The competency-based review centers on student learning outcomes as the key indicator of institutional quality and performance. This approach to accreditation contrasts with the traditional institutional review in four ways. Most important, the competency standards and review posit a clear and unmistakable connection between institutional quality and student achievement. These standards require demonstration and documentation of student competencies as central to determination of institutional quality. Institutional performance, in many ways, is student performance.
Student achievement is the first and most critical competency standard.