LOS ALAMITOS, CA — After the reflective survey on the culture and success of the school, taken by Los Alamitos High School’s students and staff, there is one main question that students continue to wonder: How will the answers reflected from the survey truly bring change upon the school where needed? The answer is through the WASC accreditation process.

WASC, the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, is responsible for validating a school’s diploma through a process of reports and reflections from students, staff, and community members. To pass WASC accreditation, each school must write a self-study report, reviewing the success of the school and making plans for the things they can improve on. Then, every six years, or less depending on your accreditation status, a committee from WASC is responsible for visiting the campus and creating a report with their observations of the school.

“[WASC is] the reflective process with [students, parents, staff, and community members] coming in and reflecting on their perspective and experience on some of the key areas that [WASC] asks questions about as well as our areas that we had said we wanted to grow in,” said Principal Kraus.

To get an accurate representation of how successfully the school is running, groups of parents, staff, students, and community members meet every few months to discuss the goals the school has set for themselves. These groups each have a category to reflect on, and during the meetings, they find examples of when the goals have been met as well as instances where their efforts can be improved.

Rylee Robles is one of the students involved in the WASC meetings as she regularly meets with groups of school community stakeholders.

“As a student, I feel that being part of the WASC accreditation process has provided me with a unique opportunity to learn about how our school functions, how critical decisions are made, and how our perspectives as students offer insight that may be different than that of a teacher or administrator,” said Robles. 

Apart from the monthly meetings, the information for the self-study report is also from the different surveys given to the students and staff. The point of gathering information is to understand the different areas of success as well as the areas of growth for our school. The data is then compiled into a report and sent to the WASC committee, showing how we’ve grown and the goals we have for the future. Although Los Al is constantly focused on meeting their goals, lately, the administration has placed a greater importance on getting information for the self-study report because of the impending visit of the WASC committee next spring.

The self-study report is currently being written by Los Al English and Journalism teacher Mrs. Franzen and U.S. History and AP Psychology teacher Ms. Kibya, the co-chairs of the WASC process.

“They are checking to see if what we write in our self-study report is actually happening at the high school,” said Mrs. Kibtya. “[WASC has] different criteria such as leadership, teaching, curriculum, instruction, [and] school culture, and they use these different categories to gauge if what we say is happening is really happening at a high level.”

After the report is written, the WASC committee then makes their visit to the Los Al campus to determine whether the self-study report is correct and if the school is worthy of having a high level of accreditation. The different levels of WASC validation include the three-year, — where much change is needed — the six-year with a three-year check, — where everything is performing at a quality extent — and finally the six-clear — when a school is at the highest possible level. As the six-clear mark is an almost impossible standard, Los Al, as with the majority of schools, fits into the high-ranking six-year accreditation with the additional three-year check. This means that the WASC committee makes their official visit every six years to review the self-study report written.

During these visits, students will walk the committee around the school during on Sunday, and on the following Monday, they go into each classroom and spend the entire day conducting different meetings at the school. The people from WASC have also pulled students during lunch and asked them general questions about different aspects of the school.

“We want to be who we are, but we want to be our best,” Mrs. Kraus said. “You just want to be authentic, and we’re authentically pretty awesome.”

Los Al constantly works to improve to make itself a better place for everyone involved. WASC helps to get our school in the best possible shape so that it can foster learning to the greatest extent. Because of the WASC accreditation process, different members of the school community are given a voice to make a change for their school and a chance to be heard.

“[Through WASC], I have grown to appreciate all of the ways in which our teachers and administrators are committed to helping us reach our potential and full development,” said Robles, “It makes me grateful to be part of [Los Al] and appreciative for the resources and leaders who care about our success.”