How to Choose a Beauty School

There are many determining factors that should be included in choosing the right Beauty School. Many are frequently overlooked or ignored by the potential student. It has been a source of great mystery that many shoppers will read the labels in detail while food shopping or do extensive internet research on products they want to purchase but that same individual will sign up at the first beauty school they visit because it was advertised on the television or is close to their home. The following information has been compiled to assist in establishing a qualitative measurement of possible schools thereby rendering a better chance of a positive educational outcome and experience in general.First check to insure the school is legal and meets industry standards. Typically most states have a licensing body that allow schools to operate. Some States use their Department of Education and some have separate State Boards of Cosmetology that sanction the facility as a legal entity to teach in the State. Information on State Boards and Licensing can be found at: http://www.bcsbc.com/stateboards.html Additionally a school should be recognized by an Accreditation Agency or Commission. The commission used by most Beauty School is the National Accrediting Commission of Cosmetology Arts and Sciences also know as NACCAS. See: http://www.naccas.org Accreditation is an institutional pass/fail process. Accreditation is a test of many standards that assures a degree of effectiveness but should not be construed to say "top quality". Additionally, schools that offer Associate Degree programs have an additional level of oversight that other schools do not. In Pennsylvania see: http://www.pde.state.pa.us/The programs offered at Beauty Schools should be based on the students objectives. Schools that offer programs to specifically meet the job training requirements of the profession usually are much more successful than an institution that focuses and uses State Licensing as the final objective. Frequently the title of the programs will indicate the focus of the school. The title "Cosmetology" is not a job skill. There is no act of cosmetologing a person and people cannot be cosmetologied, so it is not a title that reflects job skills but the name of the State Board that issues licenses. Programs titled Hairdressing, Esthetics, Electrolysis or Nails demonstrate the schools commitment to focusing on teaching the Job Skills as opposed to just having graduates able to pass a state exam. Remember being allowed to do something does not mean being good at it. EX: There are many people that have drivers licenses that are not great drivers. Make sure your school is focused on Job Skills not just Licensing.Schools that have high enrollment numbers are less desirable than a school that limits the number of students in the classroom. Erik W. Robelen wrote in a new ASCD Infobrief , Reducing Class Size "[Among those benefits are] increased student achievement, fewer discipline referrals, more personalized attention to students, higher teacher morale, and more time for teachers to focus on instruction rather than on classroom management" http://www.education-world.com/a_admin/admin/admin091.shtml. The limits should reflect the needs of the instructional staff and not be chosen due to state limits on the number of students allowed in each class. Supervising and teaching physical job skills is diminished in environments that allow 20 to 25 students in the classroom. It is my opinion, though not a main stream idea in most beauty schools, that an instructor can only teach intensive hands on skills with 14 to 18 students in a class.Schools should be able to show prospective a schedule of when the programs and courses begin. If a school starts the first Monday of any month, new students would enter a classroom with an established group. Consider being in a course that takes 3 months and on the first Monday of the second month a new group of students walks into the same classroom and the first Monday of the third month another group of students walks into the same classroom. Instruction of Multi Level classrooms usually at least has the different level groups starting at the same time. See Fulfilling Dreams In Adult Education: Managing The Multi-Level Classroom by Rebecca J. Haley, http://www.cluteinstitute-onlinejournals.com/PDFs/913.pdf It is a good shopping exercise to find a school that completes entire courses or phases of the program before starting another new class.Every Accredited School that accepts Financial Aid for student payments must have a campus crime and security report available to potential students. If you have even mild concerns about the neighborhood ask to see their Crime and Security report/statistics or go to: http://ope.ed.gov/security/GetOneInstitutionData.aspxSome schools offer students peripheral benefits such as a student computer terminal with access to the internet. This is useful to the student population as a research tool and to use for writing resume’s and other projects. Additionally an organized library www.bcsbc.com/library.htm that allows students and /or graduates to borrow materials is very helpful for maintaining an up to date educational program.