March 29, 2024

Education

The $159 Diploma

Online and correspondence high schools offer an inexpensive path to a high school credential for dropouts. But state colleges don't recognize many of the online diplomas.

Amy Keller | 2/28/2014

Colleges and employers

Garner's experience is, increasingly common, as state colleges and community colleges review students' credentials more critically.

Until a few years ago, state community colleges accepted students regardless whether they had valid high school diplomas. Placement tests determined whether students needed to take remedial classes before doing college level work. In 2011, however, the U.S. Department of Education passed rules requiring colleges and universities to validate high school diplomas.

College admissions officials in Florida say they've devised their own methods of determining whether a school provides a legitimate high school education. They look at factors ranging from whether there's a brick-and-mortar location to the presence of a school calendar to curriculum materials to the number of teachers to accreditation by a recognized agency.

The schools say they automatically reject diplomas awarded based on a single test aside from the GED. And while each state college maintains its own list of unacceptable high schools, Susan Fell, director of admissions and records for St. Petersburg College, says the schools share that information and "pretty much anyone that we turn away, everyone will turn away."

Mason, the operator of St. James Academy, acknowledges that graduates of his school are no longer accepted at Indian River State College and other state colleges and universities unless they take the GED — but says his grads still get into some private schools.

"They can go on to, like, cosmetology school, or there's a bunch of nursing schools around here that are private that they can go to, and up in the Daytona area where we have a lot of students, we send them to Bethune-Cookman," says Mason, who left a public school teaching job in St. Lucie County after the Florida Education Practices Commission reprimanded him and put him on probation in 2000 after allegations that included inappropriately rubbing male students' backs, visiting a student's home and buying him gifts and asking about male students' sexual orientations. He did not admit, deny or contest the allegations.

Mason says he urges students who want to go to state colleges and universities to get their GED instead. Beverly James, a spokeswoman for Bethune- Cookman, confirmed that the school has 10 students who graduated from St. James Academy.

Some employers also have grown leery of diplomas issued by online private high schools. On its job application form, for instance, the city of Lauderhill specifically states that it will not accept high school diplomas from the American Academy, Continental Academy, Sunrise Private High School, St. James Academy or any other school that is "not accredited," though it does not name which accrediting body or bodies it considers acceptable. All those schools offer online or correspondence diploma programs.

Oversight

Last May, following an investigation by the Florida Attorney General's office, the operators of an online high school diploma program based in Miramar agreed to refund consumers more than $9,000 and change the way they advertise their diploma programs on the internet.

Under the voluntary compliance agreement, Continental Academy and Southeastern High School — which offer a $250 "high school proficiency diploma" — can no longer advertise that they are "fully accredited."

The businesses — the object of dozens of consumer complaints — also agreed to stop advertising that their diploma or degree programs are appropriate for college-bound students or employment. The schools also agreed to place a disclaimer on their websites stating that their program is not a high school equivalency and "may not be accepted as evidence of a high school education or diploma by all colleges and employers."

The schools' operators — who also paid $50,000 to the Attorney General's office to reimburse the state for the costs of the investigation — are required to issue quarterly reports with the names and contact information of all consumers who request refunds, along with the dates of such requests and the date and amount of refunds paid.

The state's action against Continental and Southeastern is a rare intrusion into the largely unregulated world of private schools, however.

The state requires all private schools to register each year with the Department of Education. Each school also must complete an annual survey with information on the number of teachers, enrolled students and graduates.

But that's the extent of the state DOE's requirements. The agency doesn't verify any of the information the schools submit. Nor does it inspect the schools or evaluate their curriculums.

In fact, the DOE states specifically on its website that being listed in the directory of private schools "should not be used by any private school to imply approval or accreditation by the state."

Continental Academy — which was accredited by SACS from 2006 through 2008 but withdrew its accreditation in 2009 after questions were raised about the school's "Fast Track Program" — continues to appear on the state Department of Education's online directory of private schools, alongside respected private schools like Bolles School in Jacksonville and Shorecrest Preparatory School in St. Petersburg that are accredited by SACS.

The state's laissez-faire approach frustrates admissions officers at state schools. "If I wanted to open up a high school, it's so easy. All I would have to do is say, Susan's High School and establish a website and advertise ‘$200, Get Your High School Diploma Here,' " says Fell of St. Petersburg College.

"I could make up an accrediting body, like the Accrediting Association of Schools Named Susan. I could even register that accrediting body and make it an official entity, so when a naive student went to that website, it would all appear to be legitimate," she says.

Kathy Bucklew, registrar at Polk State College, believes the state DOE needs statutory authority to take a more proactive role in legitimizing private schools.

"We do think there should be some standards the Department of Education places on what they consider a true high school," says Bucklew.

The DOE, she says, could use the same sort of standards that the state colleges individually use to assess schools, such as teacher qualifications, interaction between students and teachers and the teaching materials a school uses, she says. "These are pretty simple things."

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