U.S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION DATA BASE OF ACCREDITED SECONDARY INSTITUTIONS AND PROGRAMS
The accreditation database is brought to you by the U.S. Department of education's Office of post secondary education. Each of the post secondary education institutions and programs contained within the database is, or was accredited by an accrediting agency ot state approval agency recognized by the U.S. Secretary of education as a "reliable authority as to the quality of post secondary education" within the meaning of the higher education Act of 1965, as amended (HEA). The database does not include a number of post secondary educational institutions and programs that elect not to seek accreditation but nevertheless may provide a quality post secondary education.
The goal of accreditation is to ensure that education provide by institutions of higher education meets acceptable levels of quality. Accrediting agencies, which are private educational associations of regional or national scope, develop evaluation criteria and conduct peer evaluations to assess whether or not those criteria are met. Institutions and/or programs that request an agency's evaluation and that meet an agency's criteria are then "accredited" by that agency.
The U.S. Department of education does not accredit educational institutions and/or programs. However, the Secretary of education is required by law to public a list of nationally recognized accrediting agencies that the secretary determines to be reliable authorities as to the quality of education or training provided by the institutions of higher education and the higher education programs they accredit. the U.S. Secretary of education also recognized states agencies for the approval of public post secondary vocational education and state agencies for the approval of nurse education.
The secretary of education's recognition of accrediting agencies is limited by statute to accreditation activities within the united states., these actions are not within the legal authority of the department of education to to recognize, are not review by th e department, and the department does not exercise any oversight over them. Consequently, institutions and programs out the united states, these actions are not within the legal authority of the department of education to recognize, are not reviewed by the department, and the department does not exercise any oversight over them. consequently, institutions and programs outside the united states that are accredited by recognized agencies are not included in the U.S. department of education database of accredited post secondary institutions and programs.
Special note about institutions on the list that have by the name of the agency. the process of seeking and recognition from department is a demanding one for accrediting agencies, and not always essential to their mission. on occasion, agencies request to withdraw from recognition. on other occasions, the department withdraw its recognition, up on a determination that an agency no longer meets recognition criteria. Because recognition decisions, in the first instance, concern accrediting agencies rather than accredited institutions and programs a cessation of recognition should not simply be presumed to reflect negatively on the quality of the institutions or programs accredited by that agency. For this reason the department is authorized to permit institutions participating in the federal student and programs that are accredited by an agency that is no longer recognized up to 18 months of continued participation to obtain alternative accreditation from a different, recognized status by inserting by the name of the agency each time it appears in the listing.
The U.S. Department of education recommends that the database be used as one source of qualitative information and that additional sources of qualitative information be consulted. the database is compiled entirely from publicly available information obtained by u.s.department of education from recognized accrediting agencies and state approval agencies, the U.S. department of education cannot therefore guarantee that the information contained in the database is accurate, current, or complete
Contact the help desk at Accredited Schools list@westat.com or 1-888-247-8269.
