Federal Student Aid: Progress in Integrating Pell Grant and Direct Loan Systems and Processes, but Critical Work Remains

United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2002-12-31 monographic deposited born digital 27 p. GA 1.13:GAO-03-241 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-03-241 P0b002ee18037df64 f:d03241 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-28 GAOREPORTS-GAO-03-241 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-GAO-03-241 GAO-03-241 Best practices Direct loans Federal aid programs Government information dissemination Grants Information resources management Information technology Student financial aid Systems compatibility Department of Education Common Origination and Disbursement System Other Written Product A05785 Federal Student Aid: Progress in Integrating Pell Grant and Direct Loan Systems and Processes, but Critical Work Remains To address system problems and other long-standing management weaknesses, in 1998, the Congress created a discrete unit within the Department of Education, the Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA). This office subsequently adopted a new approach to systems integration using middleware (a type of software that can allow an application to access data residing in different databases) and Extensible Markup Language (XML)--a flexible, nonproprietary set of standards that is intended to make it easier to identify, integrate, and process information widely dispersed among systems and organizations. FSA's first use of this approach is the Common Origination and Disbursement (COD) process for the Direct Loan, Pell Grant, and campus-based programs. GAO initiated a follow-up review to assess FSA's progress in implementing this process. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-03-241/html/GAOREPORTS-GAO-03-241.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-03-241/pdf/GAOREPORTS-GAO-03-241.pdf GAO-03-241 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-03-241 Other Written Product GAO-03-241; Federal Student Aid: Progress in Integrating Pell Grant and Direct Loan Systems and Processes, but Critical Work Remains; Best practices Direct loans Federal aid programs Government information dissemination Grants Information resources management Information technology Student financial aid Systems compatibility Department of Education Common Origination and Disbursement System