Insert 74A8 DEVELOPING INSTITUTIONS GRANTS TO INDIAN COLLEGES (cont.) Question: How do you explain that level of participation? Answer: The Department believes that this chart shows a very favorable participation rate for the 24 tribal colleges that comprise the American Indian Higher Education Consortium. Over the last five years, over $11 million has been awarded to these schools. During this period, program officers have met three times with tribal college representatives specifically to provide technical assistance in the preparation of competitive applications. Two of these workshops were held on site, in Montana and North Dakota. RATING OF GRANT APPLICATIONS Question: One witness told the Committee that grants under some programs (Library Services and Construction, Developing Institutions, and the TRIO programs) depend upon "the luck of the draw" in that scoring is not standardized, and some panels give higher scores than others. Do you agree with this criticism? If what actions are planned? so, Answer: In general, applications for funding under the Department's programs are randomly assigned to peer review panels. So long as reviewers are asked to provide independent, confidential scores for grant applications, there will be variations in the results. The diverse backgrounds and experiences of panel members are responsible for these differences, which are not necessarily undesirable. Every attempt is made to obtain readers with the educational background and experience necessary to provide sound professional judgment on the quality of proposals submitted for funding. In order to ensure that panelists are using objective criteria to arrive at their scores, a large portion of panel orientation is devoted to developing a common framework from which to evaluate applications. This should also eliminate unreasonable discrepancies in scores. The presence of program staff to monitor and advise panels is another precaution taken by the Department. The paneling Insert 74A9 process undergoes constant review to identify ways in which it may be improved. The Department believes that thorough orientations and careful monitoring can produce a fair and objective result, whether or not raw scores are standardized. SECRETARY'S STUDY OF INDIAN EDUCATION Question: Will Secretary Cavazos' study of Indian education include adult education? Answer: The specific scope of the planned study of Indian education has not yet been determined. However, priority is expected to be given to elementary and secondary education issues. Question: If not, are there other plans to study the issue? Answer: There are no other specific plans to study Indian adult education. An evaluation of the adult education portion of the Indian Education program, which was completed in 1985, found that generally the services delivered by Subpart 3 projects are those that seem to be most needed by Indian adults. They concentrate on providing adult basic education and preparation for the high school equivalency examination. The study also found little duplication of services between Subpart 3 projects and those funded by other Federal programs such as the Adult Education Act or adult education activities funded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. TIMING OF FELLOWSHIP AND FORMULA GRANT AWARDS Question: The Department's testimony was incomplete on the issue of timeliness of funding for fellowship recipients and formula grants for schools. Please advise the Committee of the latest dates by which grant award documents were provided to grantees and fellowship recipients. Answer: All fellowship recipients and their institutions were notified of their awards by 45 days prior to the start of their school years, as required by statute. Funds were obligated on July 20, 1989, the effective date of new regulations for this program. Awards were processed on July 21 for all fellows whose budgets had been received and approved. All other awards were made as approved budgets were submitted. All formula grant recipients were informed of the amounts of their grants on August 4, 1989. Issuance of grant award documents began on September 11. All funds were obligated by September 30. Delays in processing of award documents for some recipients were caused by the failure of those applicants to submit required documentation, including maintenance of effort certifications from State educational agencies. Several awards are still being held up due to lack of compliance with requirements. Question: Have all actions for the current school year been accomplished? Answer: In general, all award actions have been completed for the current school year. However, where revisions are made to Insert 74A10 application data or errors are found in those data in the course of an audit or other review, the Department would take action to make appropriate adjustments. INDIAN EDUCATION STATISTICS Question: What work has been done between the Office of Indian Education and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) regarding American Indian and Alaska Native education statistics? Please explain. Answer: A number of discussions have been held between the two offices on this matter. At NCES' request, OIE reviewed and commented on the draft instruments and draft report on findings for the "High School and Beyond" study conducted by NCES. An OIE recommendation to include a larger sample of Indian students could not be implemented at that time due to budgetary constraints. will continue to work with NCES to expand the data collection efforts relating to Indian students. OIE |