Breve resumen de la ley de reautorizacion de educacion (HEOA)

THE HIGHER EDUCATION OPPORTUNITY ACT OF 2008:WHAT DOES IT MEAN AND WHAT DOES IT

DO?

Alfredo Calderón-SerranoCoordinator Task Forces

Hispanic Educational Technology Services (HETS)

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Correo-e: [email protected] al: (787) 766-2600 exts. 8910, 8911

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The Higher Education Opportunity Act (Public Law 110-315) (HEOA) was enacted on August 14, 2008, and reauthorizes the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended (HEA).

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Apprehension is about language that remains and that reflects a substantial growth of government oversight, engulfing vital areas of institutional operation such as finance and governance as well as judgments about

academic quality, e.g., transfer of credit, heretofore the province of the higher education community.

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The reauthorized Higher Education Act signals far-reaching and troublesome changes in:the accreditation–federal relationship, and the institution–federal relationship.

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Changes are driven by

• government requirements in new areas of accreditation and higher education operation,

• expansion of current requirements in areas already under federal scrutiny and, crucially

• extensive new federal authority to report to the public on the data that will become available.

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Changes to Accreditation

• Institutions play a central leadership role in setting standards and evaluating student achievement.– Colleges and universities, not government,

determine institutional quality based on judgment of student learning outcomes.

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Changes to Accreditation (2)

• Appointment procedure for the national advisory committee that scrutinizes accrediting organizations, distributing this responsibility between the executive and legislative branches rather than continuing to concentrate this authority only in the executive branch (United States Department of Education).

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Changes to Accreditation (3)

Transfer of Credit• Institutions are required, as a condition of

accreditation, to have a transfer of credit policy, to make this policy public and publish criteria on which their transfer of credit decisions are based.

• They are also required to report on at least some of the transfer activity that they experience.

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Changes to Accreditation (4)

Distance education• Requirements that institutions monitor

enrollments, assuring that registration, participation and award of credit all go to the same student.

• Accompanying this monitoring is a requirement for additional reporting on distance learning from colleges and universities.

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Changes to Accreditation (5)

Distance education accountability• These include a study of employment upon

completion of a program or credential, a study to evaluate the quality of distance education, an examination of proprietary institutions and separate studies of endowments, textbooks and articulation agreements.

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Changes to Accreditation (6)

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What is a distance education course?

• “Uses one or more technologies to deliver instruction to students who are separated from the instructor and to support regular and substantive interaction between the students and the instructor, synchronously and asynchronously. “

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How should institutions establish that students who register for distance education courses are indeed the students who complete the course requirements and earn the academic credit? (1)

• Institutions should have a systematic approach to verifying that the student who originally enrolled in the course is the same student submitting assignments, taking exams and receiving a final grade.

• At this time, institutions may use systems with secure logins and passwords or proctored exams to verify a student’s identity.

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How should institutions establish that students who register for distance education courses are indeed the students who complete the course requirements and earn the academic credit? (2)

• Any identity verification process must protect student privacy.

• Students must be notified when they enroll or register of any additional fees associated with identity verification.

• Institutions should monitor the evolution of identity verification technologies.

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References

• Federal Register/Vol. 74, No. 150/Thursday, August 6, 2009/Proposed Rules p. 39498 - 39533.

• http://www.msche.org/publications/Distance-Education-and-the-Higher-Education-Opportunity-Act.doc

• Contact Kay Gilcher at the United States Department of Education: 202-502-7693 or [email protected].

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