Regional accreditation is a term used in the United States to refer to the process by which one of six accrediting bodies, each serving an area of the country, accredits schools, colleges, and universities. Each regional accreditor encompasses the vast majority of public and nonprofit private schools in the region they serve. They include among their membership nearly all elementary schools, junior high schools, middle schools, high schools, community colleges, public universities, and private universities. Generally, accreditation is the process by which a facility becomes officially certified as providing services of a reasonably good quality, so that the public can trust in the quality of its services. ...

List of the regional accreditors

• Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools
• New England Association of Schools and Colleges
• North Central Association of Colleges and Schools
• Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges
• Western Association of Schools and Colleges
• Southern Association of Colleges and Schools

The Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools is a voluntary, peer based, non-profit association dedicated to the educational excellence and improvement through peer evaluation and accreditation. ... Accredition organization in New England. ... The North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA) is one of six regional accreditation organizations recognized by the United States Department of Education. ... The Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU) is an independent, non-profit membership organization recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) as the regional authority on educational quality and institutional effectiveness of higher education institutions in the seven-state Northwest... The Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) is one of six official academic bodies responsible for the accreditation of public and private universities, colleges, secondary and elementary schools in the United States and foreign institutions of American origin. ... The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) is a regional accreditor for over 13,000 public and private educational institutions ranging from preschool to college level in the Southern United States. ...

See also

• Council on Higher Education Accreditation
• List of recognized accreditation associations of higher learning
• US Department of Education

Council on Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) is an association of 3,000 degree-granting colleges and universities, which also recognizes 60 institutional and programmatic accrediting organizations. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Nationally recognized accrediting agencies. ... The United States Department of Education was created in 1979 (by PL 96-88) as a Cabinet-level department of the United States government, and began operating in 1980. ...

References

External links

• Database for Accreditation in the United States (CHEA)
• Database for Accreditation in the United States (USDE)