On October 31, The U.S. Department of Education (USED) published the 519-page final accreditation and state authorization distance education regulations, which were the product of a yearlong negotiated rulemaking process between USED and higher education stakeholders. According to the Department’s press release, these regulations, which are a part of Secretary Betsy DeVos’ “Rethink Higher Education” agenda, are designed to “expand educational options for students, lower the cost of education post-high school, and ensure occupationally-focused education meets current workforce needs.”
Along with the regulatory changes, the final regulations included a summary of the few hundred public comments the Department received, along with their responses to the comments. Some of the regulatory changes most relevant to CTE include:
- Allows accreditors to have separate faculty standards for instructors teaching courses within dual or concurrent enrollment programs, or career and technical education courses, if the instructors, “in the agency’s judgement,” are qualified to teach by either their education or work experience. The department contends that an agency should not have to choose between setting rigorous standards for faculty that may be appropriate, for example, at comprehensive or research institutions, and allowing other kinds of institutions to hire the faculty that will provide students with the best opportunities possible.
- Provides a three-year grace period that accreditors can propose in order to allow programs to comply with the accreditor’s faculty standards for dual or concurrent enrollment. This grace period is able to be extended.
- Allows agencies to have separate standards regarding an institution’s process for approving curriculum with the goal of better aligning certain programs with specific industry or occupational demands. These separate curriculum standards, which are intended to give employers and industry a stronger voice in curriculum development, can include using recommendations from industry advisory boards that employers who hire program graduates participate on; including employers who make hiring decisions in a given field or occupation in the approval process; or aligning the curriculum with widely-recognized industry standards, credentialing, or other occupational registration or licensure. The Department argues that a traditional faculty governance process for approving curriculum, while widely used, is not the only governance process currently in use by institutions or allowed by the HEA, and in some instances it may be inappropriate to give faculty a stronger voice than employers.
- Includes a requirement that institutions disclose to students whether their educational programs meet the requirements for licensure across States. This will allows students to know if their investment in an educational program will lead to the career the student intends to pursue.
The regulations will go into effect on July 1, 2020. The Department’s press release can be found here and final regulations can be found here.
Additionally, the Department has recently announced that they will be publishing proposed rules on distance education and innovation, TEACH grants and faith-based institutions shortly. ACTE will continue to monitor the Department’s actions and update the Policy Watch Blog accordingly.
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