Accreditation is the process used by colleges and high schools to determine a minimum level of quality in an educational program. While it is a far from perfect process, it does at least give students a way to determine which programs would be acceptable to colleges. A high school diploma that does not come from an accredited program is often rejected as a basis for college admission.
The six regional accreditors are
Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools (MSA)
New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC-CIHE)
North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCACASI)
Northwest Association of Accredited Schools (NAAS)
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS)
Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC)
In addition to the regional accreditors, there are specialized accreditors. The most well-known of these is the Distance Education and Training Council (www.detc.org). It is a national accreditor, and in one of the oddities of education in America, national accreditation is considered to a lesser form of accreditation. However, my money is on DETC making the leap to equal status with the regional accreditors, particular for high school accreditation.
There are three main reasons for why you should make sure that the program you have chosen is accredited. They are
1. Many colleges and universities will not accept high school diplomas from online and traditional high schools that are not accredited.
2. If you start your high school education at one school and then want to transfer to another school, it is common for the unaccredited credits not to transfer. Yes, that could mean that you would need to take classes again that you had already taken.
3. Accredited programs often, but not always, really are of a higher quality. The fact is that unaccredited high schools would become accredited if they thought there was the possibility that they would pass that rigorous assessment. At the high school level, there is no reason to use an unaccredited program.
Does this mean that unaccredited programs do not have merit In some cases, it most certainly does, but it is not about whether they have merit. It is about proving it through a time-tested process and, in U.S. education circles, that is regional or national accreditation.
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