ACCREDITATION

 

The Western Catholic Educational Association (WCEA) is pleased to announce the action taken by its Elementary Commission wherein St. Thomas More School is awarded a full term of accreditation through June 30, 2025.

 

What is WCEA?

 

The Western Catholic Educational Association is a private educational accrediting agency established under the auspices of the Bishops of the Catholic (Arch) Dioceses of California.

 

 

The mission of the WCEA is to promote quality Catholic education for students in our member elementary and secondary schools through an accrediting process that assures the primacy of faith formation and educational excellence.

 

The major purpose of this agency is to coordinate the accreditation process by assisting schools in their self-study evaluative programs to establish general standards for excellence to grant WCEA Accreditation, and to cooperate formally with regional accrediting organizations as determined by the WCEA Board of Directors.

 

What is Accreditation?

Each member diocese has both an elementary school and high school commissioner. It is the responsibility of the respective commissioners to assist the school community in the preparation of a Self Study Document using an approved Protocol (Process for School Improvement for the elementary schools, and Focus On Learning for Catholic High Schools).  These protocols are criteria-based and lead the school to examine specific aspects of school life and the extent to which the criteria are currently being met. The school community then prepares for a three-day visit by an accreditation team composed of educators who are trained evaluators from other schools with educational expertise.

 

A visiting team spends three days with the school community after review of the Self Study document. During the visit, the team visits classrooms, investigates the written evidence of responses to the WCEA criteria, holds interviews with the members of the school community, and prepares a written report on its findings during the three-day visit.  The team also writes a recommendation of a term of accreditation based upon factors relative to the school community's success and growth needs.