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:
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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
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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
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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.
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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,
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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