What do parents and students do when they want to find out about a school’s quality? What do teachers do? Exactly what they would do when they book a trip or a vacation. Check social media.

The COVID-19 summer of 2020 was a sad case in point, as accreditation leaders had to contend with the reality of public shaming on social media by black students of their experiences at schools nationwide. Was this problem picked up by accreditation protocols or by school accreditation visits? Did any of the accreditation recommendations unearth a lack of inclusivity, racism, and inequity? There was no way for accreditation leaders to obviate responsibility because it was not confined to a specific school or even type of school. It was their problem.

What else did 2020 and COVID-19 uncover about accreditation? Top of my list was not the unfortunate technology issues, but, as a striking example, that schools really believed they were doing project-based learning when they were not: this exposed a significant difference between their stated missions or high-level public statements and their actual practice of substituting final projects in place of tests. How so, exactly, and why should it matter to accreditation? The…