Bill DeBaun, Senior Director of Data and Strategic Initiatives
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This is the first in a series of blog posts that will dive into different policy levers and explore the importance of each.
State-level policies can change the nature of college and career advising across the United States. Through our current Postsecondary Pathways Project,
the National College Attainment Network (NCAN) identified eight of these policy levers and is currently focused on how states adopt and advance them. More information on these levers, and states current conditions related to them, are now available
via a new, online interactive dashboard.
What’s the lever? States should share student-level FAFSA completion data with K-12 districts and schools in a timely, red-tape-free manner.
Why? Student-level FAFSA completion data is useful in postsecondary advising for measuring progress, conducting outreach, and triaging student support. Making the process for local education agencies (LEAs) to access and work with this data clear
and easy will make it easier to increase FAFSA completion rates through more effective FAFSA completion programming and initiatives.
Background: Federal Student Aid (FSA) provides states with access to student-level FAFSA completion data via the Student Aid Internet Gateway (SAIG). From there, states
can provide that data to LEAs and, in some cases, community/nonprofit partners after the completion of a data sharing agreement. At this point, most states have signed the agreement with FSA, which gives them access to student-level FAFSA completion
at the state level. However, the process by which LEAs sign data sharing agreements, delegate authorized users, and receive the data (e.g., receiving periodic data files, having the data show up in a protected online portal), and which data elements
are provided all vary widely.
What should states do? States can increase the usage of this data by cutting down on the “red tape” and number of “hoops to jump through” for stakeholders at the district and school levels. States can work to actively disseminate this data to LEAs
rather than taking a more passive “it’s here, they can come get it if they want” approach. Ideally, states can even provide professional development/technical assistance to LEAs on how to use this data effectively in their postsecondary advising efforts.
Interested in what's being shared? NCAN documented which data points states are sharing with practitioners in a recent blog post.
How does NCAN categorize states for this lever?
Planning: Data sharing agreement process is not conducted online (e.g., mailing in paper forms); data is only shared at district- or school-level aggregations rather than student-level; data is not incorporated into an SLDS/online data portal
but instead sent via spreadsheet or other data files. Also included here: states where current FAFSA data sharing conditions are unknown/information on student-level FAFSA data sharing is not provided at all on a state website.
Progressing: Information on student-level FAFSA data sharing is not clearly provided on state website/navigation could be improved. Data sharing agreement process is online; student-level data is shared with LEAs; data is incorporated into
an SLDS/online portal, data extracts are not downloadable.
Established: Information on student-level FAFSA data sharing is clearly provided on state website/navigation is easy. Data sharing agreement process is online, “red tape” is minimal; student-level data is shared with LEAs with data elements
like error codes/reasons for incomplete; data is incorporated into an SLDS/online portal, data extracts may be downloadable; state provides periodic TA/PD opportunities to LEAs for using data.
What’s the status of this lever for my state? Our current understanding of the landscape for this state policy lever appears in the map below.
NCAN is updating these analyses frequently, and the most updated version lives here. Have
questions about your state or want to make an update? Contact Caroline Doglio at doglioc@ncan.org.
Stay tuned as we continue to highlight how states can advance their students’ college and career readiness and increase educational attainment!
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