PoE: Outcome Measures for Assessing Military/Veteran Student Success

ROBERT M. WORLEY IIDIRECTOR, EDUCATION SERVICEVETERANS BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION

PoE: Outcome Measures for Assessing Military/Veteran Student Success

February 13, 2014CCME

VETERANS BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION

OVERVIEW

• Long Term Solution• Claims Processing Highlights• Principles of Excellence

– Centralized Complaint System– Comparison Tool– Outcome Measures

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Long Term Solution (LTS) Supplemental Automation Summary

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FY13 Claims Processing Highlights

• 4,513,286 total education claims processed (28% more than FY12). 561,139 original claims (14% more than FY12). 3,952,147 supplemental claims (31% more than FY12)

• Payment processing accuracy rate at 98.7% – Exceeded the target of 98%

• 58% reduction in pending claims volume in FY13. Pending claims at the end of FY13 was 89,331 (FY12 was 213,590

claims)

• Exceeded claims processing timeliness goals (average days to complete). Original claims at 26.2 days compared to 30.5 in FY12

(14% improvement). Supplemental claims at 9.7 days compared to 16.5 in FY12

(41% improvement)4


Principles of Excellence – Centralized Complaint System

• VA and DoD created a complaint system for students to register complaints against educational institutions for fraudulent, deceptive, and misleading practices that will be tracked to the educational institution and responses provided to the complainant

• Developed a system with DoD to accept complaints through a webform and the Education Service national call center

. Launched on January 30, 2014. 285 complaints received within the first 24 hours across agencies (VA, DoD, Dept. of Ed)

• There were 8,719 Complaint System landing-page views and 2,145 further logins to the actual Complaint System through the last report on 2/6/14.

• 671 complaints were submitted as of 2/7/14.• Slightly over 50% of the complaints received were benefit related questions• The top two benefits cited were:

– Post-9/11 GI Bill (39%)– VRAP (26%)– The remainder was spread across other benefits.

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•Phase I – Launched February 4, 2014• Value of their GI Bill benefit at a particular school (estimator)• School indicators (similar to college scorecard)• Veteran indicators (e.g., PoE, Yellow Ribbon, GI Bill beneficiaries)

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Principles of Excellence – Comparison Tool

• Phase II

• Calculates GI Bill Benefits– Tuition / Fees (pre-populated from ED’s database)– In-State vs. Out of State

• School Indicators (PL Requirements)– Retention rate– Accreditation

• Veteran Student Outcomes Measures– During School (Retention Rates, Persistence Rates, Course Completion Rates) – Graduation (Transfer Rates, Graduation Rates, Certificate Completion)

• GI Bill Estimator/Comparison Tool; allows Veterans and family members to calculate estimated GI Bill benefits and research approved educational institutions.

• Website - http://benefits.va.gov/gibill/comparison


Principles of Excellence – Veteran Student Outcome Measures

• VA, DoD, and ED have developed Veteran student outcome measures• Purpose of outcome measures:

. To ascertain success among Veterans in utilizing the GI Bill program. To identify what Veterans/Servicemembers need to know when choosing a school. To identify what the Federal government should know to ensure an education program is

appropriate

• Agencies continue to analyze data sources to determine course of action to obtain Veterans and Servicemember student outcome measures and cohort information from existing systems

• The list has been vetted with VSOs and higher education organizations

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• Retention rate• Persistence rate• Course completion rate• Transfer-out rate• Graduation rate• Certificate completion• Number of years to complete

degree/certificate

• Number of institutions attended to complete program

• Median Federal student loan borrowing

• Federal student loan default rate• Average salary• Unemployment rates• Employment in field of study

• Outcome measures and definitions published on College Navigator (ED’s website) on November 8, 2013 (http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/)

• DoD will develop alternate measures for DoD population


EDU Realignment

VBA realigned authority over the planning and management of education claims processing from the Office of Field Operations (OFO) to Education Service (EDU) on October 1, 2013

. The realignment only affects managerial staff at the four Regional Processing Offices (RPO). It does not impact the day-to-day work of RPO claims processing staff.

. The realignment enhances VBA’s effectiveness by establishing a direct line of authority to EDU to enhance responsiveness between staff responsible for production and staff involved in policy, training, and regulations.

EDU established a new organizational structure to include an Operations Division

Key Operations Issues. National workload management strategy

. Updated performance standards

. Organization structure

. Reporting requirements.

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CONTACT US

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WEBSITE: www.benefits.va.gov/gibill

TELEPHONE: 1-888-GIBILL-1 (1-888-442-4551)


BACK UP SLIDES – Centralized Complaint System

UNIVERSITY OF PHOENIX 22DEVRY UNIVERSITY 10ITT TECHNICAL INSTITUTE 9COLORADO TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY 7STRAYER UNIVERSITY 6NEW HORIZONS CLC 6FLORIDA STATE COLLEGE AT JACKSONVILLE 6AMERICAN COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY 6PIMA MEDICAL INSTITUTE 5PIMA COMMUNITY COLLEGE 5MIAMI DADE COLLEGE 5

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The top schools based on number of complaints received are:

Documents

PoE: Outcome Measures for Assessing Military/Veteran Student Success