The Distance Education Accrediting Commission (DEAC), formerly the National Home Study Council and then the Distance Education and Training Council, is a private and non-profit national educational accreditation agency in the United States specializing in the accreditation of (51 percent or more of) distance education programs of study and institutions. The DEAC is recognized as a U.S. institutional accreditor by both the U.S. Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA).
History
The DEAC was established in 1926 as the National Home Study Council (NHSC), a trade association for correspondence schools. Its formation was in response to a Carnegie Corporation study that found a lack of standards to ensure quality in correspondence schools and protect their students and the public from fraud. Under its first director, John Noffsinger, the NHSC developed a list of minimum standards for proprietary schools.
The NHSC adopted the name Distance Education and Training Council (DETC) in 1994 and its current name in 2014.
Accreditation
In 1959 the NHSC was formally recognized by the U.S. Office of Education as an accreditor of higher education institutions. Currently the DEAC is recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation and the United States Department of Education as an accreditor of institutions of higher education. According to the DEAC, it is made up of over 100 distance education institutions located in 21 states and 7 countries. These institutions include non-profit institutions, trade associations, for-profit companies, colleges and universities, and military organizations. The DEAC has strict criteria for approving schools for accreditation, and the process includes examining the schools' educational, ethical, and business practices.
See also
- List of universities accredited by DEAC
- List of recognized accreditation associations of higher learning
- Educational accreditation
References
- Distance Education Accrediting Commission. "CHEA-Recognized Scope of Accreditation." "CHEA: Directory of National Career-Related Accrediting Organizations". Archived from the original on 2016-12-24. Retrieved 2015-11-04.. April 2013.
- ^ Michael G. Moore and William George Anderson (2003), Handbook of Distance Education, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ. ISBN 978-0-8058-3924-1. p. 39
- "The History of the Distance Education and Training Council: 1926-2001" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-11-13. Retrieved 2015-03-05.
- The Distance Education and Training Council is now the Distance Education Accrediting Commission
- DEAC History, DEAC webpage
