Barbara had never seen the school in such a blizzard of activity. Who were these accreditors who were about to visit the school? Why all the fuss preparing for them? And what was their business? Barbara had papers to grade, lessons to prepare, and classes to teach. How was she supposed to do all the extra things administrators were asking of her to get ready for the accreditors’ visit? To Barbara, it all seemed like a big waste of time and a bigger distraction. She just wanted to teach. Why couldn’t they just leave her alone?
Credentialing
Accreditation is a big deal in education. Accreditation serves several purposes. In higher education, federal, state, and private loan and grant programs may only fund student education in accredited schools. A college or university that loses its accreditation may lose most of its student body and funding. Closure is then in the offing. A new school that is unable to gain accreditation may never open. Professional licensing bodies and employers also use school accreditation to qualify graduates. Graduates of an unaccredited program or program that loses its accreditation may be unable to sit for licensing exams or gain employment. Graduate and professional schools also use undergraduate program accreditation to qualify applicants. Students must therefore think twice before enrolling in an unaccredited school or a school on probation or other thin ice with accreditors. Your school’s accreditation is likely critical for these several interests dependent on credentialing.
Improvement
Accreditation, though, is also in theory for school improvement. While accreditors go about their business rigorously examining a school’s programs and performance, the school’s faculty members and administrators necessarily do likewise. Like students, school personnel depend on the school’s accreditation. The loss of accreditation would trigger the loss of school employment. In theory and to some degree in practice, faculty members and administrators thus constantly have accreditation standards in mind when going about their daily work. Accreditation holds school personnel accountable to broad educational standards. Annual reporting to accreditors, and sabbatical or other periodic site reviews by accreditors, spur school personnel to quickly address lagging areas of performance around critical measures like retention, graduation rates, graduate performance on licensing exams, and graduate placement rates. Your school is, in theory, better off in all areas because of accreditation. Help your school see accreditation in that program-improvement view rather than as a necessary annoyance or evil.
Standards
Accreditors hold schools accountable to standards. Accrediting bodies develop, adopt, and publish standards for schools at all levels and in all fields in which their accredited schools instruct. Accreditors aren’t, in theory, winging it when they visit a school for a periodic site review. They are instead examining the school’s performance against published standards. You can find accreditation standards governing your school at any elementary or secondary school, undergraduate, graduate, or professional school level. You can also find accreditation standards governing your school whether it is public or private, arts or sciences, Christian or classical, medical or legal, and so on. Any school program with accreditation will have accreditation standards. Know your school’s accreditation standards, and you will know the public accountability measures for your school. Respect the accreditation process for the broad program competence it instills.
Authority
As already suggested above, accrediting bodies have substantial authority. Yet their authority extends beyond their direct influence over a school’s future. The federal Department of Education officially recognizes the accrediting agencies that examine and approve programs to qualify for federal loan and grant funding. Accrediting agencies in that sense have a quasi-governmental authority. Although your school’s accrediting agency may technically be a private nonprofit entity tax exempt under IRC Section 501(c)(3), the agency may behave in its dealings with your school more like a government regulator. If your school gets into a fight with an accreditor, your school is likely to lose. Respect the authority of your school’s accrediting body.
Activity
As already suggested above, your school’s accrediting body likely carries out its credentialing function by requiring annual reporting from your school. Annual accreditation reporting can be a substantial technical task, requiring entry of precise data across a wide range of academic and non-academic measures in precise formats. Accrediting bodies also make periodic site visits to schools to closely examine their programs. Accreditors typically assemble site-visit teams whose members are volunteers from other schools. Yes, school officials examine other schools, even competitor schools. If you are an educator, you may qualify to volunteer as a site visitor at other schools. Site-visit teams may include teachers, administrators, librarians, or other specialists to ensure that the team has the qualifications to detect anomalous programs, facilities, staffing, resources, or performance. Site-visit teams may also have the authority to sample and inspect individual student records and other confidential and proprietary information, once again to ensure compliance with standards.
Preparation
If you are assisting your school with a site review, expect and plan for a thorough review. Help your school prepare rigorously for the site visit. Appoint a school site-visit team, placing a skilled and experienced administrator in charge. Notify the school community of the date, nature, and purpose of the site visit, ensuring that everyone understands its significance and cooperates. Prepare a room and resources for the site visitors to ensure that they are comfortable and supported. Encourage all members of the school community to direct site-team inquiries and communications through the school’s site-visit team leader to ensure accurate, timely, and complete responses. Have on hand, organized and copied, all information that the site visitors request in advance, ready before they arrive.
Study
Your school’s accreditation process may also require your school to complete periodic self-studies. A self-study involves the school’s faculty and other constituents in a written reflection over the school’s programs. A self-study should analyze programs against strategic goals and standards to develop plans for improvement and advancement. An effective self-study can serve as a strategic plan or blueprint for a strategic plan. But a self-study is also a regulatory document, one that the school must publish to accreditors and defend as satisfying regulator requirements for rigorous self-scrutiny.
Report
Accreditation site visits typically result in a report to the accrediting body and the inspected school. The report evaluates the school’s programs against accreditation standards, noting where the school is out of compliance with standards or may need monitoring to ensure continued compliance. The site team may share a draft report with school leaders to enable school leaders to correct errors in the report or respond in advance to the report’s concerns. The report may also helpfully recommend program reforms and enhancements. Once the site team finalizes and shares the report, accreditation procedures may require school leaders to evaluate and respond to the report.
Procedures
If the report recommends accreditation action, such as monitoring, conditions, probation, or revocation, the accreditation council typically offers the school a hearing at which to advocate for relief from the action. The accreditation council then takes the action that it determines. Accreditation rules may require the council to give schools substantial advance warning of non-compliance and potential revocation of accreditation. Typically a period of months or years will pass before a school loses its accreditation, during which time the school may be on probation and pursuing administrative appeals and even civil court relief. Accreditation is a big deal. Help your school through its accreditation processes. You’ll learn a great deal about schools in general and your school in particular. You’ll also learn the nature, value, and burden of close regulation.
Reflection
Are you aware of the agency that accredits your school? Are you familiar with the accrediting body’s review and approval procedures? Are you familiar with the accrediting body’s standards? Where is your school strongest in meeting accreditation standards? Where is your school weakest in meeting accreditation standards? Is your school out of compliance with any accreditation standards? How did your school do on its last accreditation site visit? Has your school addressed recommendations that the last site-visit report made? When is your school’s next accreditation site visit? Does your school have initiatives to undertake and complete to prepare for its next accreditation site visit? Who should your school have on its site-visit team? Who should lead your school’s site-visit team? Who should author and edit your school’s accreditation self-study?
Key Points
Accreditation certifies a school for federal, state, and private programs.
Accreditation also helps a school evaluate and improve its programs.
Accreditors publish standards to which they hold schools accountable.
Federal officials approve accreditation agencies as credentialing bodies.
Accreditors require annual reporting and conduct periodic site visits.
Schools prepare for accreditation site visits to promote approval.
Schools may have to complete self-studies for accreditation review.
Accreditation site-visit teams publish a report on the visited school.
Site-visit reports can recommend accreditation revocation.
Schools have protective procedures to challenge accreditor actions.