Accreditation

Our school is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). WASC accreditation ensures that your children receive reciprocity of credits, courses, and grade-level placements with schools and universities around the world, and indicates that our curriculum and teachers meet state and U.S. standards.

Accreditation is an ongoing process of self-study, goal-setting and evaluation. During the self-study phase of the accrediting process, our school compiles data about our programs from all members of our community, including students, parents and teachers. The WASC accrediting committee is focused on our ability to articulate and implement an educational mission that demonstrably benefits our students.  A visiting committee composed of peer educators visits Laurel Springs School to evaluate all aspects of our program, and ensures that we meet accreditation guidelines.

One of our parents shared the following comment on our WASC discussion forum about her experience with Laurel Springs:

“As a parent, I feel that Laurel Springs has always had high expectations and fostered self esteem. We have been with the school going on five years. From the first phone call to register, my daughter was treated as an individual and we immediately felt like we were part of a family. Coming from a public school system where students had no individuality and expectations were low, we found that her teachers at Laurel Springs did not judge her for writing her opinions and she was encouraged to write what she thought on a subject, even if it was a bit “outside the box. She had not had those opportunities in the past. She was always bored with her classes.

Laurel Springs expectations are above normal and challenge the students to grow beyond the standard level. My daughter looks forward to her classes and has not been bored since we started. If there was a subject or project that was not challenging enough she contacted her teacher and together they would come up with alternate assignments. Goals were then met and most times the end product was a higher standard than the original assignment. In one of her History classes she already knew all of the material so we talked to her teacher and she was able to take a higher level class which gave her new information and challenged her.

The communication between teachers, students, parents and advisers has been consistent. When talking to our enrollment advisor she is always interested in our opinions of how classes are structured and what did or did not work in a particular class. The student’s opinion counts as much if not more than the opinion of the parents. It is important that that occurs. The student then feels comfortable giving suggestions and being recognized for those.”

We encourage our families to participate in an active dialog about what is working and where we can improve our offerings. We are proud to be able to offer your children an accredited distance learning program with a flexible schedule that meets their individual needs and abilities.