Glendale Community College was placed on a warning status about a year ago and has recently regained its full accreditation. The school was able to reinstate its accreditation by implementing the recommendations that were made by the officials who oversee community colleges and junior colleges.
The school was founded in 1927. Glendale Community College was opened to serve those who attended the Glendale Union High School District which included La Crescenta, Glendale, and Tujunga. Throughout the years there were many changes made to the college’s location and finally in 1936 it found its permanent home. Twenty-five acres were acquired for the school and is the present site of the college. Currently there are about 25,000 day and evening students and about 10,000 reached through other programs.
What is accreditation?
Accreditation is a process for evaluating and assuring the quality of education. There is a standard that the school must meet and these standards for accreditation are set by a peer review board whose members include faculty from various accredited colleges and universities. In order for potential colleges to proceed with the accreditation process, they must meet the general standards set by the peer review accreditation boards.
According to the Glendale News-Press, every six years, community colleges are required to perform a self-study, which is then assessed by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges. It also includes a site visit by commission representatives. The colleges must demonstrate clearly defined objectives and show that they are sufficiently organized and staffed to meet those objectives.
The warning status was given July 2010 after the accrediting commission had evaluated the school and came across deficiencies in several areas. Recommendations were given and deadlines were set for the college if it wanted to regain the accreditation. Some of the deficiencies included things like diversifying its staff, spending priorities with program needs, completing employee evaluations which were overdue, and developing student learning assessment tools.
The college worked hard and got the job done. “The whole campus was celebrating,” said Board of Trustees President Anita Gabrielian. “The Board of Trustees is very pleased and thankful for the hard work of everybody on campus. It just reaffirms the fact that we have a premiere college.”
With the school year right around the corner students are out there evaluating schools, looks like Glendale Community College made it just in time to be kept on the consideration list. Colleges don’t want their application rates to go down so this should keep things steady for the most part. Other factors students take into consideration when picking a school is housing.
Good local schools equal positive property values in that area. With the college back in good standing, Glendale as whole will benefit. Maintaining an institution of higher learning within a city is a major achievement, and is good news for Glendale properties, as parents often seek areas with strong academics when deciding where to purchase a home and raise a family.
Maybe this development will bring some more confidence to the local real estate market, and bring some equity back to the foothills of Los Angeles!
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