Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Certification Sounds Good on Paper
I briefly visited the CRLA site and Devet seems to have accurately relayed its stated purpose and the requirements for Writing Center certification. There is also bibliography of suggested readings posted and I checked to see if any names were familiar: A quick scan found Bruffee, Harris, and Lerner (and I'm certain I missed a few). So far, so good. I do believe that certification can help build the administration's confidence in a Writing Center, but only if it can be demonstrated that the certification actually means something significant or is an organization the administration would be proud to be affiliated with. While the site claims over 1,000 members, I can't find them listed anywhere, so I don't know which colleges value this certification. In addition, the committee chairs seem to come mostly from community colleges, which makes me wonder if most members are community colleges, which might reinforce the remedial reputation of a Writing Center in a four-year university.
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I think what really complicates the issue here is that CRLA is not for writing centers per se, but for tutorial centers. Devet mentions this and the current attempts to create a WC based certification system. Still, I think he glosses over this issue that really complicates how useful CRLA is or appears to be for strictly writing centers.
If you go back to the website and click on the Tutor tab and then go to the hyperlink Current Certified Training Programs you'll get an Excel document that list the member centers that have achieve CRLA. It's only a partial member list, I'm guessing, since not all members will have or need the certification. I wish the website or Devet talked about delivery of the training. There's some clues on the appendix but I couldn't tell if this is a pencil-and-paper training or online. She's correct in that having it completely document-based (no site visit) might make its value less to an administrator, but the truth is that will vary by administrator. I earned accreditation through one of my professional organizations -- a rigorous process that included requirements in years in the profession, presentation and acceptance of a portfolio, and passing written and oral exams -- and one of my CEOs said nothing counted with him but how well I met the corporate goals. I'm still glad I went through the process because, as Devet says, I grew a lot professionally because of it.
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