Posted Date:October 27, 2009
| Author: | Jana Hernandes, Service Director, Operations, Federal Student Aid |
Subject: Release of 2008-2009 Quality Assurance Program Data Analysis Report
We are pleased to announce the availability of the report, “Analysis of Quality Assurance Program Data: 2008-09.” This report contains findings from 138 of the 147 schools participating in the Quality Assurance Program during the 2008-2009 Award Year. Despite being relatively few in number, Quality Assurance Program schools disburse 12.5 percent of all Federal Pell Grant (Pell Grant) funds.
Participating schools drew random samples of at least 350 students from their aid applicant populations and completed Federal Verification Worksheets for all students selected. Schools then uploaded the initial and, if this verification exercise resulted in changes, the corrected Institutional Student Information Records (ISIRs) into the ISIR Analysis Tool. We subsequently conducted a program-wide analysis of the resulting changes to the ISIR data of 70,710 aid applicants who were selected for Quality Assurance school verification. Our key findings are summarized as follows:
- A high percentage of high-need applicants selected for school and Central Processing System (CPS) verification did not experience a subsequent change in their eligibility for aid after collecting documentation.
- School verification prevented approximately 60 percent of potential over- and under-payments in the Pell Grant program.
- CPS verification prevented nearly 90 percent of potential over-payments, but less than 40 percent of potential under-payments in the Pell Grant program.
- Quality Assurance schools used a variety of strategies to select records for verification.
- An overwhelming majority (93 percent) of schools found the ISIR Analysis Tool “very” or “somewhat” useful.
- The experience that Quality Assurance schools have using the ISIR Analysis Tool make them potential partners in exploring the implications of future progress toward simplifying the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
The full report is available on the Quality Assurance Web site at the following link:
http://ifap.ed.gov/qadocs/ToolsforSchools/0809QADataAnalysisReport.pdf
Contact Information
If you have questions about the report, contact David Rhodes at david.rhodes@ed.gov.