This report finds problems in the ability of the five major federal credit agencies to reasonably estimate subsidy costs related to the $216.6 billion in direct loans and $712.4 billion in loan guarantees issued by the federal government. The five agencies are the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the departments of Education, Housing and…

This report presents results of a survey of 600 postsecondary schools concerning their use of the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS). NSLDS was developed to improve the quality and accessibility of student financial aid data, to reduce the burden on schools of administering the Department of Education's student financial aid programs, and…

In 1989 and 1990 the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance to standing committees in the U.S. Congress identified and explored issues for consideration in the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act and Title IV programs. Through 18 months of information gathering the Committee uncovered three problem areas. The first problem is…

Edits that can be performed by the processor who applies for federal campus-based student aid programs are discussed, along with a longer-term approach to assessing the efficacy of recommended edit checks. Attention is focused on the accuracy of data submitted by institutions on the application portion of the Fiscal Operations Report and…

Errors made in the allocation of federal funds to institutions for the three campus-based aid programs specified in Title IV of the Higher Education Act are discussed. Funds are allocated directly to participating colleges, which in turn award the money to students, for the following programs: Supplemental Education Opportunity Grants, College…

Error analysis for the institutional process of applying for federal aid is considered as part of the Quality Control Study of the U.S. Office of Student Financial Aid. Attention is focused on the results of the data collection activities that occurred using the Department of Education's records for the Fiscal-Operations Report and Application to…

The impact of data discrepancies made by colleges on the Fiscal Operations Report and Application to Participate (FISAP) is addressed, with attention to both impact on the entire aid program and resource allocation to institutions. Brief descriptions are provided of the allocation formulas for the three campus-based aid programs (Supplemental…

This statement of Cornelia M. Blanchette to the U.S. Senate Committee on Labor and Human Reources discusses Department of Education information management systems that support the financial aid programs authorized by Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended. These programs help the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP), the…

At a time when college degrees are increasingly a prerequisite for middle-class wages, less than 40 percent of college students are able to demonstrate proficiency on literacy tests, barely half of college students graduate on time, and many do not graduate at all. At the same time. the price of college continues to increase quickly and…

The Basic Educational Opportunity Grant Quality Control Study, Volume II focuses on study procedures used for the analytical report recorded in Volume I of the study. Copies of all data collection forms are included along with file layouts, field procedures and other general information letters. It is intended to provide a description of the…

Trends in the level of borrowing by graduate and professional students, and the capacity of students to repay their education debt are considered. In addition, sources of debt data and implications of this information for national student aid and data collection policy are addressed. Attention is also directed to levels of indebtedness between…

Volume 1 of this document reports the results of a telephone survey of approximately 3,600 student and parent borrowers who originated loans during the 1994-95 academic year using two Title IV Federal student loan programs, the Direct Loan and the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) programs. The objective of the survey was to provide baseline…

This is a report evaluating the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS), which is designed to track federal student financial aid (Title IV) programs and provide research and support functions such as prescreening of aid applicants for eligibility and enrollment status. The report finds that the Department of Education has made only limited…