Virtually All RA Institutions Accept Transfer Credit From Unaccredited Institutions

Most private high schools are not accredited, Why?
Because accreditation hasn't proven to be cost-effective and doesn't really enhance the institution. The bottom line, accreditation is of little value.

Now here's my point, virtually all RA institutions accept college level coursework completed while in high school. These courses are referred to as AP (advanced placement) classes and these courses are routinely accepted as transfer credit or for course waiver by RA institutions, even those of the Ivy League. Three of Nashville's finest high schools, Battle Ground Academy, Montgumery Bell Academy, and Franklin Road Academy all teach AP courses and routinely funnel students to Ivy League schools, not to mention some of the better State universities. BTW, none of the aforementioned high schools are accredited.

Is this not the act of accepting college level work from an unacrredited educational institution? To make matters worse isn't this awarding college credit for courses taught -- in most instances -- by an instructor with only a bachelors degree? By doing this (accepting credit) the RA institution is in essense saying that an unaccredited high school is better prepared to teach college level coursework than an unaccredited college with doctoral level educators.

What's up with this?

Opinions Please!

Regards, Wes

 

You are forgetting that the high school students who receive college credit for their AP classes must take an exam and receive, in most cases, a score of at least 3 (out of 5 possible).

Thus, the high school student shows, by way of a standardized national exam, that he/she should be awarded college credit. On the other hand, an individual with credits from an UNaccredited school has shown, basically, nothing. Accordingly, such an individual should not be given any credit, much less college credit.

 

In my experience as an admissions officer, I found that very few private high schools lacked regional accreditation. So I think this is a non-issue.

In fact, two of the schools you mention, Montgomery Bell & Franklin Road, are accredited by SACS. (See the SACS webpage, http://www.sacs.org . Their search engine is not particularly effective, but listing all Nashville TN schools will show both Montgomery Bell & Franklin Road.) What prompted you to say that most private high schools are not accredited?

 

I think James has hit the nail on its head. People get credit for demonstrating their knowledge by passing the relevant exam.

 

My experience suggests that at least 50% of all private high schools are not accredited. Although I did not do an exhaustive search when attempting to determine the accreditation status of MBA and FRA and certainly didn't read the entire website of each but didn't find any mention of accreditation. I could wrong (I've certainly been before) but I don't think the majority of private high schools are accredited. Maybe the majority of the big, powerful ones, so-to-speak but not the average high school.

The fact that some aren't and it doesn't apparently matter to RA institutions is what bothers me.

Regards, Wes

 

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You brought up a good and valid point. I wasn't aware that the AP test is a national examination. I'll think this over and respond later or admit that I have no response.


So it's Ok for an RA institution to accept credit taught at an unaccredited institution by instructors with only bachelors level preparation, because the student passed an examination? BTW, I fully support this method.

If RA institutions support this method (and a majority do) why then don't most endorse the examination method in whole.

Another very similar senario is the way most professional boards (licensing and certification) require that an applicant have an earned degree from an accredited institution, before [they'll] permit any applicant from taking any examination. Why does it matter where or how the information was learned? If one can pass the test why isn't the knowledge validated by awarding credit either for coursework or certifications, etc?

Regards, Wes

 

To take your points in order:

1. Unaccredited secondary schools. Jason has pointed out that most secondary schools are accredited. In addition to accreditation, most states require secondary teachers to possess teaching credentials. They also have things like state curriculum guidelines.

2. Bachelors degrees. In California, secondary teachers need a single-subject credential. This involves some 18 units of upper division coursework, plus 15-18 units of fieldwork/student teaching. That's some 33-36 units of additional credit on top of one's normal major.

3. Credit by examination. The California State University, a system I am familiar with, accepts many forms of non-traditional credit. The following information is from an old 1995 CSUDH catalog I have lying around:

a. Transfer credit from RA institutions or from the USAFI (named specifically) up to certain limits. (70 credits I believe.)

b. Up to six lower division credits simply for military service with an honorable discharge. A photocopy of one's DD214 should be stapled to the application.

c. Up to six lower division credits for advanced placement courses in high school, provided one passes the College Board's AP examinations with a 'three' or better.

d. At CSUDH, up to 12 credits for prior learning evaluated through preparation of portfolios that are evaluated by appropriate faculty members. This policy varies from campus to campus in the CSU system.

e. Up to 30 credits for passing certain specified (not all) CLEP examinations. There's also a CSU English Equivalency Examination that they give credit for.

f. Credit will be granted for non-collegiate instruction, military or civilian, that has been recommended by the Commission on Educational Credit of the American Council on Education. Amount of credit is determined by the ACE recommendations, and no upper limit on how much credit can be earned this way is specified.

In fact, in order to earn an on-campus bachelors degree from CSUDH, only 30 units must be taken in residence at that institution, of which 24 must be upper division and 12 major units.

I have argued several times here on Degreeinfo that the more credible CA-approved schools and the like could find a valuable niche as tutoring organizations preparing students for TESC-type non-traditional credit assessments.

In Britain we already see that being done. Various non-university level schools provide courses of instruction towards the U. of London external programme examinations.

I see it as a win-win situation. Many of the non-accredited schools like to whine about how the regional accreditors put burdensome requirements on them. But if they did as I suggest, they could ignore the regional accreditors entirely and teach things their way. But their students, after submitting their materials to TESC, WGU or a place like that, would walk away with a fully recognized RA degree.

 

There are numerous private religious schools (K-12), which are not regionally accredited, yet their graduates have little difficulty gaining admission to RA colleges. Of course, even these schools require the passing of a national exam (e.g., CA Achievement Test) to qualify for graduation. I have interacted with quite a few Christian schools, as well as home schoolers, and in every situation an annual national exam was required. So, while the school itself was not RA, there was a system of accountability in place. In the case of home schoolers, I guess it would be somewhat unusual for Mom/Dad to be regionally accredited.

 

Equating the acceptance from an unaccredited high school is not what is occuring here when a student from an unaccredited high school takes an AP exam. They are granted credit for the exam taken and not the school they attended.

It would also be possible for someone who is say 25 and never graduated from high school to take AP exams, CLEP, DANTES, etc. receive credit and eventually earn a College degree.

John

 

P.S. I forgot to add that secondary school credits do not translate into college credit either. You earn the high school credits to graduate from high school you take an AP exam to show that you have achieved college level learning.

John

 

I think this is great idea. Another idea, which I gave in a tongue-in-cheek manner in a previous thread, came from this statement by Roy Rada:

• Consider a company like Boeing. Boeing employs more people than the largest university has students. Boeing gives millions of dollars per year in tuition fees to universities to teach its employees. Universities might consider the advantages of alliances with companies, such as Boeing, that provide a technologically-sophisticated, geographically-distributed, employee-based, student population for the university.

My thinking is that the perfect university for a company like Boeing to contract to provide an in-house degree program is a school that provides excellent education, but whose degrees are not well recognized elsewhere (and thus could not easily be parlayed into better jobs at other companies). I'll leave it to people's imaginations to match up appropriate schools for Boeing and for Enron, etc.

 

Here's an article that discusses Babson College's company-customized MBA degree program for Intel Corp: Tailor-Made Degrees: Customized Corporate Education. The following snippet is relevant to my suggestion above:

• ... Perhaps a larger irony to these programs is that while they are seen as a necessary tool for hiring and retaining employees, they often have an opposite effect. It is not unusual for a company to pay for an employee’s graduate education only to have that employee leave once the degree is obtained. In such cases, the reimbursement program often becomes a company-sponsored training ground for its competition. Since the programs at Babson Interactive are designed to increase an employee’s value to the company, chances are far better that graduates will continue their careers at the company once their degree is completed. ...

 

In the five years I worked as an admissions officer, we had only one applicant from a private high school without regional accreditation.

For that student, we followed basically the same procedure we did for graduates of colleges without regional accreditation seeking admission to a master's program- go through a special admissions process. In this process, students would submit test scores (GMAT/GRE for admission to a master's program, SAT/ACT/AP for admission to a bachelor's program), a resume, and letters of recommendation. I wouldn't be at all surprised if most colleges would accept a student from a high school without regional accreditation who had 5's on a couple of AP exams or 1400 on the SAT.