Quality Higher Education Act of 2019

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 4579 To require the Secretary of Education to initiate a negotiated rulemaking process with respect to when an institution of higher education fails to meet accreditation standards, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SEPTEMBER 27, 2019 Ms. WILSON of Florida introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and Labor A BILL To require the Secretary of Education to initiate a negotiated rulemaking process with respect to when an institution of higher education fails to meet accreditation standards, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Quality Higher Edu- 4 cation Act of 2019’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:00 Oct 04, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4579.IH H4579 jbell on DSK3GLQ082PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 4579 IH SEC. 2. RULEMAKING REQUIREMENTS FOR ACCREDITING 1 AGENCY RECOGNITION. 2 (a) RULEMAKING.—The Secretary of Education shall 3 initiate a negotiated rulemaking process to— 4 (1) establish a common set of steps or con- 5 sequences each accrediting agency or association 6 shall follow when any institution of higher education 7 subject to the jurisdiction of such agency or associa- 8 tion fails to meet the accreditation standards se- 9 lected or set by such agency or association pursuant 10 to section 496(a)(5) of the Higher Education Act of 11 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1099b(a)(5)), as amended by this 12 section; and 13 (2) establish the list of standards (and a defini- 14 tion for each such standard) that shall be used by 15 each accrediting agency or association for purposes 16 of section 496(a)(5)(A) of the Higher Education Act 17 of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1099b(a)(5)(A)) for each of the 18 following domains: 19 (A) Completion (which may include stand- 20 ards on graduation rates or rates of transfer 21 from a 2-year to a 4-year institution). 22 (B) Workforce participation (which may 23 include standards on rates of licensure, job 24 placement, or employment). 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:19 Oct 03, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4579.IH H4579 jbell on DSK3GLQ082PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 4579 IH (C) Measures that assess the progress of 1 an institution toward meeting the standards for 2 completion and workforce participation (which 3 may include standards on retention rates and 4 persistence rates). 5 (b) RECOGNITION OF ACCREDITING AGENCY OR AS- 6 SOCIATION.—Section 496 of the Higher Education Act of 7 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1099b) is amended— 8 (1) in subsection (a)— 9 (A) in paragraph (5), by striking subpara- 10 graphs (A) through (J) and inserting the fol- 11 lowing: 12 ‘‘(A) success with respect to student 13 achievement in relation to the institution’s mis- 14 sion (except that the agencies and associations 15 described in paragraph (2)(A)(ii) shall not be 16 subject to this subparagraph), which— 17 ‘‘(i) shall be assessed using at least 1 18 standard selected by the agency or associa- 19 tion from a list of options for such stand- 20 ards established and defined by the Sec- 21 retary under section 2(a) of the Quality 22 Higher Education Act of 2019 for each of 23 the following domains— 24 ‘‘(I) completion; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:19 Oct 03, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4579.IH H4579 jbell on DSK3GLQ082PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 4579 IH ‘‘(II) workforce participation; and 1 ‘‘(III) measures that assess 2 progress toward meeting the comple- 3 tion and workforce participation 4 standards; 5 ‘‘(ii) may be assessed using different 6 standards selected under clause (i) for 7 each peer group of institutions, as such 8 groups are defined by the agency or asso- 9 ciation, except that— 10 ‘‘(I) each standard selected for a 11 peer group of institutions shall be the 12 same standard for, and shall be ap- 13 plied consistently to, all the institu- 14 tions in the peer group; and 15 ‘‘(II) such a peer group of insti- 16 tutions cannot be based solely on— 17 ‘‘(aa) the demographic char- 18 acteristics of the students attend- 19 ing such institutions; or 20 ‘‘(bb) the sector of the insti- 21 tution (including whether the in- 22 stitution is a public institution, a 23 proprietary institution, or a non- 24 profit institution); 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:19 Oct 03, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4579.IH H4579 jbell on DSK3GLQ082PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 4579 IH ‘‘(iii) shall be assessed using a single 1 performance benchmark established by the 2 agency or association for each standard se- 3 lected under clause (i), which shall be the 4 same performance benchmark for all insti- 5 tutions for the standard for which the 6 benchmark is established (without regard 7 to the peer group of an institution), except 8 that such a performance benchmark may 9 differ for each category of educational pro- 10 grams (as defined in section 435(a)(9)(E)) 11 offered by institutions, as long as the per- 12 formance benchmark for any such category 13 is the same performance benchmark for all 14 institutions (without regard to the peer 15 group of an institution); and 16 ‘‘(iv) in the case of an institution de- 17 fined in section 101(a), may include con- 18 sideration of— 19 ‘‘(I) the historical significance of 20 the institution; and 21 ‘‘(II) whether the institution is 22 one of the only physical locations at 23 which postsecondary education is pro- 24 vided in the geographic area; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:19 Oct 03, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4579.IH H4579 jbell on DSK3GLQ082PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 4579 IH ‘‘(B) student achievement outcomes and 1 program outcomes disaggregated by the sub- 2 groups specified in section 153(a)(3)(A) of the 3 Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (20 4 U.S.C. 9543(a)(3)(A)); 5 ‘‘(C) credentials, as measured by the value 6 of such credentials to the earners of such cre- 7 dentials; 8 ‘‘(D) curricula, including program length, 9 course sequencing, and objectives related to 10 credentialing; 11 ‘‘(E) faculty; 12 ‘‘(F) student support services; 13 ‘‘(G) recruiting and admissions practices, 14 academic calendars, catalogues, publications, 15 and grading; and 16 ‘‘(H) fiscal and administrative capacity 17 (which shall include the institution’s govern- 18 ance) as appropriate to the specified scale of 19 operations;’’; 20 (B) by redesignating paragraphs (6) 21 through (8) as paragraphs (7) through (9), re- 22 spectively; and 23 (C) by inserting after paragraph (5) the 24 following: 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:19 Oct 03, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4579.IH H4579 jbell on DSK3GLQ082PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 4579 IH ‘‘(6) such agency or association shall make 1 available on a publicly accessible website, up-to-date 2 information on— 3 ‘‘(A) the institutions in each peer group of 4 institutions that are subject to the jurisdiction 5 of such agency or association; 6 ‘‘(B) the student achievement standards 7 selected by the agency or association under 8 paragraph (5) for each peer group of institu- 9 tions, the rationale for the selection of such 10 standards, and how such standards are factored 11 into the accreditation process; 12 ‘‘(C) the performance benchmark estab- 13 lished for each standard selected by the agency 14 or association under paragraph (5) and the ra- 15 tionale for the establishment of such perform- 16 ance benchmark; 17 ‘‘(D) the institutions that failed to meet 18 such standards; and 19 ‘‘(E) any sanction, adverse action, or other 20 action taken with respect to an institution and 21 the reason for such sanction or adverse action; 22 and’’; 23 (2) in subsection (g), in the last sentence, by 24 striking ‘‘Nothing in’’ and inserting the following: 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:19 Oct 03, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4579.IH H4579 jbell on DSK3GLQ082PROD with BILLS 8 •HR 4579 IH ‘‘Except as otherwise specified in subsection 1 (a)(5)(A) and section 2(a) of the Quality Higher 2 Education Act of 2019, nothing in’’; 3 (3) in subsection (o), in the second sentence, by 4 striking ‘‘Notwithstanding’’ and inserting the fol- 5 lowing: ‘‘Except as otherwise provided in subsection 6 (a)(5)(A) and section 2(a) of the Quality Higher 7 Education Act of 2019 and notwithstanding’’; 8 (4) in subsection (p), by striking ‘‘Nothing’’ 9 and inserting ‘‘Except as otherwise provided in sub- 10 section (a)(5)(A) and section 2(a) of the Quality 11 Higher Education Act of 2019, nothing’’; and 12 (5) by adding at the end the following: 13 ‘‘(r) EVALUATION OF QUALITY AND ACHIEVEMENT 14 MEASURES.— 15 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall direct 16 the National Advisory Committee on Institutional 17 Quality and Integrity to— 18 ‘‘(A) regularly evaluate the effectiveness of 19 the performance benchmarks established and 20 standards selected by accrediting agencies and 21 associations under subsection (a)(5)(A); and 22 ‘‘(B) compare similarly situated accrediting 23 agencies or associations, whose similarity may 24 not be determined solely by the educational sec- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:19 Oct 03, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4579.IH H4579 jbell on DSK3GLQ082PROD with BILLS 9 •HR 4579 IH tor to which the institutions being evaluated be- 1 long, based on the performance benchmarks 2 and standards used in subsection (a)(5)(A) by 3 such agencies and associations. 4 ‘‘(2) ACCREDITOR STANDARDS.—The Secretary 5 may require an accrediting agency or association to 6 review and revise the standards selected, or the per- 7 formance benchmarks established, by such agency or 8 association, if the Secretary determines that the 9 standards are not appropriate for the peer group of 10 institutions for which such standards were selected, 11 or that the performance benchmarks for standards 12 for the domains listed in subsection (a)(5)(A)(i) are 13 too low.’’. 14 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:19 Oct 03, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H4579.IH H4579 jbell on DSK3GLQ082PROD with BILLS