Pell Grant data incomplete, report says

Black Issues in Higher Education, May 5, 2005 by Charles Pekow

No one knows how big a dent Pell Grants are making in the nation's need for college financing. Though the federal government spends more than $12 billion a year for the grants, it doesn't collect data on how many eligible students don't apply. And without reliable estimates, the Department of Education can't ensure access to the grants, reach out properly to those who need the money or know how well the program is working, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office called "Means-Tested Programs: Information on Program Access Can Be an Important Management Tool."

"We were unable to estimate a participation rate for the Pell Grant program because we were unable to assess the reliability of data on the family income of students that did not apply for federal financial assistance," the report says.

The process may scare some applicants off. The Government Accountability Office quoted some officials as saying that "the Pell Grant application is very long and complicated and can be difficult for students and their parents to complete." The report goes on to note that "staff from an organization in St. Paul, Minn., dedicated to assisting low-income students to access higher education told us that many low-income students in the area would not be able to complete the forms correctly without their assistance."

The office suggested that the Education Department "study the feasibility of calculating participation or coverage rates and including them in key program management reports." The department said it doesn't estimate how many eligible people don't apply for Pell Grants and doesn't plan to--it simply checks the share of eligible applicants getting grants. The Education Department said no currently available data source could provide a reliable estimate.

"States do not complete school attendance beyond the secondary level; therefore, it is very difficult to identify the total population of potential federal Pell Giant recipients," wrote Sally Stroup, assistant secretary for the Office of Postsecondary Education, in response to the GAO report.

But the Education Department's National Center for Education Statistics is studying the possibility of developing a system of collecting data on all postsecondary students. The study could help gauge whether it would be possible to determine Pell Grant participation rates.