Recently, representatives of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges or WASC reviewed Poway High’s action plan for improvement. The goals for the review were set in place two years ago, and were created by the administration with input from staff and students.
WASC’s goal is to continually improve the quality of education at the schools it accredits. Accreditation is how colleges and universities know that a student’s diploma is from a worthy institution of education. Without attending a school with WASC accreditation, it would be nearly impossible to get into a place of higher education.
The team that reviewed Poway High was made up of volunteers including former or current administrators, and teachers trained by WASC.
This part of the process was the “Mid-Cycle” Review, which ensures that our school is on track to meet its goals within the six-year cycle.
English department chairperson Kathryn McMillan, wrote the original report sent to WASC. The goals were created by a mix of administration, staff, and teachers.
“Each group that was in charge of a domain identified a goal, and each goal was kind of an amalgamation of each that came out of each committee. I was the one who checked in with the groups to write the rest of the report,” McMillan said.
The first of the three main goals was closing the achievement gap between general education students and special education or English learning students to meet the UC A-G requirements.
The second goal, working toward equity, is about making Poway an inclusive place that represents a variety of students’ ethnic backgrounds, general differences, and making sure that students’ voices are heard on campus.
The third goal is revising assessment practices. This makes sure that while students may have different teachers, within a single subject, their tests are very or completely similar in order to standardize the academic outcome for students across teachers.
Examples of this progress have been seen across campus throughout the past two years, include new courses such as McMillan’s ethnic literature and unified PE. Also, inclusive and educational activities in the library, like the recent National Arab American Heritage Month decorations, and giving more support to programs like MeCHA and BSU around campus.
And as far as standardizing assessments, administration have already had conversations with large departments like math and English, and they are working toward smaller subjects like chemistry according to Vice Principal Michael Gizzo.
“We’ve spent a lot of time with teachers talking and creating common assessments,” Principal Richard Nash said, “but a lot of these issues are tied together, like the success of English anguage learning students, how they feel on campus, and standardized tests are all things that would make them more likely to complete the a-g,”.
Everyone on campus contributes to the review in one way or another, making Poway High a consistently equitable and positive educational institution.
Generally, the result of the review was positive: “It’s about making sure that we continue our strengths and are making progress toward our growth areas. For us, it’s self-reflection. It’s about looking and walking to our student body and making sure that we are going where we want to be going,” Assistant Principal Michael Gizzo said.
