As our parents may or may not know, our K-8 grade just finished a successful completion of the WASC accreditation visit in the Spring of 2010! In that visit the WASC committee outlined many positive attributes about our schools, including our parent support, strong teaching staff and the steady improvement of our students year after year. We were accredited for the full 6 year term, which is the most possible by the organization! Some people may ask why an Elementary and Middle School would want to get accreditation. Below are a list of reasons why many schools, as well as ours, wanted to go through the process of accreditation.

 

• Certification to the public that the school is a trustworthy institution of learning
• Validates the integrity of a school's program and student transcripts
• Fosters improvement of the school's programs and operations to support student learning
• Assures a school community that the school's purposes are appropriate and being accomplished through a viable educational program
• A way to manage change through regular assessment, planning, implementing, monitoring and reassessment
• Assists a school/or an organization in establishing its priority areas for improvement as a result of the perpetual accreditation cycle that includes
-School self-assessment of the current educational program for students
-Insight and perspective from the visiting committee
-Regular school staff assessment of progress through the intervening years between full self-studies.

 

To find out more information about the WASC Accreditation process and what it means to our school, you can access the WASC website at www. acswasc.org