Transcript FAFSA Completion Project Overview -- July 31 ：项目概况——七月三十一日完成记录表

Transcript FAFSA Completion Project Overview -- July 31 ：项目概况——七月三十一日完成 记录 混凝土 养护记录下载土方回填监理旁站记录免费下载集备记录下载集备记录下载集备记录下载 表 关于同志近三年现实表现材料材料类招标技术评分表图表与交易pdf视力表打印pdf用图表说话 pdf PSC-ED-OS Moderator: Greg Darnieder 07-31-13/10:00 am CT Confirmation # 6064938 Page 1 PSC-ED-OS Moderator: Greg Darnieder July 31, 2013 10:00 am CT Coordinator: Welcome and thank you for standing by. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode until the question-and- answer session of today’s conference. At that time to ask a question, press star 1 on your phone and record your name at the prompt. This call is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Greg Darnieder. Sir, you may begin. Greg Darnieder: Thanks, (John). And good morning, everyone. Let me start with an apology. We had some technological issues and challenges because of the number of people invited onto this call has grown by, like, five-fold since our last call. And so I apologize for that. And then some of you were sent the wrong call-in number. And I apologize for that. We are trying to get our act together. PSC-ED-OS Moderator: Greg Darnieder 07-31-13/10:00 am CT Confirmation # 6064938 Page 2 But we have an exciting presentation which will start in a minute. That’ll be led by Dena Bates who is the project director for the FAFSA Completion work that’s been going on out of our Federal Student Aid Office. I just did want to remind everyone that part of what we send out are sort of attachments to - related to college and career access and persistency and completion issues going on around the country and opportunities and the such. We sent out actually as part of the reminder a - announcement that was just made yesterday by the department on our announcement of Race to the Top District Competition opening up and the such. But you’d also find attachments related to newsletter that our Teacher Ambassador Fellows put together periodically called “Teaching Matters.” And if you and others would like to subscribe to that, there’s information in that attachment about how to do so. Brandy Johnson, if you’re on the phone, I want to thank you for sharing and being so open in sharing the community guide around community organizing that the Michigan College Access Network has put together and using collective impact as kind of its conceptual frame and the such. It’s very exciting. Thank you for sharing that. I wanted to - I’ve been reaching out to the libraries across the country. And there is a reference in part of the materials also that were attached in terms of the role of libraries. So if you haven’t thought of libraries in the context of your work, it might be something to consider doing. We had a presentation a few months ago around on track that was led by a data analyst from Chicago Public Schools along with a school principal and Veniese Bradley who used to do college access work in Chicago. During that PSC-ED-OS Moderator: Greg Darnieder 07-31-13/10:00 am CT Confirmation # 6064938 Page 3 presentation, it was mentioned that Chicago Public Schools was pushing their on-track metric down to 3rd grade. And so you will see an attachment there from Lakecia Whimper who kind of outlined the definition being utilized by Chicago Public Schools around on-track for 3rd through 8th graders. And then there are a couple of other (unintelligible) that I thought you might find of interest, including an editorial written by Karen Gross, who’s president of Southern Vermont College, who used to be here at the Department around the college access process and her perspective and challenge to the broader community on the complexities of the work along these lines. So with that, I’m going to introduce Dena Bates who again as I mentioned is the project director for the FAFSA Completion work that’s been going on over the last couple of years. She is going to be joined by Catherine Chui. Catherine is Director of Guidance for Boston Public Schools. And Catherine will be joining at the end of Dena’s presentation and making some comments about how the FAFSA work has been unfolding in Boston over the last couple of years. We’ll leave the last 15 or 20 minutes as usual for questions and answers. And with that, I am turning this over to Dena. Dena, thanks. It’s all yours. Dena Bates: Thanks, Greg. And thank you for the opportunity to share what we’re doing with the FAFSA Completion Project. And good morning to everyone that’s joining us today. PSC-ED-OS Moderator: Greg Darnieder 07-31-13/10:00 am CT Confirmation # 6064938 Page 4 So you have the presentation. So we’ll just jump right into what I have to present today. So we’ll start with Slide 2. And we’re going to talk a little bit about the policy of the - the policy context and the motivation for the work that we’re doing. So certainly, our desire is to increase college enrollment and completion because high school - I’m sorry. Increase college enrollment and completion because it’s a high priority. And of course, you’re probably familiar with the fact that we’ve done a lot within the last couple of years to simplify the pre- application for student aid process. We understand that submitting a FAFSA is strongly associated with enrollment. Again, you need to figure out how are you going to pay for college. And the best way to start that process is to fill out the FAFSA. And then the FAFSA is a prerequisite for Federal and most forms of aid. And then certainly, the Department has a strong desire to improve access to aid. So moving onto Slide 3, we’re going to talk a little bit about the background of the project. So actually, this project is a replication of some work that was done in Chicago back in 2007. It was initiated with Chicago Public Schools System. And back then, Greg and Secretary Duncan were instrumental in the success that Chicago Public Schools Systems had around its work. And so pretty much the way it worked is they used FAFSA Completion data to begin tracking FAFSA Completion among their seniors. And they disseminated these data weekly to their schools. And they provided a variety of resources to assist schools in providing support to students in completing the application. PSC-ED-OS Moderator: Greg Darnieder 07-31-13/10:00 am CT Confirmation # 6064938 Page 5 And so it’s my understanding that between 2007 and 2009, Chicago Public Schools System increased the share of students who submitted the FAFSA from 64.5% to 81.1%. That’s a pretty, pretty large increase. So how did we begin the work here at the department? So again, the success that Chicago had, we kind of wanted to replicate that process or similar process here at the Department. And so when Greg and Secretary Duncan came here, we decided to replicate the process or similar process that Chicago Public Schools System had back in 2010. So FSA began the - what we call the FAFSA Completion Pilot. Now back in 2010, we started out with initially 25 or 20 LEAs. There were a couple of secondary schools. But for the most part, they were school districts. And we wanted to test the feasibility of this process. And the process being giving districts LEAs FAFSA Completion data and helping understand how that bit of data would inform completing the application. So we received many requests from LEAs to expand the pilot. Again, we started out with 20 and we received a lot of requests to participate in this work. So back in 2010, we decided to expand and evaluate whether to expand further. So what we did was we had to consider a couple of things. One was administrative cost, administrative cost to the Department, as well as any administrative cost to any districts that were participating. We also had to look at the capacity to add new users to our system. Again, we started out with 20; what can the system really, really accept, you know, so understanding what capacity we were able to move to. PSC-ED-OS Moderator: Greg Darnieder 07-31-13/10:00 am CT Confirmation # 6064938 Page 6 And then lastly, we need to consider the impacts on student outcomes. So on Page 4, we’re going to talk a little bit about the initiative. So the way this action works is we provide participating districts with access to individual senior FAFSA Completion status. And I’d like to say that that’s really the beauty of this project, is because we’re giving them, the districts, student-specific data. Now the districts, simply, they upload directory information. They give us the name, the date of birth and the ZIP code for their seniors or their students. And they upload this information to one of our secure Web sites. And then they come in the next business day - the districts can come in the next business day and download the results. Now the results include the FAFSA status of that particular individual student. And we actually provide them flags. There’s about three different flags. And the flags mean different things. We also tell them the date that the application was submitted. And then, lastly, we tell them the date that the application was processed. So again, that’s the pieces of data that we’re providing them -- the status of the student’s application, did they fill it out, did they not fill it out, was it incomplete, you know, were there some missing items; the date it was submitted and then the date that the application was processed. And so we encouraged the districts to implement targeted outreach and counseling for seniors with no FAFSA or an incomplete FAFSA. So if they get data back on a student that says, you know, or that indicates that they PSC-ED-OS Moderator: Greg Darnieder 07-31-13/10:00 am CT Confirmation # 6064938 Page 7 indeed did not fill out an application, we encourage them to follow up with that particular individual. You know, it’s important to note that as it relates to this initiative, there are no (ED) funds provided to participants. So whatever resources are used pretty much are coming from the different districts. So on Page 5, I mentioned that we did get a lot of interest in expanding the project. We got a lot of emails, you know, “When are you going to expand the project? We’re really interested in getting involved; can you let us know?” So based on the responses that we got, we decided in early 2012 to in fact expand the project. So what we did was we invited additional multi-high school districts and single high school districts to participate in this work. And so the criteria that they had to meet pretty much was they had to meet technical requirements. And the requirements are pretty basic. They had to agree to comply with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy regulations as it relates to directing the information and those annual notifications. And then they had to agree to participate in a national evaluation of this work. And the national evaluation pretty much just involves the multiple high school districts that were participating. And I’ll talk a little bit more about that evaluation as we move along. And so as part of the expansion, we have the capacity to include 92 additional districts. Now again, we started out with 20 and then we’re ramping up to an additional 92. And so those 92 districts were randomly selected. We worked with our Institute for Educational Sciences on here at the Department to randomly select within those districts that expressed interest which ones would actually be selected. PSC-ED-OS Moderator: Greg Darnieder 07-31-13/10:00 am CT Confirmation # 6064938 Page 8 And then the 92 districts that we ramped up to pretty much represent around 30 states. So if you look on Page 6, it kind of depicts the different - where the districts are located within the states here. A high concentration there on the right side of the map than on the left side of the map. Okay. So what’s the current status of the project? So currently we have 77 new districts that are participating. We have a few that kind of fell - I would say fell by the wayside. But it’s pretty important work and we need to make sure that people had the resources to be successful in this work. So then we’re in the process of - we actually have completed the process of on-boarding the treatment schools. And again, we’ll talk a little bit about the difference between treatment school and control school as it relates to the national evaluation. And now we’re in the process of on-boarding the randomly assigned control schools within those participating districts. And it’s important to note that, again, as part of our current status, we are providing a variant support that’s available to these districts. You know, we don’t - we want to make sure that we can do everything that’s possible in our area to ensure that the participants are successful in this work. So FSA has provided resources. We actually have two full-time FTE working on this project. And then we have programmatic support from what we call our senior advisors. And the senior advisors are three ladies that worked in the Chicago Public Schools System with the successful work that was there. And they - each of the senior advisors are assigned several districts. And they’re reaching out and doing outreach with those districts. PSC-ED-OS Moderator: Greg Darnieder 07-31-13/10:00 am CT Confirmation # 6064938 Page 9 And then lastly, we have - we provide technical support. We have a vendor that operates technical helpdesk where the participants can call with questions about how to upload and download the data and things of that nature. Okay. Moving onto Slide 8, operation reporting schedule. So as we go along in the process, we kind of want to understand how the districts are doing. I’m sure that they set their own goals. But we want to look at it as we’re moving along - is the, you know, what does the data look like? What are they doing with the data? How are, you know, how are they successful in this work? And so what we’ve asked the district to do is to report to us at different intervals. And we’re asking for different things at different intervals. We have different milestones here. And so you can see on this chart here, we’re actually at Milestone 4. And so what we’re asking for, for Milestone 4 is we want them to tell us the number of FAFSA filers - and when we say FAFSA filers, this is the number of students that actually have completed their application. Again, that’s pretty much what we’re counting in this process, is a completed application and then the number of seniors that they had. And so with Reporting Milestone 4, we’re asking them to give us that information as of September 1st, but then report that data to us by September 16th. And at the bottom of this slide here, you see an example of how we’re asking the districts to calculate their FAFSA Completion rate. So again we have the number of filers and then the number of seniors, and then that’s how you calculate your FAFSA Completion rate. So again, this is ongoing reporting, operation reporting so that we can kind of understand how the district is doing, if we need to do an additional outreach, PSC-ED-OS Moderator: Greg Darnieder 07-31-13/10:00 am CT Confirmation # 6064938 Page 10 you know, place calls or have some conversations, whatever assistance we might be able to provide based on those particular rates. Now moving on to talk about how we’re evaluating this work, so we’ve talked about the operational portion of it, how we’re evaluating them -- we’re looking at their numbers ongoing -- and then talk about - a little bit about the - how the evaluation works. Now I mentioned that the evaluation is being done by our Institute for Education of Sciences. And so what we have here is we’ve assigned a treatment school and then we’ve also assigned control school. So the way it actually works is we have a delayed start of randomized controlled trial. And pretty much in a nutshell is that we did a random assignment within those particular districts, but we told them which schools are the treatment schools -- meaning they have an early start, and those were the schools that just finished up this year -- and then the other schools were assigned as control schools or late-start schools. So they’ll be coming on board starting - and actually we’re on-boarding them now. But they’ll start getting data in the January time frame. So again, we had some of the schools that were assigned at the early start or the treatment schools within a district. And then the others were assigned as a late-start schools or what we call control schools. And then we’ll begin drawing down data in January 2014. Again, IES, you know, Institute for Education Sciences, they randomly assign the high schools within the district to treatment or control. And then IES will extract student data from our record, meaning FSA’s record, again, for the purpose of the national evaluation. And again, this is something that the PSC-ED-OS Moderator: Greg Darnieder 07-31-13/10:00 am CT Confirmation # 6064938 Page 11 multiple high school districts had agreed to do as a part of their participation in this work. Now IES will statistically compare the data for students in the treatment school versus the students in the control school. So in a nutshell, FSA is providing data to IES (unintelligible) uploading and downloading data just like the districts do. And then IES will be able to compare, you know, what happened in the previous schools versus what happened in the control schools. And that’s pretty much the impact that they will be evaluating for this process. So moving onto Slide 10, what will the evaluation tell us? So here we have questions and then the data source. So the first question that we anticipate that the data or the evaluation, the result of the evaluation will answer is what is the impact of having student- level FAFSA Completion data on actual FAFSA Completion? And so the data source for that is FSA admin data and completion rates that we’re generating. So the second question that we anticipate that the evaluation will answer for us is what is the impact of having student-level FAFSA Completion data on offers of financial aid and receipt? So we’re going to be looking at our backend system just to understand what awards are made, when those awards were made, the number and size of those financial aid awards. Then the last question we hope that the evaluation will answer is what is the impact of having student-level FAFSA Completion data on college enrollment? And we will be looking to a number of sources for that, namely the National Student Clearing House data, we’ll be looking at the enrollment data there; and then data here within the Federal Student Aid or admin data and drawing down information about financial aid award. PSC-ED-OS Moderator: Greg Darnieder 07-31-13/10:00 am CT Confirmation # 6064938 Page 12 Okay? So on Slide 11, we have the evaluation timeline. I just kind of want you to understand where we are in the process and when we expect to have some preliminary data or data or results of the evaluation. So we have the dates here. We have the - what the district would be responsible for and then what the evaluation team or the Institute for Educational Sciences team would be responsible for. So we’ll just move quickly to where we are at this point in time. And we’re looking at the dates of April through September 2013. And we will be in the process of extracting data for IES. So here, that’s two full-time FTE that are assigned to this work from - Federal Student Aid will be in the process of extracting data from the system to distribute information with the folk over in IES. And then in December of this year, we anticipate that the evaluation team will produce impact estimates. And then certainly, January 2014, we’re looking for the district to train this school staff as it relates to the control school. So again, those control schools will come on board or actually start drawing down data in January of 2014. Okay? So I’ve pretty much gone through a very, you know, high-level overview of the award. We’ve talked about, you know, the policy context and the motivation for the work. And I talked about the initiative itself, what we did to expand the initiative, the current status of the work and a little bit about operational reporting, as well as information about the national evaluation and how that will work. PSC-ED-OS Moderator: Greg Darnieder 07-31-13/10:00 am CT Confirmation # 6064938 Page 13 So I wanted to take a moment at this particular time just to introduce to you Catherine Chiu from our Public School - from Boston Public Schools System. And Catherine is - her district, the Boston District was one of the initial five that was selected back in 2010. So Catherine has been doing this work for several years now. And they have done some really, really cool stuff. They had - certainly their numbers have increased. And so I just want you to hear from one of our practitioners who’s actually been doing this work for several years. And so I want to give Catherine an opportunity to share with us a little bit about what they’re doing with the data, how the data has informed some of their processes and just a little bit about the work they’ve doing as it relates to the project. So at this point up, (John), if you would open the line for Catherine so that she can share with us the work that they’re doing in Boston. Coordinator: Catherine, if you are on the line, please press star 0. Once again, Catherine, if you’re on the line, please press star 0. Man: Catherine. Catherine Chiu: Hello? Coordinator: Hi, Catherine. Catherine Chiu: Hi. Coordinator: One moment here. Let me open up your line and then you’ll be able to speak. Catherine Chiu: Hi, this is Catherine. PSC-ED-OS Moderator: Greg Darnieder 07-31-13/10:00 am CT Confirmation # 6064938 Page 14 Coordinator: Yes. One moment please. I have to enter your name and then open your line. Catherine, your line is open. Go ahead. Catherine Chiu: Hi, it's Catherine. Okay. So I’m hoping that people can hear me. Boston has been part of this work since 2010. And we’re really excited about it because what it does is it really shifts the conversation around all of our schools to really think about how do we help our students be prepared in this work. One of the issues that, in talking with the colleges, that it is a lot of our students don’t get started on their FAFSA and get further along in the process until too late in the pipeline. So if they miss (unintelligible) state grant and things like that, this way, we start the conversations with the student early. And even if they’re not sure what colleges they want to go to, we encourage them to get their FAFSA done so that everything is all set. And then they can decide later which colleges they want to send it out to, but that they have their EFC calculated. That’s our goal, to have that calculated prior to the end of the year. I think the other part that we’re excited about is we’ve been partnering with our mayor’s earned income tax credit work. And so that we have volunteers from the mayor’s office who (helps) families who are low income do their taxes. And we get the parent in, get their taxes done and get the student’s FAFSA filled out. PSC-ED-OS Moderator: Greg Darnieder 07-31-13/10:00 am CT Confirmation # 6064938 Page 15 So those are some of the partnerships. And then we’ve been able to just get a lot of people around the city focused on this work and really sending out the message that college is possible; here are some steps that you need to take and that’s very concrete for the family. Greg Darnieder: Catherine, this Greg. Can you hear me? Catherine Chiu: Yes. Greg Darnieder: Can you also put this in context in terms of success Boston and like the overall goals that the mayor has established and been supported by the business community and the foundation community and the such? Catherine Chiu: Yes. So Boston has an initiative that’s city wide that’s led by Mayor Menino as well as our higher education partners to really not just increase access to college but college persistence and college graduation. That’s really focused on the K-to-16 pipeline. And we’ve been able to - so Boston Foundation is one of the key funders. But I think as a part of this book, it really just hones the messaging across the city that it’s not just about college access but about persistence. And so as a part of this where Boston was one of the, I guess the early adopters where, locally, we had a group of colleges agree to pilot a - our own version of a shopping sheet so that each of the colleges that agreed to be part of the (unintelligible) Boston be designated a Boston Public Schools financial aid liaison. And that’s really important, I think, for those of you who work with students. It’s very - it’s partly teaching the students to help advocate these schools, but PSC-ED-OS Moderator: Greg Darnieder 07-31-13/10:00 am CT Confirmation # 6064938 Page 16 then also to be able to call up and say I’m a Boston Public School student; can I speak with the representative from your office who can help me with the financial aid work? And they’re not just getting a random person. And a lot of times the students feel very - I think the word is - they’re not sure who they’re calling. They’re like, “Well, you know, they say they’re too busy to call me.” They have the name of a person in the financial aid office at a school that they’re supposed to ask about. And this way, the students are getting clear information about the financial aid package and they’re able to resolve some of the issues early on and help them maximize their financial aid. Greg Darnieder: Right. Thank you. So, Dena, maybe back to you before we go to Q&A? Dena Bates: Thanks. So where do we go from here with this work? So on Slide 13, we talk about the next steps for this project. So, certainly, we will need to do another data draw for IES or the Institute for Educational Sciences. And actually we’ve already done one data draw for the treatment schools and control schools. We’ll do another one shortly here. And so those data draws will provide information different points in time. Then the next thing that we would need to do is we will review the evaluation (unintelligible) that we get fro IES. And, you know, we would really be looking at, did the data or does the data answer the questions that we had about the evaluation? And we certainly believe that the data would answer those questions. PSC-ED-OS Moderator: Greg Darnieder 07-31-13/10:00 am CT Confirmation # 6064938 Page 17 And then the last thing is our future consideration of another process for getting this work done. As I mentioned, at the beginning of the presentation, this is a pilot project. It’s a pilot that has been going on since 2010. So we’re a couple of years into this work. And so we need to - we’re very seriously considering another option. And that option is making - first of all, again, we’ve had a lot of districts express interest in, Number 1, participating this work or at a minimum, getting some of this data so that they can realize some of the success that Catherine and other districts have actually realized with having the data. And so we’re looking to have a process in place where we actually allow the state agencies to share data with their districts. And so that’s kind of what we’re considering at this point in time. We’ll be working closely with some of the state agencies to understand what’s the best way to roll this out in the state versus the districts, that type of thing, and what are the things we might need to consider as we work on this process for the future. Greg Darnieder: Okay. Any last comments, Dena? Are we ready to move into Q&A? Dena Bates: No, I think that’s it. I think we’re ready if we have... Greg Darnieder: Okay. Dena Bates: ...the questions. Greg Darnieder: Okay. So, (John), if you could give the direction to get or instructions around Q&A. Right after you do that, I’ll ask the first question while we wait for people to call in with the questions or comments, both to Dena and to Catherine. PSC-ED-OS Moderator: Greg Darnieder 07-31-13/10:00 am CT Confirmation # 6064938 Page 18 So, (John)? Coordinator: Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1. Unmute your phone and record your name clearly. I will require your name to introduce your question. If you need to withdraw your question, press star 2. Again, to ask a question, please press star 1 and record your name. It will take a few moments for the questions to come through. Please stand by. Greg Darnieder: So while we’re waiting for the first question, Catherine, can you talk a little bit about how the FAFSA data point is being used by Boston Public Schools with other datasets such as the college enrollment data? When I saw you a few weeks ago, it was in the context of Boston pushing its post-secondary completion goal to, I believe, it’s 70%. But how is the FAFSA data point been integrated into some of the other analysis going on within Boston Public Schools around some of the other datasets that are out there? Catherine Chiu: So I think the important - is about the whole process. Because we have access to that actual data, we’ve been really able to help our district as well as our individual high schools really think about their data and setting milestones for them individually as schools. I think one of the great parts about Boston is that we have a portfolio of schools. And so each of them have different challenges. But this is where because it’s disaggregated and we have individual data for each school, we can say to them your goal is not to compare yourself necessarily in other schools and how they’re doing their budget to think about PSC-ED-OS Moderator: Greg Darnieder 07-31-13/10:00 am CT Confirmation # 6064938 Page 19 your school over time and how are you, where were you at this point, one year ago, and how many of your students have completed their FAFSA data. And then I think what we’ve also gotten the district to sign onto is we’re using the National Student Clearing House data and drawing down that information to really look at where are the schools - where are the students actually matriculating. What we find, which many other schools probably experience the same thing, is where the students self-report at the end of the year that they’re going to matriculate to in the fall. And as guidance counselors, we send out their final transcript to where they tell us they’re going to go. But in actuality, where they end up is not always where they tell us in the self-report and where they have (to send) their final transcript. Greg Darnieder: Good. Okay. (John), do we have the first question? Coordinator: Yes. Our first question comes from (Veniese). Go ahead. Your line is open. (Veniese): Okay. I assume that you can. My question is, how does the department plan to - or have you already adjusted the data to reflect FAFSA Completion rates for graduated seniors? I know that you asked for - you know, that the data includes just the entire senior class. But is there any plan to submit like a final report for graduated seniors? PSC-ED-OS Moderator: Greg Darnieder 07-31-13/10:00 am CT Confirmation # 6064938 Page 20 Dena Bates: I’m not sure about graduating - graduated seniors. But do you mean from post-secondary or high school? (Veniese): No, from high school. Dena Bates: Oh, okay. Well, we will be looking at data that we get from our backend system to understand which of those seniors actually went on to matriculating college, which of those actually received financial aid and things of that nature. So we’ll be able to track them as they actually enter post-secondary college. (Veniese): Okay. And then you - so then will you plan to maybe provide us with the final report of FAFSA Completion among graduated seniors at that point or... Dena Bates: There will be final report. I’m not aware of how we plan to communicate that information at this time. (Veniese): Okay. Thank you. Greg Darnieder: (John), do we have another question? Coordinator: Yes. Our next question comes from (Douglas). Go ahead. Your line is open. (Douglas), are you there? Greg Darnieder: He might have hung up. Okay. Do we have another one? PSC-ED-OS Moderator: Greg Darnieder 07-31-13/10:00 am CT Confirmation # 6064938 Page 21 Coordinator: Our next - yes. Our next question comes from (Lorelei). Go ahead. Your line is open. (Lorelei): Hi. My question is around the evaluation. You indicated that there would be some evaluation work done with the control schools and the treatment schools. Will the evaluation also have a broader swipe in terms of FAFSA Completion at those particular schools, you know, overall prior to the treatment schools or simply just compare treatment and control schools? Dena Bates: I think it’s a simple comparison of treatment and controls at this point. Yes. (Lorelei): Okay. Thank you. Coordinator: Our next question comes from Michelle. Go ahead. Your line is open. Michelle Nelson: Hi, Greg and Dena. This is Michelle Nelson at Bellingham Public Schools. Greg Darnieder: Good day, Michelle. Michelle Nelson: And we were one of - hi. We were one of the original 20. Greg Darnieder: Yes. Michelle Nelson: And I know that we missed at least one of the data points, if not more than that, in reporting last year because we changed student information system. PSC-ED-OS Moderator: Greg Darnieder 07-31-13/10:00 am CT Confirmation # 6064938 Page 22 Dena Bates: Yes. Greg Darnieder: Okay. Michelle Nelson: Do you need us to go back and report on those data points or do we just kind of start from where we are right now? Dena Bates: I think it’s okay to start from where you are. But it might be good just for your own notification to go back and look at those different data points so that you can see how you progress through the year. Michelle Nelson: Yes. We already have that sort of on paper. We just couldn’t report it out electronically and pull it cleanly. Dena Bates: Okay. If you would just start with the Milestone 4, that would be good for us. Michelle Nelson: Okay, great. Thank you. Coordinator: Our next question comes from (Angela). Go ahead. Your line is open. (Angela): Hi. Can people hear me? Greg Darnieder: Yes. Angela Romans: Okay, great. I’m trying to squeeze in two questions. This is Angela Romans, Providence Rhode Island. And one question is for Dena which is about undocumented students and how the project takes into account districts that PSC-ED-OS Moderator: Greg Darnieder 07-31-13/10:00 am CT Confirmation # 6064938 Page 23 serve large numbers of undocumented students who are uneligible to fill out the FAFSA. And then maybe a second question for Catherine which is about how community-based organizations have contributed in Boston. We heard about the mayor’s office partnership. But I’m kind of wondering how some local CBO’s college access organization might have contributed and coordinated with the district. Catherine Chiu: Dena, do you want to go first or you want me to field the question first? Dena Bates: You can go first, Catherine. That’ll give me time to think about my response. Catherine Chiu: Okay. So in Boston, I think it’s a great question. We have a lot of community- based organizations’ partners. And I think the great part about it is because you’re able to draw everybody into this work and really partner. And so we’ve been recognizing with FERPA that we’ve also been trading information a little bit without violating FERPA. So one of our community-based organizations - you know, again, because they have to do it for their (funders) and everybody - it really helps focus the issue of not just number of services provided but also impact. And so they’ve been just kind of trading information about who served which students. And then we try to make sure that towards the end of the year of the school year maybe in April, which students have not been “hit.” And then try to do additional targeted outreach to those students. But we’ve been able to do collaboration across the city, bringing people to the table. And then I think it’s important to think about this not just as the data but how it’s used as a catalyst. And I’m excited, for example, about the federal PSC-ED-OS Moderator: Greg Darnieder 07-31-13/10:00 am CT Confirmation # 6064938 Page 24 shopping sheet, but then to really help (unintelligible) the question to our university partners to say what is the financial aid for the students and how to provide additional - either just - again, like we just talked about the liaisons before, but also educations of the students that it’s - what’s the next step, are you doing the verification, what else is needed and helping the students through that process. Angela Romans: Okay, thank you, Catherine. Greg Darnieder: Dena, do you want to respond also? Dena Bates: Yes. So what was your specific question around undocumented students? Angela Romans: The question is how does the FAFSA Completion Project take into account or think about districts that are serving undocumented students? So if there’s a large number of undocumented students in a district, those students show up in the denominator, but they can’t show up in the numerator. Dena Bates: Yes. Angela Romans: So I was just kind of wondering if there’s been some conversations about that, if that’s catalyzing some district conversation of participating districts, sort of what are... Dena Bates: Yes. Angela Romans: ...thoughts around that. Dena Bates: Yes. Okay. So as it relates to ongoing operations, we do want you to include that in your, you know, your number, your FAFSA Completion rate. And as PSC-ED-OS Moderator: Greg Darnieder 07-31-13/10:00 am CT Confirmation # 6064938 Page 25 you know, we were - we gave you a specific way that we define (seniors). So we really didn’t want you to - the district to have to make determinations about who’s on the document, who isn’t and all that kind of stuff. But it’s important to note for the purpose of the national evaluation, we’ll have a footnote or something in that evaluation that talks about, you know, the evaluation does not include undocumented and some other qualifiers around the data that we’re going to publish. Greg Darnieder: So I want to weigh in on this a little bit, Angela. This is a common question that I get out when I’m speaking and the such. And I think it’s also important for - at the community level to kind of determine what your denominator is going to be. And so that can happen at different points during the senior year, right? It could be in September, some districts have like, you know, the official school count day as the 10th day of the year or the 20th day, something like that. So - but that doesn’t mean all those seniors who are classified in September are going to end up graduating. So you have a September possible date. You have possibly a date beginning of second semester in January or February, whenever that happens. And then you get into these questions like who actually graduated, and then do you count seniors who graduated at the end of summer school, and then to your question around undocumented students and the such. So I think it’s - my advice would be outside of what Dena just answered. From a federal evaluation standpoint is for communities to decide their definitions. And there probably could be multiple points of measuring from year-to-year FAFSA increases. But it should - I would encourage it to be a discussion amongst community, district, leadership to determine what those points might be. PSC-ED-OS Moderator: Greg Darnieder 07-31-13/10:00 am CT Confirmation # 6064938 Page 26 Angela Romans: Okay, thanks. That’s really helpful. Greg Darnieder: (John), next question? Coordinator: Our next question comes from (Troy). Go ahead. Your line is open. (Troy): Thank you. This question is for Dena. I was - there’s something that you mentioned on your kind of next-steps slides in terms of the potential of opening this data up to states. And I work at the Tennessee Higher Education Commission. I think that we would be very interested in exploring the possibility of creating structures on a statewide level to maximize the use of this data not only for local entities but then through statewide initiatives like “(Gear Out).” I mean we have an emerging conversation to state around college completion. So rolling out a statewide initiative would really pair nicely with that. What are the Department’s plan? Is there a timeline established or the process exploring what that might look like? Dena Bates: Well, thank you for your question. We’re in the process of internally reviewing the state agency enrollment form that you signed probably years ago. There’re a number of changes that we are making to that particular form. One is allowing you to re-disclose FAFSA Completion data. Again, that’s just one of the changes that we’re making. PSC-ED-OS Moderator: Greg Darnieder 07-31-13/10:00 am CT Confirmation # 6064938 Page 27 And so we anticipate that, you know, once we put the form into the - the formal clearance process with OMB, we anticipate that you’ll be able to do this probably early next year. We’ll begin probably January time frame of next year. (Troy): Thank you. Dena Bates: You’re welcome. Coordinator: Our next question comes from (Rochita). Go ahead. Your line is open. (Rochita Walduck): Good morning. This is (Rochita Walduck) from MDRC. I have a two-part question. I wanted to know in addition to the impact data analysis that IES is doing, is there any implementation data being collected to better understand what practices may or may not be effective in achieving the desired outcomes ? And if not, are there plans to collect implementation data as you move more into a state-based approach? Dena Bates: I think we’ll probably add some implementation information. I’m not sure that we can really say what didn’t work. But I certainly think that we can provide implementation information around what did move the needle. (Rochita Walduck): Thank you. Greg Darnieder: So, Dena, I just want to add onto that. PSC-ED-OS Moderator: Greg Darnieder 07-31-13/10:00 am CT Confirmation # 6064938 Page 28 (Rochita), one other thing that’s happened with - particularly with Cohort 1, that first 20 sites, is that we did collect artifacts, if you will, of different implement - programmatic implementation, events and strategies that were taking place in those cities. And so they have been made available to both Cohort 1 and 2 as kind of the base of information. And there’s some really interesting things that happened using the competitive nature that those of us in education have amongst ourselves, you know, to want to have the highest number in this case of FAFSA Completions to getting mayors involved, using public transportation systems to advertise, you know, FAFSA Completion season, if you will, to - we had hoped to have somebody out from San Antonio School District. But the last minute, Dr. (Rosales) was not able to join us. But they did something quite intriguing by dividing their number of seniors by five and said if we could recruit X number of adults to help five students, you know, by a certain date fill out their FAFSA form, we think we can move our number pretty dramatically. And so they recruited folks internally within the district than externally and gave each of the five students families and drove their numbers up really significantly. So the it was a reasonable goal; used the expertise that the higher-ed institutions and the financial aid officers to help with kind of the one-off questions, you know, that a volunteer or a school counselor might not be able to answer. So, anyways, it is part of our challenge here as we go back to (Troy’s) question and request, is how do we capture some of the best practice. PSC-ED-OS Moderator: Greg Darnieder 07-31-13/10:00 am CT Confirmation # 6064938 Page 29 Dena mentioned the senior advisors. So we do have three people that have been engaged by Lumina Foundation to basically provide support to the current sites. And they have a wealth of information. In fact, we have a call tomorrow to talk about the question that you just raised. So how do we extract all this interesting programmatic data and strategy? So okay, (John). Next question? Coordinator: Our next question comes from Lily. Go ahead. Your line is open. Lily Morgan Owen: Yes. Good morning. Thank you. This is Lily Owen from Goddard Riverside in New York City. I really. I have two questions. The first is, it’s my understanding that New York City was part of the, I think, Cohort 1 of the pilot, but is no longer participating in - or that there are a lot of problems with data-matching. And I was just wondering if it is possible to get an update on that or if you guys have a sense of what the future might be. I mean, we’re outside the district. So we don’t have any perspective on that. And then the second question was I’m just curious if you move to a state- based approach for sort of disseminating this FAFSA Completion data. Will that be at the exclusion of the, you know, local districts wanting to use that data as well but maybe not those that don’t have a state that’s organized around that or... Dena Bates: So I’ll take your first question as it relates to New York City. PSC-ED-OS Moderator: Greg Darnieder 07-31-13/10:00 am CT Confirmation # 6064938 Page 30 I was not aware that they weren’t participating in the process. They had been drawn down data. So to my knowledge, they are still participating. Lily Morgan Owen: Well, that’s good news. ((Crosstalk)) Greg Darnieder: Catherine, can you comment on the match challenge of, even though it’s only three data elements -- name, address and birth date -- that still this has been more than a notion for some districts because of all kinds of different dynamics amongst the students and their families and the such? Catherine Chiu: Sure. Certainly. So the elements that we input into the FAFSA database is the student’s first name, last name, date of birth and their ZIP code. And as a - we have a district of about 56,000 students in total and about 45,000 seniors. And the challenge for Boston is we have very clear - the school district will not allow us to change the student’s - update their address information with the students without a student providing some pieces of documentation. And as many of you know, a lot of students were just sort of like, “Well, I’m not going to bother telling you that I moved because it doesn’t matter.” (Unintelligible) in their mind. And so that information that’s often in our district database is not a clear match with the student’s information, what they fill out when they actually file the FAFSA. So I’ve had students who when we follow up - the guidance counselor follows up with them and say, “Hey, you know, you have to fill up the FAFSA again.” PSC-ED-OS Moderator: Greg Darnieder 07-31-13/10:00 am CT Confirmation # 6064938 Page 31 They’re like, “Yes, I have.” And the students will even pull out a log-in and pull up a copy of their EFC and - but on our FAFSA database, when we get the information, it shows that they haven’t filled out a FAFSA. It’s because of a mismatch of different codes’ information. Or the other challenge is if the student has maybe two different last names, especially if - our Hispanic students where it can be (Rosales Moreno). And sometimes when they go in and fill out their FAFSA, it’ll be (Moreno Rosales). And so those are some of the data challenges. I think the important part is that we’ve been using this with our guidance counselors - is to say it’s thinking about the effort we put in. And so having a data point and having them be aware of (having that) actual information, it helps them catalyze and think about what are some of the interventions that they could be doing. And so as long as you’re focusing on the interventions, the data points will keep moving in the right direction. And so we’ve actually had some of our schools put in a - as part of their senior exit survey that as a (unintelligible) student, as a school-wide graduation requirement, you must fill out the FAFSA. And so those are some of the great interventions that we’re proud of our schools who’ve chosen to adopt it because then as whole school, there is a focus on everyone needs to do this and has a post-secondary plan. And it’s not about where you go to school; it’s about have you taken the steps to make sure you have a post-secondary plan. And so that’s what we appreciate about being part of the FAFSA Completion Project. Greg Darnieder: Lily, let me just add on to Dena’s comment. PSC-ED-OS Moderator: Greg Darnieder 07-31-13/10:00 am CT Confirmation # 6064938 Page 32 It’s my understanding -- and correct me if I’m wrong, Dena -- whether a state agency, per your earlier comment and (Troy’s) question, officially comes on board in 2014 or not, the current sites and Cohort 1 and 2 would continue to receive student-level data, in essence, next calendar year. So we should look into the - there’s probably some people on the phone from New York City. (Andy Asuncion) typically dials in and has actually presented on this call. But we - so we should look into it from that angle. But the current sites would continue whether their state grant agency -- assuming that that continues to develop which we think it will -- participates or not. So... Dena Bates: Yes. Greg Darnieder: ...(John), I think we have time for one more question. And then I have some final comments to make. Coordinator: Our last question comes from (Myra). Go ahead. Your line is open. (Myra): Good morning. I’m sorry. I’m going to make this real quick. So I’m - I represent the organization that is a major partner to the San Antonio (Unintelligible) FAFSA Pilot. And now I also are partnering with two of the districts that we brought in to be part of the second group. So what basically is meant in San Antonio is that you heard previously from Boston, it is city-wide initiative now. So we have our mayor behind it, we PSC-ED-OS Moderator: Greg Darnieder 07-31-13/10:00 am CT Confirmation # 6064938 Page 33 have (Cathy Collins) behind it, we have our Chamber of Commerce that offer the events throughout the city for like (unintelligible) Saturday. So we’ve mobilized the entire community. And there’s tremendous amount of partners that are involved. Some are just telling the kids where to go; some are (unintelligible) in their vans, the community-based organization to some of the events. But I think what’s been most effective has been the data - (five) students that we get. And while we do not violate FERPA, we are able to then get our target list, as Greg described, you know, five students per adult. So my staff that are around the high schools are part of that staff. It helps the five students. So we get our targeted list and we work on those per week. And we go to the next five and we work on those. And I think that’s what’s made the difference in San Antonio (Unintelligible). Our challenge continues to be our undocumented students. (Unintelligible). And yet they’re, you know, tracking. They (unintelligible) at the state level for that to track those students. So, Greg, it’s correct. We have to define - we have to help (unintelligible) be defined. But they were not going to be including the undocumented students in their numbers for this. But that does not mean that as a city, we’re not looking at them. So we are having our institutions of higher-ed report that back. And then, if you look, we now have a financial aid council that’s made of three big organizations and higher-ed folks who do financial aid every day. And so we formed this council and that amount of - and it’s significant in a city like San Antonio. And it’s published. And it cannot be ignored because we need to have those students enrolled and with financial aid packages as well. PSC-ED-OS Moderator: Greg Darnieder 07-31-13/10:00 am CT Confirmation # 6064938 Page 34 So that is part of it. We’ve also found a huge problem with the data mismatch. We are continuously trying to work on that. It is a, you know, it’s (unintelligible). It still has a tremendously high mobility rate. So it’s very, very difficult sometimes to do that. But we are going to try new things this year. I have a meeting with some of the school districts coming up. And we’re going to transfer that city-wide, how do we address the data mismatch. So it does affect our rates. Locally, right now, our rate that we show SAR score is much higher than we’re seeing on the national Web site. So (Roxanne) and I have been trying to figure out how we’re going to do this again this year, what can we improve on. The data mismatch continues to be an issue. I’ve talked to some of the staff at the federal level. And we have also found that some of the students are, you know, misspelling the high school name. So my question in this is, will we ever move through a dropdown menu for the high school name? In San Antonio, most of our schools have two names. And the kids sometimes enter them with one name, sometimes with two names. So I’m wondering, will we move to a dropdown menu type option for the high school piece? Greg Darnieder: Okay. Dena, can you make a quick comment? And then I’ll close this. Dena Bates: I have to follow up on that one. I don’t know what our plans are - our future considerations for enhancing that tool at this point. So I’d have to follow up on that one. Greg Darnieder: I mean we are using a dropdown strategy post - with posting of the raw data, correct, when students indicate what high school they attend? PSC-ED-OS Moderator: Greg Darnieder 07-31-13/10:00 am CT Confirmation # 6064938 Page 35 Dena Bates: Yes, that’s the data that she’s talking about. Greg Darnieder: Okay. Dena Bates: But I’m not sure what our future considerations or enhancements are around that particular tool. Greg Darnieder: Okay. All right. (Myra), we’ll get - I’ll get back to you on it. We’ll look into it. Thanks for that. So, Dena and Catherine, thank you very much. This went by fairly quickly. And we could talk for hours about this and the such. Let me just again apologize that we sent out the wrong number to a number of you. You won’t be on the phone if you didn’t figure that out and pull out and call into the correct number. We also had some problems with getting the notification out to the number of people on the distribution list. It went up five- or six-fold between the last call and this call. So we appreciate all the interest. And for those of you who are first-time callers in, thank you very much. We will not do a call in August. We tried this last year and found August just to be too difficult with many school districts, particularly down south starting before Labor Day -- in fact, some starting even next week -- and then the startup of schools across the country. So the next call is going to be September 17th. It’s going to be a fascinating call with a number of folks from Colorado around two things. One is their PSC-ED-OS Moderator: Greg Darnieder 07-31-13/10:00 am CT Confirmation # 6064938 Page 36 state-level integration of datasets between community colleges or your universities’ school districts and labor market data. So that’ll be one focus of that call. The second part of the call will be on their very aggressive support of concurrent enrollment, early college, dual credit, adjunct professors being utilized. In other words, high school teachers being designated adjunct professors in order to teach dual enrollment courses and the such. So that’ll be September 17th. If you have suggestions on topics people to present, please send them to me. I plan on doing about nine calls between September 17th and the Christmas break time. And so we’ll be sending those dates and topics out. And they will include actually topics in October related to a front page, a headline in the New York Times today in terms of colleges, how effective are they in serving low-income Pell eligible students. And so coalition of colleges under the banner, “Yes, We Must,” will be presenting and - which means several presidents from those institutions will be talking about strategies of support as they - as part of their mission to serve low-income students. We’ll also have presentations from large school districts around building the college-going culture. And we’ll have a presentation on - from single high school districts, which the majority of the country is comprised, and how they go about building a college-going culture. So we look forward to all of that. And thanks again for calling in. we will be in touch very soon. PSC-ED-OS Moderator: Greg Darnieder 07-31-13/10:00 am CT Confirmation # 6064938 Page 37 Have a great day. Thanks. Bye. Woman: Thank you. Coordinator: That concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for participating. You may disconnect your line at this time. END