Psyguy, you keep missing the big picture. While you are trying to sound educated on this, you are looking up information on the internet and trying sound like an expert who knows all about accreditation and the process.

You went on to slam CIS, but then you said, "I never said it has no value." Which is it? When you don't know what you are talking about, your position shifts - that's one of the ways a person detects lies.

As Walter said, "Why do you keep doing this?" Why? I don't get the value of you trying to make yourself out to be an expert on literally everything on this forum.

Once again, I think there are varying opinions on the rigor of each accrediting agency, value in deciding which one is most appropriate, maybe even in questioning how a particular school picked up their accreditation. Psyguy, you clearly do not understand the process because you are learning it from the internet, not through the process itself. I can tell you there is great value in accreditation and that it is a very rigorous process, man is it a pain sometimes :)

You don't know what you are talking about. My school is currently going through a combined MSA/CIS accreditation - they are teaming together with one set of evaluators. What don't you understand about that? Get off of the http://texas.teachers.net/ site for a moment and look it up. You can go back to the Texas site after you look up the combined CIS/MSA deal.

CIS accreditation is not meaningless, it's actually quite useful for students who may look at going to universities in Europe. I think IB is better, but not all students are IB material or want to go that route.

CIS also looks at the curriculum. Is it rigorous, does it meet with what the school is trying to accomplish? I know you have worked at language schools, but this isn't the same. I am not saying what you are saying. You are saying that anything goes as long as that is their curriculum. It isn't that easy. How would I know? I know because we are going through the process. I highly doubt schools go around collecting accreditations. Why wouldn't they get all of the regional ones then? Do you realize how much work it is putting together the stuff for accreditation? That's sort of like going around and collecting BA's in Elem Education. After one, they assume you know what you are doing. Something different, yes, but why collect the same type of accreditation? Doesn't make any financial sense and the parents do not know of all these "bodies" anyway. No, and I'm not sure looking it up on Google is going to tell you all that. I know that looking info up on the internet, Search, IBO, etc. makes you seem smart, but why fake it? Are you that insecure about yourself? You don't have to know everything. I actually know very little, in the scheme of life, and I'm okay with it. I don't need to impress anyone. I actually feel very inadequate in math (I'm going to take more courses in it). I don't need to go on a math BBS and answer questions by looking it up on Wolfram Alpha to pretend I'm a math genius at a university.

I get having an opinion on how rigorous you think the process is, but I'm not sure you can look all that up on the internet and make an informed decision - you feel as if you can.

I forgot to add that regional accrediting agencies do not offer exams, or diplomas either - they must be shams right? Can you say rubberstamp? They also do not provide off-the-shelf curriculums. Oh, boy.... Rubberstamps! They don't offer diplomas? RUBBERSTAMPS I say!!!

First of all I have to say that Psyguy does a tremendous job of looking stuff up on the internet from his home in Texas.

How do we know he often does not have direct knowledge of events, circumstances, schools, etc? He gets part of the idea but misses parts of the picture. Does CIS require a school to use the CIS curriculum? No, why not? So CIS must not require a curriculum based upon some sort of "official standards" - right?

Wrong. That's where he missed the link because he is not there. CIS does not have standards, but does require you to follow some sort of set of standards, whether it's Common Core, or state standards (or a national curriculum). CIS does not just say, "Okay guys, write some stuff down and we'll give our okay if you follow it." That is just plain stupid. That would mean that a school could write down, "We promise to lie, cheat, and steal our way to a substandard education." According to Psyguy, CIS would accredit them if they followed their plan. Again he isn't there so he misses that part of the picture. Second, I can assure you that the Regional Accreditation agencies do team with CIS and follow the CIS lead and recommendations.

Does a school have to create a plan? Of course (he gets that from the website), but the plan has to be based upon some sort of realistic assessment of the people the school is serving (not on the website so he missed it). This is done in America as well - it would have to be as colleges and schools are in different sections of the country, serving different populations, with different goals in mind (say an artsy school versus an engineering school, or a community college versus a huge state university).

Here is the big part of "he doesn't get it", accreditation is a comparison of a school against standards. Just told you the school needs to be following some set of standards. It's certainly not a comparison of school quality - Harvard and North by Southwest in the Eastern Southern State University. According to Psyguy that state school doesn't compare favorably and it is just a rubber stamped process. The school should lose it's accreditation. Really?

We are going through the MSA/CIS accreditation now. Psyguy is back in Texas, I mean Australia, no I mean Denmark, no I really meant Northern Europe.

Lulu, do not work in the Middle East/Africa. You have not seen sexual harassment until you've been there.

I also think savings is one of the easiest things to do, as well as one of the hardest things to do. After bills are paid, I usually have a big chunk of change left (the easiest thing), but travel opportunities buying the latest gadget makes it one of the hardest things to do to save. I kinda like having money directly taken out and sent to my savings portfolio. If I don't have it, I can't spend it :)

Yea. I see how those awesome salaries and programs are working for Spain, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, and Greece - maybe France down the road.

I do not think collaboration is an adversarial process. I could just picture teachers at ISB sitting around looking through the financial books and working on salary scales, meeting with the parents and admin about salary tables, etc. - not spending hours working on lessons, clubs, teaching, etc.

You do have the advantage of having a Whataburger near you so you win. Man I miss that place. Amazing breakfasts! Don't care much for the Alamo, but the River Walk is cool.

Have a great weekend! It's not the heat that gets ya, it's the humidity!

So, based upon where ever you are's strong negotiating and collaborating, you must have some of the best wages in the world - correct? I must be wrong because I have heard that the salaries in Europe were actually quite low when taking into account taxes, cost of living, etc. Sorry, but I could do without that type of salary collaboration. I also do not want to get paid the same amount as someone fresh out of teacher training (nor would I have expected higher pay when I finished teacher training).

You sound as if you go with the collaboration method because it leads to better results. Please explain ISB, WAB, etc. and why they pay so much and get so many applicants for each job. I don't believe there is a huge turnover at the tier I schools. The tier I schools also pay way more than public school teachers (relatively speaking). How is that possible with collaboration? Are they (schools with strong unions/collaboration) collaborating for lower pay? In many places where the pay is low, if there are not huge side benefits, you either get new teachers, or they leave (or never go there to begin with).

I think we could all agree about the need for teachers to have input, but to believe that this is some sort of collaboration exercise is absurd. I also find it amusing how the bad reviews use buzzwords: bully, top-down, dictator, racist, sexist like they are getting points for using it each time. It's a shame because it weakens the overall power of what this site could be.

Psyguy you said, "When admins act like dictators and declare "This is the salary, take it or leave it" some will leave it and those that take it are going to feel cheated/used/abused."

So your teachers at your school get to negotiate the salary? You sound as if the salary is set already, but you are also saying there should be no "take it or leave it". I'm confused. So... can you go to your administrator and get a different salary or not? Can you get a different salary when you are in the hiring process? If not, aren't you working for one of those nasty "dictatorship schools"? You must be feeling pretty abused since you cannot collaborate on your salary and instead are given the salary figure from an oppressive figure from he(double toothpicks). How brutal is that? Everyone collaborates for the same wage? Sounds unfair and just plain old weird to me.

If market forces are not setting the salaries, what entity/force is? How does it work now? I must be confused - nothing new :)

So are you saying that at your school in San Antonio, Denmark, or Northern Europe they get with the teachers to decide the salary scale? I could see a recipe for financial disaster, not to mention unfairness if/when the teachers get paid differing amounts.

I understand being paid a fair wage, but I can't imagine very many jobs where the employees negotiate/collaborate on the salaries (unless it's like the UAW that ran the US auto industry into bankruptcy). Also, I would rather not get involved in that whole process - offer me a competitive wage and let me move on with teaching. If the school sees teachers leaving in droves, maybe the salary goes up. If it was too low I would move on.

So what do the teachers do if they feel the wage is not what they want? Strike? What if it's a competitive wage, but someone wants more - strike for that person/group of people? There are always people who want more - right? I agree with the absurd comment. Input is okay, but to collaborate would open up a huge can of worms and take too much time/energy.

Tim Daley, I did not mean to say that I feel schools are unsafe in America. I did mean to make a comparison of city safety. We all know that there is daily crime in larger cities - I wanted to make a comparison. I have felt generally safe in all cities back home (America) as I know where to go and where not to go at certain times of the day. However, most people do not know the same info for other countries.

Cairo is not that bad. Stay away from demonstrations downtown and it is as safe, if not safer than large cities in America. The school where I work is very good about letting us know about potential "hotspot areas" to stay away from. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Egypt (as far as safety goes). Sure there are the women's rights issues, religious issues, heat issues, pollution issues, etc. but safety would not be one I could say that people should be concerned with.

I'm going to agree with what Psyguy said, "this is a voluntar forum, and people are going to spend their time doing what they are motivated to do, it's to like anything we say ..."

I don't think anyone would disagree with his comment - if you do, you must be an administrator.

To the OP:
psyguy has proven that he will make up something just so he can keep himself busy on one of his many bulletin board locations. He reads the ISR reviews, looks up the info on Search, and he then feels like he has been there and knows all about the place.

Please wait and listen to someone who has actually been there before you make a decision. psyguy is in Texas and posts like crazy to keep himself busy. While entertaining (sometimes), you have no idea whether or not he has any direct knowledge of a place and ISR reviews are notorious in the teaching community for being the place where you write a nasty comment after you've been fired.

While Cairo (and Egypt in general) has become slightly less safe, it is still way safer than your average town back home in America. Traffic is horrible, and there is the constant state of bargaining going on every day. However, people are still treated very well here.

Lots of great things to see and very good travel opportunities. I would question a school only paying you in Egyptian pounds. There are so many schools over here - you don't need to take job at a dodgy language school (right psyguy?).

Keep checking in on sites like tieonline. There are still positions open now and then in Egypt. Seriously the country is not that bad. Safety has never been an issue as long as you stay away from the demonstrations (and even the locals will kindly plead with you to stay away). This country is way safer than your average city in America. The couple of bad nights during the Revolution were actually not that bad. My area in Heliopolis was very safe and people were amazing - they actually looked after their neighbors.

Hey at least he isn't talking about men just going there for sex and girls just wanting green cards in Colombia.

Colombia does sound kind of interesting. Did I hear right about the average temps? I thought it would be much hotter. So compared to a big US city, how safe is Colombia?

Psyguy - keep up the good fight! You represent San Antonio well.

Nice! Mexico and Central/South America attract me every single Spring hiring season. One of these days I am going to get off of my behind and learn some Spanish.

I just finished listening to an audiobook lecture called "The Conquest of Mexico" and it would be fascinating to see how Mexico City has changed from what it used to look like.

The markets sound fun. I certainly miss Mexican style food (I know it's different than Tex-Mex), but I still like the style. I used to live in Texas and have been to a couple of border towns (didn't care much for them). For some reason I've also dreamed of going to Tampico. Please fill us all in if you do end up in Mexico!