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ExpectMore.govExpectMore.gov home pageEXPECT FEDERAL PROGRAMS TO PERFORM WELL, AND BETTER EVERY YEAR.
 
Program Assessment

Program

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Student Aid Administration

Student Aid Administration provides funds to help students and families pay for the costs of education beyond high school and to administer the Federal student financial assistance programs authorized under Title IV of the Higher Education Act (HEA) of 1965, as amended.

Rating

What This Rating Means

PERFORMING
Adequate

This rating describes a program that needs to set more ambitious goals, achieve better results, improve accountability or strengthen its management practices.
  • Student Aid Administration has shown improvement, particularly in the use of strong financial management practices and also in areas where program partners have committed to the same goals as program managers in the Department. The program has also shown progress towards achieving program goals, both annual and long-term.
  • The Department needs to continue to pursue independent evaluations to support program improvements and to evaluate effectiveness and also to focus on the collection and use of performance information to manage and improve performance.
  • The program was found lacking in adherence to budgeted costs and established schedules in several major student aid delivery contracts, but a new acquisition strategy will address the delays and cost issues that were the result of vendor shortcomings.

Improvement Plan

About Improvement Plans

We are taking the following actions to improve the performance of the program:

  • Improve monitoring and oversight of financial institutions, including the standardization of the program review process.
  • Improve business application development outcomes by implementing an acquisition strategy where multi-vendor contract vehicles supporting business capability replace large business process contracts.
  • Continue to improve the unit-cost framework to improve budgetary and management decisions, including the incorporation of benchmarking to assess the performance of FSA activities.

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