MARIETTA - A team of about 24 educators from across the country will descend on the Cobb School District in November to determine whether to renew its accreditation for another five years.

The main reason the visit is significant is because "most colleges will not accept students who do not graduate from an accredited school," said school board attorney Glenn Brock.

Also, state law requires a student graduate from an accredited high school to receive the HOPE scholarship, said Dana Tofig, spokesman for the Georgia Department of Education.

Founded in 1895, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Council on Accreditation and School Improvement is a nongovernmental agency that accredits about 13,000 public and non-public institutions worldwide. While other accreditation agencies exist, SACS is the largest and most recognized, Brock said.

To earn and keep accreditation Cobb must meet seven accreditation standards, implement a continuous process of improvement, and host an external review team every five years.

District spokesman Jay Dillon said the district is undergoing a self-assessment of its strengths and areas for improvement in preparation for the visit.

Seven teams each comprised of about a dozen Cobb employees, one for each of the seven accreditation standards, are working on the self-study. For instance, Associate Superintendent Dr. Steve Constantino is responsible for the first standard, which is vision and purpose, while Associate Superintendent Dr. Gordon Pritz is responsible for the second standard, which is governance/leadership.

Dillon declined to offer examples of areas for improvement that the district is including in its report, saying specific questions about the report will be answered during the presentation to the review committee in November.

"Until that time, nothing is finalized. The section I am working on, for instance, (stakeholder communications and relationships) I have not finalized to the point of saying which strengths and opportunities for improvement will be included," he said.

SACS is a division of AdvancED, a company that employs 180 staff with corporate offices in Tempe, Ariz., and Alpharetta, said AdvancED spokeswoman Jennifer Oliver.

Gov. Sonny Perdue in August 2008 removed members of the Clayton County Board of Education from office for violating the state's ethics code after SACS revoked Clayton's accreditation on Sept. 1, 2008, reinstating it on May 1, 2009.

Nationwide, Clayton was the first school system to lose accreditation since 1967, Oliver said.

AdvancED obtains its funding by charging schools and districts a fee to renew their accreditation. The company also receives revenue from professional development and product sales, Oliver said.

Cobb pays a fee of $63,200 per year based on the number of schools in the district, Dillon said.

The cost for the upcoming review team's visit so far is $20,472, which includes meals, hotel, transportation and fees. The cost does not include airfare, Dillon said.

The review team begins its visit with a meeting Nov. 15. Then they interview school and district staff, board members and community members from Nov. 16 -18.

The chair of the review team, Dr. Nikki Armato, AdvancED's chief learning officer, will give a preliminary verbal report to the school board on Nov. 18, including overall observations and recommendations. The team will finalize its written report and send it with an accreditation recommendation to AdvancED's "Accreditation Commission," which makes the final decision. The company's "commission" consists of 40 educators from around the world.

Cobb will receive a copy of the report being submitted to the commission a month or so after the visit. The commission meeting will be conducted at the end of January, and Cobb will receive confirmation of its accreditation decision following that meeting, Oliver said.

In February, Cobb school board Chairman Dr. John Abraham invited AdvanceEd CEO Dr. Mark Elgart, who is based in Alpharetta, to speak to the board about best practices.

In that meeting, Elgart warned the board to be clear in separating the duties between it and administration. He said the board sets policy and the administration carries out that policy.

He also told board members that their No. 1 constituent group is students, not voters. Elgart believes serving on the school board is different from serving in other areas of government.

"It's a different type of role. It really is dedicated to service. And you may be elected by one group but you're really designed to serve another," he said.

Superintendent Fred Sanderson thanked Elgart for pointing out who the board's constituents really were.

Sanderson asked Elgart to give an example of what the appropriate relationship should be when a board member visits one of the school's he/she represents. Elgart said board members should visit schools as "students," not in an authoritative role, telling the principal what to do.

Elgart also said, "I don't advocate strongly for" school board committees, describing how they can grow "like weeds."

Elgart praised the Cobb board as "a pioneer" in being the first system, along with Fulton School District, to obtain accreditation as a district in 2004. He told them that since there hasn't been a SACS visit in the last five years, Cobb is in good standing.

While Sanderson may be a fan of SACS, State Rep. Earl Ehrhart (R-Powder Springs) chairman of the House Rules Committee, said he has never been a supporter of the process because he sees the opportunity for abuse.

"These are unelected, unaccountable individuals making decisions that can have significant impact on people's lives, and we are tying tax-supported universities and schools to their whim. I know many of the people who are with SACS and they are very diligent and capable, but they are still unaccountable and this gives me serious concern," Ehrhart said.

As for Elgart, "He and his kind are why I have concerns. They are very powerful," Ehrhart said.