Christian Leaders Institute…

[Travis_CVUgrad]

CLI will remain free and unaccredited. Christian Leaders College is an applicant with ABHE, which is a religious accreditor recognized by the Department of Education. They're keeping the two separate so that CLI can remain free and open access. You can transfer CLI credits to CLC or an accredited seminary that has an agreement with CLI.

 

A third visit for accreditation is this week! Link: https://www.christianleadersinstitute.or...on-status/

So, if ABHE is a religious accreditor recognized by the Department of Education, wouldn't that make the school NA (vs RA) once complete? Or am I misunderstanding something? I have a much clearer understanding on what constitutes a school being RA vs NA.

Yes, kinda.

As of 2020, Regional Accreditation doesn't really exist (although some institutions may still refer to themselves as Regionally Accredited). The DOE removed recognition of Regional Accreditation in 2019. That is why some of the previous Regional Accreditors have changed their names and/or restructured. There are essentially two types of accreditation now: Institutional and Programmatic. 

That is why the regional and national accrediting organizations now refer to themselves as "Institutional Accreditors". The government does not acknowledge a difference between Regional Accreditation versus National Accreditation. Technically, they are all NA now, as long as they are recognized by the DOE and CHEA.

Christian Leaders College is currently in applicant status with ABHE which is both an Institutional and Programmatic Accreditor. The total process for accreditation can take between 5-10 years. After applicant status, they will be reviewed (in a few months) for Candidate status, which essentially verifies that they are prepared for accreditation, and then will be required to maintain the quality of their programming and administration for a period of time before being granted initial accreditation. This is a process that all schools must go through in order to qualify for accreditation. 

I did choose to take a large series of undergrad general education credits from CLC because they are basically free and transferrable into a number of CHEA/DOE recognized Institutionally accredited schools. Some of the schools will accept you directly into their graduate programs upon completion of a bachelors degree from CLC. I transferred my credits into an institutionally accredited school and completed my B.S. there.

CLC courses are not "easy", but one thing I will say is that the process can be different than some other schools. There typically aren't scheduled live class sessions like other distance schools have. Instead, you watch pre-recorded lecture sessions, participate in discussion posts, read the course material and complete the exams. A staff member is assigned to each course who will answer questions, provide counsel, etc.

One thing I did note about them is that the staff across the board are very friendly and respond very quickly to emails. They do request feedback on courses upon completion and take it seriously if you express concerns about the quality of a course or the course content. They do seem very intent on achieving accreditation status with ABHE.

A note about ABHE: they are not an "easy" accreditor, meaning they don't just grant religious schools a badge. They have been known to deny several schools accreditation for failure to comply with standards over a long period. While this may be more daunting for the institution, it is good news for future students who want to know that their school's accreditation is legitimate. Another thing to note is that ABHE is a bit more religiously conservative and fundamentalist than its counterpart ATS (The Association of Theological Schools). Each accreditation tends to appeal to certain denominations if you're looking for a religiously accredited school for some form of ordination or ministry licensing. ATS accreditation is more common amongst more liberal denominations, but also highly respected as a religious accreditor in pretty much all academic theology circles. ABHE is more widely known in evangelical circles.