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House Education Committee backs bill to let districts choose approved accreditation options
Summary
The House Education Committee gave Senate Bill 2,362 a do-pass recommendation after proponents said the measure would let districts choose state-funded accreditation or approved national improvement models such as Marzano's High Reliability Schools, and reduce duplicate costs and work for local districts.
The House Education Committee voted to give Senate Bill 2,362 a do-pass recommendation after hearing testimony that the bill would let school districts choose from a state-funded accreditation option or approved national school-improvement models such as Marzano's High Reliability Schools (HRS).
Senator Don Shibley, sponsor: "This legislation is crucial to ensures our schools have the flexibility to pursue accreditation models that align with your unique instructional goals, operation needs, and community needs and desires." He told the committee the bill would amend North Dakota Century Code 15.1-02-11 to allow the state superintendent to approve alternative accreditation vendors and to provide a state-funded accreditation option.
The bill's supporters said the change would preserve state standards while giving districts flexibility to use frameworks they already employ. Kirsten Basler, superintendent of the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction, said the bill as amended would preserve a no-cost, state-provided accreditation option via a superintendent-held contract and would ensure districts are not billed separately. "As amended, the bill ensures that school districts have access to a state funded accreditation option through a contract secured by the superintendent of public instruction, ensuring that no financial barriers will exist for school districts," Basler said.
Administrators from several districts told the committee that HRS and Cognia cover similar areas (culture, leadership, engagement, growth) and that allowing districts to use HRS as an approved pathway would reduce duplicative work. Kevin Hoertz of the North Dakota Council of Education Leaders and School Administrators said districts often do the same work twice under both processes. "We're doing the same thing twice," he said, describing HRS as a framework that holds schools to a continuing cycle of improvement rather than an event-oriented five-year review.
Basler provided figures on current statewide spending for accreditation: the Department has had a contract with Cognia of about $3,000,000 per biennium, and she said total costs charged to the state and districts have been roughly $6,000,000 for the biennium. She told the committee the amended bill would make a single state contract cover those costs so local districts would not receive separate bills.
Supporters from Dickinson, Northern Cass, Bismarck and Hillsborough school systems described using HRS for strategic planning and said it aligns with the state's focus on continuous improvement. Several superintendents said HRS's five-level model and more frequent monitoring kept improvement work active year-to-year rather than concentrated around the five-year accreditation visit.
The committee voted to give the bill a do-pass recommendation. The committee recorded that the motion to advance the engrossed bill passed (14 yes). Representative Wharton was named carrier for the bill.
If enacted as written and signed, the bill would direct the superintendent of public instruction to maintain a state-funded accreditation option and an approved list of alternative accreditation vendors; districts choosing an approved vendor would remain required to meet the state's minimum standards for accreditation and graduation.
