Dear Member Institutions:
On January 22, the U.S. Department of Education released its final staff reports (review the HTML formats) in which it recommended the termination of recognition for the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools (ACICS). The report was issued in advance of the February 24-25, 2021, meeting of the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI), after which NACIQI will make a recommendation to the Senior Department Official (SDO) regarding ACICS’s continued recognition.
Given all the hard work we have all done as an agency over the last five years, this development is extremely deflating and frustrating. ACICS has implemented significant reforms designed to address concerns, strengthen the accreditation process and, ultimately, enhance our ability to hold institutions accountable for meaningful student outcomes. We have improved and evolved our processes to ensure we not only remain in compliance with current federal requirements, but also foster an environment of rigorous quality and continuous improvement, both at ACICS and our accredited institutions.
As a result of those efforts, I believe that ACICS satisfies the recognition requirements as established by the Department and that we had remedied any deficiencies previously noted by the Department. Nevertheless, it is apparent that Department staff have failed to recognize the improvements we have made to strengthen our ACICS process, procedures, and accreditation standards and have focused on issues that in no way relate to or impact our effectiveness as an accreditor.