Dive Brief:
- The Senate education committee’s latest hearing included discussion of competency-based programs and accreditors’ role in evaluating them.
- While many in the field and in Congress urge caution, there seems to be optimism about the potential for competency-based programs and nontraditional training like coding bootcamps to serve prospective students well and affordably.
- The balance for Congress will be approving a reauthorization of the Higher Education Act that doesn’t give too much freedom to educational providers but allows enough room for innovation to be effective.
Dive Insight:
Accreditors have been criticized lately for lax oversight of programs that have operated with their support yet been scrutinized by state and federal regulators for their recruitment efforts and sub-par academic offerings. In response, accreditors have tightened the reins, moving more slowly and cautiously when it comes to innovation. Competency-based education, in some ways, has been caught in the mix. Some positive news came in June, however, when both the Department of Education and the Council of Regional Accrediting Commissions came out with aligned frameworks for judging CBE programs.