Six private corporations act as gatekeepers of billions of dollars of federal education funding annually. ACTA advocates for reforms designed to hold these organizations responsible when they fail to ensure that America’s colleges and universities remain affordable and provide a high-quality education.
The public’s skepticism of higher education can be traced back to the failures of our quality assurance system. Accreditation has become an opaque, systemically flawed process that stifles innovation and does little to ensure that institutions remain true to their missions. ACTA educates policymakers, trustees, and consumers about the shortcomings of accreditation, and advocates for solutions to protect students and taxpayers.
As accreditation reform gains bipartisan support, ACTA remains committed to forming a broad coalition to support commonsense changes to the Higher Education Act. These reforms include eliminating the “elastic clause” that allows accreditors to impose additional conditions to Title IV eligibility, establishing a more cost-effective and reliable path to Title IV federal financial aid, and mandating that accreditors consider meaningful student outcome measurements as a condition for accreditation.
Most recently we partnered with Third Way to produce Five Bipartisan Principles for Accreditation Reform, which demonstrates that comprehensive accreditation reform need not be a partisan issue. In addition, ACTA regularly assists state legislatures seeking to respond to the latest regulatory changes surrounding accreditation.
ACTA has over 30 years of experience helping trustees understand how the accreditation system can affect board governance. ACTA supports governing boards in resisting accreditor overreach and ensuring institutional autonomy. Our 2019 guide Accreditation: What It Is, What’s Wrong with It, and How to Fix It and its companion call to action remain valuable tools for trustees seeking to understand the history and nature of this system. We also offer in-depth training on this topic as part of our board services program. In 2019, ACTA played a pivotal role in defeating proposed rule changes by one regional accreditor that would have curtailed the religious freedom of colleges and universities in 19 states.
The failure of accreditation, and its damaging impact on the cost and quality of higher education, remain hidden from the public. In addition to a producing a number of recent articles on this topic, ACTA regularly interviews industry experts to remind those who depend on a reliable system of higher education quality assurance that reform is urgently needed. In 2018, Johns Hopkins University Press published the book Accreditation on the Edge: Challenging Quality Assurance in Higher Education to which ACTA contributed a chapter titled “Fixing a Broken Accreditation System: How to Bring Quality Assurance into the Twenty-First Century” to bring these issues to a wider audience.
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Launched in 1995, we are the only organization that works with alumni, donors, trustees, and education leaders across the United States to support liberal arts education, uphold high academic standards, safeguard the free exchange of ideas on campus, and ensure that the next generation receives an intellectually rich, high-quality college education at an affordable price.
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