Dear ASA Connect Community,
[registration link]
The ASA Board of Directors has charged a task force with exploring the creation of ABET accreditation criteria for statistics and biostatistics programs, and we invite you to a listening session [registration link] to learn more and share your feedback. As a reminder, ASA is an organizational member of CSAB, and we began that affiliation to have a seat at the table around accreditation of data science programs.
[The links in this email introduce "ABET" and "CSAB" among other things. Also see below for additional information about our task force's charge and ASA's history with CSAB.]
The task force begins from the premise that no one wants to create an environment where statistics or biostatistics programs feel pressured to seek accreditation; that said, we have identified benefits of beginning to develop criteria. The next step in this exploration process is to get input from you on benefits and risks.
Sincerely,
David Hunter, Task Force Chair
[registration link]
Additional information: Exploration of the Development of Criteria for ABET Accreditation of Statistics Programs
The task force is charged with assessing the sense of the statistics community regarding the potential development of ABET program criteria for accrediting statistics and biostatistics programs.
If the process is pursued, formally, these criteria would be administered by ABET's Applied and Natural Science Commission (ANSAC), following the style of the program criteria for baccalaureate programs in "Data Science, Data Analytics, and Similarly Named Programs" currently included in the Criteria for Accrediting Applied and Natural Science Programs. Draft criteria undergo the ABET two-year process of public feedback and modification before becoming codified in the ANSAC criteria.
David Hunter chairs the task force and Donna LaLonde is staff liaison. The task force will submit a report to ASA's Board of Directors for discussion at its November 2026 meeting.
The process of developing criteria would combine the ASA's expertise with the procedural requirements of CSAB and ANSAC.
Reasons for this exploration:
● Developing program criteria for ABET accreditation requires articulating what statistics graduates should know and be able to do. This approach is precisely the kind of rigorous, consensus-based thinking needed to catalyze the broader essential effort to update ASA's undergraduate curriculum guidelines for a profession that looks very different from it did in 2014.
● Unlike the broader continuous improvement processes embedded in regional university accreditation, ABET accreditation requires a rigorous, program-level process of documented continuous improvement that most U.S. statistics programs have not implemented.
● Any statistics program can already seek ABET accreditation based on the non-program-specific general criteria that apply to all natural science programs. (As of July 2026, one non-U.S. statistics program has earned such accreditation.) By helping establish program-specific criteria for statistics, ASA could preclude this possibility and ensure that ABET-accredited statistics programs meet rigorous requirements tailored to statistics programs.
● Establishing program-specific ABET criteria is a multi-year process. If there is potential interest in accreditation, it is best to start as soon as possible. Furthermore, there will be ample time to publicize this effort once it has begun. Indeed, CSAB has reserved a table at JSM's EXPO for the first time this year.
● ASA is already embedded in the ABET organization (via CSAB) as an increasingly well-respected partner. By not considering program-specific statistics criteria, ASA is leaving a great deal of ABET expertise and reputational heft "on the table".
Brief History of ASA's involvement with ABET: Since 2021, ASA has been officially part of the accreditation body ABET, which has nearly a century of experience as the world's leading accreditation body for programs in applied and natural science, computing, engineering, and engineering technology. ASA is one of four professional organizations that make up the ABET society known as CSAB, which was formed in 1984 by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Computer Society (IEEE–CS) for accrediting computer science programs. CSAB became a member society of ABET in 2001. (Though both "ABET" and "CSAB" were originally acronyms, neither is an acronym today because each organization has expanded beyond its original purview.) During the process of developing criteria for data science programs, CSAB invited ASA's participation, as a result of which ASA became the third constituent organization of CSAB in 2021. The criteria for accrediting baccalaureate programs in data science, data analytics, and similarly named programs were developed through a collaborative process that deliberately included ASA members. These criteria are now included within the criteria for two different commissions, ANSAC (Applied and Natural Sciences Accreditation Commission) and CAC (Computing Accreditation Commission). In 2024, the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) also joined CSAB.
[registration link]
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David Hunter
Emeritus Professor
Penn State UniversityEmeritus Professor
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