Accreditation FAQThe issue of accreditation is important to understand. When talking with prospective students about PSP, we always bring up the issue, if the prospective student does not.
- Is there a difference between ‘accredited’ and ‘approved’?
- Why is PSP not accredited?
- How do these issues affect me?
- What if I intend to be in private practice as a psychotherapist?
- What is Assembly Bill 400?
- How does one sort through all of this?
Is there a difference between ‘accredited’ and ‘approved’? Yes. It is important to distinguish terms. For almost twenty-five years now, PSP has been approved by the State of California to offer graduate degree programs in clinical and organizational psychology. Those of our students who are in school in order to become licensed (most clinical students) will be allowed to sit for the State of California licensing examinations. We have had and continue to have a good relationship with the two State licensing boards. In addition, our students pass the State of California licensing examinations with good scores relative to students from other schools – this data is available at each State licensing board’s web site.The licensing board for Marriage and Family Therapists is the Board of Behavioral Sciences (www.bbs.ca.gov).The licensing board for doctoral-level psychologists is the Board of Psychology (www.psychboard.ca.gov), although a person with a doctorate in psychology can also license as an MFT, and some Psychologists dual license as MFT's. In addition to approval, some institutions of higher learning are accredited.The organization that handles accreditation in the western half of the United States is the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). PSP is not accredited by WASC.
Why is PSP not accredited? PSP was approved by the State of California to offer its various programs in 1979. Since that time, we have sought accreditation through WASC on two separate occasions. Each application takes several years to process and is very expensive. We have decided not to pursue accreditation any longer. It is our opinion that the process of accreditation has been politicized and has more to do with restraint of trade than quality of education. Over the years, the criteria set that define the requirements for accreditation has been a moving target, and those in the trade are well aware of various examples that prove the point. The original notion of accreditation was to separate out fly-by-night and mail order diploma schools from schools with serious intent and well-trained faculty. The key was to provide a standard so that if one attended a school and transferred to another school, the receiving institution could trust that the transferred individual had received the standard education. PSP agrees with these definitions and has always had the highest level of academic and educational standards, and quality that matches or exceeds any graduate school of psychology in the United States of America. The problem is that we do not fit into the mold defined by the regional accrediting agency – we continue to focus on delivering quality education for the mature learner, we do not believe in having a padded, expensive and staff-intensive administrative structure, and we believe that we can provide all of this without sending our students into lifelong debt.What is APA approval? In addition to approval and accreditation, some graduate schools are recognized by the American Psychological Association. The APA approves some but not all accredited schools, and only approves doctoral-level, clinical programs.
How do these issues affect me? The key question for the prospective student is how would attending a graduate school in California that is not WASC accredited affect my future? Our candid answer is ‘it depends .’ We dispute the notion that WASC accreditation equals quality. In the last go round with our attempt at WASC accreditation, for example, we were asked to give formal written responses to over four hundred questions, only two of which had anything to do with education, per se. PSP stands by its well-known, excellent education, and has hundreds of graduates in northern California and across the country. However, if you intend to work as a psychologist for the Federal government, we would urge you to attend an APA-approved graduate school (which, by definition, would also be accredited). Further, if it is your desire to leverage your doctorate into a position in which you will teach or do research at the university level, then we would also urge you to attend an APA-approved school.
What if I intend to be in private practice as a psychotherapist? If it is your desire to be in private practice or to work at the state, county, or local level of government in California, then the key issue is licensure, and we have long been approved to provide education that allows our students to sit for State of California licensing examinations. If you are interested in licensure in another State, or if you intend to practice your profession in another State, you should contact that State for regulations. Some states have reciprocity with licensure in California. Other states require that the school from which you graduate must be accredited by the regional accrediting agency, though in many of these states, correspondence with PSP clarifies our long-standing emphasis on quality combined with high standards.
What is Assembly Bill 400? The picture was somewhat muddied by the passage of California State Assembly Bill 400 in 2001. You may access a summary of AB 400 at www.psychboard.ca.gov/assemblybill400.htm; the Bill itself is reproduced in full on our website -- AB 400. The language of the Bill is intentionally intimidating, but the reality is that there are few real restrictions laid upon highly trained psychotherapists, other than the ones we have mentioned. The history of the process that led to AB 400 is fascinating. Again, it has more to do with restraint of trade than quality of education. The original idea behind accreditation made sense – to separate out those schools that provided quality from those that did not. Yet, these days that differentiation has been undermined (in our view) by the creeping bureaucratization and politicization of the accreditation process. One of the provisions of the 2001 AB 400 is that no new graduate schools of psychology may be formed in the State of California unless they are accredited. PSP has had an excellent reputation over the years, and was grandfathered in, along with other schools. We are what the Boards would call an ‘approved’ graduate school. If one wanted to begin a new graduate school of psychology in the State of California, one would therefore have to anticipate the accreditation process as sine qua non. A good part of the current requirement for accreditation includes a significant outlay of resources for various support and administrative staff. In order to pay for the bureaucratization, many graduate schools of psychology have entered into a virtual treadmill that has led them to raise significantly the price of their education, without raising quality.
How does one sort through all of this? The prospective doctoral student is urged to compare and contrast graduate programs in psychology. If one hopes to have a career of service with the Federal government as a psychologist, or to teach or do research at a major university, then one would do well to attend an APA-approved school. Yet, most such graduate schools cost three times as much as a doctoral education at PSP. Note that the APA does not approve masters programs in psychology. If you are unsure whether you intend to stay and practice in California, you may want to pursue your education at a regionally accredited graduate school. We have achieved reciprocity for our students with the State of Oregon, a state that recognized that a graduate school might have good reasons for not participating in regional accreditation but which nonetheless has a high quality educational product.
PSP has maintained its commitment to provide high-quality graduate education in psychology for the mature learner. Our students tend to be older – our average student age is 45. Our students find that it is not practical to assume a huge debt on top of other commitments (home, family, college for children, retirement). In addition, PSP has always had a social conscience – we desire that our students, whether they be clinical or organizational – be able to serve traditionally underserved populations who cannot afford the full normal cost of service. Our goal is that our students graduate from PSP debt-free with the best possible education in graduate psychology.
