The U.S. Department of Education awarded $14.5 million to 15 projects to seed new accrediting models and create up to 10 alternative accreditors, a direct response to last year’s executive order on accreditation reform. The grants, distributed through the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education, fund pilot accrediting entities designed to operate outside the traditional regional accreditor framework. Institutions and state policymakers should expect a patchwork of novel quality-assurance models to emerge as these projects test specialized accreditation approaches. The Department’s move represents the most significant federal intervention in accreditation architecture in decades, and could change how colleges prove eligibility for federal aid and how program quality is audited. (Forbes / University Business coverage of the DoE grant round.)