Welcoming Sexennial WASC Re-accreditation
Teachers and staff team up to take on inspection to accredit Pioneer and ensure quality of education
By Hassan Bhatti
Teachers and staff team up to take on inspection to accredit Pioneer and ensure quality of education
By Hassan Bhatti
Returning to Pioneer for the first time in three years, the Western Association of Schools and Colleges is staged to complete their comprehensive evaluation of the school’s performance in record speed.
Highlighting five main areas — leadership changes, organizational practices, curriculum, instruction of the school and the school climate and culture — the report dives deeply into every aspect of the campus. A self-study completed by teachers and staff, the report will be assessed by a small WASC review board on Jan. 26, marking the end of the semester-long review. WASC accreditation is a verification that the school is providing an appropriate and proper education for their students.
Patrick Bernhardt, President of the San José Teachers Association and the chief author of the lengthy report believes that passing the standards is necessary to maintain Pioneer’s standing in the community.
“An accreditation is what allows us to put the seal on our diplomas,” said Bernhardt. “Schools that do not pass generally go out of operation, however, our school is in no danger of that.”
The self-study is centered around teacher-based focus groups which evaluate several critical areas. Following the last WASC report in 2014, Principal Herbert Espiritu has been extra careful to focus on the issues that were in need of a follow-up.
“Our goal was to develop a system for those in need, build a common assessment and course alignment system, along with cultural responsiveness training for all our staff members while improving communication with all our stakeholders,” said Espiritu. “Our school has been working to improve these over the last six years and now it is time to assess whether we’ve met these aspirations.”
This process has been easier than in past years. For science department chair Steven Boyd, the system has greatly improved in its new accessibility across staff and departments.
“This year has been the easiest year to work with (the WASC report.) The way we’ve shared it online, every teacher has access to this Google document and every teacher can put in what they think their department addresses,” said Boyd. “We have representatives from every department with two teachers whose job is to coordinate our task.”
This year’s report is one of the earliest ever submitted and staff are confident that the report will be completed both quickly and efficiently.
“A lot of them won’t visit you until later in the spring but Espiritu said my staff was ready and we will be done by January, we’ve never had a deadline that early but I think we’re already there,” said Boyd.
Pioneer’s staff is confident that they will pass with flying colors. They’ve continued to work on the self-study during C-Periods and other collaborative staff meetings in order to meet the early deadline.
“You practice everyday and suddenly, it’s not any different than performance day,” said Espiritu.
Highlighting five main areas — leadership changes, organizational practices, curriculum, instruction of the school and the school climate and culture — the report dives deeply into every aspect of the campus. A self-study completed by teachers and staff, the report will be assessed by a small WASC review board on Jan. 26, marking the end of the semester-long review. WASC accreditation is a verification that the school is providing an appropriate and proper education for their students.
Patrick Bernhardt, President of the San José Teachers Association and the chief author of the lengthy report believes that passing the standards is necessary to maintain Pioneer’s standing in the community.
“An accreditation is what allows us to put the seal on our diplomas,” said Bernhardt. “Schools that do not pass generally go out of operation, however, our school is in no danger of that.”
The self-study is centered around teacher-based focus groups which evaluate several critical areas. Following the last WASC report in 2014, Principal Herbert Espiritu has been extra careful to focus on the issues that were in need of a follow-up.
“Our goal was to develop a system for those in need, build a common assessment and course alignment system, along with cultural responsiveness training for all our staff members while improving communication with all our stakeholders,” said Espiritu. “Our school has been working to improve these over the last six years and now it is time to assess whether we’ve met these aspirations.”
This process has been easier than in past years. For science department chair Steven Boyd, the system has greatly improved in its new accessibility across staff and departments.
“This year has been the easiest year to work with (the WASC report.) The way we’ve shared it online, every teacher has access to this Google document and every teacher can put in what they think their department addresses,” said Boyd. “We have representatives from every department with two teachers whose job is to coordinate our task.”
This year’s report is one of the earliest ever submitted and staff are confident that the report will be completed both quickly and efficiently.
“A lot of them won’t visit you until later in the spring but Espiritu said my staff was ready and we will be done by January, we’ve never had a deadline that early but I think we’re already there,” said Boyd.
Pioneer’s staff is confident that they will pass with flying colors. They’ve continued to work on the self-study during C-Periods and other collaborative staff meetings in order to meet the early deadline.
“You practice everyday and suddenly, it’s not any different than performance day,” said Espiritu.