How do I know that an educational institute is accredited? How can I investigate whether an institute is authentic and accredited?

Which web-sites or listings can I check?

For instance, say I want to investigate The Chicago School of Professional Psychology.
Googling  'The Chicago School accreditation' leads to their accreditation page. There it is stated that


  The Chicago School of Professional Psychology has been accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC) since 2011. To learn more about WSCUC, please see their contact information below. Click here  to view our Statement of Accreditation Status


You can then go to the WASC list of institutions and find The Chicago School listed there.

Having tried several other semi-random institutions, googling '[name] accreditation' usually results in a page on their site listing who accredits them. A second google search will get to that accreditation agency's list of schools that it accredits if you want to double check. 

A further complication is that there may be multiple accreditation organizations involved, some for specific departments or schools within a university. For example, Princeton University is, according their Office of Institutional Research, accredited through the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. In addition, the Engineering School is accredited through the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, Inc. So, you may need to dig deeper to discover if a particular major, program, or department is accredited appropriately for what you need.

Although, one should be aware of just what accreditation means. Fortunately, what was horrendously prescriptive in the 1980s (particularly in engineering) has become more holistic in approach and focused on outcomes, not specific courses with a specific syllabus.