Ole Wise Ones, Please Help Thou

Good Day,

I have a question from some of the professional educators on this board.

After 2 years of returning to school to finish my AA degree, I have not only completed my AABA, but also my BBA from American InterContinental University.

Here is my question. Soon to be one of the 40+ individuals I am looking for my next life destination. One area I am considering is teaching online or a community college.

One of my options is to continue with AIU and complete an MBA.
Of course the other option is another college.

In order to teach, must the college be RA or will DETC suffice???

Any insight will be appreciated.

Thanks

 

To teach at a RA school, you're really going to need a RA graduate degree. Taking this a step further, having a graduate business degree from a AACSB school will open even more teaching doors.

Bottom line....if you get a DETC graduate degree, your teaching options will be very limited.

 

My survey of registrars, done in 2000 and reported here various times, suggests that about 20% of RA schools will always accept DETC-accredited degrees, and another 20% will sometimes accept them.

If the DETC-accredited courses were also evaluated by the American Council on Education, that should increase the chances of acceptance. Quite a few DETC schools have done this (http://www.detc.org/ACEcredtRecomm.html) but your alma mater hasn't. They might be encouraged to do so.

If you have a specific school or schools in mind for eventual teaching, then of course you can ask now. If not, as Bruce suggests, your odds will be much better with an RA degree.

 

I think the requirements are different from state to state as well. For instance, in Maryland (where I live), RA is required for teacher licensure. The only exception to this would be a foreign degree that was evaluated as RA equivalent by 1 of 10 agencies the state uses in this capacity. No other exceptions, period. I've contacted the Maryland Department of Education twice in writing to argue that NA degrees should be considered, at very least on a case by case basis. No response from them.

Pug

 

Folks,

I have an NA MBA and teach as an on-line adjunct for an ACICS accredited institution. My experience and other credentials merited the position and I am required to maintain continued development towards 18 "RA" graduate hours in a subject. Let me be very clear that if I had been looking for a full-time position I would not have been as readily accepted. Exceptions must be justified by the institution to the accreditor. Had I known that NA accreditors want RA staff I may (note not "would) have went a different route with my MBA. I have an RA Bachelors and I am working on an RA PhD.

I agree with Pug that a case by case basis should be the rule.

However, I believe Bruce has summed up the point exactly.

Dr. Bear hits the method I used. I planned which type of teaching appealed to me, the subjects I thought I could teach, and then started looking at job announcements for selection criteria.

You may want to search on monster.com under "adjunct".

Good luck,

Kevin

 

With the advent of....

With the advent of less expensive online RA and AACSB MBA programs it does not make sense to educate yourself to the lowest common denominator and limit your options.

 

Chris,

I would agree in most instances. The same could also be said about any choice regarding degree field or career. The simple fact of that matter is that individual circumstances and preferences will dictate. Business, nor business fields, are the only subjects that are available to teach. Therefore AACSB is meaningless, however you are on point to Veteran101's query.

Could you elaborate on what's the lowest common denominator in education?

 

If it's an RA college, the degree must be RA - and the better the reputation - the better your chances. Even better, be able to teach an in-demand skill.

 

Teaching at a Community College

Do go on and get an MBA or other masters degree from a regionally or (even better) AACSB accredited school. By the way, an MBA (I have one, too) is pretty darn common nowadays. The way you break in a community college is by teaching parttime. Get your feet wet, get your whole BODY wet, teaching at this level. Do some grunt work and get known as a "doer." Do not think a Ph.D./Ed.D. will help you. I have been on many hiring committees for community college faculty and can tell you most of the doctorates present an arrogant attitude ("I can't believe I'd stoop as low as a community college, but here I am!" kind of thing) or they just don't know the role of a community college ("How much time will I get for research?" is a dead giveaway). In fact, I usually look very VERY hard at a doctoral level candidate and ask "why here?" A doctorally degreed person who goes the community college route is about dead for a career at universities. Now, I just help hire a gent that had taught for us for many many years parttime. This guy works harder than I do, and he is parttime. He has two masters degrees. He is also a proven commodity, excellent in the classroom, and with students and faculty.

 

I can speak to the situation with the 108 California Community Colleges. Your masters must be RA to teach an "academic" subject (English, math, science, business, social sciences, humanities & language, etc.). However, certain vocational-oriented subjects (culinary arts, air conditioning/heating, auto mechanics, office automation, etc.) can be taught if you have a bachelors and experience (or sometimes even an associates and even more experience). In that case, you could probably be hired with a DETC MA, but it would be up to the college whether they would accept it for salary purposes (most should).

I have seen community college faculty hired with state-approved doctorates, but in all those cases, the degrees were not recognized by the college for salary advancement or promotion.

Having worked at a community college for over seven years and served on many hiring boards, I can second many of Cogent's observations about PhDs/EdDs who teach at community college. While many do quite well, while others grow impatient at having to teach nothing but "intro" courses in their disciplines throughout their careers. Since community college faculty are not expected to publish or do research, anyone expecting much institutional support for such activities would be disappointed. Most of the PhDs/EdDs that I know in the community college system are either administrators or faculty who also teach part-time for 4-year universities. I do know community college faculty who have made a successful career move from community college to university.

Cogent is also right that most community college get their full-time faculty from their existing pool of part-time faculty.

Tony Pina
Faculty, Cal state U. San Bernardino

 

To All

Thanks for the advice. Wow! to even get comments from the master, Dr. Bear himself!!!!

After some thoughts and discussions with what I call college recruiters, I have decided to stay with AIU.

American InterContinental University is RA and has been rather fun to attend. I begin the MBA with a concentration in Accounting and Finance program at August end.

As I stated before, the goal is to teach at a community level college or online for AIU, Phoenix, or others. I have no desire to teach at a large brick and mortar university. I have 5 years and the pre-retirement cycle will come home, thus this avenue of choice. Goodbye gridlock, hello small town!!!

Again, thanks to all for providing valuable insight.

Regards,

Dave

 

Tony, Cogent,

nice to see somebody actually mentioning community college as a teaching endeavor (alternative?). Kudos to both for the insight.

Regards,

Kevin

 

Thanks. I served as Coordinator of Eductional Technology at a community college for over seven years and enjoyed my experience. In my area (Southern California) community colleges pay quite well for those who are interested in teaching, rather than research. Administrators in CA community colleges can earn 80-120K per year.

Many community college faculty earn more than those of us who work for Cal State.

Tony Piña
Faculty, Cal State U. San Bernardino