The $6K Bachelors article...by request

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The military was an early adopter of credit by examination and today anyone, even civilians, can benefit from their testing program. Originally known as DANTES which stands for “defense activity for nontraditional education support”, today’s DSST is a valuable tool for any non-traditional student. Similar to College Boards CLEP, DSST exams are administered through Prometric Corporation. Typically free to members of the armed forces, Prometric makes the exams available to the public for a small fee, currently $80.00 plus any fee charged by the host school or testing center. DSST’s are available in 38 specific disciplines including traditional general education categories and select lower and upper level disciplines. Available exams include Math and English topics as well as subjects like Criminal Justice, Substance Abuse, and Money & Banking. After applying for graduation at Charter Oak State College I was informed that I was short on upper level graduation credit. Due to a lifelong interest in history I was able to take and pass the DSST exam on the Civil War and graduate on time. I found a local college, Belhaven University that waives any institutional fee so the exam only cost $80.00. I stayed on time and under budget while completing my degree. DSST sums up their program in this way.
“While the exams are funded for active-duty military and their spouses, DSST tests are not just for those in the military. Adult learners, homeschooled students, and military veterans are also eligible to earn college credits through DSST.” DSST | Get College Credit
DSST exams are reviewed by the American Council on Education or ACE. ACE provides institutions with a scoring rubric and many institutions will actually give students a letter grade for the exams which is a little different from the CLEP policy which is typically just pass or fail.
The American Council on Education was formed in 1918 and its membership hails from many community colleges and higher educational institutions from throughout the country. In addition to their role as an advocate for education interests ACE also continues a program to assess various business and industry educational programs to authorize the granting of institutional credit for those courses.
“For decades, colleges and universities have trusted ACE to provide reliable course equivalency information to facilitate credit award decisions. Participating organizations include corporations, professional and volunteer associations, schools, training suppliers, labor unions and government agencies, with courses from Arabic to Waste Management.” College Credit Recommendation Service (CREDIT)
Corporations such as Delta Airlines and Microsoft have had their courses reviewed and approved for college credit. The Federal Government and the US Military have also gained approval for students in various disciplines to gain credit. ACE maintains “The National Guide to College Credit for Workplace Training” to allow students to search for courses. ACE CREDIT | The National Guide to College Credit for Workforce Training Virtually any company can pay a fee and the ACE team, made up of professors and instructors from institutions of higher education will evaluate the coursework to measure it for applicable college credit. Textbook publisher McGraw Hill vie their online math tool ALEKS and a Corporation calling itself Straighterline have been assessed and passed the ACE review and now offer some very interesting alternative education courses.
The ALEKS tool is perhaps the most promising and innovative tool for math education since the personal calculator. The technology stems from research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the same school that nursed the birth of the Mosaic web browser often cited as popularizing the internet. In addition to being a valuable assessment and teaching tool ACE has recommended several ALEKS courses for college credit. ACE CREDIT | The National Guide to College Credit for Workforce Training The interesting thing about ALEKS is how the system works. The student logs on and takes a 90 minute student assessment. ALEKS then determines the students strengths and weakness. It then develops a plan to teach the student what they need to know. The student selects an area to work on and the system teaches the student through an intuitive approach that emphasizes practice. The student continues selecting and mastering topics and the system continually recalculates the student’s progress. Students move at their own pace with constant feedback from the ALEKS software. Once the student reaches a “mastery” of 70% they can request that the credit be added by ALEKS to their ACE transcript. Here is the truly amazing part; the cost is only $20.00 per month. Some students can take and pass multiple classes in a single month from beginning algebra through pre-calculus, trigonometry, and statistics. Less mathematically inclined students can work on a single subject until they master it at their own pace. Many colleges and schools also utilize ALEKS as an additional learning method to more traditional studies. The program works! And the cost benefit is simply overwhelming. ALEKS is truly tomorrow’s technology applied to today, and by using it some students can attain success they never thought would apply to them. Find ALEKS courses for higher education here, ALEKS Course Products look for the courses that are approved by ACE.
Straighterline Corporation is a relatively new player in the higher education market. They are not a school, but rather a company designed to economically provide college equivalent coursework at a bargain price. It is capitalism applied to the education market. While they continually roll out new courses there is an emphasis on general education classes. Straighterline offers English Composition 1 and 2, math courses, business courses, and a surprising array of general science courses that you complete at home with a lab kit. The educational recommendation comes from ACE, or the credits can be applied directly to a “partner school” of which there are more than two dozen. Straighterline has several features that are unique. For one, you can work through most of the courses at your own pace. They promote stories of customers completing entire 3 semester hour courses in just a couple of weeks. I completed College Algebra at Straighterline in 28 days; I earned a B for my efforts. Another stimulating feature of the program is innovative pricing strategies. Straighterline touts a series of 10 classes as the “freshman year for $999” Freshman Year College - 1 year college courses - StraighterLine . Under the program up to 34 credits could be earned for about $1000. This is a huge savings in my region as the local community college currently charges around $100 per credit. A savings of $2400.00 is hard to ignore. In my case the single course I took was also at a bargain price. For $99 a month plus $39 per course you can take as many courses as you want. I applied myself and finished quickly to cancel the $99 before my next cycle. I only paid $138.00 plus the cost of a used textbook which I purchased on Amazon for about $10.00. If you go to a school that accepts Straighterline you should consider them as a money saving option. If your school doesn’t accept them perhaps you should look for an alternative school.
Regional Accreditation from one of the six regional accreditors is considered the academic “gold standard”. Having this accreditation means the school in question meets rigorous academic and institutional standards. State colleges and universities are usually regionally accredited as are Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. There are three regionally accredited schools that specialize in non-traditional education and make the best use of the alternative techniques to earn credit as discussed in this article. These colleges