Credential Evaluators in the USA - official listing?

Hi all,

Can you tell me if there is an official listing of recognised credential evaluators in the USA? If there is, does this mean that the industry is regulated and the evaluators are, in essence, evaluated for this purpose. Who evaluates the evaluators?

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

George

 

You should find this helpful:


http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-visitus-forrecog.html


"National Association of Credential Evaluation Services (NACES) is the principal national professional association representing private credential evaluation services. Its web site maintains direct links and contact information for all member services."

see NACES at: www.naces.org

Also:
http://www.ed.gov/offices/OUS/PES/int_faq.html

"How can I receive academic credit in the United States from a foreign education institution? The U.S. Department of Education does not directly evaluate education credentials from foreign countries.

The National Association of Credential Evaluation Services (NACES) is an association of private foreign educational credential evaluation services committed to formulating and maintaining ethical standards in the field of foreign educational evaluation. NACES member organizations serve foreign-educated persons who have completed part or all of their education outside of the United States and who are seeking further education, professional licensure, or employment in the United States. "

 

but...

...AACRAO also does evaluations, and isn't a NACES member.

G

 

Re: but...

.. and as Sheila Danzig could operate [the] one that said that St Regis = RA, I gather the answer to George Brown's question is that there is NO effective regulation.

If there is regulation, how could she do what she did?

 

I don't think that American government at any level formally recogizes credential evaluators. There is no listing that I know of.

The industry is unregulated.

There are professional organizations like NACES. But it isn't really clear how well these organizations police their own membership. Nor is it even necessary that credential evaluators belong to the professional organizations.

Personally, I think that credential evaluators are the soft underbelly of the accreditation system. That's why they are currently such an object of degree-mill interest.

Unlike the accreditors, they operate in the shadows. Professional educators, let alone the general public, are unfamiliar with them. Whatever standards and procedures they employ aren't visible to outsiders. Everything kind of reduces to appeals to authority.

I think that credential evaluators should not be treated as if they were international accreditors.

Evaluators are best at comparing syllabi. They can give recommendations about how many American "units" a British "module" is worth, and about what American course subjects it covers. They can tell you whether a Mexican bachelaureate is a secondary diploma or equivalent to an American BA.

But credential evaluators don't undertake the elaborate institutional and programmatic studies performed by the American accreditors or by bodies like the British QAA. Evaluators don't perform site visits all over the planet. What they normally do is trust that local authorities credibly manage their own systems.

When "international mystery schools" appear (to steal Alan Contreras' phrase), they are treated ad-hoc and case-by-case. Some are rejected, and I suppose that others sneak through on the basis of possibly-meaningless African and Carribean off-shore government ministry "accreditations". (The mystery schools certainly use claims about positive findings of RA-equivalence in their advertising.)

Frankly, I don't think that the honest majority of credential evaluators are any better able to deal with the mystery schools than we are here on Degreeinfo. And I'm not convinced that they all are honest. We all know of evaluators who either currently or in the past have been associated with operating some very questionable schools.

 

Danzig's evaluation agency wasn't a NACES member.

But we have had long threads about evaluations of Berne by NACES members. Someone claimed that 3 NACES members had given Berne degrees a positive evaluation (i.e. as equivalent to real degrees). This may have been a lie, but we know that at least one NACES member did so.

We have also had discussions of the different evaluations that various NACES members have given to the HW EBS program, and the stupidly stubborn attitude of one of the NACES members.

I agree with Bill that this is the "soft underbelly" of our system for oversight of academic credentials.

 

Th problem with AACRAO is that their evaluations are not widely acceptable among colleges, professional and licensing bodies. For example, almost all psychology and accountancy boards require NACES evaluation. See also the ASPPB.

http://www.asppb.org/Members/modelregs.asp


1) Doctoral training is offered in a regionally accredited institution of higher education. Regional accreditation refers to accreditation by a recognized regional accreditation body in the United States, an institution with provincial authorization or charter in Canada, or in other countries outside of the United States or Canada by National Association of Credential Evaluation Services (NACES).


B. An applicant whose application is based upon a degree from a program outside the U.S. and Canada shall provide the board with documentation and evidence to establish that his or her education is substantially similar to the criteria in section F-2 above. The applicant shall have their credentials evaluated by a member of NACES. The applicant shall provide the board with the following, at a minimum:

 

Thanks guys, for some good leads and topical issues. Do you know if, during the evaluation process, the agencies actually check with the host institution to ensure it is a bona fide degree? Or do they just take the paperwork from the applicant on face value as being authentic and just equivalise this, similar to what a JP does?

Cheers and many thanks,

George

 

In general, the evaluator accepts the documentation presented by the applicant, and issues an advisory opinion, based on transcript, credit hours, course catalog, and use of placement recommendations issued and approved by National Council on the Evaluation of Foreign Educational Credentials. The evaluator attests to equivalency of the credential only. There is much variability in practice among NACES members. Some require original transcripts (from the office of the registrar) while others accept photocopies, and yet others confirm the award of the degree by telephone.

Also, the following reference works are almost always used:

1. International Handbook of Universities (17th edition)
2. World List of Universities and Other Institutions of Higher Education (24th edition)
2. World Higher Education Database 2003/4 CD-Rom
3. Universities of the World - The Complete List
http://www.unesco.org/iau/world-universities/index.html

 

Great, thanks very much. The functions they perform is exactly the same as our equivalent body, NOOSR, however ours is very much a centralised, government funded and controlled process.

Cheers,

George

PS - do know if there is a standard Code of Practice, or recommended guidelines/ procedures to follow for these evalution bodies? I will contact NACES to see if they can supply it, but just wondered if it was freely available on the web.

 

Hi George:

NACES does have a code of ethics, and for further information on credential evaluation procedures, you should contact the executive director of WES (www.wes.org) who has written the "seminal" guidelines in this area. She is also the president-elect of NAFSA (www.nafsa.org).

I would like to comment on the HW EBS issue. Most NACES members are still very reluctant to award equivalency (MBA) because of the admission requirements. One of the standards generally used is that a bachelor’s degree (or equivalent in the country) must be the minimum requirement for admission to the MBA program. Regrettably, HW EBS does not adhere to this - anything applies - simply purchase the material from the university or an agent and get to work. For this reason the EBS MBA has beeen labeled the "supermarket" degree. I have a different perspective on this issue, however, standard operating procedures usually prevail.

 

Cheers and many thanks,

George