How My Wife Navigated the Traumatic Process of International Degree Accreditation
It’s frustrating to have your future hang on the mercy of a rubber stamp decision
My wife and I moved to the United States from Peru in 2009. I was born in the US, but my wife was born and received her education in Peru. In Peru, she was an educator, but in the US she was content to work as a family services facilitator as we navigated the pathway to citizenship.
For years, she had a job that offered rewarding work and good benefits, but overall the pay was minimal with few opportunities for advancement. Last year, she began to explore positions that would allow her to earn a teaching certification while working on an emergency license. The process ended up being far more complicated than we could have ever imagined.
A license with stipulations
My wife is well known in the local school district as a very capable and hard-working employee. She has a collection of strong recommendation letters from some of the best-known educators in our area. At first, she set about applying to Spanish positions. Not finding one, she changed tactics and applied to an ELL position in a small town about 50 minutes away.
Within a few days of applying, my wife received a letter from the superintendent of the district. A phone conversation with one of my wife’s references, plus the extreme need to fill the position, had him ready to more or less offer her the job on the spot. We only had to get her degree accredited, and she’d be on her way. He was basically ready to do anything possible to get her the job, but she needed to demonstrate she had the equivalent of a Bachelor’s degree.
Accreditation agencies
The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction lists 8 accreditation services. At that point, it was basically up to me to prepare the packet since I work from home anyway and this transition had become a little overwhelming. Most of the agencies had similar requirements and cost several hundred dollars. I was feeling good about the process until I stumbled across a disturbing qualification.
“We need your original transcripts and the original diploma.”
My wife had her transcripts, the only problem was that she had lost her diploma more than ten years ago. Without a diploma, it appeared as if we would not be able to get her degree accredited.
Why aren’t the transcripts good enough?
We found ourselves in an extremely frustrating position. My wife had a degree along with ten years of teaching experience in Peru. She had her transcripts, but it seemed like the fact that she didn’t have a diploma was going to prevent her from achieving her dream job. To make matters worse, we were under the gun. The superintendent wanted her to begin immediately, so we didn’t have time to suffer bureaucratic delays.
Replacing a diploma in Peru is not easy. The schools are sometimes very reluctant to issue new diplomas without proof that the previous diploma had been destroyed. I began to find the whole situation extremely frustrating. The diploma, after all, is just a redundant document that presents a snapshot of information available on the transcripts written in fancy lettering. Under most normal circumstances, employers only glance at the transcripts. Why did they need the diploma anyway?
A replacement diploma
My wife did have a notarized copy of her diploma, but the web page of the accreditation service specifically said a notarized copy was not acceptable. She needed an original. For a while, my wife even contemplated flying down to Peru to see if she could request a document personally. However, we were concerned that even if she could make a formal request, they wouldn’t have the document ready for several months.
She called her parents, and they tore their house apart looking for the diploma. They didn’t find it, but they did find an official letter that stated she had earned her degree which had an original signature from some high ranking Peruvian education official. They overnight shipped this document to us, and I set about preparing the packet.
The problem with the accreditation services is that there is language to suggest they will not refund you the fees if they determine your documentation is not acceptable. The amount was going to be around $400, which isn’t the end of the world, but it’s more money than a person likes to lose.
Translation
I went with an accreditation service that allowed me to translate the documents myself. Some services require an official translation which can easily cost you another thousand dollars. I labeled the diploma document as “an officially issued replacement diploma” and included it along with the notarized copy.
I clicked the boxes to pay the extra fee to expedite the process, wrote the checks, crossed my fingers, and sent the package away. For the next couple of days we waited by the phone for the dreaded announcement that our diploma document had invalidated our application.
The emails
The first email we got told us that our package had arrived. “If we don’t call in the next few days, we’ll be okay,” I told my wife.
For the next seventy-two hours, we jumped out of our skins every time the phone rang. My wife checked her inbox with trembling fingers. It’s always a terrible thing when you are on the cusp of a major life advancement, and you have to wait for some indifferent person with a rubber stamp to allow you to pass through the door that’s standing open right in front of you.
Slowly, my fears began to ebb. No calls, no emails. Then it came:
“Your accreditation is finished, you can expect the package to arrive in a few days.” They included a Fed-Ex tracking number.
Good news or bad news?
The problem was that the email didn’t tell us anything. I assumed that at least we were in a position where they’d evaluated the documents we’d sent, but that didn’t mean that they’d give her credit for a degree. There was the possibility that they would award her some credits, but inform her that she needed to take additional credits before she could work professionally in her field.
The Fed-Ex tracking number indicated the package would arrive at 1PM, so I eagerly awaited the delivery. Around noon, I had something to attend to out of the house. I left for 15 minutes, and came back to find a “Sorry we missed you” note tagged to my window.
My primal scream woke the neighbors.
I called my wife. “Did they give me a degree?”
“No, the delivery came early and I missed it.”
“Aggghhhh!”
“But we can pick up the package at the distribution facility this evening at 4PM.”
“Okay.”
The pick up
We piled into the Subaru Forester at 3:45 and headed out to the distribution facility. It was a small office on the edge of town. Upon arriving, we were informed that the driver who had our package had not yet returned.
We waited.
The facility was only going to stay open until 4:30, and at 4:29:59, the driver finally showed up and handed us the package. My wife tore into it, and howled with glee.
“What does it say?”
“They’ve concluded my degree is the equivalent of a Bachelor’s Degree in Finance.”
She smiled. “Look at this,” she said, “they calculated that my equivalent GPA is a 3.83. What was yours again?”
“3.82.”
Even bigger smile.
She began to dance. I was happy that she got her degree, but now I had to live with her holding her superior GPA over my head. Oh well, that was a small price to pay.
The job
We went out to celebrate and felt quite satisfied that one more obstacle had been cleared. She got the job, and has been working in the new district for the last six months. Still, it’s always frustrating to be in those moments where you have to await a decision that is completely out of your control.
The certification of accreditation is considered valid by the state Department of Instruction. However, when I sent off an email on my wife’s behalf to the local university, they acted as if they’d never heard of such a thing. In the end, it turned out to be their loss since the next university took her application without hesitation.
We need a better system
Although our family was eventually able to navigate this situation, I can’t help but wonder how many capable instructors there are who simply don’t have the support structure to get their foreign degrees accredited.
People who are burdened with the obligations of a full time job and the responsibilities of a family, sometimes don’t have the extra hours to work through the process. Web site language can be very difficult for non-native English speakers. With a lack of quality educators always a communal concern, it seems prudent to do what we can to make accreditation easier.
It’s sad to think that many great teachers might get only a step or two into the process before they abandon their effort in frustration due to confusion and a lack of time.
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Loved the story and snapshot of family stress. Especially loved her "bigger smile" re. the gpa comparison, lol. Great job, and good way to start my day!
Dang, that was stressful! When you missed the delivery and had to wait until the afternoon, I bet that was a lot of anxiety.
Also, I see you are still processing that your wife is at least a tad smarter than you.
Air hugs! lol ;)