01-29-2008, 03:25 AM
From DD's discussion on RA or NO WAY:
"With all due respect to Jonathan, he has asked the wrong question. The entire "RA or no-way" campaign was designed by certain undesirable elements to try to portray the promotion of legitimate schools/degrees as an extremist position. There was never any real opposition to NA or GAAP degrees. In fact, many of the members of these DL boards have long promoted such degrees, myself included. In some cases, the debate has not even been about accredited v. unaccredited schools as there have been some well regarded unaccredited schools that have been mentioned time and time again. Over the years we have seen some of these unaccredited schools move into the realm of accreditation and these moves have been universally celebrated.
The problem has been that these undesirable elements have sought to equate their degree mill "degrees" with NA or GAAP degrees. Like a stupid kid on a skateboard they have sought to latch onto a bus/car/truck and be pulled effortlessly into legitimacy. Dividing the world of education into two parts [RA (legitimate) and no-way (illegitimate)] is a non-starter. The key is specificity. Let's look at each school as a separate entity. We know that not all RA schools are the same. This is true of DETC schools, GAAP schools and unaccredited schools as well. A survey about RA or no-way needs to be more specific before it becomes useful."
"With all due respect to Jonathan, he has asked the wrong question. The entire "RA or no-way" campaign was designed by certain undesirable elements to try to portray the promotion of legitimate schools/degrees as an extremist position. There was never any real opposition to NA or GAAP degrees. In fact, many of the members of these DL boards have long promoted such degrees, myself included. In some cases, the debate has not even been about accredited v. unaccredited schools as there have been some well regarded unaccredited schools that have been mentioned time and time again. Over the years we have seen some of these unaccredited schools move into the realm of accreditation and these moves have been universally celebrated.
The problem has been that these undesirable elements have sought to equate their degree mill "degrees" with NA or GAAP degrees. Like a stupid kid on a skateboard they have sought to latch onto a bus/car/truck and be pulled effortlessly into legitimacy. Dividing the world of education into two parts [RA (legitimate) and no-way (illegitimate)] is a non-starter. The key is specificity. Let's look at each school as a separate entity. We know that not all RA schools are the same. This is true of DETC schools, GAAP schools and unaccredited schools as well. A survey about RA or no-way needs to be more specific before it becomes useful."