# Presentation: 132830

## Getting Started in the Quality Assurance Program

- Holly Langer-Evans
- Michael Cagle
- Anne Tuccillo

- 2007-2008

**Notes:**
Welcome to training for “Getting Started in the Quality Assurance Program”. This session is designed primarily for Schools who have recently been accepted into the QA Program or for those staff new to the school’s QA Team.  But, it also provides an overview for anyone with questions about the QA Program.

Your trainers today are: Holly Langer-Evans, Anne Tuccillo and Michael Cagle 

We’d first like to share how a school applies and is accepted into the QA Program.  To apply to participate, the financial aid Director sends a letter or email to Barbara Mroz who is the Director of the QA Program.  The letter briefly explains why the school wants to participate in the program. That letter initiates a screening process within Federal Student Aid.    

The screening process can take up to 6 weeks.  If the school is accepted to participate, an acceptance letter is sent with a QA Program Participation agreement amendment.  This is an amendment to the Title IV participation agreement and outlines the institution’s commitments and responsibilities for participating, provides assurances from the Dept. of ED, and describes the process of withdrawing or being removed from the Program.

The school then signs the PPA and sends it back to us.  When we receive the signed PPA, the School Participation Team here in FSA countersigns it and we return a copy to you.  This is when the school is officially considered a participant in the QA Program.  We suggest you keep a copy of your QA PPA in case an auditor or program reviewer requests it.  The school will also receive a call from the QA Regional Representative assigned to them. 

## Training Objectives

**Training Objectives**

- Define the Quality Assurance (QA) Program and review its history

- Review Program Flexibilities and Requirements

- Provide Tools and Resources

**Notes:**
During this 30 minute training session, we will explain what the Quality Assurance Program is, review the flexibilities that you have as a participant of the Program, and then discuss the requirements that QA Schools have and provide some tools and resources available to help you meet those requirements. 

## History of the Program

**Quality Control Pilot Project – 1985**
**Authorized under Section 487A of the Higher Education Act (HEA) of 1965, as amended in 1992 and 1998**
**Federal Register published**_[http://ifap.ed.gov/fregisters/doc0134_bodyoftext.htm](http://ifap.ed.gov/fregisters/doc0134_bodyoftext.htm)_

**Notes:**
So, let’s start at the beginning.  The Quality Assurance Program began as the Institutional Quality Control Pilot Project in 1985 and evolved into a statutory program in 1992. With the assistance of participating schools, the tools have evolved and have become more user-friendly and are applicable to all Title IV schools.  Program wide verification data from the schools in the QA program has assisted ED with the development and revision of the federal verification selection criteria. The Federal Register(9/9?98 and 8/22/2001) can be accessed from IFAP and provides details about applying to the Quality Assurance Program.

## The Quality Assurance (QA) Program

- Advance

- Sustain

- Attain

**Notes:**
So what is the Quality Assurance Program:  The Quality Assurance Program is an innovative program that gives control of the verification process to the school and encourages self assessment to sustain compliance in Title IV operations.  QA is a program that supports a continuous improvement process and is intuitive to those who administer Title IV aid.  The program strives to ATTAIN compliance, to SUSTAIN compliance by evaluating policies and procedures, and ADVANCE the process using lessons learned to implement change and share effective practices.

It’s all about an innovative approach to attain, sustain, and advance not only Title IV Compliance initiatives, but also student service and program delivery.

The QA Program provides two web tools to assist in improving Title IV Aid Operations, which we’ll talk more about in just a few minutes.

## Flexibilities and Exemptions

- 668.53(a)(1) through (4)
- 668.54 (a)(1)(2) and (4)
- 668.56
- 668.57
- 668.60(a)

- Policies and Procedures
- Applicants to be Verified
- Items to be Verified
- Acceptable Documentation
- Deadlines for Submitting Documentation

**Regulation:****	****	****	****	****Exemption:**

**Notes:**
Under the statute for the QA Program, you are given the Flexibility to design your OWN institutional verification program and are exempted from following parts of the verification regulations under the Student Assistance General Provisions.  This flexibility allows you to define your institutional verification population in lieu of those flagged by the Central Processor.  Each year, you are required to use the ISIR Analysis Tool to assist in the analysis of verification data, to determine which student populations should be verified and to revise your criteria accordingly for the next year.  We’ll talk more about the ISIR Analysis Tool in just a moment but let’s take a look at the exemptions.

668.53(a)(1) through (4) – Policies and Procedures for verifying student aid application data.  It is important though that you document your process and verification criteria in your verification policies and procedures.

668.54(a)(1)(2) and (4) – Applicants to be Verified – this exempts you from having to verify records selected by the CPS. Instead, you get to determine what your institutional verification criteria should be by using data from the ISIR Analysis Tool and analyzing your applicants.

668.56 allows you the flexibility to determine which ISIR elements you want to verify.  Again, the ISIR Analysis Tool reports will help you with this determination.

668.57 allows you the flexibility to determine what “acceptable documentation” is to verify the ISIR elements you have selected for verification. 

668.60(a) provides you the flexibility to establish your own time frames for students to submit documentation.

## The ISIR Analysis Tool 

**Notes:**
The ISIR Analysis Tool – what is it - The ISIR Analysis Tool is a user-friendly web-based application that provides a series of reports to assist in the analysis of this verification data.  It is designed for schools to review and analyze their ISIR data, and to better understand certain characteristics about their Title IV applicant population and verification process (whether it is Federally selected or defined by the school). 

The Tool has drill down capability within the reports, making it easier for you to look at your data.  An ISIR Analysis Tool Guide is available on the QA Program website and provides step by step instructions for using the Tool.  In addition, your QA regional representative is always available to assist you.  Details on these resources are provided at the end of this presentation.

How do you access the Tool?  An easy way get there is to go to IFAP.ED.Gov and select ISIR Analysis Tool from the Tools for Schools Window.  This will take you to FAA Access to CPS on-line.  You can then save the URL as a favorite for easy access in the future.  Make sure that the Destination Point Administrator or DPA, at your school provides you access to both FAA Access and the ISIR Analysis Tool.  Once you have a PIN number and access rights, you are ready to go.

Once in the Tool, you will upload a flat ASCII file of records that contain an initial ISIR transaction and a paid on ISIR transaction.  After you have your records uploaded and validated, you can begin analyzing your data. You might wonder what type of reports the Tool  provides to assist you in your analysis. Let’s look at the Dashboard to see the big picture.

## The Dashboard

**Notes:**
Once you are in the Analysis of Data portion of the Tool, the Dashboard is the first page you will see and where the reports are generated.  Before even running any reports, the ISIR Analysis Tool automatically displays your data in two separate panes on what we call the Dashboard.

The Sample Summary pane displays a summary of your data from the records you uploaded.

The Verification Summary pane displays school and CPS verification information for both dependent and independent student records. The verification summary report is displayed as a graph on the dashboard. 

Here we see that the Sample Summary Report shows that we have 348 students in our test database. There were 4,534 ISIR Fields that changed, and those changes resulted in 264 EFC changes.  We will want to do further analysis to determine which ISIR fields caused the 264 EFC changes. You can drill down from any one of the bar graphs.

The bar graph in the verification summary displays four verification categories -- Selected for Verification, Not selected for School Verification, Initial Selected for CPS Verification, and Initial not selected for CPS Verification.  You can examine the relative heights of the EFC increase and EFC decrease bars and also compare the combined height of these bars to the bar that represents the entire group.  The bars are presented in four “triplets” with the first bar representing the entire verification group, the second indicating EFC increases, and the third EFC decreases.  In the 2007-08 version of the Tool, there will be two separate graphs – one for dependent and one for independent students.

What to Look For:
Which records were selected for CPS Verification and what was the impact on the EFC?
Which records were selected for school (discretionary) verification and what was the impact on the EFC?
The Standard reports generated by the tool help you identify the most problematic ISIR elements that are being changed and affecting eligibility at your institution.  The reports also assist you in determining why they are problematic so you can brainstorm possible reasons/solutions. You then use the results to determine your institutional verification criteria and/or revise your consumer information. Let’s look at report #3 – The Field Change Report.

## The Process of Analyzing Data

- Field Change Report

**Notes:**
This slide shows a screenshot of a Field Change Report. The Field Change report displays all the ISIR elements that had a change from the Initial to the Paid On transaction. In this example, let’s look at the Criteria listed up in the left hand corner.  We ran the report on Dependent students. We have 229 Dependent students who had an ISIR change from the initial to the paid on transaction.

Let’s look at the first field: Parent’s AGI – 158 (or 69%) of the 229 records had an ISIR change. Of those 158, almost 52% had an EFC Increase and almost 40% had an EFC Decrease. 11% had a Pell increase and 19% had a Pell decrease.  The top 3 ISIR elements with the most changes on this page are Parent AGI, Parents taxes paid, and Mothers Income from Work.

You might begin to ask yourself,  “Who should I begin to analyze?”  When first starting the QA program, you may want to evaluate the effectiveness of Federal Verification Selection criteria at your school. What is working that you may want to include in your institutional verification process; what criteria do not seem to be resulting in changes to eligibility or awards. If you have been in the program for awhile, you would analyze your institutional criteria. Every other year you verify a random sample of  at least 350 students in addition to your institutional criteria.  The random sample helps to determine if you are missing any students that might need to be added to your criteria in the future. Not to worry, we provide you guidance and detailed instructions.

## QA Program Requirements for using the ISIR Analysis Tool

**QA Program Requirements for using the ISIR Analysis Tool**

- Upload and Validate Records

- Analyze Data

- Provide Institutional Verification Criteria to regional Representative

**Notes:**
What are your program requirements regarding the ISIR Analysis Tool? 

 You are required to use the ISIR Analysis Tool to analyze your data. You will upload and then validate a file of verified ISIR records into the tool. Validating your records will ensure that you have both an Initial ISIR record and a Paid-on ISIR record for each student. This is how you get records to analyze.
The second thing we ask you to do is to Analyze your data by running and creating reports within the tool and taking a close look at what they are telling you.  You should use this information to develop or enhance your institutional verification criteria.
And Finally, provide your institutional verification criteria to your QA regional representative.

Again, instructions on how to upload, validate, and analyze data is made available on our website. 
And remember, you have your QA regional representative to assist you.

## 2007-08 Timeline of Activitiesfor the ISIR Analysis Tool

| February | 2007 2008 Version of IA Tool on the Web is available |
| --- | --- |
| March – September | Begin implementing your verification selection criteria & complete verifying your applicants |
| October | Prepare flat file, upload data;  |
| November, December, January  | Analyze Data; FSA collects school data; Notify QA Rep. of institutional verification criteria |

**Notes:**
Here, we provide you with a timeline of when you should begin activities that involve the ISIR Analysis Tool. You will verify those students you have selected for institutional verification. In the fall, you’ll prepare and upload a flat file and begin analyzing your data so that you can revise, update, or validate what your verification program will look like for 08-09. You can upload a maximum of 1,500 records in to the tool to analyze. We recommend not less than 350 (unless you verified less than 350 ISIR records). 

## FSA Assessments

**Perform Self-Evaluation and improvement by using the FSA Assessments**

**Notes:**
As mentioned earlier, the Quality Assurance Process is a continuous improvement cycle. The FSA Assessments are designed to provide you with the opportunity to evaluate your Title IV Operations by completing self-evaluations on selected areas, (e.g., Satisfactory Academic Progress, Conflicting Data, R2T4, etc.)  

They also provide an opportunity to identify areas that aren’t working as well as they should be and develop corrective action plans known as Management Enhancements.  There is also an Effective Practice process which allows you to report what you’ve found that is working well at your school.

## Where to find the Federal Student Aid Assessments

- _[http://ifap.ed.gov](http://ifap.ed.gov/)_

**Where to find the Federal Student Aid Assessments**

**Notes:**
The Federal Student Aid Assessments are easy to locate – the link is on the web!

You can access the assessments from IFAP or the School Portal. From IFAP, Under Tools for Schools, select FSA Assessments.

## Where to find the Federal Student Aid Assessments

**School Portal**
- _[http://Federal Student Aid4schools.ed.gov](http://fsa4schools.ed.gov/)_

**Where to find the Federal Student Aid Assessments**

**Notes:**
From the School Portal – Under Resources & Training, Select FSA Assessments.

## The Redesign of the Assessments 

**The Redesign of the Assessments **

- New Look and Feel

- Introduce the New Policy and Procedure Assessment

**Notes:**
Now let’s focus on the new look and feel of the assessments and the newly created assessment called “policies and procedures”. 

## The Federal Student Aid Assessments – Re-Designed

**Notes:**
The first thing you will notice is the new look and feel, and the new Federal Student Aid Logo “Start Here Go Further”. The menu bar to the left allows you to access sections of the home page and the areas in blue link directly to the topic listed. The Assessments are categorized in Four different areas: STUDENTS, SCHOOLS, MANAGING FUNDS AND INNOVATIONS. The first three categories offer 16 assessments to help you with your compliance check. The fourth category is called Innovations and provides a link to effective practices.  Unlike the first 3 sections, this information comes from schools.  Send us the practices that work for you and you’ll be helping your colleagues.

All the assessments provide hyperlinks to Regulations, other resources and activities. You can even download the activities and save to your hard drive and print at a later date or share with your colleagues. Let’s first take a look at the FAQ Page for using the Federal Student Aid Assessments.  This link will help you when you are using the assessments and have a basic navigational question – this is a great place to look before becoming frustrated.

Why would you use the assessments? Where would you start?  The information in the “This Chart” link and will help you decide.  The assessments were not designed to be done in one sitting. Identify areas where you want to begin evaluating and thoroughly do so. We will discuss the information located in this link on the next slide.

## Why use the Federal Student Aid Assessments?

**Notes:**
This chart  gives you ideas to use the assessments.  In the example above, a school has a SAP finding where the school’s SAP Policy is not adequately monitored. The document provides you the assessment module you would complete to get a better understanding of the finding, and identify the areas that need a corrective action plan. The link to the Management Enhancement Worksheet provides you with a document to  create a corrective action plan and track progress to completion.  We recommend that you print this chart -- you’ll find it very useful to get you started.

## Policies & Procedures Assessment 

**Policies and Procedures At A Glance**
**Minimum Requirements**
**Regulations**
**Activities**

**Notes:**
The Policies and Procedures Assessment can be accessed from each assessment. There is a link that brings you directly to this assessment. Each assessment  recommends a section of the Policies and Procedures module to complete. 

The chart in Policies and Procedures At a Glance highlights the minimum requirements found in the regulation. We provide a link to each of the regulatory citations. In addition, there is an Activity that provides a check list related to the topic. Please make sure that you addressed the minimum requirements outlined in this chart. 

The law doesn’t require you to have a Policy and Procedure Manual but to have policy and procedures related to specific areas regarding the administration of Title IV Aid. As a good practice, we recommend that you create a policy and procedure manual.  If you have a manual, we recommend that you review it on an annual basis. We will review the Policies and Procedures Manual in more detail when we begin navigating the assessments on the web.

## Effective Practices

- Innovation – Effective Practices
- Opportunity to review a successful practice reported by one of your colleagues
- Opportunity to report a successful practice to the Department.

**Notes:**
Now let’s take a moment and look at an effective practice. Many of us are very critical about how we do our business and don’t take the time to celebrate what we do well. This is an opportunity for you to review successful practices that your colleagues have reported to us and share a successful practice of your own.

To view a successful practice, select innovation and click on the link “To view current effective practices select click here”. You will see the assessment categories and the schools who have reported a successful practice.

To report a successful practice, complete the form that appears when you select effective practices and submit it. You don’t have to have your school name appear on the web site but we do need the demographic information. We review any process provided and will contact you if we have any questions.

## QA Program Requirements for the FSA Assessments

**QA Program Requirements for the FSA Assessments**

- Complete two Assessments or activities

- Notify Regional Representative of the two assessments

- If applicable, complete the Management Enhancement or Effective Practice Forms

**Notes:**
The QA Program requires schools to complete two assessments or activities within the assessments, each award year (July 1-June 30).  

Once you have selected the two assessments/activities you will complete, send your QA regional representative an email with the information.

While completing the assessment or activity, you may find that you need to change or improve a process, procedure, or policy to be fully compliant.  You can then complete a Management Enhancement which details what the change or improvement is, who’s responsible, and a timeline for getting it completed.  Or, if you find something that is working very well at your school, you can complete and submit an Effective Practice form to us and we’ll add it to our Effective practice database.

## 2007-08 Timeline of Activitiesfor the FSA Assessments

| June 2007 | Identify assessments to complete for the upcoming award year (2007 2008) |
| --- | --- |
| July | Establish teams to complete Assessments |
| August – May | Complete Assessments, and any Management Enhancements or Effective Practices |
| February 1, 2008 | Notify QA Representative which assessment or activity you will complete |

**Notes:**
Here is a timeline of when you should begin your FSA Assessment activities, including any Management Enhancements that you’d like to implement.  You first need to identify which assessments you’ll complete and then establish teams, including staff from other offices, to complete them.  Again, we’d also like you to think about what works well at your school and submit an Effective Practice to us so that other schools might be able to benefit from your good practice.  

## Importance of Team Building

**“****It’s a fact that people working as a team can achieve better results than individuals working alone.”**

**Notes:**
Why is team important?
The Assessments were not designed to be done in isolation. A team is necessary to complete the assessments because administering Title IV aid is an institutional responsibility.

A Team provides an environment that supports employee involvement, allows sharing in the decision-making process, and gives employees a strong sense of ownership and pride in the quality of the work that the team produces.  This results in better productivity!

## Team Activity

- When I say go, list 10 body parts that have only 3 letters in them. You can’t use slang.

**Notes:**
I will give you 15 seconds .... GO

## Answer Key

- Lip					Jaw
-  Hip					 Rib
- Gum					Leg
- Ear					Arm
- Eye					Toe

**Notes:**
We need to mention the connection between this activity and teamwork.

## Use the Team Building Tool

- www.teambuildinginc.com

- _[http://www.teambuildinginc.com](http://www.teambuildinginc.com/)_

**Notes:**
Now that I have shown you the Federal Student Aid Assessments and the importance of teams, I’ll share another tool that can assist you with building teams. Teams are necessary when completing the assessments because as we discussed earlier – compliance is not just the responsibility of the financial aid office.  This website has a teambuilding tool that helps you develop your team or to improve your team if you already have one in place. This is not a government site, but we thought it was helpful so we’re sharing it with schools. There is no fee to use this web site.

## QA Regional Representatives

**Regions 1, 2, and 5 – Holly Langer-Evans – (617) 289-0136**
**Holly.Langer-Evans@ed.gov**
**Regions 3, 4, 6 & 7 – Anne Tuccillo – (202) 377-4378**
**Anne.Tuccillo@ed.gov**
**Regions 8, 9, and 10 – Michael Cagle – (206) 615-2586**
**Michael.Cagle@ed.gov**
**You will also receive messages from us via the Quality Assurance Program Listserv**

**Notes:**
If you have not already done so, get to know your QA Regional Representative.  We are all here to help you be and do the best that you can.  We  always look forward to working with you.

## QA Program Resources

- _QA Program Website_ - http://ifap.ed.gov/qualityassurance
- _QA Program Listserv_ - Send email to Holly.Langer-Evans@ed.gov to subscribe to the QA Program listserv
- _QA Program Mailbox_ - qualityassurance@ed.gov
- _QA Program Training_ -http://ifap.ed.gov/qualityassurance/training.htm
- _Information for Financial Aid Professionals_ - http://ifap.ed.gov
- _Team Building Website_ - http://www.Teambuildinginc.com

**Notes:**
If you haven’t printed these training materials, we encourage you to at least print the timeline pages and this resource page.  You’ll refer to them regularly.  

The QA Program Website has all the information you need to know about the program and we recommend that you visit the website regularly.

We will communicate to you via the QA Listserv, however, you will not be able to respond directly to those messages.  You can use our individual email addresses or send a message to our QA Mailbox.  If you have staff or team members that you’d like to add to the listserv so they can receive important QA information, either let your QA regional representative know or contact Holly Langer-Evans.  You should also notify us if you wish to be removed from the listserv or if you are leaving and someone else will be taking your place.

We may ask that you provide feedback to the QA Program Mailbox every now and then, but in general you should send all correspondence to your QA Reg. Rep. In addition, we have provided the direct link to any training that will be made available to you. We have training at the Federal Student Aid conferences and provide electronic training both live and taped on Microsoft Live Meeting. We provide the IFAP web site as it is an easy way to access the QA Program and the ISIR Analysis and FSA Assessment Tools. Last but not least, the Team building website that we think you might find most helpful as you begin to design and apply your QA procedures.

## What have we learned?

**What have we learned?**

- What the QA Program is and what it can do for your school

- How to embrace the Flexibilities of the Program and be proactive

- Additional Resources available to assist in the administration of the Program

**Notes:**
We have learned what the QA Program is and what it can do for you and your institution. We hope that you will embrace the program and the flexibilities it has to offer.  Remember, you have many resources to assist you and should never hesitate to contact your QA Regional representative.  We wish you well and look forward to working with you. 

## Questions