News from CEA, January 14, 2004

This memo highlights items from the December 5-7, 2003, meeting of the Commission on English Language Program Accreditation and other information of interest.

Accreditation Decisions

As required by the U.S. Department of Education for recognized accrediting agencies, CEA makes its accreditation decisions public. CEA welcomes these new members of the CEA Constituent Council. A complete list of CEA accredited programs and institutions is listed on the CEA web site:

Granted one-year programmatic accreditation, December 2003 – December 2004
English Language Center, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia

Granted one-year institutional accreditation, December 2003 – December 2004
inlingua® English Center, Arlington, Virginia

New commissioners and Executive Committee

Three new commissioners joined the Commission as of January 1 to serve 3-year terms. Belle Tyndall (George Washington University), Bill Merriman (University of Alabama), and Terry Simon (Texas Intensive English Program)will attend their first Commission meeting in April.

The Commission also elected Jeanne Hind, Spring International in Denver, as Chair-elect (to become Chair in 2005) and David Woodward, American Cultural Exchange in Seattle, to serve as Treasurer. Mary Reeves, 21003 Chair-elect, assumes the position as Chair for 2004.

CEA thanks the following former commissioners for their service to CEA: Anne Albarelli, Ande Clark, Cindy Ochoa, and Ricardo Martinez (Public member).

2004 Accreditation Workshops

Accreditation workshops are a required step in the accreditation process. Workshops include information about the CEA accreditation process and specific information about the self-study and site review process. Workshops are all day and cost $260 for the first person and $130 for additional participants from the same site.

Accreditation workshops scheduled so far for 2004 will be as follows:

April 3, Long Beach CA, TESOL convention
May 29, Baltimore MD, NAFSA conference
Fall, CEA offices, Alexandria VA

Prior to sending a representative to a workshop, a site must apply for eligibility to proceed. If you are interested in applying for accreditation and in attending one of the upcoming workshops, please contact CEA.

New customized Accreditation Workshops

CEA now offers customized workshops that can be scheduled at a particular school. The advantage of a customized workshop is that many participants from a site may attend. Participants at prior customized workshops have commented on how important it was to have the staff that would be involved in the self study attend, which they wouldn’t have been able to do if they had all had to travel to a regularly scheduled workshop. In addition, they benefited from having the workshop focused on their particular needs, as determined by the coordinator and the workshop presenter.

Customized workshops are $1,000, plus the direct expenses (travel, food, and lodging) of the presenter. If you are interested, please contact CEA.

Reviewer Workshop, April

As a result of CEA’s recent recognition by the US Secretary of Education, more and more independent English language schools are applying for accreditation. This is resulting in a need for many more site reviewers with experience in the independent sector.

Site reviewers play an important role in the accreditation process. They are responsible for reviewing program self-study materials, participating in a 3-day site visit, and submitting a review team report to the Commission. Being a CEA site reviewer is a highly rewarding professional endeavor.

Because of the nature of the task, the Commission seeks applications from senior professionals who have broad knowledge of and experience in English language teaching and administration and who have earned graduate degrees in disciplines related to language instruction and educational administration. These professionals should have a reputation of integrity as demonstrated through their participation as leaders in scholarly activities and professional associations. A graduate degree is required.

If you are currently employed at a proprietary school or have had such experience, please consider being trained as a CEA reviewer, or pass this request on to someone else who might be interested. The next workshop is on April 3, in Long Beach, following the TESOL convention. If you are interested in being trained, please contact CEA as soon as possible for information about how to apply.

Policies and fees for multiple-site institutions

The Commission addressed the issue of policies and fees for multiple-site institutions. Currently, each site in a multi-site institution must seek accreditation and pay fees as a single site. Constituent Council members and others seeking accreditation have commented on how this may result in prohibitive costs for multi-site institutions. As a result of its discussion, the Commission will convene a task force to gather more information and to investigate how a change in policy might affect CEA finances.

At the same time, the Commission voted to change one of its fees. The fee submitted with the self-study plan ($1,600) has been amended for multi-sites that have one self-study coordinator appointed to coordinate with CEA. The fee is now $1,600 for the first site, plus $400 for each additional site. The fee went into effect January 1.

TOEFL Board Grant

CEA received a TOEFL Board Grant in 2003 to support the work of CEA’s Standards Review Committee, which is responsible for on-going review of the CEA standards. Three task forces met at the CEA offices in October and focused on the areas of distance education, student outcomes, and TEFL certification. The distance education and student outcomes task forces addressed the need to focus on standard areas emphasized by the US Department of Education. These topics are also at the forefront of accreditation concerns in the country. The TEFL certificate project emerged as a result of CEA’s need to provide guidance for review of independent English language institutions that offer TEFL certification programs.

The materials produced as a result of the task force meetings will find their way into CEA materials and will help to inform sites undergoing accreditation and re-accreditation in the future.

Ad Hoc Faculty Standards Committee

The Commission has formed an Ad Hoc Faculty Standards Subcommittee to review CEA’s Faculty Standards #1 & 2. This was prompted by a concern by the US Department of Education during the CEA recognition process that “CEA more clearly define its requirements for faculty qualifications…” and CEA’s own need to provide more guidance to reviewers and the Commission in applying these two standards.

The first step in this project was a survey conducted in November. CEA thanks all of those who participated in that survey.

Members of a committee to look at the results of the survey and other CEA materials and to make recommendations to the Commission for consideration at its April meeting have been appointed. They represent the broad range of programs and institutions that the CEA standards seek to address: Lynne Altfeld (William Rainey Harper College); Maureen Burke (University of Iowa); Frances Clark (International English Institute); Frank Giannotta (Duquesne University); Amy Osorio (Wisconsin ESL Institute); Martha Hall (New England School of English); Bill Holschuh (Ohio State University); Deborah Turner (Seattle Community College). Norma King, Commission, is chairing the committee.

Ad Hoc International Initiatives Committee

CEA continues to receive requests from around the world from English language programs interested in accreditation by the agency. The Commission’s Ad Hoc International Initiatives Committee is investigating whether CEA’s policies, procedures, and standards are applicable outside the US. Extending its activities outside the US would help to promote CEA and its accredited schools through an increase in familiarity with CEA and the accreditation process.

As part of this initiative, in December, Mary Reeves, Chair 2004, and Terry O’Donnell, Executive Director, visited the Language Centre at Kuwait University and the Foundations Program at the Petroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi, both of which asked to serve as pilot sites for CEA and also funded the trip. In addition, CEA was hosted by George Wilcox, Department of State RELO located in Bahrain, to visit the Bahrain Training Institute, the University of Bahrain, and the Bahrain Ministry of Education. A grant from the Public Affairs Office in Bahrain made that visit possible.