University of Phoenix MA in Education

I am in the UOP program getting my Masters in Elementary Education. I know a lot of people think that you cannot get your teacher certification via distance learning but you can. Even a regular residential program is only teacher approved in their state. UOP is teacher approved for the state of Arizona and once I finish the program I will be qualified to apply for my license in Arizona and then I will turn it in to my state which has reciprocity with Arizona. They offer a Masters in Elementary Education and Secondary Education with initial teacher licensure. The program is 100 percent online. I am halfway through the program. I set up my observations, field experience and student teaching with my local school district. I haven't had any problems setting this up. I know of only one student who had a problem and UOP stepped in at this point and found a school for her. For me personally this was the only way I could go about getting my teaching licensure because my husband is in the army and we've been moving about every 18 months to 2 years.

Having said that, I wish there was another alternative. UOP really does give me feeling that it is more of a business than anything else. It is accredited and it is a means to an end but it also is pretty much money driven if you ask me. I pay a ton of money for the classes and they are only 5-6 weeks. It is so simple I sometimes wonder how they are accredited to be honest with you. The program is a real joke. I have learned nothing at all and I am halfway through the program. I have learned a lot on my own because I am independently doing a lot of my own reading so that I do learn. We have no tests which I love. They did not require a GRE score which I loved even more (because mine was 5 years old and i had no interest in retaking it). My text is written by UOP staff. I had longer text readings in junior high. My only real assignment is to answer 3 discussion questions a week. It is the equivalent of what I am doing right now. Surfing the net and posting on a message board. I think I am caught between 2 opinions. I am going to have a masters in education with licensure and what I want and I will have gotten it in the absolute easiest way possible aside from it magically appearing in my lap. On the other hand I guess I miss the challenge of real learning. As much as I like having it easy I think I will be really pretty embarrassed to put UOP on my resume. It's a means to an end though. I would recommend it because we need more teachers and it is really hard to get teacher licensure online. There is only one other program I know of which is Liberty U and they do a full video program which is more time consuming and they require you to go there several times. They are also not as "friendly" to deal with as UOP. UOP accepts anyone with money or a loan whereas Liberty seems to be more picky. Anyway, the bottom line is UOP is a great way to go even though they seem to be more of a money making business than a real school.

Just wanted to vent a bit and see if anyone else out there has had this experience with UOP

 

UoP: Will it ever end ?

I found your comments to be very interesting.

Yes, we've had others who've made similar comments.

 

My experience was that I really began learning about education when I started to teach. That was in '69. Get your credential and forget how easy your classes are. It soon will get tougher for you when you land that job.

 

I totally understand. I finally decided to withdraw from a nationally accredited school for all of the same reasons. It is sad when the bar is lowered to a level where everyone can get an 'A' with little effort. As far as tests go, we had them, but they were open book. Even though I refused to take part in this 'joke' and still got the high score in the class, it (the methodology) woke me up to the weakness of this school. It wasn't even a utility issue, as the school in question has articulation agreements with a couple of the nearby state schools. Since the articulation agreements are fairly new, I hope the graduates are prepared for graduate level work.

Western Governor's University has teacher licensure programs available by distance learning.

Yes, venting is good.

Tony

 

University of Phoenix: Not Quite Straight

I want to get a teaching credential in an accelerated program, so I looked into U of Phoenix, partly because one is very near my house.

The UOP counselor really made a strong pitch of how No Child Left Behind will make it very, very difficult to be hired with an emergency credential ("unless you're already in a program"). He assured me how the gov loan I'll get to pay their $13,000+ nine- month program can be paid off by teaching in a low income school, and when I mentioned I bought a little house in a remote area of the desert where I'd love to teach at the local school, he said U of P mentors will go down there to monitor my student teaching. I told him I'd sign up, despite the high fee, because I just didn't know an alternative for an accelerated program where distance isn't an issue. He said he didn't know of any online programs to get a credential. So I gave him a $111 check for registration application fee and the book.

That evening he called and told me he found out the campus he thought would send a mentor to the desert to supervise me wouldn't go, and apologized. Ok, I said, I guess I can stay in the city for the student teaching. He said a low income school not far away might take me without a credential.

Then a kind soul on http://california.teachers.net/ told me on their message board about calstateteach.org which is an accredited teachers' credential program through the California State University system that only costs about $5,000. It does take about a year longer to complete, however.

Then when I called the U of P counselor to tell him about my decision to cancel, he told me he "had lots of students from the Calstateteach program tell him they got confused and didn't get counseling help." So HE DID know of an online credentialing program!!

To top it off, I asked if I would be getting any of my $111 registration check back. He said no. Then I quickly skimmed the papers I signed and read to him the clause, "the student has a right to a full refund of all tuition charges less the $85 for registraction application if she/he cancels prior to the first day of instruction."

He said, "Wait a minute." He then returned to the phone and said I could get the money for my book back.

This call happened today. This my experience with the University of Phoenix. I only dealt with one person and haven't started reading the posts about it on this site or anywhere else yet, but I think potential students should be warned this may be a slick pit of vipers.

 

I have heard this before about UOP unfortunately when people try to pull out. I did not have any bad experiences like this at all but I didn't decide to pull out of the program either. If I had I can imagine they might be this way. UOP is all about the money for the most part. It doesnt mean they are a scam though because they aren't. They are just very money driven. If you can find a cheaper program then I say go for it!

 

About 18 or 20 months ago, I earned my MBA at U of Phoenix, and posted a message about my experiences very similar to the ones posted here -- embarrassed about my degree, lack of rigor, grade inflation, etc. I guess I don't need to complain about missing the challenge of learning, since I went straight to law school (less than 2 weeks after finishing my MBA)... However, I thought I would mention some observations now that I have been out for a while.

At first, I was very hesitant to talk about my MBA, due to UoP's rep. First off, most people I talk to don't ask where I got my MBA, only if I thought the education was useful -- and since I think that overall, I did learn a lot of useful stuff in the program, I can truthfully say yes. Second, out of the people who do ask where I went to school, I've found that a number of them had no idea who UoP was (and it is advertised all over the place here); the rest are usually, "hey, I knew someone who did that..." types. I go to a school where there are a lot of folks with Ivy and other top degrees, and, to be perfectly honest, I'm really the only one who has much bad to say about UoP. I've found that the MBA/JD candidates at my school (which has a fairly highly-ranked MBA program) are more interested in asking me about strategies to excel in their own classes versus bagging on where I got my MBA.

Of course, maybe everyone is silently snickering behind my back, but hey, as long as I don't know, I can still be happy, right? I'm not trying to say that UoP is great or anything -- as you mentioned, it's a means to an end -- but, if anything, I was MUCH more negative about UoP than you are now when I first graduated. A year and a half out, I still wouldn't recommend it (except perhaps in a few narrow circumstances), but I can honestly say that I am not embarrassed by having it on my resume. I know that a lot of people who get into and graduate from UoP have no business having any sort of college degree -- but there are a lot of smart people who go to UoP as well, and, from my experience, if you can show that you are in the latter category, most, if not all, people are going to give you the benefit of the doubt, and not think less of you because of your choice of school. If they do, the hell with them!

Richard

P.S. If you search the archives for my earlier posts (if they are still there after all of this time), everything I had to say then I still believe now, at least with respect to the failings and shortcomings of UoP itself.

 

Law School

Hi Richard,

Where are you going to law school now?
Just curious...

Are you planning to practice law in the future?

 

U of P

Yes, indeed, Richard. We live in very different times than the days when people finished school by their mid 20s and when college classes were full of post teens who lived at home with mom cooking their meals or in dorms that pop paid for.

We've got to do what we've got to do. I got my MA via an online program at Cal State, which I realized wasn't the ideal, but the best I could do midlife. I expected FROM MYSELF a quality education, so I supplemented my online classes by getting independent credit for doing internships, the best of which was a three year stint at the county art museum working elbow to elbow with top scholars in the field for an upcoming major exhibition. Now that was an education Oxford couldn't beat!
Also by publishing, I worked with editors to help me.
This babble isn't meant for boasting, just to specifically illustrate to others how they might successfully navigate tight circumstances and to remind adults to always take ultimate responsibility for their education.

I never posted any beef about the quality of U of P education, of which I have no experience since I canceled before the first class. Since it's accredited I assume it's far from a diploma mill. My beef was the exorbitant fee and misleading sales pitch and pressure of the "counselor."

 

Great points

I have done a lot of thinking on this as well. I think that I have learned more about subjects I researched independently. I do believe that people learn better when they are interested in a subject and following their own leads. I think that you are right. If you rely just on a school to teach you then you are in trouble. Part of the distance learning process should include a lot of responsibility to learn on your own. In a way we are given a unique opportunity to do a lot of independent learning and still get an accredited degree. I have also taken it upon myself to do a lot more observations and field experience than required to do and to read books etc. on the subjects we are studying to go along with what they are giving me. I probably could learn ultimately more in the long run because I have extra time to pursue those things. I am very appreciative of both of your comments and congrats on law school!!!

 

Santa Clara. Yes, I plan on practicing -- I am currently clerking for a firm, and am also a patent agent. I intend on practicing IP litigation, maybe some IP transactional work as well.

All of my school work, even the UoP stuff, was done in classrooms, but I hang out here off and on because once I start practicing, I doubt I'll have much time for a traditional school schedule, but I still want to continue my education, although maybe in a different direction -- like international relations, or economics.

 

UOP Master of Education

Hello Armywife:

I sent a private message to you but did not receive a response; therefore, I post my questions here. My wife also looks at the same UOP program. I understand that you have many reservations about the program, but my wife is in a situation (3 little kids) where she could only attend online programs. I also saw on your post about setting up observations, field experience and student teaching with local school districts. Can you explain to us a little more in details of what you have to do? My wife wants to learn more about the program as she could.

I personally believe this program is set up for fulltime individuals who have little time for schoolwork. If I were you, I finish this program and then apply for an online education specialist or education doctoral program that is more rigorous. Your UOP master degree is not a terminal degree, and you can use it as a springboard for further education if you have the time and energy.

I thank you first for any information about the UOP program that you can share to us.

Best regards,

Bao

 

Hi there! I am in the same situation. I am a stay at home mom with 2 little ones and one on the way. I highly recommend UOP. Although I do complain about the fact that it might be too easy....that is just my own personal hangups because I am used to pretty rigorous academics in the past. I think I am the type of person who likes school a lot so I don't mind a rigorous program. At any rate this is not exactly rigorous but it sure does get the job done. It was hard for me to get a teaching certificate in any other way. I have researched all the schools. UOP is the way to go. Totally online. Very easy to accomplish with little kids. I love it. About half the people in my class work as teachers and the other half are stay at home moms. She can do this program and I hope she goes for it!!!

 

If you (or anyone else) is actively looking for an alternative to UoP, I seem to remember hearing that Capella had some of it's education programs approved in AZ as well...not sure on the details (I wasn't researching their School of Ed), and I couldn't find anything in a quick 5 minute search, but if UoP has you that down, it may be worth looking in to.

Just my 2 cents, though.

Toonces