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. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Quality Higher Edu5 cation Act of 2019’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. RULEMAKING REQUIREMENTS FOR ACCREDITING 

2 AGENCY RECOGNITION. 

3 (a) RULEMAKING.—The Secretary of Education shall 

4 initiate a negotiated rulemaking process to— 

5 (1) establish a common set of steps or con6 sequences each accrediting agency or association 

7 shall follow when any institution of higher education 

8 subject to the jurisdiction of such agency or associa9 tion fails to meet the accreditation standards se10 lected or set by such agency or association pursuant 

11 to section 496(a)(5) of the Higher Education Act of 

12 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1099b(a)(5)), as amended by this 

13 section; and 

14 (2) establish the list of standards (and a defini15 tion for each such standard) that shall be used by 

16 each accrediting agency or association for purposes 

17 of section 496(a)(5)(A) of the Higher Education Act 

18 of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1099b(a)(5)(A)) for each of the 

19 following domains: 

20 (A) Completion (which may include stand21 ards on graduation rates or rates of transfer 

22 from a 2-year to a 4-year institution). 

23 (B) Workforce participation (which may 

24 include standards on rates of licensure, job 

25 placement, or employment). 


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1 (C) Measures that assess the progress of 

2 an institution toward meeting the standards for 

3 completion and workforce participation (which 

4 may include standards on retention rates and 

5 persistence rates). 

6 (b) RECOGNITION OF ACCREDITING AGENCY OR AS7 SOCIATION.—Section 496 of the Higher Education Act of 

8 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1099b) is amended— 

9 (1) in subsection (a)— 

10 (A) in paragraph (5), by striking subpara11 graphs (A) through (J) and inserting the fol12 lowing: 

13 ‘‘(A) success with respect to student 

14 achievement in relation to the institution’s mis15 sion (except that the agencies and associations 

16 described in paragraph (2)(A)(ii) shall not be 

17 subject to this subparagraph), which— 

18 ‘‘(i) shall be assessed using at least 1 

19 standard selected by the agency or associa20 tion from a list of options for such stand21 ards established and defined by the Sec22 retary under section 2(a) of the Quality 

23 Higher Education Act of 2019 for each of 

24 the following domains— 

25 ‘‘(I) completion; 


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1 ‘‘(II) workforce participation; and 

2 ‘‘(III) measures that assess 

3 progress toward meeting the comple4 tion and workforce participation 

5 standards; 

6 ‘‘(ii) may be assessed using different 

7 standards selected under clause (i) for 

8 each peer group of institutions, as such 

9 groups are defined by the agency or asso10 ciation, except that— 

11 ‘‘(I) each standard selected for a 

12 peer group of institutions shall be the 

13 same standard for, and shall be ap14 plied consistently to, all the institu15 tions in the peer group; and 

16 ‘‘(II) such a peer group of insti17 tutions cannot be based solely on— 

18 ‘‘(aa) the demographic char19 acteristics of the students attend20 ing such institutions; or 

21 ‘‘(bb) the sector of the insti22 tution (including whether the in23 stitution is a public institution, a 

24 proprietary institution, or a non25 profit institution); 


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1 ‘‘(iii) shall be assessed using a single 

2 performance benchmark established by the 

3 agency or association for each standard se4 lected under clause (i), which shall be the 

5 same performance benchmark for all insti6 tutions for the standard for which the 

7 benchmark is established (without regard 

8 to the peer group of an institution), except 

9 that such a performance benchmark may 

10 differ for each category of educational pro11 grams (as defined in section 435(a)(9)(E)) 

12 offered by institutions, as long as the per13 formance benchmark for any such category 

14 is the same performance benchmark for all 

15 institutions (without regard to the peer 

16 group of an institution); and 

17 ‘‘(iv) in the case of an institution de18 fined in section 101(a), may include con19 sideration of— 

20 ‘‘(I) the historical significance of 

21 the institution; and 

22 ‘‘(II) whether the institution is 

23 one of the only physical locations at 

24 which postsecondary education is pro25 vided in the geographic area; 


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1 ‘‘(B) student achievement outcomes and 

2 program outcomes disaggregated by the sub3 groups specified in section 153(a)(3)(A) of the 

4 Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (20 

5 U.S.C. 9543(a)(3)(A)); 

6 ‘‘(C) credentials, as measured by the value 

7 of such credentials to the earners of such cre8 dentials; 

9 ‘‘(D) curricula, including program length, 

10 course sequencing, and objectives related to 

11 credentialing; 

12 ‘‘(E) faculty; 

13 ‘‘(F) student support services; 

14 ‘‘(G) recruiting and admissions practices, 

15 academic calendars, catalogues, publications, 

16 and grading; and 

17 ‘‘(H) fiscal and administrative capacity 

18 (which shall include the institution’s govern19 ance) as appropriate to the specified scale of 

20 operations;’’; 

21 (B) by redesignating paragraphs (6) 

22 through (8) as paragraphs (7) through (9), re23 spectively; and 

24 (C) by inserting after paragraph (5) the 

25 following: 


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1 ‘‘(6) such agency or association shall make 

2 available on a publicly accessible website, up-to-date 

3 information on— 

4 ‘‘(A) the institutions in each peer group of 

5 institutions that are subject to the jurisdiction 

6 of such agency or association; 

7 ‘‘(B) the student achievement standards 

8 selected by the agency or association under 

9 paragraph (5) for each peer group of institu10 tions, the rationale for the selection of such 

11 standards, and how such standards are factored 

12 into the accreditation process; 

13 ‘‘(C) the performance benchmark estab14 lished for each standard selected by the agency 

15 or association under paragraph (5) and the ra16 tionale for the establishment of such perform17 ance benchmark; 

18 ‘‘(D) the institutions that failed to meet 

19 such standards; and 

20 ‘‘(E) any sanction, adverse action, or other 

21 action taken with respect to an institution and 

22 the reason for such sanction or adverse action; 

23 and’’; 

24 (2) in subsection (g), in the last sentence, by 

25 striking ‘‘Nothing in’’ and inserting the following: 


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1 ‘‘Except as otherwise specified in subsection 

2 (a)(5)(A) and section 2(a) of the Quality Higher 

3 Education Act of 2019, nothing in’’; 

4 (3) in subsection (o), in the second sentence, by 

5 striking ‘‘Notwithstanding’’ and inserting the fol6 lowing: ‘‘Except as otherwise provided in subsection 

7 (a)(5)(A) and section 2(a) of the Quality Higher 

8 Education Act of 2019 and notwithstanding’’; 

9 (4) in subsection (p), by striking ‘‘Nothing’’ 

10 and inserting ‘‘Except as otherwise provided in sub11 section (a)(5)(A) and section 2(a) of the Quality 

12 Higher Education Act of 2019, nothing’’; and 

13 (5) by adding at the end the following: 

14 ‘‘(r) EVALUATION OF QUALITY AND ACHIEVEMENT

15 MEASURES.— 

16 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall direct 

17 the National Advisory Committee on Institutional 

18 Quality and Integrity to— 

19 ‘‘(A) regularly evaluate the effectiveness of 

20 the performance benchmarks established and 

21 standards selected by accrediting agencies and 

22 associations under subsection (a)(5)(A); and 

23 ‘‘(B) compare similarly situated accrediting 

24 agencies or associations, whose similarity may 

25 not be determined solely by the educational secVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:19 Oct 03, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4579.IH H4579

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1 tor to which the institutions being evaluated be2 long, based on the performance benchmarks 

3 and standards used in subsection (a)(5)(A) by 

4 such agencies and associations. 

5 ‘‘(2) ACCREDITOR STANDARDS.—The Secretary 

6 may require an accrediting agency or association to 

7 review and revise the standards selected, or the per8 formance benchmarks established, by such agency or 

9 association, if the Secretary determines that the 

10 standards are not appropriate for the peer group of 

11 institutions for which such standards were selected, 

12 or that the performance benchmarks for standards 

13 for the domains listed in subsection (a)(5)(A)(i) are 

14 too low.’’. 

Æ 


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