Good afternoon O'Hara families,
This coming year, O'Hara will complete a year of self study as part of our Accreditation process. This is a very important process for our school and I want to keep all of our families informed of the details and progress of our Accreditation. Please take a moment to read the information below that will help you understand the importance and process of Accreditation.
What is Accreditation and what is the process?
From the WCEA website:
Process:
Each Member diocese has both an Elementary School and High School WCEA Commissioner. It is the responsibility of the respective Commissioners to assist the school community in the preparation of a Self Study document using an approved Protocol: Improving Student Learning (ISL 2012) for Catholic elementary schools. These Protocols are criteria-based and lead the school to examine specific aspects of school life and the extent at which they are met at this time in the school's history such as:
- Catholic Identity (the school is measured by 8 standards, i.e. prayer life, sacramental life, service projects, and the permeation of Catholic values in all aspects of school life)
- Organization for Learning (how the school is governed and administrated)
- Curriculum and Instruction (what is learned and how it is taught)
- Support Services (Academic Counseling, Assisting Students with Special Needs, Spiritual Counseling)
- Resources (Financial and Human Resources)
The school community then prepares for a three-day visit by an accreditation team composed of educators who are trained evaluators from other schools with educational expertise.
Visiting Committees:
A Visiting Committee spends three days with the school community after review of the Self Study document. During the three-day visit, the Committee visits classrooms, investigates the written evidence of responses to the WCEA criteria, holds interviews with the members of the school community, and prepares a written report on its findings. The Visiting Committee also writes a recommendation of an Accreditation Status based upon factors relative to the school community's successes and growth needs. This report and recommendation is given to the WCEA Commissioner. In May of each year, the full WCEA Commission reads the reports and recommendations and votes for an Accreditation Status for each school.
This school year, 2016-17, will be our self study year. The Archdiocese requires that each school take 4-6 days during the school year to thoroughly investigate the practices of the school (all based on the protocol above). Our staff will be broken into committees to work through this process. We work closely with our Commissioner who is our assistant superintendent in the Archdiocese. During the 2017-18 school year, we will be visited by our assigned visiting committee (most likely in the fall).
Our school went through this same process 6 years ago, and during our official accreditation visit, we were awarded a 6 year accreditation, which is the highest level of accreditation. For the past 5 years, I have had the privilege of serving as a Team Chair for accreditation teams in other Dioceses. I have learned a great deal serving as a chair and had the opportunity to visit and learn from wonderful Catholic Schools on the West Coast. I believe whole-heartedly in this process and am excited for our staff to spend this year working for the betterment of our school and student body.
It is very important to me that we keep you, our stakeholders, in the loop during this process. If anyone is interested in reading our self study document from 6 years ago,
I have several copies in my office that are available to borrow. In reading the document, you will see what our school goals were at that time and how far we have come in accomplishing those goals.
In 2015-16, our School Advisory Council spent the year working on our Strategic Plan. We intentionally aligned the categories within our Strategic Plan with the categories from the self study process. We will be finalizing that document this fall and it will be shared with our community at that time.
During this very important self study year, if you should have any questions, please feel free to reach out to myself or Mr. Milliron at any time. We want this to be a transparent process that ultimately benefits the students that grace our hallways.
Accreditation days:
October 28 (1/2 day)
October 31 (full day)
January 13 (1/2 day)
February 27 (full day)
Thank you for your support during this important year!
