Contreras article

Why States Shouldn’t Accredit, by Alan Contreras, in the August 30, 2005 edition of Inside Higher Ed features a discussion section at the end of the article.

There have been comments from a number of people with a variety of opinions. Some of the names will be familiar to you: Dennis Ruhl, "Robert J", John Dovelos, and "Dr Marianus" in addition to some DegreeInfo members.

You might consider offering your own comments and responses-- it'll add to the balance of expressed opinions.

 

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I'd love to but... well... what decimon said.

 

on the air again

The site's working again.

There is a reply from Contreras to Dovelos.

 

Did the article get the usual editor's slice-and-dice or was it limited to so many words? I ask because it could have been fleshed out a bit.

F'rinstance...

...is not entirely clear with regards 'national accreditors.'

Though my libertarian genes rebel, good article for raising the issues to whoever-the-hell is the audience for this.

Steve Foerster, of course, makes a good point.

 

Interesting article by Alan but the only real suprise was that the criticism by "the usual suspects" was somewhat milder than expected. I'll attribute that to the fact that it is via a moderated forum as opposed to their usual board.

 

The cockroaches are swarming.

 

a rose by any other name

Steve Foerster, in his comment following the article, mentions AACRAO -- and, by implication, NACES member credential evaluators -- as an alternative to accrediting agencies. In essence, evaluators act as private accreditors.

The evaluators are, after all, the ones who tell the admissions flacks at Big State U. whether or not your degree from the University of Dagestan is worth the paper its printed on. Surely, they can work out whether the University of the Badlands maintains minimum acceptable standards.

If the US DOE does not do a good job of overseeing state accreditors, private evaluators will fill the void. One way or another, there will be credible accreditation, of a kind.

This is a separate issue from whether the federal government will underwrite loans and fund education grants for study at dodgy schools. Title IV eligibility concerns the wisdom of government spending more than it concerns the validity of accreditation qua quality control.