William Howard Taft University, as an educational division of The Taft University System, is in good standing as a fully authorized postsecondary institution by the Colorado Commission on Higher Education (CCHE). Authorization continues in perpetuity based on the institution’s accredited status with the DEAC or other approved institutional accrediting agency. http://highered.colorado.gov/cche.html

Overview of Accreditation

The goal of accreditation is to ensure that education provided by institutions of higher education meets acceptable levels of quality. Accreditation in the United States involves non-governmental entities as well as governmental agencies. Accrediting agencies, which are private educational associations of regional or national scope, develop evaluation criteria and conduct peer evaluations to assess whether or not those criteria are met. Institutions and/or programs that request an agency’s evaluation and that meet an agency’s criteria are then “accredited” by that agency.

The United States has no federal Ministry of Education or other centralized authority exercising single national control over postsecondary educational institutions in this country. The states assume varying degrees of control over education, but, in general, institutions of higher education are permitted to operate with considerable independence and autonomy.

In order to insure a basic level of quality, the practice of accreditation arose in the United States as a means of conducting nongovernmental, peer evaluation of educational institutions and programs. Private educational associations of regional or national scope have adopted criteria reflecting the qualities of a sound educational program and have developed procedures for evaluating institutions or programs to determine whether or not they are operating at basic levels of quality

The U.S. Department of Education does not accredit educational institutions and/or programs. However, the Secretary of Education is required by law to publish a list of regional and national accrediting agencies that are recognized by the Secretary as reliable authorities concerning the quality of education or training offered by the institutions of higher education or higher education programs they accredit. This list can be found at: https://www2.ed.gov/admins/finaid/accred/accreditation_pg6.html

A video from The Distance Education Accrediting Commission offers an overview of the benefits of distance education and the importance of accreditation: