Talent Searc in EOC Dear Project Director

Dear Talent Search and EOC Project Director:

This letter is to remind you that November is the month in which you must complete and submit your annual performance report (APR) for program year 2006–07, the first year of the new grant cycle for these programs. Due to the programs' new standard objectives, you will find some changes in the report compared to last year's.

How the report is organized: For both programs, Section I requests basic identifying information about the project, while Section II covers demographic information and requests data on target schools. Sections III and IV reflect the new standard objectives found on the Program Profile page of the 2006 application packages for Talent Search (page 74) and EOC (page 75); these sections appear in separate versions for the two programs so as to reflect their differing sets of standard objectives. Section III requests the educational status of differing groups of participants at the time of first service in the budget period; these groups allow grantees to report on sets of participants specified in the objectives. Section IV asks grantees to report on the educational status of participants at the end of the budget period and to show the extent to which the project succeeded in meeting its objectives. Section IV provides the wording for each of the objectives and is pre-populated with the percentages you entered on the Program Profile sheet submitted with your approved FY 2006 grant application.

As you know, the Talent Search and EOC programs' enabling legislation requires the Department to award five-year grants, rather than four-year grants, to certain applicants based on the results of the competition. Consequently, 2006–07 was for some grantees the fifth or even fourth year of a grant begun prior to 2006. While the Department encouraged all grantees to adopt the standard objectives for the 2006–07 budget period, some projects formally notified TRIO that they would continue to use the objectives they established at the beginning of their grants in 2002 or 2003. Section V is designed to allow Talent Search and EOC projects whose 2006–07 budget period was part of a grant that began prior to 2006, and that informed the Department that they would use objectives developed for 2002, to provide information on the 2002 objectives not covered elsewhere in the report.

Unlike last year's report, the 2006–07 APR does not have a final section for other accomplishments of the projects. All sections of the report will be submitted via online forms. In the interest of increased accuracy in reporting, we have improved the online edit checks and have ensured that they reflect the specific categories of participants reflected in the standard objectives. Projects from both programs will use Sections I and II; as noted above, Sections III, IV, and V exist in separate versions for the two programs. In the online application used to enter your data, as soon as a project enters its PR number, the application will take the user only to the relevant sections (for example, a Talent Search project will not see online Section III for EOC).

Additional information for "fifth-year" grantees: For projects whose 2006–07 budget period was part of a grant that began prior to 2006, and that informed the Department that they would use objectives developed for 2002, prior experience points will be assessed on the basis of the old objectives. Please note that, so as to allow the Department to report aggregated data gathered in a uniform manner for the Talent Search and EOC programs, all grantees, including "fifth-year" projects using the old objectives, must provide data on all categories of participants shown in the APR. In Section IV, "fifth-year" grantees that have notified the Department that they will use old objectives will find that the standard objectives are pre-populated with zeros to indicate "not applicable."

Additional points of interest:

--At the suggestion of various grantees that responded to our request for comment on the draft form, we have simplified the APR relative to the version announced in the Federal Register in April 2007; the form now requests less information and consolidates certain categories of participants.

--Talent Search projects will find in the instructions for Section III a discussion of which participants may be considered to be in alternative education at the level of a high school senior (relevant to the second through fifth standard objectives).

--EOC projects should note that, for the three standard objectives referring to participants not already enrolled in a postsecondary school, the instructions for the annual performance report specify that this means those not enrolled in postsecondary education at the time of first service in the budget period. Thus, those not enrolled in postsecondary education at the outset of the budget period would include, for example:

 a high school senior

 a high school graduate or GED recipient who never previously enrolled in a postsecondary program

 an adult who began college several years ago but dropped out and now wants to try again.

These are examples only and do not cover all possibilities.

--In completing section II, all projects are asked to use the online link to the National Center for Education Statistics to locate the identifying number for their target schools in the NCES's Common Core of Data.

Submitting the report online: You will not receive a hard copy of the report form and instructions because these documents may be downloaded from our Web site. Please review the instructions carefully to make sure that you provide us with accurate and consistent information. As noted above, the Web application contains a number of edit checks to help ensure that the data you submit are accurate and internally consistent. Since these edit checks are written in JavaScript, it is very important that JavaScript be enabled. If the JavaScript on your Web browser has been disabled, you will receive a message requesting that JavaScript be enabled before entering your APR data. If you need further assistance enabling JavaScript, please contact your System Administrator or the Help Desk (see telephone number for the Help Desk below).

We expect all Talent Search and EOC projects to use the online reporting application to submit the 2006–07 performance report. The instructions for submitting the report and the links to the secured Web site maintained by our contractor will be available on November 1, 2007, at the following Web addresses:

http://www.ed.gov/programs/triotalent/report.html (for Talent Search)

http://www.ed.gov/programs/trioeoc/report.html (for EOC)

From either of the links provided above:

1. Click on the following URL: https://webprod.cbmiweb.com/tseoc/

2. Once at the contractor's Web site (entitled "Talent Search and EOC Online Annual Performance Report for Program Year 2006-07"), you will need to register. After clicking on "First Time User? Register Here," you will 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). If this 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, your program specialist and the Help Desk will be sent an e-mail message requesting verification of data on the project. Please allow 24 hours for this verification to occur. Once the Help Desk has received verification from the program specialist, you will be notified to continue with registration. Grantees may register 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.

3. 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 and then to log in again.

Your new password must be at least eight characters, but no longer than twelve characters, and include any combination of the following:

• English uppercase (A-Z)

• English lowercase (a-z)

• Arabic numerals (0-9)

• Non-alphanumeric special characters (!, @, #, $, &, *)

After three failed attempts to access the Web site, you will be locked out and must call the Help Desk to obtain access. If you forget your password, a "forgot password" link is available or you may call or e-mail the Help Desk to assist you (see telephone number and e-mail address for Help Desk below).

4. Follow the instructions for completing and submitting the report via the World Wide Web.

Faxing Section I: You must submit, via fax, a signed copy of Section I of the report form that certifies that the information submitted electronically is readily verifiable and that the information reported is accurate and complete. After completing the entire report on the Web, you will be able to print a copy of the completed form. Section I of the printed report form will include signature lines for the project director and the certifying official for the grantee institution or agency. Once the form has been signed, please fax in a signed copy of Section I only of the report form to 540-301-0697. Please do not fax in a copy of the entire report.

Help Desk: If you encounter technical problems accessing the Web site or using the Web application, please contact the Help Desk by either telephone at (703) 846-8248 or e-mail at [email protected]. Please note that the Help Desk will try to contact projects within 24 hours of receiving the telephone call or e-mail. The Help Desk will be available to respond to your questions from November 1-30, 2007. During peak times, from November 20-30, 2007, it may take longer for you to receive a response. Remember that the current form expires November 30 and that we must receive all submittals in final form by that date.

Thank you for the time and effort you dedicate to performance reporting each year and your commitment to providing complete and accurate data. Please retain the source documents in a readily accessible form so that they can be verified during an on-site visit. If you have questions regarding the performance report requirements, please contact your program specialist directly. To ascertain your program specialist's name, telephone number, and e-mail address, please visit http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ope/trio/staffdirectory-cupt.html.

Sincerely,

Geraldine G. Smith
Team Leader
College and University Preparation Team
Federal TRIO Programs

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