In the design and implementation of the Council on Postsecondary Accreditation's (COPA) Project to Develop Evaluative Criteria and Procedures for the Accreditation of Nontraditional Education, a taxonomy for the classification and determination of the nature of nontraditional institutions has been developed. The objective of the study was to identify those characteristics, components, and elements that should be common and essential to any postsecondary institution and program, and to frame them into a single taxonomy. This model may provide for consistency in developmental (internal) and evaluation (external) processes. A great deal of latitude is provided the institution and its personnel in applying the model. The classifications consist of institutional characteristics (purpose, sponsorship, students, faculty, degrees offered, student costs, and financial data) and program characteristics (purpose, curriculum, faculty, delivery system, learning methods, admission requirements, completion requirements, advanced standing processes, advising, evaluation systems, learning resources, and costs), which may be identified as either traditional or nontraditional. A mathematical formula is applied to the classifications, and the result allows the user to place the institution on a traditional-nontraditional continuum. The bulk of the report consists of profiles (derived from the taxonomy) of 62 institutions used as models in the study. (Author/MSE)