Capella Formally Applies for APA Accreditaiton

From the Official Capella Web Site:

APA Accreditation: The First Step

The Harold Abel School of Psychology at Capella University is committed to pursuing American Psychological Association (APA) accreditation for its Doctor of Psychology degree (PsyD) in clinical psychology. While Capella University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, and this process will not affect that, earning APA accreditation for a clinical PsyD program would indicate that the program meets the highest standard of excellence for faculty quality, student/teacher ratios, curricula, competencies, assessment protocol and more.

The accreditation process is a long journey and the outcome is still uncertain. However, we have taken the first step by submitting our application to the Committee on Accreditation at the APA on Jan. 23, 2006.

We will continue to keep learners, faculty, and staff apprised of the status of our application to the APA as we receive more information.

 

This is excellent. I hope that we hear the verdict some time soon.
Do you know how long it takes from formally submitting the application for APA accreditation to reaching candidacy status (assuming it gets it)? Thanks.

S

 

In my experience with consistently approaching administrators on this kind of issue, they are mum. They will not say and they probably don't know since APA accreditation meetings are most likely behind closed doors. I don't know if the process requires at this point a site visitation or not (I assume so in order to audit in real-time what is going on). I have a friend of mine who is on the committee that accredited Capella (CACREP) and usually, these guy go to some resort or nice city (I know once they met in the Florida Keys) and then deliberate on a bunch of schools before letting out their verdict. So the answer to your question is "Yes, No, and Maybe." Sorry...

 

The Fielding Institute is currently undergoing re-accreditation with APA. As a student in Fielding's Ph.D. program in clinical psychology, I get the impression that the process is byzantine, highly arcane and has very little transparency.

The problem with APA is that it is composed of psychologists that are typically trained at traditional B&M institutions and they just don't "get" DL learning. APA also has very little institutional memory and Fielding has had to re-educate the accreditation committee repeatedly every time we have to be re-accredited because new sets of site visitors and accreditation board members are involved each time.

It should also be remembered that APA is one of the most unwieldy and poorly organized organizations one could find. Having said that, because the APA has already given accreditation to Fielding, it becomes increasingly untenable for them to deny accreditation to another school that uses a distributed-learning model. My understanding is that Capella has designed their Psy.D. program to meet APA requirements.

I wish Capella and its students the best in this endevour.

 

Chris,

As far as the APA being "unwieldy" I can attest.

In my private practice I do individual, couples, marriage, and family psychotherapy. I often get individuals who have undergone major sexual traumas. One of those subgroups are men disconnected from their fathers who have been victims of pedophilia where the perpetrator (lets say an uncle) "loved" them and also sexualized that "love." Ever since then they have battled their need for masculine love but with the added component of homosexuality (some are even married). Most of these men tell me that they don't want to be homosexuals. I have found that the APA has, basically, no support for this population. I contacted the president's office, and never heard a peep. I continued to contact them and eventually (I gathered reluctantly) they passed me to a web site where they basically bad mouth any current "reparative therapies" and then proceeded to give no help or alternatives. Since then I have come accross two former APA presidents that attest that the APA has within it a Gay/Lesbian "Mafia." That's their word, not mine. A recent president (Levant) proceeded to thoroughly trash me when I approached him about seeing him to obtain insight into helping men be masculine. I was polite and respectful. Well, I discovered that he founded a "Masculinity" division in cohort with Gay/Lesbian/Feminist ideology with the goal of exposing "antiquated and archaic" thinking about what masculinity is.

I don't mean to make this political but my experience shows to me that the APA is in some ancient time warp, is close-minded to alternative views, and is highly politicized, especially since they recently came out endorsing same-sex marriages despite many of their constituents are not in favor of that political stance. I think, the APA should stay out of that type of thing. Right now, they are the 500 pound gorilla. (See also their attempt to pull accreditation from Christian Psychology schools for their beliefs. Congressmen threatened them and they backed off).

Anyways, I hope Capella gets accreditation. I also hope your school Fielding gets approved again. It is a great school. I almost went there but decided that a faster and shorter journey to my Ph.D. was what I wanted (non-licensure doctorate of psychology). I did not want to retake most of the classes I took in the Masters again plus train in testing.

Thanks for your valuable thoughts!

 

Once again, I ask, where is the CapellaSucks troll to spit on Capella's good news? Probably writing a rebuttal by himself on his lonely hateful websites.

 

Blackbird

Indeed, APA has a huge political agenda. Frankly I am somewhat disturbed by the implicit and explicit agenda APA espouses. I feel a scientific and professional organization should seek to only take positions which are based on empirical science rather than social and political ideology.

As far as Fielding and the APA goes, I have been told by my associate dean that re-accreditation should be given but dealing vwith APA is always a hassle. I have been told that every time APA has a site visit they tell Fielding that they have issues with x,y and z. However, these same issues were addressed and resolved to APA's satisfaction at the last accreditation visit, and the time before, and the time before etc ... its just a lack of institutinal memory.

Given that APA is an approved accrediting agency for the Dept of Education, it has certain legal requirements and standards it must adhere to. Consequently APA is bound by its own precidents and previous statements regarding standards for accreditation. Trying to yank accreditation from Christain schools would never fly with the Dept of Education or the court system.

If APA tried to yank accreditation from Fielding, it would have to discover some serious flaws in the program. .. flaws that simply don't exist. Even then, the APA would have to give a school "probationary" status and give it a set of measureable and acheivable requirements to meet within a given time frame. Being in bed with the Feds does greatly limit the ability of any accreditation agency to act in an arbitrary manner.

That being said, Fielding also has persons high up in the APA as faculty members. One prof I just had is the past president of the APA's womens division, another is a past president for the counseling psychology division.

 

True.

I hope Capella gets APA accredited.

 

me too...then hopefully Walden comes and gets accredited...

 

This is great news! I truly hope they accomplish this!

peACE,
ACE

 

Me too. If Capella, Walden, and others get APA accreditation, it will greatly improve the image of online schools in general.

-S

 

Greetings Blackbird

I know Capella has been very deliberative and extremely cautious in their approah to seeking APA approval. Do you know why the Capella "powers that be" decided not to simultaneously seek approval for the counseling psychology program? Is it just a matter of one step at a time?

The recognition of the value of distance education is slowly but surely growing.

Tug

 

There is no indication that other major distance doctoral psychology degree granting institutions programs will be seeking APA accreditation any time soon. Schools such as Walden and Saybrook appear to not be going this route although the Union Institute is talking about seeking such accreditation when their Psy.D program is implemented and up and running for several years.

 

One of the consequences of APA accreditation is that the programs are forced to become more structured and offer similar coursework. The results are increasingly homogenious doctoral programs in terms of course content, training models and objectives. This homogenization is reinforced by APA accreditted internship sites that seek interns with a particular set of courses and practicum experiences. One thing am discovering at Fielding is that APA internship sites have a set of characteristics they prefer to see and student are advised to tailor their Ph.D. experiences to match those expectations. Institutions with a strong alternative vision like Saybrook may be unwilling to become part of this trend towards "cookie cutter" graduate training in psychology.

 

The above is the reason why some individuals seek online California approved doctoral degree programs in Psychology. Although these schools have limitations in terms of their utilizability and are obviously not commensurate with the value of an APA doctoral degree in psychology, schools such as Ryokan college do not require the stuctured characteristics and expectations found in APA or regionally accredited doctoral programs.

If one lives in california such alternative degrees may be a viable option. In addition if one works for five years after completion of their doctorate in California they are eligible to have their credentials and experience evaluated that may allow them reciprocity as a licensed Psychologist in a number of other states in the US. I was not aware of this option until recently when a representative from the California Board of Psychology explained this process in depth.