教育部限制美容美发认证机构 NACCAS 新增会员：约300份待审申请被叫停
据 Inside Higher Ed 报道，美国教育部（ED）于10月21日宣布，禁止全国职业艺术与科学认证委员会（National Accrediting Commission of Career Arts and Sciences，NACCAS）接纳新会员，并正式通知该机构：如不纠正一系列合规问题，可能面临更严厉的处罚。作出这一决定的是教育部副部长 Nicholas Kent，约300份正在等待审核的入会申请随之被叫停，Kent 给该机构12个月时间处理合规问题。
NACCAS 认证全美1000多个项目与机构，其中以美容、美发学校居多。只有经联邦认可的认证机构所认证的学校，其学生才有资格申请联邦学生援助。教育部工作人员与联邦咨询委员会指出的问题包括：NACCAS 没有独立监督其会员机构是否受到其他机构的处罚，信息透明度不足，旗下学校的学生学业与就业成果不佳。
今年7月，负责就认证机构认可事宜向教育部长提供建议的全国机构质量与诚信咨询委员会（NACIQI）以9票对3票表决，建议取消 NACCAS 的联邦认可资格。教育部的最终决定没有走出这一步，而是改为冻结其会员增长。Kent 在决定函中写道，如果 NACCAS 无法充分监督其机构，「也许 NACCAS 认证的机构数量已经多到难以为继」；他同时表示，现阶段相信该机构有能力采取纠正行动，但「不认为 NACCAS 应该继续增加机构」。同日，教育部对职业教育委员会（Council on Occupational Education）也施加了类似的新增会员限制。
智库美国企业研究所高级研究员 Preston Cooper 对这一决定表示欢迎，称叫停新增认证「仍是追究认证机构责任的一大步」。New America 高等教育项目的 Jeremy Bauer-Wolf 同样表示支持，并称该机构去年的调查发现，NACCAS 认证的一些美容学校在招生咨询中经常提供错误或不完整的信息。NACCAS 官员没有回应 Inside Higher Ed 的置评请求。
报道还指出，美国超过90%的美容类本科证书项目预计无法通过一项新的联邦收入测试，该测试的结果可能影响相关项目学生的贷款资格；若 NACCAS 此次未能在期限内纠正问题，其会员学校与在读学生将面临更大的不确定性。
Education Department Bars Cosmetology Accreditor NACCAS From Adding New Members: About 300 Pending Applications Halted
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) announced on October 21 that it will prohibit the National Accrediting Commission of Career Arts and Sciences (NACCAS) from adding new members, and it put the accreditor on notice that it could face more severe penalties if it does not address a range of compliance concerns, according to Inside Higher Ed. The decision was made by Under Secretary Nicholas Kent. About 300 pending membership applications were halted, and Kent gave the accreditor 12 months to address the findings of noncompliance.
NACCAS accredits more than 1,000 programs and institutions across the United States, including many cosmetology schools. Accreditation by a federally recognized agency is what unlocks access to federal student aid for an institution's students. Education Department staff and the federal advisory committee raised concerns including a lack of transparency, poor student outcomes, and NACCAS's failure to independently monitor whether its member institutions had been sanctioned by other agencies.
In July, the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI), which advises the Secretary of Education on accreditor recognition, voted 9 to 3 to recommend stripping NACCAS of federal recognition. The department's final decision stopped short of that step and instead froze the accreditor's growth. In his decision letter, Kent wrote that if NACCAS is unable to adequately monitor its institutions, "perhaps NACCAS has reached an unsustainable number of institutions it accredits." He added that he believes the agency is capable of corrective action, but that he does not believe NACCAS should continue to add institutions. On the same day, ED imposed similar growth restrictions on the Council on Occupational Education, barring it from taking on new members as well.
Preston Cooper, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, welcomed the decision, calling the halt on new accreditations a major step in holding accreditors accountable. Jeremy Bauer-Wolf of New America also supported the action, saying his organization's investigation last year found that beauty schools accredited by NACCAS regularly gave prospective students wrong or incomplete information. NACCAS officials did not respond to a request for comment from Inside Higher Ed.
More than 90 percent of cosmetology undergraduate certificate programs are expected to fail a new federal earnings test that could restrict eligibility for student loans, the report added, meaning NACCAS's member schools and their students face further uncertainty if the accreditor does not correct the problems within the deadline.
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图片来源：位于华盛顿的美国教育部总部 Lyndon Baines Johnson 大楼标识牌（资料图）。照片：G. Edward Johnson 摄，CC BY 4.0，经维基共享资源／File photo: the sign of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Department of Education Building, headquarters of the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, D.C. Photo: G. Edward Johnson, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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