美国远程高等教育政策演变———铁三角监管制度及问题分析

The Evolution of Post － secondary Distance Education Ｒules and Policies in the United States:Analysis of Mechanism and Issues about the TＲIAD Ｒegulation System

美国远程教育的监管体系是由联邦政府、地方州政府和认证机构三个主体共同构成的“铁三角”。论文采用政策分析法，理清了远程高等教育实践最近二十年的发展与联邦远程高等教育监管体系及其政策演变这一相互缠绕的发展路径，呈现了监管主体与办学主体特别是营利远程教育院校之间角力的格局。针对现阶段远程教育发展环境并不理想，监管主体的职能和效力弱化的问题，作者认为未来远程教育能否走入健康发展的轨道主要取决于联邦教育部与国会是否能进一步收紧政策，规范管理网络远程高等教育。

The quality monitoring system for online education practice in the United States consists of three pillars:federal government and congress，local state governments and accreditation associations，which is called TＲIAD． Byusing the method of policy analysis，the author has identified the interaction process between the practice of distanceeducation and its external changing monitoring policies in the last two decades． The wrestle between the TＲIAD anddistance education institutions，especially for － profit distance education has been outlined． Considering the gradual erosionenvironment for sustainable online education development and the decreasing power and effectiveness of the TＲIADmonitoring function in this decade，the author proposes that the correction of online education’s going awry nowadaysshould rely heavily on whether the federal government，especially the Department of Education，could continue tocome out with more stringent policies for online learning as well as for － profit higher education．