Foreign Degree Accrediation

I have three degrees.  Two were earned in the US.  The other was earned in Spain. Each time I apply for a teaching job, I have to not only submit my US transcripts, but also a foreign transcript evaluation. If you are interested in working in the US and you have foreign credentials or if you are a US citizen or resident and are considering persuing international credentials to come back to work in the US, you might want to consider the following:


1.)The US does not have a national accrediating agency like most countries.  If it did, this would be so much easier!  The US is broken up into regions, each region offering accrediation rules and regulations for the colleges and universities that desire to be accrediated.  This is also referred to as regional accrediation.  There are six agencies.

2.)There is also national accrediation.  It is generally reserved for schools that operate largely online, but there are some exceptions.  Although they are both accrediating agencies, if you were to rate one against the other, regionally accrediation is at this time the most recognizable and highly accepted form of accrediation.  A nationally accrediated school is more likely to accept credits earned by a regionally accrediated school than the opposite situation.  Go figure.

3.) In order to have your foreign credentials recognized in the US, you will have to submit them to a third party that will look at your transcripts, the school and country where you studied and issue a formal decision whether they feel as though your credentials are equal to those in the US.  This evaluation is what most employers want to see.  It's costly though.  Each evaluation can cost anywhere from $25 - $100 depending on the company.  Not all agencies accept credentials from all companies, so the burden lies on you to see if the third party that you are interested in securing your credentials will be acceptable where you want to work.