Many lawmakers and others are calling for accreditors to get tougher with higher education and not let poor-performing colleges off the hook.
But a new report says the California community-college system needs a new, kinder, gentler accreditor. The system commissioned the report in the wake of a bruising legal battle over the accreditation of the City College of San Francisco.
The current accreditor for the system’s 113 colleges, the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, has been uncooperative, resistant to repeated calls for change and disrespectful of the governing structures and processes of its member institutions, says the report, which was released on Friday. In addition, the commission takes too many adverse actions against the colleges, the report says, noting that all but 37 of the institutions were under some level of sanction between 2005 and 2015.
As a result, the report says, the system should seek out a new accreditor for the colleges, possibly even the Western Association of Schools and Colleges’ Senior College and University Commission, which oversees the region’s four-year institutions. That association has previously said that it was not interested in being the accreditor of two-year colleges. In addition, any such change could take several years to accomplish.
The report was written by a 10-member panel of college administrators, faculty and union representatives, and one trustee. It largely echoes the complaints that have plagued the commission since its 2013 decision to remove the accreditation of the City College of San Francisco, which at the time enrolled an estimated 80,000 students.
That move set off a political firestorm, involving the region’s state legislators, members of Congress and the U.S. Department of Education.
City College eventually kept its accreditation, at first through a lawsuit filed against the commission by the city attorney, and later by a new accreditation status that gives the college two more years to come into compliance with the accreditor’s standards. A state judge ruled in February that the commission must reconsider its 2013 action, but he also gave the final say to the accrediting agency, which has reaffirmed its earlier decision.
The California Federation of Teachers, which has waged both legal and public-relations battles with the accreditor over the City College decision, praised the report. “The ACCJC has lost its way,” Joshua Pechthalt, the union’s president, said in a news release. “We need a commission with the best interests of students, faculty, and public higher education at the center of its work.”
The task force’s report, however, focuses not on the details of the City College decision, but on broad complaints about the accreditation process that have become common across the country, such as demanding compliance rather than improvement and a lack of transparency.
Brice W. Harris, chancellor of the community college system, said in a statement that he agrees it is time to find a new accrediting agency for the colleges.
“Regional accreditation is vitally important in helping to ensure academic quality, but the current approach is not serving our colleges and students well,” he said.
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.
