By Elizabeth Troutman |

Western Maricopa Education Center reported high attendance and academic achievement scores in the fall 2023 semester. 

West-MEC is a career and technical education school district with 45,000 students across its four campuses and 49 high schools in the West Valley. 

“West-MEC provides students with the technical and professional skills to realize their career dreams and achieve economic independence,” West-MEC Assistant Superintendent Stephen Weltsch said. “This responsibility is too important to leave to chance; the district’s learning system includes sophisticated metrics to track continual student progress.”

More than two-thirds of central program students earned at least one industry-recognized certificate for a total of 2,812 credentials. This marks an increase of more than 35% as compared to last year at this time.

More than half of the credentials earned are required or preferred by employers of each program’s respective fields. One-hundred percent of students enrolled in programs at West-MEC’s central campus earned credit during the fall semester, and 99% achieved a C or higher.

“Even though we are only halfway through the school year, these are phenomenal achievements by West-MEC’s students,” Weltsch said. 

West-MEC also reported high attendance rates, with 95% of students having less than ten absences, 71% less than five, and 15% of students with zero absences. 

“These high attendance rates are a true testament to West-MEC’s staff and its students’ engagement, commitment, and passion for the program they are in,” the Jan. 19 news release reads. 

Elizabeth Troutman is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send her news tips using this link.