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This presentation discusses the Government Accountability Office's study on the challenges faced by institutions serving low-income and minority students and their use of Title III and V funds. It also highlights the Department of Education's response and corrective actions to improve grant monitoring and technical assistance for grantees.
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Presented By: Dr. James E. Laws, Jr., Director, IDUES Institutional development and undergraduate education service (IDUES) National Association of HBCU Title III Administrators, Inc. Annual Conference June 21-24, 2010 Orlando, FL
Dr. James E. Laws, Jr. – Director Janie Funkhouser Luretha Kelley Donald Watson IDUES Staff Director’s Office
Strengthening Institutions Program (SIP) • Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities (TCCU) • Alaska Native and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISI) • Native American Serving Non-Tribal Institutions (NASNTI) • Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) • Historically Black Graduate Institutions (HBGI) • Minority Science and Engineering and Improvement Program (MSEIP) • Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI) • Promoting Post-Baccalaureate Opportunities for Hispanic Americans (PPOHA) • All CCRAA grantees • 2010 SAFRA/Mandatory Funding Title III, Title V, and Mandatory Funds
Karen W. Johnson - Team Leader Yolande Badarou Bradley Haas Dr. Bernadette Hence Nalini Lamba-Nieves Bernadette Miles Dianne Pitts Dr. Lorna Polk Sara Qadir Matthew Willis IDUES Staff Team B, Title III-Part B & E
In November 2009, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report entitled, “LOW-INCOME AND MINORITY SERVING INSTITUTIONS: Management Attention to Long-standing Concerns Needed to Improve Education’s Oversight of Grant Programs” (GAO-09-309). GAO
Study focused on institutions that serve large proportions of low-income and minority students. • GAO was asked to determine: • (1) characteristics of institutions eligible to receive grants under Titles III and V of the HEA, including characteristics of students served; • (2) any challenges grantees face, and how they spent Title III and V funds to address these challenges; and • (3) to what extent the Department of Education monitors the grantees’ financial and programmatic performance and uses this information to target its technical assistance. GAO
As a result of its study, GAO made five recommendations to the Department: Recommendation #1: Develop a comprehensive, risk-based approach to target grant monitoring and technical assistance based on the needs of grantees. In doing so, Education should take steps to ensure that all available tools, including its electronic monitoring system, risk-based criteria, site visits, and grantee annual performance reports, are fully integrated to better target its limited resources. GAO
Recommendation #2: Follow up on each of the improper uses of grant funds that were identified in this report. • Recommendation #3: Provide program staff with the necessary training to fully carry out monitoring and technical assistance responsibilities. GAO
Recommendation #4: Disseminate information to grantees about common implementation challenges and successful projects to leverage the investment that has been made across the programs. • Recommendation #5: Develop appropriate mechanisms to collect and use feedback from grantees. GAO
The Department responded by developing a Corrective Action Plan (CAP). All corrective actions must be completed by November 2010. THE DEPARTMENT’S RESPONSE TO GAO
OPE developed the following corrective actions to address GAO findings regarding site visits: • OPE will conduct a site visit at each institution demonstrating improper uses of grant funds as identified by GAO. Three out of four of these site visits have already been conducted, and the fourth will be scheduled very soon. The site visits include both a programmatic and fiscal review, as well as creating an appropriate CAP. • OPE also committed to scheduling additional monitoring site visits to minority-serving institutions in FY 2010. To this end, we have scheduled 8 site visits for the summer/fall months. THE DEPARTMENT’S RESPONSE TO GAO
If you are the recipient of an old Endowment Challenge Grant (Title III, Part C) and or Endowment is one of your approved activities: • A new Financial Reporting Form has been forwarded to OMB for approval; • We anticipate a test site to be up by August 2010; • Expected launch date is October 2010; • Proposed deadline for receipt of data is January 2011. endowments
HBCU/SAFRA (mandatory funds) 2010 Awards • Award letters mailed and sent electronically on June 17th • Applications for new awards must include a 5-year Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP) • Submit applications electronically using e-Application: http://e-grants.ed.gov • Applications Due: July 30, 2010 • Interim Performance Report due April 29, 2011 IDUES Updates