The Salespeople at My Former Employer Lied to Prospective Students

[sanantone]

As you know, I was in the same boat, but the school for which I worked was actually regionally accredited. I fought hard as an instructor to give the students the education they deserved for their money, but as always, the school was focused on the bottom line, $. I will say that I think that the experience did wonders for my own teaching ability as far as my outlook; I've become very student-centric and rather resourceful in my teaching, if I do say so myself. The way some of these places treat the students is an incredible disservice to them, and you're right; the students don't know better. They hear 'college' and they think that all schools are the same. They don't know/don't care about the differences in accreditation, or don't have the basic skills needed to find out and untangle the mess. Some are easily led by the idea of being able to achieve the American Dream of getting a college degree and a good job right out of the gate, and think that's basically all they have to do. Some are harassed by admissions until they break and sign up, where they're then harassed by the faculty to ensure they continue to at least get attendance so they aren't dropped - not because the school wants them to succeed, but because the school doesn't want to lose the numbers. Faculty are forced to cajole students who declare an intention to withdraw from school to ensure they finish out the course (attendance-wise) so they can start the cycle all over again. Some are just enrolled to get a stipend/disbursement from their FA (which, at the cost-per-credit at some of these schools ends up not being much at all) and play the attendance game until they get kicked out for violations of SAP (Satisfactory Academic Process) policy. I was always amused that admissions seemed to target women who were 7 months pregnant, knowing that they'd get through 1-2 classes, and probably not return after the birth of their child. That made retention efforts just so much fun..

I'm hoping I'm done with the for-profit industry. But, since it's my only official college-level teaching experience, I'm having a hard time breaking into the non-profit sector. So, I'm currently in the process of getting my state teaching certificate and looking at doing some time in 6-12 teaching (Psychology/Sociology, and if needed, computer courses). I figure it's a win-win, because a lot of the schools in my area are looking for a couple years of k-12 experience for teaching college courses in education, so hopefully that combined with my completed doctoral degree will get my foot in the door for teaching at a state school. Who knows, I may even switch to administrative capacity, and become one of the evil drains on state funding.

The good thing is that I did learn how to teach through trial and error. It was very rough at first as it was for all the new hires because they just throw you right in there without any preparation. I didn't know which classes I was going to teach until a week or so before I took over my own classes. And, there was so much damn paperwork. What I found disturbing is that the director of education told me that the students needed to believe that their certificates and degrees were needed to enter the CJ field. We received bonuses based on attendance and lack of drops and Fs. We had to contact the students everyday they were absent. They were also contacted by their academic counselors everyday they were absent. This didn't do any good because the students knew they could complete all of their work online through Canvas (a lot like Blackboard and Moodle). I don't know why the students were so averse to taking online courses, but didn't care to show up to class. Our students also received a stipend monthly of leftover financial aid. Like you said, it wasn't much because the tuition was so high.

A couple of times, I was pressured to pass students just because they were at the end of the program. I taught the last set of courses of the CJ program, so I would get students near graduation who should have been kicked out a long time ago. I had a student who got through the whole program by cheating. He didn't know ANYTHING about CJ. I was told to modify assignments for him and another student so that they could pass. Quite a few of my students hated my guts for turning them in for plagiarism, but a couple of them later on thanked me. They said that the other instructors don't even bother to read their assignments. The fact that I read their assignments and adhered to grading standards showed that I cared. I tried my best to make sure they graduated knowing the basics, but most of them wouldn't pay attention to the lectures or read their textbooks because they didn't care about academics. They just wanted the credential they thought they needed for a job. Apparently, this is common across the board in CJ programs because my professors and classmates who are instructional assistants say that even traditional students at the undergraduate level in CJ programs don't care about academics.

Colleges/universities do like to see teaching experience on your CV, but I don't know if this job will help me or stigmatize me. I won't get teaching experience in the doctoral program because I will be a research assistant instead of an instructional assistant. Oh, well.

Did I mention that the school charges $1,000 for a $500 laptop? That's a bonus they advertise in their commercials, but the cost is tacked on to their tuition and fees. They were able to opt out when the laptop program first started, but it's now mandatory.