NASPAA Standards Colloquia

The NASPAA Executive Council, together with the Standards Committee, convened a series of conversations to begin the decennial review of the NASPAA Accreditation Standards. In the culmination of this process, the Standards Committee offered revisions to the NASPAA Accreditation Standards for an up or down vote at the October 18 NASPAA Business Meeting in Los Angeles, California. These revisions were approved by a vote of accredited programs.

In consideration of feedback from peers through listening sessions, surveys, and committee discussions, the Standards Committee offers specific revisions to address areas for growth first highlighted in the July 2017 Dear Colleagues letter:

• Nonprofit at the Core: the revisions establish nonprofit management as fundamental to public service education. Changes to language throughout the Standards, including the universal required competencies, explicitly integrate the third sector.
• Global accreditation: the revisions highlight critical public service values such as transparency, accountability, participation, and equity, which align with NASPAA’s goals to support effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions, and serve as hallmarks of public service worldwide.
• Cultural Competency: Also important in the global public service values discussion, the revisions incorporate equity, support, retention, and responsiveness into the Standards, retaining the flexibility necessary to accredit in different contexts, while emphasizing the role diversity, equity, and inclusion must play in public service education.
• New Developments: The revisions target the universal required competencies to ensure they are as multisectoral as the field of public service, rigorous with regard to critical analysis and decision-making, and adaptable to the rapidly changing needs and environments of the field, be they technological, geographic, or otherwise.

In revising the Standards, the Committee worked to enhance the inclusivity, flexibility, and global scope, without increasing the burden on schools.  The revisions emphasize NASPAA’s longtime commitment to striving to be formative and developmental in our accreditation process, to celebrate quality.

For more information regarding the philosophy and rationale behind the proposed revisions, please refer to the following documents:

• May 2019 draft of revisions to the Standards, with tracked changes
• NASPAA Standards Colloquium Steering Committee March 2019 Report to the Executive Council
• Data Science White Paper, David Van Slyke (on behalf of the NASPAA Research Committee)
• Sustainable Development Goals White Paper, Jack Meek and Laurel McFarland (forthcoming)

We greatly appreciate your time and input throughout the Colloquia and Revisions processes.

For an overview of the entire process, please visit this page.