Charlotte Catholic sent old accreditation on college applications. Will it matter?
Parents and Charlotte Catholic High School leadership remain at odds over whether a recent accreditation change will affect college admissions as students make their final decisions on where to enroll in the fall.
The school switched from its long-time secular, regional accreditor, Cognia, to a new, Catholic-specific accreditation system, Lumen, last summer. It didn’t notify all parents of the change until January.
Then in February, a college counselor at the school confirmed many students’ application packages the school sent to colleges listed the old school accreditation. The error was listed in packages sent out prior to the end of January. The most common deadlines for regular decision college applications are between Jan. 1 and Jan. 15.
“We updated the profile two weeks ago. That has been in the process of being sent out to every school that your children have applied to,” a CCHS guidance counselor told parents at a meeting Feb. 7. An attendee sent a recording of that meeting to The Charlotte Observer.
A smattering of groans can be heard behind the camera. One parent muttered, “Well, the colleges will love that.”
School leaders say the accreditation change won’t affect college admissions. None of the schools contacted by The Charlotte Observer said a different accreditation would significantly alter admission decisions.
“Charlotte Catholic and the Catholic Schools Office have spoken with more than 200 of the colleges our students typically attend and not one has expressed any concern about our Lumen accreditation,” a spokesperson for MACS told The Observer. “It is important to note that college-acceptance season is well underway and, with Lumen accreditation, Charlotte Catholic students are being accepted by the same top colleges this year as in past years.”
But for many parents, the snafu was less about the accreditation than a growing sense of distrust and lack of communication from leadership. It’s a feeling that lingers now, even after former principal Lori Phillips’ recent resignation.
“The Pope said that no part of the church should be hidden in darkness, and they hid from parents what was happening with the accreditation,” said James Alverson, who pulled his daughter out of the school earlier this spring. “It wasn’t worth us trusting our child’s future with these people who had lied for so long.”
What is Lumen?
Lumen is an accreditation launched by the Institute for the Transformation of Catholic Education at the Catholic University of America in Feb. 2023.
Catholic school leaders made the decision “in search of an accreditation process that more seamlessly integrates the evaluation of our academic programs and our religious training and character formation,” according to a FAQ on Charlotte Catholic’s website.
“Lumen’s evaluation integrates faith, Catholic culture and character-related questions and observations in all of the domains it evaluates,” the website states. “Cognia offers an academic evaluation and a separate evaluation of Catholicity.”
CCHS, which has an enrollment of about 1,250, has been accredited by Cognia since 1951. Parents worried the new accreditation, which wasn’t founded until 2023, will be lesser known and regarded by colleges.
CCHS leaders disagree and denied calls for dual accreditation, calling it “redundant.”
Some parents are also skeptical the current accreditation is legitimate. Lumen’s website says accreditation includes a leadership retreat and on-site visit. However, no one from Lumen had visited CCHS or had an accreditation report as of early February, according to former school principal Lori Phillips and CCHS president Kurt Telford in the Feb. 7 video. Monroe said Tuesday that Lumen is slated to visit the school later this year.
Leadership says the school was fully accredited as of July 2024 after deciding to apply in November 2023.
Other parents say they trust school leadership.
“I’m very pleased with the school so far, and I only see it improving,” said Carmelina Brockmann, a current CCHS parent. “I’ve met some people, and I know that these are good people making decisions on behalf of the kids… They’re not going to undermine the success of their own students.”
What have colleges said?
So far, no colleges the Observer contacted have say the accreditation will cause them to consider the applications differently. In fact, the University of North Carolina System prohibits using a high school’s accreditation “as a factor affecting admissions, loans, scholarships or other educational activity at the public institution.”
“UNC-Chapel Hill does not maintain a list of approved high school accreditations and our admissions team does not verify a high school’s accreditation when reviewing applications,” a spokesperson for UNC Chapel-Hill media relations told The Observer.
Duke University also said it has “no accreditation preference,” when it comes to admissions.
“In Duke’s admissions process, accreditations are not a factor… In our holistic application review, we consider students’ applications in the context of their schools/learning environments,” Kathy Phillips, Duke’s associate dean of admissions told The Observer in an email. “I will note that accreditation may matter in regards to financial aid, but I’ll defer that question to my colleagues in the Financial Aid Office.”
Many CCHS students apply to the University of Georgia. Admissions there will not be impacted by the Lumen accreditation, a university spokesperson said.
“I have communicated with Charlotte Catholic’s counselors and several parents to try to reassure any concerns, as UGA is fine with Lumen accreditation,” Cindy Ganas, an admissions counselor for UGA, told The Observer. “This will not impact our review of applicants.”
Clemson University and The University of South Carolina have not yet responded to requests for comment.
This story was originally published April 7, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
