This approach to warranting quality describes accreditation as it has traditionally been practiced in higher education. Accreditation has depended on an examination of institutional budgets and endowments, physical facilities, library and equipment resources, entrance requirements, faculty salaries and credentials, administration and staff size, and the number of students enrolled and graduated. This is still the standard approach to accreditation, although recently we have seen some changes, with more attention to assessments of institutional effectiveness. The accreditation claim of quality that is based primarily on resources and processes has provided an important foundation for trust among higher education insiders. Educational institutions that grant admission and academic credit for student work done at other institutions rely on one another's judgment about, for example, curricula and standards.
Accreditation provides a basis for trusting that judgment.
While some accrediting organizations have begun to address this challenge, their efforts have confronted barriers from resistance to discomfort to confusion. Academic culture has deep roots in a long tradition that views colleges and universities as, first and foremost, communities of intellectual growth and knowledge development. This tradition is not easily reconciled with an emphasis on results perceived as tied to a market mentality. This confusion is compounded by a tendency among some of us to interpret public call for information about results as a call for better public relations rather than a substantive accounting to society in return for its investment in higher education. Some believe, for example, that if people just understood our issues, everything would be fine.