CCAF & Straighterline

[jetmech68]

I know this topic has been talked about before. However, I was looking through Straighterline web site at the list of colleges that accepts Straighterline credits. CCAF is listed. So, this peaks my curiosity as to how many colleges and universities in that list do accept Straighterline? Does anyone know if CCAF has recently changed its course of action towards accepting Straighterline credits? I am taking classes at a community college to finish out my CCAF degree. It would save me some time if they did.

Community College of Allegheny County
Community College of Aurora
Community College of Baltimore County
Community College of Baltimore County--Dundalk
Community College of Baltimore County--Essex
Community College of Beaver County
Community College of Denver
Community College of Philadelphia
Community College of Rhode Island
Community College of Vermont
Community College of the Air Force
Concord University
Concordia College
Concordia University
Concordia University Chicago
Concordia University Irvine
Concordia University Portland
Concordia University Saint Paul
Concordia University Texas
Concordia University, Ann Arbor
Connecticut College




Jack

[Prloko]

I know this topic has been talked about before. However, I was looking through Straighterline web site at the list of colleges that accepts Straighterline credits. CCAF is listed. So, this peaks my curiosity as to how many colleges and universities in that list do accept Straighterline? Does anyone know if CCAF has recently changed its course of action towards accepting Straighterline credits? I am taking classes at a community college to finish out my CCAF degree. It would save me some time if they did.

Community College of Allegheny County
Community College of Aurora
Community College of Baltimore County
Community College of Baltimore County--Dundalk
Community College of Baltimore County--Essex
Community College of Beaver County
Community College of Denver
Community College of Philadelphia
Community College of Rhode Island
Community College of Vermont
Community College of the Air Force
Concord University
Concordia College
Concordia University
Concordia University Chicago
Concordia University Irvine
Concordia University Portland
Concordia University Saint Paul
Concordia University Texas
Concordia University, Ann Arbor
Connecticut College




Jack

I think they go off of what their students report to them. This is pure speculation, but I wonder if this is through some other means (credit laundering). Did FHSU launder straighterline back in the day? I know they used to do it for clep and dsst.

the best thing to do is to get someone at CCAF to answer your questions. Don't ask the education center, they seem to be ignorant of the whole military education thing.

[jetmech68]

I contacted CCAF today and asked them about Straighterline. The guy on the other end said he had never heard of Straighterline and he had been working there for two years. As we were talking, he gave me the alternative sales pitch to taking CLEP and DANTES test or sign up for one of the GEM programs. He pulled up Straighterline web site and was looking through it and said since they don't have an accreditation through any of the govern bodies it would be unlikely they would accept any credits from Straighterline. I said they were accepted by ACE. He then cross referenced Straighterline with some other spreadsheets he had and they don't show up on those spreadsheets either. He said even though they are accredited by ACE doesn't mean any school has to accept those credits. But what he said next was kind of out of the ordinary. He said " To get credit for any courses taken through Straighterline, you have to send the information to your education office and have them send a course description and they will evaluate it. They may or may not grant credit. It could be a lengthy process." With that, I'm sure it would not be a priority and take months to get an answer back. Then he went back to selling me on taking CLEP and DANTES. I will take my chances with CLEP or DANTES first. I'm going to talk to my education office about this when I go in next month for duty and see what kind of feed back I get from them.

Jack

[Prloko]

I contacted CCAF today and asked them about Straighterline. The guy on the other end said he had never heard of Straighterline and he had been working there for two years. As we were talking, he gave me the alternative sales pitch to taking CLEP and DANTES test or sign up for one of the GEM programs. He pulled up Straighterline web site and was looking through it and said since they don't have an accreditation through any of the govern bodies it would be unlikely they would accept any credits from Straighterline. I said they were accepted by ACE. He then cross referenced Straighterline with some other spreadsheets he had and they don't show up on those spreadsheets either. He said even though they are accredited by ACE doesn't mean any school has to accept those credits. But what he said next was kind of out of the ordinary. He said " To get credit for any courses taken through Straighterline, you have to send the information to your education office and have them send a course description and they will evaluate it. They may or may not grant credit. It could be a lengthy process." With that, I'm sure it would not be a priority and take months to get an answer back. Then he went back to selling me on taking CLEP and DANTES. I will take my chances with CLEP or DANTES first. I'm going to talk to my education office about this when I go in next month for duty and see what kind of feed back I get from them.

Jack

That's what I figured. CCAF is very strict with their acceptance of credit. They have SAC accreditation which is not as lenient as HLC. What I heard through a source is that one reason they are so careful is that most of their instructors (tech school) only have associates degrees, and SAC was not too happy with that.

[hosstark]

That's what I figured. CCAF is very strict with their acceptance of credit. They have SAC accreditation which is not as lenient as HLC. What I heard through a source is that one reason they are so careful is that most of their instructors (tech school) only have associates degrees, and SAC was not too happy with that.

I am a CCAF Academic Advisor/Education Services Officer. You are mostly correct on your knowledge for CCAF Accreditation. The way it works for CCAF to maintain their SAC acc. is that all of the General Education courses that they accept have to be taught by someone with a Masters in that particular field or 18 graduate credit hours in that field from a Regionally Accredited school. So, yes, most of the tech school instructors and PME instructors have at least their CCAF but since those courses are not the Gen Ed requirements (i.e. Eng Comp I, Math, Speech, Soc Sci, Hum) then that is acceptable. A lot of people ask why CCAF does not count PME courses where lots of speeches are given as the Speech credit. That is the reason, the instructors do not have a Masters in Communications or 18 Graduate hours is Communications/Speech.

Now to touch on the Straighterline issue. Straighterline does not have ANY accreditation. They only partner with schools that do have the accreditation. So basically the way it works is that the accredited school contracts out to Straighterline to teach and then the "real" accredited school puts your credit from Straighterline on to their (the "real" schools') transcripts. Straighterline will probably never show up on the transcript because it is not a real school. I use the term real in the strict sense that they are not recognized by the US Dept. of Education. When you go to the Dept of Education website Search Institutional Accreditation System you can verify a school's accreditation (existence). CCAF will not take any credits from schools not recognized by the Dept of Education.

So if Straighterline is making the claim that CCAF accepts their credits, then that is misleading. CCAF is accepting credit from the Partner/accredited school, not from Straighterline. Obviously their is currently no real way to audit the schools to see which classes they are putting on the transcripts that were actually "taught" by Straighterline. So to defend the CCAF advisor about not being aware of Straighterline, no one has seen a Straighterline Transcript, because they don't actually exist.

CCAF x 2 Pharmacy and Education & Training MGMT
AS Biology
Bach. Business Administrations
MBA Finance/International Business in progress

[ironheadjack]

Your explanation of Straighterline doesn't jive with me.


Straighterline(SL) is not a college so obviously it won't have regional or national accreditation. SL is a learning system that is "accredited"-approved by ACE(American Council on Education) all of SL courses are approved by ACE. If your college accepts ACE transcripts then they may accept SL courses, you don't necessarily need to attend a "partner college".

When SL courses are put onto an ACE transcript, SL will always be listed as the originating source.

If SL is "making the claim" that CCAF accepts their credits, they are probably implying that CCAF accepts ACE transcripts for credit. Many schools accept ACE transcripts so there's a chance they will accept SL.

[hosstark]

Your explanation of Straighterline doesn't jive with me.


Straighterline(SL) is not a college so obviously it won't have regional or national accreditation. SL is a learning system that is "accredited"-approved by ACE(American Council on Education) all of SL courses are approved by ACE. If your college accepts ACE transcripts then they may accept SL courses, you don't necessarily need to attend a "partner college".

When SL courses are put onto an ACE transcript, SL will always be listed as the originating source.

If SL is "making the claim" that CCAF accepts their credits, they are probably implying that CCAF accepts ACE transcripts for credit. Many schools accept ACE transcripts so there's a chance they will accept SL.

What you are saying does not really disagree with what I said. In the educational world, however, the term accredited is not interchangeable with approved or recommended. ACE is not an actual accrediting institution nor is it an accredited institution. It evaluates courses and makes recommendations to institutions as to what kind of credit and how much credit they believe a course should be worth. However, since ACE is not actually an accredited institution or accrediting institution, it is completely up to the school if they decide to accept credit for those courses. Now because ACE does have a descent reputation and because a lot of the work they are recommending comes from military servicemen and women, institutions are more likely to accept the credit quite often out of loyalty to service members and the fact that it is bad PR for a school to say a members military education is of no value.

Now back to SL. Take a look at the institutions that it has partnered with. Most are for profit schools and often looked down upon by the traditional, well respected schools. There are no Ivy league schools on the list. Most of them are primarily online schools that target military members/veterans VA/TA benefits. Now, I am a capitalist, so I don't really have a problem with that, but you may be hard pressed to get some of the upper echelons of traditional education to accept SL without it being directly tied to an actual accredited institution.

Even at our base, when you want to CLEP or Dantes a test, it is administered by one of the colleges that we have on base, that way it is directly put into that accredited colleges transcript.

I think accreditation is all really a joke considering nothing in the accrediting process actually addresses curriculum covered or competency in subject matter. Accrediting is all about how many people graduate that started the program and how much the school spends on its students and faculty versus on marketing costs. When a school gets its accreditation taken away it is normally for not having "qualified" instructors (as stated above about Masters degrees or graduate hours) and for spending to much money on marketing and not having a high enough graduate rate.

[sanantone]

Now back to SL. Take a look at the institutions that it has partnered with. Most are for profit schools and often looked down upon by the traditional, well respected schools. There are no Ivy league schools on the list. Most of them are primarily online schools that target military members/veterans VA/TA benefits. Now, I am a capitalist, so I don't really have a problem with that, but you may be hard pressed to get some of the upper echelons of traditional education to accept SL without it being directly tied to an actual accredited institution.

This is incorrect. Most of of SL's partners are non-profit colleges with many of them being brick and mortar, traditional colleges. Granted, these are not top tier schools. I don't know if University of Texas at Austin will consider accepting SL courses in transfer toward a degree program, but for their MSN and PhD in nursing programs, they recommend SL for the prerequisite courses.

[EI2HCB]

Sanantone, hit it straight on the nail. In addition CLEP scores go through The College board before they hit your college transcript regardless of which college administers them. That's why you enter a college code when you take the exam.

[publius2k4]

This is incorrect. Most of of SL's partners are non-profit colleges with many of them being brick and mortar, traditional colleges. Granted, these are not top tier schools. I don't know if University of Texas at Austin will consider accepting SL courses in transfer toward a degree program, but for their MSN and PhD in nursing programs, they recommend SL for the prerequisite courses.

Western Governors University also recommends the Straighterline science courses (biology, chemistry, anatomy and physiology, etc) for meeting the prerequisite courses for their nursing programs.