Career Education Systems
Mark Barker is a pioneer in adult education and the founder of Career Education Systems (CES) in 1980, which is today widely recognized as the #1 real estate licensing school in the Midwest. CES has led both Missouri and Kansas in passing rates for over 25 years. 50,000 people have received real estate education and training at CES. The school offers salesperson and broker pre-license courses, post-license courses, continuing education courses and special designation courses such as AREP® and CMREP™. CES, a RealtyU® affiliate, is the exclusive sponsor of The Real Estate Apprentice grant program.

He literally grew up in the real estate business working with his Father who owned a real estate company in Kansas City. After completing a bachelor’s degree in sociology and a master’s degree in education his application of modern adult education theory to real estate learning led the real estate education field in a new direction. Today most real estate educators utilize the techniques he pioneered.

Mark is best known as the primary author of GAPE (Generally Accepted Principles of Education) and the Distinguished Real Estate Instructor criteria which he authored in 1992 and is still the benchmark for real estate academics worldwide. Mark was National President of the Real Estate Educators Association in 1993-1994 and was awarded the Distinguished Real Estate Instructor (DREI) designation in 1987. As a Senior Instructor of REEA’s Instructor Development Workshop, he authored REEA’s Course Development Workshop and in 1998 his workshop on fair housing won ARELLO’s (Association of Real Estate License Law Officials) top workshop award.

He was a Senior Instructor for the Master Classes for over 10 years for Better Homes & Gardens and GMAC Real Estate Services before starting his own education company.