Is There a Firefly of Protection?

Institutional accreditation is in dire need of change, even though it provides institutions with more external recognition, improves the likelihood of gaining more resources, and boosts the respect of staff and faculty. And with an increasingly high number of professional accrediting bodies now touching and impacting many colleges and universities, now is the time for higher ed leaders to strive to support and understand how accreditation can improve overall to strengthen post-secondary education even more.

In the second and final episode of this two-part series, Dr. Drumm McNaughton speaks with Ralph Wolff, the founder and former president of the Quality Assurance Commons for Higher and Postsecondary Education, and former president of WASC, the Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, on several issues. These include

·       What conversations should accreditors have with institutions,

·       Should accreditors focus on licensure,

·       What the Department of Education needs to hold accreditors accountable for, and why,

·       What analyses should accreditors perform and make more transparent,

·       Why accreditation should look at how effectively higher ed prepares graduates for licensed professions,

·       Where public members of commissions can play a more critical role in accreditation processes, and

·       The polarization of higher ed and boards.

Podcast Highlights

·       Accreditation should lead conversations on the quality of adaptability, teamwork, the ability to work with new technology, and traversing multiple careers in one's lifetime. In addition, accreditation should pay more attention to licensing certification issues, performance, and employer satisfaction, and ensure students are prepared for more than one job by receiving repeated mentoring, internships, and counseling.

·       Accreditation should evaluate how adjunct faculty are deployed and how they are supported and trained when assessing student learning employability skills.

·       A traditional faculty senate model that is separate from and often antagonistic to the administration can be a barrier to change. The Chamber of Commerce is working on creating an alternative model to get employers to sidestep higher education.

·       Accreditors are not held accountable for internal effectiveness because the Higher Education Act doesn’t fully allow the Department of Education to make any substantial judgments on the efficacy of accreditors. However, accreditors are membership organizations, and the membership elects their Commission. Thus, accreditors should be held accountable by their Commission and their members.

·       None of the former regional accreditors have been able to maintain relationships with those associated with K-12 schools following the Department’s governance changes.

·       There’s a lack of transparency. For example, no compilation or analysis of institutions on probation exists. Higher ed needs more capacity and analysis of accreditors’ work so accreditors can learn from one another.

·       Public members of the commissions can play a much more critical role in identifying if accreditation deals effectively enough with essential policy issues such as the $1.7 trillion in student debt, rising costs, the attrition rate, and the inadequate preparation of so-called inadequate preparation for jobs. In addition, public members on all accrediting boards should know what the public demands on accreditation.

·       There likely won’t be room for the seven former regional accreditors in 15 or 20 years. Mergers will likely occur as a result. 

     → View the podcast transcript

     About Our Podcast Guest 

Ralph A. Wolff is the founder and former president of The Quality Assurance Commons for Higher and Postsecondary Education, created in 2016 to ensure that graduates of academic and postsecondary programs have the requisite Essential Employability Qualities (EEQs) needed for the dynamically changing workforce. The QA Commons ran a national pilot and then worked with state higher education systems in Kentucky and Connecticut and individual institutions to improve employability outcomes. It also developed a successful faculty fellows program in Kentucky to build faculty advocates for connecting to workforce needs.

Previously, Wolff served as president of the Accrediting Commission for Senior Colleges and Universities of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) from 1996-2013. WASC served over 1 million students at over 175 institutions in California, Hawaii, the Pacific Islands, and numerous international locations. He was a leading voice for innovation in accreditation and focused on learning outcomes, equity, and transparency in creating a national leader in accreditation.

He is a former member of the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI), which reviews accrediting agencies for federal recognition, and is a founding member of the University Quality Assurance Institutional Board (UQAIB) in Dubai. He also is a Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science and a trustee of the World University Consortium.

He has served on multiple university boards and consults widely on innovation, quality assurance, accreditation reform, and how new technology platforms can transform student outcomes.

Wolff holds a JD degree with honors from George Washington University and a BA degree from Tufts University. He has recently moved to Sedona, AZ.

Dr. Drumm McNaughton, host and consultant to higher ed institutions. To learn more about his services and other thought leadership pieces, visit his firm’s website, https://changinghighered.com/.

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Keywords: #InstitutionalAccreditation #HigherEdAccreditation #AccreditationConsultant