The National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI) issued a report making recommendations on a number of accreditation issues, including suggestions regarding ways to improve how accreditors measure student success.
 
Broadly, the report recommends that Congress clarify the role of the Department and NACIQI in reviewing the student achievement standards imposed by accreditors and the resulting outcomes. Specifically, it describes federal requirements governing student achievement standards as a “mess” and called for more clarity and rigor when reviewing how accreditors assess student outcomes.
 
Although NACIQI acknowledged that federal law prohibits the Secretary of Education from mandating that accreditors adopt specific standards governing student achievement, the report noted that there is “a lack of clarity regarding the ability of the Department or NACIQI to interpret, evaluate, or comparatively relate the assessment work of accrediting agencies in the area of student achievement.”
 
According to the report, this lack of clarity gives rise to inconsistent expectations regarding student achievement across institutions and accreditors and threatens accountability.  Nevertheless, the report, which stopped short of endorsing a specific solution to these concerns, expressly states that NACIQI respects the accreditor’s role in setting achievement standards for their institutions and is not suggesting that Congress impose its own rules on accreditors.
 
In many ways, the NACIQI report mirrors the broader policy debate about whether to use bright-line standards to assess student outcomes. This debate is likely to continue during the upcoming negotiated rulemaking that will address accreditation, among other issues.