WASHINGTON — A new accreditation system proposed Thursday would require education providers to meet “rigorous and ambitious standards for student achievement and financial health,” and give the federal government a stronger role in determining if those standards are being met.
The system — put forth by the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank — comes at a time when the way colleges and universities are accredited is being rethought in Congress as well as in the field. It also comes on the heels of a recent decision by the federal government to terminate its recognition of an accreditor for lax oversight of two for-profit colleges that recently folded.
“If we’re going to hand someone a loan, we can’t be agnostic about graduation, loan repayment, or whether you get a job,” said Ben Miller, author of the proposal and senior director for post secondary education at the Center for American Progress.
“That’s not the entirety of what we should care about, but that’s where we have to start drawing the line,” Miller said.
The proposal is spelled out in a new report titled “A Quality Alternative: A New Vision for Higher Education Accreditation.”
Among other things, the proposal — which is meant to complement but not replace the existing accreditation system — would eliminate the tension that accrediting bodies face in cracking down on member schools that they are also supposed to help improve, Miller said.
