Hartford High School Retains Accreditation, Gets Probation Instead

By Debra Viadero

Hartford Public High School was spared last week from becoming the first high school in Connecticut to lose its accreditation.

A commission of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, meeting Sept. 28 and 29, backed away from an earlier recommendation to strip the 1,630-student school of its accredited status, and instead called for placing the school on probation. ( "School's Potential Loss of Accreditation Alarms Students," Sept. 3, 1997.)

The turnaround by the NEASC's Commission on Public Secondary Schools came just days after parents and district leaders won a state court injunction to block temporarily the loss of accreditation. The timing raised questions about whether the association, which has hiked its standards in recent years, was caving in to pressure from...