Masters Degree Program Accreditation

When you choose a master's degree in education, check three things: whether the school holds institutional accreditation, whether its educator preparation program holds programmatic accreditation, and—if you want the degree to lead to a teaching license—whether your state has approved the program. Each check answers a different question, and one does not substitute for another.

Accreditation in the United States is a nongovernmental, peer-review process: institutions and programs ask an accrediting agency to evaluate them against its standards, according to the U.S. Department of Education's (ED) overview of accreditation. As ED puts it on its college accreditation page, the goal of accreditation is “...to ensure that education provided by institutions of higher education meets acceptable levels of quality.”

Types of Accreditation

ED's history and context of accreditation describes two types:

  • Institutional — Applies to an entire college or university.
  • Programmatic (also called specialized) — Applies to a program, department or school within an institution. For a master's in education, this is the accreditation of the educator preparation program itself.

You may still see schools describe themselves as "regionally" or "nationally" accredited. ED ended its recognition of accrediting agencies as "regional" when a rule change took effect on July 1, 2020, and ED has said that "national," "institutional" and "programmatic" are the appropriate terms for a recognized accreditor's scope, according to an ED notice published in the Federal Register in February 2026. Rather than relying on a regional or national label, look for the school's accreditor on ED's list of recognized institutional accrediting agencies.

Why Accreditation Matters

Institutional accreditation affects how you can pay for the degree. To receive federal student aid from ED, you must attend an institution accredited by a "nationally recognized" accrediting agency, ED explains in its overview of accreditation.

Accreditation has limits, too. ED's history and context of accreditation notes that it does not guarantee another school will accept your credits or that employers will accept your degree, and it advises students to check with prospective employers and with any agency that licenses graduates before enrolling.

For the education program itself, two accreditors that review educator preparation programs across the United States, including master's-level programs, are the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) and the Association for Advancing Quality in Educator Preparation (AAQEP). Both are recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA), according to CHEA's directory (last verified October 15, 2026). CAEP's own description of accreditation explains that it is a professional accreditor: it reviews the departments, schools and colleges that prepare educators, separately from the institution's overall accreditation.

If a program still cites NCATE accreditation, note that the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and the Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC) merged with CAEP in September 2014, according to CHEA's CAEP listing. Confirm the program's current status in CAEP's accredited provider search.

Applicant Credentials

Accreditation does not set one admissions rule for every master's program, but it can tell you who a program is built for. CAEP accredits programs at the initial-licensure level and at the advanced level, as CHEA's CAEP listing shows (last verified October 15, 2026). CAEP's advanced-level standards (last verified October 15, 2026) define advanced-level programs as graduate or post-baccalaureate programs for P-12 teachers who have already completed an initial preparation program, currently licensed administrators and other certificated school professionals.

For advanced-level programs, CAEP's standards also require the provider to set academic admissions requirements at the highest of three benchmarks: CAEP's minimum (a group average college GPA of 3.0, or group average performance in the top 50 percent on a nationally normed assessment), the state's minimum or the graduate school's minimum, according to the same CAEP advanced-level standards. Because the CAEP minimum is a group average, an individual applicant's requirements are still set by the program.

If you are not yet a licensed teacher, look for a program that prepares candidates for an initial license, and review the other steps in getting your teaching credential.

Accreditation vs. State Approval for Teacher Licensure

A teaching license comes from a state, not from an accreditor. CAEP's description of accreditation notes that after completing a program, teachers seek licensure or certification from the state in which they wish to teach. States also maintain their own approval of educator preparation programs: CAEP describes its state partnership agreements as combining national accreditation standards with state program approval, and the terms of those agreements differ from state to state.

Before you enroll, confirm with the state education agency where you plan to teach that the program is approved for the license you want, and compare the program with that state's teacher certification requirements. If you might teach in another state later, read up on teacher certification reciprocity before you choose a program.

If a state rule you are reading still asks for "regional" accreditation, ask the state agency how it applies that requirement today. ED has said that state laws referring to an ED-recognized "regional" accrediting agency are obsolete to that extent and has encouraged states to revise them, according to the same Federal Register notice.

Online Masters Accreditation

Online programs are accredited through the same system as campus programs. Institutional accreditation applies to the entire institution, and on ED's list of recognized institutional accrediting agencies, the recognized scopes of many agencies include distance education (last verified October 16, 2026). Programmatic accreditation, such as CAEP or AAQEP, is still something to confirm for the specific online program.

Licensure deserves extra attention when you study online, because you may live in a different state from the school. Under federal regulations, a school that participates in federal student aid programs must list the states where a program designed to lead to a professional license or certification does and does not meet the state's educational requirements. If the program does not meet the requirements in the state where you are located, or the school has not determined whether it does, the school must tell you in writing before you enroll, according to 34 CFR 668.43.

How to Check a Master's Program's Accreditation

  1. Check the school. Look the school up in CHEA's database of accredited institutions and programs or in the database of accredited postsecondary institutions and programs linked from ED's college accreditation page, and confirm that the listing shows the school's current institutional accreditation. Then confirm that the accreditor named in that listing appears on ED's list of recognized institutional accrediting agencies. An accreditor's recognition alone does not show that a particular school is accredited.
  2. Check the education program. Search CAEP's accredited provider search or AAQEP's list of accredited programs (both last verified October 15, 2026), and confirm that the listing covers the program and level you plan to enroll in.
  3. Check state approval. Ask the state education agency where you plan to teach whether the program is approved for the license you want.
  4. Get the licensure disclosure. For an online or out-of-state program, ask the school for its written determination of whether the program meets licensure requirements in your state.

Learn more information on Master of Arts in Teaching and Master of Education.

Information last updated: October 2026