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Twenty years of WELS Schools Accreditation

This school year, WELS Schools Accreditation (WELSSA) is marking 20 years of helping WELS schools provide the assurance of a quality, Christ-centered education to families.

The WELSSA process reviews and evaluates a school’s mission and its faithfulness to that mission, the business and administration practices of the school, policies (such as safety), curriculum, the facility itself, and how student services are being offered.

“Accreditation is really about assurance,” says Paul Patterson, associate director of the WELS Commission on Lutheran Schools. “You’re being assured that you’re doing the things that good schools should be doing and that you are meeting the needs of students. It’s assurance that the ministry aspect of what you’re doing is active and working, so that the gospel is spread.”

According to Patterson, accreditation is a two-part improvement process: a self-study in which the school examines how it measures up against a set of standards and a peer review in which a team from other schools comes in to verify the self-study. “If a school is meeting 85 percent of our standards, then we recommend that the Commission on Lutheran Schools, WELSSA’s governing board, accredits the school,” says Patterson.

all school photo of Emanuel tigers
An all-school photo of the students at Emanuel Lutheran School, New London, Wis., for the 2024–25 school year. Emanuel continues to strive for improvement after its initial accreditation from WELSSA as it serves 184 students from grades K to 8 and 44 students in its early childhood program.

Emanuel Lutheran School, New London, Wis., was one of the first WELS schools to go through the process during the 2004–05 school year. “It took a number of months,” says Scarlett Koehler, business administrator at Emanuel who was involved in the initial accreditation process. “We had a huge team of people who broke down all the aspects of it. We really got a better handle on areas of improvement needed and on areas where we met the standards.”

William Fuerstenau, Emanuel’s current principal, has been through the accreditation process several times as well as served on peer review teams. “I really view WELSSA as the gold standard of school improvement,” he says. “I enjoy taking that deep dive into all the different aspects of running a Lutheran school and making sure that we’re being effective and holding ourselves accountable to set standards.”

This program is not simply to put a stamp on a school to declare it “good,” but rather it’s a process of continual improvement and ongoing evaluation. “The most valuable thing that comes out of a site visit is that you put together a school improvement plan,” says Fuerstenau. This six-year plan has yearly goals and objectives and concludes with another self-study by the school and visit from a peer review team. Says Furstenau, “It’s a never-ending process.”

Currently, 162 WELS schools are accredited by WELSSA—about 50 percent of Lutheran elementary schools and high schools and about 25 percent of early childhood programs. Thirteen schools and early childhood ministries are working through the process for the first time.

“We are so thankful for God’s grace for the 20 years he has allowed WELSSA to exist,” says Patterson. “We pray that his grace would continue to help schools improve so that families who send their kids to our schools can know their kids are getting a great education and they are being connected to Jesus.”

Learn more at cls.welsrc.net/welssa.

Author: FIC
Volume 112, Number 02
Issue: February 2025

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