Finding out what the COCNASC is may be essential to understand accreditation for northwestern American schools.
The Commission on Colleges of the Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges (COCNASC) is a regional accreditation division of the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU), which is an organization dedicated to the same cause. These are the people that determine whether a school is a waste of public funding and private philanthropy. The parent organization was created in 1917 in Redmont, Washington and has been federally recognized since 1952.
The Commission on Colleges of the Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges is responsible for overseeing the accreditation eligibility of colleges, schools, and online universities in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington. It is a legally incorporated nonprofit organization and membership of the organization is determined by its bylaws. The Department of Education last reaffirmed the COCNASC’s eligibility as a determent for accreditation in December of 2002.
What an Accreditation Organization Is
The purpose of an accreditation organization is to review schools under their jurisdiction to ensure that they meet the standards set by the organization. Once a school has been deemed accredited, it is still subject to periodic reviews to determine whether than accreditation should be renewed. Obviously, these organizations are in place to ensure that the education regional institutions are providing is worthwhile. Always seeking improvement and holding even themselves to extremely high standards, accreditation organizations often update their own charter as well. Accreditation organizations are thus a necessary constituent of the American education system by helping to ensure that American education does not fall short of preparing American students for a workforce that competes on a global scale.