Facing Pressure on Many Fronts, an Accreditor Promises Reform

In 2013 the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools was being evaluated by the federal panel that advises the U.S. secretary of education on accreditation issues.

The council had been found out of compliance with more than a dozen federal standards two years earlier. But after it made some policy changes, it received a positive review by Education Department staff members and the federal advisory panel. At the time, there were no public comments submitted against the accreditor.

These days, the accreditor’s situation has changed drastically. The council is under investigation by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and members of Congress have blamed it for not acting on the troubles at Corinthian Colleges Inc., the now-bankrupt for-profit education company, and several other institutions.

On top of that, a dozen state attorneys general and numerous advocacy groups are calling on the Education Department to strip the council of its federal recognition, meaning the group’s member colleges would have to find a new accreditor within 18 months. And this week the accreditor’s president of seven years, Albert C. Gray, was replaced by the group’s Board of Directors.

“This council takes the concerns raised by a variety of external stakeholders very seriously,” Lawrence Leak, the board’s chair, said in a news release.

Anthony S. Bieda, who has been named interim head of the accrediting council, vowed to make major changes necessary to meet the concerns of federal officials and the organization’s critics. He said those reforms, if approved at the council’s annual meeting in May, would include a new standard holding colleges accountable for the data on student outcomes that they provide to the accreditor and making it easier to put a college on probation. He said the council would also create a three-member board of ethics to oversee the body that makes final decisions on a college’s standing.

“When you have a reset in top leadership, it gives you a natural opportunity to step back and say, What can we do differently? How can we be stronger? That’s where our heads are at right now,” Mr. Bieda said during an interview in the council’s offices here on Tuesday.

Mr. Bieda had previously served as the accreditor’s vice president for external affairs. In his new role, he faces a significant challenge: Opposition to the council is both widespread and unprecedented. The criticism represents growing skepticism about the ability of the nation’s accreditors to ensure academic quality and protect the $170 billion in tax dollars spent on federal student-aid programs.

“You really couldn’t make up a better set of facts, in terms of repeat and systemic failure” of accreditation, said Barmak Nassirian, director of federal relations and policy analysis at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. The association is one of nearly two dozen groups that have signed a joint letter calling for the council to lose its federal recognition.

Under Fire

Corinthian Colleges faced financial and regulatory problems long before it announced it was under investigation, in 2014. But relatively little attention was paid to the council until a June 2015 hearing by the U.S. Senate’s education committee.

At that hearing, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, grilled Mr. Gray about why the council hadn’t penalized Corinthian Colleges or several other institutions that were under investigation.

Mr. Gray defended the accreditor’s stance, saying the council “makes recommendations based on facts, not allegations.” But since that exchange, think tanks and news organizations have taken a harder look at the council.

A study by the Center for American Progress concluded that, by several measures, colleges under the council’s oversight performed worse than institutions overseen by similar accrediting agencies. For example, students at colleges under the council’s watch had higher rates of borrowing, higher average debt, and lower rates of degree completions, compared with students at colleges recognized by the council’s peer accreditors.

A report by the news organization ProPublica also found weaker student outcomes at colleges accredited by the council, compared with its peer organizations. ProPublica also found that many people who serve on the council’s decision-making body have also been executives at colleges being investigated by state and federal agencies.

The council has disputed the tone of the center’s study and the articles by saying their conclusions painted an incomplete picture of the role and actions of the accreditor.

Mr. Bieda said the heightened attention to the council is due largely to the intense scrutiny of the kinds of private, mostly for-profit colleges that the organization oversees.

“The amount of scrutiny and criticism of the sector has gotten even stronger or broader. If you’re an accreditor in the sector, you’re also going to be subject to that additional review,” he said. But, he added, “How much of the deficiencies, if any, that are manifest in the schools are reflective of the method of accreditation?”

That question will be at the center of the debate in June, when the council once again goes before the federal panel that evaluates accreditors, the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity. The panel, known as Naciqi, rarely calls for an accreditor to lose its standing. But it is usually not petitioned by consumer-protection officials in more than a dozen states.

The accrediting council has been required to answer two extensive requests for information that are outside the usual recognition process, said Mr. Bieda, who expects a “long and elaborate discussion.”

Mr. Nassirian said he agrees that the focus on for-profit colleges had grown in recent years, and that such scrutiny is justified by what he called evidence of “the fundamental corruption of the process and the mass victimization of students.”

But the current spotlight on Mr. Bieda’s group is really part of the much larger discussion of the proper role and function of accreditation across the spectrum of higher education, said Mr. Nassirian.

“This is a decisive moment for Naciqi,” he said, “and for the future of accreditation.”

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.

Correction (4/21/2016, 11:05 a.m.): A reference to the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools as Corinthian’s accreditor was changed to avoid the incorrect impression that the council accredited all of the company’s campuses.