College accreditation never did much to ensure quality education. As long as most college officials were committed to high standards, it did not matter. Once most of them chose to go for maximum student enrollments and low standards, accreditation concerns did not get in their way.
Trump’s Education Department is making changes that are meant to put some teeth in the accreditation system. In today’s Martin Center article, Christopher Morales looks at those changes. He finds that they “would simplify the process for recognizing emerging and existing accreditors, and explicitly encourage a quality-assurance system more focused on student outcomes, academic excellence, and return on investment.”
It’s about time. The old system overwhelmingly focused on inputs rather than results.
One aspect of the new system will be competition. Morales explains:
In February, the Department of Education issued an interpretive rule intended to reduce barriers for new and emerging accreditors. In May, its Accreditation, Innovation, and Modernization negotiated-rulemaking committee reached consensus on a package of accreditation reforms. The August 19 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking put those ideas into a formal federal proposal. The Department says the framework would simplify recognition of new accreditors, promote competition, emphasize student outcomes and return on investment, and make it easier to challenge an accreditation market long dominated by a relatively small number of organizations.
Good developments.