Proposed Workforce Pell rules published in the Federal Register
The Department of Education (ED) on Monday published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on the Workforce Pell Grant program. The public has 30 days to comment on the NPRM; AACC will submit comments on behalf of the sector. (See AACC’s analysis).
As covered in the Community College Daily, the proposed rules are a product of a week-long negotiated rulemaking session held by ED in December. Despite several remaining questions around how to calculate and verify placement rates, the timing and structure of calculating the “value-added earnings” measure, and the process for programs to regain eligibility, negotiators reached consensus on the draft regulatory package. Because ED is bound by the Higher Education Act to use the consensus language, the NPRM largely reflects the agreed-upon text.
However, looking forward, ED can make changes to the proposed regulations based on public comments. In fact, ED has posed in the NPRM several “directed questions” seeking input on aspects of the regulations and opening the door to possible changes or clarifications. These topics include:
- Written arrangements with non-accredited entities to provide a portion of the Workforce Pell program
- Agreements between governors regarding out-of-state students
- A possible interim value-added earnings calculation
- Modification to how cohorts are assembled for the value-added earnings metric
- Whether people who are enrolled in higher education should be included in the earnings calculation
At last week’s Federal Student Aid Training Conference, ED officials said they hope to have the final Workforce Pell regulations published in May. They also shared that colleges adding new Workforce Pell programs will receive priority consideration of their Applications to Participate in the Federal Student Financial Aid Programs (E-Apps) to help ensure that programs are approved as close as possible to the July 1 start date.
ED report details recommendations for improving IES
ED last week released a report detailing areas to modernize and improve the Institute for Education Sciences (IES), the federal government’s data collection and research agency for education issues. IES houses the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the National Center for Education Research (NCER), the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE) and the National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER).
Community colleges interact with IES in several ways, including reporting data to NCES through the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS). Outside of campus interactions, IES research provides important data to undergird federal investments in higher education, including the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS) and longitudinal studies like Beginning Postsecondary Students.
The report, titled “Reimagining the Institute of Education Sciences,” was commissioned by the department and authored by Amber Northern, a senior advisor at ED.
Alongside broad recommendations around better integrating disparate data collection activities, streamlining IES processes, improving the timeliness of data and research releases, and standardizing definitions and protocols, the report offers several recommendations of interest to community colleges. Most notably, the report identifies shortcomings associated with the exclusion of non-credit and workforce programs offered by colleges in current postsecondary data studies. AACC has long advocated for the inclusion of these programs and their students in IPEDS and other surveys meant to capture postsecondary access and success.
The report also recommends scaling and improving the uptake of the federal State Longitudinal Data Systems Grant Program, with a particular urgency around engaging states to improve their data systems in preparation for data requirements related to Workforce Pell.
Finally, the report recommends additional cross-agency data alignment with the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Commerce, and other agencies to better connect data on education, workforce and other federal program investments. This opens the door not only to better information available to data consumers (including colleges) on postsecondary-to-career pipelines, but also to new opportunities to streamline reporting requirements across agencies.