Appendix for VUB APR

Appendix - Month 2023

U.S. Department of Education

Office of Postsecondary Education/Federal TRIO Programs

Policies and Procedures for Assessing Standard Objectives

Veterans Upward Bound

2022-27 Grant Award Cycle

Brief summary of policies and procedures for assessing the standard objectives

The 2022-23 program year for Veterans Upward Bound is the 2^nd year of the 2022-27 grant award cycle. Your Annual Performance Report (APR) submission will be used to calculate performance rates and compared to the targets for the Standard Objectives that have been approved in your grant award notice. Your APR Summary Report will still record scores associated with each Standard Objective.

• The calculation of Prior Experience (PE) points for the 2022-23 APR reporting period is based on:

  • A project’s approved number of participants to be served;

  • A project’s approved objectives; and

  • The participant-level data a project submits in its annual performance report (APR) for each assessment year.

• A project may earn a score of up to 15 in an assessment year.

• A project that served less than 90 percent of the number of participants the project was funded to serve will not have a score assessed.

  • To determine if a project has served at least 90 percent of the approved number of participants to be served, standard rounding rules are applied; if the calculated Number Served rate is between 89.5 and 89.9 percent, it is rounded up to 90%.

  • To earn a score for the Funded Number criterion, a project must serve at least the number funded to serve. Except for the one situation noted above, no rounding is applied to the Number Served rates. For example, if the calculated rate is 99.6%, the rate will be 99%, not 100%.

• Any VUB project funded in the current grant cycle (2022-27) that submits an APR for the assessment year, and serves at least 90 percent of the number of participants it was funded to serve, is eligible to receive a score for the following standard objectives: Funded Number, Academic Improvement on Standardized Test, Education Program Retention and Completion, and Postsecondary Enrollment.

• The point of measurement for the Postsecondary Education Completion objective is six years; therefore, any project first funded in the 2022-27 grant cycle will not be eligible to earn a score for this objective during the grant cycle. A VUB project first funded prior to the 2022-27 grant cycle will be eligible to earn a score for the Postsecondary Education Completion objective only if the project served at least one participant who qualified for the cohort year applicable to the standard objectives assessment year (e.g., the applicable postsecondary education cohort year [field #38, VetPSECohort] is 2017 for the 2022-23 assessment year).

• Scores are assessed based on meeting or exceeding the approved objectives. No partial credit is given. If the calculated (i.e., actual) rate for the standard objective is greater than or equal to the approved rate, a score is earned. Standard rounding rules are used (e.g., 79.6% rounds to 80%) for all objectives other than Funded Number, which is handled as described below.

• The Department will not accept any changes to the project’s APR data once the APR has been submitted for the assessment year.

The formulas for calculating standard objective scores are provided below.

How is the Funded Number Criterion Calculated?

A score is earned if the project served the approved number of participants for the reporting period. The actual number of participants served must be equal to or greater than the number of participants the project was funded to serve.

• The denominator is the project’s approved number of participants to be served.

• The numerator is the actual number of participants served during the assessment year and is the sum of field #26 (Participant Status), options 1 (new), 2 (continuing), and 3 (reentry).

How is the Rate for Academic Improvement on Standardized Test Calculated?

A score is earned based on the percentage of participants completing the VUB program during the project year who improved their academic performance as measured by a standardized test taken before and after receiving services from the project.

• The denominator is the number of participants who meet two criteria:

• Field #26 (Participant Status) is option 1 (new), 2 (continuing), or 3 (reentry) and

• Field #31 (VUB Educational Program Completion Year) is the applicable assessment year (e.g., 2022 for the 2022-23 assessment year).

• The numerator is the number of participants in the denominator for whom field #29 (Academic Improvement on Standardized Text Objective—Numerator) is option 1 (Yes, participant completed VUB program during the reporting year and improved academic performance as demonstrated by pre- and posttests).

Note: Participants who were served during the reporting period but who subsequently died or became permanently incapacitated are not included in the calculation (see field #25, options 3 and 4).

How is the Rate for Education Program Retention and Completion Calculated?

A score is earned based on the percentage of participants served during the project year who completed their VUB educational program by the end of the project year or remained enrolled in the program.

• The denominator is the greater of the number to be served or the number actually served.

• Number to be served is from project’s approved objective.

• Number actually served is derived from field #26 (Participant Status), options 1 (new), 2 (continuing), or 3 (reentry).

• The numerator is the number of participants served for whom field #31 (VUB Educational Program Completion Year) is the applicable assessment year (e.g., 2022 for the 2022-23 assessment year) or 8888 (Still in the educational program offered by the project).

Note: Participants who were served during the reporting period but who subsequently died or became permanently incapacitated are not included in the calculation (see field #25, options 3 and 4).

How is the Postsecondary Enrollment Rate Calculated?

A score is earned based on the percentage of participants completing their prescribed VUB educational program in the previous project year who enrolled in a program of postsecondary education by the end of the current project year.

Note: If the project did not serve any participants who completed VUB during the previous project year, the project will not receive a score for this objective for the assessment year.

• The denominator is the number of participants who meet two criteria:

• Field #26 (Participant Status) is option 4 (prior-year participant) and

• Field #31 (VUB Educational Program Completion Year) is the year before the current assessment year (e.g., 2021 for the 2022-23 assessment year).

• The numerator is the number of participants in the denominator for whom field #37 (Date of First Postsecondary School Enrollment) is within the range September 1 of the year before the current assessment year through September 30 of the current assessment year (e.g., 09/01/2021–09/30/2023 for the 2022-23 assessment year).

Note: Prior-year participants who died or became permanently incapacitated are not included in the calculation (see field #25, options 1 and 2).

How is the Postsecondary Education Completion Rate Calculated?

A score is earned based on the percentage of prior-year participants in a specific postsecondary education enrollment cohort year (field #38) who completed a program of postsecondary education within six years of the cohort year. For example, for the 2022-23 assessment year, the relevant postsecondary education enrollment cohort year is 2017 (six years prior to 2022-23); to count toward the objective in the 2022-23 assessment year, a participant with a cohort year of 2017 must have completed a postsecondary program by September 30, 2023.

Note: A postsecondary education enrollment cohort year can be set for a participant only when that individual has completed the VUB program in one project year and enrolled in a program of postsecondary education no later than the end of the subsequent project year for the first time since completing the VUB program. Once established, data in this field will not be adjusted in later years. Please see the General Instructions for the APR for further information on how cohorts are set.

To be eligible to earn a score for the postsecondary education completion objective, a project must have served at least one participant with an applicable cohort year. No project first funded in 2023 is eligible to earn a standard objective score for this objective in the 2022-27 grant cycle.

Assessment Year for Standard Objectives	PSE Enrollment Cohort (Field #38)
2022-23	2017
2023-24	2018
2024-25	2019
2025-26	2020
2026-27	2021

• The denominator is the number of participants in field #38 (Postsecondary Education Enrollment Cohort) in the year six years before the current assessment year (e.g., 2017 [2017-18] for assessment year 2022-23).

• The numerator is the total of those in the denominator for whom completion of a postsecondary program has been indicated in the two APR fields referring to award and date of a postsecondary certificate, diploma, or degree. Please see table below for details of the calculation.

Field #43 (Certificate or Diploma Completed) is option 1 (Yes, completed certificate or diploma for an occupational or educational program) AND	Field #44 (Date of First Certificate or Diploma) is no later than September 30 in the assessment year (e.g., 09/30/2023 for assessment year 2022-23).
OR
Field #45 (Associate Degree Attained) is option 1 (Yes, attained associate degree) AND	Field #46 (Date of First Associate Degree) is no later than September 30 in the assessment year (e.g., 09/30/2023 for assessment year 2022-23).
OR
Field #47 (Bachelor’s Degree Attained) is option 1 (Yes, attained bachelor’s degree) AND	Field #48 (Date of First Bachelor’s Degree) is no later than September 30 in the assessment year (e.g., 09/30/2023 for assessment year 2022-23).

Note: If a prior participant received more than one certificate, diploma, or degree in the six-year period, that individual will be counted only once towards the postsecondary completion objective. Beginning with the 2018-19 assessment year, a prior-year participant in the applicable PSE cohort year who died or became permanently incapacitated was included in the calculation (see field #25, options 1 and 2) only if the participant had earned a postsecondary credential.

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