Council For Higher Education Accreditation - History

History

Established in 1996, it is the successor to several earlier national nongovernmental associations formed to coordinate the U.S. accreditation process. In 1974, the Federation of Regional Accrediting Commissions of Higher Education (FRACHE; an association of regional accreditors) and the National Commission on Accrediting (an association of specialized and national accreditation agencies) had merged to form the Council on Postsecondary Accreditation (COPA), which had the purpose of ensuring the quality of accreditation.

In 1993, it was dissolved because of tensions among the different types of accreditation agencies that formed its membership—ultimately the result of the increasing problems for higher education in the 1980s and 1990s. Problems with tuition increases, scandals, and doubts about the value of postsecondary higher education plagued all parts of the higher education sector.

In particular, Congressional investigations of soaring student loan defaults and student aid abuses were highly critical of the laxity of accreditation and accreditation processes.

Consequently, the 1992 amendments to the Higher Education Act of 1965 included Program Integrity provisions designed to strengthen the gatekeeping triad for student loan guarantees and financial aid (i.e., state licensing bodies, accreditation associations, and Federal government). The higher education community viewed with alarm the establishment of SPREs (State Postsecondary Review Entities), which were given accrediting powers under special conditions. "When campus lobbyists heard about the legislation and realized that non-governmental accreditation was being replaced by a federal-state agency evaluation of institutions, including assessments of academic quality never before carried out by government, they 'went apoplectic', as one observer put it."

Early in 1993, the regional accreditors (which in the United States are the ones accrediting the higher levels of traditional educational institutions) voted to leave COPA, indicating their dissatisfaction with COPA's political representation on Capitol Hill, which was widely viewed as ineffective at the time, particularly in regard to the new HEA legislation establishing the SPREs. In April 1993, COPA voted to disband itself by the end of the year.

Work by the National Policy Board on Higher Education Institutional Accreditation (NPB), and other groups laid the ground-work for a national successor to COPA. Among their concerns were establishing a more grassroots membership, billing and fees, and advisory role of the accrediting associations, and improving the public image of accrediting and improving the ability to lobby the Federal government.

CHEA's immediate predecessor was the Council for Recognition of Postsecondary Accreditation (CORPA), which was formed following the dissolution of COPA. CHEA grandfathered in those accrediting associations recognized by COPA, provided that more than half the institutions that they accredited granted degrees.

Most recently, CHEA is known for its strong public opposition to various accreditation reform efforts by the U.S. Department of Education, and in particular, the negative reaction of Judith S. Eaton, CHEA's president, to recommendations by Secretary Margaret Spellings' Commission on the Future of Higher Education.

The organization faces substantial challenges, including helping the public to better understand accreditation in U.S., and to distinguish between the recognition of accrediting agencies conducted by the U.S. Secretary of Education, and those recognized by private nongovernmental associations, such as CHEA.

Its recognition of accreditors differs from the recognition by the U.S. Secretary of Education, required for Title IV (HEA) student financial aid eligibility and loan guarantees.

The organization wishes to prevent European-style ministry-based administration of higher education accreditation in the U.S. The association is based in Washington, DC.