FY 2013 Annual Performance Report and FY 2015 Annual Performance Plan

128 Pages·2014·1.76 MB·English

U.S. Department of Education
Arne Duncan
Secretary

March 10, 2014
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Annual Performance Report and Fiscal Year 2015 Annual Performance Plan: Washington D.C., 2014.
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FY 2013 Annual Performance Report and FY 2015 Annual Performance Plan—U.S. Department of Education
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Please submit your comments and questions regarding this plan and report and any suggestions to improve future
reports, including suggestions for additional links that will increase the usefulness of the report to the public, to
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U.S. Department of Education
Performance Improvement Officer
400 Maryland Ave, SW
Washington, D.C. 20202

The following companies were contracted to assist in the preparation of the U.S. Department of Education
FY 2013 Annual Performance Report and FY 2015 Annual Performance Plan:
For general layout and web design: ICF Macro
For database design: Plexus Corporation

FY 2013 Annual Performance Report and FY 2015 Annual Performance Plan—U.S. Department of Education
Foreword
As required by the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) Modernization Act of 2010, each federal
agency must report annually on its progress in meeting the goals and objectives established by its Strategic
Plan. The United States Department of Education’s (the Department’s) Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 Annual
Performance Report and FY 2015 Annual Performance Plan presents to Congress, the President, and the
American people detailed information about progress in meeting the Department’s strategic goals and
objectives and key performance measures, in addition to providing information on Departmental efforts in
FY 2015. This report accompanies the administration’s budget request to Congress. The complete budget
request for the Department will be available at http://www.ed.gov/about/overview/focus/performance.html.
This year, the Department is consolidating its FY 2013 Annual Performance Report and the FY 2015 Annual
Performance Plan to roll out its U.S. Department of Education Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2014–2018. This
plan will build on the successes and improve on the Department’s challenges from the U.S. Department of
Education Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2011–2014 to provide a more meaningful approach to inform
Congress, the President, and the American people about our progress in meeting our strategic and priority
goals and objectives. The baseline data for the FY 2014–18 Strategic Plan measures are the most current data
available to the Department. Unless noted, targets are based upon the most current data the Department
expects to have available at the time of the Annual Performance Reports. For example, if the baseline data
from annual data sets are from FY 2012, the Department developed its FY 2014 target assuming that the
Department will report FY 2013 data in its FY 2014 Annual Performance Report. The Department’s FY 2013
annual reporting includes these three documents:
FY 2013 Summary of Performance and Financial FY 2013 Annual Performance Report and
Information [available March 2014] FY 2015 Annual Performance Plan
[available March 2014]
This document provides an integrated overview of
performance and financial information that consolidates This report is produced in conjunction with the FY 2015
the FY 2013 Agency Financial Report (AFR) and the President’s Budget Request and provides more detailed
FY 2013 Annual Performance Report (APR) and FY 2015 performance information and analysis of performance
Annual Performance Plan (APP) into a user-friendly results.
format.

FY 2013 Agency Financial Report (AFR) [published December 11, 2013]

The AFR is organized into three major sections:

• The Management’s Discussion and Analysis section provides executive-level information on the Department’s history,
mission, organization, key activities, analysis of financial statements, systems, controls and legal compliance,
accomplishments for the fiscal year, and management and performance challenges facing the Department.

• The Financial section provides a Message From the Chief Financial Officer, consolidated and combined financial
statements, the Department’s notes to the financial statements, and the Report of the Independent Auditors.

• The Other Accompanying Information section provides improper payments reporting details and other statutory reporting
requirements.

All three annual reports will be available on the Department’s website at
http://www2.ed.gov/about/reports/annual/index.html.
FY 2013 Annual Performance Report and FY 2015 Annual Performance Plan—U.S. Department of Education
Contents

Mission and Organizational Structure
Our Mission ................................................................................................................................. 2
Our Organization .........................................................................................................................3

Overview
About This Report .......................................................................................................................4
About the Agency Financial Report ............................................................................................. 4
FY 2013 Financial Highlights and Information ............................................................................. 4
Analysis of Controls, Systems, and Legal Compliance ................................................................ 5

Performance Results Details
FY 2011–14 Strategic Plan Goals ...............................................................................................6
FY 2012–13 Agency Priority Goals ............................................................................................. 7
FY 2013 Cross-Agency Priority Goals ....................................................................................... 15
The Department’s Approach to Data Collection and Analysis .................................................... 15
The Department’s Evaluation Planning Initiatives ...................................................................... 17

Performance Plan Summary
Looking Ahead and Addressing Challenges .............................................................................. 18
Data Verification and Validation ................................................................................................ 18
FY 2014–18 Strategic Plan Goals ............................................................................................. 19
Reporting on Progress .............................................................................................................. 20
Summary of Performance Targets ............................................................................................ 21
Goal 1. Postsecondary Education, Career and Technical Education, and Adult
Education ................................................................................................................... 27
Goal 2. Elementary and Secondary Education ........................................................................ 33
Goal 3. Early Learning ............................................................................................................ 39
Goal 4. Equity .........................................................................................................................4 4
Goal 5. Continuous Improvement of the U.S. Education System ............................................. 48
Goal 6. U.S. Department of Education Capacity ..................................................................... 53
FY 2014–15 Agency Priority Goals ........................................................................................... 57
Cross-Agency Priority Goals and Collaborations ....................................................................... 57
Management Priorities and Challenges ..................................................................................... 58
Lower-Priority Program Activities .............................................................................................. 60

Appendices
Appendix A: Data Validity and Verification Assurance ............................................................ 63
Appendix B: Performance Results for Discontinued Measures............................................... 80
Appendix C: Additional Programs by Goal ............................................................................. 85
Appendix D: Summary of Performance Evaluations Conducted During FY 2013 and
Expected During FY 2014–15 ............................................................................ 89
Appendix E: Selected Department Web Links and Education Resources ............................ 113
Appendix F: Glossary of Acronyms and Abbreviations ......................................................... 117
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FY 2013 Annual Performance
Report and FY 2015 Annual
Performance Plan
FY 2010 Annual Performance Report—U.S. Department of Education
Mission and Organizational Structure
Our Mission
The U.S. Department of Education’s mission is to promote student
achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering
educational excellence and ensuring equal access.
Overview. In 1867, the federal government recognized that furthering education was a national
priority and created a federal education agency to collect and report statistical data. The
Department was established as a cabinet-level agency in 1979. Today, the Department
supports programs that touch on every area and level of education. The Department has
approximately 4,200 employees and manages a $65 billion discretionary appropriation. The
Department is also setting high expectations for its own employees and working to improve
management practices, ensure fiscal integrity, and develop a culture of high performance.
Our Public Benefit. The Department is committed to ensuring that students throughout the
nation develop the skills they need to succeed in school, college, and the workforce, while
recognizing the primary role of states and school districts in providing a high-quality education,
employing highly qualified teachers and administrators, establishing challenging content and
achievement standards, and monitoring students’ progress against those standards. As a
principal office of the Department, Federal Student Aid (FSA) provides billions of dollars in low-
interest loans, grants, and work-study funds to cover expenses, such as tuition and fees, room
and board, books and supplies, and transportation, which enables millions of students to further
their education. The Department’s early learning, elementary, and secondary programs annually
serve approximately 56 million students in 14,000 school districts attending about 99,000 public
and 31,000 private schools and early intervention and preschool programs. Department
programs also provide grant, loan, and work-study assistance to approximately 14 million
postsecondary students.
What We Do. The Department engages in four major types of activities: establishing policies
related to federal education funding, including the distribution of funds, collecting on student
loans, and using data to monitor the use of funds; supporting data collection and research on
America’s schools; identifying major issues in education and focusing national attention on
them; and enforcing federal laws prohibiting discrimination in programs that receive federal
funds.
Organizational Structure. Our staff is organized as shown in the organizational chart. Links
are provided to Web pages that provide a detailed description of the principal offices and
overview of the activities of the Department and its programs.
Regional Offices. The Department has 10 regional offices that provide points of contact and
assistance for schools, parents, and citizens. The primary support within the regional offices is
that of communications, civil rights enforcement, and federal student aid services to promote
efficiency, effectiveness, and integrity in the programs and operations of the Department. In
addition to enforcement offices in federal regions, enforcement offices are located in
Washington, D.C. and Cleveland, Ohio.
Web Presence. The Department maintains a comprehensive website that focuses on most
popular searches, latest news and events, and links to social media.
FY 2013 Annual Performance Report and FY 2015 Annual Performance Plan—U.S. Department of Education 2
MISSION AND ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
Our Organization
This chart reflects the statutory organizational structure of the U.S. Department of
Education. An interactive and text version of the coordinating structure of the Department
is available.

FY 2013 Annual Performance Report and FY 2015 Annual Performance Plan—U.S. Department of Education 3
OVERVIEW
Overview
About This Report
The United States Department of Education’s Annual Performance Report for fiscal year (FY)
2013 and Annual Performance Plan for FY 2015 provides information relative to the closeout of
the FY 2011–14 Strategic Plan and formulation of the FY 2014–18 Strategic Plan.
Since the Department has a delay of at least one year in the collection of data for its annual
performance measures, it is still working to establish trend data for some of the measures. This
year the Department has consolidated its FY 2015 Annual Performance Plan (APP) with the
FY 2013 Annual Performance Report (APR) in an effort to provide a more complete and
meaningful picture of the Department’s past performance and efforts to improve performance in
coming fiscal years.
About the Agency Financial Report
The FY 2013 Agency Financial Report (AFR), released in December 2013, provides detailed
information on the Department’s financial performance and stewardship over its financial
resources.
The Secretary has outlined accomplishments, ongoing initiatives, and management challenges
for the Department in FY 2013 and certified that the Department’s performance data are
fundamentally complete and reliable in his letter published in the AFR. For more information, go
to http://www2.ed.gov/about/reports/annual/2013report/1-message-from-secretary.pdf.
FY 2013 Financial Highlights and Information
The Department significantly expanded information in the Financial Highlights section of the
AFR to provide a more comprehensive depiction of its key financial activities for FY 2013 and to
identify and explain significant trends.
As a nine-time recipient of the Association of Government Accountants Certificate of Excellence
in Accountability Reporting and having earned unmodified1 (or “clean”) audit opinions for
12 consecutive years, the Department has demonstrated its commitment to continuous
improvement in its financial management, operations, and reporting. To read the full report of
the independent auditors, please go to http://www2.ed.gov/about/reports/annual/2013report/4-
rpt-independent-auditors.pdf.
For an overview and analysis of the Department’s sources of funds and financial position,
including a new section on trend analysis, please go to
http://www2.ed.gov/about/reports/annual/2013report/2e-mda-financial-highlights.pdf.
To review the Department’s financial summary and complete financial statements—including
required supplementary stewardship information and notes to the principal financial statements
for the fiscal years ended September 30, 2013, and September 30, 2012—please go to
http://www2.ed.gov/about/reports/annual/2013report/3-financial.pdf.

1 “Unmodified” has the same meaning as the previous terminology, “unqualified.”
FY 2013 Annual Performance Report and FY 2015 Annual Performance Plan—U.S. Department of Education 4