Hilee Draehn
COMM 5350a
Lesson 14
A personal story:
While working at a private, parochial school, the school administration had
begun the accreditation process for our school offered by the local agency.
This process required that the goals of our school reflect the purpose of the
school. The staff had to be certified elementary education professionals trained
and committed to providing appropriate, developmentally sound practices, materials,
learning experiences, and curriculum. This process was a tedious paper trail
of documentation, observation, justification, evaluation, and reform for the
entire staff, but the sense of becoming "accredited" symbolized pride that our
school was among the list of private schools providing or exceeding a standard
of education for children.
I think it is important for all educational environments to be accredited
by recognized accreditation agencies in order to provide academic excellence
to students. As a graduate student, it is comforting to know that the university's
programs for online coursework meet the following standards listed on the UT
Telecampus site, Principles of Good Practice for Academic Degree and Certificate
Programs and Credit Courses Offered Electronically, http://www.telecampus.utsystem.edu/telecampus/index.htm:
Each program or course results in learning outcomes appropriate to the rigor
and breadth of the degree or certificate awarded.
A degree or certificate program or course offered electronically is coherent
and complete.
The program or course provides for appropriate interaction between faculty and
students and among students.
Qualified faculty provide appropriate oversight of the program or course that
is offered electronically.
Programs or courses offered electronically are offered on the campus of the
institution where the programs or courses originate.
Academic standards for all programs or courses offered electronically will be
the same as those for programs or courses delivered by other means at the institution
where the program or course originates.
Student learning in programs or courses delivered electronically should be comparable
to student learning in programs offered at the campus where the programs or
courses originate.
The site also states what types of student services should be offered, how the
faculty will be supported, and ideas that provide resources for learning.
Lesson 14 Questions:
Why accreditation?
Accreditation presupposes a standard of quality for all educational institutions
despite the delivery mode (on campus or remote site) that the programs offered
reflect a set of goals, the faculty is knowledgeable, and learning resources/materials
are offered or used. These general qualifications signify that the institution
meets the established standards.
Who oversees it?
Accreditation organizations are specific to the type of organization that is
seeking accreditation. For example, the list below highlights some of the different
types of agencies that oversee accreditation in the field of education:
I was amazed to see the listing of accreditation agencies-there is even an agency
that oversees the standards of horse stabling businesses.
For teacher certification:
National Council for Accreditation
of Teacher Education - professional accrediting organization for education
schools in the U.S.
For private schools:
National Council for Private School
Accreditation (NCPSA) - serves as a national review panel for the standards
and procedures of private school accrediting associations
For Montessori schools:
Montessori Accreditation Council
for Teacher Education (MACTE) Commission - an autonomous, international,
nonprofit postsecondary accrediting agency for teacher education programs.
For day care facilities:
National Childcare Accreditation
Council Inc. (NCAC) - administers the Quality Improvement and Accreditation
System (QIAS) for long day care centres.
For early childhood educators (I belong to this organization and have attended
many seminars offered by the NAEYC):
National Association
for the Education of Young Children - national accreditation-granting group
for childcare institutions in the US.
For home school situations:
National Association
of Private Schools - NAPS offers private, Christian and home school accreditation
For Texas public schools:
The Texas Education Agency (http://www.tea.state.tx.us/account.eval/)
The course material in Lesson 14 depicts a diagram that shows the six educational accrediting associations in the United States that correspond to geographic regions (Northern New England, Middle States, North Central, Southern, Western, Northwest).
What differences exist between accreditation of regular instructional programs
and distance learning programs?
Accreditation standards for traditional educational settings should be the same
as those for distance learning programs. Subtleties lie in the different criteria
each agency may use.
What type of supporting evidence is needed:
To show institutional effectiveness, all educational settings must present the
following:
What role are the new information technologies and educational communications
playing in counteracting and changing the strongest criticism of distance education?
Through the use of interactive technologies, the "human touch" is being added
to distance education courses. The use of email, bulletin boards, and listservs
allow users time to reflect and comment on others work, send messages to others,
or pose questions or points of view without regard to race, gender, ethnicity,
or learning ability. The synchronous feature of chat rooms allows live "talk"
with classmates and professors; moreover, the invention and use of web-cams
have enabled others to actually see the individual and hear their voice. These
events attempt to strengthen personal relationships with classmates and professors.