Can you locate an Education Department report released in December
that found that the government's method of calculating student loan
defaults doesn't provide enough information to assess whether
graduates are actually repaying loans?

---

Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 21 Jun 2004 17:47 PDT

Hello infopros-ga,

I might have found your report, except:

-- it's from August 2003, rather than December

-- it was from a Congressional oversight body, rather than the
Department of Education

--It wasn't exactly about calculations.  Instead, it had to do with
the student loan program's difficulties in getting access to certain
information from the IRS that it could use to verify the status of
loan applicants, payees, and those in default.

If this sounds like what you're looking for, let me know, and I'll
post the details as an answer to your question.

Thanks.

pafalafa-ga

---

Clarification of Question by infopros-ga on 21 Jun 2004 18:28 PDT

pafalafa,
I don't think that is it.  My description of what I am looking for
came word for word out of todays wall street journal. I don't think
they could be that far off.

---

Request for Question Clarification by czh-ga on 21 Jun 2004 19:38 PDT

Hello infopros-ga,

I would need to have more information about exactly which Department
of Education report you?re looking for because there have been lots of
reports and congressional hearings around the question of student
loans and how they might be revised.

I?m including a couple of links to give you a better idea of the scope
of activity in this arena. Please clarify exactly which report you?re
looking for or what information was contained in the report. It might
be helpful if you quoted the Wall Street Journal article you?re
referring to as well. I look forward to your clarification.

~ czh ~


http://www.tgslc.org/lege_report/2004/lr_040609.cfm
June 9, 2004
Texas Congressional Delegation Letter

***** This recent report summarizing Congressional activity regarding
student loans will give you a good overview of the complexities of
various student loan programs and their repayment systems.


http://edworkforce.house.gov/hearings/108th/fc/conloan031704/shapiro.htm 
March 17, 2004
Hearing on
?Fiscal Responsibility and Federal Consolidation Loans: Examining Cost
Implications for Taxpayers, Students, and Borrowers?

***** This report also illustrates the complexities of the regulations
involved in student loan payment programs.

---

Clarification of Question by infopros-ga on 22 Jun 2004 06:23 PDT

"... before federal investigators descended upon the company.  There
may be more bad report cards to come.  An Educationreport in December
found that the government method of calculating student loan defaults
doesn't propvide enough information to assess whether graduates are
actually repaying loans."
6/21/04
Wall Street Journal
Daniel Nasaw and Gene Colter

---

Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 22 Jun 2004 06:27 PDT

FYI, I found the WSJ article yesterday and emailed the paper, asking
for a citation for the Dept of Ed report...I'll let you know what I
hear back.

pafalafa-ga

infopros --

You have asked a very specific question, and I am pleased to be able
to provide you with a very specific answer.

I am confident that the Department of Education document you are
seeking is the December 23, 2003 document entitled "Final Audit
Report: Audit To Determine If Cohort Default Rates Provide Sufficient
Information On Defaults In The Title IV Loan Programs."  It was
prepared by Helen Lew, Assistant Inspector General Of Audit Services
of the U.S. Department of Education in the form of a Memorandum to
Sally Stroup, Assistant Secretary for Post-Secondary Education and
Theresa H. Shaw, Chief Operating Officer, Federal Student Aid.

Here is a link to a PDF copy of that document:
Department of Education: Audit Reports
http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oig/auditreports/a03c0017.pdf

You will need Adobe Reader to access the document.  If you don't have
that tool installed on your computer, a convenient free download is
available at this link:
Adobe Downloads
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/main.html

Here is an excerpt from the Executive Summary of the audit report,
which makes clear that it is the document you are seeking:

"The objective of our audit was to determine if cohort default rates,
as calculated under the Higher Education Act of 1965 . . . provide
sufficient information on defaults in the Title IV programs. .  .  . 
Although cohort default rates provide the information required under
the HEA, they do not appear to provide decision-makers with sufficient
information on defaults in the Title IV loan programs."
Source:  Final Audit Report, at page 5 of the PDF document.


Additional Information:

In order to give you an understanding of two of the terms used in the
summary I quoted above, here is, first, a link to a brief description
of "Cohort Default Rates":
Department of Education: Cohort Default Rates for Schools
http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSFAP/defaultmanagement/cdr.html

And here is a link to the text of "Title IV," as found in Sections 400
and following of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 United States
Code 1070 ff.)

Higher Education Act of 1965: Title IV (PDF file)
http://edworkforce.house.gov/publications/heacomp/hea65002.pdf 


Search Strategy:

I started with a simple Google search that got me to the Department of
Education's website:
"department of education"
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=%22department+of+education%22

The harder part was finding the right search terms to use for a search
within the department's website to find the document in question.  My
initial searching there had found that a document called the "cohort
default rate guide" is published periodically.  My successful search
used the following terms (the document in question is the fourth
result returned):

"cohort default rate guide" calculation enough december
http://www.ed.gov/searchResults.jhtml?oq=%2Bcohort+%2Bdefault+%2Brate+%2Bguide+%7C+calculation+enough+%7C+december&st=41&


I am confident that this the information you are seeking.  If anything
is unclear, please ask for clarification before rating the answer.


markj-ga

Fabulous Job.

infopros --

Thanks very much for the kind words, the five stars and the generous tip.

markj-ga