Appendix 

**U. S. Department of Education**

**Office of Postsecondary Education/Federal TRIO Programs**

**Policies and Procedures for the Standard Objectives**

**Educational Opportunity Centers (EOC) Program**

**2021-2026 Grant Cycle**

***Brief summary of policies and procedures for assessing PE and Standard Objective Metrics***

· The PE Assessment years are 2022-23, 2023-24, 2024-25 (the second, third and fourth years of the grant cycle)

· Standard Objective metrics, are calculated for years 2021-22 and 2025-26 (the first and fifth year of the grant cycle)

· The calculation of the standard objectives is based on: 

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

· A project’s approved objectives; and

· The data a project submits in its annual performance report (APR).

· For the 2021-26 grant cycle, a project may only earn up to a total of 15 points for each year assessed.   

· **A project that served less than 90 percent of the number of students the project was funded to serve in the assessment year is not eligible to earn points for any of the standard objectives in the assessment year.**

· 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 points 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 percent, not 100 percent. 

· Information submitted through the Annual Performance Report are used to evaluate performance on the following objectives each year of the grant cycle:  **Funded Number; Secondary School Diploma; Financial Aid Application; Postsecondary Education Admissions; and Postsecondary Education Enrollment.**

· Evaluations determine whether a project meets or exceeds the approved objectives. No partial credit is given. If the calculated rate is greater than or equal to the approved rate, a score will be calculated. Standard rounding rules are used (e.g., 79.6% rounds to 80%) for the Secondary School Diploma; Financial Aid Applications; Postsecondary Education Admissions; and Postsecondary Education Enrollment objectives.

· The Department will not accept any changes to the project’s APR data once the APR has been submitted.

The formulae for calculating the standard objectives are provided below. 

***How is the Funded Number Criterion Calculated?***

Points are assessed based on the project having served the approved number of participants for the reporting year. The actual number of participants served must be equal to or greater than the number of participants the project was funded to serve.  

The calculation rule for the Funded Number criterion is as follows:

· The total number of participants assisted (Section II, Field A3 of the APR) is compared to the number of participants the project was funded to serve (from the project's approved objectives; pre-populated at the beginning of Section II in the on-line APR data collection platform).

***How is the Secondary School Diploma Rate Calculated?***

Secondary school diploma is defined as the percentage of participants who did not have a secondary school diploma or its equivalent at time of first service in the project year who received a secondary school diploma or its equivalent during the project year.

The calculation rules for the school diploma rate are as follows:

· The **denominator** is the number of participants who did not have a secondary school diploma or its equivalent at the time of first service in the reporting year project year (sum of Section III A1, A2, A5, B1, B2, B3, and B4) minus the deceased (Section IV, A5). 

· The **numerator** is the number of participants in the denominator who received a secondary school diploma or equivalent during the project year (Section IV A1). 

***How is the Financial Aid Applications Rate Calculated?***

Financial aid application is defined as the percentage of participants, who at the time of first service in the project year were not already enrolled in a postsecondary education program and who: 1) were high school seniors or equivalents in alternative education programs; 2) were high school graduates; or 3) had obtained a high school equivalency certificate, applied for financial aid during the project year. 

The calculation rules for the financial aid application rate are as follows:

· The **denominator** is the number of participants, at the time first service in the reporting period, who are not enrolled in postsecondary education, and who are high school seniors or equivalents in alternative programs or who have a secondary diploma or equivalent (Section III, A1, A3, A4, A6, and B2). 

· The **numerator** is the number of participants in the denominator who applied for financial aid during the project year (Section IV, B1). 

***How is the Postsecondary Education Admissions Rate Calculated?***

Postsecondary education admissions is defined as the percentage of participants, who at the time of first service in the project year were not already enrolled in a postsecondary education program and who: 1) were high school seniors or equivalents in alternative education programs; 2) were high school graduates; or 3) had obtained a high school equivalency certificate, applied for postsecondary admission during the project year.

The calculation rules for the postsecondary education admissions rate are as follows:

· The **denominator** is the number of participants, who at time the first time of service in the reporting period,  are not enrolled in postsecondary education, and who are high school seniors or equivalents in alternative programs or who have a secondary diploma or equivalent (Section III, A1, A3, A4, A6, and B2). 

· The **numerator** is the number of participants in the denominator who applied for admission to a postsecondary education program (Section IV, C1).

***How is the Postsecondary Education Enrollment Rate Calculated?***

Postsecondary education enrollment is defined as the percentage of participants who graduate from secondary school and are not already enrolled in a postsecondary education program will enroll in a postsecondary education program immediately following participation in an EOC program or will have received notification, by the fall semester, of acceptance but deferred enrollment until the next academic semester (e.g. spring semester).

Points are calculated based on one of two different interpretations as to what constitutes the denominator and numerator for this objective.  When completing the APR for the 2021-22 reporting year, the online Web application required every project to indicate, by selecting one of the two options discussed below, which interpretation of the objective was followed when the project established its postsecondary enrollment objective in its FY 2021 application.  This will help guide the Department to accurately calculate each project’s points for this objective.  Projects will **NOT** be allowed to change their selection within the same grant cycle to maintain consistency in calculation of points.  The option selected for the 2021-22 APR cannot be changed for the remainder of the grant cycle.

The calculation rules for the postsecondary enrollment rate are as follows:

· Option 1: The **denominator** for this objective includes participants that received a secondary school diploma or its equivalent during the reporting year (Section IV, A1).  The **numerator**is the number of participants in the denominator who received a secondary school diploma or its equivalent during the reporting year and enrolled in a postsecondary education program (Section IV, D1).  

· Option 2: The **denominator** for this objective includes participants that received a secondary school diploma or its equivalent during the reporting year (Section IV, A1) and those participants who had a secondary school diploma or credential at the time of first service (Section III, A3, A4, A6 minus deceased reported in Section IV, D4) during the reporting year. The **numerator**is the number of participants in the denominator who received a secondary school diploma or its equivalent during the reporting year and enrolled in a postsecondary education program (Section IV, D1) **and** the number of participants who already had a secondary school diploma or credentials at the time of first service and enrolled in a postsecondary education program (IV, D2).

Note:  Because Section IV, A5 identified deceased participants, IV, A1 does not include such students; therefore, the calculation for Option 1 does not involve subtracting deceased participants from the denominator. On the other hand, Section IIIA does not identify deceased participants; therefore, in the calculation for Option 2, deceased participants in IV, D4 are subtracted from the denominator.

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