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news
English
program receives accreditation
By Jo Appleton
Summer On-line Forty-Niner
The Intensive English Program at Cal State Long Beach was
granted a five-year accreditation by the Commission on English
Language Program Accreditation. The commission notified the
program last month that the full accreditation will go from
April, 2002 to April, 2007.
The IEP on campus, which is offered through University College
and Extension Services, is Long Beach’s American Language
Institute and also the first one in California to become accredited.
“We are really excited about this,” said Debra Jonas, the
ALI director.
“It’s a way for our industry to have a new form of professionalism.
It’s a privelege to be part of this movement in our industry.”
Jonas said the program, which runs through the fall, spring
and summer semesters, is for international students who know
very little English or who want to enter into CSULB and need
to gain English skills before doing so.
The IEP currently averages about 175-200 students in the fall
semester but faculty say they hope those numbers will increase
once the accreditation status has become more known to people
seeking English language skills.
“Once the seal of the Commission [on English Language Program
Accreditation] is on the web site, we hope people will notice
and enroll,” said Nina Ito, the ALI assistant coordinator.
Ito, who also was the self-study coordinator during the accreditation
process, said that after spending a year going through the
self-study she could see that the program made some improvements
in all 10 of the standard areas that the commission addressed
in its report from the three-day on-site visit.
Out of the 10 standards which, among others, include curriculum,
faculty, facilities and student services, only one area came
short of meeting the commission’s standard: the Student Complaint
Standard I, which addresses informing the student of the proper
complaint procedures and exactly who to address a complaint
to.
In the accrediting commission’s report, it stated that the
then-current complaint information “does not appear to be
sufficient to meet the Student Complaint Standard 1.”
In the faculty response report to the on-site team’s report
they stated, “as of Summer, 2002, the IEP will more thorougly
address complaints in the new Student Orientation.”
Tere Ross, the ALI assistant director, said correcting that
standard was simple because it provided insight to the old
procedure of simply listing a name and number for students
to call with a complaint.
Two new forms for students with complaints were added to student’s
orientation packets, she said. Now, students are given a “Who’s
Who” form, which labels the key faculty and staff members
in the ALI program to bring a complaint to, as well as an
actual “Student Complaint Form,” that students can fill out
with a specific complaint situation.
Ross said that most of the self-study and preparations, which
took place from Dec., 2000 and was completed by Nov., 2001,
for the accreditation review team’s visit was more fine tuning
the program, such as specifying and putting everything in
writing, than making major changes to it.
The program itself is for students who are serious about learning
English quickly. Karen Fox, an ALI teacher of the last 20
years, said that everybody speaks strictly English in the
five-hour-a-day, five-days-a-week classes. But she added that
the students in the program, who are mostly Asian, are among
the most interesting people she has taught.
“These students are very intelligent,” she said. “They are
multi-lingual, in some cases [English] is their third, fourth
or even fifth language. It makes the classroom a very interesting
place.”
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