Monday, February 29, 2016

Assuring quality now and in the future...


               
By the time you read this, we will have concluded our accreditation visit by WCEA/WASC (Western Catholic Educational Association/Western Association of Schools & Colleges). Some might not be aware of the fact that La Salle belongs to two accrediting associations – one is for Catholic schools (WCEA) and one is for private and public schools (WASC).  Because we are, first and foremost, a Catholic school, we care deeply about “measuring up” to the standards of WCEA; but, because we also care deeply about meeting the standards of area private schools with whom we compete for Mission-appropriate students, we belong to WASC as well.  Fortunately for us, both agencies cooperate with each other when it comes to accrediting schools like La Salle who have a foot in more than one educational world.

                As such, we want to make sure that we are authentically Catholic and authentically college-preparatory. Accreditation by WCEA and WASC assures the community we serve that we can deliver on both counts. What does that look like? As Brother Christopher explained to the students this morning, the process involved spending the last eighteen months seeking the opinions of all La Salle constituents (Employees, Parents, Students, Alums, Trustees, Regents and Community representatives) via on-line surveys and various in-person opportunities (such as Parent Association meetings, Governance meetings, Student assemblies and Alumni gatherings) to learn from the people we serve what we do well and what we can do better. These encounters produced hundreds of pages of data which we then examined and synthesized to produce a “snapshot” of what La Salle looks like right now and what it should look like in the next five to ten years.

                What is unique about the process we are experiencing now is that, over the course of roughly the same time frame we also underwent a strategic planning process which focused on six broad initiatives we believe will position La Salle for long-term success in the highly competitive educational marketplace that surrounds the City of Pasadena.  While the two processes are not necessarily in alignment – one seeks to produce a “snapshot” of the current situation; the other makes claims about what the future will look like – they happily overlapped in one particular area: the development of an educational improvement plan designed to ensure that La Salle continues to provide a quality product for the students entrusted to our care.

                To that end, four of the six strategic goals:

1.       Expand and deepen Lasallian formation programs to better articulate the School’s Catholic and Lasallian identity.

2.       Ensure the delivery of a relevant and challenging college preparatory curriculum to address the diverse learning needs of all students.

3.       Strengthen the recruitment of a diverse faculty and staff to better align with a diverse student population.

4.       Strengthen the quality of the student experience outside of the classroom in:

•     Athletics

•     Guidance & Counseling

•     Student Life

became the basis of the WCEA/WASC educational improvement plan, while the last two goals:



5.       Ensure campus facilities effectively support the implementation of the Mission

6.       Ensure sustainability of the Mission through efficient and effective leveraging of Finance, Development and Marketing functions

anchor the Master Plan that is slowly wending its way through the Pasadena city approval process.  We are proud of the synergy created by the alignment of the accreditation, strategic and master planning processes at this particular moment in the School’s history. This alignment tells us that we have “got it right” when it comes to understanding what our community expects of La Salle in terms of delivering a high-quality college preparatory education to the largest and most ethnically and economically diverse student populations in the Greater Pasadena area.

                A fundamental component of the strategic planning process and, implicit in the accreditation process, has been the promotion of this value proposition:

What distinguishes La Salle from the other college-preparatory high schools in the greater Pasadena area is the opportunity for students to nurture their individual passion in academics, the arts, athletics and/or the spiritual life. Because it is the largest private high school in Pasadena, La Salle is able to offer a diversity of opportunities both in and out of the classroom that is unparalleled among its peers.

If one views the four goals of the EIP through the lens of this value proposition, I think it becomes obvious that the “snapshot” we have provided for the WCEA/WASC Visiting Committee and the future we envision for La Salle are not only in alignment, but offer an exciting opportunity to cement our vision of being “the school of choice in the San Gabriel Valley.”

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