Extension of the Performance Report

TO : Katherine Astrich

Desk Officer

Office of Management and Budget

THROUGH : Thomas Dawson, III

Deputy Assistant Secretary

Higher Education Programs

FROM : Larry Oxendine

Director

Federal TRIO Programs

SUBJECT : Request for the Extension of the Performance Report

Form for the Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement (McNair) Program (OMB No. 1840-1640)

The current Annual Performance Report (APR) form for the Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement (McNair) Program expires on September 30, 2007, three months prior to the due date of the APR from McNair grantees. The Office of Postsecondary Education is requesting an extension of the expiration date of the APR for the McNair Program for three months until December 30, 2007. All grantees in this program must submit an annual performance report as a condition of their grant awards.

The Department of Education needs OMB’s approval of the extension of the currently approved form in order to collect program year 2006-07 performance data for the funded McNair grantees. A favorable decision of this request will allow for the collection of consistent project performance information for all years of the grant award cycle (October 1, 2003 through September 30, 2007) in progress.

Due to the substantial changes that were made to the program requirements in the fiscal year 2007 McNair competition, another information clearance of the APR package will be submitted to OMB later this year with the appropriate revisions.

Department staff members use grantees’ annual reports for critical information on the projects’ performance and compliance with the program’s requirements. Data from the reports are also essential for future funding decisions: the “prior experience” points that program staff members assign based on the reports are combined with field readers’

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scores to arrive at total scores used in final decisions. The data collected are also aggregated to provide national information on project participants and program outcomes.

Because grantees are required by the program’s regulations to gather and maintain student eligibility and performance data, the burden hours for each respondent are unchanged; however the total burden hours are less because of the budget period of one of the McNair grantees that received a five-year award in an earlier competition, ending September 30, 2005.

The attached OMB 83-I and other documents are being submitted as required.

If additional information is needed, please contact Eileen Bland at (202) 502-7730.

Attachments