Standards

This slide deck shares information that postsecondary education programs for students with intellectual disability can use to understand the current status of program accreditation and learn about tools that are available from Think College to support programs in becoming accreditation-ready. Future steps to refine and finalize an accrediting process and develop an accrediting agency are also shared.

This document was created as an introduction to accreditation standards. It is intended for readers to gain a general sense of the kinds of issues that are addressed in the standards and begin to understand the overall concepts that are addressed. While it in no way captures all the nuance and detail that is required to fully understand each standard, it can serve as a general introduction for those first exploring accreditation standards for college programs for students with intellectual disability.

This document includes the original, 2021 version of program accreditation standards, guidance on how to address those standards in your inclusive college program, and the documentation that will be required to indicate that the standard is met. For the current version, see the 2024 Program Accreditation Guidance Manual.

This Executive Summary provides a brief overview of the entire Report on Model Accreditation Standards for Higher Education Programs for Students with Intellectual Disability: Progress on the Path to Education, Employment, and Community Living by the 2016-2020 NCC Accreditation Workgroup. It includes the model accreditation standards and recommendations to Congress and the Department of Education.

In this webinar from January, 2012 sponsored by the Golisano Foundation and the University of Rochester, Meg Grigal provides an overview of the Think College Standards, including how they were developed and how they can be used.

Link to recording: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gUXp9It_RA

This brief describes the fiscal, policy, and environmental contexts of the state of practice and research in the field of inclusive higher education for students with intellectual disability (ID) at the time it was written, in 2011. It also introduces a validated, standards-based conceptual framework that provides a foundation for future research and practice in this field.  

Think College first developed Standards, Quality Indicators, and Benchmarks for Inclusive Higher Education in 2011 and 2012.  The standards are currently undergoing revision. Download the most current version (January 2022), now entitled "Think College Guiding Principles and Practices".