WASC Focus on Learning

Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC): During 2008/9, the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, one of six regional accrediting associations in the U.S., granted Pt. Loma High a six-year term accreditation expiring in June 2015, with a midterm review. Schools that want UC approval of courses to meet A-G requirements, and teachers to receive credit for years taught, must be accredited by WASC. A midterm review took place on March 28, 2012, consisting of meetings with administration, student interviews, and classroom visits. The reviewers were impressed with what they saw in classrooms and the work Point Loma is doing towards meeting their goals. Their recommendations are consistent with the work PLHS is doing in staff development and the direction the school is moving in.

WASC Focus on Learning: On Target for 21st Century Schools – Learning Must Be the Passion

Marilyn S. George, Ed.D., Associate Executive Director, Accrediting Commission for Schools, WASC

"Ultimately, the accreditation process is all about fostering excellence in the elementary, secondary, adult, postsecondary and supplementary education programs we accredit. Our fundamental cause involves helping schools meaningfully create the highest quality learning experience they can envision for all students. It is WASC's consistent purpose to professionally support schools in creating for themselves a clear vision of what they desire their students to know and be able to do and then to ensure that efficient and relevant systems are in place that predictably result in the fulfillment of those expectations for every child.

The capacity of any organization to improve is directly related to its ability to recognize, acknowledge, and act on its identified strengths and limitations. The accreditation process is a vehicle that enables schools to improve student learning and school performance based on an analysis of those strengths and limitations. Participating schools must meet rigorous, research-based standards that reflect the essential elements of a quality and effective school, but again, must also be able to demonstrate engagement in as well as capacity to provide continuous school improvement.

The WASC Commission believes that the goal of any school should be to provide for successful student learning. Programs encompassing both the cognitive and affective components of learning should foster human growth and development and enable students to become responsible, productive members of the school community and our democratic society. Each school should develop a school purpose to reflect its beliefs. For ongoing program improvement, each school should engage in objective and subjective internal and external evaluations to assess progress in achieving its purpose.

The struggle expressed by many schools is the measurability of these student learner outcomes and skills that are beyond the core knowledge. These skills need to be learned and demonstrated by all students: the ongoing WASC Focus on Learning process serves as a foundation for the journey of school improvement. Once a school has established its core beliefs, vision, mission, and schoolwide student outcomes based on student achievement data and 21st century needs, the following questions must be asked:

How do we know that all students are achieving the desired schoolwide student outcomes and the essential academic standards that prepare students for the 21st century?

Are we doing everything possible to support that learning?

Inherent in the WASC criteria is the expectation that school leadership and staff focus on learning through meaningful dialogue, analysis of multiple sources of data, and action, i.e., the schoolwide action plan. The criteria that guide a school in evaluation of the effectiveness of all organizational and programmatic aspects always go back to the impact on student learning, e.g., leadership empowerment, continual growth and learning by staff, learning and teaching, resource allocation, and student support systems. Within the Focus on Learning process, the interdisciplinary focus groups as well as the stakeholder groups have been vehicles not just during the formal self-study process (every five to six years), but as current structures to examine data, review school processes, and support and take action on modifying the curricular and instructional approaches.

As Dr. Richard DuFour has stated, the basic principles of a school should be centered upon learning: this is exactly the intent of the WASC Focus on Learning process.

The school is centered on results-based learning for all students, rather than teaching as the core.
The WASC criteria expect that a school works as a “collaborative culture.”
The school uses multiple sources of assessment to determine the degree of student learning based on defined learning, and regularly uses those formative and summative results to modify learning and teaching.

The four critical questions that are part of the PLC process are powerful ones that are also essential to the ongoing WASC school improvement process. These are summarized below:

What do we want students to learn (grade, course, and/or unit)?
How will we know that students have achieved the determined knowledge, skills, and broader outcomes?
What do we do if students have not achieved their goals?
How do we enhance the learning for those demonstrating they have achieved?

A question that can guide the work of the groups: If students are going to be successful and contribute to a “flat” or interdependent world, what evidence do we need to examine to ensure students are meeting our schoolwide student outcomes as well as essential standards?

Dr. Michael Fullan, to name just a few educators, emphasize important considerations that must not be neglected in any improvement process. These critical factors for successful change or improvement are also integral to the basic philosophical basis of WASC accreditation and the WASC Focus on Learning. These might be succinctly summarized from Dr. Fullan’s recent book entitled The Six Secrets of Change and his other articles over the years. His worldwide research and work with schools on change are so appropriate given the challenges of preparing students for the 21st century. These include the following:

Invest in staff: formal and informal training, dialogue, coaching, and support.
Connect peers with a purpose: coherent vision and clarification during implementation.
Capacity building prevails: provide problem solving opportunities.
Learning is the work: it takes time.
Transparency rules: have a plan and show results and accomplishments.
Systems learn: changing the culture.

The following quote by Dr. Richard DuFour, one of the key leaders in helping schools implement professional learning communities, captures the essence of the WASC accreditation’s expectation of ongoing meaningful dialogue and action that focuses on high-quality defined learning for all students. “When learning becomes the preoccupation of the school, when all the school’s educators examine the efforts and initiatives of the school through the lens of their impact on learning, the structure and culture of the school begin to change in substantive ways.”

In summary, the WASC Focus on Learning accreditation process is more than a stamp of approval or quality assurance. It is a collaborative results-oriented school improvement process that serves as the underpinning of an effective school.”