Sacs was founded in 1895 in order to accredit schools and colleges and certify them as effective educational institutions. Over the years the organization has evolved and after mergers with other organizations is now known as SACS-AdvancED. Sacs-AdvancED is a non-profit organization with over 3,000 volunteers that serve to help improve schools for 15 million students. The benefits of accreditation go far beyond having a certificate to put on the wall, or even enjoying the right to publicly proclaim accreditation.

The accreditation process is set up to maximize a school’s improvement efforts. Improvement is in fact what makes accreditation by SACS-AdvancED so beneficial for the American School of Durango. The process ensures that we thoroughly evaluate our programs and operations, then devise and implement strategies that are intended to improve student performance and school effectiveness. Continuous improvement becomes the norm for schools that are fully engaged in the accreditation process. We have an enormous amount of work to do before then, but it will be valuable work that will improve the quality of education we offer to our students and will help fine tune our organizational effectiveness.