David Garza's understanding of
Lesson 14 - Southern Association of Colleges and Schools

There are six major regional accrediting associations in the United States and they are all designed to ensure that all public schools regardless of where and how they offer instruction meet established educational standards. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools is the recognized regional accrediting body in the eleven U.S. Southern states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. SACS carrys out the accreditation process for those institutions of higher education that award associate, baccalaureate, master's or doctoral degrees. Evaluations of distance educational programs, like all on-campus programs, must demonstrate instructional quality and effectiveness. Distance education programs must have clear and precise goals that are correlated with their own university's stated purpose. All DE programs must exhibit how they will accomplish goals and must explain how they will insure quality and effectiveness. All DE programs must have knowledgeable faculty, an adequate library to support DE courses and programs offered, appropriate instructional/computer resources (electronic journals, ERIC, etc.), physical facilities and they must prove student success and quality instruction. Distance education must prove institutional effectiveness by having an on-going documented process of planning, assessment/evaluation of institutional operations with documented results, and demonstrated use of results obtain from evaluations that enhances or improves stated institutional goals and objectives. DE instructors must be assessed to ensure they have the right credentials, training and knowledge to direct an on-line course. Planning and the evaluation of assessment methods for learner-centered instruction are also very important. DE programs all over the world are improving instruction and becoming more effective partly because of the standards set by accreditation associations.