Discrepancies in the USDE database vs. the CHEA database

In the past there have been several threads here about the two databases by which one may determine if a given institution and/or its program(s) is/are accredited by an agency approved by the US Department of Education (USDE) and/or its Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA).

The CHEA database has always been the one most often turned to for this purpose; but last year the US Depatment of Education's Office of Postsecondary Education (OPE) launched what it promised would be the definitive USDE database to which anyone wishing to look-up a school or its programs could turn. It was billed as something that would contain all USDE- and/or CHEA-approved accrediting agencies, and all of the schools/programs that they accredit... and could even be relied upon by college/university admissions or corporate human resource personnel wishing to verify that coursework or a degree on a college application, or a degree on a job application, was, indeed, from an accredited institution.

But, alas... not long after the USDE database's launch, word of many errors therein began to surface. As time passed, though, we heard that most of those errors had, by hook or by crook, been fixed; and that the USDE database was finally reliable.

Last year there was a PDF file on the CHEA web site, in the directory area, which showed that there were a handful of accreditors which USDE approved, but which CHEA did not; and that there were no accreditors which CHEA approved, but which USDE did not. It stood to reason, therefore, that the best database for looking-up institutions and programs would be the USDE database because it would be more complete and would include institutions/programs which even CHEA didn't approve.

So, for the past year or so, I've routinely recommended to people in posts -- and, more recently, via links in my signature here -- that they should check the USDE database... maybe even first, and maybe even to the exclusion of the CHEA database. After all, it was larger and more complete, right?

Then I started noticing some things...

First I started noticing that institutions that I knew for a fact were accredited did not, for whatever reason, appear on the USDE database; but they did, in most cases, appear on the CHEA database.

Then I started noticing that the numbers of institutions or programs accredited by a given agency were not always the same on in USDE database as they were in the CHEA database. When I checked to see if institutions that were accredited extremely recently were in either of the databases, they were often in the CHEA database, but not in the USDE database.

Then, the aforementioned PDF file which showed the accreditors that USDE approved, but which CHEA didn't, suddenly disappeared; and it was replaced by this one (PDF) which simply lists the regional, national and specialized/professional accreditors; but with no mention of any USDE-only-approved accreditors.

Then I noticed the list of regional accreditors go from six to eight in the directory area of the CHEA web site; and to nine in the CHEA database.

Then, I began to notice accreditors disappearing from the CHEA list of national accreditors in the directory, and reappearing on the CHEA directory list of specialized/professional accreditors.

Then I began to see new accrediting agencies listed on the CHEA web site accreditor directory... most of them simply because they'd been recently approved as accreditors by CHEA; but in addition to those accreditors appearing in the CHEA database, I also saw accreditors that only USDE approved and which had never, previously, been on the CHEA web site before... or, if they had, they had only been there in an incomplete sort of way.

Then I noticed the format of the search form for the CHEA database change, with many more accreditors -- and classified differently -- from which to choose.

I started asking myself:

• Is it no mere coincidence that CHEA seems to be working so hard on its directories and its database, yet USDE's seems stagnant? Is CHEA trying to take-up the slack from the obviously-limping-along USDE database?
  
• Is CHEA just more or less taking over the entire database lookup function for both CHEA and USDE? Will, therefore, the USDE database just up and disappear eventually?
  
• And just how crippled, and/or out-of-date, and/or still problematic/unreliable in whatever other ways is that USDE database now?

So I went into list compilation mode, and I did a comparison of the agencies and the numbers of institutions/programs that they accredit as shown in the two different databases. See the results here.

What I found is disconcerting. Here are the high points:

• The USDE database contains 158 (4.95%) more regionally-accredited institution/program records than does the CHEA database. That would seem to suggest that, with respect to regionally-accredited institutions/programs, the USDE database is more complete. However, from my cursory inspection, many of those 158 records that are in the USDE database, but which are not in the CHEA database, include everything from duplications, to to records that should have been removed because the institutions are no longer regionally accredited, to records that maybe never should have been in the USDE database in the first place. That said, it seems fairly clear that the USDE database is actually fairly reliable when it comes to regionally-accredited institutions.
  
• The USDE database contains 98 (8.42%) fewer nationally-accredited institution/program records than does the CHEA database. The detailed numbers suggest that it's most probably only because USDE's not maintaining it's database (keeping it up-to-date) quite as well as CHEA's doing with its database. The USDE database is marginally less current -- and, therefore, a bit less reliable -- than the CHEA database when it comes to nationally accredited institutions/programs.
  
• But here's the stunner: The USDE database contains 10,010 (49.95%) fewer specialized/professionally-accredited institution/program records than does the CHEA database; and, the USDE database contains a net of 11 (20.75%) fewer specialized/professional higher education accreditors than does the CHEA database. These two factors would seem to render useless, out of hand, the USDE database with respect to specialized/professionally accredited information... but, sadly, it's not as easy as all that. And that's because...
  
• The USDE database contains 9 specialized/professional higher education accreditors which are not contained in the CHEA database. Damn! That means we can't completely give-up on the USDE database. It remains the only place where the institutions/programs of at least 9 accreditors may be found.
  
• The reverse is also true: The CHEA database contains 20 specialized/professional higher education accreditors which are not contained in the USDE database. Of course, for those wishing to rely solely on the CHEA database, that's good news, I suppose.
  
• As a testament to how screwed-up the USDE database is, the CHEA database shows 1 specialized/professional higher education accreditor (NAACLS) as being both CHEA and USDE approved, yet there is no listing for it in the USDE database. All other accreditors that are either approved by USDE only, or that are approved by both CHEA and USDE, are in the USDE database... that is, except NAACLS.
  
• Finally, when all the dust settles, and all the pluses and minuses are factored, the net discrepancy between the two databases across all three types of accreditors (regional, national and specialized/professional) is that the USDE database contains a net of 9,950 -- a whopping 40.79% -- fewer accredited institution/program records than does the CHEA database.

Oy.

It's just my opinion, mind you -- and I realize that no one from either USDE or CHEA gives a rat's a__ what I think -- but if USDE's not going to properly maintain its database, then it needs to either stop pretending that its database is worthy of use and either shut it down or hand it off to another maintainer... like CHEA, for example... which is demonstrating both its willingness and ability to keep it complete and accurate.

And if CHEA's gonna' try to take over the entire lookup function, be it with or without USDE's blessing, then it needs to start including in its database those nine accreditors and their institution/program records that are presently only in the USDE database.

In the meantime, much as I'd like to remove the USDE database from the two clickable links in my signature -- and stop recommending it in posts -- those nine USDE-database-only accreditors, and their institution/program records, make it so I can't. The downside of that is that some admissions office or HR department staffer might lookup an institution or program in the USDE database, but not also in the CHEA database, and it will be one of the 10,010 records that the CHEA database has, but which the USDE database doesn't, and some applicant will be denied either entry into a program, or a job, because the USDE database was relied upon...

...as any reasonable person could not be faulted for doing.

 

In general, the CHEA database is cleaner, more reliable and more up-to-date than the federal database.

I have not looked at either recently, but my guess is that the federal database includes a lot of specialized program accreditors for schools that have some other kind of accreditation. Not sure.

Anyone interested in the accreditation status of a specific school needs to methodically dig into it and not trust any list of accredited schools.

Likewise, any list of unaccredited schools is by definition incomplete.

And that's just the U.S. schools.