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OMB Approval No: 1840-0831

Expiration Date: 12/31/2016

General Instructions for the Upward Bound and Upward Bound Math-Science Programs’

Annual Performance Report2013–14

INTRODUCTION

A.What does this package contain?

This package contains the forms and instructions needed to prepare the annual performance report (APR) for the Upward Bound (UB) and Upward Bound Math-Science (UBMS) programs. The Department of Education uses the information conveyed in the performance report to assess a grantee’s progress in meeting its approved goals and objectives and to evaluate a grantee’s prior experience in accordance with the program regulations in 34 CFR 645.32. Grantees’ annual performance reports also provide information on the outcomes of projects’ work and of the UB and UBMS programs as a whole. APR data also allows the Department to respond to the reporting requirements of the Government Performance and Results Act(GPRA) and the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008(HEOA).

B.What are the legislative and regulatory authorities to collect this information?

Title IV, Part A, Subpart 2, Chapter 1, Section 402A(c)(2) and Section 402C, of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended;

The program regulations in 34 CFR Part 645; and

Sections 75.590 and 75.720 of the Education Department General Administrative Regulations (EDGAR).

C.Who must submit this data report?

All grantees funded under the Upward Bound and Upward Bound Math-Science programs must submit annual performance reports as a condition of the grant award.

D.What period of time is covered in the report? For which students should the grantee provide data?

The report covers the 12-month project year for which the grant has been made. This information can be found in block 6 of the Grant Award Notification.

In determining which participant records to include, a grantee must use the regulatory definition of a participant in 34 CFR 645.6, which includes a minimum period that a student must be served before he or she may be counted in the APR as a participant.

Please note that, in a departure from the 2007–12 APR, for the 2012–17 cycle the Department is no longer using expected high school graduation cohorts as an organizing principle for UB data. The objectives in “Definitions That Apply” at the end of this document do not refer to expected high school graduation cohorts.

E.How long must prior-year participants be tracked and included on the APR data file?

Need for data: As noted at the outset of these instructions, the Department needs grantees’ data not only to calculate prior experience (PE) points, but also to meet program-level reporting requirements mandated by law and to perform other data analyses for these large and important programs.

PE calculations and data collection: Three of the PE objectives in particular affect the number of project years over which grantees are required to report on participants. For these objectives (all of which are found in the “Definitions That Apply” at the end of this document), grantees will be reporting on groups of current and prior-year participants. You will thus continue to include in your data file individuals whom you haven’t served for some time. To the extent possible, you are to “track” the prior-year participants, i.e., you must try to get updated information about them. We recognize that some prior-year participants may be very hard to track, but it is to your advantage and the advantage of TRIO that you make a good attempt.

How long to track participants and include them on the data file: You must keep all participants on your data file from their recruitment and acceptance into your project through high school graduation, and for six years after enrollment in postsecondary education; for example, a participant who graduates from high school in June 2013 and enrolls in postsecondary education in fall 2013 must be tracked through August 31, 2019. After the student is included in the 2018–19 APR, he or she may be dropped from the project’s data file. The six-year period aligns with the PE objective on postsecondary completion. If for a prolonged period a former participant shows no sign of enrolling in postsecondary education, you may drop him or her from the file six years after high school graduation. You are to update the data file each year for all of your participants; if you have been unable to obtain information about a given participant for a year, you may stop tracking him or her, but you must leave the participant’s record on your data file. For such former participants whom you have been unable to track, you may choose the option “Unknown” wherever appropriate in updating the file.

Note on the postsecondary completion objective (see full content in“Definitions That Apply”): This objective measures the percentage of participants who enrolled in a program of postsecondary education within a certain timeframe and who attained either an associate or bachelor’s degree within six years following graduation from high school. For purposes of demonstrating that a given student contributed to the project’s meeting the postsecondary completion objective, a grantee need only show that the former participant earned one degree. For fuller understanding of the UB and UBMS programs, however, the Department wishes to have data on the extent to which UB and UBMS participants who earned an associate degree went on to pursue a bachelor’s degree within the six-year period; we also believe that this information will be valuable for grantees. We therefore strongly urge grantees to continue to track diligently and report over the full six years the academic progress of former participants who earn an associate degree prior to the end of the six-year period.

Grantees funded in the 2007–12 cycle were directed during that period to maintain indefinitely on their APR data files all participants with an expected high school graduation cohort of 2008 or later. These grantees should thus have kept reliable records of each participant’s high school graduation and subsequent postsecondary enrollment (or lack thereof).Using this data as reported in the APRs, the Department established a postsecondary enrollment cohort year for each prior participant who qualified for a cohort year of 2008 through 2012 and provided grantees this information for the 2012–13 APR. In addition, grantees were able to report on participants who qualified for the 2013 cohort year in the 2012–13 APR. The Department will thus be able to run PE calculations for the postsecondary completion objective for grantees funded in the 2007–12 cycle beginning in reporting year 2013–14. (For further information on this process, please see the discussion of field #54.)

F.What years will be used to calculate prior experience points?

The Department will calculate PE points using data submitted in the 2013–14, 2014–15, and 2015–16 APRs. Further information on PE calculations may be found in these instructions and in the appendix that will be available on the UB and UBMS Web pages devoted to performance and the APRs.

G.What information must be submitted?

The report consists of two sections,both of which all grantees must complete:

  • Section I requests project-identifying data and information on the way in which the project has addressed the Competitive Preference Priorities announced for the 2012 grant competition.
  • Section II contains detailed instructions for preparing a data file of information on individual participants.

H.When must the report be filed?

The annual report is normally submitted electronically within 90 days after the end of each 12-month grant (budget) period, which is November 30 for most regular UB projects and December 31 for most UBMS projects. For the regular UB projects with twelve-month project periods that begin June, July, or August, the Department normally extends the report due date to November 30, so that all UB projects can report on postsecondary enrollment status for the fall term following the budget period.

I.How may the report be submitted?

All UB and UBMS grantees must complete the APR online using our contractor’s Web application. In addition, a grantee must scan and uploada signed copy of Section I, Part 1 of the report form that certifies that the information submitted electronically is readily verifiable and the information reported is accurate and complete.

Because the APR requests personal and confidential information on project participants, the secured Web site meets the Department of Education’s data security standards for sensitive data, including improved password and site access procedures. Further, to ensure that the data is accessible only to authorized individuals and is protected from unauthorized use, a grantee must submit the participant level data via the Web application; under no circumstances should a grantee transmit the data to the Department or the APR Help Desk via e-mail.

The Web application and instructions for completing and submitting the report online will be available at the following Web addresses:

Bound)

The Web application that UB grantees must use to submit the annual performance report has the following features:

  • A Web form for completing Sections I and II, online.
  • Functionality to upload a file with the individual participant records (Section II) to the Web application using a CSV or XLS file format.
  • Functionality to view/delete/add participant data online.
  • Online data field validations and error checks. In order for a grantee to be able to submit the APR, all sections of the APR must pass the first level of data field validations. Following the initial submission of the participant data, additional data quality checks will be run. If any errors or data inconsistencies are found, the grantee will be informed of needed corrections that must be made prior to submitting the APR.
  • A print button to make a hard copy of the information entered online for Section I.
  • Functionality to download an electronic file with the individual participant records (Section II).
  • A submit button to send the entire report to the Department.
  • An e-mail confirmation that the report has been submitted (a valid e-mail address must be provided in Section I).

In a new feature, the online application will provide on an annual basis a report of PE points awarded once a grantee has successfully submitted an APR for one of the three years used for PE calculations (2013–14, 2014–15, and 2015–16).

A project will receive confirmation that the report has been successfully submitted, if the person entering the performance report data provided a valid e-mail address in Section I. If you do not receive an e-mail confirmation, contact the APR Help Desk.

If for any reason, and prior to the deadline date, you need to revise your performance report data after it has been submitted, please contact the APR Help Desk as soon as possible, but prior to the deadline date.

Except for Section I, Part 1,the Department requires only an electronic version of the performance report. After the APR has been successfully submitted, the signatures of the project director and the certifying official for the grantee institution or agency must be obtained on Section I of the printed APR indicating that the information submitted electronically is accurate, complete, and readily verifiable. Once the form has been signed, it should be scanned so that it can be uploaded using the functionality on the APR site. Only Section I, Part 1 should be uploaded--not the entire report.

J.Who may be contacted for additional information concerning the submission of the performance report?

Please contact your program specialist directly if you have questions regarding the performance report requirements. A state listing of program specialists and contact information is available at the Web address provided above.

If you have technical problems accessing the Web site or using the Web application, please contact the APR Help Desk at (703) 846-8248 or via e-mail at: .

GETTING STARTED

Step 1—Access the Web site.To begin completing this report online, from

(Upward Bound) or

(UBMS)

you will need to click on a Web site hosted by our contractor to support submittal of annual performance reports.

Step 2--Registration. Once at the contractor's Web site (entitled "UB/UBMS/VUB Online, Program Year 2013–14"), you will need to register to receive a user ID and temporary password; you may do so well in advance of actual submittal of reports. So as to allow time to resolve any problems that might occur with registration, we ask you to register as early as possible.

To register, click on "First Time User? Register Here"; you will then enter the project director's first and last names and e-mail address and the project's PR award number (found on the Grant Award Notification). You will also be required to select and answer two security questions (to be used in the event that you need to use the “Forgot Password” function). If the project director’s information matches the data that the Department currently has on file, a user ID and temporary password will be sent to the e-mail address on file. If discrepancies exist, you will be directed to a "Registration Failed" page; if necessary, your program specialist and the Help Desk will be sent an e-mail message requesting verification of data on the project. Verification will occur within 24 hours if the program specialist can readily confirm a change in project director or e-mail address; if the program specialist has no prior knowledge of the change, it may take longer. Once the Help Desk has received verification from the program specialist, you will be notified to continue with registration.

Step 3—Set Password. Once you have your user ID and temporary password, you may enter them on the site in the top box of the left side of the page; click "Log in." You will be guided to select a new password, then to log in again.

After three failed attempts to access the Web site, you will be required to reset your password and will need to contact the Help Desk for further assistance.

Step 4—Complete and Submit. Follow the instructions for completing and submitting the report via the World Wide Web.

SECTION I

New to the 2012–17 grant cycle, Section I is now divided into Parts 1 and 2. The first part covers, as in past years, the project’s identification and characteristics, along with certification and a warning statement. In Part 2, granteesprovide information on how they have implemented the competitive preference priorities established for the 2012 grant competition.

Section I, Part 1

Your PR award number will be automatically inserted into line 1 of Part 1. The system will also pre-populate most of the other data fields in Part 1. Please review the pre-populated fields, including the project director’s e-mail address, and update these fields as needed. You may change the data in all fields except for the project’s PR award number, the grantee name, and the report period. Please provide information for any fields that are not pre-populated.

In item 8 of Part 1, Upward Bound Math-Science grantees are asked to indicate whether their projects are regional or non-regional. Regional projects are those that serve more than one state; non-regional projects operate within a state or locality. An exception to this definition occurs when a project serves students from two or more states, yet serves only a compact and cohesive area; for example, a UBMS project working exclusively in Kansas City, Missouri, and Kansas City, Kansas, would be a non-regional project, despite its service to students from two states.

Section I, Part 2: Competitive Preference Priorities

The 2012 UB and UBMS grant competitions established three competitive preference priorities concerning persistently lowest-achieving schools, data-based decision-making, and improvements in productivity. The Department will derive data on projects’ service to persistently low-performing schools from the “Target School—NCES Identification Number” field (#23) in Section II, which provides identifying information on the target school attended by each participant. The information submitted in the 2012–13 APR for Section I, Part 2, will be prepopulated in the Web application in a format that cannot be edited in the APR. If you wish to provide any updates, please contact your program specialist.

SECTION II: RECORD STRUCTURE FOR PARTICIPANT LIST

RATIONALE FOR FIELDS

The Department will use the data that grantees provide in Section II to assess the project’s progress in meeting its objectives and to evaluate the grantee’s prior experience. The data also allows the Department to respond to reporting requirements of the Government Performance and Results Act(GPRA) and the HEOA, and to assess the UB and UBMS programs’ performance in light of the performance measures found in the instructions for the 2012 grant competition.

The Department added the following fields to the APR to respond to specific changes in the HEOA.

Field # / Field Name
#17–19 / Criteria for determining high-risk status
#21 / Disconnected Youth
#29 / Served by Another Federally Funded College Access Program

In addition, the HEOA requires the Department to prepare a performance report on the TRIO programs and, where feasible, to include comparative data, where available, on the national performance of low-income students, first-generation students, and students with disabilities. The data from the following fields may help the Department to identify subgroups of national datasets that may have greater validity than would a broader group for comparison with UB and UBMS participants. These fields were chosen after examining survey questions used in relevant national datasets.