Talent Search OMB Memo

DATE :

TO : Nicole Cafarella

Desk Officer

Office of Management and Budget

THROUGH : Joe Schubart

Information Collection Officer

Information Management Group

FROM : Larry Oxendine

Director

Federal TRIO Programs

SUBJECT : Request for Reinstatement with Change of the Performance Report

Form for the Talent Search and Educational Opportunity Centers

Programs (OMB No. 1840-0561)

We are requesting reinstatement for three years of the annual performance report form for the Talent Search and Educational Opportunity Centers (EOC) programs. All Talent Search and EOC grantees must submit an annual performance report as a condition of their awards. The Department of Education needs OMB's approval of the report form so as to collect 2006–07 performance data in late fall 2007. The previous form would have expired on November 30, 2006; we discontinued it until this time, and no one has used it since the end of November 2006.

The report provides the Department with information needed to evaluate each grantee's performance and compliance with the programs' requirements, to make funding decisions, and to award prior experience points in accordance with the programs' regulations. The data collected are also aggregated to allow the Department to report on each program as a whole, particularly for purposes of the Government Performance and Results Act.

Some changes have been made in the previously approved report. In the past, grantees sometimes had differing interpretations of the program's objectives and of the definitions of groups to which the objectives applied, with the result that data from the reports could not always be properly aggregated. For the four-year grant cycle beginning in fall 2006, grant applicants had to provide target percentages for new standard objectives that the staff had worded with precise language and accompanying definitions. The attached draft annual performance report has been revised to reflect these new standard objectives (five in Talent Search and four in EOC); our expectation is that data at the program level will henceforth be more reliable. Burden hours for each respondent are unchanged; total hours have increased simply because the number of grantees is now greater.

The Information Collection Submission Worksheet and supporting documents are also being submitted as required. If additional information is needed, please call Kathy Fuller at 202-219-7114.

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