3.0.0 1355 2023-01-11T13:31:07Z 2023-01-11T13:31:07Z Senate S 2015-05-14 114 sshr00 Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Senate Standing Referred to 2015-05-14T21:25:11Z College Affordability and Innovation Act of 2015 114 2537 HR 2015-11-16 Referred to the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training. Identical bill CRS 2015-05-14 sshr00 Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Senate Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. IntroReferral 2015-05-14 Introduced in Senate IntroReferral 10000 9 Library of Congress M001169 Sen. Murphy, Christopher [D-CT] Christopher Murphy D CT S. N S001194 Sen. Schatz, Brian [D-HI] Brian Schatz D HI 2015-05-14 True Education Academic performance and assessments Advisory bodies Education of the disadvantaged Education programs funding Educational technology and distance education Elementary and secondary education Higher education Performance measurement Student aid and college costs Teaching, teachers, curricula Education 00 2015-05-14 Introduced in Senate 2015-06-26T21:00:47Z College Affordability and Innovation Act of 2015

This bill directs the Department of Education (ED) to award 5-year grants to up to 15 institutions of higher education (IHEs) to carry out new or existing high-quality programs designed to graduate students with certificates or degrees at significantly lower student costs and within shorter time periods than traditional programs.

Included among the programs are those that:

  • use online instruction;
  • use direct assessments rather than credit hours or clock hours as the measure of student learning;
  • integrate experiential learning and customized curricula to promote completion or alignment with medium- and long-term employment needs;
  • allow students to be dually or concurrently enrolled in the postsecondary program and a secondary school, or a postsecondary program and a graduate program;
  • allow the transfer of credits from secondary to postsecondary to graduate programs to encourage early and on-time completion of a postsecondary degree or certificate; or
  • use any other innovative, evidence-based method of providing students with a cost-effective, high-quality, postsecondary education.

ED may waive the application to grantees of specified provisions of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA) that would inhibit their operation of innovative education programs.

ED must establish and annually administer an evaluation and accountability process for the programs, review policies and identify those that impede the development and use of innovative methods, establish measures to assess program quality, and direct a third party to conduct a final evaluation of the effectiveness of each program.

The bill requires the establishment of a Commission on Higher Education Accountability Standards, composed of higher education stakeholders, to make recommendations on a set of minimum accountability standards IHEs' undergraduate programs must meet with respect to affordability, accessibility, and value in order to participate in the programs under title IV (Student Assistance) of the HEA.

After considering those recommendations, ED must establish IHE affordablity, accessibility, and value accountability standards that, at a minimum, take into account each IHE's: (1) average or mean cost of attendance, minus grant aid; (2) percentage of enrolled students who are recipients of a Federal Pell Grant; and (3) student loan repayment rates.

Schools that do not comply with these standards are deemed to be on probation and must work with ED to achieve compliance within five years. They are required to pay to ED a percentage of the title IV funds made available to undergraduate students, determined according to the number of years (from two to four) after that determination. Schools that fail to achieve compliance within five years of being placed on probation become ineligible for title IV funds.

Amounts collected from noncompliant schools will be placed in a fund for the award of competitive grants to IHEs that meet or exceed the accountability standards. The grant funds must be used to provide need-based aid to students who are eligible for Federal Pell Grants.

]]> College Affordability and Innovation Act of 2015 Display Title College Affordability and Innovation Act of 2015 Official Title as Introduced A bill to provide for higher education reform. Introduced in Senate IS Short Titles as Introduced College Affordability and Innovation Act of 2015 Introduced in Senate 2015-05-14T04:00:00Z https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-114s1355is/xml/BILLS-114s1355is.xml 2015-05-14 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain. Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress This file contains bill summaries and statuses for federal legislation. A bill summary describes the most significant provisions of a piece of legislation and details the effects the legislative text may have on current law and federal programs. Bill summaries are authored by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) of the Library of Congress. As stated in Public Law 91-510 (2 USC 166 (d)(6)), one of the duties of CRS is "to prepare summaries and digests of bills and resolutions of a public general nature introduced in the Senate or House of Representatives". For more information, refer to the User Guide that accompanies this file.