XLIS ACS WASC Accreditation

On July 16th, 2022, Xi’an Liangjiatan International School was successfully accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) and has become one of the few WASC-accredited member schools in China. This official six-year WASC accreditation manifests not only a recognition of XLIS’s excellent operational management, but also an encouragement to the future development of our school. The WASC accreditation is a new authoritative international accreditation we have achieved after being authorized to deliver the IB Primary Years Programme, Middle Years Programme, Diploma Programme, and to be AP & SAT Examination Center as well as an ACAMIS member school.

 

1. What is WASC Accreditation?

Founded in 1962, WASC is a non-profit and non-governmental organization recognized by U.S. Department of Education as one of the six major associations that accredits public and private schools, colleges, universities and international schools. As one of the most widely accepted accreditation authorities around the world, it enjoys high reputation in education industry. WASC accreditation is comprised of three professional Accreditation Commissions: The Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities (ACSCU), the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges and the Accrediting Commission for Schools (ACS), which are responsible for accrediting schools at different levels respectively. ACS WASC provides its services to 5,200 public, independent, church-related, and proprietary pre-K–12 and adult schools. (acswasc.org)

 

2. Benefits of WASC Accreditation include:

· Assures a school community that the school’s purposes are appropriate and being accomplished through a viable education program— a trustworthy institution for student learning.

· Validates the integrity of the school’s program and transcripts.

· Facilitates transfer of credits to other English-speaking schools — critical for college/university acceptance worldwide.

· Provides a process for regularly examining programs, processes, and data around school goals and student learning through data analysis, reflection, inquiry, and dialogue.

· Builds a professional culture to support the schoolwide action plan.

· Fosters the continuous improvement of the school’s programs and operations to support student learning.

· Provides valuable insight from fellow educators visiting the school.

· Benefits schools that choose joint accreditation or other collaborative processes, e.g., ACS WASC and the IBO.(acswasc.org)

 

3. XLIS’s Accreditation Journey：

XLIS began its accreditation journey in 2019 by providing our policies for review as the first step. After these were accepted an initial visit was scheduled for April of that year. ASC WASC international consultant Barbara Parker and Peter Row, Principal of Elementary School Dalian American International School came out for our initial visit. This visit was successful and XLIS was left with five goals to work on: to align our Schoolwide Learner Outcomes to the IB Learner Profile, foster a culture of data analysis, focus on language acquisition, enhance child protection training and develop the dormitory program. The school developed an action plan and systematically worked towards our five main goals. XLIS convened all faculty members to form eight school-wide focus groups to carefully analyze all aspects of its curriculum and operations.

 

Eight School-wide Focus Groups

Organization for Student Learning led by Dr. Liu

What Students Learn led by Ms. Quinlan

How Students Learn led by Ms. Zialcita

Assessment led by Ms. Grinter

Student Support led by Mr. Halim

Child Protection led by Mr. Parker

Community Involvement led by Mr. Wright

Residential Life led by Ms. Liu

 

Through monthly meetings the focus groups constantly worked towards these five goals by means of data analysis, surveys, interviews, and generated our internal assessment report. A massively huge thanks to all of the concerted efforts contributed by all Focus Group members and our whole PTA. In April 2022, Peter Corcoran, the Head of School Canadian International School of Singapore led three other WASC visiting group members Kelly Braun, Jeffrey Edward and Christophe Gigon to officially launched the virtual evaluation.

 

With more and more international students across the world studying, growing and graduating here at XLIS, the international education of Xi ‘an High-tech Zone is developing in full wings towards the world-class standard, so as to cultivate ever-growing open-minded global citizens, which has attracted more international experts and friends stayed in Xi’an City and Shaanxi Province.

 

References：

ACS WASC Overview

Click here for more details.

 

Author: 

Lily Liu (Head of School)