Education Department Moves to Give Controversial Accreditor of For-Profits Another Chance

Nearly two years ago, the U.S. Education Department finalized a decision to strip a controversial accrediting agency of its federal recognition, ending its ability to serve as a gatekeeper for federal student aid.

However, following a court decision and review of more than 30,000 pages of documents, a senior official at the department has now effectively reversed that decision. A letter to the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools, dated September 28, concluded that the council was now in compliance with all but two of the necessary standards for recognition.

The accreditor, known as Acics, should get another 12 months to meet the final two criteria, said the letter, from Diane Auer Jones, principal deputy under secretary at the department. For that plan to take effect, the education secretary, Betsy DeVos, must now approve the recommendation, which she will almost certainly do.

In making her decision, Auer Jones largely faulted the department’s staff, its political appointees, and the federal panel that advises the secretary on accreditation decisions for not considering additional evidence and measures the accreditor had taken to meet the standards before the 2016 decision. “Acics was likely in compliance with many of these criteria in 2016 at the time of the secretary’s decision,” Auer Jones wrote in her 77-page decision, which was completed without input from the staff in the department’s accreditation division.

Not reviewing the additional documents “is an example of government strong-arming that is simply unacceptable and, in my opinion, is a strong sign that the department had predetermined” the accreditor’s “destiny, whether or not the evidence provided did or did not justify the determination,” Auer Jones wrote.

The latest decision conflicts with a separate staff analysis, completed earlier this year, that found the accreditor out of compliance with nearly 60 federal regulations. Auer Jones dismissed that report, however, saying that it could not be considered because it was done for a different process, as the accreditor sought to reapply for recognition.

Advocacy groups that have long faulted the accreditor for shoddy oversight blasted the department’s latest decision.

“It is troubling that even though the department’s recommendation finds that Acics is noncompliant with both competency and conflict-of-interest standards, it still deems it worthy of accrediting schools,” said a news release from the National Student Legal Defense Network.

Antoinette Flores, a higher-education expert at the Center for American Progress, said Auer Jones was applying a double standard, allowing the accreditor to submit new evidence of its improvements while ignoring the analysis of her own staff, whose members did not analyze the additional documents.

“The fact that Acics is still not in compliance a full two years later proves that the decision made in December 2016 to terminate Acics’ recognition was the right one,” said a news release from the center. “To give them an additional year when they’ve already been out of compliance for two years is absurd.”

Eric Kelderman writes about money and accountability in higher education, including such areas as state policy, accreditation, and legal affairs. You can find him on Twitter @etkeld, or email him at eric.kelderman@chronicle.com.