Posted Date: June 1, 2009
Author: Jana Hernandes, Service Director, Operations, Federal Student Aid
Subject: Release of 2007-2008 Quality Assurance Program Data Analysis Report
We are pleased to announce the availability of the report, "Analysis of Quality Assurance Program Data: 2007-08." This report contains findings from 141 of the schools participating in the Quality Assurance Program during the 2007-2008 Award Year.
Participating schools uploaded the Institutional Student Information Records (ISIRs) they selected for verification into the ISIR Analysis Tool. We then conducted a program-wide analysis of the resulting changes to the ISIR data of over 141,000 aid applicants who were selected for Quality Assurance school verification. Our key findings are summarized as follows:
- While only 149 schools are in the Quality Assurance Program, those schools disbursed 13 percent of all Federal Pell Grant (Pell Grant) funds during the 2007-08 Award Year.
- Schools varied widely in terms of how many criteria they used to select ISIRs for verification; the number of criteria ranged from 1 to 59. The average was 10.
- School verification prevented overpayments in the Pell Grant Program equal to 13.6 percent of the Pell Grant funds that would have been awarded based on the information students supplied on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). School verification efforts also prevented underpayments in the Pell Grant Program that constituted 5.9 percent of initial Pell Grant eligibility.
- A sizable percentage of the ISIRs schools selected for verification in 2007-2008 did not need to be verified. Half of the selected dependent students and a clear majority of the selected independent students experienced either no change or only a minor change in aid eligibility after verification.
- Verification efforts that did not result in a major change in aid eligibility were concentrated among the most needy student groups. Only 13 percent of dependent students and 8 percent of independent with an automatic zero expected family contribution (EFC) experienced a change to a Pell Grant award when selected for verification.
The full report is available on the Quality Assurance Web site at the following link:
http://ifap.ed.gov/qadocs/ToolsforSchools/0708QADataAnalysisReport.pdf
Contact Information
If you have questions about the report, contact David Rhodes at david.rhodes@ed.gov.