FY 2018 AGENCY FINANCIAL REPORT | U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 5

MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK

In accordance with the GPRA Modernization Act of 2010, the Department’s framework for performance management 

starts with the four-year Strategic Plan, which serves as the foundation for establishing long-term priorities. It also supports 

the development of performance goals, objectives, and measures by which the Department can gauge achievement of 

its stated outcomes. In coordination with the Strategic Plan, the Department established two-year Agency Priority Goals 

(APGs). Progress towards the Department’s Strategic Plan and its APGs are measured using data-driven review and 

analysis. Additional information is available in the Annual Performance Report and Annual Performance Plan.

The FY 2018–22 Strategic Plan is comprised of four strategic goals. The Department continues to welcome input from 

Congress, state and local partners, and other education stakeholders about the Strategic Plan. Questions or comments 

about the Strategic Plan should be emailed to PIO@ed.gov.

THE DEPARTMENT’S APPROACH 

TO PERFORMANCE

Strategic Goal 1: Support state and local efforts to improve learning outcomes for all P–12 students in every community.

Strategic Objective 1.1 Increase high-quality educational options and empower students and parents to choose an education that meets 

their needs.

Strategic Objective 1.2 Provide all P–12 students with equal access to high-quality educational opportunities.

Strategic Objective 1.3 Prepare all students for successful transitions to college and careers by supporting access to dual enrollment, 

job skills development and high-quality science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

Strategic Objective 1.4 Support agencies and institutions in the implementation of evidence-based strategies and practices that build the 

capacity of school staff and families to support students’ academic performance.

Strategic Goal 2: Expand postsecondary educational opportunities, improve outcomes to foster economic opportunity and promote an 

informed, thoughtful and productive citizenry.

Strategic Objective 2.1 Support educational institutions, students, parents and communities to increase access and completion of college, 

lifelong learning and career, technical and adult education.

Strategic Objective 2.2 Support agencies and educational institutions in identifying and using evidence-based strategies or other promising 

practices to improve educational opportunities and successfully prepare individuals to compete in the global economy.

Strategic Objective 2.3 Support agencies and educational institutions as they create or expand innovative and affordable paths to relevant 

careers by providing postsecondary credentials or job-ready skills.

Strategic Objective 2.4 Improve quality of service for customers across the entire student aid life cycle.

Strategic Objective 2.5 Enhance students’ and parents’ ability to repay their federal student loans by providing accurate and timely information, 

relevant tools and manageable repayment options.

Strategic Goal 3: Strengthen the quality, accessibility and use of education data through better management, increased privacy protections 

and transparency.

Strategic Objective 3.1 Improve the Department’s data governance, data life cycle management and the capacity to support education data.

Strategic Objective 3.2 Improve privacy protections for, and transparency of, education data both at the Department and in the 

education community.

Strategic Objective 3.3 Increase access to, and use of, education data to make informed decisions both at the Department and in the 

education community.

Strategic Goal 4: Reform the effectiveness, efficiency and accountability of the Department.

Strategic Objective 4.1 Provide regulatory relief to educational institutions and reduce burden by identifying time-consuming regulations, 

processes and policies and working to improve or eliminate them, while continuing to protect taxpayers from 

waste and abuse.

Strategic Objective 4.2 Identify, assess, monitor and manage enterprise risks.

Strategic Objective 4.3 Strengthen the Department’s cybersecurity by enhancing protections for its information technology infrastructure, 

systems and data.

Strategic Objective 4.4 Improve the engagement and preparation of the Department’s workforce using professional development and 

accountability measures.

FY 2018–22 Strategic Goals and Strategic Objectives1

1

 The FY 2018 Statement of Net Cost and related notes have been updated to align with the new FY 2018–22 Strategic Plan.
6 FY 2018 AGENCY FINANCIAL REPORT | U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS

THE DEPARTMENT’S AGENCY PRIORITY GOALS (APGs)

The Department identified four APGs for FY 2018–19. Improving education starts with allowing greater decision-making 

authority at the state and local levels and empowering parents and students with educational options. These APGs aim 

to increase educational choice, improve the customer service the Department provides student aid borrowers, ensure 

protections of student privacy, and reduce red tape. The effective implementation of the Department’s APGs will depend, 

in part, on the effective use of high-quality and timely data, including evaluations and performance measures. Quarterly 

updates for the APGs are available on www.Performance.gov.

APG Related Strategic Objective

Improve the access to, and the quality and transparency of, school 

choice options for K–12 students. By September 30, 2019, the Charter 

School Program (CSP) will support the creation and expansion of 300 new 

charter schools nationally. The CSP will also support the enrollment of 

50,000 students in new charter schools. Additionally, by September 30, 

2019, the Department will disseminate eight resources, at least one per 

quarter, on evidence-based and promising practices related to school choice.

Strategic Objective 1.1: Increase high-quality educational options 

and empower students and parents to choose an education that 

meets their needs.

Improve borrowers’ access to quality customer service.

By September 30, 2019, Federal Student Aid will improve customers’ 

access to and availability of quality customer service by decreasing 

the overall average speed of answer to 60 seconds or less, decreasing 

abandoned rates to three percent or less and requiring all non-default 

federal student loan servicers to expand and standardize call center hours. 

Strategic Objective 2.4: Improve quality of service for customers 

across the entire student aid life cycle.

Improve student privacy and data security at Institutions of Higher 

Education (IHEs) through outreach and compliance efforts.

By September 30, 2019, the Department will increase information security 

program outreach activities to IHEs by 40% in order to help protect 

IT systems and data privacy and commence audits of IHEs subject to 

A-133 and Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), resulting in 36 IHEs (from a 

baseline of zero) completing an audit of GLBA-related information security 

safeguards with no significant findings.

Strategic Objective 3.2: Improve privacy protections for, and 

transparency of, education data both at the Department and in the 

education community.

Provide regulatory relief to education stakeholders.

By September 30, 2019, the Department will reduce the regulatory 

burden on education stakeholders by submitting to OMB no less than 

25 deregulatory actions (against a baseline of zero (0) for FYs 2015 

and 2016).

Strategic Objective 4.1: Provide regulatory relief to educational 

institutions and reduce burden by identifying time-consuming 

regulations, processes and policies and working to improve or 

eliminate them, while continuing to protect taxpayers from waste 

and abuse.

Goal 1. Support state and local efforts to 

improve learning outcomes for all 

P–12 students in every community.

Strategic Goal 1 focuses on outcomes related to 

the transition from the No Child Left Behind Act to 

implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), 

which reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary 

Education Act in December 2015. The hallmark of the 

ESSA is the flexibility it provides for states to do what is 

best for children while preserving important protections 

for economically disadvantaged students, children 

with disabilities, English learners, and other vulnerable 

students. The law requires that states take steps to ensure 

all students have access to excellent teachers and positive, 

safe learning environments that equip them for college 

and career success.

The Agency Priority Goal associated with Strategic 

Goal 1 focuses on expanding educational choice options 

for parents and students. Specifically, the APG aims to 

improve the access to, and the quality and transparency of, 

school choice options for K–12 students.

APG for FY 2018–2019: Improve the access 

to, and the quality and transparency of, 

school choice options for K–12 students.

By September 30, 2019, the Charter School Program 

(CSP) will support the creation and expansion of 

300 new charter schools nationally. The CSP will 

also support the enrollment of 50,000 students in new 

charter schools. Additionally, by September 30, 2019, 

the Department will disseminate eight resources, 

at least one per quarter, on evidence-based and 

promising practices related to school choice.
FY 2018 AGENCY FINANCIAL REPORT | U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 7

MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS

To achieve this APG, the Department focused on 

the implementation of its Charter School Program, 

including conducting new competitions and providing 

technical assistance to current grantees. Through CSP, 

the Department supported 134 new charter schools in 

school year 2017–18. The FY 2018 performance target for 

new charter schools was set at 150. Of significant note, 

preliminary data indicate that the total number of students 

enrolled in CSP-supported schools is over 1.6 million, 

which exceeds the FY 2018 target of 1,564,854 (Prior 

Year + 25,000). Additionally, the Department released 

five evidence-based and promising practice resources 

related to educational choice. The Department expects 

to continue to support research in this area through a 

National Center for Research on Education Access and 

Choice (REACH). In July 2018, the Department awarded 

a five-year grant to the REACH Center to complete two 

central activities: carrying out studies and developing the 

National Longitudinal School Choice Database (NLSCD). 

Through a set of 34 studies (quantitative and qualitative), 

the REACH Center will examine five types of state and 

district policies regarding school choice to identify how 

these policies can be structured to improve the education 

received by disadvantaged students. Additional information 

on this APG is available on www.Performance.gov. 

Goal 2. Expand postsecondary educational 

opportunities, improve outcomes to foster 

economic opportunity and promote an informed, 

thoughtful and productive citizenry.

Strategic Goal 2 focuses on expanding the Department’s 

efforts to support innovative and accessible paths to 

postsecondary credentials and job-ready skills training. 

In addition to supporting expanded postsecondary 

opportunities, the Department has a number of initiatives 

focused on affordability. These initiatives ensure borrowers 

have the best information available to make postsecondary 

program selection and associated borrowing decisions. The 

Department also continues to help students understand their 

financial aid options and repayment obligations. The Agency 

Priority Goal associated with Strategic Goal 2 focuses on 

improving borrowers’ access to quality customer service.

Improving access to information and the speed of 

response will allow customers to have expanded access to 

the resources they need to manage their federal student 

loans successfully, which will empower students and help 

them to reduce the risk of delinquency and default. The 

office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) plans to have the 

Next Generation Financial Services Environment (Next 

Gen FSA) transform the student aid customer experience 

with the use of industry best-in-class financial services 

technologies. Due to the rapid development of Next Gen 

FSA, FSA reevaluated and suspended its plan for the 

expansion of call center hours across all servicers. Despite 

this change, FSA continued to communicate with servicers 

regarding expectations for improvements to average 

speed to answer (ASA) and average abandon rate (AR) 

metrics. For FY 2018, the overall average speed to answer 

was 65.97 seconds (from 76.9 seconds in FY 2017; FY 

2018 performance target is less than 70 seconds) and the 

abandonment rate was 3.9 percent (from 3.8 percent in 

FY 2017; FY 2018 performance target is less than three 

percent). FSA delivered the first tangible result of Next 

Gen FSA that customers will be able to see and touch: a 

redesigned fafsa.gov. The website’s pages fit the screen size 

and shape of any device, including desktop computers, 

laptop computers and mobile devices, such as smartphones 

or tablets. The beta mobile application, for the 2017–2018 

FAFSA® form, was rolled out in August 2018. On October 

1, 2018, FSA launched the fully functional myStudentAid 

mobile app, featuring the myFAFSA component, which 

allows individuals to complete and submit the 2019–20 

FAFSA® form. FSA’s flagship website for professionals, the 

Financial Aid Toolkit, received 139,168 visits in FY 2018. 

FSA also leveraged social media, in-person events, and the 

Information for Financial Aid Professionals (IFAP) website 

to disseminate news, information, and updates that IHEs 

need to participate in the Title IV programs successfully. 

Additional information on this APG is available on 

www.Performance.gov.

The website visits for FinancialAidToolkit.ed.gov (the 

website for counselors and mentors) has decreased from 

FY 2017 to FY 2018. In FY 2017, FSA launched the 

FAFSA on October 1 and required tax data from an 

earlier tax year than in the past. That year, we conducted 

a large multichannel marketing effort to ensure our 

customers knew of the changes. One piece of this effort 

was to engage our partners and direct them to the Toolkit 

website for resources. In FY 2018, we did not conduct 

a marketing campaign around the FAFSA. As a result 

the visits to the Toolkit website dropped. In FY 2019, 

we plan to once again conduct a large multichannel 

marketing effort around the launch of the 2019–20 

APG for FY 2018–2019: Improve borrowers’ 

access to quality customer service.

By September 30, 2019, Federal Student Aid will 

improve customers’ access to and availability of 

quality customer service by decreasing the overall 

average speed of answer to 60 seconds or less, 

decreasing abandoned rates to three percent or less 

and requiring all non-default federal student loan 

servicers to expand and standardize call center hours.
8 FY 2018 AGENCY FINANCIAL REPORT | U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS

Department cannot yet report on the number of IHEs 

passing an audit of GLBA-related information security 

safeguards. Additional information on this APG is 

available on www.Performance.gov.

Goal 4. Reform the effectiveness, efficiency and 

accountability of the Department.

The Department’s organizational capacity relies not 

only on our human capital but also on other resources, 

including physical, material, financial, and informational 

resources. Strategic Goal 4 focuses on improving the 

Department’s processes, such as reviewing regulations, 

and where appropriate, on repealing, replacing or 

modifying regulations. The APG associated with 

Strategic Goal 4 aims to provide regulatory relief to 

education stakeholders. 

The Department intends to reduce the regulatory 

burden on stakeholders through review, rescission, and 

modification of outdated, burdensome regulations 

and guidance. The goal will be achieved through a 

comprehensive review of the Department’s regulations 

and guidance to identify those that are overly 

burdensome, inconsistent with Administration priorities, 

unnecessary, outdated, or ineffective. Based on that 

review, the Department will determine whether such 

regulations or guidance need to be modified or rescinded 

and will then take appropriate action consistent with 

applicable law. For FY 2018, the Department submitted a 

total of 24 deregulatory actions, including four significant 

deregulatory actions reflected on reginfo.gov and 20 

requests for significance determination of deregulatory 

actions submitted to OMB via e-mail (FY 2018 

performance targets are two and 13, respectively). The 

Department published two key deregulatory actions: the 

Significant Disproportionality Delay Rule and the State 

Authorization Distance Education Delay Rule. These 

actions provide an estimated $13.1 million in cost savings 

for the regulated communities over the next two years. 

This number includes $7.5 million in cost savings for 

the Significant Disproportionality Delay Rule and $5.6 

million for the State Authorization Distance Education 

Delay Rule.

FAFSA. We anticipate the number of visits to the 

FinanicalAidToolkit.ed.gov will increase in FY 2019.

Goal 3. Strengthen the quality, accessibility 

and use of education data through better 

management, increased privacy protections 

and transparency.

Strategic Goal 3 focuses on strengthening data-driven 

decision-making in education by focusing on the ways 

we manage and make available education data, while 

protecting student privacy. The Department is committed 

to improving how staff and stakeholders access, use, and 

share meaningful data on education while protecting 

privacy. These improvements enable the Department and 

other stakeholders in the education community to better 

provide the public with the information necessary to 

make informed decisions on behalf of their communities, 

states, and local districts. The Agency Priority Goal 

associated with Strategic Goal 3 focuses on improving 

student privacy and data security at IHEs through 

outreach and compliance efforts. Additional information 

on this APG is available on www.Performance.gov.

The Department plans to achieve this APG through 

collaborative efforts involving training, outreach, 

monitoring, and reporting. In FY 2018, FSA and the 

Department’s Privacy Technical Assistance Center 

(PTAC) collaborated to conduct 63 outreach activities 

targeting data privacy and IT security requirements of 

IHE. Many of the outreach activities performed were 

sessions at large conferences (e.g., the sessions at the 

FSA training conference that PTAC gave with 400+ 

attendees per session) and 97% of attendees at two PTAC 

sessions in California and Arkansas agreed or strongly 

agreed that it was helpful. The Office of Management 

and Budget did not include the new audit standards for 

GLBA-related information security safeguards in the 

audit compliance supplement this year. As such, the 

APG for FY 2018–2019: Improve student 

privacy and data security at Institutions of 

Higher Education (IHEs) through outreach 

and compliance efforts.

By September 30, 2019, the Department will increase 

information security program outreach activities to 

IHEs by 40% in order to help protect IT systems 

and data privacy and commence audits of IHEs 

subject to A-133 and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act

(GLBA), resulting in 36 IHEs (from a baseline of zero) 

completing an audit of GLBA-related information 

security safeguards with no significant findings.

APG for FY 2018–2019: Provide regulatory 

relief to education stakeholders.

By September 30, 2019, the Department will reduce 

the regulatory burden on education stakeholders 

by submitting to OMB no less than 25 deregulatory 

actions (against a baseline of zero (0) for 

FYs 2015 and 2016).