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Does Accreditation Have A Disparate Impact?

Several years ago I discussed on a number of occasions (many of them linked here) controversy over an American Bar Association accreditation standard that virtually requires law schools to employ racial preferences in admissions in order to promote ?diversity.? And in that same post I mentioned what might be ?warning signals? that college accreditors might require racial preferences in order to ?even out? graduation rates.

I was reminded of these older accreditation posts by the recent news, reported today by Insider Higher Ed, that the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools has removed the accreditation of Paul Quinn College, a historically black institution in Texas.

The move by SACS -- which follows years of scrutiny of Paul Quinn and its finances -- is one of several decisions involving historically black colleges. SACS, which has the job of assuring the educational quality and financial stability of the colleges it accredits, operates in a region with most of the nation?s historically black colleges.

At the same meeting where SACS revoked Paul Quinn?s accreditation, the association also placed two historically black colleges on ?warning? status: Tougaloo College and Florida Memorial University. And two historically black colleges received good news from the association: Dillard University and Texas Southern University were removed from ?probation? status, which is worse than ?warning,? but still means that an institution is accredited.

Indeed, if one clicks on any of the states in its jurisdiction conveniently provided on the SACS web site, one finds that historically black colleges are significantly ?overrepresented? among those on ?probation? or ?warning.?

And this, of course, raises a question: if racial preferences are virtually required (and certainly ubiquitous even if not required) in admissions and perhaps, even if sub rosa, in grading and hence graduation, why shouldn?t the accreditation bar be lowered for historically black colleges?

How long will it be before those who see disparate impact discrimination in every racial disparity complain about the colorblind standard ? what SACS calls ?the common denominator of shared values and practices among the diverse institutions? ? employed by all the accreditation organizations?

Full post as published by Discriminations on June 26, 2009 (boomark / email).