Rita Elementary School and Laura High School were approved for accreditation last week by the US-based Western Association of Schools and Colleges, bringing to four the number of public schools in RMI that have US accreditation.
Public School System Commissioner Kanchi Hosia announced the WASC decisions at a PSS-sponsored dinner for teachers last Thursday at DAR’s Jitak En.
RES becomes the second public elementary school to be WASC accredited, joining Delap Elementary, while Laura High is the second public secondary school accredited along with Marshall Islands High School.
RES has been granted “initial accreditation status” through June 30, 2021. In a letter last week to Baldwin Robert, former RES principal and now PSS Project Implementation Unit Director for Improving the Quality of Basic Education (IQBE), WASC Chairperson Stephen Cathers said WASC “determined Rita Public Elementary School meets the WASC criteria for accreditation. The Commission looks forward to RES’s anticipated success and continuing improvement in keeping with WASC’s pursuit of excellence.”
Prior to June 30, 2021, RES is required to complete a “self-study” that outlines progress made in meeting recommendations from the initial WASC visit to the school. Following submission of the self-study, a WASC team will re-visit RES.
WASC Chairperson Cathers similarly wrote Laura High School Principal Jimmy Kemem that the Commission has taken Laura High off probation and restored its accreditation. “The accreditation cycle continues through June 30, 2022 with a two-day mid-cycle visit,” Cathers said.
He told Kemem that the school needs to prepare a progress report for the visit in 2020 that shows progress in addressing critical areas for follow up identified in the school’s action plan, including demonstrating improved student achievement.
Read more about this in the July 13, 2018 edition of the Marshall Islands Journal.