Validation of Student and Parent Reported Data on the Basic Grant Application Form: Corrections Analysis Study. Final Report, Volume 4.

A study was conducted in 1976 of applicants who submitted corrections or amendments to their Student Eligibility Reports (SERs) for the Basic Educational Opportunity Grant (BEOG) Program. The objective was to review the applications corrections process and to determine factors linked to applicants' use of correction procedures. Attention was focused on: characteristics of applicants using and not using the corrections system; types of corrections submitted; types and frequency of data fields corrected; degree of change in Student Eligibility Indices associated with corrections; and significance of various processing comments in terms of the type and frequency of corrections submitted. Applicant variables included: total taxable and nontaxable income, household size, marital status, and the length of time an applicant had been in postsecondary education. It was found that almost 50 percent of all corrections came from applicants reporting incomes over $12,000 a year. Additional findings are reported, along with recommendations, including: BEOG eligibility should not be established for any application that is incomplete or problematic; any SER correction resulting in BEOG eligibility for an applicant whose initial application indicated ineligibility should not be accepted. The appendices contain detailed statistical findings presented in approximately 100 tables. (SW)