A Pivotal Year for Accreditation and Other Accreditation-Related Issues

Pivotal Year for Accreditation (Inside Higher Ed, December 1, 2016) “Strengthened federal oversight and expectations of public accountability have staying power. They are not temporary disruptions. They will remake accreditation for the foreseeable future.”

In Education, Greater Choice Doesn’t Always Mean Better Outcomes (Washington Post, November 30, 2016) “Right now, higher education is policed by a national network of regional accreditors approved by the U.S. Department of Education. Without accreditation, a college can’t access federal financial aid for its students. But accreditors are run and financed by the colleges themselves.”

Will We, At Last, Do Something About Accreditation? (The John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, November 30, 2016) “Perhaps 2017 will be the year when we make changes. Interesting bills have been introduced in Congress that would do that.”

Colorado Heights U. Will Close After Accreditor Loses Recognition (Chronicle of Higher Education, November 30, 2016) “Colorado Heights University, a nonprofit institution in Denver, will close next year, The Denver Post reports. The announcement follows the U.S. Department of Education’s denial of recognition to the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools, the university’s accreditor.”

Speculation and Starting Points: Accreditation, A New Administration and A New Congress (The Hill, November 29, 2016) “With the election just over, speculation about winners and losers has been replaced by speculation about what the winners will do with governing the country. When it comes to accreditation, we don’t know much, but we do have some starting points.” 

Co-Curricular Transcripts? (Inside Higher Ed, November 29, 2016) “We have strict protocols and systems for evaluating academic work and recording the results. We don’t have anything like that for co-curricular activities, with the limited exception of athletics. From an ‘institutional integrity’ standpoint, any record that the college blesses as official should have some sort of warrant behind it.”

Which Teacher Prep Programs Meet Tough New Accreditation Standards? (Education Week, November 29, 2016) “Out of 21 teacher preparation programs from 14 states that were seeking accreditation under tougher new standards, 17 have met all expectations and gained accreditation, while four programs have failed to meet all the required standards, according to an inaugural report released on Monday by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation.”