The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is a complex form completed annually by millions of postsecondary students applying for federal financial aid. Errors frequently require resubmission. It is suggested that cognitive psychology principles that help describe how people understand text and complete forms be applied to a redesigned…

The purpose and direction of the Office of Student Financial Aid (OSFA) quality improvement program are described. The background and context for the Pell Grant quality control (QC) design study and the meaning of QC are reviewed. The general approach to quality improvement consists of the following elements: a strategic approach that enables OSFA…

The objectives of the Pell Grant quality control (QC) system and the general definition of QC are considered. Attention is also directed to: the objectives of the Stage II Pell Grant QC system design and testing project, the approach used to develop the QC system, and the interface of the QC system and the Pell Grant delivery system. The…

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…

The Pell Grant Quality Control Study of 1982-83 was designed to identify program error rate, to measure the impact of increased validation activity, and to propose corrective actions to reduce the misallocation of program funds. A sample of approximately 4,000 students was drawn from a stratified random sample of 317 participating institutions.…

Efforts of the Department of Education (ED) to simplify the Pell Grant formula by reducing the number of data elements used to calculate awards (i.e., data element reduction) are evaluated. A framework is developed to assess the critical characteristics of individual data elements, to eliminate elements from the formula, and to develop proposals…

The type, number, and scope of errors on Basic Educational Opportunity Grant (BEOG) program applications were estimated in a replication of a 1976-1977 Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Comparison Study. Information reported on BEOG applicants and IRS income tax returns was compared for various categories of applicants. The study provides information…

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 development of the error prone model (EPM) for the 1984-1985 student financial aid validation criteria for Pell Grant recipient selection is discussed, based on a comparison of the 1983-1984 EPM criteria and a newly estimated EPM. Procedures/assumptions on which the new EPM was based include: a sample of 1982-1983 Pell Grant recipients…

The development of a number of error-prone models to select Pell Grant recipients for validation is discussed. The 1983-1984 Pell Grant validation strategy consists of a two-stage approach: selection using Pre-Established Criteria (PEC) followed by selection using Error Prone Modeling (EPM). The database used for model development consists of a…

The Pell Grant Quality Control Study of 1982-83 was designed to identify program error rate, to measure the impact of increased validation activity, and to propose corrective actions to reduce the misallocation of program funds. A sample of approximately 4,000 students drawn from a sample of 317 participating institutions showed that Pell Grant…

Detailed findings from the first stage of the Basic Educational Opportunity Grant (BEOG) quality control project are presented. For the 4,500 students selected as representative of the BEOG, or Pell Grant, recipient population as of Fall 1980, data were collected from: federal tax returns, interviews with student recipients and their parents, tax…

The research methodology of a study to assess 1980-1981 award accuracy of the Basic Educational Opportunity Grants (BEOG), or Pell grants, is described. The study is the first stage of a three-stage quality control project. During the spring of 1981 a nationally representative sample of 305 public, private, and proprietary institutions was…

Findings of a study of 1980-1981 award accuracy of the Basic Educational Opportunity Grants (BEOGs), or Pell Grants, are summarized. The study is the first stage of a three-stage quality control project and includes recommended corrective actions to reduce inaccuracies in the grant awards. A sample of 4,500 students were selected as representative…