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How Schools Engage Students to Help Increase FAFSA Completion

Posted on April 24, 2019April 24, 2019 by Kelly Mae Ross

By ASA Research

Last year, the National College Access Network selected 25 U.S. cities to participate in the 2018-19 FAFSA Completion Challenge. Through this project, generously funded by The Kresge Foundation and Ascendium Education Group, NCAN challenges each of the grant recipient cities to increase their FAFSA completion rates by at least 5 percentage points for the graduating high school class of 2019. In an effort to address equity gaps, this challenge specifically focuses on cities with current FAFSA completion rates below the national average.

ASA Research, the 2018-19 FAFSA Completion Challenge project evaluator, is monitoring the 25 sites’ activities and results throughout the grant and highlighting strategies of interest.

Through focus groups and interviews, we have heard much interest and excitement around peer strategies, whereby students provide encouragement or assistance to help other students complete the FAFSA. In some cases, peers are competing within or between schools and are offered financial incentives or rewards.

This blog post profiles various peer strategies employed by sites to provide information about how to implement peer strategies locally.

The Power of Peers

Several grantee sites credit peers as having a positive influence on FAFSA completion rates. For example:

Michael Garcia, director of opportunity and achievement at Mesa Public Schools (the site lead for Mesa, AZ) shared that he believes this strategy has been effective because students appreciate hearing about the FAFSA from their peers, who can “communicate with them on the same level.” He believes Mesa’s peer coaches are not only motivated by monetary rewards but also by “doing good and providing an important service” to help members of the community access college.
Sarah Piwinski, director of data management and analysis, Tri-County Cradle to Career Collaborative, the Charleston, SC lead, shared that it is encouraging for students to hear from their peers who completed the FAFSA, some of whom already have financial aid offers – this demonstrates to students not only the process but also the results.

Some examples of peer engagement models follow.

Ambassadors

Recruiting student ambassadors to motivate other students to complete the FAFSA seems to be the most common peer model among grantee sites. Some examples include:

Fort Wayne: Counselors nominated five FAFSA ambassadors from each school. These students are typically seniors who are actively involved in student groups and hold leadership positions. Ambassadors motivate their peers to complete the FAFSA and are incentivized through both between and within-school competitions and rewards such as gift cards.
San Diego: Schools are working with their associated student boards to lead a completion competition between schools of the same size. Each of their 18 schools has five student ambassadors who talk to students at lunch and encourage them to complete the FAFSA.
Baltimore: Counselors selected one student in each school to serve as a FAFSA ambassador. These students make classroom presentations to help spread the word about FAFSA completion.

Paid Peer Coaches

Mesa has 24 peer coaches (four at each school) who receive a stipend and scholarship incentive for encouraging and helping peers to take specific steps to complete the FAFSA. Mesa modeled its strategy in part after Phoenix’s peer model. (Phoenix was a 2016-17 FAFSA Completion Challenge grantee.) Additional details follow:

Selection and training: Counseling teams identified students – typically, seniors planning to attend college who are “influencers” in their peer groups and/or strong communicators, savvy with social media and, preferably, multilingual. Nominees submitted brief YouTube video applications, and those selected attend events and monthly trainings throughout the year.
Role: Peer coaches help students create FSA IDs, but do not handle any financially sensitive information. In cases where a peer coach cannot answer a question or encounters a difficult situation, the student/family is referred to the site partners, including the local college access network.
Rewards: In addition to a stipend, the site awards $25 gift card incentives to peer coaches who reach specific milestones (see below):

Mesa’s 5 Milestones for Peer Coach Incentives

1. Make contact/collect data on whether students are going to college.
2. Help students prepare to complete college applications.
3. Get students an FSA ID, confirm that they or their parents created the ID. (This is the first payment milestone for which coaches are rewarded $25 for every 15 students. One student has already received $400 for this milestone.)
4. Confirm submission of FAFSA.
5. Confirm completion. (This is the second payment milestone.)

Success: Mesa’s peer coaches are excited to be involved and take the initiative to brainstorm creative strategies such as classroom presentations. One student convinced an entire social studies department to incorporate FAFSA presentations in their classes. Garcia reports that six or seven coaches are “extremely active,” and he has observed a correlation between their level of activity and school results.

Near-Peer Strategies

In addition to peer strategies, some sites are employing near-peers (college students), for example:

San Diego hired eight college students as paid interns who give presentations and assist students with FAFSA completion in English and social studies classes.
At West Valley City, the Utah College Advising Corps provides two part-time college student employees who offer assistance at large events and in small group settings. They are provided with in-depth training about the FAFSA, college access, and various resources.

Emerging Strategies

In addition to ambassador strategies listed above, Vancouver has had success with two student ambassadors in one school, and is currently considering incentives to draw more participation. Other sites’ peer strategies include in-class assistance in Charleston, student club competitions in Corpus Christi, a Street Team in Baltimore, and poster contests in Baltimore and West Valley City. Some of these strategies are still in development but offer innovative approaches that we will be following as we track sites’ results throughout the grant.

For more information about the 2018-19 FAFSA Completion Challenge, please contact melnicks@collegeaccess.org.

How Iowa College Aid Provides Student-Specific FAFSA Completion Data to Schools

Posted on February 27, 2019February 27, 2019 by Kelly Mae Ross

By Christina Sibaouih, MAISD, and Jamie Covell, MSW, of Iowa College Aid

The mission to provide student-level Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) completion data to Iowa high schools began with a pilot in one region of the state – a partnership between our agency, Iowa College Aid, and AEA PREP (Area Education Agencies’ Postsecondary Readiness and Equity Partnership). We soon realized statewide expansion was possible, though we knew we were in for a bit of a long ride.

In the end, our persistence paid off, despite the various obstacles along the road. Thirteen months later, we have officially expanded to 100 percent participation – all public high schools in Iowa are now receiving student-level FAFSA data.

The overall process is relatively simple:

Through use of our Student Aid Internet Gateway (SAIG) agreement with the U.S. Department of Education, Iowa College Aid receives Institutional Student Information Records (ISIRs) for those submitting a FAFSA in Iowa.
Our agency also has an agreement with the Iowa Department of Education to receive a senior enrollment file, telling us all of the high school seniors enrolled in the state.
Our research team compares these two lists to determine which students haven’t completed or haven’t filed a FAFSA.
We upload this list to our Google system, run a script to produce each school’s report, and send an automated email to each AEA PREP lead when the reports are ready to distribute.
Then, each AEA PREP lead distributes automated emails that contain the report to the schools within their region.

The logistical steps involved in setting up this process, however, were much more complex than we expected.

Systems were the first barrier. Our agency had been using a system that involved schools logging in to a portal, uploading their own student list, and creating a report. Our No. 1 priority was to streamline, simplify, and automate this process to make it easier for school counselors to get the information they needed without having to do extra work.

As part of the old system, each individual school was required to sign a data-sharing agreement with Iowa College Aid to be able to receive the student-level data provided by the report. As we knew this was a logistical deterrent for some schools to sign up, we began to look into what existing data-sharing infrastructure could be leveraged to avoid schools signing multiple agreements.

After a few months of working with our legal team and the U.S. Department of Education, we were able to determine that student-level data-sharing agreements with our agency only needed to be signed by our regional AEA’s, who, in turn, have data-sharing agreements with each of the schools in their region. This narrowed the number of agreements from 343 to 9 AEA-level agreements.

Nevertheless, we continue to have the responsibility to inform schools about what type of data they are receiving, what their responsibilities are with these data, and how to utilize the data. From our data-sharing agreement, we pulled the most important and relevant information for those accessing these data to know and developed a video to include in an online authorization form that school users would be required to electronically sign in order to receive their report. We placed the responsibility on each AEA to identify a school-level “local access manager,” the person assigned at each school to receive the report, usually a school counselor.

As of Jan. 25, all public high schools in Iowa have completed their authorization form and are now automatically receiving their weekly FAFSA report. The reports are sent once a week and stored in a Google folder, where the local access manager is able to access all past reports. The report lets each local access manager know which students are considered “Not Complete” – meaning they are missing something to complete their FAFSA, such as a signature – and “Not Filed” – meaning they have not submitted a FAFSA. School counselors are then able to notify students of what’s missing from their FAFSA or check-in with them about starting a FAFSA. We also provide a spreadsheet that shows more detail for each student, including whether they were selected for verification or not.

As exciting as it is to get these data to all of our 343 public high schools, there is more work to be done! We are now working to train all of our local access managers on how to best utilize these data. This student-level report has started a statewide conversation around FAFSA completion, and we hope to see an increase in Iowa’s FAFSA completion rate in the years to come, now that school counselors are better equipped to assist their students!

Tips for Engaging Parents in FAFSA Completion

Posted on January 23, 2019February 14, 2019 by Kelly Mae Ross

By Lindsay Broderick, NCAN Staff Writer

A common question in the college access field is how to effectively engage parents and family members. Many parents of students served by NCAN members do not have a postsecondary degree or credential and are therefore unfamiliar with the steps of the college and financial aid application processes.

NCAN hosted a webinar in which presenters Rene Diaz and Alma Vargas of GEAR UP Chicago highlighted experience-based tips and strategies on how best to involve parents in their children’s postsecondary pursuit, specifically in the FAFSA completion process. NCAN members can view the archived webinar recording.

The presenters began by discussing general parent outreach strategies that can be used during different stages of the college access process. Díaz said the key is to “be where parents are,” which can take a variety of forms.

Be present and visible at open houses, parent-teacher conferences, school day drop-off/pick-up, sporting events, and plays. Set up a table and put information about the college application process and FAFSA completion directly in parents’ hands.
Get to know school-based parent councils or committees. These parents are leaders in the school community, have relationships with other parents you are trying to reach, and can help disseminate your message and materials.
Work with community-based organizations. Families may already have a relationship with organizations such as places of worship, social service organizations, and public libraries. These organizations are often closer to the community and have deep cultural understanding and insight. Holding events at these locations may be less intimidating and more convenient.
Make phone calls. Diaz cautions against the use of robocalls. She favors personalized calls made by an actual person who can tailor a conversation with specific information.

The next segment of the webinar described ways college access practitioners can build relationships with families. The overarching theme of this segment was to be inviting, relatable, and friendly.

Smile, and appreciate parents. Thank them for taking the time to attend an event. Help parents who are nervous feel comfortable and welcomed.
Acknowledge parents’ expertise and experience. Although not all parents understand the college application and financial aid processes, they do have experiences and knowledge to share. Find a way to identify, recognize, and value their input.
Communicate constantly. Keep parents informed via text, emails, and/or phone calls, depending on the preferred method of communication. This shows parents they have support and will help them keep their child on track.
Understand your community. Translate printed information into the language(s) spoken by local parents. Schedule events during the evening and on the weekends. Provide transportation or vouchers. Offer child care and food.
Schedule one-on-one meetings. This allows parents to voice concerns and ask questions in a safe environment. Also schedule meetings where both the parent(s) and student will be present to ensure everyone is on the same page.
Maintain confidentiality. This will help engender trust and strengthen relationships.

The presenters also discussed the elements they include in every college access workshop they host for parents and families.

Fun. Start each event with icebreakers to create a friendly, welcoming, and open environment.
Participation. Create an environment where parents feel comfortable participating. Try breaking parents into smaller groups based on the profiles of their child – this will encourage conversation and allow the facilitator to target the presentation to the needs of the audience.
Clear takeaways. Strive to make sure that every parent takes away something of value.
Relationship building. If parents like you, then they’re more likely to come back!

During the last segment of the webinar, Diaz and Vargas spoke more specifically about engaging parents and families in financial aid and FAFSA completion activities. Here are 11 keys to cultivating parental involvement.

Build capacity. Make sure anyone who presents information on FAFSA completion has adequate training and is knowledgeable about the topic.
Start early. Begin holding financial aid events in middle school if possible. The sooner parents are introduced to the significance of financial aid to their child’s postsecondary success, the more they can learn.
Coordinate with school personnel. Make sure they understand the importance of FAFSA completion and support/echo these efforts.
Make the FAFSA completion campaign visible. This can be done through bulletin boards, college banners, etc.
Conduct information sessions first. Then move to events where you’re actually facilitating FAFSA completion.
Introduce financial aid terminology. This should include terms such as cost of attendance, scholarships, loans, work study, tuition and fees, etc.
Conduct multiple sessions. Host events at a variety of times so all parents are informed about what documents are needed to complete the FAFSA, have created an FSA ID, understand FAFSA eligibility, and are familiar with award letters.
Conduct one-on-one meetings. Once parents understand the financial aid process, schedule one-on-one meetings so they can ask questions confidentially, get assistance completing the FAFSA, and receive advice on reviewing and assessing financial aid award letters, and determining whether financial aid package is sufficient.
Use online tools. One example is the FAFSA4caster from FSA.
Address key topics. Make sure parents understand:
- A postsecondary education is a long-term investment with many positive impacts on the individual student, his/her family, and the community.
- How to prepare to financially support their student throughout his/her postsecondary career.
- The importance of completing the FAFSA and the relationship between FAFSA completion and postsecondary enrollment.
Have parents and students work together. This will help equip students to complete the FAFSA on their own during the following year(s).

Parents are an integral part of a child’s life, and having them on board and educated about the financial aid application processes will make it significantly easier. We encourage you to try some of these strategies to increase engagement with the parents in your community.

NCAN and Bill Gates Suggest Fixing FAFSA to Help More Students Succeed

Posted on January 2, 2019January 2, 2019 by Ryan

By Allie Ciaramella, former NCAN Communications Manager

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is notorious for its infuriating complexity, mind-numbing antiquity, and undeniable importance to would-be college students. As the gateway to not only federal support including Pell Grants but also many state and institutional funds, the FAFSA is the key to college access for millions of low-income students each year.

A lesser-known aspect of the form is its relationship to college success. But advocates for higher education like philanthropist Bill Gates, whose foundation is a major supporter of NCAN’s work to simplify the FAFSA, are well aware that the not-so-simple act of filing the form can have life-changing consequences for Americans nationwide. That’s why Gates is explaining his intent focus on identifying ways to #FixFAFSA to help more low-income and first-generation students access and succeed in postsecondary education.

The connection between FAFSA-filing and college enrollment is clear – and strong: Students who apply for federal aid are 64 percent more likely to enroll in postsecondary education directly after high school than those who don’t apply. Once on a campus, FAFSA completers are 72 percent more likely than their non-completing peers to persist in college.

Although the impact of FAFSA completion on the ultimate indicator of postsecondary success – completion – is less clear, students cannot obtain a degree if they fail to persist or even enroll. So it stands to reason that simplifying the federal aid application so more students complete it can only have positive effects on the educational attainment and economic success of the nation’s workforce.

This is not an abstract concept. Just ask Candace Chambers, a U.S. Department of Agriculture employee who said filing the FAFSA got her the aid she needed to finish a degree in four years. Or Samps Taylor, a sophomore studying instrumental performance at Alcorn State University, who calls financial aid “the lifeline for what I’m doing.” Or Camryn Pollard, a freshman at the College of Wooster who plans to become an FBI agent and says that “filling out the FAFSA was the greatest thing I could ever do.”

These students were fortunate to have support from NCAN members Woodward Hines Education Foundation, the Louisiana Office of Student Financial Assistance, and College Now Greater Cleveland. Hundreds of thousands of low-income students who must fend for themselves fall victim each year to “the leaky FAFSA pipeline.” Among those who do manage to get the information they need to complete the form, NCAN estimates that half are flagged for verification and 25 percent of those selected go on to be thwarted by the overly burdensome process, which disproportionately affects the low-income students who need aid most by requiring them to submit extra paperwork to prove – yet again – that their financial situation warrants the money to which they’re entitled.

There are ideas for fixing FAFSA. In a Gates Foundation video, experts suggest eliminating unnecessary questions, making the process applicable for all students including part-time and returning ones at different institution types, and utilizing information the federal government already has so applicants don’t have to provide it repeatedly.

“Simplifying financial aid means that we as access advisors spend far less time talking about process,” NCAN Executive Director Kim Cook says in the video, “and far more time actually advising students about what their careers will look like in the future.”

Achieve Atlanta’s FAFSA Success Guide

Posted on December 11, 2018December 11, 2018 by Ryan

In 2016, the percentage of APS students who had completed the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) the previous year was 51%. Reflecting the national trend, APS students and their families were leaving valuable federal aid on the table, which made their transition from high school to post-secondary study that much harder. For many families, college was simply out of reach for financial reasons.

In response, Achieve Atlanta made it a priority to improve FAFSA completion rates among Atlanta Public Schools students, believing that in addition to the obvious financial benefits, the experience of completing the FAFSA might build momentum to successfully navigate the path to college. At the beginning of the 2016-17 school year, Achieve Atlanta engaged in a series of deliberate action steps aimed at driving FAFSA completion among that year’s Senior class. The positive results were striking, as almost 300 more families completed the FAFSA than the year before, boosting the previously stagnant completion percentage by 10 points.

Please download the pdf for the complete article.

10 Key Tips and Tools for Helping Students Understand Financial Aid

Posted on November 4, 2018November 6, 2018 by Ryan

By guest bloggers Diane Cheng, Research Director at The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS), and Erica Rose, Senior Director of Programs, Massachusetts, at uAspire

Affordability is a key issue for many students and families when choosing which colleges to apply to and attend, but the financial aid process can seem overwhelming. At the recent NCAN conference in Pittsburgh, TICAS and uAspire shared specific ways that counselors can help students and families approach the issue of college affordability and understand their financial aid options.

Here are a few of the tips and tools we shared:

The Financial Aid Toolkit from the U.S. Department of Education is an online “one-stop shop” for counselors, with information about financial aid and a searchable database of resources – including resources in Spanish and information for parents.
To help decide where to apply, students and families can use the Education Department’s College Scorecard, an online college comparison tool with data on costs, graduation rates, debt, post-college earnings, and more.
To look past sticker price and get early, individualized estimates of financial aid, students can use net price calculators. These online tools are required to be on almost all college websites, and can help students start thinking about affordability early in their college search.
Students and parents can now fill out the FAFSA on their phones, using FAFSA.gov or the myStudentAid mobile app. However, certain functionality is only available on FAFSA.gov and not currently available on the mobile app (e.g., access for undocumented parents who can’t get an FSA ID, and students’ ability to view their Student Aid Report or make corrections to their FAFSA).
Since students can now start filling out the FAFSA on Oct. 1 each year, they should start building college lists during their junior year. Those lists should include colleges that students know they have a good chance of being accepted to and can afford. Students should also fight the urge to make a deposit before receiving and reviewing all award letters – wait until National College Decision Day (May 1)!
When filling out the FAFSA, students and parents should use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool (DRT) to electronically transfer their tax data into the FAFSA. This tool helps simplify and shorten the FAFSA process as well as reduce how much documentation students have to provide if they are selected for verification.
Students are not done with the financial aid process after they complete the FAFSA! Some will be selected for verification and required to submit additional documentation to colleges before they can receive financial aid. Counselors can help by having students request IRS documentation early (tax transcripts if they or their parents filed taxes, and verification of non-filing if they didn’t file taxes), making sure they keep an eye out for verification, and reassuring them that being selected doesn’t mean they did anything wrong!
Our research has found that many financial aid award letters are inconsistent, confusing, or misleading to students. Counselors can help by providing a glossary of terms, analyzing and comparing award letters with students and families, and brokering communication with colleges. See more tips here.
When reviewing estimated bills, students should consider savings, tuition payment plans, summer work, and outside scholarships before considering loans. If they need to borrow, they should turn to federal loans first, which guarantee consumer protections and repayment options that private loans do not.
For information about student loans, check out TICAS’ resources on projectonstudentdebt.org and the Education Department’s resources on StudentAid.gov and YouTube. The Education Department also offers an online repayment estimator that can help students see how expected borrowing translates into monthly payments and understand the range of repayment plans available for federal student loans (including some plans where payments can be as low as $0).

For more tips, see our handout from the conference.