Boise State is accredited regionally and nationally by agencies approved by the U.S. Department of Education. You can't get a better recommendation than that.

The university as a whole is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, which is charged with measuring and vouching for the academic integrity of postsecondary educational institutions in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington "and the accreditation of such programs offered via distance education within these institutions."

The online graduate programs in Educational Technology are accredited by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education. NCATE also is approved by the U.S. Department of Education.

How do you measure credibility?
In 1952, the U.S. Department of Education created eight regional accrediting agencies to assure the quality of America's schools and colleges. In 1974, three more were added.

Basically, accreditation means acceptance. It means that academic credits earned at an accredited college or university are recognized by other institutions as having met a standard of quality. Accreditation is what makes college credits transferable to other institutions, and what makes degrees valuable.

Here's an example of how the system works. A year or so ago, a man with a bachelor's degree from a midwest Bible college applied for admission to Boise State's online master's program in Educational Technology. We could not admit him because his degree was issued by an institution unrecognized by one of the regional accrediting agencies. The man's alma mater was, in fact, accredited by a national association of Bible schools; even though that particular accreditation may be valuable in regard to evaluating methods and rigor in religious instruction, it is not a federally endorsed or commonly accepted measurement of academic instruction.

The U.S. Department of Education also recognizes organizations that accredit specialized instruction, such as NCATE's work in teacher education. Many trade schools are accredited by recognized organizations, and their trade certifications may be the gold standard within those trades, but they are not the same as college degrees.

If you'd like to know more about accreditation, we invite you to review the U.S. Department of Education's web site at: http://www.ed.gov/admins/finaid/accred/index.html.