Spellings Wants to Use Accreditation as a Cudgel.

The article discusses the report on higher education accreditation delivered to the U.S. secretary of education, Margaret Spellings, by the Commission on the Future of Higher Education and subsequent changes proposed by Spellings. She wants accreditation forms to ask colleges more specific questions about how and what students are learning and to find more accurate ways of measuring learning. Spellings has called for a meeting with accreditors to discuss the issue. Many accreditors are concerned that her methods for measuring student learning may be too simplistic. They also fear that the federal government may impose standards to directly control the accrediting industry.