[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5103 Introduced in House (IH)]
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117th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 5103
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
August 24, 2021
Ms. Wilson of Florida (for herself, Mrs. Beatty, Ms. Blunt Rochester,
Mr. Butterfield, Ms. Clarke of New York, Mr. Danny K. Davis of
Illinois, Mrs. Hayes, Ms. Jackson Lee, Ms. Kelly of Illinois, Mr.
Meeks, Ms. Norton, Mr. Payne, Ms. Pressley, Mr. Trone, and Mrs. Watson
Coleman) 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 Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Quality Higher Education Act of
2021''.
SEC. 2. RULEMAKING REQUIREMENTS FOR ACCREDITING AGENCY RECOGNITION.
(a) Rulemaking.--The Secretary of Education shall initiate a
negotiated rulemaking process to--
(1) establish a common set of steps or consequences each
accrediting agency or association shall follow when any
institution of higher education subject to the jurisdiction of
such agency or association fails to meet the accreditation
standards selected or set by such agency or association
pursuant to section 496(a)(5) of the Higher Education Act of
1965 (20 U.S.C. 1099b(a)(5)), as amended by this section; and
(2) establish the list of standards (and a definition for
each such standard) that shall be used by each accrediting
agency or association for purposes of section 496(a)(5)(A) of
the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1099b(a)(5)(A)) for
each of the following domains:
(A) Completion (which may include standards on
graduation rates or rates of transfer from a 2-year to
a 4-year institution).
(B) Workforce participation (which may include
standards on rates of licensure, job placement, or
employment).
(C) Measures that assess the progress of an
institution toward meeting the standards for completion
and workforce participation (which may include
standards on retention rates and persistence rates).
(b) Recognition of Accrediting Agency or Association.--Section 496
of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1099b) is amended--
(1) in subsection (a)--
(A) in paragraph (5), by striking subparagraphs (A)
through (J) and inserting the following:
``(A) success with respect to student achievement
in relation to the institution's mission (except that
the agencies and associations described in paragraph
(2)(A)(ii) shall not be subject to this subparagraph),
which--
``(i) shall be assessed using at least 1
standard selected by the agency or association
from a list of options for such standards
established and defined by the Secretary under
section 2(a) of the Quality Higher Education
Act of 2021 for each of the following domains--
``(I) completion;
``(II) workforce participation; and
``(III) measures that assess
progress toward meeting the completion
and workforce participation standards;
``(ii) may be assessed using different
standards selected under clause (i) for each
peer group of institutions, as such groups are
defined by the agency or association, except
that--
``(I) each standard selected for a
peer group of institutions shall be the
same standard for, and shall be applied
consistently to, all the institutions
in the peer group; and
``(II) such a peer group of
institutions cannot be based solely
on--
``(aa) the demographic
characteristics of the students
attending such institutions; or
``(bb) the sector of the
institution (including whether
the institution is a public
institution, a proprietary
institution, or a nonprofit
institution);
``(iii) shall be assessed using a single
performance benchmark established by the agency
or association for each standard selected under
clause (i), which shall be the same performance
benchmark for all institutions for the standard
for which the benchmark is established (without
regard to the peer group of an institution),
except that such a performance benchmark may
differ for each category of educational
programs (as defined in section 435(a)(9)(E))
offered by institutions, as long as the
performance benchmark for any such category is
the same performance benchmark for all
institutions (without regard to the peer group
of an institution); and
``(iv) in the case of an institution
defined in section 101(a), may include
consideration of--
``(I) the historical significance
of the institution; and
``(II) whether the institution is
one of the only physical locations at
which postsecondary education is
provided in the geographic area;
``(B) student achievement outcomes and program
outcomes disaggregated by the subgroups specified in
section 153(a)(3)(A) of the Education Sciences Reform
Act of 2002 (20 U.S.C. 9543(a)(3)(A));
``(C) credentials, as measured by the value of such
credentials to the earners of such credentials;
``(D) curricula, including program length, course
sequencing, and objectives related to credentialing;
``(E) faculty;
``(F) student support services;
``(G) recruiting and admissions practices, academic
calendars, catalogues, publications, and grading; and
``(H) fiscal and administrative capacity (which
shall include the institution's governance) as
appropriate to the specified scale of operations;'';
(B) by redesignating paragraphs (6) through (8) as
paragraphs (7) through (9), respectively; and
(C) by inserting after paragraph (5) the following:
``(6) such agency or association shall make available on a
publicly accessible website, up-to-date information on--
``(A) the institutions in each peer group of
institutions that are subject to the jurisdiction of
such agency or association;
``(B) the student achievement standards selected by
the agency or association under paragraph (5) for each
peer group of institutions, the rationale for the
selection of such standards, and how such standards are
factored into the accreditation process;
``(C) the performance benchmark established for
each standard selected by the agency or association
under paragraph (5) and the rationale for the
establishment of such performance benchmark;
``(D) the institutions that failed to meet such
standards; and
``(E) any sanction, adverse action, or other action
taken with respect to an institution and the reason for
such sanction or adverse action; and'';
(2) in subsection (g), in the last sentence, by striking
``Nothing in'' and inserting the following: ``Except as
otherwise specified in subsection (a)(5)(A) and section 2(a) of
the Quality Higher Education Act of 2021, nothing in'';
(3) in subsection (o), in the second sentence, by striking
``Notwithstanding'' and inserting the following: ``Except as
otherwise provided in subsection (a)(5)(A) and section 2(a) of
the Quality Higher Education Act of 2021 and notwithstanding'';
(4) in subsection (p), by striking ``Nothing'' and
inserting ``Except as otherwise provided in subsection
(a)(5)(A) and section 2(a) of the Quality Higher Education Act
of 2021, nothing''; and
(5) by adding at the end the following:
``(r) Evaluation of Quality and Achievement Measures.--
``(1) In general.--The Secretary shall direct the National
Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity to--
``(A) regularly evaluate the effectiveness of the
performance benchmarks established and standards
selected by accrediting agencies and associations under
subsection (a)(5)(A); and
``(B) compare similarly situated accrediting
agencies or associations, whose similarity may not be
determined solely by the educational sector to which
the institutions being evaluated belong, based on the
performance benchmarks and standards used in subsection
(a)(5)(A) by such agencies and associations.
``(2) Accreditor standards.--The Secretary may require an
accrediting agency or association to review and revise the
standards selected, or the performance benchmarks established,
by such agency or association, if the Secretary determines that
the standards are not appropriate for the peer group of
institutions for which such standards were selected, or that
the performance benchmarks for standards for the domains listed
in subsection (a)(5)(A)(i) are too low.''.
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