The Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) accreditation process culminated with a visit from the WASC visiting committee March 8 to 11. The WASC visiting team included administration, teachers and staff from various schools in California. Staff, students and parents met in focus groups beginning in February of 2008 to reflect on the educational practices at Gunn and helped to set a plan and goals for the next six years.

All of the goals have been placed under six major categories: Diversity and Choice, Instructional Practices, Community and Communication, Excellence with Growth and Student Performance and Assessment, which is abbreviated into DICES. The full report can be found online on the Gunn Web site.

WASC coordinator Dawna Linsdell, Principal Noreen Likins, English teacher Tarn Wilson and Visual and Performing Arts Instructional Supervisor Todd Summers were part of the writing committee that collected information from focus groups and wrote out the Single Plan for Student Achievement (SPSA), which includes various tasks that will help to achieve the six goals, the actions needed to complete the tasks, the people responsible and involved, a time line and resources. “It took us about 16 to 20 hours to finish [the] SPSA,” Linsdell said. “We took all the findings and goals from the five focus groups that they plugged under DICES and put those ideas in complete sentences.” The full WASC Report includes a community profile, the SPSA, findings of the focus groups, department findings and action plans, goals and tasks for the next six years.

Besides planning, the WASC process was also a way for the staff to meet other staff members from different departments and learn about different aspects of the school. On the Feb. 17 Staff Development Day, teachers prepared material for class visits. “People really liked seeing what other people did,” Linsdell said. “The board members were impressed at what teachers and students do at Gunn, and the superintendent said that people were very enthusiastic.” On the anonymous feedback forms, one teacher wrote, “It was fun to visit other rooms and see the evidence of our outstanding best teaching practices—it should not end just because we do not have a WASC visit coming!” Another teacher wrote, “Moving around to different departments really shows how everyone puts out 200 percent for the betterment of the students.”

After the four day evaluation, WASC visiting team chair Albert Acuna said that he enjoyed the friendly students and staff at Gunn. “Everyone was very focused,” he said. One of the issues that Acuna said Gunn could improve on was closing the achievement gap. “It’s not just a problem at Gunn, though, it’s an issue across the country,” he said. In addition to closing the achievement gap, the WASC evaluation team said that Gunn could work on recognizing individual student achievement even more. The WASC evaluating team did not have enough time to make changes to the draft report before the community presentation in which they reported their findings, so the full WASC evaluation report will be sent to the school this week. The school will be notified of whether or not we received a six-year clear in June.

Linsdell said that her favorite part about WASC is everyone coming together as a community celebrating what we do at Gunn. “Teachers meet other teachers from across campus and students and parents come and share their opinions,” she said. As for her least favorite part, Linsdell said it would have to be the paperwork. “I hate killing trees,” she said. “It’s a pain to use up so much paper, but sometimes people just won’t read it if it’s online.” For the next WASC, Linsdell said she wants to “go green, try to have less paperwork and do things more electronically.”