DuPage Co. (ECWd) –
Is it possible the College of DuPage accreditation issues will face tougher scrutiny due to demands coming out of the White House and Department of Education?
The Higher Learning commission, in a letter dated October 21st, 2015, advised COD on there request for additional time to respond. The HLC stated, “the Commission’s Board of Trustees will not be able to act on the report at its November Board meeting. The Board will determine at that meeting when it will review and act on this case. The Board may review the case at its next scheduled meeting in February 2016 or the Board may choose to call a meeting via conference call to take this action.”
Is it possible that extension request will make things even tougher on COD due to a push from the White House and members of Congress to reign in the accreditation agencies for basically not doing their job? The action being taken in the executive orders are outlined in this file posted moments ago on the US Department of Education web site. (Executive Action Fact Sheet) or you can go directly to the US Department of Education web site and see a laundry list of issues related to the Accreditation concerns under the banner, “Whats New”
“For the most part, accreditation organizations are watchdogs that don’t bite,” (Financial Aid Gatekeepers may be getting new gates of their own)
“Officials on Friday unveiled a package of “executive actions” aimed at cracking down on college accreditors, which the administration argues are not holding colleges to high enough standards when it comes to evaluating the success of students.” (Inside Higher Ed)
Are today’s actions a move by the White House administration to circumvent prohibitions of defining or setting standards of student achievement through pressure on Accreditation agencies? Speaking with numerous teachers, it appears they are all against a student achievement based criteria, as is US Senator Alexander, Chairman of the Senate Education Committee.
“It’s not a good idea to repeal the law prohibiting the secretary from defining student achievement at America’s colleges and universities.” (The Chronicle of Higher Education)
This push from the Administration may make COD’s accreditation matter a bigger problem, depending on the language in the Executive Orders said to have been signed today.
We will update when more information is released from the White House and US Department of Education.
