Quote:Education Secretary Margaret Spellings on Tuesday took the American Academy for Liberal Education off accreditors’ death row, lifting a ban that prevented it from approving new institutions. But while the secretary also extended the agency’s federal recognition by three years, through 2010, she required a series of reports to and appearances before the Education Department’s accreditation advisory committee that could keep AALE on its heels.

AALE, as it is known, has been in limbo since April 2007, when Spellings, acting on a recommendation by her National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity, barred the accrediting agency from approving any new members, citing what department officials characterized as its failure to set clear standards for measuring student learning outcomes and to adequately collect and review data on how its member colleges measure such learning. The freeze permitted the agency to consider members who seek to have an individual program — like an honors’ college — accredited, but bars it from providing the more coveted “institutional” accreditation that carries with it access to federal student aid.

Supporters of the liberal education accreditor, once a darling of conservative commentators on education, argued that it had fallen prey to the department’s push to compel accreditors (and by extension the colleges they accredit) to more rigorously assess and measure the learning outcomes of students. They also suggested that AALE was being held to a higher standard than other agencies, pointing out that the accountability system it adopted was more rigorous than most other non-vocational accrediting agencies....