Accreditation: Is it important?

I’ll tell you what….Homeschooling has come a long way! Oh yeah, baby! Sincere, heart-felt thanks to all of you who fought so hard for the freedom to educate our children at home, paving the way for the rest of us! Thank you!!!

Next time we’ll look at some of the various types of private distance learning options for homeschoolers – their similarities and differences. But, before we get into the specific options available, let’s talk about a common consideration in any of the private distance learning options, accreditation.

Accreditation means that the school has been evaluated by and determined to meet the standards of the (private) accrediting agency. Two such agencies are National Association of Private Schools or National Council for Private School Accreditation.

Is the distance learning school you’re considering accredited or not? How important is accreditation? That is a question you will have to answer. Having a diploma/transcript from an accredited school used to be vital, particularly for the college-bound student. If you think your high school student is college bound, it would be wise to take the time to research potential schools to find out what their policies are regarding the admission of home educated students.

Regarding accreditation, I believe the tide is slowly turning. “The proof is in the pudding” as the saying goes and time will tell. One friend, whose son was recently accepted to a well-respected school (out of 100 applicants, he was one of 25 accepted), told me about a conversation she had with one the school’s instructors. He said to her, “I see your son was homeschooled. He’ll do fine – all the homeschooled students we’ve had have done great!”

Many colleges and universities have seen and are impressed by the quality of home educated students. More and more are welcoming homeschoolers; some have actually begun seeking them out. “Homemade” diplomas and transcripts are not necessarily the negative they once were. It used to be the norm for home educated students to have to “jump through hoops” that their public schooled counterparts didn’t. This is beginning to change as well.

What do you think? Is accreditation important? What has been your experience?

Pressing on,
Sue

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This entry was posted on Friday, December 28th, 2007 at 12:12 pm and is filed under Home Education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.