Dive Brief:
- In a review of the U.S. Department of Education’s annual audits and program reviews, the Center for American Progress finds the agency needs to substantially restructure its processes to achieve meaningful oversight.
- In the center’s latest report, "Looking in All the Wrong Places," researchers argue the department’s audits and program reviews are designed to identify one narrow problem — incorrect awarding of federal financial aid — missing potential evidence about improper marketing, enrollment, and institutional lending practices.
- The audit and program review processes have great potential to improve the department’s oversight, but the Center for American Progress says new incentives and requirements for auditors and reviewers must encourage them to look in new places.
Dive Insight:
Audits and program reviews are easier to conduct if they focus on numerical formulas and worksheets. But the Center for American Progress argues that when these processes ignore evidence relating to department regulations that require accreditors to keep colleges in line in other ways, it is a missed opportunity. The Department of Education pushed hard on Corinthian Colleges and ultimately contributed to its collapse. The number of investigations by state attorneys general and other federal agencies into the operations of other major for-profit college chains, however, indicates accreditors may not be holding them to the high standards the department requires.
Attorneys general in 13 states oppose the renewal of the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools, which left Corinthian Colleges’ accreditation intact until it went bankrupt and continues to accredit ITT Tech, EDMC, and Career Education Corp., all of which have pending investigations or settlements based on their operations.
