January 18, 2024

Holly Eichhorst
Manager of Commission Actions and Governance
Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges

RE: Concorde Career College

Dear Holly Eichhorst,

The Concorde Career College’s campuses in Aurora, Colorado, and Miramar, Florida, are on the list of schools that may have their renewal applications for accreditation considered by the Commission at the February 2024 meeting. We have received complaints from student veterans about Concorde Career College’s locations in Tampa Bay, San Diego, and Dallas. As it appears ACCSC is the only institutional accreditor for Concorde, we write to bring to your attention the serious concerns raised by student veterans and to urge the Commission to review Concorde Career College’s compliance with ACCSC’s standards. 

Student veterans from Tampa Bay and San Diego described the school as a “joke” or “scam.”  Student veterans from the San Diego campus contacted us about the school’s nursing program, with one student explaining, “The other veterans in my cohort are highly upset because we feel we are being used by Concorde for our benefits while they give us a joke of a nursing program.”  A student veteran at Concorde’s Tampa Bay location also raised serious concerns about the quality of the education provided by the school: 

“The school is using its dental hygiene course (that is not accredited) to lure Veterans into the Dental Assisting course, but neither program is accredited and does not guarantee you will learn anything.  Instructors are incompetent and inexperienced, Labs and course material are not taught, and I have to pay for a book payment plan for books costing 750 dollars that I can get on Amazon for less than 250 dollars…. I was on the president’s list and dean’s list for the terms I have completed, but I haven’t even seen a dental dam or sterilized one piece of equipment.  I am not learning any material and students are given answers to the quizzes and exams to keep them passing.  Soon I have to let these students practice on me as part of the curriculum, but even our CPR AHA class was taught at a 22-student to 1-instructor ratio, so none of us are legally certified.  This school is a scam and not even worth the 750 I am paying for books.”

 

We urge you to review Concorde’s compliance with ACCSC’s Standards, including Section II—Program Requirements; Section IV–Student Recruitment, Advertising, and Disclosures; and Section VI—Student Services. Specifically, the school’s compliance with the below standards warrants review by the Commission:

  • Section II, A5a: Instructional materials are sufficiently comprehensive and reflect current occupational knowledge and practice.
  • Section II, A5b: Instructional equipment is similar to that found in common occupational practice and includes teaching devices and supplemental instructional aids appropriate to the subject.
  • Section IV, A8: A school has in place policies and procedures and takes reasonable steps to ensure that its personnel do not make false, exaggerated, or misleading statements about the school….
  • Section VI, A1: The school is attentive to its students’ educational and other needs as a means to support retention, maintains written policies and procedures addressing student services, and makes students aware of such services.
  • Section VI, A2: The school maintains adequate student services and resources that support its students in maintaining satisfactory progress, achieving successful educational and student achievement outcomes (i.e., knowledge and skill attainment, retention, graduation, and employment), and making informed decisions concerning training and employment. 
  • Section VI, A5: The school continually monitors and addresses the students’ needs for services as a means to assist students achieve successful educational and student achievement outcomes.

The fact that we have received such similar student veteran complaints about different campuses indicates that there may be serious quality of education issues across the Concorde Career College system. We urge the Commission to require Concorde Career College to demonstrate its compliance with ACCSC’s recruiting practices and educational services standards before considering the pending application for renewal. 

Respectfully,

Della M. Justice
Vice President for Legal Affairs

Nathan Winshall
Law Fellow

 

Concorde Career College January 18 2024