Has anyone ever heard of Ashworth College? Can anyone tell me if there AA in Criminal Justice is worth anyting. If you know of someone that has taken courses with them, have them contact me. Tracy Gaddis
Hello to a fellow police officer, Ashworth College does have legitimate accreditation through the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC), which is a recognized accreditor. That means they are most definitely legitimate, and not a rip-off or a scam. However, DETC accreditation, for better or worse, is considered second-rate to regional accreditation (RA). If you simply need a legitimately accredited Associate's degree for a salary increase, promotion, etc., then Ashworth will do the trick. If you plan on continuing onto an RA Bachelor's program, you might run into some problems in regards to credit transfer. If you're looking for strictly an Associate's degree, I would recommend the RA Thomas Edison State College in NJ. They offer the Associate in Science in Public and Social Services (ASPSS), with an available concentration in Administration of Justice. http://www.tesc.edu/prospective/undergraduate/degree/aspss.php If you're looking towards a Bachelor's, I'd recommend Edison, and also; Roger Williams University http://www.rwuonline.cc/programs/uvc/just.html Old Dominion University http://web.odu.edu/webroot/orgs/ao/dl/teletechnet.nsf/pages/undergraduate Best of luck, Bruce
Ooops...forgot some other good choices; Bemidji State University; http://www.bemidji.msus.edu/ Washington State University http://www.eus.wsu.edu/ddp/degrees/criminal_justice.asp Bruce
Bruce: Thank you for the information. Asworth College contacted my department about setting up a program with our officers, I have never heard of if but wanted to get some information about it. My chief is real big on continuing education so he is always sending off for DETC college information to help his officers out. He told me about a place called Kennedy-Western University, have you ever heard of it? If you have could you provide some info on it? If not I will post a message asking if anyone has heard of it. What department do you work for? I work for the Oakwood Police Department in Georgia. Take care and stay safe, Tracy
Kennedy-Western does not have any form of recognized accreditation. A search of this board will turn up a considerable amount of prior discussion about this school. ------------------ Bill Gossett
Tracy: I wish I could remember the whole story about Kennedy-Western but I never did get the ending, but you'll probably find this intreguing. There was some police department in MA, (I think the town was Stoughton) who had a clause in their contract that allowed its officers to get raises for college degrees. Well, one of the officers found out about K-W and received his degree and subsequently his raise. After the word got around the dept, a number of fellow officers did the same. The town/city council got suspicious about the quickness and the number of officers getting degrees and tried to recind the raises. It ended up with the union saying something to the effect..."The contract never mentioned that it had to be from an accredited college." Unfortunately, I don't know the final results but I'm sure the town/city renegotiated the contract. I'm also sure that your Chief will not want to walk a fine line between the city council, the union and the officers. Ted As an aside: I found the basic information on a NEXIS search about two years ago and I no longer have access to NEXIS. The paper that it was reportd on never did a follow-up. The story caught my attention because I once was interested in KW and had friends that lived in Stoughton.
Kennedy-Western does not have any recognized accreditation, and has even been referred to as a degree mill by some knowledgable people on this board. They are to be avoided. If your department is going to foot the bill for Ashworth, then by all means take advantage of it, it's not often that one gets a free college degree. However, if you have to finance it yourself, I would definitely go with a school that has regional accreditation. That way, your options aren't nearly as limited as they would be with a DETC degree. I'm a police officer in Boston, MA. If you want to contact me off the board, my e-mail is [email protected] Stay safe, Bruce
Ted, I haven't heard of that incident, but if the pay raise clause was the state-sponsored "Quinn Bill" (which my department receives) it specifies that all credits/degrees earned have to be from a school either accredited by the New England Association or approved by the state Board of Higher Education. One of my co-workers has his undergrad degree from Florida State, and had to submit his transcripts to the BOHE for approval, they take it very seriously. The text of the Quinn Bill is at; http://www.state.ma.us/legis/laws/mgl/41-108L.htm Bruce
