Clueless in Seattle (report from AACRAO)

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by John Bear, Apr 26, 2001.

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  1. John Bear

    John Bear Senior Member

    First let me report on 2 of the most intriguing findings from my survey of registrars, and then comment on what happened when I presented these data to AACRAO, the association of registrars and admissions officers, in Seattle yesterday.

    I asked in my survey for a reply on various kinds of degrees, on a 7-point scale from "Generally Acceptable" to "Generally not acceptable."

    Regionally accredited residential
    Generally acceptable: 95%
    Often acceptable: 5%

    Regionally accredited, 100% nonresident
    Generally acceptable: 51%
    Often acceptable: 17%
    Sometimes acceptable: 13%
    Don't know, no policy: 13%
    Sometimes not acceptable: 1%
    Often not acceptable: 2%
    Generally not acceptable: 6%

    When analysis of variance and Tukey T test are applied, the non-resident regionally accredited is about 80% as acceptable.

    DETC and ACICS accredited
    Generally acceptable: 20%
    Often acceptable: 10%
    Sometimes acceptable: 9%
    Don't know, no policy: 17%
    Sometimes not acceptable: 6%
    Often not acceptable: 12%
    Generally not acceptable: 27%

    When I said that I was surprised by the much lower level of acceptance for regionally accredited, non-resident, one of the hundred or so registrars in attendance said, "But how would I know whether it was nonresident or not?"

    There seemed to be a sense that for most of the 100+ US schools that offer both on campus and nonresident degrees (e.g. University of Iowa), there is no way (or no easy way) to tell if it was residential or not.

    In other words, this person, and more than a few others (from the head nodding) seemed to be saying, "If I know it is nonresident, then I am less likely to accept it, but most times, I do not know."

    At this point, I don't know what to make of this, other than to hypothesize that this could be part (but only a small part) of the reason DETC scored as low as it did.

    The fact that 39% of registrars and admissions officers usually or generally do not accept DETC at all is something that many people would need to take into account.

    DETC's acceptance, from ANOVA and Tukey T, is about 47% as high as regionally accredited and residential.

    My presentation, Rich Douglas's comprehensive statistical analysis, and other numbers, will be appearing on the degree.net site within a couple of weeks.

    John Bear
     
  2. Guest

    Guest Guest

    Interesting and informative, John. Thank you for your time in sharing this, and I look forward to the comprehensive report.

    Russell
     
  3. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    Ah, but the survey instrument didn't just ask about DETC, it asked about, I believe, "national" accreditation, using DETC as one of two examples. (Forgive my vagueness; my copy of the instrument is elsewhere at the moment.)

    I agree with John that the data themselves really can't determine WHY this category did so poorly compared to the others that meet GAAP. But I wonder if it has to do with the club-like mentality of the regionals and their membership.

    Ever since DETC got heavily into accrediting schools offering degrees, there has been this schism. And how many DETC-accredited schools have moved on to regional accreditation? I'm pretty sure that number is zero. I can't help but think this reduces further the acceptability of credits and degrees from DETC-accredited schools.

    Triple-A baseball is good, very good. Not only isn't there too much difference in the quality of play, but there is also a significant number of Triple-A players that get promoted to the major leagues. If you're playing in Triple-A, you're probably good enough to at least ride the bench in the bigs.

    On the other hand, if you're a player in the XFL, it's because you're not good enough for the NFL. The number of players from the XFL earning spots on NFL rosters may very well be close to zero. The XFL is football, but it's not the big time.

    DETC: The XFL of accreditors. Recognized accreditation? Sure, but it's not the "big time."

    Rich Douglas
     

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