High School Acceditation

This is moving down the food chain a bit but does anyone know about accreditation of high schools? I had an inquiry from a parent that is home schooling his high school aged son and is using a curiculum from an organization that claims accreditation from the "Commission on International And Trans-regional Accreditation." He wants his son to return to public school and is trying to find out if he can get the public school to accept the home schooling credits. Does accreditation work the same way at the high school level as at the college level (e.g. is it at the discretion of the school board if they accept credits from an unaccredited school or are they typically forbidden to accept such credits by their accreditor)? Any information anybody might have would be helpful.

 

Most regional accreditors have a divison that accredits High schools also, see: http://www.wascweb.org/ and then http://www.acswasc.org/

 

Most school districts have their own policies on acceptance of credit from other schools or home school programs. I would suggest that you inquire at your local school district.

 

Considering that CITA was founded by five regional accreditors, there should be no reason for his units not to be accepted. One of CITA's areas is distance learning (and, in this case, it appears your homeschooling friend was using DL materials). As long as the organization truly is accredited by CITA, there shouldn't be a problem.

That being said, CITA is not a regional accreditor and that could end up being the problem. Not insurmountable because public schools often accept units from private schools. However, private schools provide transcripts. In your friend's case, there is likely no transcript. If there is, there may be no problem at all.

What would I do? Submit *everything* to the local public school and let them sort it out. Almost without acception the school board won't know (or care, for that matter).




Tom Nixon

 

Hey Tom - Your advice is right on target. Rob, have the parent submit everything, make it as clean and official as possible, demonstrating as much as they can about learning outcomes being met and being SURE to include a summary of your expectations as the first thing to be read - e.g. "My child is X years old, has been home schooled since y, and is ready to enter grade Z. Supporting documentation is attached. Should you need additional information please contact me."

If you don't tell them what you want you may not get it - if you do tell them what you want and look like you know what you are doing you will likely get it.

Good luck,
Mary A

 

Tom and Mary;

Thanks, this is very helpful information.