Re: School media certification

[Frank Wallace <fwallac@EIS.CALSTATE.EDU>]

California, through the Western Association of Schools and Colleges
(WASC), conducts accreditation reviews, including extensive self-study
reports, of high schools and community colleges.  They may accredit
private universities as well.  The self study lumps library services as a
component in curriculum support or some such title.  The critical feature
of the WASC review is that an unacceptable review result means that the
Univ. of California and the Calif. State Univ. admissions offices are not
obligated to accept graduates of such high schools.  Publicly, if such a
slap occurred, would be a significant discrediting of a school and its
district.

However, a poor assessment of the library/media program would not be the
only grounds for a poor rating during an accreditation review.  Thus,
this process of accreditation is not the same as a focus certification of
the library/media program.  There is no mechanism in California for this
- that I am aware of.  I don't know if such a process even exists for
public libraries (since they receive federal funds via the California
State Library).

This may not be particularly useful for you - but it is an important
topic across the states.

Frank Wallace
California Dept. of Education
(fwallac@eis.calstate.edu)