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                                                                    *C-1*

                                                                    
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APPENDIX C

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON TALENT SEARCH SERVICES AND ACTIVITIES

This appendix expands on the information presented in chapter 6. Four
topics are addressed: Annual perpformance report (APR) data on academic
support services, APR and project survey data on personal and career
development services, the use of computer technology in project services
and communications, and services for persons with disabilities.

# APR DATA ON ACADEMIC SUPPoRT SERVICES

Compared with our survey data, APR data showed roughly similar
percentages of projects providing each of the four academic support
services, but APR data also provided additional information on the scope
of these services. The most frequently provided service was academic
advising/course selection; projects provided an average of 673 such
sessions (table C.1).[^1] Overall, academic advising/course selection
was also the service delivered to the largest percent of participants.
However, the percent of participants receiving these four services
varied by type of participant, as shown in figure C.1. For example,
middle school students were substantially more likely than high school
students to receive tutoring and test-taking and study-skills
development services.

+--------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| Table C.1---APR data on        |           |           |            |
| provision of academic support  |           |           |            |
| services: 1998--99             |           |           |            |
+--------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
|                                | P         | Average   | Percentage |
|                                | ercentage | number of | of         |
|                                | of        | sessions  | pa         |
|                                | projects  | per       | rticipants |
|                                | providing | project   | receiving  |
|                                |           |           |            |
|                                | services  |           | services   |
+--------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| Test-taking and study-skills   | 92%       | 265       | 47%        |
| development                    |           |           |            |
+--------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| Academic advising/course       | 91        | 673       | 65         |
| selection                      |           |           |            |
+--------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| Tutoring                       | 80        | 547       | 21         |
+--------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| Assisted (computer) labs       | 63        | 149       | 13         |
+--------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+

[Source]{.smallcaps}: U.S. Department of Education, Office of
Postsecondary Education, *A Profile of the Talent Search Program:
1998--99*, Washington, DC: May 2002.

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  *C-2*

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Figure C.1---Percentages of participants receiving academic support
services: 1998-99

![](media/image1.wmf){width="5.983333333333333in"
height="3.167361111111111in"}

[Source]{.smallcaps}: U.S. Department of Education, Office of
Postsecondary Education, *A Profile of the Talent Search Program:
1998--99*, Washington, DC: May 2002.

# APR DATA ON PERSONAL AND CAREER DEVELOPMENT SERVICES

Compared with our project survey data, APR data showed roughly similar
percent of projects providing each of the several personal and career
development services (with the exception of referral services, discussed
below). APR data also provided additional information on the scope of
these services. The most frequently provided service was counseling;
projects provided an average of 1,286 such sessions (table C.2).
Overall, counseling was also the service received by the largest percent
of participants. However, the percent of participants receiving personal
and career development services varied by participant type, as shown in
figure C.2. For example, a substantially higher percent of middle school
students than high school students participated in cultural activities
while adults were substantially more likely than students at either
level to receive referrals.

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  ---------------------- --------------- ---------------- ---------------
  Table C.2---APR data                                    
  on provision of                                         
  personal and career                                     
  development services:                                   
  1998--99                                                

                         Percent of      Average number   Percent of
                         projects        of sessions per  participants
                         providing       project          receiving
                         service                          service

  College orientation    95%             217              54%
  activities^a^                                           

  Cultural activities    90              59               33

  Referrals              68              27^b^            12

  Counseling             92              1,286            77

  Family activities      84              94               30

  Mentoring              58              233              17
  ---------------------- --------------- ---------------- ---------------

[Source]{.smallcaps}: U.S. Department of Education, Office of
Postsecondary Education, *A Profile of the Talent Search Program:
1998--99*, Washington, DC: May 2002.

^a^The APR does not ask separately about campus visits as the national
evaluation's project survey did; this activity is included in the
definition of college orientation activities.

^b^This is the number of organizations to which participants were
referred, not the number of sessions or referrals.

Figure C.2---Percentages of participants receiving academic support
services: 1998-99.

![](media/image2.wmf){width="5.983333333333333in"
height="3.167361111111111in"}

[Source]{.smallcaps}: U.S. Department of Education, Office of
Postsecondary Education, *A Profile of the Talent Search Program:
1998--99*, Washington, DC: May 2002.

## Referrals

We conclude this section with a brief discussion of referrals, a means
for Talent Search projects to assist people not by providing direct
service but rather by pointing them to services provided by other
organizations. The discussion is important for two reasons.

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  *C-4*

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First, far more projects in the national evaluation's survey than in the
APRs reported that they offered referrals for the same year (92 versus
68 percent, respectively). Although we cannot explain the discrepancy,
one hypothesis holds that survey respondents were thinking about the
referrals they give not only to participants but also to
nonparticipants. For example, if an individual not enrolled in the
program asked a project staff member about a particular service and the
individual was not eligible for the program, the project did not provide
that service, or the project could not accept any more participants, the
staff member would likely refer the person to other service providers.
Such referrals, however, would not be recorded in project records. In
the APR, in contrast, projects report only services provided to a
well-defined set of official program participants, not informal
assistance given to nonparticipants. The other services mentioned in
both our questionnaire and the APR, such as tutoring and mentoring, are
not activities that would be provided informally to nonparticipants.

The second reason for discussing referral services separately from other
personal and career development services is that we have additional
related information. Specifically, the project survey asked about
referrals to other TRIO programs (such as Student Support Services or
Upward Bound). Nearly all projects (98 percent) reported that they made
such referrals to some degree or another, including 26 percent that
reported frequent referrals (see table C.3). Projects with different
types of host institutions showed little variation in providing frequent
referrals to other TRIO programs.

+---------------------+--------+--------+--------+-------+-----------+
| Table               |        |        |        |       |           |
| C.3---Referrals to  |        |        |        |       |           |
| other TRIO programs |        |        |        |       |           |
| in the area         |        |        |        |       |           |
+---------------------+--------+--------+--------+-------+-----------+
|                     |        | Host   |        |       |           |
|                     |        | insti  |        |       |           |
|                     |        | tution |        |       |           |
+---------------------+--------+--------+--------+-------+-----------+
| Percent of projects | All    | Public | P      | 2     | Community |
| that provide        | pr     |        | rivate | -year | org.      |
| referrals           | ojects | 4-year |        |       |           |
|                     |        |        | 4-year |       |           |
+---------------------+--------+--------+--------+-------+-----------+
| Frequently          | 26%    | 24%    | 26%    | 29%   | 23%       |
+---------------------+--------+--------+--------+-------+-----------+
| Regularly           | 45     | 53     | 28     | 46    | 42        |
+---------------------+--------+--------+--------+-------+-----------+
| Occasionally        | 27     | 22     | 44     | 22    | 30        |
+---------------------+--------+--------+--------+-------+-----------+
| Never               | 2      | 0      | 3      | 3     | 5         |
+---------------------+--------+--------+--------+-------+-----------+

[Source]{.smallcaps}: National Survey of Talent Search Projects,
1999--2000.

# Use of Computer Technology in Project Services and Communications

Talent Search projects are incorporating computer technology into their
service plans to varying extents, as shown in table C.4. Results from
the project survey showed that 71 percent of projects used computerized
career guidance programs and that an equal percent offered assistance
with the online version of FAFSA.[^2] At the low end of the

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                                                                    *C-5*
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distribution, one-third (33 percent) of projects communicated with
participants by e-mail, and about one in 10 projects (11 percent) was
engaged in interactive distance-learning activities.[^3] Projects varied
widely in terms of how many technology-related features they had at
their disposal or used. About a quarter (24 percent) had or used six or
more features, and about the same number of projects (24 percent) used
two or fewer features; the mean was 4.1.

  ---------------------------- ---------- ------------- --------- -------- -----------
  Table C.4---Projects' use of                                             
  computer technology in                                                   
  services and communications                                              

                                          Host                             
                                          institution                      

                               All        Public 4-year Private   2-year   Community
                               projects                 4-year             org.

  Percent of projects that had                                             
  or made use of:                                                          

  Computerized career guidance 71%        71%           64%       81%      59%
  programs                                                                 

  Assistance with              71         69            54        77       76
  Internet-based FAFSA                                                     

  College applications online  66         72            54        68       60

  Assisted (computer) labs     61         61            68        61       58

  E-mail communication with    45         50            41        50       33
  target school                                                            

  Project Web page             43         53            38        36       41

  E-mail communication with    33         40            21        38       24
  participants                                                             

  Interactive                  11         10            10        15       3
  distance-learning activities                                             

  Percent of projects that had                                             
  or made use of:                                                          

  Seven or eight of the above  9          14            3         10       2

  Six of the above             15         15            12        19       13

  Five of the above            22         25            21        19       23

  Four of the above            17         12            24        22       14

  Three of the above           13         12            15        13       16

  Two of the above             14         14            15        10       20

  One or none of the above     10         10            12        9        13
  ---------------------------- ---------- ------------- --------- -------- -----------

[Source]{.smallcaps}: National Survey of Talent Search Projects,
1999--2000.

In some cases, the percent using computer technology differed
substantially between projects operated by different types of host
institutions. For example, 81 percent of projects hosted by 2-year
colleges used computerized career guidance programs

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  *C-6*   

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compared with 59 percent of projects hosted by community organizations.
Projects at public 4-year colleges were about twice as likely as those
at private 4-year colleges to use e-mail to communicate with
participants. Overall, however, there was no consistent pattern.

Although 28 percent of projects reported that use of technology was
currently a high priority, 78 percent indicated that there was high
likelihood that they would increase their emphasis on the use of
technology if they had more resources. Whether or not projects secure
more resources, it seems safe to assume that the use of computer
technology in program services and communications will increase in the
future. Our conversations with several project directors around the
country led us to believe that the use of technology to serve
participants was an issue of widespread interest. Accordingly, we
devoted some of our case studies to focusing on this issue. It is one of
three topics discussed in greater detail in appendix A.

# Services for Persons with Disabilities

About one in four Talent Search projects provided special services to
participants with disabilities (table C.5). Although not shown in the
table, there was almost no variation between projects operated by
different types of host institutions in the provision of special
services. The most common service provided by the projects was
transportation (47 percent), followed by specialized instruction (46
percent) and assistive devices/educational technology (36 percent).
Relatively few projects (19 percent) provided all three of these special
services; the mean was 1.3. Our case studies did not explicitly explore
services for persons with disabilities.

  ----------------------------------------------- -----------------------
  Table C.5---Services to participants with       
  mental or physical disabilities                 

  Percent of projects providing special services  25%

  Of all projects providing special services,     
  percent providing:                              

  Transportation                                  47

  Specialized instruction                         46

  Assistive devices/educational technology        36

  Of all projects providing special services,     
  percent providing:                              

  All three of the above                          19

  Two of the above                                17

  One of the above                                41

  None of the above^a^                            23
  ----------------------------------------------- -----------------------

[Source]{.smallcaps}: National Survey of Talent Search Projects,
1999--2000.

^a^Many of these projects reported providing some other type of special
service.

[^1]: A "session" may be thought of as any meeting, activity, or event
    that involves participants. Some sessions may involve a single
    participant, others may involve many participants.

[^2]: In addition, 80 percent of projects checked "yes" when asked about
    "other computer-related activities/services," but we cannot be
    certain about the specific services or activities they had in mind
    and therefore excluded that survey item from this analysis.

[^3]: Appendix A includes a description of one project's
    distance-tutoring service.