Recent TESC and teex experience?

[sanantone]

TESC took my 44 SH Credits for Prior Learning (CPL) and 30 SH Credit by Assessment (CBA) from the same community college and they neither have NCCRS nor ACE approval. All three of my personal credits are EM (FEMA)/CBA/CPL and are official community college "resident credits" and backed by Regional Accreditation not the lesser accepted National Accreditation.

TESU is NOT consistent with their FEMA policy.banghead

Excelsior College posted all my 79 resident and IS converted FEMA EM courses on my official EC Transcript, but not my official ACE Transcript yet. I am still waiting.

I am still waiting for the COSC eval.

I'm not really following you. Did you earn credits from the college for FEMA courses by conversion or by prior learning assessment? TESU will accept PLAs and CBEs from regionally accredited colleges because they are in-residence credits and fall under their regional accreditation. If the college just simply converted FEMA courses, then those aren't really residential credits. It's like trying to transfer CLEP credits from one college to another. CLEP exams don't come from the college, therefore, the next college will want to do its own evaluation and apply its own CLEP policy. Somehow, TESU must have known those were FEMA courses. That means those courses are somehow designated differently from other courses at the community college. If they were earned in residence, then there would be no difference with how they're listed on the transcript.

ACE and NCCRS aren't national accreditation. They aren't accreditation at all. They're credit recommendation services. FEMA is not an accredited college, and TESU has decided it will not accept courses from unaccredited institutions unless those institutions either receive ACE or NCCRS approval or pay to have their programs officially evaluated by TESU.

[Life Long Learning]

My FEMA resident courses are approved by the community college like my other CBA and CPL credits were by work done at OTHER places. Same difference! Both learning! The Emergency Management EM courses at the community college are 100% Regional accredited and resident. I have just transferred them to Excelsior and to a few other West Coast community colleges.

I think TESC's beef is that there are a ton of the IS courses and they are FREE.

I'm not really following you. Did you earn credits from the college for FEMA courses by conversion or by prior learning assessment? TESU will accept PLAs and CBEs from regionally accredited colleges because they are in-residence credits and fall under their regional accreditation. If the college just simply converted FEMA courses, then those aren't really residential credits. It's like trying to transfer CLEP credits from one college to another. CLEP exams don't come from the college, therefore, the next college will want to do its own evaluation and apply its own CLEP policy. Somehow, TESU must have known those were FEMA courses. That means those courses are somehow designated differently from other courses at the community college. If they were earned in residence, then there would be no difference with how they're listed on the transcript.

ACE and NCCRS aren't national accreditation. They aren't accreditation at all. They're credit recommendation services. FEMA is not an accredited college, and TESU has decided it will not accept courses from unaccredited institutions unless those institutions either receive ACE or NCCRS approval or pay to have their programs officially evaluated by TESU.

[sanantone]

My FEMA resident courses are approved by the community college like my other CBA and CPL credits were by work done at OTHER places. Same difference! Both learning! The Emergency Management EM courses at the community college are 100% Regional accredited and resident. I have just transferred them to Excelsior and to a few other West Coast community colleges.

I think TESC's beef is that there are a ton of the IS courses and they are FREE.

It's not the same because those other courses you took went through an evaluation process by test or PLA. You had to prove college-level learning. The knowledge you acquired from the FEMA courses was not evaluated in this manner. They simply just converted them to college credit. You can use knowledge obtained from FEMA courses and other studies and experiences to complete PLAs at TESU. However, the courses, alone, are not at the college level, in TESU's opinion. TEEX courses, NFA courses, the Kaplan course, and that insurance course is free. TESU accepts free courses. Saylor courses are also free; you just need to pay the proctor fee. People pay a lot of money to convert FEMA courses to college credits at FCC, and TESU still won't accept them. So, it has nothing to do with cost.

[Life Long Learning]

The community college EM department already did the FEMA evaluation with joint input from the State OEM. Fact more evaluation than any of my CBA or CPL. I proved nothing more than an IS FEMA course in my CPL/CBA. I know you want to defend TESC but I am not buying the hype.

Heck, I did the Kaplan course in under 2 hours. Now that was a joke. Same for the Insurance Ethics course that TESC takes. Just proves my point that TESC is NOT consistent and even bias.:willynilly:

It's not the same because those other courses you took went through an evaluation process by test or PLA. You had to prove college-level learning. The knowledge you acquired from the FEMA courses was not evaluated in this manner. They simply just converted them to college credit. You can use knowledge obtained from FEMA courses and other studies and experiences to complete PLAs at TESU. However, the courses, alone, are not at the college level, in TESU's opinion. TEEX courses, NFA courses, the Kaplan course, and that insurance course is free. TESU accepts free courses. Saylor courses are also free; you just need to pay the proctor fee. People pay a lot of money to convert FEMA courses to college credits at FCC, and TESU still won't accept them. So, it has nothing to do with cost.

[sanantone]

The community college EM department already did the FEMA evaluation with joint input from the State OEM. Fact more evaluation than any of my CBA or CPL. I proved nothing more than an IS FEMA course in my CPL/CBA. I know you want to defend TESC but I am not buying the hype.

Heck, I did the Kaplan course in under 2 hours. Now that was a joke. Same for the Insurance Ethics course that TESC takes. Just proves my point that TESC is NOT consistent and even bias.:willynilly:

This is not really a defense of TESU; I just don't understand your argument of how they are being inconsistent. TESU almost always accepts PLAs and exams from other colleges and non-college courses evaluated by ACE or NCCRS. Everything else needs to be evaluated directly by them. I don't see what is inconsistent about that. You may not agree with TESU not accepting another college's evaluation of FEMA courses or them accepting the Kaplan and insurance courses over the FEMA courses, but that doesn't mean that TESU is being inconsistent. I still don't understand how TESU knew that those were FEMA courses if they were earned in residence. Shouldn't they look like any other course on your transcript?

What is inconsistent is the fact that COSC will accept FEMA courses directly without ACE/NCCRS approval or regional accreditation, but they won't accept CSU Global CBEs just because CSU Global treats them as non-resident credits. I can assure anyone that the CSU Global CBEs are more on par with college-level learning than FEMA courses.

[Life Long Learning]

These courses look just like any college courses etc. (EM-101 Intro to Emergency Management) and they flat out refused anything with an EM-xxx in the name. That spoke volumes.

Some I took directly from the community college like a 220-hour internship/CWE (EM-280 Emergency Management/CWE) and EM-111 CERT (3 Credits/28-Hours) in emergency management. Again a huge bias.

Some I took in residence: EM-109 Public Information Officer (3 credits).

This is not really a defense of TESU; I just don't understand your argument of how they are being inconsistent. TESU almost always accepts PLAs and exams from other colleges and non-college courses evaluated by ACE or NCCRS. Everything else needs to be evaluated directly by them. I don't see what is inconsistent about that. You may not agree with TESU not accepting another college's evaluation of FEMA courses or them accepting the Kaplan and insurance courses over the FEMA courses, but that doesn't mean that TESU is being inconsistent. I still don't understand how TESU knew that those were FEMA courses if they were earned in residence. Shouldn't they look like any other course on your transcript?

[sanantone]

These courses look just like any college courses etc. (EM-101 Intro to Emergency Management) and they flat out refused anything with an EM-xxx in the name. That spoke volumes.

Some I took directly from the community college like a 220-hour internship/CWE (EM-280 Emergency Management/CWE) and EM-111 CERT (3 Credits/28-Hours) in emergency management. Again a huge bias.

Some I took in residence: EM-109 Public Information Officer (3 credits).

So, they didn't reject FEMA courses; they rejected emergency management courses. This is a completely different story and has nothing to do with FEMA policy. Did they actually reject them or did they list them in "other courses" because there wasn't enough room in free electives? Emergency management courses can only be used as free electives and in the area of study for the Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness and Environmental, Safety, and Security Technology degrees.

[Life Long Learning]

No in my email they said they refused FEMA. A month ago I replied what about the other EM courses and no answer. I am not surprised. I need to send another email.

So, they didn't reject FEMA courses; they rejected emergency management courses. This is a completely different story and has nothing to do with FEMA policy. Did they actually reject them or did they list them in "other courses" because there wasn't enough room in free electives? Emergency management courses can only be used as free electives and in the area of study for the Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness and Environmental, Safety, and Security Technology degrees.

[Life Long Learning]

This is exactly what they said.

"Please note that Thomas Edison State College does not award credit for FEMA Independent Study courses that have not been independently assessed by regionally accredited institutions. In order for this credit to be awarded, please request a transcript from the American Council on Education. Please contact ACE to determine if your credit has been reviewed by them for college-level credit. If so, you will need to request an official transcript sent to the Registrar's Office, Thomas Edison State College."
-------------------Sent: Wednesday, December 9, 2015 3:09 PM


They REJECTED everything NOT just FEMA Independent Study courses. Very bias.:ack: Bottom line is they trust ACE (which they downgraded from UL to LL) and not a community college assessment which is a regionally accredited institution.

FEMA - Independent Study (IS): 46 Credits
FEMA/CDP/NFA/TEEX/CERT - Resident Courses: 27 Credits
EM Cooperative Work Experience (CWE): 6 Credits

So, they didn't reject FEMA courses; they rejected emergency management courses. This is a completely different story and has nothing to do with FEMA policy. Did they actually reject them or did they list them in "other courses" because there wasn't enough room in free electives? Emergency management courses can only be used as free electives and in the area of study for the Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness and Environmental, Safety, and Security Technology degrees.

[Life Long Learning]

I am hoping for better from Excelsior and COSC. Time will tell!