How can you be certain what online colleges are accredited by the us board of education?

Answer 1

Answer 1: For institutions within the United States and its territories, the critical issue is the schools accreditation. When choosing a college or university make sure the institution has a regional accreditation. With a regional accreditation, you can be assured the coursework and degree you complete will be recognized by all other colleges and universities as well as employers. Below are listed the six regional accrediting agencies and their geographical areas of responsibility. Make sure the school is accredited by one of them.

Regional Accreditation Agencies

· Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools - Educational institutions in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands, as well as schools for American children in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East.

· New England Association of Schools and Colleges - Educational institutions in the six New England states (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont).

· North Central Association of Colleges and Schools - Educational institutions in Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, New Mexico, South Dakota, Wisconsin, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

· Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities - Postsecondary institutions (colleges and universities) in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington.

· Western Association of Schools and Colleges - Educational institutions in California, Hawaii, Guam, American Samoa, Micronesia, Palau, and Northern Marianas Islands.

· Southern Association of Colleges and Schools - Educational institutions in

Virginia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee and Texas.

Answer 2: The first answer, while good, and basically accurate, is both incomplete, and also doesn't really directly answer the questioner's question.

For starters, there is no "US Board of Education." A "board of education" is a decidedly local (state, county or city) sort of thing; and it has nothing to do with accreditation, in any case.

Moreover, even what you probably meant, at the federal level -- the US Department of Education (USDE), headed-up by the United States Secretary of Education (a Cabinet position) -- doesn't actually do the accrediting. Instead, it appoints/approves private agencies to do that actual accrediting. The six big "regional" accreditors that are approved by USDE is that to which the first answer, here, refers.

But there are other kinds of USDE-approved accreditation that is just as credible as "regional" accreditation, to wit: "National" accreditation, and "religious" accreditation, and "programmatic" accreditation.

It's important to know, also, that it's not only USDE which directly appoints/approves accreditors. There's also the USDE-sanctioned Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) that approves/appoints accreditors. And so, when looking at a given school, it's important to ensure that it is accredited by an agency that's approved by either USDE or CHEA (or both). Most accreditors, as it turns out, are approved by both. The number of accreditors approved by one, but not the other, is small, indeed; but there are at least a few out there.

For that reason, it's very important, when checking to see if a given school is accredited, to look-up said school in both the USDE and the CHEA online databases. If the school doesn't appear in one, always check the other just in case the school is accredited by an agency that's approved by one, but not the other. If the school's in neither database, then it is not accredited, no matter what it claims.

And never take the school's word for it, either. Degree/diploma mills will not hesitate to lie about it. Some of them even stoop to creating their own fake accreditors, and build impressive-looking websites for them, just to fool degree-seekers who've heard that accreditation is important, but don't really know what it means. To further the ruse, some of the fake accreditors that the mills create sometimes even have names intentionally made to sound confusingly similar to those of real accreditors.

The only reliable way to determine if a given school is really accredited by a USDE- and/or CHEA-approved agency is to look-up said school in either or both of the USDE and CHEA online databases. Please see the "sources and related links" section, below, to link to those two databases.

The only way that a school which really is accredited wouldn't show-up in either or both of those two databases would be if it has been accredited so recently that neither of the databases' administrators has had time to enter it yet. That would be rare, but it's technically possible. Most accreditors' boards meet several times per year to vote to either approve, or not approve, new applicant schools. For about a month after a newly-accredited school is approved, it's technical possible for it to not yet be in either or both of the USDE and/or CHEA databases. To verify in spite of that, simply ask the school who is its accreditor, and then go visit said accreditor's website and see if the newly-accredited school is listed there. If it's not, then send an email to the accreditor, or call it on the telephone, and see if the school, which claims to be accredited by it, really is. And do not trust the school to give you the linke to the accreditor! Instead, go to either the CHEA or USDE database sites and find the accreditor listed there, and then go to its website based on the link given to you there.

The links to the USDE and CHEA lists of approved accreditors are also in the "sources and related links" section, below.

So the answer to the question -- albeit it slightly incorrectly asked -- is that you must consult either or both of the USDE and/or CHEA databases to look-up the online school and see if it's listed there, and what is its USDE- and/or CHEA-approved accreditor.

And remember that it's not only onliine schools that are listed there. All schools -- whether or not "online" -- are listed in either or both of the USDE and/or CHEA databases if they are, in fact, accredited.

If the school is not in either of those databases, and the alleged USDE- and/or CHEA-approved accreditor, if directly contacted, won't verify that the school's accredited, then it is positively not accredited; and so, then, you should say away from it at all costs!