The Higher Education Act of 1965 - Research Paper Example

Order 509578 III Analysis of the Higher Education Act of 1965 Write on this policy issue of the AASCU; Boost appropriation levels for the Title III of the Higher Education Act, which supports the development and strengthening of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Predominantly Black Institutions, American Indian Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities, Alaska Native and Hawaiian Serving Institutions, and Native American Serving Institutions. Provide in-depth explanation of this policy including its history. Identify the policy actors and the impact of the policy on American higher education. Discuss the accountability issues associated with this policy or policy issue and provide suggestions for assessing the impact of the policy or policy issue on student learning. The Higher Education Act of 1965 was a legislation which came on the heels of the Civil Rights Movement (1961-1965) and the wave of race riots spanning the same era. Protesting the inequalities and lack of freedom for advancement, the ethnic minorities in America particularly Blacks rebelled against governments system of segregation and discrimination. The Ole Miss riot of 1962, the Cambridge riots of 1963, the New York City riot of 1964, the Rochester riot of 1964, the Elizabeth riot of 1964, the Dixmoor riot of 1964, the Philadelphia riot of 1964 and the Watts riot of 1965 number a few of the spate of riots which manifest the open grievance of race minorities who were deprived of several human rights, one of which was education. Formerly, the high cost of higher education ensured that the poorer classes of Americans, among which included the Native Americans, Hispanic Americans and the African-Americans, got barred entry from scholastic institutions. These human rights encroachments would retard social mobility and would keep a cross section of people uneducated and in depressed circumstances. The Higher Education Act became grafted into body of constituted laws under the U.S. Department of Education in November 8, 1965. This law represented a milestone of achievement for Americans who could not afford education beyond the secondary level. The American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) rose to the occasion, even during this turbulent era, to advocate the basic right of underprivileged Americans to be schooled, regardless of color, class or creed. The American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) is an organization derived from the Association of Teacher Education Institutions. The objectives of AASCU were to "to enable the members to make their influence felt in connection with national affairs, to present the strengths and services of state colleges and universities effectively to the public and to agencies and individuals from which grants of funds might be available, to represent the members of the Association in the National Commission on Accrediting, and to conduct studies of educational problems of common interest to the members" (Hager). AASCU began its existence in 1961, established because the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges (NASULGC) and the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) did not respond comprehensively to the needs of Americans striving to better themselves though matriculation to four year colleges and universities. The public policy pronounced the want of funding for institutions educating minorities to satisfy provisions in Title III of the Higher Education Act of 1965. The policy excerpt in focus underscores the AASCU’s goal to augment appropriation levels for minority institutions serving underprivileged students. The reason requiring increase in funding is the insufficiency of the Pell grants. Although the Pell Grant program started streaming funds since 1975, the financial bestowal remained consistent for over twenty five years in the face of escalating college costs. Programs such as Leveraging Educational Assistance Partnership (LEAP), the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant Program (FSEOG) and the Federal Work-Study Program (FWS) are some examples of endowments for higher education students. Rural higher education institutions need to construct more educational facilities, widen college access to more students and stimulate growth in the student body by incremental funding - especially when the count of individuals holding degrees living in sparsely populated areas is low. With the supplemental federal investment in education, the AASCU aims to make the affordability for education more reachable for minorities. Equally, AASCU is obligated to protect students from becoming heavily indebted by setting limits to undergraduate student loans. Therefore, students cannot exceed loan boundaries because federal and state governments only defray a designated sum.  Title III of the Higher Education Act is a thought-out solution to resolve the problems of “minority students from low-income backgrounds.” As a result state and government educational institutions had to develop programs providing “high quality education for all". Title III stipulates the grants to be awarded, the criteria for endowment of funds, quadrennial contributions of the federal government, statement for equality, pass rates, report cards and application procedures. The framers of Title III of the Higher Education Act (1965) realize that “there is a particular national interest in aiding those institutions of higher education that have historically served students who have been denied access to postsecondary education because of race or national origin.” The purpose further emphasizes provisions for “equalizing educational opportunity through Federal assistance” (National Resource Center). Title III boosts government fiscal aid in strengthening enrollment, updating facilities and educating school faculty in recognized dispensaries of education such as the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Predominantly Black Institutions (PBIs), Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian-serving institutions (ANNH), American and Native American Pacific Islander-serving Institutions (AANAPISI), Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCUs), Native American Serving Nontribal Institutions (NASNTI) and in 2003, the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACC). AASCU endorses the policy requiring an upgrade in funding under the category ‘Access and Attainment Priorities.’ The principles of AASCU are rooted in the acknowledgement that higher education is both an individual and societal need, the commitment to democratic ideals championing freedom and unbiased, equal opportunity, the fulfillment of America’s Promise, a policy and alliance formed to distribute higher education impartially among all socio-economic groups in the U.S., and the conviction that financial resources should not hinder a person desirous of higher education. One of the sections of the policy purposes to “boost appropriation levels for Title III of the Higher Education Act, which supports the development and strengthening of Historically Black Colleges and Universities; Predominantly Black Institutions; American Indian Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities and Alaska Native and Hawaiian Serving Institutions; Asian-American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions; and Native American Serving Institutions” (AASCU Public Policy Agenda). Policy makers are key in engineering terms and conditions to put in place regulations and provisions which stimulate progressive measures to remedy social inequality and financial constraints. The movers and shakers of AASCU who devised the 2011 AASCU Public Policy are Muriel A. Howard, President, Edward M. Elmendorf, Senior Vice President, George Chin, Senior Federal Policy Consultant, Lesley Mc. Bain, Senior Research and Policy Analyst, Alene Russell, Senior State Policy Consultant, Patricia Smith, Senior Federal Policy Consultant and Blakely Whilden, Program Manager for Federal Relations. The patronizing associations which help craft the higher education public policy are the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities, the Council for Opportunity in Education, Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education and the State Higher Education Executive Officers. This public policy originated in the legal document, Higher Education Act of 1965. The act was signed into force by U.S. President Lyndon Baines Johnson 8 November 1965. President Johnson assumed office after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. The bill was approved and legalized because of the implementation of the Great Society program, fabricated as a response to the indignation of Americans belonging to minorities. The Great Society was a social reform plan to ameliorate conditions to effect social justice and stamp out poverty. The effect of the Higher Education Act 1965 resulted in the placement of the Pell Grant Program which covered more than half of the tuition and fees cost for higher education. Students started acquiring aid in 1975 when the government activated the Pell Grant program in which the government subsidized more than eighty percent of college fees with an injection of federal funding. Also, students would also have access to private and federal loans. The consequent AASCU Public Policy 2011 also intends to heighten levels of funding among institutions with disadvantaged students. To maintain public trust, AASCU shoulders the responsibility of cataloguing incoming and outgoing money, outlining accountability standards. The AASCU has raised some accountability issues regarding the AASCU Public Policy Agenda of 2011. First of all, AASCU has to ensure the responsible allocation of money to minority serving institutions. This accountability measure is to avert risk of misappropriation of funds, fraud and abuse of authority. In the accountability statement, AASCU is careful to "eliminate fraud and abuse in federal student aid programs" (AASCU Public Policy) This step is to hold accountable both financial aid recipients and federal funding managers, so that monies are channeled in an integral manner to higher education institutions and individuals. Higher education institutions must rise to uphold the standards of transparency in providing financial assistance to low income students and disadvantaged institutions. As a result, Congress and officials of the AASCU collaborated with tuition-setting organizations, taking into account tuition costs, books and living expenses to minimize exploitation of the system. Further, to strengthen provisions, the AASCU levied higher expectations for the higher education institutions such as maintaining an inventory of college graduate percentages and urging increases in the graduates of higher education institutions. To keep up the level of accountability, the AASCU has introduced intra-state data systems which compile information on higher education institutions and students. At the same time, these data systems are not invasive and still guarantee the privacy of financial aid beneficiaries. Since the AASCU must respect students inalienable right of privacy, the body integrated the Voluntary System of Accountability which makes use of information volunteered by student and seeks to lessen the amount of required information necessary to qualify for financial assistance. The Accountability of Teacher Preparation programs also consistently evaluate teachers and link the performance of students to their instructors (Jrank). AASCU not only monitors the success of the program through reported enrollment demographics, graduation numbers and graduation rates among minorities, but also tracks student learning through data systems, articulating an "increased focus on student learning incomes" (AASCU Public Policy Agenda). For non-traditional higher education students who have additional responsibilities outside the classroom, AASCU opened accelerated learning opportunities and flexible courses. The AASCU helps empower Federal TRIO, STEM (The Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education Coalition) and GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) programs which cater to the needs of disabled, low-income and first-generation college students. AASCU certifies that the best trained and qualified teachers participate in the effort to educate minorities and fulfill the requirements of the Higher Education Act and the AASCU Public Policy Agenda of 2011. By employing competent and efficient teachers, AASCU anticipates better student learning outcomes.  Assessing strategies to gauge the impact of the public policy demands that AASCU, like most pilot programs, first concentrate on a few higher education schools to determine the policys success and positive impact on student learning. To gauge the impact of student learning, the policy makers of the AASCU Public Policy (2011), can calculate the subsequent retention rates, enrollment statuses, among higher education institutions in which all the provisions of the policy are put in force. Both state and federal entities bear the onus of recording information from students and at the end of the trial period, survey the responses from students and institution heads.  In sum, social justice is ensured by the Higher Education Act of 1965 and the continuance of AASCU’s Public Policy Agenda. Incorporated in practical reality, the policy provides minorities with the tools needed to withstand against domineering and discriminating forces. Liberty of education factors in the equation with the government granting institutions serving minorities with the financial fuel to battle for dignity and the promise to dream the American dream. References:  American Association of State Colleges and Universities: Public Policy Agenda 2011 . Retrieved 07 April 2011American Association of State Colleges and Universities: Public Policy Principles  . Retrieved 07 April 2011 American Institute in Taiwan: CRS Report for Congress Higher Education Act Reauthorization . Retrieved 07 April 2011. Hager, Walter E. Education Resources Information Center: AASCU The First Ten Years. . Jrank: American Association of State Colleges and Universities . Retrieved 07 April 2011. National Resource Center for Youth Development: Higher Education Act 1965 . Retrieved 07 April 2011 Read More