Pre-tertiary-education accreditation is a type of quality assurance process used in the United States under which services and operations of pre-tertiary schools and educational institutions or programs are evaluated by an external body to determine if applicable standards are met.
In pursuit of that objective, the association undertook a thorough examination of education quality at both the secondary and college level.
There is no similar federal government list of recognized accreditation agencies for primary and secondary schools.
Public schools must adhere to criteria set by the state governments, and there is wide variation among the individual states in the requirements applied to non-public primary and secondary schools.
[citation needed] Some states, including Missouri[5] and North Dakota,[6] accredit public secondary schools within their borders.