media center wasn't properly certified -- a difficult hurdle to clear because of rapidly expanding technology. Rogue River High School had this single shortcoming. Two schools, Eagle Point and South Medford, had too few teachers for the number of students. The association recommends 160 students for each teacher. South, however, received a special commendation for nearly meeting the mark -- a significant improvement from the year before, Baldwin said. A growing number of schools have been exceeding the standard every year, she added. In other Jackson County schools, examiners found that North Medford lacked sufficient credit classes in technical arts, and Butte Falls and Phoenix need more student counselors. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA