[STEPHANIE Landregan FASLA LEED]

Hello Shavawn,

We have Section 4 Review on February 6 and 7 in Southern Californai at UCLA Extension. We would welcome you.

Have you taken a prep course? I sincerely believe they help in several ways, they give you good exam taking advice and practice, and materials!

Although I can’t guarentee you will pass, I do know that when I sat for the Exam, I was well prepared because of the Prep Courses I took.

Here are hyperlinks to all our LARE courses:

• LARE Section 1: Project and Construction Administration
• LARE Section 2: Inventory and Analysis
• LARE Section 3: Design
• LARE Section 4: Construction Documentation

Questions? Contact Asmeret Bekele at (310) 825-9414 or abekele@uclaextension.edu.

Very best of luck to you!

Stephanie

[STEPHANIE Landregan FASLA LEED]

Glad to see this discussion. CLARB has posted information as well as ASLA (see this week’s LAND). If you are in the process of finishing up classes, there are several great Prep Classes across the country, and also one offered at the ASLA Annual Meeting. In Northern California Ray Freeman offers classes and in southern California we offer classes at UCLA Extension (next weekend, still time to sign up!  http://tinyurl.com/LAREUCLA).

The new test will still test the same knowledge and skills needed to be a licensed landscape architect, just in a different manner. When CLARB went to computerized testing of the multiple choice there was concern and CLARB and the member licensing boards all worked together.

As Dotty has emphasized, this change is to create a better exam. Hope you all are following CLARB on facebook and it is great to see the questions and thoughts on this forum.

[STEPHANIE Landregan FASLA LEED]

Thanks Christel!

[STEPHANIE Landregan FASLA LEED]

Dear Craig,
Well, I can’t believe I haven’t replied to this!
I am the Regional Director of Region V (western Region) for CLARB.
I am also a policitally appointed committee member of the LATC, and have been for the past 6 years.
I am the Vice President Elect of Government Affairs for National ASLA.
And I have a certificate from UCLA Extension landscape architecture program.

So I am biased, perhaps, but certainly well qualified to comment.

CALIFORNIA
The UC certificates in California are considered equal in the eyes of the LATC as fulfilling the education requirement needed to sit for the licensing exam in California.

THE REST OF THE USA (we do think like that here)
Every state has the RIGHT to set their standards for licensure. Therefore it varies from State to State. Some states don’t require education at all, and others require what we call the three legs necessary for licensure, education, experience, examination.
The LATC as a member board of CLARB, has equal weight with all boards. Some boards require accreditation, some don’t. So it varies.

JUST THE FACTS
The UC systems are reviewed by the LATC based upon the exact same review requirementst for curriculum as put forth by the LAAB. So if realistically viewed mano y mano, the UC Extension Program Certificates are reviewed under the same academic lens as other accredited schools, just by a state regulatory agency and not by private accreditation board (yes LAAB is made up of the ASLA, CELA and CLARB and is private).

Why doesn’t LAAB review or accredited the UC Extension Programs? Good question! Because they ONLY accredit FIRST DEGREE GRANTING PROGRAMS. So since the UC Extension Schools offer a certificate, they cannot apply to be accredited. This has been addressed at numerous meetings, and will continue to be addressed, and is the reason the LATC assumed the responsibility of credentially the UC Programs.

HISTORY OF THE UC Extension Programs
These programs were started to fill the need for education of LA’s when the Regents did not authorize expanding seats in existing LA programs in the state. The Regents also did not intend to create new LA Departments or Degrees. Therefore the UCLA Extension Program was created to provide this option for education of LA’s to meet the profession’s need, OVER 35 YEARS ago! The Berkeley Extension Program followed. These are the only two evening and weekend programs that provide options for working adults in the USA that lead to licensure in a state. That state being California.

THE ISSUE OF THE LICENSE and the LATC
At this time, we have successfully fought the issue of losing the LATC, a peer review group of licensed landscape architects. BTW, the LATC is already under the CAB, as a special committee, with members appointed by the Senate, the Assembly and the Governor.

HIRING a UCLA Certificate Graduate.
I’d hire a UCLA Extension graduate for any position based upon their previous background and portfolio, as I would any other applicant. In my experience I have found that most Masters degreed students are sorely lacking in practical experience although not all. Certainly it depends on the person and what they do with their education.

I recently became the director of the UCLA Extension Program, and I’ve been the city Landscape Architect for several California Cities and the Chief Landscape Architect of a mulicounty regional park agency. I have hired many firms with people from many schools.

To assume that the UC Extension Certificates are not equal is certainly something I would recommend that you reconsider and consider on a person by person basis as you should each applicant. To not do so, would be a disadvantage to you and to those who have worked hard all day and gone to school at night to practice this wonderful profession.

Passion is not taught, it is nurtured. UCLA Extension certainly attempts to nurture individuals to fill that bill.

Stephanie V. Landregan, ASLA, LEED AP

[STEPHANIE Landregan FASLA LEED]

Dear Jeremiah,
I understand your reasonaing, but UCLA Extension is a credentialed 4 year landscape architecture program in California, which community colleges, etc are not. We should talk and if necessary provide you with documentation that show that we should be on your list (wikipedia is only as good as the submissions!). It is RARE that we have an individual taking a “single class” because we give preference to our certificate students. Not only are we the exception, but we are exceptional in our graduates have close to a 70% licensure rate, and do indeed become practioners!

As the program director, I would welcome a discussion on our program and it’s uniqueness.

Stephanie Landregan

[STEPHANIE Landregan FASLA LEED]

Also look at page 117, Instructor/alumnae Perla Arquieta and alumniae Pascale Vaquette are honored with a 2008 design award!

[STEPHANIE Landregan FASLA LEED]

The LARE is a test that measures your abilities technically and intellectually. It doesn’ matter if you perform a surgery and it is 99% correct if you leave a sponge in a body. You have a critical fail. Any test that concerns public health SAFETY and welfare is a critical fail test. Percentals are not what matters. If you create a wall that fails, you fail. I don’t care how beautiful it is or how great a drafter you are, or if you have everything there except the right calculations. If it fails it is a critical fail, and not a cumulation of points. I think that every candidate needs to realise this for the begining and stop using the numbers to justify their perceptions. This is not a “test,” it is a measure of compentancy.

If you take the test understanding the reason the test exisits, then you can prepare better. It is important to take prep classes because practice and speed and understanding the problem are key to passing.

Good luck and hopefully you will find a good prep class and the right mindset and move through the complaint period. As a licensed landscape architect the “complaint” period is called a “lawsuit.”

[STEPHANIE Landregan FASLA LEED]

Canada uses the LARE so no relief there!

[STEPHANIE Landregan FASLA LEED]

Let me correct your statement that “I can only be licensed in California”.
Presently California allows you to sit for the LARE, which is only part of the requirment for licensure. UCLA extension fulfills the education requirment for siting in California. Then there is the experience (two years, one while in school, one after you graduate or complete the certificate), so there are 3 components to licensure in almost ALL states: education, experience , examination.

After you complete all three you can be licensed in California. And there are many states that will grant reciprocity. Each state has it’s own formula (yes, this is something even people who are licensed in Dakota, or grandfathered in bemoan) and some of those states’ formulae do exclude schools that aren’t accreditated. But only a few.

There are only limits we accept. As a graduate of this program I have not allowed the certificate to be a limiting factor. I certainly believe the content of this program and the option of working full time and schooling in the evening is worth every penny I spent!

But if free software is the tipping point, I hope that is a separate issue from licensure. There are indeed a few barriers. But with time, we are working to overcome them.

I certainly hope you stay in the program, but if not, I wish you luck and good fortune!

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