Federal Register: October 28, 2009

Volume 74, Number 207

[Notices]

[Page 55542-55543]

[PDF version of document]

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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION


Federal Student Financial Assistance Programs Under Title IV of
the Higher Education Act of 1965, as Amended

AGENCY: Department of Education.

ACTION: Notice inviting suggestions for new experiments for the
Experimental Sites Initiative.

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SUMMARY: The Secretary of Education invites institutions of higher
education that participate in the student assistance programs
authorized under title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as
amended (the HEA), or consortiums of such institutions, to propose
ideas for institutionally based experiments designed to test new ways
of administering the student financial assistance programs authorized
by title IV of the HEA (the Title IV, HEA programs). This effort is
called the Experimental Sites Initiative (ESI). This notice is the
first of two notices that the Secretary will publish regarding the ESI.
    Under section 487A(b) of the HEA, the Secretary has the authority
to grant waivers from specific Title IV, HEA statutory or regulatory
requirements to allow institutions to test alternative methods for
administering the Title IV, HEA programs. Such institutions are
referred to in the HEA as ``experimental sites''. The Secretary seeks
suggestions on how best to use this authority to reduce burden in the
administration of the Title IV, HEA programs.
    Consistent with section 487A(b) of the HEA, the Secretary cannot
waive requirements related to need analysis, award rules, and grant and
loan maximum award amounts. However, the Secretary anticipates
approving experiments in a wide variety of other areas. The Secretary
is particularly interested in suggestions for experiments that might
produce stronger academic outcomes for students, such as improved
persistence, shorter time to degree, and reduced reliance on outside
work.
    After reviewing the suggestions submitted by institutions as a
result of this notice and constructing an evaluation design for
approved experiments, the Secretary will publish a second notice in the
Federal Register announcing approved experiments as well as the
implementation and evaluative criteria for each approved experiment.
The subsequent notice will invite institutions to apply to participate
in one or more of those experiments, with preference given to the
institution(s) that submitted the original suggestion.

DATES: Suggestions must be submitted no later than December 18, 2009 in
order to ensure consideration for inclusion in the first phase of ESI.

ADDRESSES: Submissions must be submitted as an attachment to an e-mail
sent to the following e-mail address: experimentalsites@ed.gov.
    Instructions for Submitting Suggestions: We recommend that
suggestions be prepared in either a Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat
document that is attached to an electronic mail message sent to the e-
mail address provided in the ADDRESSES section of this notice. We ask
that submitters include the name and address of the institution that is
submitting the suggestion and the name, title, mailing and e-mail
addresses, and telephone number of a contact person for the institution
or consortium. If the submission is from a consortium of institutions,
we ask that the submitter list all institutions but only one contact
person.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Warren Farr, U.S. Department of
Education, Federal Student Aid, Room 43H2, 830 First Street, NE.,
Washington, DC 20002. E-mail at: Warren.Farr@ed.gov or by telephone at
(202) 377-4380.
    If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), call the
Federal Relay Service (FRS), toll free, at 1-800-877-8339. Individuals
with disabilities can obtain this document in an accessible format
(e.g. Braille, large print, audiotape, or computer diskette) by
contacting Warren Farr.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    Through ESI, we seek to experiment with ways to both improve
services to students and free institutions and students from
administrative burdens, while maintaining (or increasing) the

[[Page 55543]]

financial and programmatic integrity of the Title IV, HEA programs.
    While the Title IV, HEA programs help make a postsecondary
education possible for millions of students, their costs to the
American taxpayer are considerable. Therefore, Congress and the
Secretary have a justifiable interest in protecting the integrity of
the programs and do so by establishing statutory and regulatory
requirements. In many instances, these requirements also provide
students with protections and safeguards. They also ensure that
students and families are fully informed of their rights and
responsibilities as applicants and recipients of assistance from the
Title IV, HEA programs and have the information needed to make informed
decisions.
    At this time, we seek the assistance of institutions in identifying
areas in the administration of the Title IV, HEA programs that could
benefit from testing alternative ways of accomplishing the underlying
goals of the current statutory or regulatory requirements. We also seek
suggestions on how these alternatives could be evaluated.
    We understand that the ability to construct rigorous experimental
designs is a specialized skill not expected of most financial aid
professionals. Therefore, we are not asking institutions that submit
suggestions for experiments to prepare full project designs, including
evaluation designs. In collaboration with the submitting institution,
we will develop the final experimental designs and evaluation plans for
each approved experiment before we invite institutions to participate
in the experiments. The designs of all experiments must measure not
only the results of the alternative approach, but also provide
reasonable measures of what would have happened under the existing
requirements.
    We also may develop experiments in addition to those proposed by
institutions and we will invite institutions to participate in those
experiments as well as any submitted by institutions.
    We will require institutions that participate in the experiments to
provide data about the effectiveness of the proposed alternatives. For
this reason, we are interested in suggestions about methodologies that
could be used to collect comparable information about current statutory
requirements. This comparable data could be based upon the treatment of
a control group of students at the institution who are subject to the
current requirement or collected from other, similar institutions whose
students are subject to the current requirement.
    This invitation for suggestions is a part of the Secretary's
continuing effort to improve Title IV, HEA program administration in
partnership with the higher education community. We have benefited
tremendously from the community's contributions through the negotiated
rulemaking process and in other ways and we look forward to working
with the institutions that participate in the ESI.

Invitation for Suggestions

    We hope that this invitation will encourage institutions to suggest
innovative strategies that improve postsecondary student outcomes,
relieve unnecessary burden, and maintain program accountability. We
will consider the outcomes of these experimental strategies when
proposing changes to the Title IV, HEA program regulations or, if
appropriate, in legislative proposals to the Congress.
    We note that the results of earlier experiments under the ESI
contributed to a statutory change that relaxed the 30-day delay
requirement for the disbursement of loan funds to first-year, first-
time borrowers, and eased the requirement that single-term loans be
disbursed in multiple installments.
    The flexibilities tested by a consortium of community colleges also
resulted in a statutory change in the HEA regarding the Ability to
Benefit (ATB) requirements. Specifically, the HEA now provides another
alternative for students without a high school diploma, or its
equivalent, to become eligible to receive Title IV, HEA student aid
funds.
    Under ESI, we seek innovative approaches in a variety of different
areas related to the administration of the Title IV, HEA programs. We
also encourage institutions to collaborate in the development process
of proposals. We are interested in receiving suggestions that address
the following:
     The specific statutory or regulatory requirement(s)
relating to the Title IV, HEA programs the institution or consortium
seeks relief from in order to test its alternative approach.
     The perceived objective of, or reason for, the current
requirement.
     How an alternative approach avoids or minimizes problems
with the existing requirement and still addresses its objective.
     Additional benefits from the proposed alternative
approach.
    Because we must demonstrate that the experiments we implement have
the potential to improve efficiency while at the same time protecting
the integrity of Title IV, HEA programs, we are especially interested
in experiments that integrate scientifically valid evaluation
methodologies into the suggested experiments. Thus, we would appreciate
receiving suggestions that address the following components for
evaluating the experiments:
     Measuring the undesirable aspects of complying with the
current regulatory or statutory requirement identified.
     Measuring how well the objective or reason behind the
current regulatory or statutory requirement identified is being met now
and how it will be met in the experiment.
     Measuring any additional benefits associated with a
proposed experiment.
     The kind of data we should collect from the institution or
consortium once we select sites for participation in the experiments.
    Reports on past experiments under the ESI can be found on the
Experimental Sites Web site at https://experimentalsites.ed.gov/exp/
reports.html. The Secretary encourages new experiments in areas other
than those previously tried.

Electronic Access to This Document

    You can view this document, as well as all other documents of this
Department published in the Federal Register, in text or portable
document format (PDF) on the Internet at the following site: http://
www.ed.gov/news/fedregister/index.html.
    To use PDF you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available
free at this site. If you have questions about using PDF, call the U.S.
Government Printing Office (GPO), toll free, at 1-888-293-6498; or in
the Washington, DC area at (202) 512-1530.

    Note:  The official version of this document is the document
published in the Federal Register. Free Internet access to the
official edition of the Federal Register and the Code of Federal
Regulations is available on GPO Access at: http://
www.access.gpo.gov/nara/index.html.

    Program Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1094a.
    Delegation of Authority: The Secretary of Education has delegated
authority to Daniel T. Madzelan, Director, Forecasting and Policy
Analysis for the Office of Postsecondary Education, to perform the
functions and duties of the Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary
Education.

    Dated: October 23, 2009.
Daniel T. Madzelan,
Director, Forecasting and Policy Analysis.
[FR Doc. E9-25973 Filed 10-27-09; 8:45 am]

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