2014 "state of higher education accreditation" report
Upload: -aefis-higher-ed-assessment-continuous-improvement-web-based-system
Post on 07-Jul-2015
277 views
TRANSCRIPT
![Page 1: 2014 "State of Higher Education Accreditation" Report](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062406/559ae3b71a28ab93798b4670/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Can Accreditation Keep Pace With
CHANGE? Eduardo M. Ochoa
President, CSU Monterey Bay Former Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education, USDE
Paul L. Gaston Trustees Professor, Kent State University
1
![Page 2: 2014 "State of Higher Education Accreditation" Report](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062406/559ae3b71a28ab93798b4670/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
Can Accreditation Keep Pace Of course! “Just because a new idea comes up doesn’t mean we should change everything.” --Belle Wheelan, SACS President, December 2013
No way! Accreditation “is costly, parasitic, self-perpetuating, and prone to abuse . . . doomed to fail.” –Richard A. DeMillo, Center for 21st Century Universities, December 2013
2
![Page 3: 2014 "State of Higher Education Accreditation" Report](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062406/559ae3b71a28ab93798b4670/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
A decade of concern (1)
• 2002 ACTA: Can College Accreditation Live Up to Its Promise?
• 2006 Spellings Report seeks “transformation of accreditation”
• 2007 ACTA: Why Accreditation Doesn’t Work and What Policymakers Can Do About It
• 2008 CHEA: U.S. Accreditation and the Future of Quality Assurance (Peter Ewell)
• 2009 USDE Inspector General recommends “limiting, suspending, or terminating” the status of the HLC
3
![Page 4: 2014 "State of Higher Education Accreditation" Report](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062406/559ae3b71a28ab93798b4670/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
A decade of concern (2)
• 2010 Center for College Affordability and Productivity: The Inmates Running the Asylum?
• 2012 NACIQI report’s “alternative recommendations” describe “a broken system”
• 2012 ACE: Assuring Academic Quality in the 21st Century: Self-regulation in a New Age
• 2013 President Obama suggests consideration of “an alternative to accreditation”
4
![Page 5: 2014 "State of Higher Education Accreditation" Report](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062406/559ae3b71a28ab93798b4670/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
What are the issues?
5
![Page 6: 2014 "State of Higher Education Accreditation" Report](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062406/559ae3b71a28ab93798b4670/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
The environment has changed
• “A nation goes to college” • Increased costs—and accountability • Higher education itself has evolved
– Different kinds of institutions – The “new faculty majority” – New technologies – New approaches to academic credit – New budgeting methods
6
![Page 7: 2014 "State of Higher Education Accreditation" Report](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062406/559ae3b71a28ab93798b4670/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
As accreditation’s mandate has expanded…
• Defining “What is a college?” • Assuring transfer of credits • Qualifying institutions for federal student
assistance • Promoting institutional and programmatic
strengthening • Requiring greater accountability
7
![Page 8: 2014 "State of Higher Education Accreditation" Report](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062406/559ae3b71a28ab93798b4670/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
… so have concerns about accreditation • “It’s a ‘You scratch my back . . . .’ system.” • “Specialized accreditation is coercive: ‘Increase this
program’s funding or else!’” • “The costs of accreditation outweigh its benefits.” • “A protective insistency on confidentiality trumps the
public’s right to know.” • “Some parts of accreditation’s mandate are in
competition with other parts.” • “Trivial differences among accreditors in process and
vocabulary confuse the public unnecessarily.”
8
![Page 9: 2014 "State of Higher Education Accreditation" Report](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062406/559ae3b71a28ab93798b4670/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
Accreditation has responded
• Emphasizing quality documented by “accountability loops”
• Reforming process to offer greater efficiency, flexibility
• Creating platforms for encouraging and sharing innovation
• Increasing visibility • Expanding governance and participation
9
![Page 10: 2014 "State of Higher Education Accreditation" Report](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062406/559ae3b71a28ab93798b4670/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
Sufficiently?
Nothing more needs to be done?
10
![Page 11: 2014 "State of Higher Education Accreditation" Report](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062406/559ae3b71a28ab93798b4670/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
There are indications to the contrary
• Opinion leaders and the public remain poorly informed and often confused about the accreditation process
• Information needed to compare institutions remains insufficient and opaque
• Many institutions regard accreditation as burdensome rather than helpful
• Affordability has emerged as an urgent issue
11
![Page 12: 2014 "State of Higher Education Accreditation" Report](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062406/559ae3b71a28ab93798b4670/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
For your consideration . . . some areas that may
deserve further attention
12
![Page 13: 2014 "State of Higher Education Accreditation" Report](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062406/559ae3b71a28ab93798b4670/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
Consensus and alignment
• Which differences among standards, protocols, actions, and vocabularies are meaningful?
• Which should be eliminated in favor of greater public understanding?
• Which should be preserved and explained?
13
![Page 14: 2014 "State of Higher Education Accreditation" Report](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062406/559ae3b71a28ab93798b4670/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
Credibility
What practical reforms could enhance credibility • Within the accreditor community? • Between accreditors and the accredited? • Between accreditors and the USDE? • Between accreditors and opinion leaders? • Between accreditation and the public?
14
![Page 15: 2014 "State of Higher Education Accreditation" Report](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062406/559ae3b71a28ab93798b4670/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
Efficiency
What strategies not now in use might preserve (or enhance) quality oversight while reducing its intrusiveness, frequency, and cost?
15
![Page 16: 2014 "State of Higher Education Accreditation" Report](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062406/559ae3b71a28ab93798b4670/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
Agility and creativity
What more might accreditation do to respond to innovation and creativity? What more might accreditation do to anticipate and encourage innovation and creativity?
16
![Page 17: 2014 "State of Higher Education Accreditation" Report](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062406/559ae3b71a28ab93798b4670/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
Decisiveness and transparency
• How can accreditation expedite its processes while avoiding any compromise of due process?
• How can accreditation increase the visibility of its processes and results while protecting the objectivity of peer review and honoring necessary assumptions of confidentiality?
17
![Page 18: 2014 "State of Higher Education Accreditation" Report](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062406/559ae3b71a28ab93798b4670/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
A shared vision
Can accreditation assume a lead role in articulating a vision of higher education that is coherent, principled, and forward looking—a vision above all of what 21st century students need?
18
![Page 19: 2014 "State of Higher Education Accreditation" Report](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062406/559ae3b71a28ab93798b4670/html5/thumbnails/19.jpg)
A starter list to prompt discussion
• Create greater comparability of accrediting standards, procedures, actions, terminology?
• Secure greater transparency regarding actions? • Increase efficiency to promote cost-savings for
institutions and programs? • Increase flexibility to recognize quality differentials? • Increase attention to affordability and productivity? • Accommodate, encourage, and evaluate new
approaches to creating and affirming learning?
19
![Page 20: 2014 "State of Higher Education Accreditation" Report](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062406/559ae3b71a28ab93798b4670/html5/thumbnails/20.jpg)
Advantages remain advantageous
• U.S. higher education accreditation remains independent of federal control
• Peer review offers an economical, collegial, relatively efficient, and knowledgeable approach to institutional and programmatic evaluation
• The structure of accreditation mirrors that of the academy
20
![Page 21: 2014 "State of Higher Education Accreditation" Report](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062406/559ae3b71a28ab93798b4670/html5/thumbnails/21.jpg)
The question that has been asked:
21
![Page 22: 2014 "State of Higher Education Accreditation" Report](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062406/559ae3b71a28ab93798b4670/html5/thumbnails/22.jpg)
Is Accreditation the Best Possible Form of Quality Assurance for U.S.
Higher Education?
22
![Page 23: 2014 "State of Higher Education Accreditation" Report](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062406/559ae3b71a28ab93798b4670/html5/thumbnails/23.jpg)
In theory?
Perhaps not.
23
![Page 24: 2014 "State of Higher Education Accreditation" Report](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062406/559ae3b71a28ab93798b4670/html5/thumbnails/24.jpg)
In practice
• Higher education accreditation has offered effective, respected, economical and efficient assurance and stimulus for more than a century
• Accreditation has evolved in important ways • Accreditation continues to evolve
24
![Page 25: 2014 "State of Higher Education Accreditation" Report](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062406/559ae3b71a28ab93798b4670/html5/thumbnails/25.jpg)
In brief
For more than a century, higher education accreditation has fulfilled a critical, complex mandate—efficiently, economically, and credibly—and has demonstrated the capacity to continue doing so effectively.
25
![Page 26: 2014 "State of Higher Education Accreditation" Report](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062406/559ae3b71a28ab93798b4670/html5/thumbnails/26.jpg)
Apologies to Winston Churchill
Accreditation in its present form may be the worst possible form of quality assurance—except of course for all the other forms that might replace it.
26
![Page 27: 2014 "State of Higher Education Accreditation" Report](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062406/559ae3b71a28ab93798b4670/html5/thumbnails/27.jpg)
The question that should be asked
27
![Page 28: 2014 "State of Higher Education Accreditation" Report](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062406/559ae3b71a28ab93798b4670/html5/thumbnails/28.jpg)
Can Accreditation Keep Pace With
CHANGE?
28
![Page 29: 2014 "State of Higher Education Accreditation" Report](https://reader036.vdocuments.net/reader036/viewer/2022062406/559ae3b71a28ab93798b4670/html5/thumbnails/29.jpg)
DISCUSS
29