School Accreditation

With the proliferation of online colleges and private institutions, it is as important as ever to choose a real estate degree program carefully. One way to determine whether a school is legitimate is to check its accreditation status. Schools are accredited by private institutions and educational associations in accordance with state and community standards. Accreditation is a process that ensures consumers that a school meets certain standards in its curriculum, instruction, facilities, and administration.

• Accreditation is a process that begins with the United States Department of Education. That department confers the authority of accreditation onto private educational institutions. These institutions poll member colleges to see what methods, curricula, and facilities are needed in their field. They inspect accredited schools on a regular basis, generally once every three to five years. If a school meets the standards they are not inspected again for several years.
  
• Accreditation agencies take into account the opinions and feelings of all stakeholders in the learning process. They survey students to see whether their expectations are being met. They also check to see that students are receiving grades in a non-arbitrary way. The way that students are assessed is a vital part of the accrediting process. The grades given to a student at one school must be on a par with the same grade given at another school. They also check student records to see whether students are checking in with an adviser. Accrediting agencies meet with teachers and administrators to monitor how often their work is evaluated by their supervisors. They also look at the curricula vitae of the teachers to see whether they have continued to study in their field to keep up to date with changes in their industry.
  
• The penalties for failing to meet certain accreditation criteria vary. Institutions are notified that they have failed to meet the standard in a particular area and are usually given a year to bring the area up to the standard. This means that schools that are failing are visited yearly instead of once every three or five years. The U.S. Department of Education publishes a list of postsecondary institutions that are accredited on their website, as well as in paper form. Failure to receive accreditation would be a serious blow to a school because it would ruin its reputation. Enrollment would plummet as students would not want to receive their diplomas from a so-called diploma mill. Many employers, including several state governments, will not accept degrees from non-accredited schools.
  

The need for schools to maintain their accreditation serves a variety of purposes.

Schools are forced to address areas of weakness. They also must continue to update their curricula and teaching methods to current standards. Finding your school’s name on the Department of Education list ensures that the education you get compares favorably with that offered by other institutions.