Accreditation: U.S. Department of Education Agrees with CFT Complaints

Today, the United States Department of Education issued a letter responding to a complaint against the agency that accredits California Community Colleges, the ACCJC. In the letter, the DOE agreed with three of the issues raised by the CFT regarding the conduct of the ACCJC in acting to remove accreditation from San Francisco City College. As summarized by the CFT:

The three elements included a conflict of interest by ACCJC president Barbara Beno in appointing her husband to the CCSF site visit team in 2012; failure to appoint accreditation review teams that were balanced between administrative and faculty appointments; and failure to distinguish clearly between “recommendations” and “deficiencies” that CCSF needed to address…

This is particularly significant because the AACJC receives its authority to accredit colleges from the federal Department of Education. The full letter is available here.