Students will soon be able to provide input for deciding Paly’s areas of improvement for an accreditation self-assessment via teacher suggestions, call slips, and open lunch meetings for discussion.

According to Kindel Launer, Western Accreditation of Schools and Colleges coordinator for this year, student input will be requested within the next few weeks. She plans on using call slips as a means of contacting a random selection of students for discussions as well as asking teachers to suggest students who would be interested in participating in the process. Launer also mentioned having certain lunch periods open for discussions where students can attend to give their own input.

Currently, Paly staff and parents are working towards creating a final draft of Paly’s Critical Areas of Need for the WASC self-assessment this year, according to Launer.

To begin the WASC process, Paly staff have been divided into five focus groups: Leadership and Vision, Curriculum, Instruction, Assessment, and Support for Students. In each of these groups, members are assigned the task of suggesting where improvements for their specific area.

The final draft of the Critical Areas of Need tries to encompass what the groups feel are Paly’s greatest weaknesses, Launer said.

“It’s a different process this year,” said Kaye Paugh, one of the Support for Students Focus Group leaders. “There is a lot more of need built into the process to talk it out and refine the Critical Areas of Need.”

Currently, the draft for the Critical Areas of Need suggests that efforts be made to create a more professional learning community and improve students’ college readiness, equity, support for all students, and vertical and horizontal curricular alignment. However, some of these areas may be expanded or collapsed together, while what specific actions each area will require remains to be decided, Launer said.

“The most important part of doing a self-study is to be transparent,” Launer said. “That way, everyone is on the same page.”

The WASC process, according to Launer, allows for continual improvement of schools.

The 1997 self-study Critical Areas of Need were technology, curriculum and assessment, student support and empowerment, and communication, according to the 2003 Visiting Team Report.

The goal for technology, according to the 1997 WASC report referenced in the 2003 Visiting Team Report, was to improve and increase the use of technology at the school. In the curriculum area, the focus was the development of consistent standards of achievement. The third action plan – focusing on student support and empowerment – was defined as the need to “improve and increase the Palo Alto network for student support so that all students can feel that they have an influence at Palo Alto and that they will receive help and achieve at the highest levels.” Lastly, the communication action plan involved improving communication between all members of the Paly community.

WASC assessments are conducted every seventh year, according to Launer.