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April 20,2023

Interview of Dr. Brown's WASC Visit

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By Camilla Chen ('29) & Sophia Yu ('29)

WASC stands for the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. Dr. Brown is an evaluator of the WASC organization. He describes WASC as, “an organization that assures schools are at a high quality standard and provides guidance to help schools improve.” Without accreditation, people have no way of knowing the standard of a school. AST is WASC accredited and it shows that we met the quality of educational excellence that compares to other schools around the world. Schools that do not receive accreditation have a greater challenge of having their courses not being recognized internationally, therefore getting into a university can be more difficult.

Dr. Brown became a WASC member by going through training and selection. A benefit of being a WASC evaluator is to be able to go into schools and see different perspectives and approaches to learning. From the most recent WASC visit, Dr. Brown was making sure that the school was following through on the advice shared in a previous visit. Dr. Brown has gained a lot of knowledge from being a WASC member. He has learned how to evaluate schools and that every school has another step to take to be even better (continuous improvement).

Being an evaluator, he recognizes the great things the school is doing and shares how to approach challenges from a different perspective. He has met many brilliant educators and scholars. One of them really stood out to him was Dr. Marilyn George, the Executive Vice President of WASC. Despite having such a high status and many years of experience, she remains humble, thoughtful and respectful. Dr. Brown describes her as a “guru” and was fortunate enough to co-chair with her on a previous WASC visit. Dr. Brown learned that there is always room for progress and growth no matter how much experience a person has.

WASC 是美國西部學校和學院協會。 Dr. Brown是 WASC 的評委之一，他將 WASC 形容為「一個確保學校達到高質量標準，並提供指導以幫助學校改進的組織」。沒有認證，人們無法了解一所學校的水平。 AST 獲得了 WASC 認證，這表示我們達到了能與世界其他學校相比的卓越教育品質。沒有獲得認證的學校面臨較大的挑戰，因為他們的課程未獲國際認可，因此在申請大學上可能較為困難。

Dr. Brown通過培訓和選拔而成為WASC評委，成為評委的好處是能夠進入其他學校並看到不同的學習觀點和方法。從最近一次 WASC 訪問中，Dr. Brown確保此所學校正執行上次訪問中所給的建議。作為 WASC 成員，Dr. Brown 獲得了很多知識，他學習如何評估學校，深信每所學校都能更努力的持續進步。

作為一名評委，他了解到教育界正在做偉大的事，並分享如何從不同的角度應對挑戰。他結識了許多傑出的教育家和學者，其中一位讓他印象深刻的是 WASC 副執行長 Dr. Marilyn George，儘管她擁有如此高的地位和多年的經驗，仍然保持謙虛、體貼和尊重人的態度。校長稱她為「大師」，並有幸在之前的 WASC 訪問中與她一同參與。校長了解到無論一個人有多少經驗，總是有進步和成長的空間。

陳德沄(‘29) 余亮妍 ('29) 撰稿