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Shifting Alliances in the Accreditation of Higher Education: On the ...

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CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION<br />

The study <strong>of</strong> accreditation and <strong>in</strong>stitutional eligibility is only to a small degree an<br />

educational issue; it is more a political issue, a study <strong>of</strong> how <strong>the</strong> power to distribute<br />

benefits is generated, channeled, and regulated.<br />

David A. Trivett, <strong>Accreditation</strong> and Institutional Eligibility<br />

<strong>On</strong> December 5, 2006, <strong>the</strong> U.S. Department <strong>of</strong> <strong>Education</strong>, via <strong>the</strong> National<br />

Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI), accused <strong>the</strong><br />

American Academy for Liberal <strong>Education</strong> (AALE), a privately run accredit<strong>in</strong>g agency, <strong>of</strong><br />

fail<strong>in</strong>g to meet its responsibilities to <strong>the</strong> American public and <strong>the</strong>n essentially shut it<br />

down. 1 The underly<strong>in</strong>g reasons for this action are open to debate, but <strong>the</strong> questions that<br />

were raised by <strong>the</strong> actions taken by <strong>the</strong> federal government are <strong>in</strong>dicative <strong>of</strong> a much<br />

larger issue that is occurr<strong>in</strong>g throughout <strong>the</strong> world: <strong>the</strong> attempt to reconcile private<br />

authority with public accountability.<br />

Governments have found it useful <strong>in</strong> numerous cases to adopt <strong>the</strong> standards, rules,<br />

licens<strong>in</strong>g requirements, and o<strong>the</strong>r outputs <strong>of</strong> privately run, self-regulatory bodies for <strong>the</strong>ir<br />

own purposes. These self-regulatory bodies are created by members <strong>of</strong> a given <strong>in</strong>dustry<br />

or pr<strong>of</strong>ession and <strong>the</strong> governance <strong>of</strong> such bodies is usually reflective <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> power<br />

1 Elizabeth Redden, ―The Heat is Turned Up,‖ Inside <strong>Higher</strong> Ed. (December 6, 2006),<br />

http://www.<strong>in</strong>sidehighered.com/news/2006/12/06/aale<br />

1

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