WCEA

An accredited school has been inspected by an outside organization and is recognized as meeting the standards of excellence in operating as a school, including its teaching and care for students. In effect, the accrediting organization creates industry standards a school must meet. During the accreditation process, our school completes a self-study which is followed by a 3 day visit from a committee that confirms the validity of the report to ensure students receive the faith formation, content knowledge, academic skills, and support that is required for them to progress in their learning and, eventually, continue to a college or university.

When reviewing our graduates’ applications, universities have confidence the students are academically prepared because they attended an accredited institution. This gives universities a frame of reference for what the student was taught and how much they learned and confirms the validity and value of the diploma. Rather than require a battery of tests and evaluations to determine if the student is accepted, the diploma from an accredited school establishes a standard expectation that can be relied upon. From a school perspective, another key reason why accreditation is so important is that it allows the school to set goals to achieve its full potential and to have opportunities to reflect on what it is doing well and where it can improve. This opportunity to be introspective can be challenging since it requires everyone to step out of the work of the day and think about how they can do it better tomorrow.

As a Catholic school, our accrediting agency is called the Western Catholic Educators Association. Everyone calls it WCEA. WCEA is dedicated to guiding schools on a path of continuous improvement through their self-assessment accreditation process. Accreditation involves a thorough introspection by the school to determine what we do well and what we can do to improve the learning needs of our students. Our WCEA study requires us to look at four areas of our community: our Catholic identity, our governance, our academic program, and our operational vitality. If you were part of our SM community last year, you probably remember being invited to provide your input by completing a student WCEA survey.