Martin Meyerson would occasionally remind me that what was important to remember about Casandra was not that she was right, but that she was not believed. As a member of the Spellings Commission, I tried my level best first to convince Charles Miller and then the members of the commission that we ought to leave accreditation alone. To wade into that subject was like trying to walk on quick sand. The accreditation industry itself was too disorganized to help, institutions would not take seriously structural reforms pushed by the accreditation process, and the challenge of putting sufficient muscle into the accrediting process was beyond the political acumen of the Department of Education. Better to try to work directly with Congress or better yet find another lever with which to promote change.
This week’s story in The Chronicle that the Department of Education would not push for tougher accreditation standards after all is welcome news, but a little late. For the last year the department has wasted both time and opportunity that might have made meaningful reform more likely. The basic lesson it has refused to learn, as I wrote in an earlier posting, is that higher education is not going to be changed by outsiders. The only ones who understand, who really know where the bodies are buried, are inside the academy. Broad-scale attacks that are long on “strong language” and short on realistic prescriptions can only isolate those within the academy who seek reform. Isolate enough of us and you make meaningful change impossible.
