Eureka
High School completes yearlong accreditation
For Eureka High School’s
staff and students, the next six years will hold increasing challenges
and higher expectations.
Reviewing critical issues
and highlighting the school’s strengths helped frame the discussions
during the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) accreditation
process. The yearlong process was coordinated with Eureka High School’s
new strategic plan and provides a road map to guide the school in decision
making over the next six years.
“Receiving WASC accreditation
is like getting a national stamp of approval,” explained English
teacher Donna Doherty, a member of Eureka High’s WASC leadership
team. “It’s an important part of school accountability, and
it allows us to examine how we’re serving our students. It’s
a voluntary process, however, colleges do look at whether incoming freshmen
have graduated from an accredited high school.”
The WASC accreditation process
looks at how students are achieving and if the school is doing everything
possible to support high achievement for all its students.
Eureka High School formally
began the process in February 2002 and completed it in March 2003 when
a visiting team of educators came to the school to observe classroom
learning and interview teachers, students and parents.
Doherty was most pleased
with how the entire school had buy-in with the WASC process. “We
had 100% staff participation. Every Eureka High staff member was on
a focus group. Because all staff was involved, everyone’s voice
was heard.”
Eureka High School principal
Bob Embertson agreed with Doherty. “The staff support for the process
was amazing. All outcomes were tied to our strategic plan, and
now we have one plan for WASC and strategic plan.”
The school’s leadership
team conducted student focus groups to find out what students felt was
important. The following themes were consistent: The importance of relationships
with teachers; the necessity of a culture of respect; praise for the
choices available in the curriculum; the need for increased relevancy
in classes; and a desire for consistency in school policies.
After analyzing the latest
student data, the Leadership Team prioritized five action areas: academic
expectations and support, time for collaboration and advisories, community
building activities, shared governance, and communication and access
to information.
In March, every teacher prepared
for the visiting team by making a display of student work that tied
into the State standards and the high school’s strategic plan.
“For the committee, the displays reinforced the amount of student
learning going on at the school,” remarked Doherty.
Embertson was told by the
chair of the visiting committee “how impressed they were with the
staff’s commitment to the WASC process. He mentioned that he had
never seen such staff, student and parent involvement in any previous
WASC visits he had chaired.”
Eureka High School will be
looking closely at the WASC report’s section on critical areas
for follow-up. “The WASC leadership team is continuing to meet,
and since the critical areas are now part of our strategic plan, we
will be using strategic plan timelines to implement our combined plan,”
remarked Embertson.
Because Eureka City Schools
incorporates the strategic planning process in all of its schools, the
leadership team was well prepared for the WASC accreditation process.
“We looked at how things were done during the last WASC accreditation
process,” said Embertson. “We analyzed and learned from past
setbacks and it paid off.”
For the WASC process, the
team held meetings before the school year started. “We condensed
all the WASC meetings into our four inservice days last August,”
said Doherty. “That really got the momentum going. The leadership
team wrote one set of action plans that addressed more than one tactic.
They’re all intrinsically connected. There’s no redundancy
and nothing was left out. The process was extremely efficient and effective.”
Eureka High School expects
to receive a six-year WASC accreditation in June 2003.
- Sheldon J. Reber, Director
of School and Community Relations |
