The Western Association of Schools and Colleges, a group devoted to nationally accrediting quality high school education, is scheduled to evaluate Mira Costa beginning in March. Thus far, Costa has done a commendable job representing different factions within WASC committees; however, student involvement in the process needs to increase in order to ensure a variety of perspectives.
Mira Costa is responsible for conducting a preliminary self-assessment of issues on campus, improvements to be made, and current school management before the official WASC assessment. Currently, Costa teachers and administrators are assigned to focus groups on various educational aspects including leadership, curriculum, assessment, instruction and student support. Students are permitted to sit in on the current committee meetings, but there are few that currently attend.
According to the Mira Costa Mission Statement, Costa strives to maximize the unique potential of each student, cultivate the skills essential for learning and nurture responsible citizenship. In accordance with these principles, faculty should promote responsible citizenship by encouraging students to participate in the WASC assessments. When evaluating Costa’s success in accomplishing its goals, student input must be heard first-hand to foster legitimacy in the self-evaluation process.
In focus groups like student support, the student body should have greater input in the assessment of the matter. However, when discussing topics like curriculum or assessment, students are not as experienced or knowledgeable about the topic, so student involvement is not as necessary to the discussion.
In order to accommodate more student input and encourage the perspective a student may present, the administration should incorporate joint committees with both permanent student members and faculty to deal with student-involved issues. The administration should publicize the opportunity to participate in WASC focus groups and offer incentives to volunteers, such as letters of recommendation they have already offered.
For student leaders such as the class president, editors-in-chief and secretary generals, attendance of these WASC meetings should be considered one of their foremost responsibilities. The presence of these school leaders would provide more specified insight into Costa’s various extracurricular activities and inspire other students to participate.
Despite the current lack of student participation, the leaders of Costa’s WASC examination, teachers Alan Zeoli and Michael McAvin, have done a commendable job ensuring that factions on campus, including both teachers and administrators, have a voice in the process. These leaders have also visited classes to explain the process and offered to write letters of recommendation for interested students, demonstrating their desire to include student perspectives in the process. This is a step in the right direction for the self-assessment system that is crucial to WASC.
The WASC evaluation provides the school with an opportunity for different groups on campus to express their views regarding the merits and possible areas of improvement for Costa. The school leaders of the assessment have ensured that both administration and teachers’ opinions are heard and should now focus on increasing student involvement in the hearings.
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