BILL ANALYSIS Ó SENATE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION Carol Liu, Chair 2013-2014 Regular Session BILL NO: AB 2247 AUTHOR: Williams AMENDED: June 11, 2014 FISCAL COMM: Yes HEARING DATE: June 18, 2014 URGENCY: No CONSULTANT:Daniel Alvarez SUBJECT : Postsecondary education: accreditation documents. SUMMARY This bill requires all campuses of every public and private postsecondary education institution in California that receives state or federal financial aid funding to make available on the institution's website the following accreditation documents: the institution's institutional accreditation visiting team reports and the institutional accreditation agency action letters, as specified. BACKGROUND Current law requires, as a condition of participation in state financial aid programs administered by the California Student Aid Commission (CSAC), an institution to be accredited by an accrediting agency recognized by the United States Department of Education (USDE). In addition, current law requires the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education (BPPE) to issue an approval to operate private institutions that are accredited by a USDE-recognized accrediting agency. ANALYSIS This bill requires all campuses of every public and private postsecondary education institution in California that receives state or federal financial aid funding to make available on the institution's website the following accreditation documents: the institution's institutional accreditation visiting team reports and the institutional accreditation agency action letters, as specified. More specifically, this bill: AB 2247 Page 2 1) Requires all campuses or other units of any segment of postsecondary education that receive public funding through state or federal financial aid programs, are institutionally recognized by the United States Department of Education, and offer education and training programs to California students make final institutional accreditation documents available to the public via display in a prominent location on the institution's Internet Web site, with a link to those documents on the institutional Web site homepage. 2) Requires a campus or other unit of any segment of postsecondary education whose documents are not currently available to the public, make available all institutional accreditation documents completed after January 1, 2015, public, as specified above. 3) Defines specified terms as follows: a) Institutional accreditation documents means the institution's institutional accreditation visiting team reports and the institutional accreditation action letters following an accreditation agency's action. b) Segment of postsecondary education means the California Community Colleges, the California State University, the University of California, the independent institutions of higher education as defined in Section 66010, or the private postsecondary educational institutions as defined in Section 94858. STAFF COMMENTS 1) Need for the bill . According to the author's office, California relies heavily on accrediting agencies to ensure that colleges and universities are providing quality educational programs for students. By obtaining accreditation, private (including for-profit) institutions are guaranteed the ability to operate in California, and both public and private institutions are provided access to billions of AB 2247 Page 3 dollars in state and federal financial aid funding. Yet, the state's ability to monitor the work of accrediting agencies themselves, however, is virtually nonexistent. The Education Code is silent on this issue as it does not currently require any public posting of accreditation documents. Additionally, not all colleges routinely make their accreditation documents available to the public and the ones that do, do so voluntarily. In light of this, AB 2247 is aimed at ensuring a basic level of transparency in the accreditation process by providing public access to the substance of accreditation reviews. It is also important to note that there is a move in the direction for additional transparency. As of June 2012, the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) will post all evaluation team reports and accrediting agency letters following the relevant accrediting agency action. 2) Accreditation is required to receive state appropriations and to be eligible for federal and state financial aid programs. Accreditation is a method used in this country to generally: (1) assure quality, (2) provide access to government funding, (3) generate stakeholder support, and (4) facilitate credit transfer for and to educational institutions. Accreditation is a voluntary, non-governmental peer review process used to determine academic quality. Accrediting agencies are private organizations that establish operating standards for educational or professional institutions and programs, determine the extent to which the standards are met, and publicly announce their findings. Under federal law, the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) establishes the general standards for accreditation agencies and is required to publish a list of recognized accrediting agencies that are deemed reliable authorities on the quality of education provided by their accredited institutions. Both accredited and unaccredited education and training programs are allowed to operate in California. However, only accredited institutions are authorized to participate in federal and state financial aid programs and private accredited AB 2247 Page 4 institutions are provided a streamlined pathway to approval by the BPPE. There are three basic types of accreditation: a) Regional Accreditation: There are six USDE-recognized regional accrediting agencies. Each regional accreditor encompasses public, the vast majority of non-profit private (independent), and some for-profit postsecondary educational institutions in the region it serves. California's regional accrediting agency is separated into two commissions: the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) and the Senior College and University Commission (WASC-Sr.). b) National Accreditation: National accreditation is not based on geography, but more focused to evaluate specific types of schools and programs. National accreditation is designed to allow nontraditional colleges (trade schools, religious schools, certain online schools) to be compared against similarly designed institutions. Different standards and categories are measured, depending on the type of institution. c) Specialized/Programmatic Accreditation: Offered by accrediting agencies that represent specific fields of study, these agencies do not accredit entire colleges but instead accredit the programs within colleges that prepare students for the specific field or industry. In most cases, specialized accreditation alone does not enable participation in state and federal financial aid programs. Accreditation is regulated by the federal government; institutional accreditation is a requirement for participation in federal financial aid programs. Under federal regulations, accrediting agencies are required to meet general outlined standards, but specific processes and quality standards are left to each accrediting agency to determine. AB 2247 Page 5 Some states have established standards regarding accreditation recognition for the purpose of state-level regulation and state financial aid programs; and, it appears that some accrediting agencies participate in state-level requirements. However, an accrediting agency's decision to participate in state-level standards is unrelated to their federal recognition. 1) Accrediting agency practices . A non-exhaustive search by committee staff revealed only one accrediting agency currently requiring all three documents to be made available to the public (WASC-ACCJC) and one additional accrediting agency (WASC-Sr.) currently posts the visiting committee report and final action letter to their website. For other accrediting agencies, committee staff was able to find very little information regarding the substance of institutional accreditation reviews, including for institutions currently facing sanctions from their accreditor. Despite the differing requirements of accrediting agencies, most public institutions and several private institutions (including USC, USF, St. Mary's and Loma Linda University) have made these documents available to the public through a website managed by California Competes. In an effort to provide reasonable approach to (a) defining appropriate accreditation documents for public review, and (b) clarifying the starting period for the required release of documents while taking into account current accrediting reviews that may be in process and therefore not subject to public review under current law, staff recommends the following amendments: a) On page 2, line 8, after "action" insert: relating to a comprehensive review, special visit, or any sanction or adverse action taken on the affiliated institution b) On page 2, line 20, after "public" insert: , once those documents have been made final through an action of the accrediting agency, AB 2247 Page 6 c) On page 3, line 9, strike "completed after January 1, 2015" and insert: finalized by the accrediting agency based on reviews that take place after July 1, 2015 SUPPORT California Competes Center for Public Interest Law Children's Advocacy Institute Faculty Association of California Community Colleges The Institute for College Access and Success OPPOSITION American Career College and West Coast University