Regional accreditation

Regional accreditation is the educational accreditation of schools, colleges, and universities in the United States by one of six regional accrediting agencies. Accreditation, technically a voluntary process, is a means by which colleges demonstrate to each other, and sometimes to employers and licensing agencies, that their credits and degrees meet minimum standards. It is the self-regulation of the higher education industry.

Each regional accreditor oversees the vast majority of public and private educational institutions, both not-for-profit and for-profit, in its region. Their primary function is accreditation of post-secondary institutions, though there is a limited amount of accreditation of primary and secondary schools.

While it might seem that national accreditation would be more important than regional accreditation, this is, in general, not the case. Regional accreditation is much older, and (with a few exceptions) more prestigious than national accreditation. Most non-profit institutions are regionally, not nationally, accredited.

The following are the seven active regional accrediting agencies for educational institutions in the United States:

The seven organizations form the Council of Regional Accrediting Commissions (C-RAC). Each regional accrediting commissions’ executive directors and commission chairs sit on C-RAC and periodically promulgate principles and guidelines which are followed by the regional commissions. Although the principles do not replace individual commission regulations, they provide a basis for assessing accreditation practice between regions.

All regional agencies have accrediting authority for colleges and universities, 2-year, 4-year, or both. Some agencies also have accrediting authority over K-12 schools (primary and secondaryschools). Both the northwestern and mid-Atlantic regions divide responsibility between two separate accreditation agencies with one focusing on primary and secondary schools and the other focusing on postsecondary institutions. In the western region, there is a separate commission that accredits 2-year colleges.

The regional accrediting agencies were established in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in response to a perceived need for better articulation between secondary schools and higher education institutions (the school offered the courses the college needed applicants to have taken; this helped colleges and universities evaluate prospective students). The New England Association was formed in 1885 by a group of schoolmasters of secondary schools. The Middle States Association formed in 1887. The faculty of Vanderbilt University led the establishment of the Southern Association in 1895, and the North Central Association was organized the same year at a meeting of 36 administrators of midwestern schools, colleges, and universities. The Northwest Association of Secondary and Higher Schools (predecessor of the two organizations that now serve that region) was formed in 1917 and the Western Association was founded in 1923. Initially the main focus of the organizations was on accreditation of secondary schools and establishment of uniform college entrance requirements.

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