# Presentation: 025566

## <date/time>

## Session 12

***Which? Who? How? and So What?:  ***
***Using the Quality Analysis Tool to Answer Your Institutional Verification Questions***

## How can I use the Quality Analysis Tool?

- 	Which FAFSA fields change the most after initial application? Who is the most likely to make changes?  How can institutional verification profiles be assessed? The session describes how to answer these questions with the Quality Analysis Tool and improve your verification procedures.

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## Roadmap of Online Resources

- SFA download (http://www.sfadownload.ed.gov/index.htm)
- The software
- Install guide and desk reference
- QA Program website (http://qaprogram.air.org)
- “Query Guidance”
- Web cast videos
- Activity Guides

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## The Question Catch 22 

- Parents and teachers know
- Hamlet tragically found out
- The dilemma
- Action
- Asking
- When dealing with others
- “Why didn’t you ask me?”
- “Why don’t you just tell me what to do?”

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## Question Quotes 

- “It is better to know some of the questions than all of the answers.” James Thurber
- “The important thing is not to stop questioning.” Albert Einstein
- “In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.” Bertrand Russell
- “A young man is embarrassed to question an older one.”  Homer

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## The Quality Analysis Tool (a.k.a. ISIR Analysis Tool)

- Formulate your own questions
- Find answers in your ISIR data
- Figure out how to improve your institutional verification procedures

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## Institutional Verification

- Every institution has their own institutional verification system
- Many non-QA Program schools verify applicants in addition to those selected by the central processing system (CPS)
- Only institutions formally participating in the QA Program are exempt from following the prescribed CPS edits
- Every school can analyze what they are doing

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## How do you start?

- Do you want to improve your institutional verification process?
- Retain or locate “initial” and “paid on” ISIR information
- SARA files
- EDExpress
- Mainframe systems that can write SARA records

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## Prerequisite Steps

- Download and install software
- Import “initial” and “paid on” data
- Write queries that mirror your institution’s verification profiles  - “Query Guidance” online
- Remember where your data came from

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## Queries 

- Select cases if a given logical condition is met
- Same query engine as used in EDExpress
- QA Tool Demonstration
- CPS “Selected for Verification”
- Parents AGI less than twice the sum of parents worksheets A and B

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## Establishing Institutional Verification Profiles

- Tools | Setup | Verification Edit Profile
- Process | Verification Selection | Set Initial School Verification Flag

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## Analysis Options

- Which ISIR fields change?
- Who makes changes?
- How do you assess verification profiles?
- And more!

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## Analysis Guidance on qaprogram.air.org

- Activity Guide #1 – ISIR field change
- Activity Guide #2 – which applicants
- Activity Guide #3 – assessing profiles
- Web cast – overview and introduction

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## Which ISIR Fields Change?

- Identify the most problematic ISIR data elements your verification process needs to address
- Help determine which information is most important to confirm with applicants selected for verification
- Identify areas that may benefit from improved education efforts

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## Steps for ISIR Field Change Analysis

- Plan Analysis
- Do you want to limit the number of ISIR fields examined?
- Do you want to examine impact upon EFC or Pell Grant eligibility?
- Do you want to analyze dependent and independent students separately?
- Separate verified and non-verified cases
- Build new query using “School Verification Flag”
- Use as (or with other) selection criteria in all reports

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## EFC-Focus: Field Change Report with Corrected Field Counts

- Counts of records with a changes to specific ISIR Fields
- Counts of records with the specific change experiencing an EFC increase
- Counts of records with the specific change experiencing an EFC decrease
- Counts of records with the specific change not experiencing an EFC change
- Unduplicated corrected and non-corrected record counts

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## What to Look for in the Field Change Report

- ISIR fields with greatest degree of change
- ISIR fields most associated with EFC increase and decrease
- Proportion of non-corrected records

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## Pell Focus: Corrected Records within an Initial EFC Range Report

- Similar to Field Change Report, but focus is on the departure from specified “EFC ranges”
- Contextual meaning of EFC “decrease” and “increase” – change from initial range
- Use “Initial Pell eligible” as the initial EFC range to examine which ISIR elements are most associated with the loss of Pell Grant eligibility
- Use “Initial Pell ineligible” as the initial EFC range to examine which ISIR elements are most associated with gaining Pell Grant eligibility

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## What to Look for in the Corrected Records ... Report

- Initial Pell eligible version
- The ISIR fields most associated with EFC increase (loss of eligibility)
- Over-award summary statistics
- Initial Pell ineligible version
- The ISIR fields most associated with EFC decreases (gain of eligibility)
- Under-award summary statistics

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## Questions to follow either report

- How does your institution currently address the ISIR elements identified as being the most problematic?
- Are you missing the same types of errors in your non-verified population?
- Could education efforts reduce these errors?
- Is there a way to reduce the number of non-corrected records selected for verification?*

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## Who Makes Changes?

- Identify ranges where changes to ISIR elements are most pronounced
- Identify ranges where changes to ISIR information are most associated with EFC increases
- Identify ranges where changes to ISIR information are most associated with EFC decreases

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## Steps to take before “Who Makes Changes” Analysis

- Plan Analysis
- Do you want to examine impact upon EFC or Pell Grant eligibility?
- Do you want to analyze dependent and independent students separately?
- How do you want to define target population?
- Define range(s)
- Select ISIR element(s)
- Tools | Custom Formats | Field Increments
- Minimum, Maximum, Increment

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## EFC-Focus: Field Range Report with Corrected Field Counts

**For target population:**
- Number of fields corrected
- Number of records experiencing an EFC increase
- Number of records experiencing an EFC decrease
- Number of records experiencing no EFC change

**By Field Increment**

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## Pell-Focus: Pell Corrected Records Report

**For initially Pell eligible among target population:**
- Number of records corrected (Selected Fields)
- Number of records experiencing an EFC increase (decrease in Pell)
- Number of records experiencing an EFC decrease (increase in Pell)
- Number of records experiencing no change in Pell
- Summary over and under award information (limited to initially Pell eligible)

**By Field Increment**

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## What to Look for in the Field Range and Pell Corrected Records reports

- Where were changes made?
- Where were changes most associated with EFC increase?
- Where were changes most associated EFC decrease?
- Where were changes rare or have no effect on EFC?

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## Questions to follow either Field Range or Pell Change reports

**Most problematic ranges**
- Does your institution explicitly target this range for verification?
- If not specifically targeted do you verify the majority of this range anyway?
- Activity #2 provides detailed instructions for computing the percentage of a problematic range your institution currently verifies

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## Questions to follow either Field Range or Pell Change reports

**Least problematic ranges**
- Would it be prudent to exclude (if permissible) these ranges from verification?
- Activity #2 provides detailed instruction for evaluating the implication of excluding less problematic ranges

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## How Can Verification Profiles Be Assessed?

- Assess the ability of specific institutional profiles to capture “substantial changes” to eligibility for need-based aid
- Assess the tendency of specific institutional profiles to select applicants with little of no impact upon eligibility for need-based aid
- Determine which profiles to fine tune or drop (if permissible)

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## Steps to take before “Assessing Profiles”

- Plan Analysis
- Do you want to examine impact upon EFC?
- What is a substantial change for you?
- Define new Queries
- Verified and no change to EFC
- Verified and substantial change to EFC

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## Three versions ofList Verification Selection Criteria by Code

- Selection Criteria
- Verified
- Verified and Substantial Change
- Verified and No Change

- Numbers generated
- Total
- Substantial Change
- No Change

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## Calculate Substantial and No Change Percentages

- For each profile
- Substantial / Total * 100
- (79/202 * 100) = 39 percent
- No Change / Total * 100
- (115/202 *100) = 57 percent

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## Relate Percentages to Practice

- Be reluctant to alter profiles selecting a high percentage of substantial changes
- Be eager (if permissible) to narrow the focus of profiles selecting a high percentage of no changes
- Follow up analysis
- Which ISIR fields changes?
- Who makes changes?

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## Tool Enhancements for 2003-04

- Name change from Quality Analysis Tool to ISIR Analysis Tool.
- Incorporate the use of the Verification Tracking Flag into reports and query function.
- Allow prior year setup and user defined queries to be carried forward from 02-3.

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## Tool Enhancements Continued

- Include summary data on verification reports that provides detail on the verification tracking flags applied to the records in the database.
- Names of existing reports have been changed to make them intuitive to the user.
- Sampling? TBD.
- New release date – May 2003.

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## Related Sessions

- Session #9 *CPS Edits, Verification Selection, and FSA’s Quality Analysis Tool*.
- #40 *Take the Quality Analysis Tool for a Test Drive. (Hands On Session)*
*Quality Assurance Focus Group for New QA Schools or New QA Coordinators at veteran QA Schools *PC Lab.

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## Thank You for Coming

- We appreciate your feedback and comments.  We can be reached:
- 	Email: RhodesD@Calib.com
- 			 Francine.Reeves@ed.gov

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