Farrington High School goes through the long awaited accreditation process.
Accreditation is a process in which all schools go through. Becoming accredited in essence means a student's diploma is verified. The W.A.S.C program has been a thing since 1962, that’s how long they’ve been helping school’s get accredited and what’s even better is that the program is completely voluntary, where board members do their job out of love for their students.
Jonathan Tiongco who is a principal at Alliance Marine-Innovation and Tech G-12 complex proudly states, “several of us have had different years of experience volunteering and supporting, so none of us are working for them. All of the visiting committees who support and evaluate schools and give feedback, we are all doing this for free.”
Daisy Lee who is a problem solving/data, testing and intervention coordinator at Phineas Banning High school said, “some of our colleagues, like my colleagues, thought that I get paid. We wake up at 5 a.m. and some of us don’t go home until post midnight but we do it because we enjoy being here.” Lee continued with, “it’s always about the students, are we doing everything we can from safety to your food, to your teachers.”
Ron Smith, a teacher at Maui High School talked about his experience: “this is my second visit, it’s nice because I get to work with a different team and learn from them as well and what's beneficial for us is to evaluate.” Ron continued, “to see the thing’s you're doing but we learn so much that we can even take back to our schools as well, so it’s a benefit for us to be present with you.”
"In order for a high school diploma or a college diploma to be valid, a school or university must be accredited." Jonathan Tiongco principal at Alliance Marine-Innovation and Tech G-12 complex
The importance of a schools accreditation is reinforced when Lee stated, “it is a process that is required, it is important that we can make sure that from school, to school, to school, fellow educators are coming too [teachers are also involved in the process].” Lee continued “it’s not really evaluative although it is in some way but it isn’t since we’re mainly focusing on helping make sure that the process is present from each school. It’s not going to always be equal but at least we hope it's equitable regardless of the situation depending on where we are or the type of students.”
The importance of the accreditation process cannot be understated. Christina Russo, a teacher at Campbell High School said, “it’s kind of like in a classroom, the teachers are there to help students grow. The accreditation process is like that on a larger scale; the accreditation committee is here to help the school grow.”
Dr. Susan Gonsalves Curriculum Coordinator at Aiea High School added to Russo’s statement, “I think that the accreditation process actually supports students. So the school’s say we’re doing this great job in educating you and you’ll be ready to enter college or your career. So we’re here to educate you and make sure that what you are saying is accurate so when you graduate, your diploma actually means something.”
Tiongco added, “in order for a high school diploma or a college diploma to be valid, a school or university must be accredited."
All schools started out unaccredited as one were to assume, they all had to get to this level of verification somehow. “By the time you get your first unaccredited class, you work towards your first accreditation.” said Tiongco. Lee stated that the first ever visit you’d get from W.A.S.C would be called a pilot which is typically three years just to make sure that everybody is aligned then the full self study after which you’d get on this cycle for a full six years.
When W.A.S.C enters a school or anyone for that matter, there will be expectations that everyone has just judging from what they’ve heard and with expectations means keeping a close eye. “For me the involvement of everybody, from your campus security to your teachers, to the office staff and to the teachers. It’s not just the teachers but even the students and the parents. Are we all really involved in making sure you have the best?” said Lee.
W.A.S.C as an organization is here in the aid of all schools from Farrington and beyond, they take pride in caring for the students and making sure that we get the best education and guarantee our success.
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