100 (From the

.vashington Post, June 2C,

1974]

For Thousands, Accreditation ,Has Spelled Deception Ledin a5 By rie Weewsth o suff Wol WashS no

Bek in the IOs, an outfit Callins Citlsens TrainLng Service, Inc., set up shop In DanviUle, Va., and took in nearly $I million selling bogus cor. respondence courses before being shut 4own for mail frou A North Carolina trmboy with aly a uixth grade education was one adIts 10,0o victims who were assured the courses would set them Civil Sevies Jige. A 71.year-old woman already past normal Civil Service retirement age was another. STo avoid a fleeing, consumers these days are advised to algn up only with schools accredited by a governomentrecognised trade association. Thus the, Council of Better Business Bureaus recommends. "One of the best and eases ways for you to protect yourself when selecting a school Is to se if the school is accredited." And both the Federal Trade Com. tiaslon in o consumer education brobure, and the Veterans Adminastraalon In a bulletin on correspondence voursei., state that accredited schools necessarily meet the minimum stand. ards of their respective associations. Given such advice, consumers may predictably assu-ne that all accredited profit.seeking schomA= will treat them fair and square. Recent experience. however, has repeatedly shown that the present accrediting system keeps consumers in the dark about school abuses that could victimize them. True, the trade groups' accrediting commissions have fostered generally higher standards of teaching, physld facilities and bualness practices than would be likely to exist In their absen-e. But still they have failed, in em ai. ler case, to protect young consumers toom being enticed into debt with federally injured student loans by schools that hurt change them, or from wast. in# their 01 Bill benefits on coatlY, blind-alley correspondence courees. For thousands of veterans &adother consumers, accreditation has is fact spelled deception. Acerediting Groups The accrediting groups, to which the U.S. Oflie* of Education grants formal. -recognition" and delegates many regulatory duties, aren't solely to blame, however. They are only part of a mix.

hlsel

,

tsn"=ru

to 111

d~~a ut

cie bave genetauy canty resource , icted powers, mtlaed prlUes. re4 cefllclng Interesta 8M often mutual Suptcilons.

b:The blame for this situation can"ot qIdirected In any one direction," Judith Roman of the Greater St. Louis Better Business Bureau asrted ater the collapse- of Technlcal Educatlom

CWp. last fall stranded thousands at

s(dents. "In fact, it is tbt .et0 nature the program which' tltfuets the ."flhe Individual cools ar gullty, of coure," she continued. "But, they are accredited and those accrediting oommodsdons m responsble for policing th schools ad their policies to maintain standards. It the secrediting agency falls spd_, then It Is the responsibility of the Office of Education... to remove that agency from their approved list." AcretditAtion of education's profit. sking sector Is largely in the hands of thr groups, each of which so credits - and counts a5 members only a fraction of the schools In Its field. They Include the National Home Study Council, which aecredita about 100 correspondence schools; the Assoeation of lndepibdent Colleges and Schools, which aecredits about 50 schools largely In the busines-secrelti feld, and the National AanOinom of Trade ad Tochnical Schools. whkch accredits about 400 schools teaching everything from computer programming and welding to fashion

:1

MWdreetnic. fes= e tape f*e entails. t aeredlaton accreditation

For those who want it,

has a number of advantages. Its a malk o resetabIlity, helpful in re. criating, especially since consumers an, advised to rely on it, In many states, accreditation brings eligibility for CF Bill enrollmerts with fewer re. strictions - aswell to exemption from some or met stat licensing regUla. tions, And, with some exceptions, ac. creditatlon Isa requirement for enroll. lng students under the federally inioan program. lured

Double Roles The three Industry groups play dou. ble roles. On the one hand they are trade associations, protecting and promoting their members' images and in. teres on Capitol Hill. with various

federal and state agencies, and where. ever els they can be helpful,

merchn-Ading. (Since some companles own numerous schools, these totals

sodel overstate the numbe t owners.) The possibly M eorresponiience bsassecretai15 700 schools, schools and 3,000 trsda ad technical schools which aren't credited may be better wore - or In some ca than accredited Institutions. Unacredited schools may be too new to quality, may have sought secre4itation and so far failed, may have held acerditalos and then lost It. or ice It's a volntary system after all - may have simply wanted to

On the other hand, to perform sccrediting functions, they have created commissions which operate with somewhat tenuous independence. The com. missions are charged with eifoicing numerous standards which - on their face - appear to go far toward assur. lag that accredited schools are educationally sound, financiall) stable and ethical. Unfortunately for ctinsumcrsv. ho% ever, too many acrredited schools have ignored, distorted or defied these standards -

and gotten away with it

for months, even years. When federal auditors last year rhal. lenged the president of Techntal Edu cation Corp. Charles R. Johnson. for failing to abide by National Home

101 Jehn Study Council refund s Garlwds, son insisted those standards wer mere "recommendations" which his school could - and did - reject. Practically all the school prolems described in these articles, in fact, developed at accredited schools The basic problem: Industry accrediting groups are neil4er Inclined nor properly equipped to act as policemen despite the regulatory responsible. Uas they've had delegated to them. c"Aredltation,'" said William A. Fowler, National Home Study Council executive director, "is not really designed for day-by-day enforcement of Individual rules." "We would rather be helping schools to upgrade their programs," explained Dana Hart, executive secretary of the Association of Independent Colleges and Schools' accrediting panel, "than telling them what not to do." To consumers and other outsiders, a school either Is or isn't accredited. From the. vantage point of the accreditors, however, matters are less clearwcut.

Stpulations Apply

e

Bernard H. Ehrlich, counsel for both the home4tudy ahd trade.sndtechnleal groups, said many schools are Wc credited "with stipultions" - conditions, based on sometimes serious deficiencies, which they are told they must satisfy to stay accredited. "if you try to explain this to the public," Ehrlich insisted, "how would the public understand?" All three groups have procedures, both formal and informal, for handling problems that arise with accredited schools If a complaint from a student or one of the school's competitors seems minor, an aocreditng-roup o*. fitial may try to work things out with a phone call or letter. When the problem appears serious, particularly when the Office of Education wants action. the accrediting commission may launch a formal - and confidential investigation. investigations typically Include inspecting the problem school with a team comprising officials from other schools and an sccreditt4 group representative. Dependiag on the team's makeup and other circumstances, such inspections may be arching or superficial, A federal official who accompanied one National Home Study Council team's visit to a problem school on the West Coast last year reported finding the team inadequately briefed on what to look for, one member arriving hours the school's required se"I-valus' late. tin report "totally inadequate, and the inspection's five-hour duration insufficient Many months may elapse from the commission time an accredittig until its final launches an investigaUon accredschool's detsion to withdraw a Councils itation. The Home Studydecided tp commrilon, for example, investigate Technical Iducation orl. 0tom in %lay, IM?), after de' Office of EdueU -whlch

pended insuring its Students' loans that the St. LeWs school was In trou-

ble.

inspeetlon Team But commission procedures allowed Technical Education time to prepare nd submit its self-evaluation report and pay the inspection fee. Hence, the inspection team's visit wasn't sed. uied until October. It was too late. The day before the visit, Fowler recalled, the Home Study Council got a phone can from St. Louis: Technical Education - out of cash had collapsed. (Two days later, at e bsUly called meeting, th bc credtig commission accepted the

school's resignati

from accreditation

more in the darktime, thanabout ever,serious over longer periods of school problems "if we were free from legal liabili. ty," sad Richard A, Fulton. executive director of the Independent Colleges and Schoob A&~ation, "we would be delighted to run up the flag and say We'r investigating, the problems of X, Y and Z schools" Fulton conceded, however, that his groUP has never sought such Immunity. Even when an accrediting body does withdrew a school's accreditation, It holds publicity about the decision to a minimum. "it's not up to us," Fultnn ln$sted, -to put the scarlet letter on forehead of a hoLIt

u schools whi

.haetheir at-

lati@P withdrayj have alr*ady out at business anyway. Opinions can be on whether withdrawal but car. thoe still operating, Eto isenly schools heavily dependent on bdoeral student aid are hard hit when awal coats them their eligibility. .AVyevent, accreditors generally apmore inclined to prod away at a school In hopes It Will eventually clean eW up. than to use their ultimata weapon and kick it out of the club. It the accrediting groups could be more aUressive in protecting the consower, so could the Office of Educe. In Its statutory role of Uo The three acrdiUng groups., whl. individual crediting relied on by the Office of Education to "r*cgnJzing" grops, the Office of Education ocen. regulate their schools, are nonetheless Otsabas shown as much tolerance private'agenee8 subject to iU sorts of toward ther shortomings as they legal constraints. This was dramatized hee shown toward accredited schools four years ago when Macmillan, Inc. The federal agency's aecreditatioji (then Crowell Collier and Mscmillaa) staff, while'Well4ntentloned, is short of Sued the Home Study Council. people and overwhelmed with paper. The giant publishing concern clsimwork. It must screen application for ad that the comel had violated due to Initial or renewed recognition, provide reaccredlttion proem by denying advising its six corraspondencl schools,-amonS staff services to a committeeand try as the education commissioner, them LaSalle Extension Universityrecog50 some monitor to can it best Macmand by publicizing the denial. nied accrediting bodies. ion also challenged the Office of Education for rceogn ulng and daleHandling Complais associatiJon. gating duties to a trade Practical necessity, then, as well as The ease was- settled out of court. led staff di. Macmlsan set about upgrading ,its legislative authority has rector John R.Proffitt and his aides to educational programs, while the Ham Study Council ageed to continue tMe depend heavily on the accrediting against schools' accreditation and revise its groups to handle complaints individual schools and enforce stand. own procedures. Though the councU qrds generally. and Its accredltohs were thus spared While the Office of IJuailion has prohiltive legal costs Ue public lost prodded an accrediting group to rem. a chance for court rulings on some edy lapses In performane--such asa bale issues. serious conlt.ofintarext episode in Macmillan Suit the Association of Independent Colchallegal other suit, teges and Schools-il dependence Is The Macmillan lenges to accreditation and pressure suh that It has never used its power from the Office of Education led all tp revoke a group's recognition. three accrediting groups to build more One well-versed critic has called this due process into their decision-making. symbiotic relationship an "unhol) mar. They developed provisions for school rage. dangerous to both parties, fllownrs to respond to charges, for hear. ing adequately to iOrottet the public ings, for appeals-and for bans on pub- and student interest while endangering licity until a final decision to withdraw the independence of accrediting agena school's acreditation. cies. These provisions, as followed today, Down the hall from Proffilts staff. tend to protect school owners from Ill. the Division of Insured Loans has also accreditprotect considered decisions, mixed good intentions with mediocre Ing groups from more frequent law- performance In protecting student borsuita, protect the Office of Education's rowers. Olvision officials have become coutnued reliance on private acere-di intrealilgly concerned over the past tatio--and leave student consumers

#A pvept further, delays in diecisionAt least the home study ccreditor' IvesUtgatory wheels had been turning. ,Willam A. Goddard, executive director *I the trade and technical schools lation which also accredited TckhEducation, said be hadn't been awaM that the school was in trouble before it closed. Last finandal statement we got from them was not the strongOt," ted th Go dad sId, bM It in school would last . This was oU of the schoolss we thought we knew."

Z

102 three )cars about accredited profit. seeking g schools which have abused the insuit-ed-loan program at students' oxAt the, outset, these officials under. stood that so long as the schools kept their accreditation they remained necesarily eligible for insured loans. To remedy that, Congress in IM72 gave the Office of Education authority to aillt. schools and to limit, suspend or revoke their insured-loan eligibility. Yet nearly two yea~af h Ois fire of Education sQbMY b ktd the regulations required to exercise that gutharity. Suspended insurance Meanwhile, federal officials have re. sorted to several ad hoe device to curb predatory recruiting, wrongful withholding of refunds or other school abuses. For one, they have suspad some schools' authority to m i sured loans to their own Students. For another, they have gone klbrer sad suspended insurance on loans tram any lender for students at a gives school intended to force the school owner to clean up his operatiouna'ths device in some cases has dried up the school's cash flow and driven it out of husiness-stranding students with unfinished educations and no hope of refunds, yet still with loans to repay. According to Technical Educatols's Johnson.1I was the Office of Educa. tion's suspension of loan Inurtaise which "broke us." Federal insured-loan officials had a more promising approach goin1 for awhile. When a school's recruiting tse ties aroused suspicion, they would send questionnaires to Individual stu. dent loan applicants the school was enrolling. In numerous cases, the applicants. if they replied at all, proved Inc. eligible. unaware that they would be go. ing, into debt, or misinfornied about their eventual repayment obligations. Many would cancel their loan applica. tions and pull out of the school. In a case two years ago involving 20 young People recruited for International Business Academy in Oklahoma City. questionnaires brought no re. %i)onse at all from II and canceled applications from four others. Further hackingg showed another student was t ill in high school and thus ineligible, and two more were high school drop. )utis unlikely to succeed in the trainIing

O" " ~-vv

'rdirtabl), some school owners complained angrily about the questionnairea.-a lawyer for one called them hscaNN handed--and last fall the Offive of Education abruptly told its reiunal o|fires to stop using them Someone, it seemed, had convinced Office of Education officials in Washing. ton that ihe, Acre breaking the rules since the questionnaires didn't have proper bureaucratic clearance and were bWing used only selectively-that is. against certain schools. Fresh Questionnaire Soon afterward, a top official in the

Office of education's insured lowns di. vision sMd bis staff was working on a retb questionnaire and would seek proper clearance to use It. lare thn six months later, that project was Still For ther pat, various spokesmen for the profi.eeklag school industry criielWd tiM Ottee.of sectionn for bein in sristent, confusing, vunom. mUaatve or even devious--aa when, Ay asert, loan Applications submit. ted for LnMrane approval naystl-. oul, gXet lost in the computer." Elsewhere in the government, the Federal Trade CommlsSlon has been relatively aggressive in poUcing the school Industry. Two years ago, after exlonsive hearings, the FTC laid down industryy guides" defining what it cosidered unfair or deceptive in advertia. ing, recruiting and related school prac. Uces About the same time, it issued proposed complaints against some in. duty giants -tear Siegler. Control Daa and Electrodle Computer Pro. grqIMMrg Institute. LastAugust, the PTC launched a ua. tionwide media campaign to help ton. simgers recognize and escape school abuses. And in hopes of laying out fur. thor rules--on refund policies for ex. ample-it has contlued investigating' Industry problemL Stilllwhen it come to enforcement activity, the FTC's InvestigaUons have been necessaily tedious, its procee. itgs ponderous, and its pealtUes lim. Red. While its case against Lear Sie. gler Is stil pending, for example, the compnyfor unrelated reasons. off. cials sy-has nearly finished selling off all Its schools. The Veterans Administration, responsible for the multibilion-dollar MI Bill program, Is required by statute to delegate moat supervisory duties to "state approval agencies"-which vary considerably in staffing, other rej sources and diligence. While VA supervises as well as sub. sides these state-level surrogate, and spot-checks schools to some extentthA.5 it. self. there is little evidence "Approved for Veterans" protects coo sumers any better than accreditation. State governments, for their pt have school licensing or approving agencies of their own. They, too, and whatever laws they have to enforce, are a study in contrasts. Some states, like Florida and Texag, aroused by Past profit-school scandals, provide rel. atively effecUve regulation Others such AsCalifornia hae laws flawed by loopholes, and still others have pract. cally no regulation at all. The Education Commission of the Stat,'s sponsored s task force's devel. opment of model state legslktion last year. it hoped to encourage a more even and effective level of atate-by. state reputation. But Indiana's Joseph A.Clark. who heads the new Nationlg ,Association of State Adelallretras and Supervisors of Private schools, said Isa group would eome up with's differqnt and better biil

Waahington Post interviews witb federal, state and aktredlting'group atficlals throughout the existing regita story crazy quilt repeatedly eneoqatered disagreements, distrubt ad twai tual criticism: Office of Education ofW las who look down on VA's stae proving agencies, FTC officials w%# find the Office of Education paper. bound and lethargic, slate oft lgb who scorn the accrediting groups while resenting FTC Incurslos c& states' rights, aecreditlng officials who consider the Office of Education nmw sistent or Indecisive, and the like. Such discord, among people suPps. edly sharing to some degree the sae broad objectives-good schools, saUs fled students and well-spent tax money -dramatize the political obstacles ta improving the system. Improvements. however. are badly needed. While specific remedies are open to debate, the general ngeds include these, *A far higher priority, among all concerned, for protecting student consumers. e More aggressive, methodical montoring of school marketing practices, financial stability and other matters in which consumers have a stake. * More timely and effective enforce meant of government regulations and accrediting standards--and In the cas of the accrediting commlssenus, open rather than secret proceedings. * For correspondence schools, a re, quirement that GI Bill bbrnefits be spent on educational essentials rather than extravagant color television seth and other window-dressing. 0 And for the insured loan program, relief from debts when student boa rowers have been defrauded or short changed.

103

. A. 4',

B Doulas Chevalier-Th W&OIlhlOD Poit

John R. Proffitt: a heavy dependence on accrediting groups.