Congress and Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA)
Since returning in January 2007, the U.S. Senate has been working on a new bill to reauthorize the Higher Education Act (HEA). The provisions are likely to be similar to the Senate bill (S. 1614) from the last Congress. A new bill may be introduced in March of this year. The House of Representatives appears on track to introduce a bill later in the year, with provisions that differ significantly from the bill that was passed in the prior session (HR 609).
We expect that both bills will continue to focus on the same accreditation-related issues as prior bills: student learning outcomes, institution and program performance, transparency, distance learning and transfer of credit. In addition, Congress is monitoring the work of the United States Department of Education (USDE) and its upcoming negotiated rulemaking on accreditation and implications for reauthorization.
The current HEA expires on June 30, 2007.
The 2007 CHEA Agenda For Reauthorization of Higher Education Act
At its January 29, 2007 meeting, the CHEA Board of Directors approved the 2007 CHEA Agenda for Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. This document will serve as the foundation of CHEA's work with the Congress and USDE as reauthorization proceeds.
The 2007 Agenda is similar in many ways to the document approved by the CHEA board in 2003. It calls on Congress to acknowledge the vital and valuable role of accreditation in assuring academic quality and serving students and society. It reaffirms the strength and success of accreditation as a private, decentralized, judgment-based enterprise of self-regulation.
At the same time, the Agenda is a call for additional leadership from higher education and accreditation in addressing the key issues of student learning outcomes, institution and program performance, transparency, distance learning and transfer of credit. While government may hold us accountable for additional progress in these areas, the leadership for developing evidence and information as well as addressing policy and effective practice for student success needs to remain with colleges, universities, programs and accrediting organizations working together.
The Secretary of Education's Commission on the Future of Higher Education: Stutus and Action on Recommendations Related to Accreditation
As reported in HEA Updates 33 and 34, USDE has moved in a number of directions since the release of the report of the Commission on the Future of Higher Education in September 2006. These include working with the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity especially to place additional emphasis on student learning outcomes in the committee's review of individual accreditors, conducting negotiated rulemaking on accreditation and hosting a March 2007 summit on the report's recommendations, including accreditation.
CHEA will participate in negotiated rulemaking as a nonfederal negotiator. CHEA has also been invited to participate in the March summit, including the work group on accreditation.
Here are additional details about both the negotiated rulemaking and the summit.
Recent Developments: Negotiated Rulemaking
As indicated in the Federal Register of January 30, 2007, USDE has scheduled three negotiating sessions. This first is February 21-23, 2007 at the Crystal City (VA) Marriott. The second is March 26-28 and the third is April 24-26. Vickie Schray, Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary of Education, is the federal negotiator. She will be working with Kay Gilcher, Senior Policy Analyst. The meetings are open to the public.
The agenda that has been announced for the sessions is as follows:
- Due Process
- Substantive Change
- Monitoring
- Relationship of Process Standards to Student Achievement
- Measures of Student Achievement
- Standard Definitions of Terms Related to Student Achievement
- Quantitative Standards for Programs Leading to Gainful Employment
- Institutional Accountability
- Consideration of Mission in Application of Standards
- Transfer of Credit and Acceptance of Credentials
- Definition of Terms
- Direct Assessment Programs
- Scope of Recognition
- Technical and Process Improvements
- Recognition Procedures
- Decision-making Authority
- Record Keeping and Confidentiality of Agency Materials
- Providing Information to the Public
According to information shared by USDE in January, the committee's first order of business is the formal adoption of the protocols for the negotiations. After protocols are adopted, the negotiators will finalize the agenda and begin to discuss the substance of the work before the committee. The first negotiating session will be a workshop on the issues to be negotiated.
2006-2007 Title IV Negotiated Rulemaking Committees. Organizational ProtocolsAccreditation Team I. Mission StatementThe U.S. Department of Education has established this negotiated rulemaking committee to develop proposed accreditation regulations pursuant to Sec. 492 of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended (HEA). II. Participation
III. Decision MakingThe committee will operate by consensus, meaning that there must be no dissent by any member in order for the committee to be considered to have reached agreement. Thus, no member can be outvoted. Members should not block or withhold consensus unless they have serious reservations about the approach or solution that is proposed for consensus. Absence will be equivalent to not dissenting. All consensus agreements reached during the negotiations will be assumed to be tentative agreements until members of the committee reach final agreement on regulatory language. Once final consensus is achieved, committee members may not thereafter withdraw their consensus. IV. Agreement
V. Committee Meetings
VI. Safeguards for Members
VII. Meeting Facilitation
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March 2007 Summit - "A Test of Leadership"
As published in a December 21, 2006 Dear Colleague letter, the summit that the Secretary of Education is convening will bring higher education, accreditation and other sectors together to discuss the recommendations of the Futures Commission. It will be held in Washington, DC, March 21-22, 2007. The work of the summit will focus on five priority areas: (1) aligning K-12 and higher education expectations, (2) increasing need-based aid, (3) using accreditation to support and emphasize student learning outcomes, (4) serving adults and other non-traditional students and (5) expanding affordability through increased transparency of costs.
According to information provided several weeks ago, USDE has created work groups that will be responsible for identifying the top several actions, in advance of the summit, that can be implemented in the next 12 months. One of the work groups will focus on accreditation and student learning outcomes and will be chaired by Geri Malandra, Vice Chancellor for Strategic Management, University of Texas System.
Summit Work GroupsScope of Work: Develop a Top Five List for 2007. Actions must be concrete, politically feasible to implement this year, high-leverage, and written specifically to the authority of a stakeholder group (e.g., business, philanthropy, state policymakers, college president, and system head/trustee). Include in the list actions that have demonstrated examples of best practice.
Example of an Action that Should not Appear on a Top Five List:
Work Group Composition:
Work Process & Timeline:
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Reintroduction of Degree Mill Legislation
On January 31, 2007 Congresswoman Betty McCollum (D-MN) re-introduced the degree mill legislation she had proposed in the 109th Congress. The Congresswoman discussed the new bill at the 2007 CHEA Annual Conference recently held in Washington DC. "The Diploma Integrity Protection Act of 2007" (H.R. 773), is cosponsored by Congressman Timothy Bishop (D-NY) and Congressman Raul Grijalva (D-AZ). The bill addresses a number of difficult issues related to degree mills.
The major provisions of the bill include:
- Definitions of a "degree granting institution," "diploma mill" and "institution of higher education."
- A Task Force to determine the characteristics of degree-granting institutions, the feasibility of defining a "fraudulent degree-granting institution," laws and regulations that might be used to address "fraudulent degree-granting institutions" and other related subjects. The Task Force will:
- develop a plan to protect the federal government against the use of diploma mill credentials to gain federal employment.
- present legislation for Congress to consider.
- A Sense of Congress inviting states to follow the federal lead in this area.
- An unfair and deceptive practices provision enforced by the Federal Trade Commission that recognizes accreditation as a key to diploma integrity.
- A study to inform the Task Force in its work analyzing:
- the numbers and types of degree-granting institutions that are not accredited that are legitimate as opposed to fraudulent.
- why legitimate institutions do not obtain accreditation.
- steps that can be taken to repair vulnerabilities in the student loan program.
H.R. 773 has been referred to a number of committees in the House, including the Committee on Education and Labor.