Is Belford High School an accredited school?
The online program Belford High School says it is accredited by the International Accreditation Agency for Online Universities (IAAOU) and the Universal Council for Online Education Accreditation (UCOEA). However, neither organization is a recognized accrediting agency. Belford is not accredited by Distance Education and Training Council (DETC). Belford received a grade of “F” from the Better Business Bureau.Source:Distance Education and Training CouncilBetter Business Bureau: Belford High SchoolBelford High School: AccreditationMore Information:Complaints Board: Belford High School Complaints: Diploma MillU.S.
Let’s first understand what accreditation means.
“Educational accreditation is a type of quality assurance process under which services and operations of educational institutions or programs are evaluated by an external body to determine if applicable standards are met. If standards are met, accredited status is granted by the agency.”
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_accreditation
In the United States, non-government independent educational accreditation bodies grant accreditation to members. The participating institutes pay accreditation agency and present themselves for review, which sometimes take years to complete.
As far as BBB is concerned, again it is a non-profit organization, however, it is not an educational accreditation service. BBB has a reputation of allowing paid members to get better ratings.
I think if you look on the web you will find negativity about each and everything on the planet. No one is safe from online defamation and disinformation. The best strategy in this disinformation age is to collect your own data, gather your own facts and make your own decisions.
Yes it is an accredited high school. I would just like to add this to the topic that Accreditation is not mandatory. This is a general misconception among public that accreditation is mandatory and that is some kind of government issued permit to run a school. In fact, sometimes schools and colleges operate for years without getting their accreditation approved. If you will look further into accreditation you will find out that it is a lengthy process, it may take a long time before a school gets accreditation, and it is also very expensive.
