Service: 4 Hours
In 2012, I was asked by Ms. Block, Charter Oak High School's dean, to help participate in the WASC school accreditation. Essentially, our school gets assessed every six years to ensure that we are on track. If the school gets a thumbs-up, WASC comes back in another six years to assess us again. If not, they come back the next year.
As students, we have first-hand experience in how our school is actually doing. Ms. Block asked several students and me to take part in this so that the each focus group gets an idea of how they are doing internally. There were five focus groups: Vision, Curriculum, Assessment, Leadership, and Instruction. At first, it was extremely intimidating to work with teachers; however, it turned out to be very similar to working with peers in the classroom environment.
I was placed in the Curriculum group, so we focused on the way students are being impacted by the Charter Oak's curriculum and its standards. It was very interesting to work aside superiors, but it was a great relief to have some of my peers in the same focus group as me. Students were only asked to participate in two schedule conferences, August 30th and October 2nd. Our school really made a good effort in integrating these dates as they schedule them as minimum days, allowing teachers (and participating students) to efficiently make the meetings after their classes.
In 2012, I was asked by Ms. Block, Charter Oak High School's dean, to help participate in the WASC school accreditation. Essentially, our school gets assessed every six years to ensure that we are on track. If the school gets a thumbs-up, WASC comes back in another six years to assess us again. If not, they come back the next year.
As students, we have first-hand experience in how our school is actually doing. Ms. Block asked several students and me to take part in this so that the each focus group gets an idea of how they are doing internally. There were five focus groups: Vision, Curriculum, Assessment, Leadership, and Instruction. At first, it was extremely intimidating to work with teachers; however, it turned out to be very similar to working with peers in the classroom environment.
I was placed in the Curriculum group, so we focused on the way students are being impacted by the Charter Oak's curriculum and its standards. It was very interesting to work aside superiors, but it was a great relief to have some of my peers in the same focus group as me. Students were only asked to participate in two schedule conferences, August 30th and October 2nd. Our school really made a good effort in integrating these dates as they schedule them as minimum days, allowing teachers (and participating students) to efficiently make the meetings after their classes.