What do you know about Education America? When they first opened shop in Scottsdale a few years ago, Arizona, I did a little research via the internet. At that time, the only information which would pull up was a lawsuit for federal financial aid fraud. Now they appear to be buying tech schools all over the country, and recently advertised themselves as an accredited distance ed school (they are not regionally accredited). Let me know what you know!
They've got a history at http://www.educationamerica.com/eai_00/pages/genpgs/history1.htm Most, possibly all, of the technical schools they've bought are accredited by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools. ACICS is recognized by the US Department of Education, which describes its scope as follows: In December 2000, the Department of Education agreed to let it accredit distance-education programs; the committee that evaluates accreditors' compliance with department standards had questioned whether it had the expertise to assess online programs. Still, ACICS accreditation doesn't have the same recognition as regional accreditation. An EA rep dropped into my forum a few times last year to enthusiastically suggest EA in response to several general questions -- even one asking for doctoral programs (seeming more clueless than wilfully misleading). I provided additional details about the varieties of accreditation and suggested that EA pursue regional accreditation. She disappeared after a while. ------------------ Kristin Evenson Hirst DistanceLearn.About.com
