The purpose of accreditation is to verify that an institution or school program meets established standards. Professional certifications and licensing requirements rely on accreditation standards and use them as criteria to admit candidates. Accreditation is used by the federal government to determine eligibility standards for financial assistance. Students rely on accreditation to identify the institutions that best meet their academic needs. Accreditation sets goals that institutions can try to meet or surpass to distinguish their school and their programs.
The accreditation procedure begins with the standards that are set by the accrediting agency. The candidate school prepares an evaluation that measures its performances against the agency's standards. Once the institution is ready, the accrediting agency conducts an evaluation of the candidate school. If the agency's standards are met, the agency publishes the accreditation status of the school. The agency monitors the school to verify that it continues to meet the established standards.
Institutional accreditation applies to an entire school. This indicates that all the school's parts, taken as a whole, make a sufficient contribution to the institution to warrant an accreditation. This recognizes that not all disciplines contribute at the same level of merit. The following regional accrediting associations are recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and accredit entire institutions: Middle States Association of Schools and Colleges, New England Association of Schools and Colleges and North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.
Some accrediting agencies evaluate individual programs and departments within an institution. Based on this evaluation, the agencies give an accreditation that applies to a curriculum or a discipline. Many of the specialized accrediting agencies review units in institutions that are accredited by one of the regional accrediting agencies. Examples of agencies that evaluate programs for accreditation are: Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education, American Council for Construction Education and Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs.