Regional accreditation vs. Specialized Accreditation is the difference between comprehensive and concentrated review.
Regional Accreditation
Regional accreditation is comprehensive in every manner. To begin, it doesn’t deal with accreditation of particular schools, but with the accreditation of all schools within an entire region of the country (in this case, the Northwest). There are six educational regions in the United States. Moreover, it does not inspect any one aspect of a learning institution (such as academics, sports, or administration), but instead on every aspect of a learning institution (to include academics, sports, and the administration, as well as the faculty, majors, student body, student performance, viability of resources and facilities, sustainability, and finances). Last, regional accreditation can occur without the presence of specialized accreditation, but this is far less likely to occur in reverse. Generally speaking, for a school to receive a specialized accreditation, it must first receive a regional accreditation.
Specialized Accreditation
Specialized accreditation entails the review and accreditation of a single concentration within a school, such as a major. In some cases, a school with a single concentration, such as a technical or vocational school, may also receive specialized accreditation. The system works in such a way whereby rather than having an entire team of internally appointed commissioners that review every aspect of a school, an aspect of a school is instead scrutinized by a team of specialized professionals that can use experience and education borne expertise to analyze the efficacy of a particular program. For example, in addition to regional accreditation, Cornell University also has 21 specialized accreditations. Hence, these programs could be considered the flagship of Cornell University; the programs in which students would likely be most interested as well as the majors that will result in diplomas that garner the most prestige.