New Accrediting Agency Is Providing Quality Assurance

The growing recognition of the need for common standards for Intensive English Programs has culminated in the creation of a new agency. Teresa O’Donnell reports.

The Commission on English Language Program Accreditation (CEA) was incorporated as an independent accrediting agency for English language programs and institutions in the United States in October 1999. Accreditation is a process by which experts in a particular field determine common standards and choose to regulate themselves according to those standards. CEA’s birth was a result of many years of interest and hard work by members of the TESOL profession. As a specialized agency, CEA meets the needs of the profession in providing a means to assure quality English language instruction in the U.S. and represents best practices in the field of accreditation. CEA has strong support in the community of interest, with over 70 English language programs and institutions currently seeking accreditation.

English language teaching professionals have discussed the need for an accrediting agency for many years. In the early 1990s, it appeared that the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was going to require the accreditation of independent English language schools and that it might also require accreditation for intensive English programs (IEPs) within accredited institutions. In response to a specific request by the American Association of Intensive English Programs (AAIEP), Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. (TESOL) convened the Accreditation Task Force in 1993 to investigate the need and support for a specialized accrediting agency. Task force members represented AAIEP, NAFSA: Association of International Educators, TESOL, and the University and College Intensive English Programs (UCIEP). Two surveys to determine support for an accrediting agency were conducted. At the same time, TESOL contacted the U.S. Department of Education, Post-secondary Accreditation Evaluation Branch, to better understand requirements for recognition by that agency, and worked with accreditation consultants to establish a timeline and determine cost implications for the creation of an accrediting agency.

In 1995, the Task Force presented survey results to the TESOL Board and recommended that it would be feasible and desirable for TESOL to develop an accrediting agency. The Board approved the request and formed an Accreditation Advisory Committee. The charge was to draft standards and create the structure for an accrediting agency for intensive English programs in the U.S. Members of the committee represented both university/college-based and independent IEPs, as well as higher education in general, so that the standards would fulfill the needs of the various types of programs. An experienced accreditation consultant was engaged to help with the project. The Advisory Committee met three times a year from 1995 to 1997 and presented the first draft of proposed standards in March 1997. Input on the standards was encouraged and directly sought from the leadership of AAIEP, NAFSA/ATESL, TESOL, and UCIEP. During the development of the standards, administrative and governance structures for an accrediting agency were determined.

Important to the development of the agency was the continued contact with the U.S. Department of Education (E.D.) and the INS. In setting its timeline for seeking E.D. recognition, the Advisory Committee was acutely aware of the impact of timelines for proposed INS regulations governing F-1 student visas. INS reported that it would most likely require independent English language institutions to be accredited by an accrediting agency recognized by the U.S. Secretary of Education and that the final regulations were imminent. In October 1997, the committee requested that the Advisory Committee become the "TESOL Commission on Accreditation" (TCA) so that the accreditation activities could begin. The Board approved, and members of the former Advisory Committee became the first commissioners of the new agency. The final standards were presented as the TCA Standards for Intensive English Programs: IEPs began to apply for TCA accreditation, and potential reviewers were solicited for training. TCA held its first accreditation and reviewer training workshops in March 1998 at the TESOL Convention. Seventy IEPs sent representatives and 60 potential reviewers were trained. IEPs submitted review plans and began working on their self-study reports.

At the same time, the Commission and the TESOL Board began to discuss what the relationship between TCA and TESOL should be. Discussions took place throughout the summer and fall, but by the end of the year, there was still no agreement. Commission members held firm in their belief that the accrediting agency should be separately incorporated from TESOL. Some commissioners were ending their terms of service and others resigned, so that by the end of January 1999 there was no Commission, and accreditation activities were suspended. Following strong input from the field at the TESOL convention in March, the new President of TESOL, David Nunan, determined to renew negotiations. Leaders of NAFSA: ATESL, AAIEP, and UCIEP were asked to take part in these new discussions.

At its June meeting, the TESOL Board voted to start discussions regarding the separate incorporation of TCA. One condition required by TESOL was that it maintain ownership of the name "TESOL Commission on Accreditation" and the acronym "TCA." TESOL also required that the new accrediting agency not use the name or the acronym, "TESOL." A new name for the agency was chosen by those involved in the discussions, a transfer agreement was signed, and in October 1999 the Commission on English Language Program Accreditation was incorporated.
All members of the former TCA Commission returned for the first two meetings of the Commission, along with five newly appointed members. At a December meeting, three university-based IEPs (Eastern Washington University, Georgetown University, and the University of South Carolina), which had already submitted self-study reports and undergone site visits, were accredited. The Commission also began a revision of its materials to reflect the new name and to reflect requirements that were clarified by the INS representative at the TESOL Convention in March. CEA would need to be recognized by the E.D. as an "institutional" accrediting agency and provide institutional accreditation for independent IEPS. Another announcement at that meeting was that INS would probably not require university-governed IEPs to be programmatically accredited.

The suspension of activities, the change to an independent agency, and the clarification from INS meant that those programs and institutions that had participated in TCA accreditation needed to be given a choice as to whether they wanted to continue with the accreditation process under CEA. CEA and TESOL staff worked together to inform "in-process" IEPs of the process to transfer to CEA. By the end of April 2000, over 70 programs and institutions, some new to the process, were participating in CEA activities, six site visits had taken place, and three others were scheduled. The Commission planned to review additional programs for accreditation at its May meeting. Once there are sufficient numbers of sites accredited, CEA will constitute its Constituent Council, to which each accredited program or institution can appoint a representative. The Constituent Council will provide input to the Commission and will have responsibility for working with the CEA Nominating Committee to nominate and elect commissioners.

Both English language programs and English language institutions may apply for CEA accreditation. A "program" is defined as an intensive English program that resides within an already accredited institution, such as a university- or college-governed program. To be eligible for accreditation, the program must:

• be a postsecondary program and offer instruction in the United States;
  
• offer students a minimum of 18 hours per week of English language instruction (1 hour = 50 minutes);
• have a curriculum designed to serve the needs of nonnative speakers of English;
  
• allow for the differentiation of participants by level of English language proficiency;
  
• offer instruction on an on-going basis for at least 8 months of each calendar year.

An "institution" is one that contains an IEP and is not accredited by any other body. Such an institution is independent in governance from a university or college although it may function on a contractual basis with the larger institution. The English language institution must contain an IEP that meets the same requirements as those listed above. Currently, over half of the participants in CEA accreditation are university- or college-governed.
The CEA Standards for English Language Programs and Institutions form the basis for all CEA accreditation activities. The 52 standards are divided into 10 standard areas: Mission; Curriculum; Faculty; Administrative and Fiscal; Student Services; Recruitment; Length of Program of Study; Student Achievement; and Student Complaints.

A program or institution must respond to each standard within each area, showing how it meets each standard and supporting its comments with documentation. Workshop training and CEA materials suggest ways to indicate how the standards are met. CEA has a required template for submission of the self-study, which seems to make it easier for the sites to prepare their reports and for reviewers to read them. The self-study process culminates in a visit by a three-person review team, which acts on behalf of the Commission to verify what is said and documented in the site’s report. The Review Team Report and a response from the site, along with the self-study report, form the basis for the Commission review. Accreditation is granted to those sites that comply with the standards.

Now that CEA is fully-involved in its accreditation activities, it plans to seek recognition by the U.S. Secretary of Education in 2001. A new E.D. regulation, which goes into effect in June 2000, requires accrediting agencies to have functioned fully for two years before submitting a petition. CEA has been assigned an E.D. staff analyst and continues its on-going communication with the department. In the meantime, accreditation by CEA has validity as a mark of quality. It provides students, their sponsors, and the public with assurance that accredited programs and institutions meet quality standards developed by the community of interest. Many accrediting agencies that developed within membership associations are not recognized by the E.D., nor do they have to be. Only those agencies that have a "federal link" can petition for such recognition. For many agencies, including the large regional agencies, the link is through the Higher Education Act, Title IV, which requires schools that distribute student to be accredited by an E.D. recognized agency. For CEA, the link is through the INS.

The next few years in the development of CEA will include refining procedures, validating and assuring the reliability of the CEA Standards, and preparing the petition for E.D. On-going evaluation methods are in place, and input from the sites under review and from the site reviewers are helping to further refine procedures. CEA will continue to focus on meeting the needs of the English language teaching community, while maintaining the quality of its own procedures. In the meantime, those programs and institutions currently involved in the CEA accreditation process have already noted its benefits. Going through the self-study and review process brings faculty and administrative staff together in a project that has great benefits—the improvement of the program or institution and, through accreditation, the public recognition of its quality.

Anyone interested in more information about accreditation by CEA can access the CEA web-site at www.cea-accredit.org or may contact CEA at the address below. An accreditation workshop will be held in San Diego on June 3 and again on November 15, in the CEA’s Alexandria offices.

Teresa D. O’Donnell, Executive Director, Commission on English Language Program Accreditation, Alexandria, Virginia.