You are here: Home / Archives for accreditation

Online Schools and Accreditation

July 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment

As I have mentioned previously, you should always choose a school that is recognized by employers and by colleges and other schools. One form of recognition is accreditation at the regional or national level. Unfortunately, just as there are fake online schools, so, too, are there fake accreditors. The following accreditors are the ones acceptable to Best Online High Schools and to most schools and employers:

  • Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC)
  • Northwest Accreditation Commission (NWAC)
  • Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS)
  • Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools (MSA)
  • New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEA)
  • North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA)
  • AdvancED
  • CITA
  • Distance Education & Training Council (DETC)

AdvancED is actually a consolidation of the pre-college divisions of two regional accreditors (NCA and SACS). CITA was acquired by AdvancED in 2008.

DETC is a national accreditor. In one of the oddities of accreditation, often regional accreditation is viewed as a higher form of accreditation. True or not, it is a good idea to check with your college or employer of choice to see if DETC accreditation is acceptable.

So what does accreditation look like on websites. You will still see some sites that list CITA when they actually mean AdvancED. It’s not unusual to see the same with SACS or or NCA. Not to worry, though. At this time, all of those, in a sense, mean the same thing.

One additional note: the NWAC is the new name for the Northwest Association of Accredited Schools.

Importantly, if you are not sure about an accreditor, post a comment to this post and we are glad to help. It can be confusing.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: , ,

The Best Online High Schools Promise

July 15, 2011 By Leave a Comment

As we hit the middle of the summer, we get increasing interest from online schools to be listed on this website. You may not be aware, but there are many online schools that are not acceptable to employers or to colleges. Their goal is to make money, so they make outlandish claims about earning a high school diploma in one month or in having a test that you can use to earn a diploma.

Here at Best Online High Schools, it is our goal to make sure that, if you get listed on this website, you have real value for our potential students. One way we use to determine that value is how the potential school is recognized. Typically, we look for one of three possible recognizers:

  1. Recognized by a regional or national accreditor. This is a specific group of organizations most of which can be found here.*
  2. Recognized by a state department of education.
  3. Recognized by a public school district or county office of education.

While there are other possibilities, that number is small. If you are not sure, ask us. We wish that it was as simple as saying that a school needs to be accredited, but, just as there are unrecognized schools, so, too, are there unrecognized accreditors.

So this week alone, we turned down three schools for listing here on this website. Sometimes it takes some digging to determine the authenticity of a school, but we think it is worth it.

While we can’t guarantee that a poor choice won’t slip through, we can promise that we will do our level best to make sure that does not happen.

*This is not a complete list. Look for a new post soon specifically providing a list of accreditors.
Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: , ,