Upward Bound (UB), Upward Bound Math-Science (UBMS),
and Veterans Upward Bound (VUB) Programs
For Program Year 2007-08
1. WHAT IS THIS PACKAGE?
This package contains the forms and instructions needed to prepare the annual performance report (APR) for the Upward Bound (UB), Upward Bound Math-Science (UBMS), and Veterans Upward Bound (VUB) 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 help allow the Department to respond to the requirements of the Government Performance and Results Act.
2. 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).
3. WHO MUST FILE THIS REPORT?
All grantees funded under the Upward Bound, Upward Bound Math-Science, and Veterans Upward Bound programs must submit annual performance reports as a condition of the grant award.
4. WHAT PERIOD OF TIME IS COVERED IN THE REPORT? FOR WHICH STUDENTS SHOULD THE GRANTEE PROVIDE DATA?
The report covers the 12-month grant (budget) period for which the grant has been made. This information can be found in Block 6 of the Grant Award Notification.
For the 2007-08 performance report, a grantee should report on all participants served by the project in program year 2007–08. A project should also provide updated information annually on the academic progress of all prior-year participants on the data file, regardless of their length of participation in the project. In general and to the extent possible, a grantee should report on all participants (current year and prior-year) served beginning with the 1999-2000 reporting year. A grantee should use the regulatory definition of a participant in 34 CFR 645.6 to determine which participant records should be included.
So that the Department can determine the extent to which your project met its approved objectives for project year 2007-08, you must include in your participant data file a record for each participant whose expected high school graduation cohort year (field #23) was 2008 (i.e., the student was expected to graduate from high school in the spring or summer of 2008). For purposes of calculating the extent to which projects met their objectives, participants are counted in the cohort even if they have left the project. In addition, although not required for the standard project objectives, grantees should continue to follow up on each prior participant enrolled in postsecondary education until he or she completes an undergraduate degree. If a grantee reported in a previous APR that a participant completed his or her undergraduate degree (two-year or four-year), the grantee may drop that participant's record from this and subsequent APR data files. If, however, a student who earned a two-year degree is continuing his or her postsecondary education so as to earn a four-year degree, the project should continue to track that student's effort.
If a prior participant in UB or UBMS has not enrolled in postsecondary education by the fall semester of the second year after high school graduation, or if a VUB participant has not enrolled two years after leaving the VUB program, the project may drop that participant from the file.
Participants whom the grantee cannot locate: The Department recognizes that projects may not be able to locate all prior-year participants. If a UB or UBMS project could not locate a prior participant in the previous year's follow-up, the project may drop the student from the data file in the reporting year following the student's expected high school graduation cohort year (see field #23). For example, if such a student's cohort year was 2008 (i.e., the participant was expected to graduate in spring/summer 2008), the student's record could be dropped from the 2008–09 APR.
If a VUB project could not locate a prior participant in the previous year's follow-up, the project may drop the student from the data file in the reporting year following the scheduled completion of his or her prescribed VUB educational program (see fields #19 and 20). For example, if the scheduled completion date or revised completion date was in July 2008, the participant's record could be dropped from the 2008–09 APR. Since the data field for scheduled completion is new to the APR, and since many VUB projects may not have a scheduled completion date for participants who left the project prior to the 2007–08 reporting year, such prior VUB participants whom the project has been unable to locate may be dropped from the file in the reporting year following the year in which the project was unable to track them.
WHAT INFORMATION MUST BE SUBMITTED?
The report consists of two sections.
--Section I requests project-identifying information; and
--Section II contains detailed instructions for preparing a data file of information on individual participants.
WHEN SHOULD THE REPORT BE FILED?
The annual report should be submitted electronically within 90 days after the end of each 12-month grant (budget) period, which is November 30 for most regular UB and VUB 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 will extend the report due date to November 30, so that all UB projects can report on the postsecondary enrollment status for the fall term following the budget period. UB projects with start dates of December 1, 2007, must submit their APRs by February 28, 2009.
7. HOW MAY THE REPORT BE SUBMITTED?
All UB, UBMS, and VUB grantees must complete the APR online using the new on-line Web applications. In addition, a grantee must fax a signed copy of Section I 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 protected from unauthorized uses, 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 on or before November 1, 2008, at the following Web address:
http://www.ed.gov/programs/trioupbound/report.html (Upward Bound and Veterans Upward Bound)
http://www.ed.gov/programs/triomathsci/report.html (UBMS)
The new 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 on-line.
Access to the grantee’s previous year’s APR data reordered and revised to comply with the revised participant data fields. A grantee may choose to download from the secured Web site its prior year’s APR data, without the participants’ social security numbers, as a comma-delimited file (CSV) or as an Excel (XLS) spreadsheet.
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 and the due date for resubmitting the Section II data.
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 of Education.
An e-mail confirmation that the report has been submitted (a valid e-mail address must be provided in Section I).
A project may receive confirmation that the report has been successfully submitted. When completing Section I of the report on the Web, the person entering the performance report data will be asked to provide an e-mail address. After you have completed the report and clicked on the “Submit” button, a message will indicate that your performance report has been successfully submitted. A confirmation will also be automatically e-mailed to the e-mail address provided. 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.
Except for Section I, the Department of Education only requires an electronic version of the performance report information. As noted above, a grantee must submit, via fax, a signed copy of Section I of the report form that certifies that the information submitted electronically is accurate, complete, and readily verifiable. The signed copy of Section I only of the report should be faxed to______________. Please do not fax in a copy of the entire report.
8. WHO MAY BE CONTACTED FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION CONCERNING THE SUBMISSION OF THE PERFORMANCE REPORT?
Please contact your assigned program specialist directly if you have questions regarding the performance report requirements.
If you have technical problems accessing the Web site or using the Web application, please contact the Help Desk by either telephone (703) 846-8248, or e-mail at [email protected].
Upward Bound (UB), Upward Bound Math-Science (UBMS),
and Veterans Upward Bound (VUB) Programs
Specific Instructions for Completing the Performance Report
SECTION I: PROJECT IDENTIFICATION, CERTIFICATION, AND WARNING
A. Identification
To begin completing this report online, from the Department’s Web page you will need to click on https://trio.ed.gov/ub, a Web site hosted by our contractor to support submittal of annual performance reports.
Once at the contractor's Web site (entitled "Upward Bound Online Annual Performance Report for Program Year 2007–08"), you will need to register to receive a user ID and temporary password. Registration requires entry of 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, 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, or up to three days if the program specialist has no prior knowledge of the change. You will be notified if confirmation cannot occur in short order, and you should contact your program specialist (who will also be attempting to reach you). Once the Help Desk has received verification from the program specialist, the grantee will be notified that he or she can continue with registration.
Once you have your user ID and temporary password, you may enter those on the site and click "Log in." You will be guided to select a new password, then to log in again.
You will be asked to confirm that the PR/Award number and associated grantee name are correct; you will then see the page for Section I. Your PR/Award number will be automatically inserted into line 1 of Section I of the report form.
The system will also pre-populate most of the other data fields in Section I. 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 Section I, part A, 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 grant working exclusively in Kansas City, Missouri, and Kansas City, Kansas, would be a non-regional project, despite its service to students from two states.
B. Certification
The project director is the person responsible for administering the project in accordance with the terms and conditions of the grant.
The certifying official is the individual (successor or designee) who signed the grant application on behalf of the institution.
C. Warnings
Any person who knowingly makes a false statement or misrepresentation on this report is subject to penalties, which may include fines, imprisonment, or both, under the United States Criminal Code and 20 U.S.C. 1097.
Further federal funds or other benefits may be withheld under these programs unless this report is completed and filed as required by existing law (20 U.S.C. 1231a) and regulations (34 CFR 75.590 and 75.720).
You will be asked to verify the information in Section I and will need to place a checkmark next to the statement, "I have verified the information in this section," before you will be allowed to proceed to Section II of the APR.
SECTION II – A: RECORD STRUCTURE FOR PARTICIPANT LIST
(Regular Upward Bound and Upward Bound Math-Science Projects)
Instructions for Completing Section II – A
(1) Who should be included on the annual data file?
Please see pages 2–3 of these instructions for information on participants for whom the grantee should provide data. A project should also use the regulatory definition of a project participant in 34 CFR 645.6 to determine which participants should be included in the data file:
Participant means an individual who –
Is determined to be eligible to participate in the project under 34 CFR 645.3;
Resides in the target area, or is enrolled in a target school, at the time of acceptance into the project; and
Has been determined by the project director to be committed to the project as evidenced by being allowed to continue in the project for at least –
Ten days in a summer component if the individual first enrolled in an Upward Bound project’s summer component; or
Sixty days if the individual first enrolled in an Upward Bound project’s academic year component.
Be sure to include each participant—whether new, continuing, re-entry, transfer, or prior-year—only once in the file the project submits for the reporting period.
(2) What are the data fields?
The new, revised UB/UBMS APR contains 56 data fields. Three of the fields are file identifiers. The remaining fields are of two types: those data fields that, except in unusual situations, will not need to be updated annually; and those data fields that must be reviewed annually and updated, as needed. In addition, fields #24 through #27 require information on the selection of “new” project participants for 2007-08.
File Identifiers:
#1 PR/Award Number
#2 Batch Year
#3 Program Type
Fields that do not need to be updated annually:
#4 Social Security Number
#5 Student’s Last Name
#6 Student’s First Name
#7 Student’s Middle Initial
#8 Student’s Date of Birth
#9 Gender
#10 Ethnicity
#11–#15 Race
#16 Limited English Proficiency
#17 Eligibility, at first entry into project
#18 Academic Need
#19 Target School Identification Number
#20 UBMS Participant
#21 Date of First Project Service
#22 Grade Level at First Service
#23 Expected High School Graduation Cohort Year
#32 High School Cumulative GPA, at date of first service
Fields to be completed for all “new” participants who have completed the eighth grade but not the ninth grade and who were served in 2007–08; use “Not applicable” (options 7, 8, or 9) in these fields for all other participants on the data file:
#24 8th Grade State Achievement Standard, reading/language arts
#25 8th Grade State Achievement Standard, math
#26 Grade Point Average (GPA), at time of entry
#27 Completed pre-Algebra, Algebra, or Geometry by end of grade eight
Fields that need to be reviewed and updated annually, as needed:
The asterisk (*) indicates fields for which a grantee may select the option “Not applicable for participants still in high school."
#28 Participant Status
#29 Participation Level
#30 Grade Level, beginning of academic year
#31 Secondary Grade Level or Postsecondary Status, beginning of following academic year
#33 High School Cumulative GPA, beginning of academic year
#34 High School Cumulative GPA, at end of academic year
#35 High School Graduation Status
#36 Date of High School Graduation
#37 Participant Retention in Project
#38 State High School Achievement Standard, reading/language arts
#39 State High School Achievement Standard, math
#40 Date of Last Project Service
#41 Reasons for Leaving Project
#42 Work Study Position (current year participants only)
#43 Employment (current year participants only)
#44 Cultural Activities (current-year participants only)
#45 Community Service (complete for current year participants only)
#46 Instruction for LEP students (current year participants only)
#47 Mathematics Instruction (current year participants only)
#48 Source of Postsecondary Education Information *
#49 Date of First Postsecondary Enrollment *
#50 School Code for Postsecondary Institution last attended *
#51 College Status, beginning of academic year*
#52 Undergraduate Degree/Certificate Completed *
#53 Date of Undergraduate Degree *
#54 Postsecondary enrollment objective*
#55 Postsecondary persistence objective--denominator*
#56 Postsecondary persistence objective--numerator *
(3) How should the date fields be formatted (fields #8, #21, #36, #40, #49, and #53)?
Please review carefully the Valid Field Content column to ensure that the data submitted are in the correct format. All date fields should be eight digits and formatted as follows: two digits for month; two digits for day; two digits for century; and two digits for year. For the student’s date of birth (field #8), you are required to provide the full, precise date (month, day, and complete year). For the other date fields accuracy is important only for the month and year. If the day is unknown, use 15. For example, a participant’s data of first project service of September 2007 would be formatted as follows: 09/15/2007. If the exact month or year is uncertain, use an estimate. If there is no basis for estimating the month, but the year is known or can be estimated, use 01 for the month (e.g., 01/15/2007). If there is no basis for estimating the year, use 00/00/0000 ("Unknown").
To ensure that the date is properly imported, always use the zero before one-digit months and days and insert slashes between the month and day, and between the day and year.
(4) How should “Not Applicable” and “Unknown” be reported?
Field #2 Batch Year
Use the four-digit year provided on the form. This number will change with each year’s submission. The Batch Year designates the fiscal year funding for the project period reported. TRIO grants are forward-funded. Therefore, as an example, fiscal year 2007 funds would be used to support project activities in the 2007–08 program year. Thus, the data file for Batch Year 2007 would include information on project participants served or tracked during program year 2007–08.
Field #4 Social Security Number (SSN)
SSNs are very important as they allow the Department to match participant lists with the federal financial aid files for purposes of tracking participant outcomes. If a project does not know the SSN for a student, please enter “0s” rather than enter other forms of identification numbers.
These fields are self-explanatory.
On October 19, 2007, ED released new, Department-wide guidance on how institutions should collect and maintain data on race and ethnicity and on how they should report such data in the aggregate:
http://www.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister/other/2007-4/101907c.pdf ; or http://www.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister/other/2007-4/101907c.html
Because Upward Bound grantees report individual data, they should not follow the portions of the guidance that cover aggregate reporting; they must, however, collect and maintain data as indicated in the guidance. The new guidance must be implemented by the fall of 2010 for the 2010–11 school year, but grantees are encouraged to implement earlier, if possible.
Collection procedures in the guidance require grantees to collect data on race and ethnicity on all participants using a two-part question: first, the grantee asks the respondent--typically a parent or guardian if the participant is at the secondary level, or the participant himself or herself if older--whether the participant is Hispanic/Latino; second, the grantee asks the respondent to select one or more races from the five racial groups listed. The grantee reports the responses in fields 10–15 of the APR. If, for example, a UB participant's parent identifies the student as Hispanic, Asian, and White, entries for the fields would appear thus:
Field 10: 1, Yes, participant is identified as Hispanic/Latino
Field 11: 2, No, participant is not identified as American Indian/Alaskan Native
Field 12: 1, Yes, participant is identified as Asian
Field 13: 2, No, participant is not identified as Black or African American
Field 14: 1, Yes, participant is identified as White.
Field 15: 2, No, participant is not identified as Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander.
If the participant or parent declines to answer questions about race and ethnicity, the grantee should use observation, as discussed in the guidance. While grantees should make a good effort to collect data on race and ethnicity for all participants, if for some highly unusual reason the race and/or ethnicity of a particular student is unknown, as a last resort the grantee may leave the race and/or ethnicity fields blank. For further details on the guidance for collecting data, please see the full Federal Register notice. Grantees are responsible for implementing all relevant aspects of the guidance. Note that the Department encourages institutions to allow all current students to re-identify their race and ethnicity using OMB's 1997 standards (see page 59276 of the notice), but does not require institutions to do so.
For definitions of the ethnicity and race categories, refer to the “Definitions That Apply” section of these instructions.
Field #16 Limited English Proficiency
The statute and regulations governing the Upward Bound program require that an individual, at the time of initial selection for the project, must be a “low-income individual” or a “potential first-generation college student.” (These terms are defined in the section on “Definitions that Apply.”) Two-thirds of project participants each year must be both low-income and potential first-generation college students; the remaining one-third can be either low-income or potential first-generation college student.
Field #18 Academic Need
In accordance with 34 CFR 645.3 (c), a project, in selecting individuals to participate in an Upward Bound program, must determine that an individual needs academic support if he or she is to pursue successfully a program of education beyond high school. Field #14 lists criteria commonly used by projects to determine an individual’s need for services; please choose whichever criterion was primary for the student.
For those regular UB (not UBMS) participants who were selected based on meeting one or more of the participant selection criteria for high risk in the absolute priority, select option 15 in the field #14. For other participants that may qualify for project services based on more than one category listed in field #14, please select from the list only the primary category used to determine the individual’s need for project services.
Field #19 Target School Identification Numbers
Provide the 12-digit NCES school identification number for the secondary school the Upward Bound student attended at time of entry into the project. For “rising” ninth-graders (those first served the summer between completing eighth grade and starting ninth grade), provide the NCES school identification number for the school the student attended (or will attend) as a ninth-grader.
The number can be obtained from the following Web site:
http://nces.ed.gov/ccd/schoolsearch
Field #21 Date of First Project Service
For new students, use the date the student first received service from the Upward Bound project that is submitting this report. Do not use date of acceptance into project unless that is the same as the date of first service. Use the very first month and year of service at this project even if the student subsequently left and reentered. If the students transferred from another UB project, in this field give the month and year of first service at the project submitting the report.
For continuing and prior participants, use the date entered in the earlier APR, even if it was a date of entry that differed from the date of first service. (Note that field #17, regarding eligibility, refers to date of entry because eligibility should be ascertained at that time.)
Field #22 Grade Level at First Service
For new participants, enter the student’s grade at the time he or she first received UB services from the project that is submitting the report. For students served first during the summer component, select “rising” ninth-grader for those students who had completed eighth grade and would be entering ninth grade in the fall term. Select “rising” 12th -grader for those students who had completed 11th grade and would be entering 12th grade in the fall term. For all other students first served during the summer component, enter the grade the student would enter for the fall academic term. If a student transferred from another UB project, in this field give the grade level at first service in the project submitting the report.
For continuing and prior participants, use data entered in the earlier APR.
Field #23 Expected High School Graduation Cohort Year
For all individuals who participated in UB for the first time in this reporting period (new and transfer), please select the year in which the student was expected to graduate in spring or summer (e.g., June 2011)). The year should be chosen assuming that the student would progress without delay from year to year and indeed graduate. The year should be chosen when the student originally entered the program and should not be adjusted in later years.
For continuing, reentry, or prior participants, earlier years' expected high school graduation dates will need to be converted to cohort years (e.g., 06/15/2008 will be converted to option 8). The downloadable file that TRIO's data processing contractor will produce from last year's APR will include cohort years derived from previously entered dates; grantees that decide not to use the downloadable file will need to do the conversion themselves. Do not change or update the year except to correct previously entered erroneous data.
(Note that, for purposes of calculating the extent to which projects met their objectives for academic improvement on standardized tests and postsecondary enrollment, all participants originally established in a cohort will remain in that cohort, even if they leave the project.)
Fields #24–27 Participant Selection Criteria (UB Absolute Priority)
These four fields request information related to the absolute priority for regular UB; the criteria for considering a student to be at high risk for academic failure under the absolute priority are listed in the "Definitions That Apply" at the end of the UB/UBMS section of these instructions. The criteria pertain only to new participants in 2007–08 who at the beginning of the budget period had completed the eighth grade but not the ninth. Choose 7 for new participants who at the beginning of the budget period had completed the ninth grade but not the 10th; 8 for UBMS participants; and 9 for continuing, reentry, transfer, and prior-year participants in regular UB.
If the state administers two separate tests for reading and language arts, the student should be considered to have met the standard in field #24 only if he or she did so at the proficient level for both tests. Because meeting the eighth-grade standards at the proficient level is an eligibility criterion, if the student did not initially meet the standard at the proficient level (option 2), do not change the response to option 1 even if the participant did meet the standard at that level under a subsequent administration of the assessment.
A few grantees have reported experiencing difficulty in getting reliable data for students' results on state achievement tests. If a grantee does not think that test data are reliable for a student, the grantee should choose "Unknown" for fields #24 and/or 25 for that student. The grantee may be able to demonstrate the student's high-risk status based on the GPA or mathematics course work criteria.
Grantees need answer option 1 only to establish that new, regular UB students who have completed the eighth grade but not the ninth are at high academic risk. GPA must be for the most recent school year for which averages were available at the time the student was selected. For rising ninth-graders and ninth-graders early in the academic year, this will be a middle school GPA. If a ninth-grader is recruited mid-year, GPA for the first ninth-grade term should be used if available. If the participant's school used a four-point scale, enter the GPA provided by the school; if not, convert other scales to four-point.
Regarding field #27, the absolute priority indicated that one criterion for high academic risk for failure was that the student "[had] not completed pre-algebra, algebra, or geometry by the end of grade eight, and (in cases in which students are recruited early during grade nine) are not taking algebra or geometry in grade nine." The priority had referred to recruitment early in grade nine because the UB program would be of maximum usefulness to ninth-graders if they were served for as much of the academic year as possible. For the sake of the 30 percent requirement of the absolute priority, however, the Department has concluded that recruiting and serving a participant at any time during the ninth grade is acceptable. On the other hand, a student first served in the summer after the ninth grade could not count towards the 30 percent requirement because it is limited to new students who have completed the eighth grade but not the ninth.
Field #28 Participant Status
Please note that, for the 2007-08 reporting year, a new option has been added for “transfer participants.” (Please refer to the form for definitions of all of the participant status options.)
For each participant record, the grantee must review the options available and select or update this field as appropriate. The participant status options include:
New participant
Continuing participant
Reentry participant, previously served by project submitting report
Prior-year participant
Prior-year participant, deceased or permanently incapacitated
Transfer participant
New participant served for the first time after the beginning of the 2008–09 academic year (only for projects with December 1, 2007, start dates)
Field #29 Participation Level
Self-explanatory
Fields #30 and #31 Grade Levels
Field #30 requests the participant’s grade level at the beginning of the academic year coincident with the reporting period (i.e., 2007–08); field #31 asks for the student’s grade level or postsecondary status at the beginning of the academic year following the reporting period (i.e., 2008–09). These fields are used to determine if the participant had progressed to the next grade or graduated. Field #30 includes an option for eighth-graders so as to allow reporting of students who joined the project as rising ninth-graders in the summer of 2008. For field #31 (secondary grade level or postsecondary status at the beginning of the academic year following the reporting period), please classify a student within a given secondary grade if that student has met the requirements for progression to that grade. For example, a student should be classified as an 11th-grader if he or she successfully completed 10th grade in 2007–08 (or if he or she met requirements for 11th grade by doing extra work in the summer of 2008).
In some cases, a student may be enrolled both in high school and in some postsecondary classes. If the student has not yet graduated from high school, select the appropriate high school grade level for the student.
A student’s grade point average (GPA) is an indicator of a student’s need for Upward Bound services and can provide a measure of improvement in academic skills and of success in high school education. Projects are encouraged to report data on GPA carefully. If information is not available for any of these fields, it is best to enter 0.000 (“Unknown”), rather than to copy the previous period’s information, giving the impression that GPA did not change. The cumulative grade point averages provided should be calculated on all courses taken. Because middle school GPAs and high school GPAs are generally not comparable, middle school grades should not be used in calculating any of the high school GPA fields.
A high school GPA presumably would not be available till the end of the first term of the first year in high school (usually ninth grade), at the earliest. For participants who entered prior to the availability of a high school GPA, for fields #32 and 33 choose 9.999, "Not applicable." Depending on starting and ending dates of the reporting period, in field #34 projects may or may not need to use 9.999 for rising ninth-graders. For example, in the case of a project with an August 31, 2008, ending date, if a student joins in summer 2008 as a rising ninth-grader, he should be reported as 9.999 in field #34 since academic year 2007–08 ended prior to his completing ninth grade. On the other hand, for a student who joined a project with a May 31, 2008, ending date in summer 2007 as a rising ninth-grader, in field #34 the project should report a ninth-grade GPA at the end of academic year 2007–08.
Please report the GPA based on a four-point scale. If the participant's school used a four-point scale, enter the GPA provided by the school; if not, convert other scales to four-point to the extent possible. For schools that do not use a convertible scale, please enter “8.888” to indicate that the grading scale could not be converted to a four-point scale.
Field #35 High School Graduation Status
Use 5, "Other," for students who completed the twelfth grade but failed to meet state or local requirements for graduation (e.g., passing an exit exam).
Report only high school graduation dates that have already occurred by the time the APR is submitted. For those participants completing a high school equivalency certificate, please provide the completion date. If a student completed the twelfth grade but did not meet state or local requirements for graduation, use 99/99/9999, "Not Applicable." Should the student subsequently meet the state or local requirement, update this field in a subsequent year's APR.
This field provides the data needed to determine, on an annual basis, the extent to which the grantee has meet its approved project retention objective for the reporting period. Thus, it is necessary to know if the ninth-, 10th-, and 11th-grade participants served during the reporting year (2007-08) continued to participate in the UB (or UBMS) project during the subsequent reporting year (2008-09). The data reported in field 37 should reflect information available to the project as of the date on which the APR is submitted (fall 2008). Option 8, "Not applicable, participant served for the first time after the beginning of the 2008–09 academic year," should be used only by projects with December 1, 2007, start dates.
Fields #38 and #39 provide data needed to determine the extent to which the grantee has met its approved academic improvement objective for the current and prior project participants in the 2008 high school graduation cohort, i.e., those with an expected graduation date during spring/summer 2008. To be counted toward meeting this objective, a participant must achieve the proficient level on state high school assessments. Projects must use only assessments that specifically indicate whether the student achieved at the proficient level. (Assessments designed for No Child Left Behind accountability are examples of such tests.)
As indicated for fields #24 and #25, meeting the eighth-grade standards is an eligibility criterion under the absolute priority. Thus, the Department is requesting information only on whether the student initially met the standard. In fields #38 and 39, however, the Department’s interest is not in eligibility, but in achievement. A grantee should therefore provide up-to-date information; if a student did not originally meet the standard, but then subsequently did so prior to the end of his or her expected high school graduation cohort year, the project should choose option 1, “Yes, met standard.” Because fields #38 and #39 concern attainment, all UB and UBMS grantees should respond to these fields for all current students, updating each year as necessary. So as to allow accurate calculation of the extent to which grantees met their targets for the objective on academic improvement, grantees should also attempt to provide information for these fields on all prior participants with an expected high school graduation cohort year of 2007–08.
Important note: In the 2007 and earlier data collections, the APR's field for state academic achievement standards did not refer to meeting the standard at the proficient level. If a student with an expected high school graduation cohort year of 2008 was entered in the 2007 or earlier data collection as having met the standard, he or she will be counted as a success for the standardized test objective and for corresponding prior experience (PE) points only if the project now reenters the student as having met the standard at the proficient level (assuming the student did indeed achieve at that level).
A few grantees have reported experiencing difficulty in getting reliable data for students' results on state achievement tests. If a grantee does not think that test data are reliable for a student, the grantee should choose "Unknown" for field #38 and/or #39 for that student. It is of course in the project's interest to make every effort to collect reliable test data so as to be able to demonstrate the extent to which the project has met its targets for the academic achievement objective.
Field #40 Date of Last Project Service
If a student is still a participant in the Upward Bound project, enter “9s” (“Not applicable; participant is still in program”). Report a date of last service only for those students who the project believes will not return, e.g., those who have graduated or moved out of the project’s target area. When reporting a date of last service, please do so regardless of the amount of time the student spent in the program. Providing these dates will allow the Department to obtain an accurate measure of the length of time in the program for each cohort of participants. If a project omitted in last year’s report a “Date of Last Project Service” for a given student who subsequently did not participate in the year on which the project is now reporting, please include that student in this year’s report as a prior participant and record a date of last project service for him or her, even if the date occurred in the prior reporting period.
For those Upward Bound participants who dropped out of the program, it would be best to use the date the participant last attended an Upward Bound activity or received any kind of help from the project. This could include contacting a student regarding attendance in project activities, providing advice, counseling, etc. If that information is not available, you may use the date the project dropped the student from its list of active participants.
For those students who stay in the program until high school graduation, the date of last program service would be either the high school graduation date or, for those participants in the summer bridge program, the end of the summer program.
Field #41 Reason for Leaving Project
Please select the code that best describes the reason the participant withdrew from the project.
Fields #42–#47 Select Project Services/Activities
Complete these fields only for those project participants who participated in these activities during the reporting period. Use 9s, Not applicable, for prior participants.
Since all UB and UBMS projects must and do provide the academic instruction and services required or permitted by the authorizing statute and implementing regulations, the Department has dropped almost all of the services data fields included in the prior years’ APRs. Thus, the revised APR only includes six services/activities of special interest to the Department and for which evaluation data and other analyses have shown to be informative.
Report only on those services/activities the Upward Bound participant received during the reporting period. If the project did not offer the service, choose “8.”
Please refer to the section on “Definitions that Apply” for definitions of the services/activities.
For these fields, please note that the Department wants to know about students’ postsecondary status (both for recent high school graduates and prior participants) at the first opportunity. If you gather data about a student’s postsecondary status after the end of the reporting period, but before the due date for the report, please include those data in your report. (Note: In addition, for projects with a reporting period of June 1 through May 31, please report on summer bridge participants’ postsecondary status at the first opportunity, i.e., in the fall after summer bridge, even though the summer bridge students will be included in the next year’s data file as “continuing participants” [field #25]. For example, for a project with a reporting period of June 1, 2007, to May 31, 2008, the grantee should report data on the postsecondary status of summer 2008 bridge participants in fall 2008, even though the grantee will include the bridge students as continuing participants in the data file for 2008–09.)
Please enter "7" or a series of "7s," where requested, for students who have left a program of postsecondary education without completing it; enter “8” or a series of “8s” as specified for participants who have not yet completed high school. Students in dual enrollment programs should not be reported as enrolled in postsecondary education until after their high school graduation. Please enter “9” or a series of “9s” for high school graduates who were not enrolled in a program of postsecondary education during or prior to the reporting period. "Students who have left a program of postsecondary education without completing it" is an umbrella category including, among others, students on leave of absence, those away from postsecondary education for a humanitarian or religious purpose or for military duty, and those who have dropped out and may eventually return.
A participant is considered enrolled if he or she has completed registration requirements (excluding payment of tuition and fees) at the institution he or she is attending.
Fields #48–#49
Self-explanatory
Field #50 School Code for Postsecondary Institution
Provide the Title IV School Code/OPE ID Number (Office of Postsecondary Education Institutional Number) for the postsecondary institution the Upward Bound participant attended during the reporting year. If the participant attended more than one institution during the reporting year, provide the school code for the institution last attended. This is a six-digit number that is required on all federal financial aid documents. Information regarding this number is included in Title IV School Code Directory and can be accessed on the World Wide Web:
http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/FOTWWebApp/FSLookupServlet
For current year and prior-year participants whose postsecondary education status is known, provide information on the student’s college status at the beginning of academic year being reported (2007–08) and, if applicable, the degree/certificate completed and degree date.
For field #52, indicate the highest undergraduate degree completed during the reporting period. Once the grantee has reported the completion of the undergraduate degree (either an Associate or Bachelor’s degree) on the APR, the grantee may drop that participant’s record from subsequent APRs. If, however, a student who earned a two-year degree is continuing his or her postsecondary education so as to earn a four-year degree, the project should continue to track that student's effort.
Fields #54–#56 Postsecondary Enrollment and Persistence
Fields #54, #55, and #56 provide the data needed to determine, on an annual basis, the extent to which the grantee has met its objectives for postsecondary enrollment and persistence:
Postsecondary Enrollment: X% of all UB participants, who at the time of entrance into the project had an expected graduation date during the school year, will enroll in a program of postsecondary education by the fall term immediately following the expected graduation date from high school.
Postsecondary Persistence: X% of all UB participants who enrolled in a program of postsecondary education during the fall term immediately following high school graduation will be enrolled for the fall term of the second academic year.
Note that the enrollment objective refers to enrollment by the fall term and thus could include enrollment in the summer of the year. The persistence objective, on the other hand, specifically refers to enrollment for the fall term, since what we want to determine is which students actually continued their postsecondary education into the next academic year.
For the postsecondary enrollment objective (field #54), we are considering students whose expected graduation date occurred during the budget period (generally May or June 2008)--i.e., the members of the 2008 expected high school graduation cohort. All members of the cohort should be coded either 1, 2, or 0 in this field. If such a student enrolled in summer or fall 2008, he or she would have contributed to the project's success in meeting its target for this objective and should be coded option 1. Other members of the cohort who did not enroll (whether or not they actually graduated in their expected year) should be coded option 2. If the project has been unable to determine whether a student enrolled, use 0 for unknown. As noted in the instructions for date of first postsecondary enrollment, a student in a dual enrollment program should not be reported as enrolled in postsecondary education until after high school graduation. For participants who were not members of the 2008 expected graduation cohort, use option 8 or 10.
Note that the sum of all of a grantee's participants coded 1, 2, or 0 in field #54 should equal the number of participants in the project's 2008 expected high school graduation cohort.
(Field #54 also allows grantees to provide information for the enrollment objective for students who graduated high school early. If, for example, a student in the 2008 cohort actually graduated in June 2007 and then enrolled in postsecondary education in fall 2007 and/or fall 2008, the project should select option 1. This student, however, will remain in the 2008 cohort for purposes of calculating the extent to which the project met its postsecondary objective.)
For the postsecondary persistence objective, we are considering students who enrolled in postsecondary education during the fall term of 2007 immediately following high school graduation in spring/summer 2007. If such a student subsequently enrolled for the fall term of 2008, he or she would have contributed to the project's success in meeting its target for this objective.
Field #55 reflects the denominator and field #56 the numerator for the persistence objective. Cohorts do not pertain to these fields because the language of the objective refers to actual graduation, not expected graduation. In field #55 grantees will distinguish between those spring/summer 2007 high school graduates who enrolled in postsecondary education for the fall 2007 term and those who did not; 0 applies to spring/summer 2007 participants whose enrollment status is unknown. Grantees should code all other participants 8 or 10.
In field #56 grantees will distinguish among participants coded 1 in field #55 (i.e., those participants who graduated high school in spring/summer 2007 and enrolled in postsecondary education for the fall term of 2007). Option 1 in field #56 refers to participants who persisted in postsecondary education from fall 2007 into fall 2008; option 2 refers to participants who did not persist in postsecondary education into the fall 2008 term. If a grantee does not know whether such a participant enrolled or not, chose 0 for Unknown. All other participants should be coded 3.
Some possible scenarios:
1. A student in the 2008 expected high school graduation cohort enrolls in a program of postsecondary education for the summer 2008 term and continues in postsecondary into the fall 2008 term. For field #54, choose 1, enrolled; for field #55, choose 8, not completed high school by spring/summer 2007 term; for #56, choose 3, not applicable, participant not coded 1 in field 55. This student contributes to the project's success in meeting its target for the enrollment objective.
2. A student in the 2007 expected high school graduation cohort graduates in May 2007, enrolls in a program of postsecondary education for the fall 2007 term, and remains enrolled for the fall 2008 term. For field #54, choose 10 (not applicable, participant had an expected high school graduation cohort year prior to 2008); for field #55, choose 1 (enrolled in 2007); for field #56, choose 1 (enrolled in 2008). This student contributes to the project's success in meeting its target for the persistence objective.
3. A student in the 2007 expected high school graduation cohort graduates in May 2007, enrolls in a program of postsecondary education for the fall 2007 term, remains enrolled for the spring 2008 term, but then suspends his postsecondary education. For field #54, choose 10 (expected cohort year prior to 2008); for field #55, choose 1 (enrolled in 2007); for field #56, choose 2 (not enrolled in fall 2008). This student does not contribute to the project's success in meeting its target for either objective.
Note that, given the wording of the objective on postsecondary enrollment, if a student enrolls in summer 2008 following her expected graduation date in May 2008, but then suspends her education (not enrolling in fall 2008), the grantee may still select option 1 (enrolled) in field #54.
The data reported in fields #54–#56 should reflect information available to the project as of the date on which the APR is submitted (fall 2008).
DEFINITIONS THAT APPLY
Upward Bound and Upward Bound Math-Science
Upward Bound and Upward Bound Math-Science Standard Objectives from 2007 competition
Academic improvement on standardized test: X% of all UB/UBMS participants who at the time of entrance into project had an expected high school graduation date during the school year will have achieved at the proficient level during high school on state assessments in reading/language arts and math.
Project retention: X% of 9th, 10th, and 11th grade participants served during each school year will continue to participate in the UB/UBMS project during the next school year.
PSE enrollment: X% of all UB/UBMS participants who at time of entrance into project had an expected high school graduation date during the school year will enroll in a program of postsecondary education by the fall term immediately following the expected high school graduation date.
PSE persistence: X% of all UB/UBMS participants who enrolled in a program of postsecondary education during the fall term immediately following high school graduation will be enrolled for the fall term of the second academic year.
Ethnicity (field #10)
Hispanic or Latino - A person of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central or South American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race.
Race categories (fields #11–15)
American Indian or Alaska Native - A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America), and who maintains a tribal affiliation or community attachment.
Asian - A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. This area includes, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Black or African American - A person having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa.
White - A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, North Africa, or the Middle East.
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander – A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii or other Pacific islands such as Samoa and Guam.
Limited English Proficiency (field #16)
Limited English proficiency, with reference to an individual, means an individual whose native language is other than English and who has sufficient difficulty speaking, reading, writing, or understanding the English language to deny that individual the opportunity to learn successfully in classrooms in which English is the language of instruction.
Participant Eligibility (field #17)
Low-income individual means an individual whose family taxable income did not exceed 150 percent of the poverty level amount in the calendar year preceding the year in which the individual initially participated in the project. The poverty level amount is determined using criteria of poverty established by the Bureau of the Census of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
First-generation college student means an individual neither of whose natural or adoptive parents received a baccalaureate degree; or a student who, prior to the age of 18, regularly resided with and received support from only one natural or adoptive parent and whose supporting parent did not receive a baccalaureate degree.
Regular Upward Bound Program Absolute Priority (excluding portions relating to the evaluation that the Department planned to conduct for the program) (published in the Federal Register, September 22, 2006) (fields #24–#27)
1. Select first-time participants from otherwise eligible students who have completed the eighth grade but not the 10th grade in secondary school, except a student who has previously participated in a regular Upward Bound project may be selected notwithstanding the student's grade level;
2. Select not less than 30 percent of all first-time participants from students who have completed the eighth grade but not the ninth grade in secondary school and who have a "high academic risk for failure."
"High academic risk for failure" refers to otherwise eligible students who--
a. Have not achieved at the proficient level on State assessments in reading/language arts for grade eight;
b. Have not achieved at the proficient level on State assessments in math for grade eight;
c. Have a grade point average of 2.5 or less (on a 4.0 scale) for the most recent school year for which grade point averages are available; or
d. Have not completed pre-algebra, algebra, or geometry by the end of grade eight, and (in cases in which students are recruited early during grade nine) are not taking algebra or geometry in grade nine.
Academic year (field #30, #31, #33, #34, #35, #37, and #51)
For purposes of completing the APR, the academic year runs from September 1 to August 31. If a given target secondary school starts its fall term in late August, the project should consider its academic year to begin on an August date.
Services and Activities (fields #42–47)
Work-study positions (as the term is used in the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended in 1998, Section 402C(b)(10)) means internships and/or employment provided or arranged for by the project for the purpose of exposing participants to careers requiring a postsecondary degree. Upward Bound students participating in one of these work-study positions may be paid a stipend of $300 per month during June, July, and August. Include in this field only those work-study positions for which the Upward Bound participant received a stipend from the project.
Employment means jobs of at least 10 hours per week arranged either by the project or by the Upward Bound participant that are separate from the Upward Bound program. In contrast to the “work-study” positions, these jobs are primarily to allow participants to earn some income while participating in the program.
Cultural activities means any project-sponsored activities, such as field trips, special lectures, and symposiums, that have as their purpose the improvement of the project participants’ academic progress and personal development.
Community service refers to a student’s participation, facilitated by the Upward Bound project, in an activity or activities designed to serve a community. Under this definition, community service need not be explicitly integrated into the student’s academic work in Upward Bound or at his or her school.
Instruction/tutorials means a formal, structured method for transmitting facts, information, understanding of the concept, and skills to students. Instruction usually includes lesson plans and assignments designed to help students achieve learning objectives.
Integrated Math (an option in field #47) means learning in the context of real-world applications. It synthesizes practical application with theoretical knowledge to help students learn better from hands-on, applications-oriented instruction. It emphasizes applications of theory, problem-solving, and critical thinking to provide students with the skills in literacy, numeracy, computing, scientific methodology, and technology that postsecondary institutions recognize as a necessary foundation for further study in most fields.
For the definition of postsecondary institutions, please see language concerning Title IV programs in sections 101 and 102 of Title I of the 1998 Amendments to the Higher Education Act of 1965 (P.L. 105-244) (http://www.ed.gov/policy/highered/leg/hea98/sec101.html).
Undergraduate Degree/Certificate (field #52)
Equivalent of bachelor’s degree (option 06) is to be used only for UB participants enrolled in dual degree programs that have completed four years of undergraduate study and are working towards a graduate degree.
Dual degree program is a program of study that awards an individual both the bachelor’s and a graduate degree upon successful completion of the program of study.
(Veterans Upward Bound Projects)
Instructions for Completing Section II – B
General Instructions for the Participant List
(1) Who should be included on the annual data file?
Please see pages 2–3 of these instructions for information on participants for whom the grantee should provide data. For the Veterans Upward Bound program, a participant is defined as an individual who enrolled in and participated in the educational programs offered by the project during the project year being reported. Be sure to include each participant—whether new, continuing, reentry, or prior-year—only once in the file the project submits for the reporting period.
(2) What are the data fields?
The new, revised VUB APR contains 39 data fields. Three of the fields are file identifiers. The remaining fields are of two types: those data fields that, except in unusual situations, will not need to be updated annually; and those that must be reviewed annually and updated, as needed.
File Identifiers
#1 PR/Award Number
#2 Batch Year
#3 Program Type
Fields that do not need to be updated annually
#4 Social Security Number
#5 Student’s Last Name
#6 Student’s First Name
#7 Student’s Middle Initial
#8 Student’s Date of Birth
#9 Gender
#10 Ethnicity
#11–#15 Race
#16 Eligibility
#17 Recruitment
#18 Educational Status at date of first project service
#19 Scheduled Completion Year
#20 Revised Scheduled Completion Year
#21 Circumstances of Rescheduling
#22 Reason for Rescheduling
#23 Date of First Project Service
#24 Employment Status at date of first project service
#25 Disability Status
Fields that need to be reviewed and updated annually, as needed
#26 Participant Status
#27 Called to Active Duty during reporting period
#28 Improved Test Score on Standardized Test
#29 Date of Last Program Service
#30 Reason for Leaving VUB Program
#31 Source of Postsecondary Education Information
#32 Date of First Postsecondary Enrollment
#33 School Code for Postsecondary Institution last attended
#34 College Status, beginning of academic year
#35 Undergraduate Degree or Certificate Completed
#36 Date of Undergraduate Degree
#37 Postsecondary Enrollment Objective for 2007–08
#38 Postsecondary Persistence Objective--denominator
#39 Postsecondary Persistence Objective--numerator
(3) How should the date fields be formatted (fields #8, #23, #29, #32, and #36)?
Please review carefully the Valid Field Content column to ensure that the data submitted are in the correct format. All date fields should be eight digits and formatted as follows: two digits for month; two digits for day; two digits for century; and two digits for year. For the student’s date of birth (field #8), you are required to provide the full, precise date (month, day, and complete year). For the other date fields, accuracy is important only for the month and year. If the day is unknown, use 15. For example, a participant’s data of first project service of September 2007 would be formatted as follows: 09/15/2007. If the exact month or year is uncertain, use an estimate. If there is no basis for estimating the month, but the year is known or can be estimated, use 01 for the month (e.g., 01/15/2007). If there is no basis for estimating the year, use 00/00/0000 ("Unknown").
To ensure that the date is properly imported, always use the zero before one-digit months and days and insert slashes between the month and day, and between the day and year.
(4) How should “Not Applicable” and “Unknown” be reported?
With the exception of fields #6–#7 and #10–#15, leaving a field blank is not an option. In general, the format uses “0” or a series of “0s” to allow a project to indicate “Unknown”; “9” or a series of “9s” indicates “Not Applicable.”
(5) Where are the objectives found?
The objectives for the VUB program are found in the "Definitions That Apply" pages at the end of these instructions.
Field #2 Batch Year
Use the four-digit year provided on the form. This number will change with each year’s submission. The Batch Year designates the fiscal year funding for the project period reported. TRIO grants are forward-funded. Therefore, as an example, fiscal year 2007 funds would be used to support project activities in the 2007–08 program year. Thus, the data file for Batch Year 2007 would include information on project participants served or tracked during program year 2007–08.
Field #4 Social Security Number (SSN)
SSNs are very important as they allow the Department to match participant lists with the federal financial aid files for purposes of tracking participant outcomes. If a project does not know the SSN for a student, please enter “0s” rather than enter other forms of identification numbers.
These fields are self-explanatory.
On October 19, 2007, ED released new, Department-wide guidance on how institutions should collect and maintain data on race and ethnicity and on how they should report such data in the aggregate:
http://www.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister/other/2007-4/101907c.pdf; or http://www.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister/other/2007-4/101907c.html
Because Upward Bound grantees report individual data, they should not follow the portions of the guidance that cover aggregate reporting; they must, however, collect and maintain data as indicated in the guidance. The new guidance must be implemented by the fall of 2010 for the 2010–11 school year, but grantees are encouraged to implement earlier, if possible.
Collection procedures in the guidance require grantees to collect data on race and ethnicity on all participants using a two-part question: first, the grantee asks the respondent whether he or she is Hispanic/Latino; second, the grantee asks the respondent to select one or more races from the five racial groups listed. The grantee reports the responses in fields 10–15 of the APR. If, for example, a VUB participant identifies himself or herself as Hispanic, Asian, and White, entries for the fields would appear thus:
Field 10: 1, Yes, participant is identified as Hispanic/Latino
Field 11: 2, No, participant is not identified as American Indian/Alaskan Native
Field 12: 1, Yes, participant is identified as Asian
Field 13: 2, No, participant is not identified as Black or African American
Field 14: 1, Yes, participant is identified as White.
Field 15: 2, No, participant is not identified as Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander.
If the participant declines to answer questions about race and ethnicity, the grantee should use observation, as discussed in the guidance. While grantees should make a good effort to collect data on race and ethnicity for all participants, if for some highly unusual reason the race and/or ethnicity of a particular student is unknown, as a last resort the grantee may leave the race and/or ethnicity fields blank. For further details on the guidance for collecting data, please see the full Federal Register notice. Grantees are responsible for implementing all relevant aspects of the guidance. Note that the Department encourages institutions to allow all current students to re-identify their race and ethnicity using OMB's 1997 standards (see page 59276 of the notice), but does not require institutions to do so.
For definitions of the ethnicity and race categories, refer to the “Definitions that Apply” section of these instructions.
The statute and regulations governing the Upward Bound program require that an individual, at the time of initial selection for the project, must be a “low-income individual” or a “potential first-generation college student.” (These terms are defined in the section "Definitions that Apply.") Two-thirds of project participants each year must be both low-income and potential first-generation college students; the remaining one-third can be either low-income or potential first-generation college students.
Please indicate how the participant came to your project.
Field #18 Educational Status (at time of first project service)
Self-explanatory.
At the outset of service to a participant, projects must schedule a completion year for his or her prescribed VUB program. The chosen completion year must match a budget period (for example, September 2007–August 2008 or September 2008–August 2009) and must be based on the project's assessment of the participant's educational needs. Please provide the scheduled completion year for all participants (including continuing participants) served during the budget period with completions scheduled to occur during the 2007–08 budget period or later; for prior participants, enter 9 for "Not applicable." Even if the project enters a revised scheduled completion year in field #20, the year in field #19 should not be changed.
Compelling circumstances in the life or educational progress of the participant may necessitate revising a scheduled completion year. Note that rescheduling should be considered and should occur only when the student is either in continuous active participation or when the student had left and then returned to active participation. Thus, if a student has left the project, the correct choice for field #20 is option 8, "Not applicable, scheduled completion year is unchanged"; a new completion year should be established only if the student returns.
Field #21 Circumstances of Rescheduling
Note that the completion year is used in the objective for enrollment in postsecondary education, which reads: "X % of participants served during each budget period will enroll in a program of postsecondary education by the fall term following the scheduled completion of their prescribed VUB educational program." If the originally scheduled completion year for a participant is 2007–08, the participant would need to enroll in postsecondary education by fall 2008 to contribute to the project's success in meeting the objective. Only under certain circumstances will TRIO defer a participant with a revised scheduled completion date to a subsequent year's calculation for this objective. If a participant has not had a hiatus in participation from one budget year to the next and if the project reschedules the completion year while the participant is actively involved in the VUB program, the Department will include the participant in the subsequent year's calculation, not the 2007–08 calculation. Also, if a participant is called to active duty and therefore unable to enroll in postsecondary education, the Department will exclude the individual from the numerator and denominator for the calculation. If, however, rescheduling a participant's completion into a subsequent year occurs because the individual suspended his or her participation in the project for a significant period for reasons other than return to active duty, the student will be included in the calculation for the original scheduled completion year. Field #21 reflects these options.
Field #22 Reason for Rescheduling
Self-explanatory.
For new students, use the date the student first received service from the VUB project that is submitting this report. Do not use date of acceptance into project unless that is the same as the date of first service. Use the very first month and year of service at this project even if the student subsequently left and reentered. If the students transferred from another VUB project, in this field give the month and year of first service at the project submitting the report.
For continuing and prior participants, use the date entered in the earlier APR, even if it was a date of entry that differed from the date of first service. (Note that field #16, regarding eligibility, refers to date of entry because eligibility should be ascertained at that time.)
Fields #24 and 25 Employment Status and Disability Status
Self-explanatory.
Please refer to the form for definitions of all of the participant status options.
Please indicate whether the participant was called to active duty during the reporting period. If a participant was so called, he or she will be counted neither in the numerator nor the denominator for the project's objectives.
This field refers to the first objective included in the application package for the fiscal year 2007 competition: applicants were required to indicate what percentage of participants served during each budget period would improve their academic skills as measured by a pre and post standardized test taken by the participant. In field 28, for all participants served during the 2007–08 budget period, indicate whether the student so demonstrated improvement in academic skills. Grantees should keep records of the test each student took, the dates of administration, and the student's scores. Grantees should also document their rationale for determining whether a change in scores constituted improvement; such a rationale should presumably be based on the design and content of the test, on background information the test publisher provided about the test, and on the experience of the project with similar students using the test.
This field provides more precise information than was offered by the field used in the previous version of the APR form, which requested length of participation in months. If a student is still a participant in the Upward Bound project, enter “9s” (“Not applicable, participant is still in program”). Report a date of last service only for those students who the project believes will not return, e.g., those who have completed the program or moved out of the project’s target area. When reporting a date of last service, please do so regardless of the amount of time the student spent in the program.
For VUB participants who dropped out of the program, it would be best to use the date the participant last attended a VUB activity or received any kind of help from the project. This could include contacting a student regarding attendance in project activities, providing advice, counseling, etc. If that information is not available, you may use the date the project dropped the student from its list of active participants.
Grantees should be careful to ensure accuracy in completing this field as it will be used in determining whether the student met the objective on retention and completion included in the fiscal year 2007 application package: grantees were required to indicate what percentage of participants served by the project during each budget period would remain enrolled or complete their prescribed program. Participants coded 1 ("Successfully completed program") and 99 ("Not applicable, participant is still in program") will count towards the project's targeted percentage for the objective.
For these fields, please note that the Department wants to know about students’ postsecondary status (both for participants who have recently completed the program and for prior participants) at the first opportunity. If you gather data about a student’s postsecondary status after the end of the reporting period, but before the due date for the report, please include those data in your report.
Please enter "7" or a series of "7s," where requested, for students who have left a program of postsecondary education without completing it; “8” or a series of “8s” as specified for participants who have not yet completed the educational program offered by the project; and “9s” or a series of “9s” for those participants who have completed the educational requirements to be eligible for a program of postsecondary education, but who have not yet enrolled in such a program. Enter "6" or a series of "6s" for participants who have died or are permanently incapacitated. "Students who have left a program of postsecondary education without completing it" is an umbrella category including, among others, students on leave of absence, students called to active military duty, and those who have dropped out and may eventually return.
If a participant has begun course work in postsecondary education but is still participating in VUB (for example, if the student is taking postsecondary English courses but still completing preparatory work in other content areas in the VUB program), the student should not be reported as enrolled in a program of postsecondary education.
A participant is considered enrolled if he or she has completed registration requirements (excluding payment of tuition and fees) at the institution he or she is attending.
Fields #31–#32
Self-explanatory
Field #33 School Code for Postsecondary Institutions
Provide the Title IV School Code/OPE ID Number (Office of Postsecondary Education Institutional Number) for the postsecondary institution the Upward Bound participant last attended during the reporting year; if the student attended more than one institution during the academic year, report the one most recently attended. The six-digit code is required on all federal financial aid documents. Information regarding this number is included in Title IV School Code Directory and can be accessed on the World Wide Web:
http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/FOTWWebApp/FSLookupServlet
Since the Department does not request school names, these codes are particularly important, as they are the means by which TRIO is able to identify the institutions that UB students attend. Use "555555" only in unusual cases in which the project is sure that the institution is not in the Title IV School Code Directory.
Fields #34–#36 College Status, Undergraduate Degree or Certificate Completed, and Degree Date
For current year and prior-year participants whose postsecondary education status is known, provide information on the student’s college status at the beginning of academic year being reported (2007–08) and, if applicable, the degree or certificate completed and degree date.
For field #35, indicate the highest undergraduate degree completed during the reporting period. Once the grantee has reported the completion of the undergraduate degree (either Associate or Bachelor’s degree) on the APR, the grantee may drop that participant’s record from subsequent APRs. If, however, a student who earned a two-year degree is continuing his or her postsecondary education so as to earn a four-year degree, the project should continue to track that student's effort.
Fields 37–39 Postsecondary Enrollment Status and Postsecondary Persistence
Fields 37, 38, and 39 provide the data needed to determine, on an annual basis, the extent to which the grantee has met its objectives for postsecondary enrollment and persistence:
Postsecondary Enrollment: X% of participants served during each budget period will enroll in a program of postsecondary education by the fall term following the scheduled completion of their prescribed VUB educational program.
Postsecondary Persistence: X% of all participants who enroll in postsecondary education during each budget period will be enrolled for the fall term of the second academic year.
Note that the enrollment objective refers to enrollment by the fall term and thus could include enrollment in the summer of the year. The persistence objective, on the other hand, specifically refers to enrollment for the fall term, since what we want to determine is which students actually continued their postsecondary education into the next academic year.
For the postsecondary enrollment objective (field #37), we are considering students served during budget period 2007–08 whose completion was scheduled for that year (field #19, option 1); all of these participants should be coded 1, 2, or 0 in field #37. If such a student enrolled by fall 2008, he or she would have contributed to the project's success in meeting this objective. Option 1 in field 37 allows grantees to show that such a student had enrolled within this timeframe. Instructions for field #21 explain under what circumstances TRIO will defer a participant with a revised scheduled completion date (field #20) to a subsequent year's calculation for this objective. Current participants who were called to active duty during the reporting period (field #27, option 1) will not be included in the calculation for the 2007–08 success rate.
Note that a participant did not have to complete his or her program within the scheduled completion year, or even complete the program at all, to contribute to the project's success in meeting the objective if the student fulfilled the objective as stated. Example: a 2007–08 participant was scheduled to complete the program in that year, but dropped out of the VUB program in April 2008; nevertheless he still enrolled in postsecondary education by fall 2008. The participant would contribute to the program's success in meeting the enrollment objective because he fulfilled the objective as written.
As indicated in the discussion of postsecondary information (fields #31–36), if a participant has begun course work in postsecondary education but is still participating in VUB (for example, if the student is taking postsecondary English courses but still completing preparatory work in other content areas in the VUB program), the student should not be reported as enrolled in a program of postsecondary education.
For the postsecondary persistence objective, we are considering students who enrolled in postsecondary education for at least some part of budget period 2007–08 for the first time since participating in VUB (option 1 in field #38). If such a student subsequently enrolled for the fall term of 2008, he or she would have contributed to the project's success in meeting this objective. Option 1 in field #39 allows grantees to show that such a student enrolled for his or her second academic year, beginning in fall 2008; option 2 shows that such a student did not enroll. Prior participants who were called to active duty during the reporting period (field #27, option 2) will not be included in the calculation for the 2007–08 success rate for persistence. All students in option 1, field #38 should be shown in field #39, option 1, 2, or 0.
Note that some students will contribute to the project's success in meeting both objectives.
Some possible scenarios:
1. A student served in 2007–08 with scheduled completion in that year enrolls in a program of postsecondary education for the summer 2008 term and continues into the fall 2008 term. For fields #37–39, choose 1 (enrolled in each field). This student will contribute to the project's success in meeting both objectives.
2. A student completes his VUB program in summer 2007 and enrolls in a program of postsecondary education for the fall 2007 term. He continues throughout academic year 2007–08 and is enrolled again for fall 2008. For field #37, choose 10 (prior year participant during 2007–08); for field 38, choose 1 (enrolled for at least part of 2007–08); for field 39, choose 1 (enrolled in fall 2008). This student will contribute to the project's success in meeting the objective on postsecondary persistence; he will not contribute to meeting the objective on postsecondary enrollment because, for that objective, we are considering only participants with a scheduled completion year of 2007–08.
3. A student served in 2007–08 with scheduled completion in that year enrolls in a program of postsecondary education for the summer 2008 term but discontinues her postsecondary enrollment after that term. For field 37, choose 1 (enrolled); for field 38, choose 2 (enrolled); for field #39, choose 2 (not enrolled). This student will contribute to the project's success in meeting the enrollment objective; she will not contribute to success in meeting the persistence objective because, though enrolled in the 2007–08 budget period, she did not enroll for the fall term of the second academic year.
4. A project realizes that a student with an original scheduled completion year of 2007–08 will need significant additional help with mathematics to help ensure the student's success in the postsecondary nursing program he wishes to undertake. The student is continuously active in the VUB program; the project reschedules his completion date to 2008–09. According to the discussion of field #21, TRIO will defer the student to budget year 2008–09's calculation for the enrollment objective. He enrolls in postsecondary education in summer 2009 and continues into fall 2009. For field #37, choose 8, not applicable, participant with a scheduled completion year after the 2007–08 budget period; for field #38, choose 2, not applicable; for field #39, choose 3, not applicable. The student does not contribute to the project's success in meeting the enrollment objective in 2007–08 but could do so in the next year. He is not counted in the denominator of the calculation for 2007–08.
DEFINITIONS THAT APPLY
Veterans Upward Bound
Veterans Upward Bound Standard Objectives from the 2007 competition
Academic improvement on standardized test: X% of participants served during each budget period will improve their academic skills as measured by a pre and post standardized test taken by the participant.
Education program retention and completion: X% of participants served during each budget period will remain enrolled or complete their prescribed VUB educational program.
PSE enrollment: X% of participants served during each budget period will enroll in a program of PSE by the fall term following the scheduled completion of their prescribed VUB educational program
PSE persistence: X% of participants who enroll in PSE during each budget period will be enrolled for the fall term of the second academic year.
Ethnicity categories (field #10)
Hispanic or Latino - A person of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central or South American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race.
Race categories (fields #11–15)
American Indian or Alaska Native - A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America), and who maintains a tribal affiliation or community attachment.
Asian - A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. This area includes, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Black or African American - A person having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa.
White - A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, North Africa, or the Middle East.
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander – A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii or other Pacific islands such as Samoa and Guam.
Participant Eligibility (field #16)
Low-income individual means an individual whose family taxable income did not exceed 150 percent of the poverty level amount in the calendar year preceding the year in which the individual initially participated in the project. The poverty level amount is determined using criteria of poverty established by the Bureau of the Census of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
First-generation college student means an individual neither of whose natural or adoptive parents received a baccalaureate degree; or a student who, prior to the age of 18, regularly resided with and received support from only one natural or adoptive parent and whose supporting parent did not receive a baccalaureate degree.
Postsecondary fields (#31–39)
For the definition of postsecondary institutions, please see language concerning Title IV programs in sections 101 and 102 of Title I of the 1998 Amendments to the Higher Education Act of 1965 (P.L. 105-244) (http://www.ed.gov/policy/highered/leg/hea98/sec101.html).
Undergraduate Degree or Certificate (field #35)
Equivalent of bachelor’s degree (option 06) is to be used only for UB participants enrolled in dual degree programs that have completed four years of undergraduate study and are working towards a graduate degree.
Dual degree program is a program of study that awards an individual both the bachelor’s and a graduate degree upon successful completion of the program of study.
| File Type | application/msword |
| File Title | 2006-07 Annual Performance Report Instructions for the Upward Bound Program (MS Word) |
| Author | Office of Postsecondary Education |
| Last Modified By | DoED User |
| File Modified | 2008-07-23 |
| File Created | 2008-07-23 |