A visiting team from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) will visit PHS March 2-4 to review and make a recommendation for giving accreditation to PHS.
PHS WASC coordinator Beth Black said the accreditation validates that high school for colleges. She was chosen by the principal after previously being a visiting WASC committee member and going through the WASC training.
“WASC comes into high schools to see what we’re teaching, how we’re treating students, how the administration functions, and determines whether students are getting a good education,” Black said. “They accredit us, and then colleges can say, ‘OK, that’s a real high school. Their degree matters.’”
Former WASC coordinator David Keller said the review involves collaboration with students, teachers, and administrators to provide the most accurate representation of the school for WASC.
“It serves as a mirror: this is who you say you are, this is who we see you are, and this is what you want to improve,” Black said.
Black said that beyond giving accreditation, WASC visits also give a platform for students and teachers to identify room for improvement in the school.
“The purpose of WASC is to evaluate the school, not to make changes directly, but to identify areas for improvement,” Keller said.
Black said students are valuable in the WASC decision making process.
“Students always want a greater voice in the change of their school, and this is truly a way that they can make a difference,” Black said. “I want as many students as possible to have a say in how to improve the school.”
Keller said that he wants WASC to be a platform for student voices.
“I want to let students know that they can have a voice in setting the direction of the school for the future,” Keller said.
Junior Heiko Sexton-Boer said he participated in WASC his freshman year and worked on teacher instruction.
“I worked on reviewing if teachers were making use of instructional time,” Sexton-Boer said “Making sure teachers were doing stuff like making their lessons informational, engaging, etc.”
Sexton-Boer said WASC would get a lot of value from having more students in the committee.
“The committee is almost all adults, and I think when it is set up like that, it doesn’t give us the best chance at identifying the key problems at school,” he said.
Sexton-Boer said that students can offer a valuable perspective on changes at this school.
“I think students have a better perspective on the real problems at school. We actually experience what administrators and teachers are putting forward, so we have a very accurate opinion on what changes should be made,” he said.
Additionally, Keller said although WASC plays a key role in improving the school, they do not have a final say in enforcing changes.
“It can be tough as WASC coordinator because we don’t actually implement any solutions. We just identify the problems for administration, but we still try to make a difference,” Keller said.
Keller said every six years, each WASC cycle has ended up inciting change by focusing on a variety of topics like student stress, academic integrity, teacher collaboration, and more.
“In the last cycle the committee addressed the issue of different teachers teaching the same class, having different curriculums with different levels of difficulty,” Keller said.
The visiting committee will be visiting classrooms and talking to students, parents, faculty and staff, and the administration during their visit on March 2-4.
