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The article discusses the report on higher education accreditation delivered to the U.S. secretary of education, Margaret Spellings, by the Commission on the Future of Higher Education and subsequent changes proposed by Spellings. She wants accreditation forms to ask colleges more specific questions about how and what students are learning and to find more accurate ways of measuring learning. Spellings has called for a meeting with accreditors to discuss the issue. Many accreditors are concerned that her methods for measuring student learning may be too simplistic. They also fear that the federal government may impose standards to directly control the accrediting industry.

The article explores how the Teacher Education Accrediting Council (TEAC) has withstood its older rival's, the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), repeated attempts to beat it back. It asserts that TEAC championed an approach based on the idea of an "academic audit," raising the question of whether specialized accreditors should evaluate colleges by how well they conform to standards agreed to by the profession, like NCATE does, or if the organizations should allow colleges to set their own goals and require them to produce evidence that they are meeting them. According to the article, many educators feel the more important issue is not which agency is better but how to strengthen the many weaker colleges that have ignored accreditation altogether.

The article focuses on a U.S. federal bill that had some college accreditors in a state of high anxiety a year ago, has evolved into legislation. Many accreditors and educators were stunned when they read the details of the bill. According to the bill, college accrediting bodies would have been required to publicly disclose summaries of all their findings. Accreditation is just one of many higher-education issues in the huge bill, but it is one of the most controversial. The Congress wanted more transparency and openness in the accreditation process, said Terry W. Hartle, a senior vice president at the American Council on Education.

Reports on changes in the college-accreditation system proposed by U.S. Representative Howard P. McKeon (R-Calif.) in June 2004. Aim of the proposed changes according to McKeon; Views of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation on the bill; Support of Steven D. Crow, executive director of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, for the bill.

The article presents information on Belle S. Wheelan, who became the president of a leading, accrediting organization, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), U.S., soon after a controversy that would have made many executives run the other way. She has replaced James T. Rogers, who retired after leading the association for 20 years. She had spent most of her career leading community colleges, then served as Virginia's secretary of education for three years before accepting the job as president of SACS's Commission on Colleges. Wheelan has taken over when accreditation is under intense scrutiny. Accreditors are in the midst of a major shift, begun more than a decade ago, from checking colleges' compliance with a long list of requirements such as faculty degrees or library holdings, to working with institutions to measure and improve what students learn. Wheelan has a solid reputation as an effective and congenial leader. She eases social interactions with an enthusiastic, down-to-earth approach, combined with the willingness to throw in a bit of self-deprecating humor from time to time.

Presents news briefs related to higher education in the U.S. as of December 2004. Resignation of Martha W. Gilliland as chancellor of the University of Missouri in Kansas; Percentage of Baylor University's faculty members who favored the termination of president Robert B. Sloan in Waco, Texas; Reason behind the revocation of an accreditation of Edward Waters College in Jacksonville, Florida.

The article discusses actions by regional college accrediting bodies in the United States. The North Central Association of Colleges and Schools' Higher Learning Commission withdrew accreditation from Lewis College of Business in Detroit, a historically black two-year institution because of failure to provide information on its financial state and administrative procedures. The Western Association of Schools and Colleges' Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities placed Northern Marianas College on probation because of unstable leadership.

The article reports that accrediting institutions have successfully pushed back a proposal by the United States Education Department that called for the groups to set minimum standards of "student achievement" at the colleges they oversee. Accrediting groups have complained that the department has tried to impose broad requirements on them when federal recognition of the groups comes up for renewal. The changes came after the federal Commission on the Future of Higher Education suggested the current accreditation system be dismantled.

The article looks at actions taken by regional accrediting bodies. Bishop State Community College, a historically black two-year public institution in Mobile, Alabama, was placed on probation for six months. The accreditor cited violation of several standards, including those covering the integrity of student records, governance and administration, and educational programs. Huntingdon College, a United Methodist institution in Montgomery, Alabama, was removed from two-year probation after it convinced the accreditor that it had overcome its financial problems.

The article looks at how a group represented specialized accreditors has written to the U.S. Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings, to protest what it sees as arbitrary and inconsistent moves by the Education Department to change the rules governing them. The letter of complaint was sent by Cynthia A. Davenport, executive director of the Association of Specialized and Professional Accreditors. The letter says the Education Department endeavored to force accreditors to adopt more stringent standards in areas such as facilities and student learning.

The article reports that the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity, a U.S. Education Department committee that oversees accreditation organizations, has barred the American Academy for Liberal Education from accrediting new institutions or programs for at least half a year. The decision, which still must be approved by the department's assistant secretary for postsecondary education, followed a determination that the small accreditor had been negligent in not setting minimum standards for what students must learn at the colleges it accredits. The committee did not accept the report's recommendation to re-recognize the academy for five years but instead chose to show its disapproval by putting off a decision until the committee's next meeting, in June 2007.

The article discusses reforms to the system of college and university accreditation as contained in the draft report of the U.S. Commission on the Future of Higher Education. The commission stopped short of calling for changes to the regional system. In an earlier position paper, issued in March 2006, the commission was considering the idea of establishing a national accreditation body to replace the six regional accreditors that oversee 3,000 U.S. institutions of higher education. The article mentions that the commission report does call for more public disclosure of accreditors' findings.

The article reports on a recommendation made by a committee that the U.S. government suspend recognition of the American Academy for Liberal Education for accrediting any new institutions or programs until it comes into compliance with federal requirements. The National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity, which polices the bodies that accredit higher-education institutions and programs, took the action last month at a scheduled review of several accrediting agencies. The American Academy for Liberal Education accredits eight small institutions in the United States.

The article reports that the American InterContinental University in Atlanta, Georgia, has been put on probation for a year by its accreditor, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). The for-profit university, which is owned by Career Education Corp., has bounced in and out of trouble with the accreditor over the last few years. The reason for the action was not immediately disclosed by the accreditor's Commission on Colleges or the university. The SACS has had the university under scrutiny since Career Education, a major for-profit provider of higher education, purchased it in 2001.

The article reports that students who graduated from college engineering programs in 2004 were better qualified to enter the profession than were students who graduated in 1994, according to the results of a study released last week at the annual conference of ABET, the national accrediting association for engineering and computing programs. The 2004 graduates had higher test scores in mathematics and science than did the 1994 graduates. The ambitious study cost almost $2-million and was financed by ABET and a grant from the National Science Foundation.

This article presents an update on accreditation actions taken by several regional oganizations in the U.S. Austin Graduate School of Theology, in Texas was penalized for not demonstrating that two intensive one-week ministry courses were, as it had claimed, the academic equivalent of semester-long courses. David R. Arthur, vice president, says one of the classes was turned into a full-semester course and the other will be turned into a two- or three-week course. Beacon College, of Leesburg, Florida, the only four-year institution in the United States for students with learning disabilities, was placed on probation for six months. Deborah A. Brodbeck, president, says that a $250,000 cost overrun in the construction of a $3-million student-housing complex had led to a "cash-flow deficit," during the 2003-4 academic year.

This article reports that Edward Waters College's accreditation was withdrawn after the college tried to pass off a self-study by another institution as its own. It then sued the accrediting agency, and a federal judge issued a scathing preliminary ruling supporting the college's claim that it had been denied due process. The case, in which Edward Waters claimed that it had been denied a meaningful opportunity to defend itself, was the first in which a college sued to get reaccredited and won. A stream of electronic messages news releases celebrated every advance in the lawsuit and every positive development at the college.

Reports on the show-cause order issued by the Northwestern Commission on Colleges and Universities to Sheldon Jackson College in Sitka, Alaska as of March 25, 2005. Indication of the action taken by the commission; Demands of the commission according to Arthur G. Cleveland, president of the college since August 2004.

Reports that regional accreditors penalized several U.S. colleges and removed others from probation or warning status in the round of accrediting actions. Reason of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools in putting Auburn University on probation; List of colleges which were placed on probation by the association; Actions taken by the Crichton College in Memphis, Tennessee to comply with the accreditor's requirements.