Edna Whetstone

The Accreditation Process
as it relates to Continuation High Schools

November 1997

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ABSTRACT

High school accreditation is a common practice among traditional high schools. However, it is a relatively new phenomenon among continuation high schools, and other alternative schools. Of the approximately 500 continuation schools in California, fewer than half are currently accredited. Yet, each year, more and more of such schools are seeking accreditation to not only ensure the credits earned by their students will be accepted at colleges and other high schools, but to also add credibility to their instructional programs.

The process of accreditation is especially difficult for continuation high schools because the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) guidelines and materials are not designed for these smaller school campuses. Their training sessions and training manuals are geared for traditional high schools. Therefore, adaptations need to be made in order to accommodate the formats of the smaller schools.

In preparing for this project, it soon became clear to me that I was developing something new. There is no literature out there on this particular topic. But it also became very clear that this project is definitely needed. After presenting four separate workshops before approximately 200 administrators from throughout the state of California, I became more convinced than ever of the need for this project.

Due to the lack of literature regarding accreditation for continuation schools, I decided to instead research and report on the history and evolution of the continuation schools in the state of California, as well as a look at the accrediting body, the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, and its organizational structure, history and purposes. It is important that the educational world develop a better understanding of the complexities of continuation education and the tremendous impact such schools are having. There has been little understanding of continuation education and even less interest on the part of many school districts. It is time that misconceptions be cleared up and proper attention given to this type of educational delivery which involves approximately ten percent of the student population of California.

The purpose of the handbook is to provide a step-by-step self-study process for continuation schools. The handbook enables administrators, self-study coordinators, self-study leaders, and all others involved in the accreditation process at such schools to more easily and competently complete their self-study.

The handbook presents modifications to the self-study training manual provided by WASC in order to more readily answer the needs of the smaller high school campuses. All parts of the WASC manual were adapted to accommodate smaller schools without lowering the expectations for these schools. The handbook maintains high standards for the self-study process and in many cases, because of its usefulness to the smaller schools, the standards may be even higher than those at the traditional high schools.

The handbook is basically a description of how one continuation high school successfully addressed the WASC self-study process. The handbook will be updated as necessary and will continue to be available to members of the California Continuation Education Association.