Oregon school definitions

We have been contacted by the states of Nevada, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Maine about local residents asking state legislatures there to pass Oregon-like laws.

Oregon has completed its evaluation of Columbia Commonwealth University and we'll be posting the letter in a separate thread.

We do not list all of the unaccredited California schools or the unaccredited state-approved schools in 48 other states because it is impossible to keep up with all of them - those lists change all the time, too. We are thinking of adding a general statement to our web site clarifying that degrees from all state-approved schools are invalid for use in Oregon.

It occurs to me that one thing never mentioned on this forum is that Oregon has also refused to allow certain accredited schools to operate here as degree-granters owing to inability to meet standards. Other states, notably Texas, allow schools with some kinds of accreditation in, while making other accredited schools go through a serious evaluation. There is no universality even within the world of accreditation.

We all have extensive life experiences. Let's all get PhDs. OK, now what?

 

Well, first, your list should not include any schools that are not degree mills. Whether intentional or not, readers view this as a list of mills. If you want to be Oregon's degree mill fighter that's fine. It is a noble cause. Make the list bigger, add more baddies, reprint John Bear's book, whatever... but to list legitimate schools that have been approved in one state but not necessarily yours and then to show only a smattering of those schools imbedded in a much larger list of flaming degree mills, really makes one wonder what the flock you are trying to do. The biggest criticism of your list is that it is illogical. It is illogical because you've got mostly degree mills and then some others. This is easily misunderstood and miscommunicated. It is more logical and simpler to make a blanket statement about all state approved degrees, and focus strictly on the mills.

 

I think your idea of splitting off the "worst mills" list has merit, but how should we deal with things like Pacific Western or Kennedy-Western, which in my professional judgment are diploma mills within the meaning of Oregon law, yet they have state approval and show no sign of losing it?

The term "state approved" does not mean the same as "legitimate," based on my experience.

 

Sorry Kirkland but your analogy fails. Accreditation is not taught in school. Removing teeth, I'll assume, is taught in dental school, so classes in teeth extraction should improve a person's skill in that area. I note that we have not been to dental school and that we managed to talk about it anyway. I even dared to guess that teeth extraction would be a topic covered at dental school! Would a graduate degree in business from an unaccredited school somehow make me more qualified to discuss dental school at this level? According to Kirkland and Dennis Ruhl, apparently the answer would be yes.

Why is it that people with unquestioned degrees don't try to give themselves elitist status simply due to their degrees? Multiple holders of unaccredited degrees have tried to say that one cannot discuss accreditation issues without a graduate degree.

 

This is a bit mindboggling. How then can accreditation recognized by CHEA and the USDOE be functional if certain states can second quess and disallow degrees from an accredited school? Couldn't this practice lead to chaos? What accredited schools does Oregon refuse to allow use of a degree from?

 

Really???? what a sweeping and absurd generalization... it is typically the opposite, but then why should that stop you.

Seems to me that in most of your posts you aren't talking about accreditation at all. Rather, you seem more interested in stuff like the above, generating emotive responses by being a troll, than actually offering anything useful or insightful in the field of accreditation.

 

I believe most States that have an evaluative approval process for universities take their role seriously. Generally, State Approval does mean legitimate. Wyoming however apparently allows schools to operate with standards that are distinctly different from traditional universities. I think your assessment is generally negative based on a few examples. It should be a relatively simple matter to recognize which States are serious. In the case of a particular school operating as a renegade in contravention of its authorization or approval (gone "pirate" as it were), list it if there is sufficient evidence.

 

That's a fair assessment. Just like your generalization that people aren't qualified to discuss matters that aren't even taught in school unless they have an advanced degree is even a more absurd generalization.

I will hereby restrict my absurd generalization down to just you and Dennis Ruhl (and his academic fraud buddies that own the other forums that are being discussed on DegreeInfo) since that is where it was really targetted.

 

In re-reading my earlier post I see that I was unclear. Oregon does not disallow the use of degrees from any accredited school.

We have on a couple of occasions disallowed an accredited school from setting up a branch campus in Oregon because the school could not meet the state standards. These schools are now re-working their programs in order to meet the standards required to operate on the ground in Oregon.

This situation is fairly common, since some states focus heavily on a schools financial status (e.g. Pennsylvania) while others have very detailed requirements for distance programs (Minnesota) and some are very picky about faculty credentials (Oregon).

Texa considers certain accreditors to by definition meet Texas standards for a branch campus, while they consider other accreditors to be insufficient and therefore require a more stringent review of schools accredited by the second group of accreditors.

I hope that is more clear.

 

Alan;

Thanks for clearing that up. After I made the post about your statement I started thinking I must have been mistaken about what you were saying. What you explained above makes perfect sense.