United States General Accounting Office 

GAO Testimony 

Before the Subcommittee on Select 

Education, Committee on Education and 

the Workforce, House of Representatives 

For Release on Delivery 

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6, 2003 DISTANCE EDUCATION

Challenges for Minority 

Serving Institutions and 

Implications for Federal 

Education Policy 

Statement of Cornelia M. Ashby 


Director, Education, Workforce, and Income Security 


GAO-04-78T 

Highlights of GAO-04-78T, a testimony 

before the Subcommittee on Select 

Education, Committee on Education and 

the Workforce, House of Representatives 

The Higher Education Act of 1965 

gives special recognition to some 

postsecondary schools—called 

Minority Serving Institutions—that 

serve a high percentage of minority 

students. These and other schools 

face stiff challenges in keeping pace 

with technology. One rapidly growing 

area, distance education, has 

commanded particular attention and 

an estimated 1.5 million students 

have enrolled in at least one distance 

education course. 

In light of this, GAO was asked to 

provide information on: (1) the use of 

distance education by Minority 

October 6, 2003 

DISTANCE EDUCATION 

Challenges for Minority Serving 

Institutions and Implications for Federal 

Education Policy 

There are some variations in the use of distance education at Minority 

Serving Institutions when compared to other schools. While it is difficult to 

generalize, Minority Serving Institutions offered at least one distance 

education course at the same rate as other schools. When Minority Serving 

Institutions offered distance education, they did so to improve access for 

students who live away from campus and provide convenience to older, 

working, or married students. Some Minority Serving Institutions do not 

offer distance education because classroom education best meets the needs 

of their students. Additionally, schools view the overall use of technology as 

a critical tool in educating their students and they generally indicated that 

offering more distance education was a lower priority than using technology 

to educate their classroom students. The two primary challenges in meeting 

technology goals cited by these institutions were limitations in funding and 

inadequate staffing to maintain and operate information technology. 

Selected Characteristics of Minority Serving Institutions 

Serving Institutions; (2) the Type of Institution 

challenges Minority Serving 

Institutions face in obtaining and 

using technology; (3) GAO’s 

preliminary finding on the role that 

accrediting agencies play in ensuring 

the quality of distance education; and 

(4) GAO’s preliminary findings on 

whether statutory requirements limit 

federal aid to students involved in 

Historically Black 

Colleges and Hispanic Serving Tribal 

Characteristics Universities Institutions Colleges 

Number of schoolsa 102 334 29 

Percent of each type of institution 

Public 50 45 100 

Private nonprofit 50 23 0 

Private for-profit 0 32 0 

Average number of students per 

institution 2,685 5,141 467 

distance education. Number of students served in 2000-01 274,000 1.7 million 13,500 

GAO is currently finalizing the results 

of its work on (1) the role of 

accrediting agencies in reviewing 

distance education programs and (2) 

federal student financial aid issues 

related to distance education. 

www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-78T. 

To view the full product, including the scope 

and methodology, click on the link above. 

For more information, contact Cornelia M. 

Ashby at (202) 512-8403, ashbyc@gao.gov. 

Source: Department of Education and GAO analysis. 

Accrediting agencies have taken steps to ensure the quality of distance 

education programs, such as developing supplemental guidelines for 

reviewing these programs. However, GAO found (1) no agreed upon set of 

standards for holding institutions accountable for student outcomes and (2) 

differences in how agencies review distance education programs. Finally, 

several statutory rules limit the amount of federal aid for distance education 

students. GAO estimates that at least 14 schools are not eligible or could lose 

their eligibility for federal student financial aid if their distance education 

programs continue to expand. While the number of schools potentially 

affected is relatively small in comparison to the more than 6,000 

postsecondary institutions in the country, this is an important issue for the 

nearly 210,000 students who attend these schools. Several factors must be 

considered before deciding whether to eliminate or modify these rules. They 

include the cost of implementation, the extent to which the changes improve 

access, and the impact that changes would have on Education’s ability to 

prevent schools from fraudulent or abusive practices. 
Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee: 

I am pleased to be here today to discuss issues related to distance 

education1

 and its implications for federal programs that support 

postsecondary schools serving a high percentage of minority students and 

for the federal student financial aid programs that exceeded $60 billion in 

2003. For over 100 years, the Congress has recognized that some 

postsecondary institutions—including the University of Texas PanAmerican—have unique roles to play in educating minority students. 

These schools serve a high proportion of minority students and have 

special designation under federal law as Minority Serving Institutions.2 

Like other postsecondary institutions, over the last decade, Minority 

Serving Institutions have faced the challenge of trying to keep pace with 

the changing face of technology in education. One rapidly growing area— 

distance education—has commanded particular attention on campuses 

around the world. In the 1999-2000 school year, an estimated 1.5 million 

postsecondary students, or about 1 in 13 students, enrolled in at least one 

distance education course, and the Department of Education (Education) 

estimates that the number of students involved in distance education has 

tripled in just 4 years. The Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, will 

be reauthorized within the coming year. Among other purposes, the act 

provides federal support for Minority Serving Institutions through Titles III 

and V, including support for technological improvements at these schools. 

Title IV of the act authorizes the federal government to provide grants, 

loans, and work-study wages for millions of postsecondary students each 

year; however, there are limits on some financial aid to distance education 

students. 

Given the changes in how education is being offered, you asked us to 

testify on the following issues: (1) the use of distance education by 

Minority Serving Institutions compared to non-Minority Serving 

Institutions; (2) the challenges Minority Serving Institutions face in 

obtaining and using technology and how Education monitors 

technological progress at these schools; (3) our preliminary findings on 

1

The Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, defines distance education as an 

educational process in which the student is separated in time or place from the instructor 

(20 U.S.C. 1093(h)). 

2

The three main types of Minority Serving Institutions are Historically Black Colleges and 

Universities, Tribal Colleges, and Hispanic Serving Institutions. Other types of Minority 

Serving Institutions include Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian serving institutions. 

Page 1 GAO-04-78T 
the role that accrediting agencies play in ensuring the quality of distance 

education programs; and (4) our preliminary findings on whether statutory 

requirements limit federal student aid for students involved in distance 

education. In addition to this statement, we are releasing a report today on 

distance education at Minority Serving Institutions.3

 This report discusses 

many of these issues in more detail. We will issue a second report in 

December 2003 on accrediting agencies and statutory and regulatory 

issues related to distance education. 

Our statement is based on responses to distinct surveys developed and 

sent to Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic Serving 

Institutions, and Tribal Colleges; data on distance education produced by 

Education;4

 analysis of Education databases;5 visits to seven accrediting 

agencies responsible for reviewing two-thirds of all distance education 

programs; and interviews with Education officials, accreditors, and 

officials of schools with substantial distance education programs. We 

performed our work between October 2002 and September 2003 in 

accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. 

In summary: 

• 	 There are some variations in the use of distance education at Minority 

Serving Institutions and other schools. While it is difficult to generalize 

across Minority Serving Institutions, Minority Serving Institutions tend to 

offer at least one distance education course at the same rate as other 

schools, but they differ in how many courses are offered and which 

students take the courses. Like other schools, larger Minority Serving 

Institutions tend to offer more distance education than smaller schools 

and public schools tend to offer more distance education than private 

schools. However, Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Tribal 

Colleges generally offered fewer classes, and a smaller percentage of 

minority students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities take such 

courses. When Minority Serving Institutions offered distance education, 

they did so to (1) improve access to courses for some students who live 

3

U.S. General Accounting Office, Distance Education: More Data Could Improve 

Education’s Ability to Track Technology at Minority Serving Institutions, GAO-03-900 

(Washington, D.C.: Sept. 12, 2003). 

4

U.S. Department of Education, Distance Education at Degree-Granting Postsecondary 

Education Institutions: 2000-2001 (Washington, D.C.: July 2003). 

5

We analyzed Education’s National Postsecondary Student Aid Study and the Integrated 

Postsecondary Educational Data System (IPEDS). 

Page 2 GAO-04-78T 
away from campus and (2) provide convenience to older, working, or 

married students. By design, some Minority Serving Institutions indicated 

that they do not offer distance education because they prefer classroom 

education to best meet the needs of their students. 

• 	 Minority Serving Institutions, like other schools, face stiff challenges in 

keeping pace with the rapid changes and opportunities presented by 

information technology. Minority Serving Institutions view the use of 

technology as a critical tool in educating their students and they generally 

indicated that offering more distance education was a lower priority than 

using technology to educate their classroom students. For example, all 

three types of institutions reported that their highest priority was 

providing more training for faculty in the use of information technology as 

a teaching method. Other priorities included improving network 

infrastructure, increasing the use of technology in classrooms, and 

guaranteeing that all students have access to a computer. More than four 

out of five Minority Serving Institutions indicated that they expect to have 

difficulties in meeting their goals related to technology. The two primary 

challenges cited by Minority Serving Institutions were (1) limitations in 

funding and (2) inadequate staffing to maintain and operate information 

technology. With respect to how Education monitors technological 

improvements at Minority Serving Institutions, we found that Education 

could develop better data to improve their ability to track technological 

improvements at Minority Serving Institutions. Specifically, we found that 

progress could be made by collecting more complete data on technology 

improvements across the three major types of Minority Serving 

Institutions and by developing baseline data to measure progress on the 

technological capacity at Minority Serving Institutions. 

• 	 Based on our ongoing work, we have preliminary findings on the role that 

accrediting agencies play in ensuring the quality of distance education 

programs and information on certain statutory requirements that limit 

federal financial aid to distance education students. Uncertainty about the 

quality of distance education programs has turned attention toward what 

accrediting agencies do to ensure the quality of distance education 

programs. Our preliminary analysis shows that while accrediting agencies 

have taken steps to ensure the quality of distance education programs, 

such as developing supplemental guidelines for reviewing distance 

education programs, there are two areas that potentially could merit 

further attention. First, there is no agreed upon set of standards that 

accrediting agencies use in holding postsecondary institutions accountable 

for student outcomes. Second, there are differences in their procedures 

for reviewing distance education programs—for example, some agencies 

Page 3 GAO-04-78T 
require institutions to demonstrate comparability between distance 

education programs and campus-based programs, while others do not. 

• 	 Finally, also based on our preliminary work, we found that several 

statutory rules—designed to prevent fraud and abuse in distance 

education—limit federal aid for distance education students. We estimate 

that at least 14 schools are not eligible or could lose their eligibility for 

participation in the federal student financial aid programs if their distance 

education programs continue to expand. While the number of schools 

potentially affected is relatively small in comparison to the more than 

6,000 postsecondary institutions in the country, this is an important issue 

for the nearly 210,000 students who attend these schools. Deciding 

whether to eliminate or modify these rules involves consideration of 

several other factors, including the cost of implementation, the extent to 

which the changes improve access to postsecondary schools, and the 

impact that changes would have on Education’s ability to prevent 

institutions from fraudulent or abusive practices. 

We are currently finalizing the results of our work on (1) the role of 

accrediting agencies in reviewing distance education programs and (2) 

federal student financial aid issues related to distance education. A report 

on these issues will be available in December 2003. 

Background 	 Minority Serving Institutions vary in size and scope but generally serve a 

high percentage of minority students, many of whom are financially 

disadvantaged. In the 2000-01 school year, 465 schools, or about 7 percent 

of postsecondary institutions in the United States,6

 served about 35 

percent of all Black, American Indian, and Hispanic students. Table 1 

briefly compares the three main types of Minority Serving Institutions in 

terms of their number, type, and size. 

6

These include institutions in U.S. territories, such as Puerto Rico, that are authorized to 

distribute federal student financial aid. 

Page 4 GAO-04-78T 
Table 1: Selected Characteristics of Minority Serving Institutions 

Type of Institution 

Historically Black Hispanic 

Colleges and Serving Tribal 

Characteristics Universities Institutions Colleges 

Number of schoolsa 102 334 

Percent of each type of institution 

Public 50 45 100 

Private nonprofit 50 23 

Private for-profit 0 32 

Average number of students per 2,685 5,141 467 

institution 

Number of students served in 2000-01 274,000 1.7 million 13,500 

Source: Department of Education and GAO analysis of IPEDS for the 2000-01 school year. 

a

This figure represents the number of schools eligible for the federal student aid programs in the 

2000-01 school year based on our analysis of IPEDS. 

The Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, provides specific federal 

support for Minority Serving Institutions through Titles III and V. These 

provisions authorize grants for augmenting the limited resources that 

many Minority Serving Institutions have for funding their academic 

programs. In 2002, grants funded under these two titles provided over $300 

million for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic Serving 

Institutions, and Tribal Colleges to improve their academic quality, 

institutional management, and fiscal stability. Technology is one of the 

many purposes to which these grants can be applied, both inside the 

classroom and, in the form of distance education, outside the classroom. 

Technology is changing how institutions educate their students, and 

Minority Serving Institutions, like other schools, are grappling with how 

best to adapt. Through such methods as E-mail, chat rooms, and direct 

instructional delivery via the Internet, technology can enhance students’ 

ability to learn any time, any place, rather than be bound by time or place 

in the classroom or in the library. For Minority Serving Institutions, the 

importance of technology takes on an additional dimension in that 

available research indicates their students may arrive with less prior 

access to technology, such as computers and the Internet, than their 

Page 5 GAO-04-78T 

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counterparts in other schools.7

 These students may need considerable 

exposure to technology to be fully equipped with job-related skills. 

The growth of distance education has added a new dimension to 

evaluating the quality of postsecondary education programs. Federal 

statutes recognize accrediting agencies8

 as the gatekeepers of 

postsecondary education quality. To be eligible for the federal student aid 

program, a school must be periodically reviewed and accredited by such 

an agency. Education, in turn, is responsible for recognizing an accrediting 

agency as a reliable authority on quality. While the accreditation process 

applies to both distance education and campus-based instruction, many 

accreditation practices focus on the traditional means of providing 

campus-based education, such as the adequacy of classroom facilities or 

recruiting and admission practices. These measures can be more difficult 

to apply to distance education when students are not on campus or may 

not interact with faculty in person. In this new environment, 

postsecondary education officials are increasingly recommending that 

outcomes—such as course completion rates or success in written 

communication—be incorporated as appropriate into assessments of 

distance education. 

The emphasis on student outcomes has occurred against a backdrop of the 

federal government, state governments, and the business community 

asking for additional information on what students are learning for the 

tens of billions of taxpayer dollars that support postsecondary institutions 

each year. While there is general recognition that the United States has 

one of the best postsecondary systems in the world, this call for greater 

accountability has occurred because of low completion rates among lowincome students (only 6 percent earn a bachelors degree or higher), 

perceptions that the overall 6-year institutional graduation rate (about 52 

percent) at 4-year schools and the completion rate at 2-year schools (about 

33 percent) are low, and a skills gap in problem solving, communications, 

and analytical thinking between what students are taught and what 

employers need in the 21st Century workplace. 

7

The Web-Based Education Commission, The Power of the Internet for Learning: Moving 

from Promise to Practice (Washington D.C.: December 2000). 

8

Education defines an accrediting agency as a legal entity, or that part of a legal entity, that 

conducts accrediting activities through voluntary, nonfederal peer review and makes 

decisions concerning the accreditation or preaccreditation status of institutions, programs, 

or both. 

Page 6 GAO-04-78T 
For the most part, students taking distance education courses can qualify 

for financial aid in the same way as students taking traditional courses.9

 As 

the largest provider of student financial aid to postsecondary students, the 

federal government has a substantial interest in distance education. Under 

Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, the federal 

government provides grants, loans, and work-study wages for millions of 

students each year. There are limits, however, on the use of federal 

student aid at schools with large distance education offerings. Concerns 

about the quality of some correspondence courses more than a decade ago 

led the Congress, as a way of controlling fraud and abuse in federal 

student aid programs, to impose restrictions on the extent to which 

schools could offer distance education and still qualify to participate in 

federal student aid programs. The rapid growth of distance education and 

emerging delivery modes, such as Internet-based classes, have led to 

questions about whether these restrictions are still needed and how the 

restrictions might affect students’ access to federal aid programs. Distance 

education’s effect on helping students complete their courses of study is 

still largely unknown. Although there is some anecdotal evidence that 

distance education can help students complete their programs or graduate 

from college, school officials that we spoke to did not identify any studies 

that evaluated the extent to which distance education has improved 

completion or graduation rates. 

9

Students who took their entire program through distance education courses received an 

estimated $763 million in federal student aid in the1999-2000 school year. Students who 

took at least one distance education course may have also received federal student aid; 

however, the data sources used by National Postsecondary Student Aid Study do not 

distinguish aid awarded for distance education courses and traditional classroom courses. 

Page 7 GAO-04-78T 
Distance Education 

Use Varies between 

Minority Serving 

Institutions and Other 

Schools, with Some 

Minority Serving 

Institutions Choosing 

Not to Offer Any 

Distance Education 

There are some variations in the use of distance education at Minority 

Serving Institutions and other schools. While it is difficult to generalize 

across the Minority Serving Institutions, the available data indicate that 

Minority Serving Institutions tend to offer at least one distance education 

course at the same rate as other schools, but they differ in how many 

courses are offered and which students take the courses. Overall, the 

percentage of schools offering at least one distance education course in 

the 2002-03 school year was 56 percent for Historically Black Colleges and 

Universities, 63 percent for Hispanic Serving Institutions, and 63 percent 

for Tribal Colleges, based on data from our surveys of Minority Serving 

Institutions. Similarly, 56 percent of 2- and 4-year schools across the 

country offered at least one distance education course in the 2000-01 

school year, according to a separate survey conducted by Education.10 

Minority Serving Institutions also tended to mirror other schools in that 

larger schools were more likely to offer distance education than smaller 

schools, and public schools were more likely to offer distance education 

than private schools. Tribal Colleges were an exception; all of them were 

small, but the percentage of schools offering distance education courses 

was relatively high compared to other smaller schools. The greater use of 

distance education among Tribal Colleges may reflect their need to serve 

students who often live in remote areas. 

In two respects, however, the use of distance education at Minority 

Serving Institutions differed from other schools. First, of those institutions 

offering at least one distance education course, Historically Black Colleges 

and Universities and Tribal Colleges generally offered fewer distance 

education courses—a characteristic that may reflect the smaller size of 

these two types of institutions compared to other schools.11 Second, to the 

extent that data are available, minority students at Historically Black 

Colleges and Universities and Hispanic Serving Institutions participate in 

distance education to a somewhat lower degree than other students. For 

example, in the 1999-2000 school year, fewer undergraduates at 

Historically Black Colleges and Universities took distance education 

courses than students at non-Minority Serving Institutions—6 percent v. 

10The data from our survey and survey conducted by Education are not completely 

comparable because they cover two different time periods. Education’s survey covered the 

2000-01 school year while our survey covered the 2002-03 school year. 

11Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Tribal Colleges are generally smaller in 

size than postsecondary institutions overall. The average Hispanic Serving Institution, 

however, was more than two times larger than the average postsecondary institution in 

2000. 

Page 8 GAO-04-78T 
8.4 percent of undergraduates—a condition that may reflect the fact that 

these schools offer fewer distance education courses. Also, at Hispanic 

Serving Institutions, Hispanic students had lower rates of participation in 

distance education than non-Hispanic students attending these schools. 

These differences were statistically significant. 

We found that Minority Serving Institutions offered distance education 

courses12 for two main reasons: (1) they improve access to courses for 

some students who live away from campus and (2) they provide 

convenience to older, working, or married students. The following 

examples illustrate these conditions. 

• 	 Northwest Indian College, a Tribal College in Bellingham, Washington, has 

over 10 percent of its 600 students involved in distance education. It offers 

distance education by videoconference equipment or correspondence. The 

College offers over 20 distance education courses, such as mathematics 

and English to students at seven remote locations in Washington and 

Idaho. According to College officials, distance education technology is 

essential because it provides access to educational opportunities for 

students who live away from campus. For example, some students taking 

distance education courses live hundreds of miles from the College in 

locations such as the Nez Perce Reservation in Idaho and the Makah 

Reservation in Neah Bay, Washington. According to school officials, 

students involved in distance education tend to be older with dependents, 

and therefore, find it difficult to take courses outside of their community. 

Also, one official noted that staying within the tribal community is valued 

and distance education allows members of tribes to stay close to their 

community and still obtain skills or a degree. 

• 	 The University of the Incarnate Word is a private nonprofit Hispanic 

Serving Institution with an enrollment of about 6,900 students. The school, 

located in San Antonio, Texas, offers on-line degree and certificate 

programs, including degrees in business, nursing, and information 

technology. About 2,400 students are enrolled in the school’s distance 

education program. The school’s on-line programs are directed at 

nontraditional students (students who are 24 years old or older), many of 

whom are Hispanic. In general, the ideal candidates for the on-line 

program are older students, working adults, or adult learners who have 

12The two most common modes of delivering distance education for Minority Serving 

Institutions were (1) on-line courses using a computer and (2) live courses transmitted via 

videoconference. 

Page 9 GAO-04-78T 
been out of high school for 5 or more years, according to the Provost and 

the Director of Instructional Technology. 

Not all schools wanted to offer distance education, however, and we found 

that almost half of Historically Black Colleges and Universities and 

Hispanic Serving Institutions13 did not offer any distance education 

because they preferred to teach their students in the classroom rather than 

through distance education.14 Here are examples from 2 schools that prefer 

teaching their students in the classroom rather than by the use of distance 

education. 

• 	 Howard University, an Historically Black University in Washington, D.C., 

with about 10,000 students, has substantial information technology; 

however, it prefers to use the technology in teaching undergraduates on 

campus rather than through developing and offering distance education. 

The University has state-of-the-art hardware and software, such as 

wireless access to the school’s network; a digital auditorium; and a 24-

hour-a-day Technology Center, which support and enhance the academic 

achievement for its students. Despite its technological capabilities, the 

University does not offer distance education courses to undergraduates 

and has no plans to do so. According to the Dean of Scholarships and 

Financial Aid, the University prefers teaching undergraduates in the 

classroom because more self-discipline is needed when taking distance 

education courses. Also, many undergraduates benefit from the support 

provided by students and faculty in a classroom setting. 

• 	 Robert Morris College is a private nonprofit Hispanic Serving Institution 

located in Chicago, Illinois, that offers bachelor degrees in business, 

computer technology, and health sciences. About 25 percent of its 6,200 

undergraduates are Hispanic. Although the College has one computer for 

every 4 students, it does not offer distance education courses and has no 

plans to do so. School officials believe that classroom education best 

meets the needs of its students because of the personal interaction that 

occurs in a classroom setting. 

13Forty-four percent of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, 37 percent of Hispanic 

Serving Institutions, and 39 percent of Tribal Colleges did not offer any distance education. 

14Conversely, only 10 percent of Tribal Colleges that are not involved in distance education 

indicated that classroom education best meets the needs of their students. 

Page 10 GAO-04-78T 
Among Minority Serving Institutions that do not offer distance education, 

over 50 percent would like to offer distance education in the future, but 

indicated that they have limited resources with which to do so. About half 

of Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Hispanic Serving 

Institutions that do not offer distance education indicated that they do not 

have the necessary technology—including students with access to 

computers at their residences—for distance education. A higher 

percentage of Tribal Colleges (67 percent) cited limitations in technology 

as a reason why they do not offer distance education. Technological 

limitations are twofold for Tribal Colleges. The first, and more obvious 

limitation is a lack of resources to purchase and develop needed 

technologies. The second is that due to the remote location of some 

campuses, needed technological infrastructure is not there—that is, 

schools may be limited to the technology of the surrounding communities. 

All 10 Tribal Colleges that did not offer distance education indicated that 

improvements in technology, such as videoconference equipment and 

network infrastructure with greater speed, would be helpful. 

Minority Serving Institutions, like other schools, face stiff challenges in 

keeping pace with the rapid changes and opportunities presented by 

information technology and Education could improve how technological 

progress is monitored. Minority Serving Institutions view the use of 

technology as a critical tool in educating their students. With respect to 

their overall technology goals, Minority Serving Institutions viewed using 

technology in the classroom as a higher priority than offering distance 

education. (See fig. 1.) Other priorities included improving network 

infrastructure and providing more training for faculty in the use of 

information technology as a teaching method. 

Minority Serving 

Institutions Face 

Sizable Challenges in 

Using Technology, 

Including Distance 

Education, and 

Education’s Efforts to 

Monitor Technology 

Could Be Improved 

Page 11 GAO-04-78T 
Figure 1: Distance Education Generally Ranks Lower in Relation to Other Technology Goals 

Minority Serving Institutions indicated that they expect to have difficulties 

in meeting their goals related to technology. Eighty-seven percent of Tribal 

Colleges, 83 percent of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and 82 

percent of Hispanic Serving Institutions cited limitations in funding as a 

primary reason for why they may not achieve their technology-related 

goals. For example, the Southwest Indian Polytechnic Institute in 

Albuquerque, New Mexico, serves about 670 students and it uses distance 

education to provide courses for an associates degree in early childhood 

development to about 100 students. The school uses two-way satellite 

Page 12 GAO-04-78T 
communication and transmits the courses to 11 remote locations. 

According to a technology specialist at the school, this form of distance 

education is expensive compared to other methods. As an alternative, the 

Institute would like to establish two-way teleconferencing capability and 

Internet access at the off-site locations as a means of expanding 

educational opportunities. However, officials told us that they have no 

means to fund this alternative. 

About half of the schools also noted that they might experience difficulty 

in meeting their goals because they did not have enough staff to operate 

and maintain information technology and to help faculty apply technology. 

For example, officials at Diné College, a Tribal College on the Navajo 

Reservation, told us they have not been able to fill a systems analyst 

position for the last 3 years. School officials cited their remote location 

and the fact that they are offering relatively low pay as problems in 

attracting employees that have skills in operating and maintaining 

technology equipment. 

Having a systematic approach to expanding technology on campuses is an 

important step toward improving technology at postsecondary schools. 

About 75 percent of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, 70 

percent of Hispanic Serving Institutions, and 48 percent of Tribal Colleges 

had completed a strategic plan for expanding their technology 

infrastructure. Fewer schools had completed a financial plan for funding 

technology improvements. About half of Historically Black Colleges and 

Universities and Hispanic Serving Institutions, and 19 percent of Tribal 

Colleges have a financial plan for expanding their information technology. 

Studies by other organizations describe challenges faced by Minority 

Serving Institutions in expanding their technology infrastructure. For 

example, an October 2000 study by Booz, Allen, and Hamilton determined 

that historically or predominantly Black colleges identified challenges in 

funding, strategic planning, and keeping equipment up to date. An October 

2000 report by the Department of Commerce found that most Historically 

Black Colleges and Universities have access to computing resources, such 

as high-speed Internet capabilities, but individual student access to 

campus networks is seriously deficient due to, among other things, lack of 

student ownership of computers or lack of access from campus 

dormitories. An April 2003 Senate Report noted that only one Tribal 

College has funding for high-speed Internet. 

Education has made progress in monitoring the technological progress of 

Minority Serving Institutions; however, its efforts could be improved in 

Page 13 GAO-04-78T 
two ways. First, more complete data on how Historically Black Colleges 

and Universities and Tribal Colleges use Title III funds for improving 

technology on campus, and thus, the education of students, would help 

inform program managers and policymakers about progress that has been 

made and opportunities for improvement. Education’s tracking system 

appears to include sufficient information on technology at Hispanic 

Serving Institutions. Second, although Education has set a goal of 

improving technology capacity at Minority Serving Institutions, it has not 

yet developed a baseline against which progress can be measured. If 

Education is to be successful in measuring progress in this area, it may 

need to take a more proactive role in modifying existing research efforts to 

include information on the extent to which technology is available at 

schools. 

Committee hearings such as this, reinforce the importance of effective 

monitoring and good data collection efforts. As the Congress considers the 

status of programs that aid Minority Serving Institutions, or examines 

creating new programs15 for improving technology capacity at these 

institutions, it will be important that agencies adequately track how 

students benefit from expenditures of substantial federal funds. Without 

improved data collection efforts, programs are at risk of granting funds 

that may not benefit students. 

Accrediting Agencies 

Have Made Progress 

in Ensuring the 

Quality of Distance 

Education Programs; 

However, Two Areas 

May Merit Attention 

Accrediting agencies have made progress in ensuring the quality of 

distance education programs. For example, they have developed 

supplemental guidelines for evaluating distance education programs and 

they have placed additional emphasis on evaluating student outcomes. 

Additionally, the Council on Higher Education Accreditation—an 

organization that represents accrediting agencies—has issued guidance 

and several issue papers on evaluating the quality of distance education 

programs. Furthermore, some accrediting agencies have called attention 

to the need for greater consistency in their procedures because distance 

education allows students to enroll in programs from anywhere in the 

country. While progress has been made, our preliminary work has 

identified two areas that may potentially merit attention. 

15In April 2003, the Senate passed S. 196, Minority Serving Institution Digital and Wireless 

Technology Opportunity Act of 2003 to strengthen technology infrastructure at Minority 

Serving Institutions. If enacted, this statute would create a new grant program at the 

National Science Foundation for funding technology improvements at institutions that 

serve a high percentage of minority students. 

Page 14 GAO-04-78T 
• 	 While accrediting agencies have made progress in reviewing the quality of 

distance education programs, there is no agreed upon set of standards for 

holding schools accountable for student outcomes. In terms of progress 

made, for example, the Council on Higher Education Accreditation has 

issued guidance on reviewing distance education programs. In addition, 

some agencies have endorsed supplemental guidelines for distance 

education and four of the seven agencies have revised their standards to 

place greater emphasis on student learning outcomes. Not withstanding 

the progress that has been made, we found that agencies have no agreed 

upon set of standards for holding institutions accountable for student 

outcomes. Our preliminary work shows that one strategy for ensuring 

accountability is to make information on student achievement and 

attainment available to the public, according to Education. The Council on 

Higher Education Accreditation and some accrediting agencies are 

considering ways to do this, such as making program and institutional data 

available to the public; however, few if any of the agencies we reviewed 

currently have standards that require institutions to disclose such 

information to the public. 

• 	 The second issue involves variations in agency procedures for reviewing 

the quality of distance education. For example, agency procedures for 

reviewing distance education differ from one another in the degree to 

which agencies require institutions to have measures that allow them to 

compare their distance learning courses with their campus-based courses. 

Five agencies require institutions to demonstrate comparability between 

distance education programs and campus-based programs. For example, 

one agency requires that “the institution evaluate the educational 

effectiveness of its distance education programs (including assessments of 

student learning outcomes, student retention, and student satisfaction) to 

ensure comparability to campus-based programs.” The two other agencies 

do not explicitly require such comparisons. 

Page 15 GAO-04-78T 
Certain Statutory 

Requirements 

Limiting Federal Aid 

to Students Involved 

in Distance Education 

May Cause Some 

Students to Lose 

Eligibility for Such 

Aid 

Finally, we found that if some statutory requirements—requirements that 

were designed to prevent fraud and abuse in distance education—remain 

as they are, increasing numbers of students will lose eligibility for the 

federal student aid programs. Our preliminary work shows that 9 schools 

that are participating in Education’s Distance Education Demonstration 

Program16 collectively represent about 200,000 students whose eligibility 

for financial aid could be adversely affected without changes to the 50 

percent rule—a statutory requirement that limits aid to students who 

attend institutions that have 50 percent or more of their students or 

courses involved in distance education. As part of the demonstration 

program, 7 of the 9 schools received waivers from Education to the 50 

percent rule so that their students can continue to receive federal financial 

aid. We identified 5 additional schools representing another 8,500 students 

that are subject to, or may be subject to, the rule in the near future if their 

distance education programs continue to expand. These 5 schools have 

not received waivers from Education. 

While the number of schools currently affected is small in comparison to 

the over 6,000 postsecondary schools in the country, this is an important 

issue for more than 200,000 students who attend these schools. In deciding 

whether to eliminate or modify these rules, the Congress and the 

Administration will need to ensure that changes to federal student aid 

statutes and regulations do not increase the chances of fraud, waste, and 

abuse to federal student financial aid programs. 

Mr. Chairman, this concludes my testimony. I will be happy to respond to 

any questions you or other members of the Subcommittee might have. 

16The Congress created the demonstration program in the 1998 amendments to the Higher 

Education Act to study and test possible solutions to federal student aid issues related to 

distance education. The program has authority to grant waivers on certain statutory or 

regulatory requirements related to distance education and the federal student financial aid 

programs. 

Page 16 GAO-04-78T 
Contacts and For further information, please contact Cornelia M. Ashby at (202) 512-

8403. Individuals making key contributions to this testimony include Jerry

Acknowledgments Aiken, Neil Asaba, Kelsey Bright, Jill Peterson, and Susan Zimmerman. 

(130317) Page 17 GAO-04-78T 
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