Western Association of Schools and Colleges

The Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) is one of six official academic bodies responsible for the accreditation of public and private universities, colleges, secondary and elementary schools in the United States and foreign institutions of American origin. The Western Association of Schools and Colleges has jurisdiction over the U.S. states of California and Hawaii, its territories of Guam, American Samoa and Northern Marianas Islands, in addition to the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, the Pacific Rim, East Asia, and areas of the Pacific and East Asia where American schools or colleges may apply to it for service.

Western Association of Schools and Colleges is divided into three groups. The Accrediting Commission for Schools accredits all schools below the college level. Included are elementary, junior high, middle, high and adult schools, whether public, private, or church-related. The Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges evaluates and accredits public and private post-secondary institutions that offer two-year education programs and award the associate degree. The Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities accredits public and private senior colleges and universities.

Famous quotes containing the words western, association, schools and/or colleges:

    “So-called Western Civilization, as practised in half of Europe, some of Asia and a few parts of North America, is better than anything else available. Western civilization not only provides a bit of life, a pinch of liberty and the occasional pursuance of happiness, it’s also the only thing that’s ever tried to. Our civilization is the first in history to show even the slightest concern for average, undistinguished, none-too-commendable people like us.”
    —P.J. (Patrick Jake)

    “A good marriage ... is a sweet association in life: full of constancy, trust, and an infinite number of useful and solid services and mutual obligations.”
    —Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)

    “If the women of the United States, with their free schools and all their enlarged liberties, are not superior to women brought up under monarchical forms of government, then there is no good in liberty.”
    —Anna Howard Shaw (1847–1919)

    “I learn immediately from any speaker how much he has already lived, through the poverty or the splendor of his speech. Life lies behind us as the quarry from whence we get tiles and copestones for the masonry of today. This is the way to learn grammar. Colleges and books only copy the language which the field and the work-yard made.”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)