Code of Good Practice
Guiding principles for members in conducting the accreditation process.An accrediting organization holding membership in the Association of Specialized and Professional Accreditors:
Promotes quality in education through accreditation processes that:
- Focus on student learning informed by programmatic and institutional missions and goals.
- Evaluate educational quality in an unbiased manner.
- Encourage programs and institutions to provide pertinent, clear and accessible public information about student achievement.
Conducts accreditation processes with integrity and professionalism that:
- Maintain autonomy in governance and operations through appropriate relationships, practices and avoidance of conflict of interest.
- Implement policies and procedures to ensure fair and consistent application of standards and decision making that includes due process, confidentiality, and expedient response to appeals and complaints.
- Develop, review and revise standards and accreditation procedures on a regular basis with the participation of communities of interest.
- Maintain sufficient financial, personnel, and other resources for effective operations, while ensuring efficient accreditation processes for programs and institutions.
- Cooperate with other agencies whenever possible to avoid conflicting standards and to minimize duplication of effort by the programs and institutions.
- Provide evaluations to assist programs and institutions in developing their own approaches and solutions, making a clear distinction between accreditation requirements and recommendations for improvement.
- Provide accurate, clear, accessible, and timely information to communities of interest about accreditation: standards, procedures and status of programs and institutions.
- Maintain an effective training and professional development program for all accreditation staff and volunteers.
- Ensure that decision makers and evaluators have the appropriate expertise, experience and training for each review.
- Include periodic evaluations of the accreditation process that incorporate input from accredited programs and institutions.
Recognizes institutional independence and academic freedom through accrediting activities that:
- Encourage institutional freedom to make academic decisions while fulfilling the commitment to the accreditation requirements.
- Respect the rights of institutions and programs to determine and implement missions and goals.
- Encourage innovation and thoughtful change that meet the needs of the profession, students and the communities served.
- Encourage programs and institutions to provide clear and accessible public information.
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