WASC: Our School’s Evaluator

A Whole Meal Left Behind After Lunch (Rheya Bushan, The Puma Prensa)

Written By: Rheya Bushan, staff writer

Nobody wants to go through four years of high school and have their diploma be worthless. WASC plays an essential role in awarding our school the accreditation it needs so that students can submit their high school diplomas to colleges and jobs, however most students are completely oblivious to this.

WASC—The Western Association of Schools and Colleges—helps schools throughout California and Hawaii self-evaluate so that they can develop goals for their future years and reflect on the social, emotional, and physical aspects of their school. The appointed members of the WASC Committee —teachers and administrators from other schools— then come and visit the school not to judge which goals the school sets, or judge how the school is performing. Their job as the visiting committee is to just talk to all the groups and visit classrooms to validate that what was written in the report is a true, comprehensive reflection of the school.

The WASC organization provides Maria Carillo time to create a formal self-study in order for the school to observe and gather information. Before the WASC Committee comes to MCHS , they allow the school to take the time and submit the report in detail.

This evaluation is based on five different criteria: school culture, governance and policy, instruction, curriculum, and assessment. The last time they visited Maria Carrillo was during the 2023-2024 year. Carrillo is a stable campus, meaning that there really is no real threat that the school is facing from WASC. However, future ratings could be even better with student awareness and contribution.

Before the organization comes to collect MCHS’s self-study, the school spends up to a year prior to the WASC visit looking at data collected from around the school. This data consists of conversations with focus groups—groups of people representing diverse experiences and identities on campus—and the gathering of student and parent voices. The school also goes through multiple questions from the organization that prompt the necessary reflection the school needs to give in the self-study.

Students also need to play an active role in the process. They need to be aware of this situation that surrounds them. However, only a select number of students actually understand what’s happening. This is because up to this point the school only talks to focus groups.

MCHS Senior, Erin Kelleher answered a question about her thoughts about the WASC Committee and if she knew what it was. She stated, “No, I didn’t know anything about that at all like,” and added that she believes, “it affects younger students too. I mean I feel really confident that Carrillo right now has remained pretty stable and good, but I also know that for the younger students things change all the time.”

Desirae Munz, a freshman at Maria Carrillo munched on her sandwich as she expressed that she had, “no idea that schools were evaluated like this,” and that, “they [the school] should let students know.”

Even though students may be unaware of this, according to one of the WASC group leaders, Maddie Doyle, “It’s definitely not something that’s deliberately kept from students.”

So, what can students do to make sure that the WASC Committee is even more impressed the next time they come around? Well, there are a few things the school needs to work on. Here are the three main topics on the self-study. The first is that the school needs to work on increasing students’ understanding of the expectations of the Graduate Profile and its relevance for college, career, and life. For example, students should know that this year’s focus for our graduate profile is the Active Learner and a lot of our activities are tailored to it.

The school is trying their best to educate us about this, but students must be able to master the Graduate Profile and connect to it more. Maria Carillo has to embed different activities for WASC to identify the school’s understanding of the Graduate Profile.

Another thing to improve are the mental health programs, which are currently not as developed as they could be. It’s important that students can talk with teachers and staff about trauma from the fires, the pandemic, and some recent community and school safety events.

Students can use this as an incentive to create different programs and clubs that address these concerns. Everyone can get involved in the accreditation process and help each other.

Doyle leads the group of mission, vision, and purpose for the WASC Accreditation process, and commented happily that she “hopes that students are on the panel,” and,” will always want to know students' ideas about those best directions.”

Multiple teachers lead WASC groups that take on different topics. Once they’ve talked with families, and evaluated their surroundings, they compile all the information that they have gathered and turn it into the self-study that we give to the organization. Students can also volunteer to help with the process.

The last section—which influences the student culture section—is the school environment.

When walking around the school, trash is scattered around everywhere. The way students treat the environment around the school is a part of how students are seen. If trash is seen in lots of places, the committee and school members may incorrectly think students don’t care about how their school is presented to others.

So, pick up after yourself. Do not just let trash be lying around there.

These issues should be improved upon in the next two years because Maria Carrillo will have finished collecting data for the next time WASC comes to check in on how we’re managing as a school.

WASC rotates on a six-year system, but there is a halfway mark check-up every three years. MCHS’s check-up was last year. So after another two years, the new cycle will start and this is much more critical than last year’s because we are starting a new six-year cycle.

If Carrillo were to fail at obtaining its credits—note that those chances are quite low—Joni Hellstrom, a member of the WASC Committee that visited us last year, has stated, “You would not be accredited and our diplomas would not be valid for college admission.” 

The development of the mental health department, the student understanding of the Graduate Profile, and cleaning up our environment are the main issues at Carrillo in need of change for a better WASC rating. If the students begin to address these three things, then our school’s presentation in front of the WASC Committee and our self-study will be even better, with more positive repercussions. So, keep this in mind the next time the idea of starting a club appears, or when there’s trash on the ground.

Create a club for WASC! Pick up the trash!

Solutions like these will definitely enhance our school and make it the best that it can be. And isn’t that the real goal?