Accreditation
WHPS has been fully accredited since 1996 and has continually maintained the highest level of accreditation available.
A Rigorous Look at the Whole School
WASC accreditation asks a school to open its doors to experienced educators from outside the community for a rigorous examination of the entire program.
That includes teaching and learning, the research and educational principles behind the curriculum, evidence of student achievement and growth, faculty and leadership, school culture, operations, student experience, and continuous improvement.
WHPS has been WASC accredited since 1996 and has consistently earned the highest accreditation term available: a full six-year accreditation.
Our most recent visiting committee did more than affirm the strength of the school. They identified many of the same qualities that make the WHPS experience unusually difficult to replicate elsewhere.
They Saw Personalization Working.
Personalized learning is easy to promise. Making it real requires the people, curriculum, assessment, and classroom structures to respond to individual children every day. WASC saw those systems operating throughout WHPS.
Team Teaching With a Purpose
The visiting team recognized WHPS's team-teaching model as a powerful structure for individualizing instruction, creating flexible groups, observing students closely, and responding to what each child is ready to learn next.
An Individualized Curriculum
They saw workshop-based instruction, ongoing formative assessment, and differentiation working together so children could receive support where needed and greater depth and challenge where they were ready to go further.
Learning Progressions Across the Curriculum
Rather than treating grade level as a ceiling or a single starting point, teachers use developmental progressions to understand what a student knows now and identify the skills, concepts, and challenges that should come next.
Student Achievement That Shows the Impact
The committee reviewed evidence of student achievement and growth that demonstrated the impact of WHPS's workshop approach, team teaching, individualized instruction, and progression-based curriculum.
WASC noted the unusual breadth of enrichment WHPS students receive as part of the core program. Science and nature, technology, coding and robotics, visual and performing arts, music, Spanish, physical education, and other specialist experiences are not programs families have to assemble around school. They are part of school.
That breadth matters because children can't discover an interest, strength, or ability they have never had the opportunity to encounter.
A Science Program That Stood Apart
Among the program's distinctive assets, the Science & Nature Center stood out. The visiting committee recognized the on-campus teaching zoo as an exceptional resource that elevates the curriculum through learning opportunities they had not encountered at other schools.
With more than 80 animals on campus, students can observe living systems, care for animals, investigate questions firsthand, and connect increasingly sophisticated science to the living world directly in front of them.
What begins with wonder becomes serious scientific learning.
Some of the Most Striking Evidence Came From the Children Themselves.
The visiting committee was especially struck by how thoughtfully even five- and six-year-olds could talk about their own learning journey: what they were working on, the goals they had set, where they were growing, their friendships and relationships, and what they were learning about themselves.
This kind of self-knowledge develops intentionally. Children make meaningful choices, reflect on their progress, learn to recognize strengths and challenges, and increasingly understand what helps them learn, contribute, solve problems, and navigate relationships.
For a young child to understand not only what they are learning, but how they are growing as a learner and a person, says something important about the kind of education happening here.
A Place Where Children Can Be Themselves
The committee recognized a strong, supportive community where children's individuality remains at the forefront, high expectations coexist with respect for individual and cultural differences, and students develop a meaningful sense of identity and respect for others.
Students described WHPS as a place where they could “be themselves and feel safe.”
WASC Visiting CommitteeWASC also recognized strong connections between school and family, along with students' growing ability to understand and advocate for their own academic and social-emotional needs.
WASC also recognized a culture that continually examines what is best for students. The committee saw educators reflecting on evidence, collaborating closely, refining practice, and being encouraged to innovate rather than simply repeat what has always been done.
A six-year accreditation isn't permission to stand still. It's affirmation of the foundation from which we keep growing.
Prepared to Flourish Beyond WHPS
WASC recognized that WHPS students are well prepared for successful matriculation to middle school and heard directly from alumni families that their children were prepared and flourishing at the next level.
Those results reflect more than admissions preparation. By fifth grade, students have spent years setting goals, reflecting on their growth, presenting and defending their thinking, developing leadership skills, and learning to advocate for themselves.
They leave WHPS ready not only to get into the right next school, but to flourish when they get there.
Different Children. Different Next Chapters.
Los Angeles offers families an unusually rich and diverse range of middle-school choices. Some WHPS graduates attend the same schools year after year, while others take very different paths based on their interests, strengths, learning needs, family values, and the kind of community in which they are most likely to thrive.
Our goal isn't to steer every child toward the same destination. It's to help each family find the right next one.
Independent & College-Preparatory
Archer · Buckley · Harvard-Westlake · Oakwood · Sierra Canyon · Viewpoint · Wesley · Wildwood
Small, Progressive & Individualized
Country School · Fusion Academy · Manzanita · Qualia · Woodcrest
Gifted & Specialized
Mirman · REVO Academy · Westmark
Public, Charter & Magnet
CHIME · Hale Charter Academy · Ivy Academia · Medea Creek · SOCES · Valley Community Charter · Woodland Hills Academy & Humanities Magnet
The range matters. WHPS graduates move on to many different kinds of schools because our students are many different kinds of learners.
Personalized From WHPS to What Comes Next
We help each family identify schools that align with their child's strengths, interests, learning style, goals, and the kind of community in which they are most likely to thrive.
Hear Directly From Alumni Families
Each year, we invite families to an alumni panel discussion for a candid look at different middle-school experiences. It's another way we help families get beneath the surface of brochures, rankings, and reputations as they consider what may be the right fit.
