Educational accreditation is a

quality assurance Quality assurance (QA) is the term used in both manufacturing and service industries to describe the systematic efforts taken to ensure that the product(s) delivered to customer(s) meet with the contractual and other agreed upon performance, design ...

process under which services and operations of educational institutions or programs are evaluated and verified by an external body to determine whether applicable and recognized standards are met. If standards are met, accredited status is granted by the appropriate agency. In most countries, the function of educational accreditation is conducted by a government organization, such as the Ministry of Education. The United States government instead delegates the quality assurance process to private non-profit organizations. Those organizations are formally called accreditors. In order to receive federal funding and any other type of federal recognition, all accreditors in the US must, in turn, be recognized by the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI), which is an advisory body to the

U.S. Secretary of Education The United States secretary of education is the head of the United States Department of Education, U.S. Department of Education. The secretary serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States, and the federal government, on ...

. The federal government is, therefore, still the top-level architect and controlling authority of accreditation. The U.S. accreditation process was developed in the late 19th century and early 20th century after educational institutions perceived a need for improved coordination and articulation between

secondary Secondary may refer to: Science and nature * Secondary emission, of particles ** Secondary electrons, electrons generated as ionization products * The secondary winding, or the electrical or electronic circuit connected to the secondary winding i ...

and post-secondary educational institutions, along with standardization of requirements between the two levels.

In higher education

Accreditation of higher education varies by jurisdiction and may focus on either or both the institution and the individual programs of study. Higher education accreditation in the United States has long been established as a peer review process coordinated by accreditation commissions and member institutions. The federal government began to play a limited role in higher education accreditation in 1952 with the reauthorization of the

GI Bill The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in 1956, bu ...

for Korean War veterans. With the creation of the U.S. Department of Education and under the terms of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, the

is required by law to publish a list of

nationally recognized accrediting agencies Higher education accreditation in the United States is a peer review process by which the validity of degrees and credits awarded by higher education institutions is assured. It is coordinated by accreditation commissions made up of member ins ...

for higher education.

In primary and secondary education

In the United States, there is no federal government list of recognized accreditation agencies for primary and secondary schools like there is for higher education.

Public schools Public school may refer to: *State school (known as a public school in many countries), a no-fee school, publicly funded and operated by the government *Public school (United Kingdom), certain elite fee-charging independent schools in England and ...

must adhere to criteria set by the state governments, and there is wide variation among the individual states in the requirements applied to non-public primary and secondary schools. There are seven regional accreditors in the United States that have historically accredited

elementary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

junior high school A middle school (also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school) is an educational stage which exists in some countries, providing education between primary school and secondary school ...

s, middle schools, high schools, as well as

institutions of higher education Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after completio ...

. Some of the regional accreditors, such as, Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, International Association for Learner Driven Schools (IALDS), New England Association of Schools and Colleges, Western Association of Schools and Colleges AdvancED, and some independent associations, such as the

Association of Christian Schools International The Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI), founded in 1978, is an association of evangelical Christian schools. Its headquarters are in Colorado Springs, Colorado. History ACSI was founded in 1978 through the merger of three as ...

and Council of Islamic Schools of North America (CISNA), have expanded their accreditation activity to include schools outside the United States.Association of Christian Schools International
Acsi.org

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Educational Accreditation Educational evaluation methods

In higher education

In primary and secondary education

See also

References