Spellings Faces the Accreditors: Are New Ways of Measuring Higher Education in the Works?

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True to her promise made in the fall, U.S. secretary of education Margaret Spellings is continuing to address issues in higher education. In late November she convened an accreditation forum in Washington, D.C., with more than 60 representatives from disparate higher education institutions, councils, and associations. The Council for Aid to Education, the University of Texas System, and the American Association of Community Colleges are a sample of organizations represented.

Her buzzwords, as expected, were accessibility, affordability, and accountability. The forum, specifically, discussed the goal of aligning the current system of accreditation with proof of student …