[CutePuppy]

It would be great if there were some sort of umbrella schools that would cover homeschooling for college, and award degrees, like there are that award high school diplomas. Then folks could sign up with the umbrella school, take free courses online, have someone at the school look over the work, then award credits toward a degree.

Klinsky is writing just about that:

< snip > ..... lots of online courses are already available, and the market may well determine that it is more attractive to serve many students at a very low cost than to serve a few students at a very high cost. ..... < snip >

..... For example, a student might study Economics 101 from a world-leading professor for free online, then report to the nearest community college for a proctored, nationally available exam tied to the course material. Passage of the national exam would lead to an accredited course credit in freshman economics, transferable to a traditional institution and thus lowering the cost of the traditional degree. ..... < snip >

BTW, lab work can also be accomodated, just as it is now for those taking correspondence courses for full degrees. Usually it does take longer to complete one of those, but it's also because many people taking them are usually working, at least part time.

[wintertime]

Passage of the national exam would lead to an accredited course credit
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I hope those national exams would be through privately owned and managed companies. We **know** it can be done. We already have examples of this:

—SAT and ACT exams are widely accepted and recognized as valid.

— The board exams to certify our nation’s professionals are another.

— And...When my children studied Spanish in Costa Rica a private firm confirmed that their studies were valid and our state universities awarded .them 2 semesters of college credit.

[wintertime]

transferable to a traditional institution
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Along with On-line courses and the private sector making certifiable testing available, hopefully we can wean employers away from their dependence on requiring university degrees.

Suggestion: Encourage employers to accept SAT and ACT scores as a measure of reading and math skills, and as a measure of the applicants ability to concentrate on the task at hand and finish the job. Requiring a degree from a university is really only necessary for the licensed professions.

Honestly, little of the work done in the United States actually requires a degree. What is needed is the knowledge to do the job, or the reading and math skills necessary to learn how to do the job. Most employers spend a significant amount of time and money **training** their employees. My son has a masters degree in accounting, graduated last December, and is being trained ( “mentored”) by his employers now, even with his masters degree.