HEA: SFA Federal Direct Student Loans

ONGOING PLAN
Strategic Goal 5
Credit
HEA, Title IV, Part D
CFDA 84.268: Federal Direct Student Loans

Program Goal: To help ensure access to high-quality postsecondary education

by providing financial aid in the form of loans in an efficient,
financially sound and customer-responsive manner.
Objective 1 of 1: Ensure that persistence rates will increase for low- and middle-income
students.
Measure 1.1 of 1: Student persistence rate in postsecondary education for Direct Loan
borrowers. (Desired direction: increase)
Actual
Year Target Status
(or date expected)
2007 Set a Baseline (June 2008) Pending
2008 Maintain a Baseline (June 2009) Pending
Source. U. S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Integrated
Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS).
Frequency of Data Collection. Annual
Explanation. Providing program-specific data for this program will become feasible when individual
student enrollment information is collected. The collection of student data at the individual unit record
level will provide the information needed to calculate retention and completion rates for the individual FSA
programs. OPE management has been actively involved in the technical review panel for the IPEDS
Student Unit Record Feasibility Study. The study is being conducted to review the feasibility of
redesigning the IPEDS collection of student-related data to incorporate individual student unit records.
Although it is premature to anticipate when, and if, unit record data will become available, 2008 would
likely be the earliest possible date for reporting since field testing is anticipated in FY 2006 and
implementation would probably not occur until FY 2007. Given that the unit record project study outcome
is not yet known, OPE also is exploring the feasibility of obtaining program data on persistence and
completion by drawing an alternative sample from the merged applicant/recipient file and conducting a
survey of this group.

U.S. Department of Education 1 11/15/2006