Western Association Of Schools Research Articles

Language Policy in English-Medium International Schools: Transparency, Policy Cycle, and Implications

Although many international schools sincerely seek student well-being, many school leaders and owners fail to grasp how language is a crucial factor contributing to student well-being. While many international schools seek outside endorsement to reflect their efforts toward student well-being, endorsement often fails to ensure the realization of intentions expressed in school policy, including a school language policy. Developing and implementing a formal written language policy can provide transparency and an opportunity for schools to formulate, implement, review, and revise a planned approach for language use throughout the school community, including instruction, assessment, and academic and social discourse. This cross-sectional study reports findings on language policy transparency and policy cycle completion in 1,633 English-medium international schools in 2020 and 1,892 in 2023 within countries in East and Southeast Asia. These findings reveal that while schools authorized, affiliated, or accredited by the Council of International Schools, International Baccalaureate Organization, and Western Association of Schools and Colleges were statistically more likely to have language policies compared to non-affiliated schools, only about four percent of the schools in 2020 and six percent in 2023 displayed a formal written language policy on their website. Further, only about two percent of the schools in 2020 and 2023 displayed a formal written language policy showing the review date within three years, possibly reflecting the completion of a policy cycle. Considering most students attending English-medium international schools are non-native English speakers, these findings should sound an alarm concerning student well-being in English-medium international schools worldwide.

Kanne Lobal: A conceptual framework relating education and leadership partnerships in the Marshall Islands

Kanne Lobal: A conceptual framework relating education and leadership partnerships in the Marshall Islands

Model for Planning an Athletic Facility

The Hong Kong International School (HKIS) is a private coeducational day school that serves students (Grades PK-12) who seek an American-style college preparatory education in a Christian setting. Located on the south side of Hong Kong Island on two separate campuses, approximately 5 km apart, the school is divided into four divisions: Lower Primary, Upper Primary, Middle School, and High School.The school is a member of the East Asia Regional Council of Schools and fully accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. The school serves 2,595 students, who come from business, government, and professional families. Of those enrolled in HKIS, 56% are from the United States, 8% are from Canada, and 6% are from Hong Kong, with the remaining 30% coming from approximately 30 other nations.HKIS recruits faculty locally and internationally, with 72% holding advanced degrees and serving an average tenure of 8 years. The faculty-student ratio is 1:9.In addition to the academic program, the school also targets growth in six domains, known as Student Learning Results: Academic Excellence, Spirituality, Character Development, Self-Motivated Learning, Contributing to Society, and Chinese Culture. The school offers a strong and vibrant cocurricular program with high student participation.This facility plan outlines the work and considerations involved in planning to repurpose a school sports facility, in this case two squash courts.Access to Suitable FacilitiesAccess to suitable facilities and open space in Asia can be a major challenge. Maximizing the use of facilities is the key to meeting the needs of the various programs within the school. Though HKIS is one of the lucky schools in Hong Kong, by international standards the physical space the school has to work with may be considered small. To maximize the footprint and offer as much educational, social, and athletic facility space as possible, the school was constructed on multiple levels and has a number of multipurpose facilities.In an attempt to maximize the potential for future users and minimize the impact on current users, for this project we followed a plan, review, and do approach. This plan involved the following steps: collect information and data about the current use and users, talk to staff, consult with those that manage the Master Facility Plan (MFP), identify and communicate with the stakeholders most likely to be affected, identify an alternate venue for any displaced users, and work with the main stakeholders to develop plans and reach an agreement around the planned renovations before submitting an application for the approval of capital works.The key stakeholders we identified for this project included director of facilities, high school athletic director, high school clubs and activities coordinator, middle school physical education chair, high school physical education chair, activities coordinator, middle school principal, high school principal, and the three staff members who were using the facility.Planning AssumptionsWe undertook the project in the summer of 2012, although the initial work began late in 2010. The demise of squash at HKIS began a few years earlier when the varsity squash team was withdrawn from the local schools competition because of a lack of student interest. The remaining students formed a social club as part of the High School Clubs and Activities Department. The interest in the club program also dwindled over the next 2 years and the club folded, leaving the two courts idle.The first step was to assess the use of the facility through the collection of data contained in the online booking system. The system can generate detailed reports for each facility, including hours of use per day and percentage of use for the various user groups. The reports confirmed that few to no bookings were occurring each week, but we also investigated faculty and student use that may have been occurring without a reservation. …

Program Assessment for an Undergraduate Statistics Major

Program assessment is used by institutions and/or departments to prompt conversations about the status of student learning and make informed decisions about educational programs. It is also typically required by accreditation agencies, such as the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) or the Western Association of Schools & Colleges (WASC). The cyclic assessment process includes four steps: establishing student learning outcomes, deciding on assessment methods, collecting and analyzing data, and reflecting on the results. The theory behind the choice of assessment methods and the use of rubrics in assessment is discussed. A description of the experiences of a Department of Statistics at a large research university during their process of developing an assessment plan for the undergraduate statistics major is provided. The article concludes with the lessons learned by the department as they completed the assessment development process. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.[Received December 2014. Revised July 2015]

Ysabel Bertolucci, AHIP, 1949–2012

Ysabel Bertolucci, AHIP, 1949–2012

A Bold Adventure in Innovation: An International Off-Campus Master’s Degree Program

In response to the global shortage of nursing faculty, Loma Linda University School of Nursing offered an off-campus master's degree program to prepare nurse educators who would commit to remain in their home countries following graduation. The program was approved by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges to be offered in both English and Spanish. Students and faculty met for 1 month each year for 4 years at one of two international sites: Thailand or Argentina. Forty-five of 49 students completed the program. The cultural diversity in both cohorts enriched classroom discussions, social interaction, and student-faculty conversations. The program was a life-changing experience for all involved and helped to meet the global need for nursing faculty. The faculty reported that it broadened their world view and opened their minds to the potential for innovation to transform nursing education.

A Library Compliance Strategy for Regional Accreditation Standards: Using ACRL Higher Education Standards with Community and Junior Colleges in the Western Association of Schools and Colleges

The standards of the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges provide accreditation guidance for two-year libraries in their jurisdiction. These standards are the basis for a successful evaluation of the libraries. However, the ACRL Standards for Libraries in Higher Education and the associated workbook provide significant guidance and assistance in crafting a successful assessment. The library at Windward Community College is used as an example of successful employment of this strategy to provide a thorough assessment, which was validated by the ACCJC accrediting visit. Appendices provide materials used by Windward library in the successful evaluation and are recommended for use by other libraries.

Specialized Accreditation and the Library

Accrediting agencies come in two sizes, the large regional associations that determine academic standards throughout the United States such as the Western Association of Schools and Colleges or North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, and smaller specialized agencies that determine specific criteria for academic programs such as Accrediting Bureau of Engineering Technology (ABET) or American Psychological Association (APA). On the surface, both types of accreditation are voluntary. However, essentials in the world of academia, such as government, state and local funding, are dependent on, at a minimum, regional accreditation. Thus, regional accreditation is sought by all. In the current world of tight funding, however, the role of specialized accreditation is taking on significance even though it plays a different, but similar role.

Assessment and accreditation

AbstractAs accrediting agencies move to make assessment a more significant part of the accrediting process, the entire assessment movement will be affected. Little attention has been paid to this role, notes Ralph A. Wolff, associate executive director at the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. The following is an excerpt from a paper he presented at the 1990 AAHE Assessment Forum, “Accreditation and Assessment: A Shotgun Marriage?”

Site visits in the accreditation process of the western association of schools and colleges (WASC)

Abstract School accreditation in California is the business of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). It is a combination of self‐study and site visit by a group of peers. Experience over six years of serving on a WASC team has demonstrated that the process lacks the rigour necessary to provide schools with constructive criticism. There are no objective criteria in the WASC process, and its value is vitiated by the reluctance of peers to expose themselves to reprisals.