\n<\/p>\n
The Department of Education has taken aim at two accreditors, warning them that diversity, equity and inclusion efforts built into their current standards are in conflict with federal law. <\/p>\n
Education Under Secretary Nicholas Kent sent letters Monday to the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education. ED ultimately renewed the accreditors\u2019 federal recognition, but the letters warned them over their existing DEI standards.<\/p>\n
While both have suspended enforcement of their DEI standards, the Trump administration is pushing the two accreditors to abolish such practices altogether. Kent indicated neither are currently noncompliant, but he noted in both letters that he was concerned about noncompliance since neither has \u201cformally rescinded any and all agency standards that violate federal law.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kent also alleged that DEI standards for both organizations violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. (He did not find either Middle States to be noncompliant with accreditation-recognition criteria but raised one non-DEI related compliance concern with CAPTE.)<\/p>\n
Now both must submit two monitoring reports describing \u201cwhat actions the agency has taken to eliminate standards that violate federal law,\u201d according to Kent\u2019s letters. Initial monitoring reports from both accreditors are due within six months, while the second is to follow within 12 months.<\/p>\n
Kent\u2019s letters follow concerns raised over DEI in accreditation standards by GOP-appointed members to the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity at its December meeting. At the time, both organizations noted DEI efforts had already been paused.<\/p>\n
Starting in the early days of the second Trump administration, numerous accreditors, including Middle States and CAPTE, quickly backtracked on DEI\u2014suspending such requirements in their standards or offering broad flexibility to institutions. Kent noted those changes in his letters.<\/p>\n
Still, hitting pause on enforcement of DEI standards is not enough, he said.<\/p>\n
While the under secretary wrote that he appreciated MSCHE\u2019s \u201ccommitment to update its standards to avoid these conflicts of federal law,\u201d Kent argued that the accreditor\u2019s standards \u201ccontinue to be littered with requirements that institutions take racial diversity into account.\u201d<\/p>\n
Specifically, he pointed to Guiding Principle Three in the standards, which calls on institutions to \u201creflect deeply and share results on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the context of their mission.\u201d The currently suspended standard urges institutions to weigh such efforts in their policies and processes, curriculum and services, assessments, and resource allocations.<\/p>\n
But MSCHE officials pushed back in a Monday night statement, noting that the accreditor has launched a review of its standards, \u201cwhich will include changes to our already-suspended DEI criteria,\u201d among other changes. The accreditor expects to launch its new standards in July.<\/p>\n
Middle States disputed the notion that its DEI standards violate Title VI.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Title VI analysis seemingly stems from misplaced reliance on language that is not reflective of our immediate steps to suspend any and all criteria within our standards reflecting diversity, equity, and inclusion following President Trump\u2019s Executive Orders,\u201d Middle States president Heather Perfetti said in the statement. \u201cI am surprised because we have demonstrated unequivocally and repeatedly that institutions are expected to follow federal and state law.\u201d<\/p>\n
CAPTE standards call on accredited programs to promote \u201ca culture of justice, equity, diversity, inclusivity\u00a0\u2026 belonging, and anti racism\u201d [sic<\/em>]. That suspended requirement and related compliance details are struck through in the accreditor\u2019s current standards.<\/p>\n Kent argued in his letter that the policy, \u201cwhich calls for institutions to promote diversity, would lead to students being treated differently on the basis of their race\u201d and therefore violate Title VI.<\/p>\n CAPTE did not respond to emailed questions from Inside Higher Ed<\/em>.<\/p>\n Kent\u2019s letters are part of a broader effort by the federal government to strip DEI practices and to assert more control over accreditors, as President Donald Trump promised to do before he was elected; he accused such organizations of failing in their mission to hold colleges accountable.<\/p>\n Trump said in 2023 that he would \u201cfire the radical Left accreditors\u201d that he claimed \u201chave allowed our colleges to become dominated by Marxists, maniacs, and lunatics.\u201d He promised at the time he would open the door to new accreditors who will impose \u201creal standards on colleges.\u201d Such standards would include \u201cdefending the American Tradition and western civilization,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Part of that push would include \u201cremoving all Marxist [DEI] bureaucrats,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Since then the federal government has taken steps to overhaul accreditation, including an executive order Trump issued in April that sought to hold such organizations accountable for alleged unlawful discrimination \u201cunder the guise of \u2018diversity, equity, and inclusion\u2019 initiatives.\u201d<\/p>\n More recently, the Department of Education said it will rewrite accreditation policies later this spring.<\/p>\n That move comes as Kent has taken on accreditors directly. Speaking at the Council for Higher Education Accreditation\u2019s annual conference in January, the under secretary argued that such organizations have become a monopoly and have failed in their accountability missions. Kent also warned accreditors in the room, \u201cIt\u2019s better to be at the table than on the menu,\u201d adding, \u201cWe\u2019d much rather have you grabbing a seat than getting served.\u201d<\/p>\n NACIQI chair Jay Greene, a prominent DEI critic, did not respond to a request for comment on Kent\u2019s letters to Middle States and CAPTE. But Bob Shireman, a Democratic appointee to the bipartisan, 18-member board, voiced objections to how ED handled concerns on DEI.<\/p>\n \u201cThe contorted logic in the letters is appalling: the Administration threatens accreditors and they respond by suspending their policies to allow for review, and then the Department treats that as an admission of guilt?\u201d Shireman wrote in a text message to an Inside Higher Ed<\/em> reporter. \u201cThis feels like an abuse of authority, not to mention an abuse of the process.\u201d<\/p>\n This story was corrected to reflect that ED found CAPTE out of compliance on one criterion.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Department of Education has taken aim at two accreditors, warning them that diversity, equity and inclusion efforts built into their current standards are in conflict with federal law. Education Under Secretary Nicholas Kent sent letters Monday to the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and the Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education. ED<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47094,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[12205,2274,920,1060],"class_list":{"0":"post-47093","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-accreditors","9":"tag-dei","10":"tag-kent","11":"tag-warns"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/47094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u2018Contorted Logic\u2019<\/h2>\n