As previously reported on AFN, the Texas A&M University system is partnering with other university systems to create a new accrediting body, the Commission for Public Higher Education.
Recently, five independent colleges — Benedictine College, Merrimack College, the University of Mount Saint Vincent, Bellevue University, and Houston Christian University — announced that they have joined as founding members of the National Association for Academic Excellence (NAAE).
Thomas Lindsay, a policy analyst at Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), said that in 2019, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos opened regional accreditors to the entire country. In the past, schools were tied to a specific regional body.
According to Texas Scorecard, the NAAE will evaluate independent higher education institutions by their academic rigor, student achievement and institutional accountability, but they will allow the schools to maintain their individual missions.
Lindsay said the accreditation process begins with the question, "Are students learning anything?”
“Next, how do you know what they’re learning and how much, right? What processes, methods, metrics, and systems do you use? And then finally, how do you organize and report that evidence?” Lindsay says.
According to him, that’s it.
“An institution claiming to educate, it’s got to be able to back the claim with tangible evidence. The problem is that most other regional accreditor paperwork is really secondary, whereas NAAE’s outcomes focus matches this standard,” Lindsay states.
The six regional accrediting bodies, Lindsay said, have failed independent colleges for decades, applying one-size-fits-all standards. He likened them to a monopoly.
Lindsay recalled an application for accreditation he once filled out for a university for the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges that was 1,800 pages.
“The reason I’m so happy that NAAE has formed is because it prioritizes the right things. Academic rigor, measurable student achievement, formation of the whole person as well as institutional freedom,” Lindsay says.
