General Guiding Principles of Good Practice for Educational Credential Evaluation

General Guiding Principles of Good Practice for Educational Credential Evaluation

The National Association of Credential Evaluation Services (NACES) is an association of private educational credential evaluation services committed to formulating and maintaining ethical standards in the field of non-U.S. education evaluation. No government agency regulates the establishment of foreign credential services in the United States. Membership in NACES is an important indication of the quality of work accomplished by a credential evaluation service and an assurance that the evaluation it performs will be reliable.

The Code of Good Practices is designed to present the perspectives of all NACES members regarding general guiding principles in the evaluation and recognition of non-U.S. credentials.

General Principles

NACES members are expected to accept and adhere to the following principles of good practice:

In their promotional materials

to state clearly and precisely the requirements for an evaluation;
to provide a schedule of fees, services covered, and time typically required to complete the services;
to describe in detail the terms and conditions of the service.

In their application procedures

to serve all clients fairly and honestly, without regard to their race, color, creed, gender, age, disability or national origin;
to obtain as much information and documentation as may be necessary in each individual case to provide as accurate an evaluation as possible, consistent with the purpose of the evaluation, and to refuse requests for evaluations without appropriate documentation;
to receive information about applicants in confidence and to respect completely, within the confines of federal or state law, the confidential nature of such information;
to resist improper attempts to influence the content of evaluations to suit particular purposes and to refuse offers of compensation for evaluation not based on fact;
to notify applicants as soon as possible if additional documentation is required;
to accept full responsibility for evaluation decisions and for proper notification of those decisions to applicants and, if appropriate, to other recipients indicated by applicants;
to state the consequences of submitting altered, falsified, fraudulent, or misleading documentation or information.

In their document requirements

to specify documentation required to provide evaluation services;
to require official educational documents;
to issue evaluation reports based on authentic academic credentials. If documents have been found altered or falsified by the issuing institution or awarding authority, an evaluation report should not be prepared.

Guidelines for evaluation procedures and criteria

the methodology employed in credential evaluation is based on professionally accepted resources and reference material available to the field of credential evaluation;
to ensure evaluation policies and procedures are periodically reviewed so they are accurate, appropriate, and based on information that takes into account the diversity of educational systems;
to evaluate an academic credential after the recognition/accreditation status of the academic institution and/or program has been established;
to employ in the evaluation process a range of criteria, including, but not limited to:
- admission requirements
- length of program
- program type, structure, and intention
- credential/qualification award requirements

In the appeal process

upon request, the evaluation service should inform the applicant the basis for the outcome of evaluation.

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