Vocational Education:
Information on the National Research Center's Grant Award Process
HRD-88-56: Published: Jan 29, 1988. Publicly Released: Jan 29, 1988.
Additional Materials:
- Full Report:
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In response to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Department of Education's procedures in awarding a grant to establish the National Center for Research in Vocational Education.
GAO found that: (1) Education did not develop any criteria for the selection of field readers to read and score the grant applications, but developed a list of potential readers from staff members' personal knowledge of individuals prominent in postsecondary and vocational education research; (2) since there were no criteria defining what constituted a substantial financial contribution from an applicant, program officials used their own judgement and approved the awardee's proposed first-year contribution of $686,000, although it was less than those of the other two applicants; and (3) after grant negotiations, the awardee agreed to name an executive director and associate director instead of two codirectors. GAO also found that: (1) field readers openly discussed their scores for each applicant before they completed their final reviews; (2) four of the five readers recalled that, using raw scores, the applicant who subsequently filed suit alleging that Education violated the grant award was ranked first and the awardee second; and (3) it could not determine if the differences between the top-ranked and the second-ranked applicant's scores were statistically significant because of the limited number of readers who reviewed the proposals. Although GAO found no evidence that field readers improperly influenced other readers, it believes that withholding information on the reader's initial scores would reduce the possibility of any reader manipulating the scoring system.
Jan 27, 2021
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Higher Education:
IRS and Education Could Better Address Risks Associated with Some For-Profit College ConversionsGAO-21-89: Published: Dec 31, 2020. Publicly Released: Jan 27, 2021.
Jan 19, 2021
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Higher Education:
Department of Education Should Further Assess College Access Grant ProgramsGAO-21-5: Published: Dec 17, 2020. Publicly Released: Jan 19, 2021.
Jan 11, 2021
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K-12 Education:
Observations on States' School Improvement EffortsGAO-21-199: Published: Jan 11, 2021. Publicly Released: Jan 11, 2021.
Dec 10, 2020
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Higher Education:
Children's Savings Account Programs Can Help Families Build Savings and Envision CollegeGAO-21-10: Published: Dec 10, 2020. Publicly Released: Dec 10, 2020.
Nov 19, 2020
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Distance Learning:
Challenges Providing Services to K-12 English Learners and Students with Disabilities during COVID-19GAO-21-43: Published: Nov 19, 2020. Publicly Released: Nov 19, 2020.
Oct 15, 2020
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Data Security:
Recent K-12 Data Breaches Show That Students Are Vulnerable to HarmGAO-20-644: Published: Sep 15, 2020. Publicly Released: Oct 15, 2020.
Oct 14, 2020
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Disaster Recovery:
COVID-19 Pandemic Intensifies Disaster Recovery Challenges for K-12 SchoolsGAO-21-62R: Published: Oct 14, 2020. Publicly Released: Oct 14, 2020.
Sep 29, 2020
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Federal Student Loans:
Supplemental Data on Income and Family Size Information for Income-Driven Repayment PlansGAO-20-591R: Published: Sep 29, 2020. Publicly Released: Sep 29, 2020.
Aug 27, 2020
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Native American Youth:
Agencies Incorporated Almost All Leading Practices When Assessing Grant Programs That Could Prevent or Address Delinquency [Reissued with revisions on Aug. 27, 2020.]GAO-20-600: Published: Aug 6, 2020. Publicly Released: Aug 6, 2020.
Jul 24, 2020
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K-12 Education:
School Districts Need Better Information to Help Improve Access for People with DisabilitiesGAO-20-448: Published: Jun 30, 2020. Publicly Released: Jul 24, 2020.
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