A formal process by which college programs for students with ID can become accredited is currently being piloted, and the first university program has been accredited. While that process continues to be piloted, we offer college programs for students with intellectual disability tools that they can use to become familiar with Program Accreditation Standards and begin to explore the evidence collection process that will be required as part of any formal accreditation process.
Online Course: Becoming Accreditation Ready
Becoming Accreditation Ready is a new online course designed to help programs understand the requirements of the standards and to offer support to those programs that want to start getting ready to apply for accreditation. Registration is currently closed for the first section of this course that runs from January 16 - May 15, 2024.
Click HERE to register.
(if registration has closed and you still would like to access this section, contact Cate Weir at cathryn.weir@umb.edu)
The next section will run from June 15 - December 15, 2024, with registration opening in mid May.
Additional tools
Introducing the Program Accreditation Standards
This is a great place to START to familiarize yourself with the Standards - they are distilled down to their "essence", which makes them easier to grasp as an initial review. However, they do NOT share the important nuance and detail that you need to fully understand each standard. Fort the full version of all 38 standards, view the full version linked below.
Download Introducing the Program Accreditation Standards (.pdf)To see the official standards and guidance, review this section of the Guide to Program Accreditation
Pre-Accreditation Self Assessment
This document lists all 10 Standard Areas and the associated standards - there are total of 38 standards across the 10 areas. It can be used as a basis of discussion to begin to consider where your program is relative to meeting each standard. It is meant to be a surface level review to familiarize yourself with the standards and learn what the expectations of a formal accreditation process will be. The Self-Assessment is formatted as a Word form, where you can see the standards, and add what you think your current status is related to each standard, and make notes related to that standard.
Pre-Accreditation Self Assessment (Word doc)
Evidence Checklist
This spreadsheet has a tab for each Standard area that lists evidence required to show that the standard is being met. The Google doc version includes a way to check off evidence as you collect it.
Google Sheet version of the Evidence Checklist -- click File>Make a copy and save to your own Google drive
Excel version of the Evidence Checklist
A system for organizing your evidence collection
We have created an organizing structure that you can use to collect evidence. It includes a folder for each standard area, with subfolders for every standard in that area, along with a document with the Standard, guidance and required for review.
Download the folder structure to your computer. Upload to your location of choice, e.g. OneDrive, Google Drive, DropBox or work with it on your own computer.