Accreditation In Play | The Rise Report | Issue 24

This week I was in New Orleans to moderate a panel at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities’ (AASCU) Summer Meeting that I'd been looking forward to for a while. "Designing the Next Era of Accreditation" brought together three colleagues who are doing this work, not just talking about it: James Hallmark, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs of the Texas A&M University System; Cameron Howell, who became the first CEO of the Commission for Public Higher Education (CPHE) two weeks ago; and Avinandan Mukherjee, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs at Georgia Southern University, one of ten institutions in CPHE's first cohort.

Here's why I wanted to have this conversation. For the first time in nearly thirty years, who assures quality in higher education is up for grabs. Accreditors control access to more than $100 billion a year in federal aid, so changing the rules for accreditors changes the behavior of every institution that depends on them. And the rules are changing fast. The 2019–20 federal regulations ended geographic assignment of accreditors and effectively turned accreditation into a market. An Executive Order last April made accreditors accountable to the Secretary of Education in ways they hadn't been before. A series of rules have made it easier for institutions to switch accreditors and easier for new ones to enter the landscape. And this spring, the Accreditation, Innovation and Modernization (AIM) negotiated rulemaking committee reached consensus on the biggest rewrite of these regulations in decades. If the final rule is published by November 1, the changes take effect July 1, 2027.

To the panelists' credit, no one hid behind the politics. We kept coming back to one question: is the real problem the paperwork, or the standards themselves? One accreditor generated more than 800,000 pages for a single federal review, so the paperwork is no small thing. But paperwork and purpose aren't the same problem, and treating them as one is how I believe reform tends to go sideways.

The Commission for Public Higher Education (CPHE) is one answer. It's the first accreditor built specifically for public, four-year institutions, organized around public mission and student outcomes instead of inputs, and designed to hold onto rigor while cutting the compliance load. I asked the panel the question everyone in the room was thinking: can an accreditor founded by six state systems actually hold those same systems accountable?

That's the thread we keep pulling at FutureRise — accountability that's real without burying providers in process.

My thanks to the team at AASCU, and to James, Cameron and and Avi, for today’s thought provoking conversation.

As of July 1, federal Pell Grants reach short-term workforce training for the first time. Workforce Pell covers programs that run 8 to 15 weeks (150 to 599 clock hours) and prepare students for high-skill, high-wage, or in-demand jobs — but only if they clear a real quality bar: a 70% completion rate, a 70% job-placement rate, and earnings that leave graduates measurably better off. Eligibility isn't automatic, either. Governors and state workforce boards approve programs before institutions can take them to the U.S. Department of Education, which puts the action at the state level right now, in the middle of the application window.

If you're trying to get your arms around all of it, the National Conference of State Legislatures just released a new Legislator's Guide to Workforce Pell — the clearest plain-language playbook I've seen on how the program works and what states have to stand up to make it real. It's worth bookmarking and sharing.

Join us on Monday, July 21 at 10am MT. Our next webinar goes deep on the mechanics. State staff will walk through the application process step by step, CareerTeam will demo the new platform and its Workforce Pell components, and we'll close with a question and answer session. If you're a provider or partner trying to move a program through the pipeline this cycle, this is the one to attend — register here. (Missed the first session? Watch the recording here, passcode: D07$cPDD, and message me here to join the distribution list for future webinars.)

Colorado providers — ETPL changes. Colorado's new Eligible Training Provider List (ETPL) web platform launched July 1 and is now the system of record for Workforce Pell program eligibility — a real step toward a more streamlined experience for short-term credential providers. The Colorado Workforce Development Council (CWDC) is managing the data migration and reaching out to providers about the steps required to keep programs on the list. The updated Policy Guidance Letter spells out what's now required — including outcomes data for all programs and participants regardless of funding source, plus Social Security numbers, completion status, credential achievement, and program dates. Learn what actions are needed, catch the July 8 overview (slides and recording on CWDC's ETPL webpage), or register for a provider reporting webinar on July 20 or 28. Questions? Send them to [email protected].

I joined Wes Smith on the Presidents Forum podcast — the Forum is a national network of college and university presidents pushing to modernize higher ed for today's learners — to talk about something I've been chewing on for a while: what would it look like if accreditation borrowed the quality-assurance playbook that healthcare and financial services have used for years?

The short version — those industries use real-time data to catch problems before they become crises, while accreditation still leans on periodic reviews and staggering volumes of paperwork. But in some form, institutions already collect much of the data that matters: retention, completion, financial health, labor-market outcomes. My argument is that technology lets us do two things at once. First, give learners and earners clearer, more current information about which programs and providers actually deliver. And second, focus the review itself on those outcomes and strengthen peer review, rather than stacking another layer of compliance on institutions that are already drowning in it. A better signal for students and a lighter lift for schools don't have to be in tension.

If you've got 15 minutes you can watch the conversation here. As always, I'd love to hear what you think. 

Denver's $100 million jobs bet. On July 9, Mayor Mike Johnston launched the Denver Jobs Agenda, a $100 million push to back 10,000 new jobs over three years. The part worth watching: Work Denver, the $45 million training arm, funded largely with federal and state workforce dollars, positioned to move residents into software development, the skilled trades, and building inspection. The remainder of the investment will support small-business lending, downtown lease incentives, and a new entrepreneurship hub with CU Denver. Read more here.

Apprenticeships get an outcomes-based push. The U.S. Department of Labor announced nearly $162 million on July 7 to expand Registered Apprenticeship — and notably, the money is structured as performance-based incentives that pay sponsors when apprentices actually hit retention and progression milestones, not just when they enroll. Awards went to five organizations (including Jobs for the Future and the Florida Department of Commerce at $40M each) across shipbuilding, AI and semiconductors, telecom, IT, and auto service. It's the same principle we keep coming back to with FutureRise: fund what works, and measure whether it did.

The Rise Report welcomes updates from our colleagues across Colorado. Think of this as your one-stop-shop for conference updates, new research + reports, job postings, and career moves.

The American Council on Education (ACE) announced that Anne Kress, president of Northern Virginia Community College, will chair its Board of Directors beginning October 1 — a community college leader taking the helm of higher ed's flagship umbrella organization, which says a lot about where the sector's center of gravity is heading. Dr. Matt Gianneschi, president of Colorado Mountain College was elected to the ACE Board; it's great to have a Colorado postsecondary leader’s voice at that national table as the conversations on accreditation, accountability, and workforce funding come to a head. Congratulations, Matt!

Colorado Succeeds is one of just five organizations selected nationwide for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation's Pathways with Purpose Through Career-Connected Learning initiative — chosen from nearly 200 applicants and awarded roughly $300,000 to deepen employer-connected learning over the next year. With its share of the $1.5 million, Colorado Succeeds will work on construction and the skilled trades in metro Denver, helping students earn industry-recognized credentials and college credit through hands-on learning tied to what employers are actually hiring for. It’s a concrete answer to the problem we keep naming: employers can't find the workers they need, and young people can't find a clear path to them.

The Metro Alliance of Career Readiness Organizations (MACRO) is bringing Common Sense Media to Denver for a special August All-Partner meeting — a free, half-day session on equipping students to stay focused and safe in a digital landscape. It's open to K–12, postsecondary, and workforce partners and will be held on Tuesday, August 18 starting at 9am MT. Register here.

Colorado's Transition Advisory Committee (TAC) meets for the second time tomorrow. The legislature created the TAC under HB26-1317 to recommend how the state combines its many separate postsecondary and workforce programs into a single agency, with a plan due to the Joint Budget Committee by November 30.

The first meeting was mostly introductions; tomorrow the TAC will dig into its real work. They'll set ground rules in the morning, then spend most of the day on the two questions that matter: what a combined department's mission should be, and what it should actually do, given how much is now split across higher education, workforce training, apprenticeships, and adult education.

They'll finish their meeting with ideas for bringing stakeholders and the public in on the process over the coming months. What are some considerations the TAC should explore when it comes to better aligning postsecondary education and workforce development? Share your thoughts here.

Until next week,
Alison