NonPublic Schools: Part V--On Accreditation

• NonPublic Schools: Part I--Overview
• NonPublic Schools--Part II Evaluating Mission, Values, & Goodness of Fit for Your Child
• NonPublic Schools--Part III Faculty and Staff Qualifications
• NonPublic Schools--Part IV: Evaluating Academic Program
• NonPublic Schools:Part V--On Accreditation
• NonPublic Schools:Part VI--More Detail on Financial Issues: IRS Status

This is a long and rather technical post.  If you want the highlights:

Key Questions for Parents About Accreditation

In investigating schools, you should ask:

• Is this school accredited?
• Which accrediting body grants the accreditation? (There are six regional associations, see below)
  • (If the school is accredited by an association outside of its region) Why is the school accredited by an association outside of its region?
• How long has the school been accredited?
• When does the next accreditation cycle start?

On Accreditation
Both public schools and private schools may be accredited by voluntary organizations.

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) established mandatory annual testing for public schools, in theory increasing schools' accountability.

What is Accreditation?
In 1985, the United States Department of Education ruled that the federal government did not have the statutory authority to recognize accrediting agencies for PK-12 educational organizations. Regulation of private schools is a matter for the individual states.  The DoE has published a manual called State Regulation of Private Schools.

The manual illustrates our country's ability to approach the same issues in a variety of ways. Not one of the states regulates private schools in the same way as another. Rather, the statutes reflect the unique circumstances and concerns faced by the local communities. It has been the goal of the Office of Non-Public Education to provide a concise summary of the relevant state laws in an accessible format.

   

Thus, there is no national certification of academic entities serving grades kindergarten-12.  How does the consumer know if the program he or she is investigating is any good? The accreditation process is a partial answer to that question.   

The accreditation system has evolved over time. As it is used now, it tends to mean that the school has publicly announced some goals and has accepted some standard operating procedures, and has a plan for meeting those goals and certifying the procedures are being followed. 

A full description can be read at WASC's Accreditation Overview page.

A group of six voluntary accrediting organizations has evolved.  Each are separate and self -governing.  From east to west, the regions are:

1. New England (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts,  New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont and  American/international schools in more than sixty nations worldwide.  The Association was founded in 1885, and organizes its work into seven commissions. The commission that accredits k-12 private schools is called the Commission on Independent Schools (NEASC-CIS).  NEASC also accredits schools abroad; the commission responsible for accreditation is called the Commission on American and International Schools Abroad  (NEASC-CAISA)

 

2. Middle States (Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, and schools in the Carribean and Overseas.)  The Association was founded in 1887, and as of 1978,  organizes its work into three commissions.  The commission responsible for  elementary (PK-8) schools is MSA-CES;  the commission responsible for accrediting secondary schools is MSA-CSS and a joint organization accrediting schools serving PK-12 is MSA-CIWA

 

3. Southern Association (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana,Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia,and selected schools in Latin America).  The Southern Association has two wings: that accrediting colleges and that accrediting PK-12 grade institutions, the Council on Accreditation and School Improvement (SACS-CASI)

 

4. North Central (Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska,
   New Mexico, the Navajo Nation, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and Department of Defense Dependents
   Schools) The North Central Association is organized in a similar manner to the Southern Association. That accrediting PK-12 grade institutions, the Council on Accreditation and School Improvements  (NCA-CASI).

 

5. Northwest (Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington along with along with other geographical areas of the United States and the world.) Founded in 1917, the Association has split and/or renamed itself several times as it has grown and matured.  In 2004, recognizing that there were few issues in common between the Commission on Colleges and the commission dealing with the accreditation of PK-12 institutions, the two associations de-incorporated.  The college commission is the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU), and  the PK-12 unit reincorporated as The Northwest Association of Accredited Schools (NAAC). (I believe that NAAC is the only regional organization to be legally separate from the regional body that accredits colleges and universities.)

 

6. Western Association (California, Hawaii, Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, American Samoa, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Fiji, and East Asia.) The Western Association was founded in 1967.  It is organized into three commissions: Higher Education,  community and junior colleges, and pk-12 schools (WASC ACS)

   

There is also an umbrella organization, the Commission on International and Trans-Regional Accreditation, (CITA), which was  created in 1996 by the six USA regional associations which accredit schools and universities.

CITA provides customized accreditation protocols and standards for schools that cross the USA regions and for national and international schools around the world. CITA awards the accreditation. The participating regional commissions manage the accreditation protocol facility.

 

What Accrediting Organzations Will And Will Not Do
While the commissions cannot intervene in the internal procedures of institutions or act as a regulatory body, they may respond to complaints regarding allegations of conditions  at affiliated institutions that raise significant questions about the institution's compliance  with the standard of conduct expected of an accredited institution.      

Specifically:

• Accrediting organizations will not hear allegations concerning the personal lives of individuals  connected with the accredited institutions.


• Accrediting organziations will not act as a court of appeal in matters of  admission, granting or transfer of academic credit, grades, fees, student financial aid,  student discipline, collective bargaining, faculty appointments, promotion, tenure, and  dismissals or similar matters.


• Accrediting organizations assume no responsibility for adjudicating  isolated individual grievances between students, faculty, or members of the public and  individual institutions.


• Where religous schools are accredited by one of the six organizations, typically the organizations  will not respond to any complaint regarding  the religious nature or programs of the school.


• Typically, if a person filing a complaint has instituted litigation or has threatened to institute litigation, the six regional organizations will not take any action while the matter is under judicial consideration.

   

There is also the National Association of Private Special Education Centers (NAPSEC)

NAPSEC is a non-profit organization, established in 1971, whose mission is to represent private special education centers and their leaders. Together, we promote high quality programs for individuals with disabilities and their families and we advocate access to the continuum of alternatives placements and services. The association consists solely of private early intervention services, schools, residential therapeutic centers, and adult living programs that serve both privately and publicly placed individuals with disabilities.

One of the activities of NAPSEC is establishing a system for accrediting private special education programs, NCASES

The National Commission for the Accreditation of Special Education Services (NCASES) was established in response to a need for private special education providers to have an accreditation process that uniquely addresses their programs and the populations they serve. NCASES will provide an accreditation process that effectively and systematically evaluates private special education programs. It is an accreditation process that welcomes diversity and recognizes the importance of evaluating services based on their own purpose, objectives, and ability to meet the needs of the population they serve.

Note: I have no personal experience with private special education programs, and I do not have personal experience with NAPSEC.

A Note on Religious Schools (Catholic parochial, Lutheran, Episcopalian, Jewish, and Others)

Some religious schools are accredited by the regional organizations listed above; others are accredited by the diocese or by state-level organizations.
 
A Partial List of Associations Of Religous Schools

• Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI) strives to enable and equip Christian educators and schools worldwide to effectively educate children and young people with the mind of Christ. An evangelical  Provides accreditation and other services.


• Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Educationis to promote excellence in Jewish education across the spectrum of Jewish life.


• Friends Council on Educationfounded  in 1931, promotes the theory and practice of Quaker education, supports Friends schools in maintaining their values-based learning environments, and provides a professional development network for educational issues, philosophy and practice in Friends schools.


• National Association of Episcopal Schools to serve those who serve Episcopal schools.


• NAPCIS--is a relatively new association which serves to support and accredit private (not associated with a parish) Catholic K-12 schools.


• National Catholic Education Association an association of all Catholic schools, exists to improve both secular and theological education.


• National Lutheran School Association, provides an accreditation service for Lutheran schools.


• Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education (PEJE) exists to provide information and tools for improvment to Jewish schools.


• Solomon Schechter Day School Association provides guidance and support to Jewish day schools in the Conservative tradition.
  

A Note on Financial Matters
Any contract or tuition payment agreement a parent signs is a matter of contract and business law not education. Please look at the section on finances.

• NonPublic Schools: Part I--Overview
• NonPublic Schools--Part II Evaluating Mission, Values, & Goodness of Fit for Your Child
• NonPublic Schools--Part III Faculty and Staff Qualifications
• NonPublic Schools--Part IV: Evaluating Academic Program
• NonPublic Schools:Part V--On Accreditation
• NonPublic Schools:Part VI--More Detail on Financial Issues: IRS Status