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+--- Thread: Made A Complaint (/thread-850.html)
Made A Complaint - RespectableGent - 06-04-2010
Former thread: http://www.dltruth.com/showthread.php?tid=720
I made a complaint to the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (A Regional Accreditor) about Excelsior College, the state sponsored diploma mill which allows one to sit for a single substandard GRE and then award the student an advanced degree. Excelsior has been operating since the 1970s, and has released hundreds of thousands of students out into the world with criminal credentials. An advanced degree based on a single easy 120 question test!
They emailed me back and told me that they only accept postmarked complaints.
RE: Made A Complaint - Winston Smith - 06-09-2010
RespectableGent Wrote:Former thread: http://www.dltruth.com/showthread.php?tid=720
I made a complaint to the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (A Regional Accreditor) about Excelsior College, the state sponsored diploma mill which allows one to sit for a single substandard GRE and then award the student an advanced degree. Excelsior has been operating since the 1970s, and has released hundreds of thousands of students out into the world with criminal credentials. An advanced degree based on a single easy 120 question test!
They emailed me back and told me that they only accept postmarked complaints.
Sounds like something the Department of Education's inspector general might be interested in, as discussed here. Or they would be if Excelsior was a for-profit. Maybe you can get MSCHE kicked to the curb along with NCACS.
RE: Made A Complaint - RespectableGent - 06-11-2010
Winston Smith Wrote:RespectableGent Wrote:Former thread: http://www.dltruth.com/showthread.php?tid=720
I made a complaint to the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (A Regional Accreditor) about Excelsior College, the state sponsored diploma mill which allows one to sit for a single substandard GRE and then award the student an advanced degree. Excelsior has been operating since the 1970s, and has released hundreds of thousands of students out into the world with criminal credentials. An advanced degree based on a single easy 120 question test!
They emailed me back and told me that they only accept postmarked complaints.
Sounds like something the Department of Education's inspector general might be interested in, as discussed here. Or they would be if Excelsior was a for-profit. Maybe you can get MSCHE kicked to the curb along with NCACS.
The DoEd's Inspector General was kicked to the curb and replaced a few days ago. This new stuttering child doesn't seem to be the type to followthrough.
In some amount of perverted logic, Congress and the DOE seem to WANT degree mills to exist. It appears that neither Congress or the DOE WANT to regulate schools or accreditors.
Short paper curriculums? Fine.
30 credits on a single 90 minute test? Sure.
Advanced degrees awarded on a single easy multiple choice test? Just peachy.
It appears that the United States Education System is in love with degree mills.
RE: Made A Complaint - Winston Smith - 06-11-2010
RespectableGent Wrote:The DoEd's Inspector General was kicked to the curb and replaced a few days ago.
The current IG is Kathleen S. Tighe, who was sworn in March 17, 2010. Before this she was the Deputy Inspector General for the Ag Dept. Her background appears to be in law and law enforcement, not education, which probably is a plus as far as actually developing and applying actual standards of accreditation.
The controversy between the IG's office and NCACS goes back at least as far as 2002. According to the IG's report:
Quote:http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oig/aireports/x13j0003.pdf
In 2002, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued a final management information report entitled, North Central Association of Colleges and Schools’ Accreditation Standards for Student Achievement and Program Length (ED-OIG/A09-C0016). The review found that HLC’s standards that encompass student achievement and program length were general and did not include specific measures to be met by institutions. The report stated that, as a result, HLC’s established standards inherently limited the agency’s ability to compare institutional performance and distinguish between compliant and noncompliant institutions. We suggested that HLC develop standards that are sufficiently concrete and specific to permit it to determine whether an institution is compliant or noncompliant; describe the Carnegie formula in written guidance and explicitly state that institutions should use this method or submit written justification of any deviation; and provide guidance on documenting deviations from the Carnegie method. HLC did not concur with our conclusions or our suggestions.
It appears that (at least recently) the DofEd has been trying to get accreditation agencies to establish concrete and specific standards for evaluating institutions, and that the accreditation agencies (or at least, one in particular) are resisting that notion at every turn.
So if by "diploma mill" you mean an institution that operates without any concrete or specific standards, sounds like the DofEd's IG agrees with you. But it's the accreditation agencies themselves that are in love with them, because accreditation agencies are operated by the very institutions they accredit. It's a total conflict of interest, which is why accreditation is not by any stretch the measure of quality that naive people believe it to be.
The notion of "quality" requires some system of standards and measurements. The accreditation agencies, as tools of the wealthy higher ed cartel, resist that because once people started keeping score the charade would be over. Then the Excelsiors and TESCs would be exposed, along with the Ivy League Dumbass Factories.