Accreditation and College Preparation

Accreditation

Explorations Academy is a fully accredited secondary school, gaining provisional accreditation with the Northwest Accreditation Commission (NWAC),  then called the Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges, in 1996.  Explorations was recognized in 1998 as having earned full accreditation through NWAC.  Accreditation provides an objective, external assessment of a school's organizational and academic integrity.  Accreditation also ensures that students graduating from Explorations Academy will have their credits and transcripts honored by any accredited college or university.  We are proud to be a NWAC fully accredited school.

Not content to rest on past achievements, Explorations Academy joined the Pacific Northwest Association of Independent Schools (PNAIS).  The PNAIS accredits only non-public institutions, and has a more complex and demanding accreditation process than the NWAC.  After two years of membership in the PNAIS, Explorations Academy earned Candidate School status in early 2010. This move is indicative of our commitment to continuous quality improvement, and we are slated to reach full PNAIS accreditation by 2014.  At that point Explorations Academy will carry full accreditation with both the major accrediting bodies in our region.

College Preparation

College preparation at Explorations Academy takes many forms.  At the most basic level, we give young people the intellectual tools to succeed in an academically challenging setting.  Our program is writing-intensive, so students gain the ability to research, organize, and present complex ideas long before they reach college.  Curriculum at Explorations is also interdisciplinary and designed by teachers to be relevant to contemporary issues.  Since this goal is addressed better by college than high school curricular resources, students at Explorations are often exposed to excerpts from college texts and professional journals.

Independent thought -- certainly emphasized by the best colleges -- is an important feature of an Explorations Academy education.  Our students are regularly encouraged to pursue study in areas of personal interest, which increases their motivation, while also preparing them for a more self-directed learning environment.  Explorations students typically develop their first independent study course in their third year, and all graduates complete a full term of self-designed study prior to graduation.  These challenges give them important skills for collegiate study.

Not least, Explorations students frequently visit college campuses while on field study outings.  Since meeting with college professors is a good way to take high school material to the next level, our outings often include stops at the University of Washington, University of British Columbia, Central Washington University, the Evergreen State College, University of Victoria, etc.  Well before they graduate, Explorations Academy students are familiar with the libraries, lecture halls, labs and auditoriums of the college world!

Service and Citizenship

Community responsibility is central to our mission. Frequent service projects connect students with their community. When possible, we link service learning with our curriculum to enhance its relevance.  By expanding young people's experiences to include meaningful service learning, their role in both the local and global community comes into focus. Students learn too that they have valuable skills to offer and that their role in society is important. Our students contribute more than 500 collective house of community service each year.