A Profile of the

Upward Bound

Program: 2000–2001

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

OFFICE OF POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION

FEDERAL TRIO PROGRAMS

2004 

A Profile of the 

Upward Bound 

Program: 2000–2001

Prepared for:

U.S. Department of Education 

Office of Postsecondary Education

Federal TRIO Programs

By:

Research Triangle Institute

Margaret W. Cahalan

Thomas R. Curtin
This report was prepared for the U.S. Department of Education under Contract No. ED–01––CO–0052/0007.

The views expressed herein are those of the contractor. No official endorsement by the U.S. Department of

Education is intended or should be inferred.

U. S. Department of Education

Rod Paige

Secretary

Office of Postsecondary Education 

Sally L. Stroup

Assistant Secretary

Federal TRIO Programs

Larry Oxendine

Director

August 2004

This report is in the public domain. Authorization to reproduce it in whole or in part is granted. While permission to reprint this publication is not necessary, the citation should be: U.S. Department of Education, Office of

Postsecondary Education, A Profile of the Upward Bound Program: 2000–2001, by Margaret W. Cahalan and

Thomas R. Curtin, Washington, DC, 2004.

To obtain additional copies of this report:

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20794–1398;

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or order online at: http://www.edpubs.org.

This report is also available on the Department’s Web site at: http://www.ed.gov/programs/

trioupbound/index.html.

On request, this publication is available in alternate formats, such as Braille, large print, audiotape, or computer

diskette. For more information, please contact the Department’s Alternate Format Center at (202) 260–9895 or

(202) 205–8113.
CONTENTS

TABLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v

FIGURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii

FOREWORD. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi

HIGHLIGHTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii

Grantees and target schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii

Participants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii

Program participation levels, services, and academic measures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiv

Postsecondary enrollment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiv

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

A. Program purpose, origins, requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

B. Program funding history . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

C. The changing national context. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

D. National evaluations of Upward Bound and Upward Bound Initiatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

1. Summary of national evaluations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

2. Upward Bound Initiatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

E. The purpose and development of the Upward Bound performance report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

F. Report structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

CHAPTER 2 CHARACTERISTICS OF GRANTEES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

A. Federal region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

B. IPEDS comparison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

CHAPTER 3 UPWARD BOUND PARTICIPANTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

A. Participant distribution, by eligibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

1. Context: National data on poverty and parent education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

2. Distribution of Upward Bound participants, by eligibility status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

B. Participant distribution, by race/ethnicity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

1. Context: National data on race/ethnicity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

2. Distribution of Upward Bound participants, by race/ethnicity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

C. Participant distribution, by gender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

1. Context: National data on educational participation by gender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

2. Upward Bound distribution, by gender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

D. Participant need for services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

E. Participant distribution, by grade and age at entry into the program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

1. Grade at entry into Upward Bound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

2. Age at entry into Upward Bound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

iii
CHAPTER 4 UPWARD BOUND TARGET SCHOOLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

A. Number of target schools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

B. Estimates of the percentage of potentially eligible participants served . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

C. Comparison of percentage eligible for free lunch and percentage minority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

CHAPTER 5 HIGH SCHOOL PROGRAM PARTICIPATION, SERVICES,

AND ACADEMIC MEASURES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

A. Participation level, number served, and length of participation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

1. Participation level. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

2. Number served and number funded to serve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

B. Participant status. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

1. Participation length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

2. Reason for leaving the program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

3. Overlap among UB and UBMS participation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

C. Services offered and received . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

1. Percentage of projects offering service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

2. Percentage of participants receiving instruction in the subject area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

3. Other services for UB in 2000–01. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

D. High school grades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

1. GPA at the start and end, by grade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

2. GPA change status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

3. Upward Bound Initiative preliminary data on GPAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

E. College entrance exams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

1. Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

2. UB college entrance exam results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

F. Credits earned. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

CHAPTER 6 POSTSECONDARY ENROLLMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

A. Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

B. Context: National data on enrollment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

1. Enrollment status of dependent family members 18–24 years of age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

2. College enrollment for high school graduates the October following graduation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

C. Upward Bound performance report data on postsecondary enrollment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

1. Source of information on postsecondary enrollment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

2. Type of postsecondary enrollment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

3. Postsecondary enrollment status, financial aid sources, and standing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

4. Postsecondary grade level and degree and certificate completion status. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

REFERENCES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

APPENDIX A UPWARD BOUND PERFORMANCE REPORTING:

METHODS AND DATA QUALITY FOR THE FIRST YEAR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

APPENDIX B GLOSSARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

iv
TABLES

1. TRIO funding, number of grants, number of participants, average award, average number served, 

and amount per person served: 2002–03 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

2. TRIO funding, by program in current and constant 2002 dollars: 1967–2002 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

3. Projects and unduplicated counts of current and prior-year UB, UBMS, and VUB participants 

included in the project reports, by type of project and grantee sector: 2000–01. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

4. Number and percentage of Upward Bound projects, by federal region: 2000–01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

5. Number and percentage of two- and four-year degree-granting institutions serving undergraduates 

that have Upward Bound grants, by type of postsecondary institution: 2000–01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

6. Comparison of the distribution of Carnegie classified institutions and UB grantees, by type of degree

awarded: 2000–01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

7. Postsecondary institutions serving undergraduates and institutions with Upward Bound projects, 

by type of institution: 2000–01. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

8. Percentage distribution of UB participants, by eligibility status and by sector of grantee: 2000–01 . . . 16

9. Percentage distribution of U.S. population, by race/ethnicity: 1970–2001 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

10. Percentage distribution of reported reason for needing UB services, by sector: 2000–01 . . . . . . . . . . . 20

11. Percentage distribution of types of tests used to assess academic need and mean PLAN-ACT and 

PSAT test scores for UB projects: 2000–01. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

12. Percentage distribution of UB participants, by grade at entry into program: 2000–01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

13. Percentage distribution and mean age at program entry for new, current, and re-entry participants 

in UB projects, by sector of host institution: 1999–2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

14. Number of UB and UBMS projects, number of target schools, and target schools as a percentage 

of total public schools serving grades 9–12, by state: 2000–01. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

15. Number of participants served by Upward Bound and Talent Search projects and estimated 

percentage of students eligible for free lunch served by the programs, by state: 2000–01 . . . . . . . . . . . 26

16. Percentage of students in grades 9 to 12 eligible for the federal free lunch program in Upward Bound

target schools and other secondary schools, by state: 2000–01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

17. Percentage of minority students in grades 9 to 12 in Upward Bound schools and other secondary 

schools, by state: 2000–01. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

18. Number and percentage distribution of Upward Bound participants, by grantee sector and type of

participation in reporting year: 2000–01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

19. Number of UB projects and number of participants the projects were funded to serve and actually 

served, by Upward Bound Initiative status: 2000–01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

20. Percentage distribution of participants, by participant status (new, continuing, and re-entry) and 

by type of Upward Bound project: 2000–01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

21. Percentage distribution, mean, and median number of months between entry date and date of last

participation or end of reporting period for UB participants, by participant status: 2000–01 . . . . . . . . 34

22. Percentage distribution, mean, and median number of months between entry date and exit date (or end 

date of reporting period) for prior-year participants in UB projects, by project sector: 2000–01. . . . . . . . 35

23. Percentage distribution of reported reasons for leaving the program of UB participants with a 

reported date of last service: 2000–01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

24. Number of UB and UBMS projects with overlapping current and prior-year participants, by grantee

sector: 2000–01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

v
25. Percentage of UB projects having at least one participant receiving service in academic areas and the

percentage of current participants receiving the services: 2000–01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

26. Percentage distribution of UB projects providing academic year and/or summer service and 

percentage of current participants receiving the service: 2000–01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

27. Mean high school GPA on 4-point scale for new, continuing, and re-entry UB participants, by grade

entering at end of reporting period: 2000–01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

28. Mean GPA at entrance into program, start of reporting period, and end of reporting period, by GPA

change status for participants served by UB and UBMS: 2000–01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

29. Grade point averages (GPAs) for UB participants, by Upward Bound Initiative status: 2000–01 . . . . . 43

30. Average national scores for SAT and ACT, by selected socioeconomic categories: 2001 . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

31. Percentage of UB participants in performance reports with test information and mean score for 

college entrance exams, by end grade level: 2000–01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

32. Percentage of UB participants earning credits and credits earned, by type of credits earned: 2000–01. . . 45

33. Percentage distribution of enrollment status of dependent primary family members 18 to 24 years 

old, by family income level: 2000. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

34. Estimated number of persons in family income categories and percent of high school graduates 

enrolled in college the October following high school graduation, by gender and family income: 

October 2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

35. Percentage distribution of source of information on postsecondary activities for UB and UBMS

participants, by gender: 2000–01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

36. Percentage distribution of the types of postsecondary institutions first attended by Upward Bound

participants, by sector of grantee institution: 2000–01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

37. Percentage distribution of postsecondary enrollment status among those reported as enrolled, 

by gender: 2000–01. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

38. Percentage distribution of type of financial aid among those having financial aid status reported,

by gender: 2000–01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

39. Percentage distribution of postsecondary enrollment standing among those reported as enrolled in or

accepted at postsecondary institutions, by gender: 2000–01. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

40. Percentage distribution of postsecondary grade level among those reported to have completed 

secondary education, by gender: 2000–01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

41. Percentage distribution of postsecondary degree completion status among those reported to have

completed secondary education, by gender: 2000–01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

A–1. Number of Upward Bound projects funded and number and percentage that submitted participant

performance reports, by program type: 2000–01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

vi
FIGURES

1. TRIO funding in constant 2002 dollars, by program: 1967–2002 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

2. Percentage of the population 18–24 years old who have dropped out of high school (status dropout 

rate), by race/ethnicity: 1967–2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

3. Percentage of 18–24-year-olds enrolled in postsecondary institutions, by race/ethnicity: selected 

years, 1967–2000. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

4. Percentage of high school graduates enrolled in college the October following graduation, by family

income: 1972–2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

5. Percentage distribution of UB projects, by sector of host grantees: 2000–01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

6. Percentage of people under 18 years who were below the poverty level, by race/ethnicity: 1970–2001 . . 13

7. Percentage of U.S. population and of persons under 18 in families in poverty and under 150 percent 

of poverty level, by race/ethnicity: 2001 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

8. Percentage of children 6–18 years of age having a mother with a bachelor’s degree and percentage 

having a father with a bachelor’s degree, by race/ethnicity: 1974–1999. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

9. Percentage of high school students who were potentially first-generation four-year college graduates 

by race/ethnicity: 1972, 1980, 1990, and 2002 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

10. Percentage distribution of UB participants, by eligibility status: 2000–01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

11. Percentage distribution of UB participants, by race/ethnicity: 2000–01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

12. Percentage distribution of UB participants, by race/ethnicity and by host grantee sector: 2000–01 . . . 17

13. Percentage distribution of participants, by race/ethnicity and by type of Upward Bound program: 

2000–01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

14. Percentage of 18–24-year-olds who dropped out of high school (status dropout rate), by gender:

1967–2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

15. Percentage of high school graduates aged 14–24 who were enrolled in or completed some college, by

gender: 1967–2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

16. Percentage distribution of participants, by gender and by type of Upward Bound project: 2000–01 . . 19

17. Percentage distribution of participants, by grade at entry into program and by type of Upward Bound

program: 2000–01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

18. Average number of target schools, by type of Upward Bound project: 2000–01. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

19. Percentage of UB and UBMS participants participating at various levels during the reporting year:

2000–01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

20. Number served over course of the reporting year, number funded to serve, and estimated Yearly 

Full-Time-Equivalent (YFTE) number served, among UB projects submitting performance reports:

2000–01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

21. Percentage distribution of UB current (re-entry, continuing, and new) participants, by grantee sector:

2000–01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

22. Percentage of participants who received instructional services in core subject areas in UB and UBMS

during the academic year and the summer program: 2000–01. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

23. Percentage of participants who received instructional services in selected mathematics subject areas 

in UB and UBMS during the academic year and the summer program: 2000–01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

24. GPA of UB participants served in reporting period at program entry, start of reporting period, and 

end of period, by GPA change status: 2000–01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

vii
25. Percentage of dependent primary family members 18–24 years old enrolled full and part time in 

two-year and four-year postsecondary institutions or having a bachelor’s degree, by family income 

level and by gender: October 2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

26. Percentage of UB participants enrolled (or accepted for enrollment) in postsecondary education who

attended grantee institutions, by grantee sector: 2000–01 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

viii
FOREWORD

To help achieve our collective goal of “no child left behind,” high-quality educational opportunities must be

available to all students. In keeping with this goal, the Federal TRIO Programs provide outreach and support to

help low-income and potentially first-generation college students who have need for academic support to progress

through the academic pipeline from middle school to postbaccalaureate programs.

On behalf of the Federal TRIO Programs, I am pleased to present this report, A Profile of the Upward Bound

Program: 2000–2001. The goal of the classic Upward Bound Program is to encourage enrollment in postsecondary

education and to help low-income, first-generation high school students develop the skills and motivation necessary for success in that environment.

This report is the first in a series that presents a national profile of the classic Upward Bound Program. We

are also preparing similar national profile reports on the Upward Bound Math-Science and Veterans Upward

Bound Programs. In addition, individual project reports, which will be provided separately, summarize specific

information submitted by each project and provide aggregate information on other Upward Bound projects in the

same federal region, the same institutional sector, and the nation. The 2000–01 performance reports, submitted

by the Upward Bound projects, were the primary data source for this national profile report and each individual

project report.

We are proud to formally begin a process for sharing national statistical information on the Upward Bound

Program and related national data. It is our hope that the collection and dissemination of this information will foster communication aimed at assessing our mission and implementing measures of how well we are doing. We also

hope that this profile report will serve as the catalyst for a dialogue on ways to provide program services to more

students, improve the effectiveness of program services, and increase postsecondary enrollment and degree completion for low-income, first-generation college students.

I appreciate the collective effort of the Upward Bound community to help ensure that our children will have

access to the opportunities afforded through a quality education.

Larry Oxendine

Director

Federal TRIO Programs

ix
x
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Publishing this report was a team effort, and we appreciate the support of all who contributed. First we thank

the project staff members of the Upward Bound projects who reported the data upon which this profile report is

based. We also want to thank Larry Oxendine, director of the Federal TRIO Programs, and Margarita Benítez,

team leader for the Upward Bound Program, for their contributions. Frances Bergeron, team leader, Program

Management and Development, Federal TRIO Programs, coordinated the data collection and reporting processes, provided feedback as the report developed, and reviewed the report. Kathy Fuller and Teresita Kopka, also of

TRIO, provided a careful review of the document in preparation for publication.

xi
xii
Highlights xiii

This report provides a comprehensive profile of

the regular (classic) Upward Bound (UB) program1

using individual student-level information for UB participants served in 1999–2000 and 2000–01. Ninetyseven percent of the Upward Bound projects (708 out

of 727 projects) provided student-level data for this

report. The 708 projects provided information in the

performance reports for 69,436 UB participants. After

removing duplicates (e.g., students who were listed

more than once within a project), some 68,628 UB

project participants were identified. This included

55,140 new, continuing, and re-entry participants

served during the 2000–01 project year (80 percent);

12,846 prior-year participants (19 percent)—those participants served in 1999–2000 but not in 2000–01; and

642 participants whose status is unknown (1 percent).

The highlights below provide information on the

characteristics of Upward Bound grantees and program

participants, program participation levels, services, and

secondary school academic measures; also provided are

preliminary data on postsecondary enrollment.

Grantees and target schools

• During the 2000–01 program year, a total of 

727 classic Upward Bound projects were funded.

• The largest percentage of UB grantees (63 percent) were four-year postsecondary institutions;

almost one-third (32 percent) of grantees were

two-year postsecondary institutions; and 5 percent

were community-based organizations.

• UB projects had high representation at minority

institutions. While Historically Black Colleges and

Universities constitute 3 percent of the nation’s

degree-granting institutions that serve undergraduates, they are grantees for 10 percent of UB projects. While Hispanic Serving Institutions represent

6 percent of degree-granting institutions, they

house 12 percent of UB projects. Tribal Colleges

and Universities constitute 1 percent of degreegranting institutions and serve as grantees for 

1 percent of UB projects.

• A typical UB project served six target high schools

while Upward Bound Math-Science (UBMS) centers served an average of 18 target schools.

• Among UB and UBMS target schools, 34 percent

of students were eligible for free lunch, while

about 25 percent of high school students were eligible for free lunch in non-UB schools.

• Almost half (47 percent) of the total enrollment in

UB and UBMS target schools was minority; in

non-UB schools, 31 percent of the enrollment

were minority students.

Participants

• Overall, 79 percent of Upward Bound participants

were both low-income and potentially first-generation college students; 16 percent were first-generation only; and 5 percent were low-income only.

HIGHLIGHTS

1There are three types of Upward Bound Program projects: regular, or classic, projects that prepare high school students for programs of postsecondary education; Math-Science Centers that prepare high school students for postsecondary programs that lead to

careers in the fields of math and science; and Veterans projects that

assist military veterans to prepare for entry into postsecondary education programs. The acronym UB refers to classic Upward Bound;

UBMS refers to Upward Bound Math-Science, and VUB refers to

Veterans Upward Bound.
xiv

• Thirty-eight percent of participants served in

2000–01 were new (first-time) participants; 

61 percent were continuing participants having also

participated in the program in 1999–2000; and a

very small percentage—less than one-half of 1 percent—was classified as re-entry participants.

• The largest percentage (45 percent) of Upward

Bound participants in 2000–01 were black or

African American followed by white (25 percent),

Hispanic or Latino (19 percent), Asian (5 percent),

American Indian or Alaska Native (4 percent),

Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander (2 percent), and those of more than one race (1 percent).

• Just under two-thirds (64 percent) of UB participants in 2000–01 were female.

• On average, classic UB projects served 

12 students per target school, while UBMS served

three students per target school.

• The most commonly cited reasons for the need for

services for Upward Bound participants were

those related to low grades, low achievement

scores, and low aspirations (about 30 percent).

The second most commonly reported reason for

needing services was lack of opportunity, support,

and guidance to take challenging college preparatory courses (about 20 percent), followed by being

a member of a “predominately low-income community” (about 18 percent).

• The majority of UB participants (approximately 

57 percent) entered the program as either ninthgraders or rising ninth-graders (i.e., students in the

summer between eighth and ninth grades). About

one-third (33 percent) entered in the 10th grade,

and 10 percent entered as 11th-graders. Less than

1 percent entered as rising 12th-graders.

• The mean age of UB participants at entry into the

project was 15.2 years. About 44 percent of UB participants entered the program at age 14 or under.

Program participation levels, services, and

academic measures

• About 61 percent of the 2000–01 participants were

involved in the program in the academic year as

well as the summer components. About 37 percent

participated in the academic year or the summer

but not both components; the level of participation

of approximately 2 percent was unknown.

• The mean number of months between the participant’s entry date and the date of last participation

or the end of the reporting period for those served

in 2000–01 was 22 months; the median was 21.

(Average length of participation of Upward Bound

students cannot be accurately reported at this time

because the data reported do not include a complete grade-level cohort.)

• Virtually all UB projects had participants receiving

instruction in the required areas of math, science,

foreign languages, and English.

• Average combined SAT scores for UB students

were from 899 for those with an end of reporting

period level of 12th grade and 917 for those with

an ending level of “enrolled in postsecondary.”

• Combined ACT scores were 18.8 for those entering

the 12th grade at the end of the period and 19.1 for

those with end grade of “enrolled in postsecondary.”

Postsecondary enrollment

For this first UB profile report, participant-level

data were only available for individuals served in

1999–2000 and 2000–01. Since nearly 90 percent 

of UB participants enter the program before the 

11th grade, most of the participants included in the

2000–01 report had not completed high school. Thus,

the data provided below on postsecondary enrollment

rates do not include a complete grade-level cohort of

UB participants. The following information is reported for those 1999–2000 and/or 2000–01 UB participants enrolled in postsecondary education at the end of

the report period (summer/fall 2001).

• Overall, of the UB participants enrolled in postsecondary education, 74 percent were enrolled in

a four-year institution and 25 percent in a twoyear institution. There was a positive association

between type of grantee institution and the type of

postsecondary institution attended. For example,

among UB participants from programs hosted by

two-year institutions, over half (52 percent)

attended two-year institutions.
xv

• Thirty-five percent of UB participants who

enrolled in a postsecondary institution enrolled in

the institution that hosted their Upward Bound

project (i.e., the grantee institution). The percentage of the total enrolled that attended the grantee

institution was highest among projects hosted by

two-year institutions (46 percent) and lowest

among projects hosted by four-year private institutions (17 percent).

• Over 90 percent of those enrolled were reported

to be attending full time, with only 5 percent

being reported as less than full time and 3 percent

reported to have varied enrollment.

• The majority of those enrolled (53 percent) were

reported to have multiple federal and other

sources of financial aid, with another 

20 percent reported to have multiple federal aid.

About 10 percent had a Pell grant only.

• Among those for whom postsecondary status was

reported, a small percentage (4 percent) was

reported as not being in good standing.
xvi
The U.S. Department of Education’s Strategic

Plan 2002–2007 (2002) established an objective to

“reduce the gaps in college access and completion

among student populations differing by race/ethnicity,

socioeconomic status, and disability while increasing

the educational attainment of all.” Upward Bound,

which made its first awards in 1965, has always sought

to increase the academic performance and motivation

of low-income youths and potentially first-generation

college students enrolled in high school, so that these

students may complete secondary school and successfully pursue postsecondary education programs. By

continuing its efforts to meet these goals, Upward

Bound seeks to contribute to achieving this objective

of the Strategic Plan.

The Profile of the Upward Bound Program:

2000–2001 is the first in a series of reports that present

a national profile of the classic Upward Bound (UB)

Program. We are preparing similar national profile

reports on the Upward Bound Math-Science (UBMS)

and Veterans Upward Bound (VUB) Programs.

Although each of the three types of Upward Bound

programs has shared goals and similar performance

reports, each has a unique mission, with different participant characteristics and services. Each profile

report follows the same outline and includes some

overarching tables that provide findings across the

three types of programs.2 However, detailed information in this report is presented only for the classic

Upward Bound program that is the focus of this profile report.

In this introductory chapter, we present information on program background, the changing context 

of Upward Bound, and the purpose and development

of the performance reports; we also outline the 

report structure.

A. Program purpose, origins, requirements

Upward Bound (UB) was the first TRIO program

and remains the largest of the programs in terms of

annual funding allocations. TRIO began with the

Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, which authorized 

18 pilot Upward Bound programs in 1965. In the same

year, the Higher Education Act of 1965 authorized the

Talent Search (TS) Program designed to identify and

assist youths with the potential for success in higher

education. In 1966, the UB Program was expanded

from the 18 pilot programs to 220. It was not until 1968

that the term TRIO was coined to encompass the three

initial programs—UB, TS, and the newly authorized

Student Support Services (SSS) Program that provides

support services to undergraduates to assist them in

completing programs of postsecondary education. At

the same time (in 1968), all three programs were placed

under Title IV of the Higher Education Act, as amended.

In 1972, during the Vietnam War, VUB was initiated to

assist veterans in transitioning from military service to

postsecondary education. Also in 1972, the Educational

Opportunity Centers (EOC) Program to serve adults

was authorized. Fourteen years later, in 1986, the

Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement

Program was authorized to prepare undergraduates

from groups underrepresented in graduate education

Chapter 1 Introduction 1

CHAPTER 1 

INTRODUCTION

2Throughout this report, unless otherwise noted or implied,

the acronym UB refers to classic Upward Bound. We refer to

Upward Bound Math-Science as UBMS and Veterans Upward

Bound as VUB.
for graduate study and the attainment of Ph.D. degrees.

In 1990, the Department created the UBMS Program

to address the need for specific instruction in the fields

of math and science. The Training Program for Federal

TRIO Programs, authorized in 1976, supports training

programs to enhance the skills and expertise of project

directors and staff employed in the Federal TRIO

Programs. The newest program, TRIO Dissemination

Partnership, authorized in 1998, encourages the replication of successful practices of TRIO Programs at

institutions and agencies that do not have a federally

funded TRIO project.

The purpose of Upward Bound has always been to

foster, among low-income youths and potentially firstgeneration college students enrolled in high school, the

skills and motivation necessary for enrollment and success in education beyond high school. The goal of the

program is to increase the academic performance and

motivation of eligible participants so that they may

complete secondary school and successfully pursue

postsecondary education programs.

To participate in Upward Bound, students must be

between the ages of 13 and 19 (except for veterans),

have completed eight years of elementary education,

plan to go to college, and need Upward Bound services

to fulfill their goals. Students are generally recruited for

participation in UB and UBMS through the high

schools they attend. Selection of the participants is

based upon recommendations from their counselors,

teachers, and social agencies. Two-thirds of project participants must be low-income (defined as taxable

income less than 150 percent of poverty level, e.g., the

income level for a family of four was approximately

$26,475 in 2001) and potentially first-generation college students. “Potentially first-generation college student” means that neither of the student’s parents has

completed a bachelor’s degree. The remaining onethird of participants must be either low-income or

potentially first-generation college students.

Annually, UB projects serve between 50 and 

150 participants; UBMS projects serve between 

50 and 75, and VUB projects serve a minimum of 

120 veterans. These requirements can be waived.

UB and UBMS projects must provide both an

intensive summer residential or nonresidential program (usually six weeks in length) designed to simulate

the college-going experience and an academic-year

program. Through the academic-year program, participants continue to receive academic and college preparation support services, offered typically on weekends

or after the regular school day. In addition to the

required summer program and academic-year program, projects may also have a summer bridge component for high school graduates planning to enter postsecondary education in the fall.

Upward Bound stipends may be provided to all

participants who participate on a full-time basis as evidenced by regular attendance and performance up to

the standards established by the project. Except for

youths participating in summer work-study positions,

the stipend for the summer months must not exceed

$60 per month, and for the academic-year component,

the stipend must not exceed $40 per month. To retain

students in the summer program who otherwise might

need to work, projects may now (as of 1998) pay youths

participating in a work-study position a stipend of 

$300 per month during the summer.

UB grants are generally four years in length, with

the top-scoring proposals receiving five-year grants.

Prior experience points may be earned by grantees that

have conducted an Upward Bound project during the

three years prior to the year in which the new application is submitted. Upward Bound grantees may earn up

to 15 prior experience points based on the following

five regulatory criteria reflecting the goals of Upward

Bound; each criterion is worth three points:

1. Whether the project serves the number of participants agreed to under the approved application;

2. The extent to which project participants have

demonstrated improvement in academic skills

and competencies as measured by standardized

achievement tests and grade point averages;

2 A Profile of the Upward Bound Program: 2000–2001
3. The extent to which project participants continue

to participate in the Upward Bound Program

until they complete their secondary education

program;

4. The extent to which participants who complete

the project, or were scheduled to complete the

project, undertake programs of postsecondary

education; and

5. The extent to which participants who complete

the project, or were scheduled to complete the

project, succeed in education beyond high

school, including the extent to which they graduate from postsecondary education programs.

B. Program funding history

With an annual appropriation of $802.5 million in

Fiscal Year 2002 (FY 2002), the Federal TRIO

Programs are the largest set of discretionary grant programs in the U.S. Department of Education. Table 1

gives a summary of TRIO funding information and participant numbers for FY 2002 (2002–03 academic year).

Table 2 gives historical information on funding for

TRIO programs from 1967 to 2002 in current and constant 2002 dollars. During the 1990s, the annual appropriation for the Federal TRIO Programs increased substantially in current dollars and in constant dollars, after

a flat period for much of the 1980s. In 2002, roughly

2,600 grants were made to serve an estimated 

800,000 students. Upward Bound has historically had—

and continues to have—the largest total funding allocation of any of the TRIO programs ($264 million in

2002 for UB and $32 million for UBMS) and the second largest funding per student served ($4,648 for UB

and $5,215 for UBMS in 2002). Together Upward

Bound programs serve about 63,000 participants per

Chapter I Introduction 3

Table 1. TRIO funding, number of grants, number of participants, average award, average number served,

and amount per person served: 2002–03

Grant Average Amount

amount Number of Number of Average served per

Program (millions) grants participants award per project participant

Upward Bound* $264.2 770 56,841 $343,103 74 $4,648

Upward Bound Math-Science* 31.8 123 6,093 258,312 50 5,215

Talent Search 143.5 475 389,454 302,117 820 368

Educational Opportunity Centers 48.0 139 217,836 345,405 1,567 220

Student Support Services 262.7 937 198,551 280,375 212 1,323

McNair 38.4 156 3,774 245,880 24 10,164

Dissemination 3.4 17 — 200,740 — —

Training 6.8 29 4,164 233,181 144 1,642

— Not applicable.

* Veterans Upward Bound Projects are included with the totals for classic Upward Bound (43 Veterans Upward Bound projects in 2002) and Upward

Bound Math-Science (two Veterans Upward Bound in 2002).

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, 2002.
year. Figure 1 provides a graphic display of TRIO funding in constant 2002 dollars across the periods in which

the programs were operating.

C. The changing national context

Since 1965, when Congress authorized the first

TRIO programs, significant advances in the educational

achievement and attainment of low-income, firstgeneration, and minority students have taken place within the United States. To provide context for the program

profile for 2000–01, we review national data on changes

in high school dropout rates and postsecondary enrollment over the period since TRIO began.

When Upward Bound and Talent Search began in

the late 1960s, there was considerable emphasis on

increasing high school graduation rates as the first step

towards increasing college enrollment. Indeed since

that time, secondary school dropout rates have

declined, especially among black or African American3

youths—dropout rates in 2000 were less than half of

4 A Profile of the Upward Bound Program: 2000–2001

Table 2. TRIO funding, by program in current and constant 2002 dollars: 1967–2002

(amounts in millions of dollars)

Student Educational

Upward Talent Support Opportunity Upward BoundYear Bound* Search Services Centers McNair Math-Science*

Current dollars

1967 $27.0 $2.5 † † † †

1970 29.6 5.0 $10.0 † † †

1975 38.3 6.0 23.0 $3.0 † †

1980 62.5 15.3 60.0 7.7 † †

1985 73.1 20.7 70.2 9.2 † †

1990 102.6 27.0 90.9 11.9 $3.0 $3.4

1992 144.1 65.7 127.1 20.5 9.6 14.6

1995 171.6 78.8 143.5 24.6 19.1 19.0

1999 220.5 98.5 178.9 29.8 32.1 29.3

2000 249.7 100.6 183.3 30.5 34.9 31.3

2002 264.2 143.5 262.7 48.0 38.4 31.8

Constant 2002 dollars

1967 $123.3 $11.4 † † † †

1970 118.9 20.1 $40.2 † † †

1975 113.0 17.7 67.8 $8.8 † †

1980 129.1 31.6 124.0 15.9 † †

1985 116.6 33.0 112.0 14.7 † †

1990 136.8 36.0 121.2 15.9 $4.0 $4.5

1992 181.0 82.5 159.7 25.8 12.1 18.3

1995 201.2 92.4 168.2 28.8 22.4 22.3

1999 237.9 106.3 193.0 32.1 34.6 31.6

2000 260.6 105.0 191.3 31.8 36.4 32.7

2002 264.2 143.5 262.7 48.0 38.4 31.8

*Veterans Upward Bound Project funding is included with the totals for classic Upward Bound and Upward Bound Math Science, as applicable.

†Denotes time period prior to program initiation.

NOTE: Amounts of TRIO funding presented in millions of dollars.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, and Consumer Price Index, various years.

3Consistent with the U.S. Census, tables and figures reporting

U.S. Census information use only the term “Black.”
what they were at the time of TRIO program implementation in the late 1960s. However, as the Census

data indicate, the percentage of high school students

who have dropped out of high school remains high

among all groups in the United States, but especially so

for Hispanic youths who may be children of nonEnglish speaking parents (figure 2).

Figure 3 presents the postsecondary education

enrollment rates from 1967 to 2000 for 18–24-year-old

individuals, by racial-ethnic group. Overall rates

increased from 26 percent in 1967 to 36 percent in

2000. Black or African American youths had the largest

increase—more than doubling, from 13 to 30 percent.

The rate of college attendance among Hispanic youth

was 20 percent in 1975, declined to 16–17 percent in

the 1980s, and was 22 percent in 2000 (figure 3).

Figure 4 displays Census figures on the percentage

of high school graduates enrolling in postsecondary

education immediately after high school graduation

(i.e., by the following October). Overall, postsecondary

enrollment among high school graduates went from 

49 percent in 1972 to 61 percent in 2000. Among

youths from low-income families, the Census Bureau

estimate was 26 percent and 38 percent, respectively, in

1972 and 2000 (figure 4).

Although it is important not to minimize these gains,

there remain unacceptably large gaps in postsecondary

educational attainment among student populations differing by race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status. For example, in 2000, the potential for a college degree by age 24

was estimated to be about 8 percent for those in the lowest economic quartile, as compared with 52 percent for

those in the highest quartile (Mortenson 2001). For these

reasons, the U.S. Department of Education’s Strategic

Plan for 2002–2007 stated an objective to reduce these

gaps by half over the five-year period (U.S. Department of

Education Strategic Plan 2002–2007, 2002).

Chapter I Introduction 5

Figure 2. Percentage of the population 18–24 years

old who have dropped out of high school

(status dropout rate), by race/ethnicity:

1967–2000

NOTE: The term “status dropout rate” in this figure is based on the self

reports of 18–24-year-old respondents to the Current Population Survey

(CPS) question on high school graduation status. This figure reflects

cumulative data on dropouts among 18–24-year-olds and is considerably

higher than that reported by Census for the annual dropout rate of

15–17-year-olds which is the proportion of students who left school in

the year reported. For example, for 15–17-year-olds the annual rate was

4.5 percent for the national rate and 6.8 for Hispanics in 2000 (as reported in Census Table A–4. Annual High School Dropout Rates by Sex, Race,

Grade, and Hispanic Origin October 1967 to 2000).

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Current

Population Surveys, 1967–2000 (Table A-5. The Population 14 to 24 Years

Old, by High School Graduate Status, College Enrollment, Attainment, Sex,

Race, and Hispanic Origin: October 1967 to 2000)

(http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/school.html).

12.2

17.9 15.3

34.5

4.6

32.3

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005

Hispanic Black Asian or Pacific Islander

Percent

40.4

White

Figure 1. TRIO funding in constant 2002 dollars, by

program: 1967–2002

NOTE: UB=classic Upward Bound; TS =Talent Search; SSS= Student

Support Services; EOC= Educational Opportunity Centers;

McNair = Ronald McNair Post-Baccalaureate Program;

UBMS = Upward Bound Math-Science.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, and

Consumer Price Index: 1965–2000.

11.4

143.5

8.8

264.2

123.3

262.7

40.2 48.0

4.0

38.4

4.5 31.8 $0

$50

$100

$150

$200

$250

$300

UB

1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005

SSS TS EOC UBMS McNair

Dollar amounts reported in millions
D. National evaluations of Upward Bound

and Upward Bound Initiatives

1. Summary of national evaluations

There have been two major national studies of

Upward Bound—the first conducted by Research

Triangle Institute (now known as RTI International)

between 1973 and 1979 (Burkheimer, Riccobono, and

Wisenbaker 1979) and the second by Mathematica Policy

Research (MPR) begun in the early 1990s that is ongoing

(Myers and Schirm 1996; 1999). In addition, there have

been a number of analyses that used U.S. Department of

Education, National Center for Education Statistics

(NCES), national longitudinal studies of high school students, such as High School and Beyond and the National

Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88) to look

at pre-college program participation impact (Horn and

Chen 1998). We note below some similarities in key findings from the UB evaluation studies, as they can help

focus our analyses of the performance report data for this

report and inform future planned analyses focused on

performance outcomes.

Although 20 years and different methodologies (the

RTI study used a matched comparison group and

Mathematica used random assignment) separate the

two national evaluation studies, there are similarities in

some of the findings from the RTI study of the 1970s

and those emerging from the random assignment study

begun in the 1990s and still in progress. Most notably,

both studies found length of program participation to

be related to outcomes. Both studies also found positive

impacts for certain subgroups, especially those considered to be more at-risk at entry into the program, either

because of lower expectations4 for college attendance or

degree attainment, and/or lower grade point average.

These findings suggest that some attention should be

paid in the performance report analyses to measures of

program retention and risk factors among participants.

2. Upward Bound Initiatives

For most Upward Bound projects, 1999–2000 was

the beginning of a new multi-year grant cycle. Partly in

response to the national evaluation findings that suggest6 A Profile of the Upward Bound Program: 2000–2001

Figure 4. Percentage of high school graduates

enrolled in college the October following

graduation, by family income: 1972–2000

NOTE: Low income from 1972 to 1995 was the lowest 20 percent of

family incomes; high income was the top 20 percent; and middle

income was the 60 percent in between. Percents reported for low

income for 1990 and 1995 represent three-year averages due to small

yearly sample sizes. In 2000, the percentage groupings changed somewhat: low income included the bottom 19 percent, and high income

was the upper 33 percent. Middle income was the 48 percent between

the two other groups.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, October

Current Population Surveys, 1972–2000

(http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/school.html).

37.7

26.1

45.2

59.2

63.8

76.7

49.2

61.0

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005

High income Total U.S. Middle income Low income

Percent

4Lower expectations for college attendance or degree attainment

refers to responses to survey items concerning how far in school the

respondent would like to go and also how far in school the respondent anticipated going in terms of completing a high school, vocational postsecondary, college, or advanced degree.

Figure 3. Percentage of 18–24-year-olds enrolled in

postsecondary institutions, by

race/ethnicity: selected years, 1967–2000

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, October

Current Population Surveys, 1967–2000

(http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/school.html).

25.5

26.9

35.6

30.3

13.0

21.7 20.4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005

White All students Black Hispanic

Percent
ed that greater benefits from the program accrued to students who were at greater risk of not graduating from

high school or of not pursuing postsecondary education,

for the 2000–01 project year, the Department of

Education awarded supplemental grants to 184 regular

Upward Bound projects to encourage them to select and

serve such students over a three-year period (2000–01,

2001–02, and 2002–03). This is known as the FY 2000

Upward Bound Program Participant Expansion Initiative. In

the performance report, Upward Bound projects included

and identified individuals served in 2000–01 under this

initiative. Since this initiative was in its first year in the

timeframe covered by this report, only limited information on the initiative is provided in this report.

The Department of Education has continued to

encourage projects to serve greater numbers of higherrisk students. The Department included an invitational priority in the grant application guidelines for the 

FY 2003 Upward Bound grant competition encouraging applicants to serve higher-risk students. Then, in

the summer of 2003, the Department conducted a

competition for supplemental funding that required

projects to select students from low-income schools

who had not met the state academic achievement standards for grade eight in reading/language arts or math

and/or who had grade point averages of 2.5 or less.

This competition for supplemental funding is known as

the FY 2003 Upward Bound Program Participant

Expansion Initiative. In 2003, 219 Upward Bound projects received supplemental funding under this second

expansion initiative to serve an estimated 4,000 higherrisk students. Thus, Upward Bound is continuing to

emphasize service to higher-risk students for whom

national evaluation findings suggest the program may

have greater benefit.

E. The purpose and development of the

Upward Bound performance report

The requirements for performance reports in each

of the Federal TRIO programs were revised in recent

years in response to the Government Performance and

Results Act of 1993 (GPRA) and the U.S. Department of

Education’s strategic plan. In addition to providing statistical information on the TRIO programs, the new

performance reports are designed to provide tools for

measuring program outcomes and progress towards

meeting program goals. To date, national profile

reports have been published for the SSS, Ronald E.

McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement (McNair), TS,

and EOC programs using recent performance report

data and other relevant data sources. This report is the

first national profile report on the Upward Bound

Program using data from the new performance report.

Upward Bound was the last of the TRIO programs

to implement a revised performance reporting form following GPRA. The report was carefully developed after

several working groups considered draft forms and after

substantial comment by Upward Bound projects. The

new form includes individual participant records and

incorporates measures of the extent and type of services

received by program participants. Projects are expected

to track eligible participants (those that participated for

a calendar year for UB and a summer for UBMS) for

four years following completion of high school.

For the 2000–01 data collection (the first using the

new report requirements), Upward Bound projects

were asked to include all individuals that were served in

program years 1999–2000 and 2000–01. Since cohort

data on project participants are not available before the

1999–2000 year, some program outcomes (e.g., postsecondary enrollment and completion rates) cannot be

reported until additional trend information is collected.

The Upward Bound performance report was designed

to provide a rich source of information concerning participant selection, entering characteristics, services/

participation, and outcomes. The fact that participant

characteristics and outcomes are reported on individual

students can potentially allow for analyses of the relationship among these factors. The potential also exists

to use the information with other sources of national

data such as the Federal Aid Files maintained by the

Office of Postsecondary Education, U.S. Department

of Education.

F. Report structure

This first descriptive report endeavors to provide a

summary of the results of the first year’s performance

reporting for Upward Bound for which 97 percent of

funded projects submitted individual participant-based

performance reports (see appendix A, table A–1). In

organizing this report, we largely follow the performance report structure itself. We begin by presenting

demographic profiles of the grantees, participants, and

target schools. We then focus on program participation

and services in high school. Finally, we look in a limited manner at the information reported on postsecondary outcomes.

Chapter I Introduction 7
Specifically, the report is presented in six chapters

and two appendices. Chapter 2 focuses on the characteristics of Upward Bound grantees and is informed by

matching the information from the Upward Bound performance reports with the Integrated Postsecondary

Education Data System (IPEDS) for the 2000–01 academic year. IPEDS is a core postsecondary education

data collection program for NCES and includes all institutions and educational organizations with the primary

mission of providing postsecondary education. Chapter 3

includes information on participant characteristics providing a demographic profile of participants. Chapter 4

covers the characteristics of the target schools associated

with the Upward Bound projects gained from matching

the performance report information with the Common

Core of Data (CCD) for the 2000–01 academic year.

Collected annually by NCES, the CCD is a universe of

all schools in the United States and outlying areas that

provide free public elementary and secondary education.

Chapter 5 focuses on project participation, number

served, length of participation in the program, and services provided. It also includes high school academic

measures such as grades and credits earned. Chapter 6

focuses on postsecondary outcomes. Appendix A includes

methodological information and summary information

on performance report response rates and data quality; it

also describes plans for future reports. Appendix B

includes a glossary of important terms used in the report.

Throughout the report, we look at selected data by the

sector of the host or sponsoring institution. These sectors

include: (1) public four-year postsecondary institutions, 

(2) private four-year postsecondary institutions, (3) twoyear postsecondary institutions, and (4) secondary schools,

nonprofit agencies, and other community organizations.

8 A Profile of the Upward Bound Program: 2000–2001
Chapter 2 Characteristics of Grantees 9

Upward Bound projects may be hosted by postsecondary institutions and public/private agencies or

combinations of such entities. In exceptional cases, secondary schools may sponsor UB programs. For classic

UB, the largest percentage of grantees (63 percent)

were four-year postsecondary institutions (42 percent

were public four-year and 21 percent were private fouryear institutions). About one-third of grantees were

two-year postsecondary institutions (32 percent); 

5 percent were community organizations (figure 5)—

including four secondary schools and 40 nonprofit

agencies. Table 3 presents the distribution of the three

Upward Bound program types and the participants in

those programs, by the sector of the host grantee

organization.5 UBMS grantees were less likely than

UB projects to be hosted by two-year institutions and

more likely to be in public four-year institutions. VUB

grantees were less likely to be private four-year institutions than the other two types of Upward Bound projects. The participant distribution largely mirrors the

distribution of projects by sector.

A. Federal region

Among the 10 federal regions listed in table 4, the

regions with the smallest number of UB projects were

Region X with 23, Region VIII with 31, and Region I

with 32. The regions with the largest number of UB

projects were Region IV with 153, Region V with 117,

and Region VI with 112 UB projects.

B. IPEDS comparison

To understand the distribution of Upward Bound

grantees relative to the entire group of postsecondary

degree-granting institutions serving undergraduates in

the United States, we merged the TRIO data with the

institutional characteristics file for IPEDS.6 Overall,

roughly 25 percent of the two- and four-year degreeCHAPTER 2 

CHARACTERISTICS OF GRANTEES 

Figure 5. Percentage distribution of UB projects, by

sector of host grantees: 2000–01

NOTE: UB = classic Upward Bound.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs,

Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01.

Community 

organizations 

5.4%

Two-year 

institutions 

31.8%

Private four-year 

institutions 

21.3%

Public four-year 

institutions 

41.5%

5Participant numbers represent an unduplicated count 

of individuals within projects. Overall, duplicate records for 808 UB,

104 UBMS, and 213 VUB participants were removed.

6The IPEDS Institutional Characteristics file for 2000–2001

contains 9,905 institutions. For our analyses, we used postsecondary

institutions awarding at least two-year degrees and excluded private

for-profit institutions, institutions not serving undergraduates, and

non-Title IV participants (about 6,700 postsecondary schools were

Title IV participating). The resulting comparison file had 3,455

IPEDS institutions.
10 A Profile of the Upward Bound Program: 2000–2001

Table 3. Projects and unduplicated counts of current and prior-year UB, UBMS, and VUB participants included in

the project reports, by type of project and grantee sector: 2000–01

Current and prior-year participants included in 

Sector Number and percent distribution of projects 2000–01 in the individual project reports*

UB UBMS VUB UB UBMS VUB

All 727 100% 121 100% 47 100% 68,628 100% 8,684 100% 8,299 100%

Public four-year 

institutions 302 41.5 69 57.0 26 55.3 30,856 45.0 5,019 57.8 4,287 51.7

Private four-year 

institutions 155 21.3 29 24.0 3 6.4 15,828 23.1 2,173 25.0 749 9.0

Two-year 

institutions 231 31.8 17 14.1 13 27.7 18,832 27.4 1,146 13.2 2,348 28.3

Community 

organizations 39 5.4 6 5.0 5 10.6 3,112 4.5 346 4.0 915 11.0

*The count of current and prior-year participants excludes the duplicate records of Upward Bound participants with valid Social Security numbers

within projects. Overall, duplicate records for 808 UB, 104 UBMS, and 213 VUB participants were removed. For this first reporting cycle, projects were

instructed to include each individual only once. Projects were to include in the individual record file anyone served in either 1999–2000 or 2000–01.

Service information was reported only for those who were served in 2000–01 for the year 2000–01.

NOTE: UB = classic Upward Bound; UBMS = Upward Bound Math-Science; VUB = Veterans Upward Bound. Detail may not sum to totals because of

rounding.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01.

Table 4. Number and percentage of Upward Bound projects, by federal region: 2000–01

Federal region

(states/outlying areas in region) UB UBMS VUB

All 727 100% 121 100% 47 100%

Region I

(CT, ME, MA, NH, RI, VT) 32 4.4 4 3.3 1 2.1

Region II

(NJ, PR, VI, NY) 53 7.3 9 7.4 2 4.3

Region III

(DE, DC, MD, PA, VA, WV) 67 9.2 11 9.1 6 12.8

Region IV

(AL, FL, GA, KY, MS, NC, SC, TN) 153 21.1 21 17.4 9 19.2

Region V

(IL, IN, MI, MN, OH, WI) 117 16.1 18 14.9 8 17.0

Region VI

(AR, LA, NM, OK, TX) 112 15.4 18 14.9 8 17.0

Region VII

(IA, KS, MO, NE) 45 6.2 12 9.9 2 4.3

Region VIII

(CO, MT, ND, SD, UT, WY) 31 4.3 6 5.0 5 10.6

Region IX

(AZ, CA, HI, NV, AS, GU, MP) 94 12.9 20 16.5 6 12.8

Region X

(AK, ID, OR, WA) 23 3.2 2 1.7 0 0

NOTE: UB = classic UB; UBMS = Upward Bound Math-Science; VUB = Veterans Upward Bound. This table includes projects that did not respond to the

Upward Bound individual performance reports (19 classic UB, three UBMS, and two VUB projects). Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding.

State abbreviation key is included in appendix B).

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01.
Chapter 2 Characteristics of Grantees 11

granting Title IV-eligible institutions7 serving undergraduates had Upward Bound grants of some type and

20 percent had classic UB grants (table 5). UB was

more prevalent in public four-year institutions than

among private four-year or all two-year institutions.

For example, almost half of public four-year degree

granting institutions (49 percent) had classic UB

grants, while 12 percent of four-year private and 

15 percent of two-year institutions had grants.

The Carnegie Classification System is a systematic

classification of institutions of higher education in the

United States according to variables such as degrees

offered, size, and commitment to research. Table 6

compares the distribution of the total Carnegie classified institutions with that of the UB grantees. Over half

of the doctoral-granting/research institutions had

Upward Bound projects (134 of 255). As shown in the

table, while they constituted 7 percent of the total institutions classified by Carnegie, they were 19 percent of

the UB grantees. Master’s granting institutions were

more represented among UB grantees than in the total

Carnegie master’s group, and conversely, Associate

degree granting institutions were less numerous as a

proportion of the total than they are in the total

Carnegie group.

Table 7 gives the number and percentages of

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU),

Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI), and Tribal

Colleges and Universities (TCU) among degree-granting institutions found in IPEDS. Among the total

degree-granting institutions serving undergraduates,

about 3 percent (99 institutions) were HBCUs, 6 percent were HSIs (215), and 1 percent were Tribal

Institutions (29). Representation of UB projects at

minority institutions exceeded the institutions’ representation within IPEDS. Among classic UB projects,

10 percent of the projects (75 institutions) were at

HBCUs, 12 percent (87) were at HSIs, and 1 percent

(6) were at TCUs.

7Title IV-eligible institutions are those determined eligible to

participate in federal aid to postsecondary education including the

Federal Pell Grants, the Federal Supplemental Educational

Opportunity Grants (FSEOG), the Federal Work-Study Program

(FWS), the Federal Stafford Loans (subsidized and unsubsidized),

the Federal PLUS Loan Program (Parent Loan for Undergraduate

Students), the Federal Perkins Loan Program, and the William D.

Ford Direct Loan Program.

Table 5. Number and percentage of two- and four-year degree-granting institutions serving undergraduates

that have Upward Bound grants, by type of postsecondary institution: 2000–01

Percentage of IPEDS degree-granting 

Number institutions with Upward Bound grants

Type IPEDS UB UBMS VUB All UB UB UBMS VUB All UB

All 3,455 688 115 42 845 19.9% 3.3% 1.2% 24.5%

All four-year 1,955 457 98 29 584 23.4 5.0 1.5 29.9

Public four-year 614 302 69 26 397 49.2 11.2 4.2 64.7

Private four-year 1,341 155 29 3 187 11.6 2.2 0.2 13.9

All two-year 1,500 231 17 13 261 15.4 1.1 0.9 17.4

NOTE: UB = classic Upward Bound; UBMS = Upward Bound Math-Science; VUB = Veterans Upward Bound. Upward Bound grantees that were secondary schools and nonprofit agencies (39 UB, six UBMS, and five VUB projects) are not included in the total number of projects listed in the table in row

one; as they are not postsecondary institutions, they are not included in the analysis of the percentages in IPEDS. The Integrated Postsecondary

Education Data System (IPEDS) for 2000–01 contains a total of 9,905 postsecondary institutions. Of these, 3,455 were two- or four-year public or private not-for-profit degree-granting Title IV-eligible institutions that served undergraduates.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01, and U.S. Department of Education,

National Center for Education Statistics, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System Institutional Characteristics (IPEDS-IC), 2000–01.
12 A Profile of the Upward Bound Program: 2000–2001

Table 6. Comparison of the distribution of Carnegie classified institutions and UB grantees,

by type of degree awarded: 2000–01

Postsecondary institutions UB

Carnegie classification with Carnegie classification projects

All 3,6081 100% 7082 100%

Doctoral/Research 255 7.1 134 18.9

Master’s 610 16.9 181 25.6

Baccalaureate 603 16.7 95 13.4

Associate 1,636 45.3 196 27.7

Other 504 14.0 9 1.3

UB postsecondary not assigned Carnegie categories — — 552 7.8

UB Community organizations — — 38 5.4

1 Number reflects the total number of institutions on Integrated Postsecondary Educational Data System (IPEDS) file that had a Carnegie classification

assigned.

2 55 postsecondary institutions offering Upward Bound services did not have Carnegie classifications in IPEDS.

— Not applicable.

NOTE: UB = classic Upward Bound.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01, and U.S. Department of Education,

National Center for Education Statistics, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System Institutional Characteristics (IPEDS-IC), 2000–01.

Table 7. Postsecondary institutions serving undergraduates and institutions with Upward Bound projects,

type of institution: 2000–01

Degree-granting

institutions Institutions with Upward Bound projects

Institution type serving undergraduates1 UB UBMS VUB

All 3,455 100% 727 100% 121 100% 47 100%

Historically Black Colleges and 

Universities (HBCU) 99 2.9 75 10.3 16 13.2 4 8.5

Hispanic Serving Institutions2 (HSI) 215 6.2 87 12.0 12 9.9 2 4.3

Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCU) 29 0.8 6 0.8 0 0 1 2.1

Other postsecondary institutions 3,114 90.1 520 71.5 87 71.9 35 74.5

Community organizations — — 39 5.4 6 5.0 5 10.6

— Not applicable.

1The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System institutional characteristics file (IPEDS-IC) for 2000–01 contains 9,905 postsecondary institutions. Of these institutions, 3,455 were two- or four-year public or private not-for-profit, degree-granting institutions that served undergraduates.

HBCU and Tribal Institutions are identified on IPEDS.

2HSI are defined as institutions with 25 percent or more Hispanic enrollment as reported in the institutional characteristics file of the Integrated

Postsecondary Education Data System, 2000–01.

NOTE: UB = classic Upward Bound; UBMS = Upward Bound Math-Science; VUB = Veterans Upward Bound.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01, and U.S. Department of Education,

National Center for Education Statistics, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System Institutional Characteristics (IPEDS-IC), 2000–01.
Chapter 3 Upward Bound Participants 13

This chapter presents information on the demographic characteristics of Upward Bound participants

including information on eligibility status, race/ethnicity, gender, need for the program services, and age and

grade at entry into the program. To provide context for

the demographic statistics on Upward Bound participants, we also include related information from Census

Bureau statistics and related National Center for

Education Statistics (NCES) studies.

A. Participant distribution, by eligibility

1. Context: National data on poverty and parent

education

Upward Bound was first initiated as part of the

“War on Poverty” in the 1960s, manifesting the concept that higher education was a cornerstone for helping to reduce poverty within the United States population. Since 1981, Upward Bound eligibility requirements have stipulated that two-thirds of participants

must be low-income and potentially first-generation

college students.8 The other one-third must be either

low-income or potentially first-generation college students. “Low income” is defined by having a family taxable income that does not exceed 150 percent of the

poverty level amount at the time of entry into the project. The U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of

the Census, sets guidelines to determine the definition

of the poverty level. To provide context related to these

eligibility criteria, Census Bureau statistics on poverty

rates and parent education are provided below. We also

include NCES data on the percentage of high school

students who were potentially first-generation college

students in four points in time (1972, 1980, 1990 and

2002).9 These statistics are useful in understanding the

proportion of United States students who have been

eligible for the Upward Bound program historically

and in the more recent period.

In 2001, out of a total U.S. population of 281 million, about 33 million persons lived in poverty, 

and 72 million lived at less than 150 percent of the

poverty level. Poverty rates in the United States for all 

persons under 18 years have fluctuated between a 

low of 15 percent in 1970 and highs of 21 percent 

in the 1980’s up to 1990 (figure 6). By 2001, the

CHAPTER 3

UPWARD BOUND PARTICIPANTS

8Requirements prior to 1981 were that participants be “disadvantaged” and have need of services; however, the TRIO legislation did

not define a specific income or parent educational level until 1981.

9The studies include the National Longitudinal Study of the

High School Class of 1972, first follow-up study (NLS-72/73), High

School and Beyond (HS&B, 1980) sophomore cohort base year survey, National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 first follow-up

study (NELS:88/90), and Education Longitudinal Study of 2002

base year student survey (ELS:2002).

Figure 6. Percentage of people under 18 years 

who were below the poverty level,

by race/ethnicity: 1970–2001

NOTE: Data for 1970 and for Hispanic children in 1975 are for related

children in families under 18 years old; all other data are for all persons under 18 years old.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Current

Population Surveys, Historical Poverty Tables, Table 3. Poverty Status

of People, by Age, Race, and Hispanic Origin: 1959-2002

(http://www.census.gov/hhes/poverty/histpov/hstpov3.html).

14.9 16.3

33.2

28.0

41.5

30.2

10.8 9.5

17.6

11.5

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005

All

Hispanic (of any race)

Black

White non-Hispanic

Asian

Percent
14 A Profile of the Upward Bound Program: 2000–2001

poverty rate among persons under 18 had declined 

to 16.3 percent.

Figure 7 gives the percentage of those under 18

years in families in poverty and under 150 percent of the

poverty level (the eligibility requirement used in UB) in

2001. In that year, 28 percent of all U.S. children under

18 met the Upward Bound 150 percent of poverty level

criterion. This percentage was just under half among

Hispanic and black or African American children: in

2001, 47 percent of Hispanic children and 46 percent of

black or African American children were in families

under 150 percent of the poverty level (figure 7).

The second UB eligibility requirement relates to

potentially first-generation college status, defined as not

having a parent or guardian who has received a bachelor’s

degree. At the time of TRIO initiation, substantial proportions of students were potentially first-generation

high school graduates in addition to being potentially

first-generation four-year college graduates. In the

1970s, during the first decade of TRIO, over a quarter of

white mothers and fathers and well over half of black or

African American and Hispanic parents of school-age

children had not completed high school (U.S. Bureau of

Census, March Current Population Survey, as reported

in the U.S. Department of Education, NCES, Condition

of Education, Table 4–1, 2001).* Census figures document

changes in educational attainment since the 1970s to

more recent years. For example, between 1974 and 1999,

the percentage of children with black or African

American mothers who had less than a high school diploma went from 58 percent in 1974 to 20 percent in 1999,

and the percentage of children with black or African

American fathers without a high school diploma went

Figure 7. Percentage of U.S. population and of persons under 18 in families in poverty and under 150 percent

of poverty level, by race/ethnicity: 2001

NOTE: Figures for “White under 18” and “White” in this figure are for all whites and include those of Hispanic origin. Hence they differ from those in figure 6 in which the category is “White, not Hispanic.” Note poverty rate for “White, not Hispanic” was 9.5 for all persons under 18 in 2001.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Current Population Surveys, Families as of March of following year. Table 2. Age, Sex,

Household Relationship, Race, and Hispanic Origin - Ratio of Income to Poverty Level: 2001 (http://ferret.bls.census.gov/macro/032002/pov/new02_000.htm).

11.7

16.3

9.9

13.4

22.7

30.2

21.4

28.0

20.8

27.5

18.4

23.7

35.8

45.8

37.6

46.6

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

All

All under 18 years

White

White under 18 years

Black

Black under 18 years

Hispanic

Hispanic under 18 years

Under 150 percent of poverty level Poverty

Percent

*This paragraph differs slightly from the information in the printed version of the

report released in August 2004. The changes reflect corrections in the wording and estimates of educational attainment to match information found in the Condition of Education.
Chapter 3 Upward Bound Participants 15

from 61 percent to 15 percent in the same period. Among

Hispanic parents, change was less pronounced. For

example, the percentage of children with Hispanic mothers without a high school diploma went from 62 percent

to 49 percent between 1974 and 1999. Among Hispanic

fathers the percentage without a high school diploma was

58 percent in 1974 and 49 percent in 1999 (U.S. Bureau

of Census, March Current Population Survey, as reported in the U.S. Department of Education, NCES,

Condition of Education, Table 4–1, 2001).

In a parallel development, since 1974—the first

date for which national data are available—the percentage of parents who had a bachelor’s degree has

increased substantially. For example, the percentage of

black or African American children whose mothers and

fathers had bachelor’s degrees increased fourfold, from

4 percent each to 14 percent for mothers and 17 percent for fathers from 1974 to 1999 (figure 8). In the

same period, the percentage of Hispanic mothers with

a bachelor’s degree went from 4 percent to 7 percent,

and the percentage of Hispanic fathers with a bachelor’s degree increased slightly from 8 to 10 percent.

It should be noted that, while figure 8 shows trends

in parents’ educational attainment, the figure does not

precisely reflect the UB program’s criterion for a student’s “first-generation” status. Figure 8 provides separate data on children who had mothers and fathers with

a bachelor’s degree; the UB program requires that neither parent have a bachelor’s degree if a student is to be

considered “potentially first-generation.” Figure 9, on

the other hand, accurately reflects the program’s “firstgeneration” criterion. Using data from four NCES

nationally representative longitudinal studies of high

school students (NLS:72; HS&B, NELS:88, and

ELS:2002),10 figure 9 displays the percentage of

potentially first-generation four-year college graduates

among high school students in 1972, 1980, 1990, and

2002 by race/ethnicity. Overall the percentage of

Figure 8. Percentage of children 6–18 years of age

having a mother with a bachelor’s degree

and percentage having a father with a

bachelor’s degree, by race/ethnicity:

1974–1999

SOURCE: U.S. Bureau of Census, March Current Population Survey,

various years as reported in the U.S. Department of Education, National

Center for Education Statistics, Condition of Education, Table 4–1, 2001.

26.4

33.6

13.9

16.5

7.4

9.3

19.9

3.6 4.0

3.5

10.1

8.4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005

White mothers

White fathers Black mothers

Hispanic mothers

Hispanic fathers

Black fathers

Percent

10The full names of the studies were the National Longitudinal

Study of the High School Class of 1972 (NLS-72/73), High School

and Beyond (HS&B, 1980) sophomore cohort base year survey,

National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 first follow-up

study (NELS:88/90), and Education Longitudinal Study of 2002

base year student survey (ELS:2002).

Figure 9. Percentage of high school students who

were potentially first-generation four-year

college graduates by race/ethnicity: 1972,

1980, 1990, and 2002

NOTE: “High school students who were potentially first-generation fouryear college graduates” are defined as having neither mother nor father,

nor guardian with a bachelor’s degree. Information is from high school

sophomores in 1980, 1990, and 2002. NSL-72 began with high school

seniors; information is thus from seniors. “More than one race reported”

was a possible response only in ELS:2002.

SOURCE: Special tabulations using U.S. Department of Education,

National Center for Education Statistics, National Longitudinal Study 

of the High School Class of 1972, (NLS–72/73), High School and

Beyond (HS&B, 1980) sophomore cohort base year survey, National

Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 first follow-up study

(NELS:88/90) and Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 base year

student survey (ELS:2002).

57.1

78.7

48.0

62.7

77.0

92.9 91.6

69.0

77.9

88.8

71.0

62.3

79.1

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005

More than one race reported

White

Hispanic or Latino

Black or African American Asian

American Indian or Alaska Native

All

Percent
16 A Profile of the Upward Bound Program: 2000–2001

potentially first-generation college students was 

79 percent in 1972 and 62 percent in 2002. Among

black or African American and Hispanic students, the

percentages of potentially first-generation college students were 92 and 93 percent, respectively, in 1972. 

By 2002, these percentages had declined to 69 and 

79 percent, respectively.

2. Distribution of Upward Bound participants,

by eligibility status

Figure 10 and table 8 give the distribution by eligibility status for Upward Bound by host sector. Overall

79 percent of Upward Bound participants were both

low-income and potentially first-generation college

students; 16 percent were first-generation only, and 

5 percent were low-income only. There were few differences in the eligibility status of participants by sector of host grantee (table 8).

B. Participant distribution, by race/ethnicity

1. Context: National data on race/ethnicity

The Upward Bound Program is not targeted to specific racial and ethnic groups. Rather, its mission is to

serve low-income and potentially first-generation college students. However, Upward Bound and the other

TRIO programs have historically played an important

role in serving minority groups underrepresented in

postsecondary education. Since the initiation of the

TRIO programs, shifts have occurred in the distribution

of the U.S. population by race/ethnicity. Table 9 gives

Census data on the distribution of the U.S. population

from 1970 to 2001. These data document the growth in

minority populations, especially Hispanic and Asian or

Pacific Islander, over the period. In addition, the 2000

Office of Management and Budget (OMB) requirement

that government surveys allow for the choice of more

than one race is also reflected in table 9.

2. Distribution of Upward Bound participants,

by race/ethnicity

The largest percentage of Upward Bound participants in 2000–01 (45 percent) were black or African

American (figure 11) followed by whites (25 percent),

Hispanics or Latinos (19 percent), Asians (5 percent),

American Indians or Alaska Natives (4 percent), Native

Hawaiians or Other Pacific Islanders (2 percent), and

those of more than one race (1 percent). Upward

Bound projects hosted by private four-year institutions

had the largest proportion of black or African

American participants (figure 12).

UB and UBMS participants differed little in distribution by race/ethnicity; however, Asians were a higher proportion of math-science participants than they

Table 8. Percentage distribution of UB participants, by eligibility status and by sector of grantee: 2000–01

Public Private Community All

Eligibility status four-year four-year Two-year organizations projects

Low-income and first-generation 77.8% 78.0% 79.1% 80.5% 78.7%

Low-income only 5.3 5.4 4.1 4.1 4.9

First-generation only 15.9 16.7 16.8 15.4 16.4

NOTE: UB = classic Upward Bound. Because of rounding, detail may not sum to 100 percent.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01.

Figure 10. Percentage distribution of UB 

participants, by eligibility status: 2000–01

NOTE: UB = classic Upward Bound.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs,

Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01.

First-generation only 

16.4%

Low-income only 

4.9%

Low–income and first-generation 

78.7%
Chapter 3 Upward Bound Participants 17

Table 9. Percentage distribution of U.S. population, by race/ethnicity: 1970–2001

Year

Race/Ethnicity 1970 1980 1990 2001

U.S. population (x 1,000) 200,679 241,154 271,171 284,797

American Indian/Alaska Native † 0.6 0.8 1.0

Asian or Pacific Islander1 † 1.6 3.0 3.9

Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander † † † 0.2

Black 11.3 11.8 12.3 12.7

Hispanic origin (may be any race) † 6.4 9.0 13.0

White2 88.72 85.92 83.92 †2

White non-Hispanic2 † † † 68.92

Two or more races † † † 0.2

† Not available.

1 Guidance on collecting race/ethnicity information in government surveys changed in 2000 to allow respondents to report multiple races. At that time,

the Asian/Pacific Islander category was split into two race/ethnic groups: Asian and Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander.

2 Prior to 2000, whites included white Hispanics and other races not separately categorized. In 2000, the category became “White Non-Hispanic.”

Applying the pre-2000 definition to this estimate, the percentage of white of any ethnicity would be 80.9 percent in 2001.

NOTE: Percents do not sum to 100 percent due to rounding and because, prior to 2000, persons of Hispanic origin were counted first in the black or

white category, then counted again in the “Hispanic origin” category.

SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of United States, 2002, Table 10 Resident Population—Selected Characteristics, 1950 to 1990, and

Projections, 2005–2050; and Table 14, Resident Population by Race, Hispanic Origin, and Single Years of Age: 2001.

Figure 11. Percentage distribution of UB 

participants, by race/ethnicity: 2000–01

NOTE: UB = classic Upward Bound. Because of rounding, detail may

not total 100 percent.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs,

Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01.

American 

Indian or 

Alaska 

Native Asian 3.9% 4.7%

Black or 

African American 

44.9% Hispanic or 

Latino 

18.7%

White 

24.6%

Native Hawaiian 

or Other 

Pacific Islander 

1.7%

More than 

one race 

reported 

1.4%

Figure 12. Percentage distribution of UB participants,

by race/ethnicity and by host grantee

sector: 2000–01

NOTE: UB = classic Upward Bound.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs,

Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01.

1.6 1.0 1.4

24.0 20.8 29.3 21.6 24.6

18.6 17.1

19.2

23.6 18.7

45.1 54.9

37.1 41.3 44.9

4.9 1.8 3.9 5.6 3.9

1.6 1.4 0.8 0.3 4.5 0.5 1.7

5.7 4.9 4.2 4.7 4.7

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Public 

four-year

Private 

four-year

Two-year Community

organizations

All projects

More than one race reported

Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander

White

Hispanic or Latino

Black or African American

Asian

American Indian or Alaska Native

Percent
18 A Profile of the Upward Bound Program: 2000–2001

were of UB participants (figure 13). VUB participants

were much more likely to be white and somewhat more

likely to be American Indian or Alaska Native than

were participants from UB or UBMS; and they were

somewhat less likely to be Hispanic or Latino, or Asian

than UB or UBMS participants.

C. Participant distribution, by gender

1. Context: National data on educational

participation by gender

In the United States, recent years have witnessed a

higher rate of increased participation in education at

most levels for females than for males, and higher rates

of participation in extracurricular and supplemental

services as well. Figure 14 gives Census data on the

percentage of 18–24-year-olds who dropped out of

high school between 1967 and 2000, and figure 15

gives the percentage of high school graduates ages

14–24 who enrolled in or completed some college

between 1967 and 2000, by gender.

As these data indicate, males increasingly have

somewhat higher high school dropout rates than

females, and there is a growing gap between the college

participation rates of males and females. Female and

male 18–24-year-olds had about the same percentage

of dropouts in 1967 (20 percent for both). By 2000,

dropout rates had decreased for both groups, but somewhat more for females—the rate being 11 percent for

females and 14 percent for males (figure 14). More

Figure 13. Percentage distribution of participants, by race/ethnicity and by type of Upward Bound program:

2000–01

NOTE: UB = classic Upward Bound; UBMS = Upward Bound Math-Science; VUB = Veterans Upward Bound.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01.

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

5.0

0.5

35.8

13.6

44.1

0.2

0.7

3.7

7.4

40.7

19.8

24.8

1.4

2.2

3.9

4.7

44.9

18.7

24.6

1.7

1.4

American Indian

or Alaska Native

Asian

Black or 

African American

Hispanic or Latino

White

Native Hawaiian or

Other Pacific Islander

More than one race

reported

UB UBMS VUB

Percent
Chapter 3 Upward Bound Participants 19

strikingly, female rates of having completed some college went from 45 percent in 1967 to 70 percent in

2000, while males went from 59 to 63 percent in the

same period (figure 15).

2. Upward Bound distribution, by gender

Just under two-thirds (64 percent) of UB participants were female in 2000–01 (figure 16). There were

almost no differences by grantee sector in the distribution by gender (data not shown). Historically, males

have majored in several math- and science-related disciplines at higher rates than females; however, there was

little difference in the percentage of males between classic UB and UBMS projects. UB was 36 percent male

and UBMS was 38 percent male. However, reflecting

the distribution of military service, VUB had a much

higher proportion of males (81 percent) than females.

Figure 14. Percentage of 18–24-year-olds who

dropped out of high school (status

dropout rate), by gender: 1967–2000

NOTE: The term “status dropout rate” in this figure is based on the self

reports of 18–24-year-old respondents to the Current Population Survey

(CPS) question on high school graduation status. This figure reflects

cumulative data on dropouts among 18–24-year-olds and is considerably higher than that reported by Census for the annual dropout rate of

15–17-year-olds, which is the proportion of students who left school in

the year reported. For example, for 15–17-year-olds the annual rate was

4.5 percent in 2000 (as reported in Census Table A-4. Annual High

School Dropout Rates by Sex, Race, Grade, and Hispanic Origin October

1967 to 2000).

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Current

Population Census, 1967–2000 (Table A5. The Population of 14 to 24-

Year-Olds by High School Graduate Status, College Enrollment,

Attainment, Sex, Race, and Hispanic Origin: October 1967 to 2000) 

(http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/school.html).

11.1

19.6

13.8

20.0

0

5

10

15

20

25

Female Male

1967

1969

1971

1973

19751977

1979

1981

1983

1985

1987

1989

1991

1993199519971999

2001

Male Female

Percent

Figure 15. Percentage of high school graduates aged

14–24 who were enrolled in or completed

some college, by gender: 1967–2000

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Current

Population Surveys, various years, October.

63.1 58.8

70.1

44.7

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

1967

1969

1971

1973

19751977

1979

1981

1983

1985

1987

1989

1991

1993199519971999

2001

Percent

Male Female

Figure 16. Percentage distribution of participants,

by gender and by type of Upward Bound

project: 2000–01

NOTE: UB = classic Upward Bound; UBMS = Upward Bound MathScience; VUB = Veterans Upward Bound.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs,

Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01

35.8 38.3

81.4

64.2 61.7

18.6

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

UB UBMS VUB

Female Male

Percent
20 A Profile of the Upward Bound Program: 2000–2001

D. Participant need for services

In addition to the low-income and potentially firstgeneration college-going eligibility requirement, there is

a requirement that students need the services offered by

the project. Participants are selected based upon recommendations from their counselors, teachers, and social

agencies. The Upward Bound performance report form

includes an item on the need for services and lists a series

of possible reasons. Projects were asked to select the one

code that best describes why the participant needs

Upward Bound services. Taken together, those categories having to do with academic need, such as low

grades, low achievement scores, and low aspirations,

encompassed about 30 percent of the responses (table

10). Other categories prompting a high rate of response

were lack of opportunity, support, and guidance to take

challenging college preparatory courses (20 percent) and

predominantly low-income community (18 percent).

Two categories having to do with a need for counseling

(lack of career goals and/or need for information on

career goals; and lack of confidence, self-esteem, and

social skills) were each selected as a reason for needing

services by 9 percent of participants.

The performance report form also asks for the type

of test used to assess academic skills and for information

on two common aptitude tests (table 11). Many projects

(47 percent) reported using a test other than those listed. Among those listed, the test used most frequently to

ascertain need was the Stanford Achievement Test.

With regard to the aptitude tests, about 9 percent

of projects reported using the PLAN-ACT test, with a

mean score of 16.4. About 10 percent of the projects

reported using the Preliminary SAT (PSAT), with a

mean of 45.7.11 There was little notable difference in

host grantee sector or between classic UB and UBMS.

Math-Science projects reported scores for about the

same percentage of participants for each of the two

tests, with scores about one point higher. (Nine percent

had scores reported for PLAN-ACT with mean score

of 17.7; and 9 percent had PSAT scores reported with

a mean score of 46.7—data not shown in table).

11PLAN-ACT is a pre-ACT instrument that measures English

(usage, mechanics, and rhetorical skills), math (algebra and geometry), reading, and science reasoning. PLAN composite scores range

from one to 32. The preliminary SAT (PSAT) measures verbal reasoning, reading, math problem-solving, and writing and is scored

from 20 to 80.

Table 10. Percentage distribution of reported reason for needing UB services, by sector: 2000–01

Public Private Community

Reason needing services All four-year four-year Two-year organization

Low high school grade point average 7.0% 6.8% 8.2% 6.1% 9.1%

Low achievement test scores 5.0 4.4 5.9 4.7 7.4

Low educational aspirations 4.3 4.4 4.9 3.8 3.8

Low high school grade point average and low aspirations 6.5 7.0 6.8 5.3 6.2

Low high school grade point and low achievement test scores 5.3 5.2 5.9 5.0 4.5

Low achievement test scores and low aspirations 2.8 3.0 2.6 2.8 2.9

Lack of opportunity, support and/or guidance to 

take challenging college preparatory courses 19.5 18.2 19.0 22.1 18.3

Lack of career goals and/or need for information on career goals 9.1 10.2 7.5 8.9 7.2

Limited proficiency in English 2.5 3.0 2.4 1.8 2.1

Lack of confidence, self-esteem, and social skills 9.1 9.6 9.4 7.8 11.6

Predominately low-income community 17.6 17.0 16.0 19.3 20.6

Rural isolation 6.4 6.4 5.3 8.0 2.7

Interest in careers in Math and Science 3.3 3.0 4.6 2.9 2.2

Other 1.7 1.8 1.5 1.7 1.4

NOTE: UB = classic Upward Bound. 1,561 cases (2.2 percent overall) that were coded as not applicable, missing, or no responses were excluded from

the analyses.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01.
Chapter 3 Upward Bound Participants 21

E. Participant distribution, by grade and

age at entry into the program

1. Grade at entry into Upward Bound

Eligibility requirements specify that UB and

UBMS participants should have completed the eighth

grade of elementary/middle school education and be 

13 to 19 years of age at entry into the program. Most

UB participants entered as ninth-graders with 39 percent entering in the ninth grade and another 17 percent

as rising ninth-graders (table 12 and figure 17).

The category of “rising ninth-grader” refers to students who will be entering the ninth grade in the next

school term (i.e., the student may first participate in

Table 11. Percentage distribution of types of tests used to assess academic need and mean PLAN-ACT and 

PSAT test scores for UB projects: 2000–01

Sector

Public Private Community

Type of test All four-year four-year Two-year organization

Assessment test

Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS) 10.3% 13.7% 11.1% 5.5% 3.6%

Stanford Achievement Test 16.2 15.1 11.1 20.2 28.0

California Achievement Test (CAT) 11.7 11.5 15.6 7.3 18.2

Iowa Achievement Test 4.1 4.6 2.8 4.7 3.3

Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) 1.9 0.9 4.2 1.5 4.0

Nelson Denny 5.5 5.1 3.9 8.3 0

ARIO Assessment Tools 1.0 1.2 <0.1 1.6 2.0

Other 46.7 46.2 48.3 47.7 37.3

Unknown 2.4 1.8 2.2 3.3 3.6

Aptitude Tests

PLAN (ACT)

Participants reporting 4,925 2,146 1,126 1,401 252

Percent reporting 8.8 8.7 8.8 8.9 9.7

Mean score 16.4 16.5 15.5 16.9 16.3

PSAT

Number reporting 5,617 2,639 1,377 1,221 380

Percent reporting 10.0 10.7 10.7 7.7 14.6

Mean score 45.7 47.1 45.6 43.8 42.2

NOTE: UB = classic Upward Bound.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01.

Table 12. Percentage distribution of UB participants, by grade at entry into program: 2000–01

Rising 9th Rising

Sector grader 9th grade 10th grade 11th grade 12th-grader

All 17.2% 39.4% 33.1% 9.6% 0.7%

Public four-year 17.0 38.4 34.0 9.9 0.8

Private four-year 17.8 39.2 34.0 8.2 0.8

Two-year 17.4 39.5 31.9 10.7 0.5

Community organizations 15.1 48.8 28.2 7.5 0.5

NOTE: UB = classic Upward Bound. The category of “Rising ninth-grader” and “Rising 12th-grader” refer to students who will be entering the ninth or

12th grade in the next school term to start. For example, the student may first participate in Upward Bound the summer prior to entering the ninth grade.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01.
Upward Bound the summer prior to entering the ninth

grade). About one-third entered in the 10th grade and

10 percent as 11th-graders. Less than 1 percent entered

as rising 12th-graders. There were few differences by

grantee sector; however, community organizations had

a larger percentage entering in the ninth grade than the

other sectors. While most UBMS participants also

entered in the ninth or 10th grade, a larger percentage

entered in grade 11 (20 percent) or rising 12th grade 

(5 percent) than for UB (figure 17).

2. Age at entry into Upward Bound

The mean age of UB participants at entry into the

project was 15.2 years (table 13). About 44 percent of

UB participants entered the program at age 14 or under.

Just over one-third (35 percent) were age 15, and 

21 percent were 16 or over. Project entry age did not differ by grantee sector. On average, UBMS participants

were five months older than UB participants. This is

consistent with the larger proportion of participants that

were in grade 11 at their entry into the program.

22 A Profile of the Upward Bound Program: 2000–2001

Figure 17. Percentage distribution of participants, by

grade at entry into program and by type

of Upward Bound program: 2000–01

NOTE: UB = classic Upward Bound; UBMS = Upward Bound MathScience.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs,

Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01.

6.6

17.2

32.1

39.4

36.1

33.1

20.3

9.6

4.9

0.7

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

UBMS

UB

Rising 9th-grader

9th grade

10th grade

11th grade

Rising 12th-grader

Percent

Table 13. Percentage distribution and mean age at program entry for new, current, and re-entry participants in

UB projects, by sector of host institution: 1999–2000

Program entry age in years

14 years 18 or Mean

Sector or less 15 16 17 more entry age

All 43.5% 35.4% 16.3% 4.2% 0.7% 15.2

Public four-year 42.6 36.2 16.3 4.2 0.7 15.3

Private four-year 46.5 35.0 14.8 3.3 0.4 15.2

Two-year 42.0 34.6 17.6 5.0 0.8 15.3

Community organizations 46.9 34.6 14.6 3.5 0.4 15.2

NOTE: UB = classic Upward Bound.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01.
Chapter 4 Upward Bound Target Schools 23

In applying for federal grants, Upward Bound projects identify discrete local or regional geographic areas

that the projects plan to serve. Within these target

areas, projects also identify target schools to be a focus

of project services. Projects typically establish relationships with school personnel and recruit participants

from the school. They may also provide some UB services at the school locations.

This chapter provides information on UB projects’

target schools, including the number of schools and the

percentage of eligible students served in them. The

chapter also compares Upward Bound target schools

with state and national averages for the percentages of

students eligible for free lunch and students from

minority populations.

The Upward Bound performance reports asked

projects to provide the U.S. Department of Education

Common Core of Data (CCD) school identification

number for the target school for each participant.

CCD is a data collection program of the U.S.

Department of Education, National Center for

Education Statistics (NCES), that provides a comprehensive, annual, national statistical database of information about all public elementary and secondary

schools and school districts in the United States

(approximately 95,000 schools and 17,000 districts during the 2000–01 school year).

To obtain estimates of the number and characteristics of target schools attended by participants, we

merged the school ID numbers reported in the UB performance reports for each participant with the CCD

file. The performance reports included CCD target

school identification numbers for 56,041 Upward

Bound participants (81 percent of participants overall).12 To provide an additional context for comparison,

several tables in this chapter also include target school

information for Talent Search (TS), another TRIO program that provides services to secondary school students. This information initially appeared in the aggregate 1998–99 performance reports for the Talent Search

program, as published in the report A Profile of the Talent

Search Program: 1998–99 (May 2002).

A. Number of target schools

By matching performance report data with 

the CCD public school information, we found that

5,380 schools were served by UB, UBMS, or both. Of

these, 3,268 schools were served by UB only; 986 were

served by UBMS only; and 1,126 were served by 

both UB and UBMS. The total served by UB was thus

4,394 (i.e., 3,268 + 1,126), while the total served by

UBMS was 2,112 (i.e., 986 + 1,126). Among the projects

that submitted performance reports, UB projects served

an average of six target schools and UBMS projects

served 18 target schools (figure 18). For comparison, we

note that TS served an average of 15 middle and high

schools per project.13

On average, classic UB projects served 12 students

per target school while UBMS projects served approximately three students per target school. As displayed

in table 14, the total number of public schools attended by UB and UBMS participants represents about 

CHAPTER 4 

UPWARD BOUND TARGET SCHOOLS

12The UB performance reports actually included school identification numbers for 69,436 UB participants. Of these, 13,395 

(19.3 percent) did not “match” the schools in the CCD dataset.

13A total of 349 Talent Search (TS) projects completed the

1998–99 TS performance report, and 341 submitted a list of target

schools. These projects combined served a total of 5,105 middle and

high schools (p. 12 of A Profile of the Talent Search Program:

1998–99).
24 A Profile of the Upward Bound Program: 2000–2001

21 percent of the total public schools serving any student in grades 9–12. Target schools served by UB projects represent about 17 percent of high schools in the

United States and outlying areas.

B. Estimates of the percentage of

potentially eligible participants served

One can get a sense of the extent to which UB

reaches potentially eligible students by comparing the

number of students the program serves with the number

of students eligible for free lunch in the same schools,

because such eligibility is a reasonable proxy for lowincome status. Free-lunch eligibility is slightly different

from Upward Bound eligibility,14 but it does give an

indication of the proportion of economically disadvantaged students who were served. Table 15 presents the

number of participants served by UB and UBMS projects for each state, and the number eligible for free lunch

in UB and UBMS schools and all other high schools

within the state. We also include the percentage of those

eligible for free lunch who are served by UB within the

target schools and the percentage of the total counts of

those eligible for free lunch within the nation and state.

UB and UBMS taken together serve about 62,000 participants, roughly 3 percent of those eligible for free

lunch within their target schools.15 Generalizing the

number of UB participants served during the 2000–01

program year to all schools in the United States serving

grades 9 to 12, the percentage of students served by UB

and UBMS was about 2 percent of those eligible for free

school lunch in grades 9–12 in the nation.

To provide an additional context for understanding

the Upward Bound target schools, table 15 also

includes similar statistics by state for TS projects during the 1998–99 program year (Chou, Cahalan,

Humphrey, Overton 2002). Note that the numbers

served and enrollment figures for TS include students

in middle and high school. Talent Search serves a much

larger number of students per year and reaches an estimated 20 percent of those eligible for free lunch within its target schools.

C. Comparison of percentage eligible 

for free lunch and percentage minority

One indicator that UB projects are serving suitable

target schools is the percentage of students in those

schools who are eligible for free lunch. Nationwide

about 27 percent of students in schools enrolling

grades 9–12 were eligible for free lunch in 2000–01

(table 16). Among UB and UBMS schools, 34 percent

of students were eligible for free lunch, and among

non-UB schools, about 25 percent were eligible—a 

difference of 9 percentage points. There is considerable variation by state. Generally, the poorer states and

the less populated states have less difference between

UB and UBMS schools and the state average.

Almost half of the total enrollment in UB and

UBMS target schools (47 percent) was minority students,

compared to a national average for minorities of 35 percent (table 17). As with free lunch eligibility, the states

with relatively smaller proportions of minority enrollment overall had the largest differences between UB and

UBMS schools and the other schools in the states.

Figure 18. Average number of target schools, by type

of Upward Bound project: 2000–01

NOTE: UB = classic Upward Bound; UBMS = Upward Bound MathScience. The number of target schools served by each UB project shown

in this figure is based on an unduplicated count of schools. Since some

Upward Bound projects may serve the same target schools, the duplicated count of target schools per UB project would be eight.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs,

Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01.

6.2

17.9

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

UB UBMS

Number

15Percentages were calculated by dividing the total number of

UB participants in a given state by the total number of students eligible for the free lunch program in the target schools in the state.

Although all UB participants may not be eligible for free lunch, the

calculation includes all Upward Bound participants.

14To be eligible for free lunches through the U.S. Department of

Agriculture’s National School Lunch Program, family income must

not exceed 130 percent of the poverty level as defined by the Bureau

of Census, U.S. Department of Commerce. The Code of Federal

Regulations for Upward Bound (34 CFR 645.6) defines a low-income

individual as one whose family taxable income did not exceed 

150 percent of the poverty level amount for the calendar year preceding the year of the individual’s initial participation.
Chapter 4 Upward Bound Target Schools 25

Table 14. Number of UB and UBMS projects, number of target schools, and target schools as a percentage of

total public schools serving grades 9–12, by state: 2000–01

Upward Bound projects Target schools as percent of

serving target schools1 Number of target schools2 total schools serving grades 9–12

State UB UBMS UB UBMS All3 UB UBMS All3

All 708 118 4,394 2,112 5,380 17.4% 8.4% 21.3%

Alabama 36 5 220 56 228 36.4 9.3 37.7

Alaska 2 1 45 29 60 14.6 9.4 19.4

Arizona 6 2 61 50 89 11.1 9.1 16.2

Arkansas 13 3 140 80 190 32.9 18.8 44.7

California 69 14 315 210 395 14.8 9.9 18.6

Colorado 11 3 46 21 54 11.2 5.1 13.2

Connecticut 6 0 25 2 25 6.4 0.5 6.4

Delaware 5 3 30 25 31 75.0 62.5 77.5

District of Columbia 7 1 27 6 28 55.1 12.2 57.1

Florida 20 2 136 34 148 12.1 3.0 13.2

Georgia 17 4 94 34 106 25.4 9.2 28.6

Hawaii 4 2 28 32 38 53.8 61.5 73.1

Idaho 4 1 31 23 48 12.7 9.4 19.6

Illinois 27 4 157 44 166 16.6 4.7 17.5

Indiana 8 1 74 22 79 17.1 5.1 18.2

Iowa 14 1 97 64 144 23.2 15.3 34.4

Kansas 12 3 60 45 86 15.7 11.8 22.5

Kentucky 15 3 95 58 119 20.2 12.3 25.3

Louisiana 16 2 130 77 157 29.2 17.3 35.3

Maine 5 1 30 11 34 19.2 7.1 21.8

Maryland 9 3 71 61 97 26.4 22.7 36.1

Massachusetts 14 2 53 12 54 13.9 3.1 14.1

Michigan 21 4 99 61 131 10.7 6.6 14.2

Minnesota 14 2 76 64 113 9.1 7.6 13.5

Mississippi 10 1 47 33 68 11.7 8.2 17.0

Missouri 14 5 105 91 158 15.0 13.0 22.6

Montana 6 1 40 28 62 21.4 15.0 33.2

Nebraska 5 3 31 28 47 8.4 7.6 12.7

Nevada 4 1 39 30 42 33.9 26.1 36.5

New Hampshire 2 0 17 1 18 20.5 1.2 21.7

New Jersey 9 1 50 13 57 12.4 3.2 14.1

New Mexico 7 0 41 39 66 21.7 20.6 34.9

New York 25 4 229 24 232 22.4 2.3 22.7

North Carolina 19 2 108 23 118 24.3 5.2 26.5

North Dakota 2 0 14 0 14 7.0 0.0 7.0

Ohio 25 3 120 44 154 12.2 4.5 15.7

Oklahoma 21 5 186 88 220 33.3 15.7 39.4

Oregon 7 0 27 25 36 9.2 8.5 12.2

Pennsylvania 19 2 164 56 197 22.8 7.8 27.4

Rhode Island 1 0 6 0 6 10.7 0 10.7

South Carolina 15 2 88 61 115 32.1 22.3 42.0

South Dakota 3 1 26 9 29 12.0 4.2 13.4

Tennessee 16 2 80 50 119 19.8 12.4 29.5

Texas 53 8 285 139 344 12.5 6.1 15.1

Utah 7 0 51 1 51 20.2 0.4 20.2

Vermont 4 1 34 23 48 32.4 21.9 45.7

Virginia 17 1 125 9 132 33.2 2.4 35.0

Washington 10 0 68 38 86 9.9 5.5 12.5

West Virginia 9 1 62 25 72 29.8 12.0 34.6

Wisconsin 19 3 102 32 109 17.7 5.5 18.9

Wyoming 2 1 15 23 31 14.0 21.5 29.0

Puerto Rico/Outlying areas 22 3 94 58 129 14.6 9.0 20.0

1 19 UB and three UBMS projects did not submit performance reports, and their target schools are not reflected in this analysis. 2 Secondary schools may be associated with Upward Bound projects located in another state.

3 This total represents an unduplicated count of schools associated with UB and UBMS projects within each state.

NOTE: UB = classic Upward Bound; UBMS = Upward Bound Math-Science.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01; U.S. Department of Education,

National Center For Education Statistics, Common Core of Data Public Elementary/Secondary School Universe Survey, 2000–01.
26 A Profile of the Upward Bound Program: 2000–2001

Table 15. Number of participants served by Upward Bound and Talent Search projects and estimated

percentage of students eligible for free lunch served by the programs, by state: 2000–01

Talent Search (TS)1 UB and UBMS

Number eligible Percent Number Percent Number eligible Percent of

for free lunch of eligible eligible for of eligible for free lunch all eligible

in target middle/ students served free lunch in served in in grade 9-12 for free

State Participants secondary schools in target schools Participants target schools target schools non-target schools lunch served2

All 241,282 1,197,860 20.1% 62,074 1,888,136 3.3% 1,705,541 1.7%

Alabama 19,621 66,518 29.5 3,252 68,115 4.8 39,042 3.0

Alaska 853 825 103.44 320 † † † †

Arizona † † † 535 † † † †

Arkansas 7,503 18,936 39.6 927 29,444 3.1 26,072 1.7

California 24,878 212,130 11.7 6,171 361,484 1.7 219,342 1.1

Colorado 4,479 13,505 33.2 931 15,935 5.8 16,327 2.9

Connecticut 1,583 10,122 15.6 454 † † † †

Delaware 1,350 7,825 17.3 481 11,143 4.3 1,045 3.9

District of Columbia † † † 547 9,665 5.7 1,305 5.0

Florida 5,855 47,683 12.2 1,674 94,915 1.8 103,886 0.8

Georgia 9,497 71,002 13.4 1,781 53,557 3.3 57,022 1.6

Hawaii 1,900 10,815 17.6 404 24,748 1.6 1,711 1.5

Idaho 2,698 8,601 31.4 401 5,531 7.3 14,395 2.0

Illinois † † † 2,352 † † † †

Indiana 5,110 18,463 27.7 606 22,601 2.7 25,150 1.3

Iowa 6,854 15,045 45.5 1,230 17,106 7.2 9,793 4.6

Kansas 4,781 20,257 23.6 852 21,199 4.0 12,278 2.5

Kentucky 6,647 33,269 20.0 1,373 38,689 3.5 23,586 2.2

Louisiana 10,706 71,088 15.1 1,595 73,745 2.2 43,204 1.4

Maine 830 2,221 37.4 431 4,672 9.2 6,093 4.0

Maryland 3,048 16,190 18.8 973 37,437 2.6 10,396 2.0

Massachusetts † † † 1,217 27,329 4.5 29,454 2.1

Michigan 4,273 25,554 16.7 1,801 51,851 3.5 55,809 1.7

Minnesota † † † 1,157 29,345 3.9 30,373 1.9

Mississippi 5,389 29,281 18.4 1,076 39,829 2.7 61,976 1.1

Missouri 2,387 8,266 28.9 1,341 24,339 5.5 32,938 2.3

Montana 2,092 3,951 52.9 545 5,657 9.6 2,969 6.3

Nebraska 1,613 9,200 17.5 506 12,474 4.1 9,877 2.3

Nevada 1,381 3,378 70.9 337 4,123 8.2 1,492 6.0

New Hampshire 1,222 1,178 103.74 161 1,330 12.1 2,944 3.8

New Jersey 6,340 28,351 22.4 697 32,313 2.2 28,354 1.1

New Mexico † † † 740 22,947 3.2 10,084 2.2

New York 15,183 71,574 21.2 2,602 133,202 2.0 127,622 1.0

North Carolina 8,645 45,924 18.8 1,713 31,270 5.5 34,336 2.6

North Dakota 2,384 2,749 86.7 108 1,633 6.6 6,540 1.3

Ohio 8,903 35,979 24.7 1,983 38,144 5.2 58,482 2.1

Oklahoma 7,063 34,995 20.2 1,749 34,131 5.1 24,818 3.0

Oregon 2,060 8,683 23.7 492 12,955 3.8 21,805 1.4

Pennsylvania † † † 1,672 80,622 2.1 45,750 1.3

Rhode Island 865 6,770 12.8 151 4,174 3.6 4,010 1.8

South Carolina 7,114 31,897 22.3 1,326 45,091 2.9 23,400 1.9

South Dakota 1,035 3,303 31.3 292 1,801 16.2 4,071 5.0

Tennessee † † † 1,318 † † † †

Texas 1,563 97,352 15.0 4,111 187,807 2.2 206,253 1.0

Utah 5,069 6,985 72.6 703 9,878 7.1 19,281 2.4

Vermont 1,300 2,247 57.9 279 5,191 5.4 1,000 4.5

Virginia 7,135 21,862 32.6 1,373 29,817 4.6 21,778 2.7

Washington † † † 802 † † † †

West Virginia 3,459 17,263 20.0 771 19,161 4.0 14,999 2.3

Wisconsin 2,392 17,854 13.4 1,436 39,585 3.6 26,508 2.2

Wyoming 625 1,105 56.6 259 3,961 6.5 4,103 3.2

Puerto Rico/Outlying areas 10,636 37,664 28.2 2,066 68,160 3.0 186,868 0.8

†Data not available.

1 The data on Talent Search originally appeared in A Profile of the Talent Search Program: 1988–99 (Chou, Cahalan, Humphrey, Overton 2002). 2 Analyses exclude duplicate records within projects for participants with valid, 9–byte Social Security numbers.

3 Percent calculated by summing total number eligible for free lunch in UB & UBMS target schools (1,888,136) and the number eligible in all non-target schools serving

grades 9–12 (1,705,541) and dividing by the number of UB and UBMS participants in the target schools (62,074).

4 Income and eligibility guidelines for participation in the Talent Search program and the free lunch program under the National School Lunch Act differ slightly. This difference explains how more than 100 percent of the eligible students can be served.

NOTE: Interpret the state-level data on free-lunch eligibility with caution. More than 20 percent of the secondary schools in the CCD Public School Universe Survey were

missing information on the number of students eligible for free lunch. These schools were excluded from these analyses. This may account for some of the states in which it

appears that UB target schools have lower rates of students eligible for free lunch than does the state.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01; U.S. Department of Education, National Center For

Education Statistics, Common Core of Data Public Elementary/Secondary School Universe Survey, 2000–01.
Chapter 4 Upward Bound Target Schools 27

Table 16. Percentage of students in grades 9 to 12 eligible for the federal free lunch program in Upward Bound target schools and other secondary schools, by state: 2000–01

Percentage of students eligible by school type

UB and UBMS Other secondary All secondary

State target schools schools* Difference schools

All 33.7% 24.6% 9.1% 27.0%

Alabama 39.7 35.1 4.6 37.5

Alaska † † † †

Arizona † † † †

Arkansas 33.8 32.8 1.0 33.3

California 34.7 21.9 12.8 24.9

Colorado 29.8 14.5 15.3 17.1

Connecticut † † † †

Delaware 18.6 48.3 –29.7 22.8

District of Columbia 53.4 42.4 11.0 51.0

Florida 25.8 29.2 –3.4 28.6

Georgia 39.4 24.7 14.7 29.4

Hawaii 32.8 39.3 –6.5 34.0

Idaho 24.7 25.0 –0.3 24.9

Illinois † † † †

Indiana 20.8 13.2 7.6 15.1

Iowa 15.1 13.1 2.0 13.9

Kansas 23.6 17.0 6.6 18.7

Kentucky 36.9 19.2 17.7 26.1

Louisiana 47.3 40.6 6.7 43.5

Maine 25.3 19.7 5.6 21.5

Maryland 22.0 17.3 4.7 19.7

Massachusetts 34.3 17.0 17.3 19.9

Michigan 35.3 17.2 18.1 20.5

Minnesota 22.6 22.5 0.1 22.5

Mississippi 71.7 52.7 19.0 58.3

Missouri 22.6 21.1 1.5 21.6

Montana 24.9 20.8 4.1 22.2

Nebraska 24.3 16.8 7.5 18.0

Nevada 11.3 18.0 –6.7 14.9

New Hampshire 8.5 7.7 0.8 7.8

New Jersey 44.7 10.5 34.2 15.7

New Mexico 40.0 33.8 6.2 36.4

New York 41.3 22.3 19.0 26.9

North Carolina 27.2 22.7 4.5 24.2

North Dakota 43.9 26.2 17.7 27.4

Ohio 27.4 15.7 11.7 17.8

Oklahoma 40.4 30.8 9.6 35.1

Oregon 21.8 21.7 0.1 21.7

Pennsylvania 29.4 13.6 15.8 18.3

Rhode Island 55.4 16.4 39.0 21.3

South Carolina 36.1 32.7 3.4 34.7

South Dakota 35.3 19.0 16.3 21.2

Tennessee † † † †

Texas 37.6 31.1 6.5 32.3

Utah 24.3 21.9 2.4 22.5

Vermont 15.4 13.6 1.8 14.9

Virginia 30.5 15.1 15.4 21.8

Washington † †† †

West Virginia 35.3 32.9 2.4 34.1

Wisconsin 29.2 16.9 12.3 19.8

Wyoming 18.7 28.1 –9.4 24.8

Puerto Rico/Outlying areas 67.7 79.2 –11.5 76.4

† Data not available.

* Other schools include operational schools with any grade 9–12 that were not associated with Upward Bound projects during the 2000–01 academic year.

NOTE: Interpret the state-level data on free-lunch eligibility with caution. More than 20 percent of the secondary schools in the CCD Public School Universe Survey were

missing information on the number of students eligible for free lunch. These cases were excluded from these analyses. This may account for some of the states in which it

appears that UB target schools have lower rates of students eligible for free lunch than does the state. UB = classic Upward Bound; UBMS = Upward Bound Math-Science.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01; U.S. Department of Education, National Center For

Education Statistics, Common Core of Data Public Elementary/Secondary School Universe Survey, 2000–01.
28 A Profile of the Upward Bound Program: 2000–2001

Table 17. Percentage of minority students in grades 9 to 12 in Upward Bound schools and other secondary

schools, by state: 2000–01

Percent minority students, by school type

Other secondary All secondary

State UB and UBMS schools schools* Difference schools

All 47.4% 30.6% 16.8% 34.9%

Alabama 50.1 32.4 17.7 41.5

Alaska 73.5 63.8 9.7 66.0

Arizona 53.9 44.2 9.7 46.3

Arkansas 30.1 20.3 9.8 25.1

California 69.3 51.2 18.1 55.4

Colorado 48.9 22.8 26.1 27.1

Connecticut 58.8 29.3 29.5 32.9

Delaware 34.0 49.4 –15.4 36.1

District of Columbia 96.3 99.9 –3.6 97.0

Florida 56.6 45.2 11.4 47.0

Georgia 69.4 35.6 33.8 46.5

Hawaii 80.9 76.0 4.9 79.9

Idaho 16.1 12.8 3.3 13.5

Illinois 60.1 22.3 37.8 30.0

Indiana 22.3 8.7 13.6 11.8

Iowa 7.0 3.9 3.1 5.1

Kansas 24.8 8.4 16.4 12.6

Kentucky 6.9 14.5 –7.6 11.6

Louisiana 60.0 43.6 16.4 50.7

Maine 3.7 2.9 0.8 3.1

Maryland 60.6 35.4 25.2 47.5

Massachusetts 58.8 23.5 35.3 29.3

Michigan 58.1 18.8 39.3 25.9

Minnesota 20.8 17.7 3.1 18.2

Mississippi 79.6 42.7 36.9 53.5

Missouri 15.5 13.4 2.1 14.0

Montana 28.2 8.0 20.2 15.1

Nebraska 26.0 6.2 19.8 9.3

Nevada 40.3 35.1 5.2 37.7

New Hampshire 3.2 3.0 0.2 3.1

New Jersey 86.6 29.6 57.0 38.4

New Mexico 70.6 62.8 7.8 65.9

New York 60.2 26.5 33.7 34.6

North Carolina 47.8 35.0 12.8 38.8

North Dakota 49.1 10.1 39.0 12.9

Ohio 40.7 14.4 26.3 18.8

Oklahoma 39.4 26.5 12. 32.3

Oregon 25.6 13.4 12.2 15.5

Pennsylvania 36.5 11.6 24.9 19.0

Rhode Island 69.1 20.0 49.1 26.1

South Carolina 51.5 43.2 8.3 48.1

South Dakota 51.0 10.1 40.9 16.8

Tennessee † † † †

Texas 66.7 47.3 19.4 50.8

Utah 17.6 14.1 3.5 14.8

Vermont 3.4 2.6 0.8 3.2

Virginia 37.2 33.6 3.6 34.9

Washington 42.9 22.0 20.9 25.0

West Virginia 6.0 5.8 0.2 5.9

Wisconsin 30.0 15.6 14.4 18.8

Wyoming 12.4 10.6 1.8 11.2

Puerto Rico/Outlying areas 99.4 93.3 6.1 94.7

† Data not available.

* Other schools include operational schools with any grade 9–12 that were not associated with Upward Bound projects during the 2000–01 academic year.

NOTE: UB = classic Upward Bound; UBMS = Upward Bound Math-Science.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01; U.S. Department of Education, National Center For

Education Statistics, Common Core of Data Public Elementary/Secondary School Universe Survey, 2000–01.
Chapter 5 High School Program Participation, Services, and Academic Measures 29

This chapter focuses on project participation in

Upward Bound during high school and includes the

following: the number of participants served in

2000–01; the level and length of participation; the services offered; and the percentage of participants receiving the service. In addition, some limited information

on high school academic measures, e.g., high school

grades, college entrance test scores, and high school

and postsecondary credits earned from program participation, are presented. In subsequent reports, as data

become available on a complete cohort of participants

that entered the Upward Bound program in

1999–2000, we plan to include information on grade

progression and high school graduation.

A. Participation level, number served, and

length of participation

1. Participation level

Upward Bound regulations require projects to

offer both summer and academic year programs, with a

notation that Math-Science Centers should offer academic year programs to the extent that the distance

from the projects that participants live will allow. The

distribution of participation across the various components of UB is given in table 18. UB projects reported

that about 55 percent of the UB participants were

involved in the program during both the academic year

and summer (table 18 and figure 19). Another 6 percent participated in both the academic year and the

summer bridge programs. This implies that just under

two-thirds (61 percent) of participants were in the program for the entire service year.

Just over one-quarter of the UB participants 

(28 percent) participated in the academic year only, and 

10 percent of UB participants were enrolled only in the

summer or summer bridge program. One percent of

participants were reported as enrolled only in the summer bridge program; these participants may reflect

graduating seniors at the start of the reporting period

(May 2000) who participated in the summer bridge

program within the reporting year and then entered

postsecondary education rather than the UB academic

year program. A few participants (2 percent) were

reported as either “prior-year participants” who

received limited or no follow-up services, or as those

whose level of participation was not reported. UBMS

had half of its participants involved in both the summer

and academic year program. Reflecting its regional

aspects, UBMS had a larger percentage than UB of

participants who were only in the summer program 

(27 percent compared to 8 percent). UBMS also had a

smaller percentage of academic year only participants

(17 percent compared to 28 percent).

2. Number served and number funded to serve

As in other TRIO programs, UB grants are made

with an explicit expectation that the project will serve a

specified number of participants throughout the project

year (academic year plus summer and, where relevant,

summer bridge programs). Based on the projects returning performance reports in 2000–01, UB projects were

funded to serve 71 participants each. Figure 20 shows that

when projects report on the number of individuals served

by the project during the reporting year, the number of

individual students served in UB exceeded the number

funded to serve by approximately 5,000. Note that not all

students participated on a full-time basis (i.e., not all students attended during the academic year plus the summer/summer bridge), and that projects frequently recruited additional students to take the place of those who participated in only one component or for those who relocated or otherwise dropped out of the Upward Bound

project. Thus, the count of individuals participating in the

program may actually overstate the number of persons

CHAPTER 5 

HIGH SCHOOL PROGRAM

PARTICIPATION, SERVICES, 

AND ACADEMIC MEASURES
30 A Profile of the Upward Bound Program: 2000–2001

Table 18. Number and percentage distribution of Upward Bound participants, by grantee sector and type of

participation in reporting year: 2000–01

Unknown or

Academic year limited

Academic year and Academic Summer Summer service to 

Sector and summer summer bridge year only only bridge only prior participants1

Number of participants

All 30,484 3,035 15,299 4,513 753 1,056

Public four-year 13,224 1,326 6,900 1,788 340 605

Private four-year 7,440 499 3,309 975 298 215

Two-year 8,348 1,117 4,318 1,511 115 225

Community 

organizations 1,472 93 772 239 0 11

Percentage of participants

All 55.3% 5.5% 27.8% 8.2% 1.4% 1.9%

Public four-year 54.7 5.5 28.5 7.4 1.4 2.5

Private four-year 58.4 3.9 26.0 7.7 2.3 1.7

Two-year 53.4 7.1 27.6 9.7 0.7 1.4

Community 

organizations 56.9 3.6 29.8 9.2 0 0.4

Number of participants weighted as count of yearly full-time equivalent (YFTE)2 students

All 30,484 3,035 8,414 2,031 339 †

Public four-year 13,224 1,326 3,795 805 153 †

Private four-year 7,440 499 1,820 439 134 †

Two-year 8,348 1,117 2,375 680 52 †

Community 

organizations 1,472 93 425 108 0 †

† Yearly full-time equivalent estimates of students who received no services or limited services were defined as zero. This column also includes 

570 cases where participation level was not reported. If the unknown participation levels of the UB participants were known, the YFTE estimates

would be higher.

1 This column includes a small number of participants whose participation level was either unknown or who were reported as current participants for

the 2000–01 project year but were coded by their projects for this item as prior-year participants who were receiving limited or no services.

2 The Yearly Full-time Equivalent (YFTE) count of UB participants weights participants according to the duration of the services received. Academic 

year participants who also received summer or summer bridge services were weighted 100 percent. Other service recipients received lower weights:

academic year only (55 percent) and summer and summer bridge only (45 percent). The participation level of 1,056 UB cases (1.9 percent of new,

current, and re-entry participants for the project year) was not reported or limited and received no weight. YFTE is intended to give an estimate of

the participants served at various times during the program year.

NOTE: Because of rounding, detail may not sum to totals. Analyses are restricted to new, current, and re-entry participants for the 2000–01 project

year. The estimates are based on unduplicated counts of participants within projects.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01.
Chapter 5 High School Program Participation, Services, and Academic Measures 31

who receive the full complement of UB services from a

program. For example, a project may have reported the

participation of two students, one who attended the program during the academic year only and one who participated only in the summer, when in fact neither alone represents a complete “funded to serve” participant.

To take into account students’ participation for various portions of the reporting year, we have estimated a

Yearly Full-time Equivalent (YFTE) count of participants. This YFTE was calculated by assigning different

weights to participants according to their participation

level, as follows: those in both summer or summer

bridge and academic year offerings were weighted at 100

percent; those who attended only during the academic

year were weighted at 55 percent; and those who participated only in the summer or summer bridge received

weights of 45 percent. We selected the 55/45 split

because this reflects on average the proportional allocation of project funds for the academic and summer components for a typical Upward Bound project.

The YFTE estimate is intended to approximate the

number of participants actively served at any given time

in the reporting year. Table 18 and Figure 20 provide

the YFTE estimates. Using this calculation, the estimated number of participants served at any given time

was 44,303, which is 5,900 participants fewer than the

number funded to serve over the course of the entire

reporting year (50,203).

Figure 19. Percentage of UB and UBMS participants participating at various levels during the reporting year:

2000–01

NOTE: UB = classic Upward Bound; UBMS = Upward Bound Math-Science.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01.

2.1

0.7

1.9

1.4

27.8

5.5

55.3

26.7

16.9

3.4

50.3

8.2

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Unknown or service

to prior year

Summer bridge only

Summer only

Academic year only

Academic year and

summer bridge

Academic year and

summer

UB UBMS Percent
32 A Profile of the Upward Bound Program: 2000–2001

Upward Bound Initiative. For the 2000–01 project year, the U.S. Department of Education awarded

supplemental funding totaling $14.6 million under the

Upward Bound Initiative to 184 Upward Bound projects to serve additional participants. The purpose of the

initiative was to “increase the number of the neediest

eligible students served in the UB program.” All UB

projects funded for 2000–01 were eligible to apply for

funds to serve up to 20 additional students, with awards

of up to $85,000. VUB and UBMS projects were not

eligible for this supplemental funding. The initiative

gave an absolute priority to projects serving at least one

target school in which at least 50 percent of the students were eligible for the free lunch program. The

rationale for this priority was that “the neediest students are generally those from the lowest income levels.” In addition, UB projects that received funding

under the initiative were strongly encouraged to

recruit, select, and serve students who were at greatest

risk of not graduating from high school or pursuing

postsecondary education.

The UB Initiative was announced in July 2000,

with awards made during fall 2000. For the 2000–01

performance reports, UB grantees were instructed to

identify UB participants selected and served by the

project as a result of the increased funding provided

under the initiative. The 182 projects that identified

initiative participants reported serving 5,008 participants with the supplemental initiative funding in

2000–01 (table 19), which exceeded the number funded to serve by more than 1,500.16

B. Participant status

Figure 21 gives the distribution over the grantee

sectors for new, continuing, and re-entry participants

for the 2000–01 service year. A new participant is an

individual who participated in the project for the first

time in the program year (in this case 2000–01). A continuing participant is an individual who participated in

the project in both the current reporting period (program year 2000–01) and the preceding project period

(program year 1999–2000). A re-entry participant is a

former project participant who participated in the project during the current reporting period (program year

2000–01) but not during the preceding project period

(program year 1999–2000).17

Figure 20. Number served over course of the

reporting year, number funded to serve,

and estimated Yearly Full-Time-Equivalent

(YFTE) number served, among UB projects

submitting performance reports: 2000–01

* Estimated YFTE for UB was calculated by totaling participants who

were in both summer and academic year programs at 100 percent;

academic year only at 55 percent; and summer or summer bridge only

at 45 percent. This number is intended to give an estimate of the

number being actively served at any given time in the reporting year.

NOTE: UB = classic Upward Bound.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs,

Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01.

44,303

50,203

55,140

0 10,000 20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000

Estimated 

YFTE*

Funded 

to serve

Served over 

course of year

Number

16Because this was the first year of reporting on initiative participants, it is possible that some projects classified a larger number of

individuals as initiative participants than were actually served with the

supplemental funding. In some cases, all participants from the identified target school, whether or not actually supported with supplemental initiative funds, may have been classified as initiative participants.

17The tabulations in figure 21 and table 20 do not include prioryear participants in the performance file. A prior-year participant is

a former project participant who did not participate in the project

during the current reporting period.
Chapter 5 High School Program Participation, Services, and Academic Measures 33

Among classic UB projects, 38 percent of the students served in 2000–01 were new participants, 61 percent were continuing, and a very small percentage 

(0.4 percent) were classified as re-entry participants

(figure 21). As indicated in table 20, UB had proportionally fewer new participants than UBMS. VUB had

the largest percentage of new participants, reflecting

the program’s short-term service orientation.

1. Participation length

The data provided in this first Upward Bound profile have a number of limitations, one of which is significant in considering length of program participation.

For the 2000–01 report, grantees were required to provide data on participants beginning with those served in

1999–2000. Some of these participants would have first

enrolled in UB in earlier years (for example, 1998 or

1997). But some of their fellow participants who also

enrolled in those years would have left the program

before 1999–2000. Their length of participation would

often have been shorter than that of many of the participants included in the 2000–01 report. For this reason,

average length of participation for participants as calculated from the 2000–01 data is doubtless somewhat distorted; had data been available for all participants in the

earlier cohorts, we suspect that length of participation

would have been shorter than that reported below.

Figure 21. Percentage distribution of UB current 

(re-entry, continuing, and new)

participants, by grantee sector: 2000–01

NOTE: UB = classic Upward Bound.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs,

Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01.

38.5 36.4 39.6 37.0 38.3

61.0 63.4 60.1 62.6 61.4

0.5 0.2 0.4 0.4 0.4

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Public 

four-year

Private 

four-year

Two-year Community

organizations

All projects

Re-entry participants Continuing participants New participants

Percent

Table 19. Number of UB projects and number of participants the projects were funded to serve and actually

served, by Upward Bound Initiative status: 2000–01

Number of participants2

Current year

Projects reporting Funded to serve participants served

Projects Under Under

Project type1 funded Number Percent Initial Initiative All Initial Initiative All

All 727 708 97.4% 46,778 3,425 50,203 50,132 5,008 55,140

Initiative 184 182 98.9 12,098 3,425 15,523 11,239 5,008 16,247

Non-initiative 543 526 96.9 34,680 — 34,680 38,893 — 38,893

— Not applicable.

1 In FY 2000, the Department of Education set aside supplemental funds for the Upward Bound Program Participant Expansion Initiative designed to

increase the number of participants with the greatest need served by the program. Projects that applied for and were granted these supplemental

funds for serving additional high-risk students are designated “Initiative Projects.”

2 The numbers of participants that projects were funded to serve and actually served are based on the projects responding to the performance reports.

The two nonresponding projects with UB initiative grants were funded to serve a total of 40 students under the initiative and 140 students under the

regular program. The 17 non-initiative projects that did not respond to the performance reports were funded to serve 1,298 participants.

NOTE: UB = classic Upward Bound.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, 2000–01.
34 A Profile of the Upward Bound Program: 2000–2001

Having acknowledged this limitation of the analysis,

we believe that the data below provide some indication of

average duration of participation. The mean number of

months between the entry date and the date of last participation or end of the reporting period was 22 months

and the median was 21 (table 21). Comparable statistics

for UBMS reflect the fact that participants often enter

when they are in a higher grade in high school and that a

larger proportion of UBMS students than UB students

participate only during the summer. The mean number

of months between entry date and the date of last participation or the end of the reporting period for UBMS participants was 14 months and the median was 12 months

(data for UBMS not shown in table).

Table 22 includes information on length of participation only for those identified as prior participants in the

2000–01 performance report. As noted above, data in this

table are based on an incomplete cohort of prior participants; we anticipate that this resulted in a higher distribution of months of participation than might otherwise have

been obtained. As it stands, table 22 shows 25 months of

participation as the mean and 26 as the median. There

were few differences in these statistics by grantee sector as

illustrated in table 22, except that projects sponsored by

community organizations had lower mean and median

months of participation among prior participants 

(22 months compared with 25 months for the total, and

20 months vs. 26 months, respectively). This is consistent

Table 20. Percentage distribution of participants, by participant status (new, continuing, and re-entry) and 

by type of Upward Bound project: 2000–01

Participant status UB UBMS VUB

New participants 38.3% 52.5% 75.6%

Continuing participants 61.4 47.1 21.0

Re-entry participants 0.4 0.4 3.3

NOTE: UB = classic Upward Bound; UBMS = Upward Bound Math-Science; VUB = Veterans Upward Bound.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01.

Table 21. Percentage distribution, mean, and median number of months between entry date and date of last

participation or end of reporting period for UB participants, by participant status: 2000–01

Participant status

Distribution of months All New Continuing Re-entry1 Prior year2

3 months or less 8.2% 29.9% 1.8% 21.7% 6.0%

4–11 months 21.1 57.4 11.5 65.0 15.6

12–17 months 13.7 8.5 18.8 6.7 9.9

18–23 months 13.7 2.9 18.5 6.7 12.9

24–35 months 23.7 1.1 27.6 — 29.9

36+ months 19.5 0.3 21.9 — 25.8

Months Months Months Months Months

Mean 21.7 6.9 24.8 7.3 25.1

Median 21.0 6.0 23.0 7.0 26.0

— Too few cases to report.

1 Re-entry participants with valid re-entry dates are included in this category, with their re-entry date considered their entry date.

2 The tabulations in this table are based on an incomplete cohort of UB prior participants due to the fact that this was the first year of reporting and

only those served in 1999–2000 and 2000–01 were included on file. High school students starting the program but dropping out before 1999–2000

would have been excluded. We anticipate that this resulted in a higher distribution of months of participation for prior participants than might otherwise have been obtained.

NOTE: UB = classic Upward Bound.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01.
Chapter 5 High School Program Participation, Services, and Academic Measures 35

with the fact that projects hosted by community organizations also had a larger proportion of new participants

compared with the postsecondary host grantees.

2. Reason for leaving the program

For those who reported a date of last service, a follow-up item asked the reason for leaving the program

from a listing of potential reasons. These reasons were

developed in conjunction with the UB performance

report working group (table 23). The most common reason was “graduated from high school” (58 percent). This

was followed by “no longer interested” with 14 percent

and other reasons with 8 percent. Each of the following

reasons—need or desire for employment, moved out of

area, other extracurricular activities, and family responsibilities—were listed for between 3 to 6 percent of the

participants. Few participants (1 percent) were reported

to have left the program to participate in another precollege program. Based on responses to this item, one

might estimate that about 42 percent of those served at

least 12 months left prior to graduating from high school

and that they did so for a variety of reasons related to

other interests and commitments.

Table 22. Percentage distribution, mean, and median number of months between entry date and exit date 

(or end date of reporting period) for prior-year participants in UB projects, by project sector: 2000–01

Project sector

Public Private Community

Duration of months All four-year four-year Two-year organization

3 months or less 6.3% 5.6% 5.4% 7.3% 10.4%

4–11 months 15.8 14.1 15.7 17.9 24.5

12–17 months 9.8 10.4 8.6 9.4 13.6

18–23 months 12.8 14.3 11.9 11.9 5.1

24–35 months 29.8 30.5 30.6 28.7 20.9

36 more months 25.7 25.1 27.8 24.9 25.5

Months Months Months Months Months

Mean 25.0 25.2 25.6 24.4 21.8

Median 26.0 26.0 27.0 25.0 19.5

NOTE: UB = classic Upward Bound. The tabulations in this table are based on an incomplete cohort of UB prior participants due to the fact that this

was the first year of reporting and only those served in 1999–2000 and 2000–01 were included on file. High school students starting the program, but

dropping out before 1999–2000, would have been excluded. We anticipate that this resulted in a higher distribution of months of participation than

might otherwise have been obtained.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01.

Table 23. Percentage distribution of reported reasons for leaving the program of UB participants with a

reported date of last service: 2000–01

Public Private Community

Reason for leaving All four-year four-year Two-year organization

Need or desire for employment 4.3% 3.9% 5.2% 4.3% 3.5%

Moved out of target area 5.7 5.6 5.1 6.5 5.3

Dropped out of high school 1.0 1.1 0.7 1.1 0.5

Other extracurricular activities 4.1 3.8 4.6 4.3 4.1

Participating in another academic program 1.2 1.2 1.2 1.2 1.8

No longer interested 13.9 13.4 12.0 16.8 12.4

Family responsibilities 3.2 2.7 3.4 3.6 4.2

Graduated from high school 58.2 60.3 57.8 54.5 61.1

Other 8.4 8.1 10.0 7.8 7.1

NOTE: Dates of last service outside of the June 1, 1999–November 30, 2001, period were excluded from the analyses. UB = classic Upward Bound.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01.
36 A Profile of the Upward Bound Program: 2000–2001

18As specified in the TRIO program regulations (34 CFR

645.11), an Upward Bound project that receives funds for 

at least two years “shall include as part of its core curriculum,

instruction in—(1) Mathematics through pre-calculus; 

(2) Laboratory science; (3) Foreign language; (4) Composition; and

(5) Literature.”

3. Overlap among UB and UBMS participation

To examine the extent to which students may have

participated in both a UB and a UBMS project, we

matched participant records using students’ Social

Security numbers to calculate the number and percentage of projects that had any overlapping participants

and the percentage of participants that were served by

the two programs (table 24). Overall, about 44 percent

of UB projects had at least one participant who was also

a UBMS participant, and 65 percent of UBMS projects

had at least one participant who was also included

among the UB participants. However, the actual number of participants involved was quite small—about 

1 percent of UB participants and about 10 percent of

UBMS participants. The former percentage is consistent with that reported in table 23 as the percentage

that left the program to participate in another academic program (also 1 percent).

C. Services offered and received

Upward Bound regulations specify academic areas

for which projects are required to provide instruction, in

the form of either courses or tutoring. The regulations

also list other services that are often offered by projects.

These academic areas and services are reflected in the

performance reports and are listed in the following

tables. The glossary in appendix B provides definitions

of these services as defined in the instructions to the

Upward Bound performance report. The two major statistics reported below are the percentage of projects having at least one participant receiving the service for

2000–01 (used as indicator of offering/providing the

service) and the percentage of participants who are

reported to have received the service in the reporting

year. For example, if none of the participants whose

records were submitted by the project were reported to

have received “Japanese foreign language” instruction,

then the project would be classified as not offering the

service. If the project had at least one participant, then it

would be classified as offering the service. Among those

projects offering the service, we then calculated the percentage of total participants who received the service.

1. Percentage of projects offering service

Service statistics indicate that virtually all projects

have some participants receiving instruction in the

required core curriculum, either in the summer or academic year.18 About 97–98 percent of UB projects had at

least some participants receiving instruction in the summer program in the areas of math, science, and English.

During the academic year, 87 percent had some participants receiving instruction in math, 83 percent in science,

70 percent in foreign languages, and 89 percent in

English (table 25).

Table 24. Number of UB and UBMS projects with overlapping current and prior-year participants, by grantee

sector: 2000–01

Number and percentage of projects with Number and percentage of overlapping

overlapping UB and UBMS participants participants in the projects

Sector UB UBMS UB UBMS

All 321 44.2% 78 64.5% 837 1.2% 855 9.7%

Public four-year institutions 145 48.0 45 45.2 430 1.4 572 11.3

Private four-year institutions 55 34.5 21 38.2 80 0.5 159 7.3

Two-year institutions 103 44.6 9 52.9 284 1.5 107 9.3

Community organizations 18 46.2 3 50.0 43 1.4 17 4.1

NOTE: This table excludes projects that did not respond to the Upward Bound individual performance reports (19 UB and three UBMS). The overlapping

participants reflect individual records with valid, 9–byte Social Security numbers, after duplicates within each Upward Bound project were removed.

UB = classic Upward Bound; UBMS = Upward Bound Math-Science. Because of rounding, detail may not sum to totals.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01.
Chapter 5 High School Program Participation, Services, and Academic Measures 37

Table 25. Percentage of UB projects having at least one participant receiving service in academic areas and 

the percentage of current participants receiving the services: 2000–01

Academic year Summer

Projects offering Participants Projects offering Participants

Academic area courses/tutorial receiving service* courses/tutorial receiving service*

Mathematics

Pre-Algebra 36.9% 2.8% 22.5% 2.0%

Algebra I 68.4 13.6 67.4 9.3

Algebra II 70.2 13.5 77.3 13.2

Geometry 71.2 15.7 77.0 12.9

Trigonometry 39.0 3.8 41.5 4.2

Pre-Calculus 48.5 3.9 52.0 5.4

Calculus 31.4 1.4 28.0 1.4

Integrated math 31.4 7.1 26.4 6.0

Other 42.8 4.9 37.2 3.7

Any mathematics 87.0 66.8 97.6 58.1

Science

Introduction/Earth science 48.5 7.3 31.2 4.2

Biology 68.9 17.7 70.8 14.9

Chemistry 68.1 14.0 67.8 13.9

Physics 52.8 5.1 50.3 7.0

Integrated science 32.9 5.9 29.7 7.3

Other 47.0 5.3 38.7 4.8

Any science 82.6 55.3 95.9 52.1

Any mathematics or science 89.3 69.6 98.3 61.1

Foreign Language

Spanish 62.9 22.4 68.1 24.7

French 42.4 4.7 27.7 4.6

German 16.5 0.6 8.8 0.7

Italian 2.4 0.1 2.0 0.2

Russian 2.3 0.1 2.3 0.2

Japanese 5.8 0.3 5.5 1.0

Other 26.3 3.5 23.4 6.5

Any foreign language 70.1 31.6 88.7 37.8

English

Composition 52.3 16.6 50.3 11.3

Literature 33.5 4.7 35.7 6.0

Composition and literature 75.9 46.0 86.6 41.7

Any English course 88.7 67.3 97.6 59.1

*Percentages are of the total new, continuing and re-entry participants in the service year.

NOTE: UB = classic Upward Bound.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01.
38 A Profile of the Upward Bound Program: 2000–2001

2. Percentage of participants receiving instruction 

in the subject area

For UB, over 50 percent of participants received

instruction in some form of mathematics, English, and

science in the summer program, and almost 40 percent

had some foreign language instruction. Participation

levels were significantly higher in the academic year for

math, English, and science. Two-thirds of academicyear participants received mathematics and English

instruction of some type; about one-half received science instruction; and almost one-third received foreign

languages (table 25).

Figures 22 and 23 provide a comparison between

UB and UBMS for the percentage of participants

receiving instruction in the broad areas and selected

mathematics subjects. The differences reflect the

emphasis of UBMS on math and science and the differences in academic levels of the students. UBMS students were on average more likely to enter the program

at a later grade and to have slightly higher grade point

averages (GPAs) at time of entry. They also reflect that

UB has a higher percentage of participants who participate in both the academic year and summer programs.

Much of the math instruction was at the algebra I

and II and geometry levels. Table 25 provides the percentage of UB and UBMS participants who took selected math courses. For classic UB, about 4 percent of academic-year and summer participants received instruction in trigonometry, 4 to 5 percent in pre-calculus, and

1 percent in calculus. Seven percent received integrated

math instruction in the academic year (table 25).

Figure 22. Percentage of participants who received instructional services in core subject areas in UB and UBMS

during the academic year and the summer program: 2000–01

NOTE: UB= classic Upward Bound; UBMS = Upward Bound Math-Science, AY = academic year, S = summer program. Percentages are of the total new,

continuing, and re-entry participants in the service year.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01.

66.8 67.3

55.3

31.6

43.1

39.1

42.1

23.6

58.1 59.1

52.1

37.8

73.3 73.4 72.8

52.1

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Any mathematics Any English Any science Any foreign language

AY-UB AY-UBMS S-UB S-UBMS

Percent
Chapter 5 High School Program Participation, Services, and Academic Measures 39

3. Other services for UB in 2000–01

The UB performance reports also ask for information on other services as listed in table 26. Those services/activities in which more than three-fourths of students participated at some time during the service year

were: academic advising, cultural activities, tutoring,

personal counseling, study skills, family activities,

career awareness, and campus visitation. About half 

(55 percent) participated in computer science either in

the academic year, summer, or both. Peer mentoring

was received by 61 percent and professional mentoring

by 43 percent. Fewer students participated in work

study (see definition in appendix B) or employment

related services (3 and 11 percent, respectively).

D. High school grades

Grade point average (GPA) data can be used both to

assess a participant’s need for UB services and also to

examine the improvements in academic achievement.

There is considerable interest in examining whether

participation in UB has a positive impact on the high

school grades of project participants, and for this reason

the performance reports collect three grade measures:

• High school cumulative grade point at entry into

the program (for those who had a high school

GPA when they entered the program),

• High school GPA at the start of the reporting

period, and

Figure 23. Percentage of participants who received instructional services in selected mathematics subject 

areas in UB and UBMS during the academic year and the summer program: 2000–01

NOTE: UB = classic Upward Bound; UBMS = Upward Bound Math-Science, AY = academic year, S = summer program. Percentages are of the total

new, continuing, and re-entry participants in the service year.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01.

7.1

1.4

3.9

13.5

66.8

6.7

1.0

3.9

8.7

43.1

6.0

1.4

5.4

13.2

58.1

13.0

5.0

10.3

73.3

14.3

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Integrated math Calculus Pre-calculus Algebra II Any mathematics

AY-UB AY-UBMS S-UB S-UBMS

Percent
40 A Profile of the Upward Bound Program: 2000–2001

• High school GPA at the end of the reporting

period.

In this first performance report, we present preliminary descriptive information on average GPAs. We

also report on the percentage of students that were

reported to have had a higher GPA, the same GPA, and

a lower GPA than when they entered the program. In

subsequent reports, as more years of data become available, we hope to present a more detailed analysis of

participant grades by length of time participating in the

program and services received. In addition, we will

report on the result of analyses of the factors such as

participant background, type of services received, and

length of time in the program that may be related to

entry GPA and to reported GPA change.

Some cautions are in order in interpreting this

data. These are listed below:

• Although over 80 percent of UB and UBMS participants had grades reported that were usable

(on a 4- or 5-point scale), in a number of cases

the GPAs reported were the same for the start

and end of the reporting period. We do not know

if this reflects that the GPA remained unchanged

or that data were not updated to reflect GPA at

the end of the reporting period/school year.

• Without information on the high school courses

taken, it becomes difficult to evaluate the significance of change or lack of change in GPA. For

example, a student may be encouraged to take

more challenging college preparatory courses by

Table 26. Percentage distribution of UB projects providing academic year and/or summer service and

percentage of current participants receiving the service: 2000–01

Percentage of projects Percentage of new, continuing, and 

offering service in period re-entry participants receiving service

Academic Academic Any time

Type of activity/service year Summer Both year Summer Both in period

Reading instruction/ 

tutorials 62.9% 54.4% 57.1% 16.4% 12.0% 22.7% 51.1%

Computer science 60.2 68.5 56.4 16.9 21.1 17.3 55.3

Tutoring 88.0 63.1 87.0 28.8 11.1 44.0 83.9

Supplemental instruction 62.6 51.8 64.0 15.9 11.6 29.6 57.1

College entrance 

exam prep 85.9 53.0 73.4 26.5 8.3 27.0 61.8

Personal counseling 86.0 64.1 90.8 24.2 9.1 48.8 82.1

Academic advising 89.3 63.1 93.8 29.6 8.8 52.3 90.7

Peer counseling/

mentoring 61.7 55.2 64.1 16.1 15.3 29.5 60.9

Professional mentoring 52.0 43.6 52.3 13.4 9.3 20.3 43.0

Study skills 87.7 66.4 87.7 27.4 11.4 43.9 82.7

Cultural activities 87.9 70.6 95.6 23.6 12.8 51.9 88.3

Career awareness 87.3 65.8 88.7 26.8 12.6 45.3 84.7

Campus visitation 84.2 67.2 82.5 24.3 15.7 38.1 78.1

College admissions 

assistance 84.0 47.0 78.4 18.5 5.6 25.8 49.9

Financial aid assistance 82.3 41.5 72.6 18.8 5.4 21.5 45.7

Family activities 82.8 68.5 87.1 24.2 14.3 43.8 82.3

Target school advocacy 76.4 25.1 44.9 38.4 2.3 16.3 56.9

Work study position 11.4 15.7 16.8 0.3 1.7 0.9 2.9

Employment 32.5 32.3 37.3 2.7 2.8 5.1 10.6

NOTE: UB= classic Upward Bound. Percentages are of the total new, continuing, and re-entry participants in the service year. Detail may not sum to

totals because of rounding.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01.
Chapter 5 High School Program Participation, Services, and Academic Measures 41

the program and consequently may have a

decline in overall GPA, while at the same time

becoming better prepared for college.

• GPAs differ by school grade, and participants have

different grades of entrance into the UB program;

hence the need to look at the data by grade.

1. GPA at the start and end, by grade

In table 27, the three GPAs collected (standardized to

a 4-point scale) are broken down by the grade the participant would be entering at the end of the period. For new

participants, the GPA at entry to the program and at the

start of the reporting period would be the same in most

cases. One of the first things to notice about the table is

that, while there is little variation, GPAs increase slightly

as students progress through high school. As might be

expected, GPA is lower for those who drop out of high

school and higher for those who have enrolled in a postsecondary institution by the end of the reporting period.

The average GPA among all UB participants at

entry into the program was 2.8. For reference, the

College Board reports that the mean GPA for all college-bound seniors taking the SAT was 3.3 (3.2 for

males and 3.3 for females) in 2001. Among UB participants, when the average GPA at the start of the reporting period and the end of the period were compared for

all participants, regardless of grade, there was an

increase from 2.8 to 2.9 (table 27).

2. GPA change status

The evaluations of UB in both the 1970s and

1990s found more evidence of positive high school and

postsecondary relative impacts among those who started the program with lower GPA averages

(Burkheimer, Riccobono, Wisenbaker 1979; Myers

and Schirm 1996). The preliminary data from the first

year of performance reporting seem to support this

finding for both UB and UBMS with regard to high

school GPA. Table 28 provides the distribution of total

participants reported served in 2000–01 by GPA

change status (whether the grade at the start of the

period was higher, unchanged, or lower than GPA at

the end of the reporting period). Some caution is

needed in interpreting these data due to reporting

issues in this the first year of reporting; however, these

data suggest that those who had increases in GPA over

the reporting period entered the program with slightly lower GPAs than average (figure 24). Overall, 

43 percent of participants had higher GPAs at the end

of the reporting period than at the start, 27 percent

were unchanged, and 29 percent were lower (table 28).

Those participants who had some increase in GPA

averaged 2.7 at the start of the period, and those that

experienced some decline averaged 2.9 at the start.

The same pattern holds for UBMS—those having an

increase averaged 3.0 at the start and those who had a

decline averaged 3.2. Additional analyses controlling

for differences in grade level are needed as more years

of data become available.

3. Upward Bound Initiative preliminary data on GPAs

The Upward Bound Initiative was begun based on

a priority to increase the number of the neediest eligible students who are served by the Upward Bound program, as evidenced by their being enrolled in schools in

which at least 50 percent of the students are eligible for

free lunch participation. As the initiative was begun in

2000, the data in the performance reports for 2000-01

reflect preliminary information and should be used

Table 27. Mean high school GPA on 4-point scale for new, continuing, and re-entry UB participants, by grade

entering at end of reporting period: 2000–01

Grade level reported for end of the reporting period

Not Enrollment Drop- Accepted Enrolled

GPA All 9th 10th 11th 12th enrolled unknown out in PS in PS

At entry to UB 2.8 2.8 2.8 2.8 2.9 2.6 2.7 2.1 2.9 3.0

At start of period 2.8 2.8 2.8 2.8 2.9 2.6 2.8 1.9 2.9 3.0

At end of period 2.9 2.8 2.8 2.9 2.9 2.6 2.8 1.9 3.0 3.1

NOTE: UB= classic Upward Bound. PS = postsecondary. Projects reporting grade point average (GPA) on a 5-point scale were converted to a 4-point scale

by multiplying reported grade by 0.8. Projects using other scales were excluded from tabulation. Among participants, 87 percent had grades reported on a

4-point scale, 3 percent on a 5-point scale, and 6 percent on some other scale, and for 4 percent the scale was unknown.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01.
42 A Profile of the Upward Bound Program: 2000–2001

with caution. Of those included in the database and

reported served in 2000–01, about 9 percent were identified as UB initiative-funded participants. A comparison of the GPAs for these students with others served

by the same projects shows that they entered the program with a GPA of 2.8 compared with 2.9 among others from the same project (table 29). However, their

GPA was similar to that of the average of all Upward

Bound participants (2.8). This suggests that initiativefunded participants, while more at risk than average

students within their own particular projects, may not

be more at risk than the UB population as a whole.

E. College entrance exams

1. Context

Nationally, about 1.7 million high school seniors

take the American College Testing (ACT) exam and

about 1.1 million take the Scholastic Aptitude Test

(SAT) each year. Census figures estimated the number

of students enrolled in the 12th grade as 3.7 million in

2000. Thus, an estimated 29 percent of seniors took the

SAT and 46 percent took the ACT. The national average score in 2001 for the SAT-Verbal was 506, and for

SAT-Math, 514. The national mean ACT composite

score was 21.0. Table 30 gives average national scores

Table 28. Mean GPA at entrance into program, start of reporting period, and end of reporting period, by GPA

change status for participants served by UB and UBMS: 2000–01

GPA for period

Percent in Entrance into Reporting Reporting

GPA change status* group program period start period end

UB

All 100% 2.8 2.8 2.9

Higher GPA 43 2.7 2.7 2.9

Unchanged GPA 27 2.9 2.9 2.9

Lower GPA 29 2.9 3.0 2.7

UBMS

All 100 3.2 3.1 3.2

Higher GPA 35 3.0 3.0 3.2

Unchanged GPA 37 3.3 3.3 3.3

Lower GPA 28 3.2 3.2 3.0

* The grade point average (GPA) change status is the comparison of GPA at the start of the reporting period to the end of reporting period.

NOTE: UB= classic Upward Bound; UBMS = Upward Bound Math-Science. GPAs are average for total new, continuing, and re-entry participants in the

service year on a 4-point scale. GPAs reported on a 5-point scale were converted to 4-point scale.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01.

Figure 24. GPA of UB participants served in reporting

period at program entry, start of

reporting period, and end of period, by

GPA change status: 2000–01

NOTE: UB = classic Upward Bound. Grade point averages (GPAs) are

the averages for the total new, continuing, and re-entry participants in

the service year on a 4-point scale. GPAs reported on a 5-point scale

were converted to a 4-point scale. GPAs reported on other scales were

excluded from tabulation.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs,

Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01.

2.7

2.9

3.0

2.7

2.7

2.9

2.9

2.9

2.9

2.8

2.9

2.8

2.6

2.7

2.8

2.9

3.0

3.1

Entry Period start Period end

Lower Unchanged All Higher

GPA
Chapter 5 High School Program Participation, Services, and Academic Measures 43

Table 29. Grade point averages (GPAs) for UB participants, by Upward Bound Initiative status: 2000–01

GPA2 for period

Percentage of Entrance Reporting Reporting

UB Initiative Status1 total served into program period start period end

Initiative participant 9% 2.8 2.8 2.8

Non-initiative participant in project 

with initiative funding 19 2.9 2.9 2.9

Participant in project 

with no initiative funding 72 2.8 2.8 2.9

1 For this table, UB initiative status is determined by the participants’ source of funding. UB projects that received supplemental initiative funding 

designated each individual as an initiative participant (i.e., a higher-risk student funded by initiative resources) or as a non-initiative participant 

(i.e., a student funded under the regular program).

2 Grade point averages (GPAs) are averages for the total new, continuing, and re-entry participants in the service year on a 4-point scale. GPAs reported on a 5-point scale were converted to 4-point scale. GPAs reported on other scales were excluded from tabulation.

NOTE: UB =classic Upward Bound.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01.

Table 30. Average national scores for SAT and ACT, by selected socioeconomic categories: 2001

Average score

SAT-Verbal SAT-Math ACT-Combined

National average 506 514 21.0

Socioeconomic category

Family income

SAT category ACT category

< $10,000 < $18,000 421 443 18.1

$10–20,000 $18–24,000 442 456 18.9

$20–30,000 $24–30,000 468 474 19.6

$30–40,000 $30–36,000 487 489 20.2

$40–50,000 $36–42,000 501 503 20.6

$50–60,000 $42–50,000 509 512 21.0

$60–70,000 $50–60,000 516 519 21.5

$70–80,000 $60–80,000 522 527 22.0

$80–90,000 $80–100,000 534 540 22.5

> $90,000 > $100,000 557 569 23.4

Highest level of parent education

No high school diploma 411 438 —

High school diploma 472 476 —

Associate’s degree 489 491 —

Bachelor’s degree 525 533 —

Graduate degree 559 567 —

— Not reported for this category.

SOURCE: 2001 ACT National and State Scores (http://www.act.org/news/data/01/t4.html) and The College Board, Profile of 2001 College-Bound

Seniors, SAT Summary Reporting Service (SRS).
44 A Profile of the Upward Bound Program: 2000–2001

by income and parent education for the SAT, and by

income for the ACT, and illustrates the strong association between parent education and income and college

entrance test results.

2. UB college entrance exam results

UB projects were asked to report college entrance

exam results for those participants who had taken the

test and for whom they had information. Table 31

includes the percentage of participants reported as having taken the test, and the scores reported for the SAT

for Mathematics, Verbal and Combined, and ACT

Combined scores. As it is most meaningful to look at

the data by grade level, table 31 also gives the percentage of applicable students taking the test and the mean

scores by the “end grade” for the period—for example,

this means that, assuming normal progression, those

with an end grade of 12th grade would have been in the

11th grade for the reporting year.

Combined SAT scores for UB ranged from 875 for

participants whose reported ending grade indicated

that they were high school graduates or held GEDs and

who were not enrolled in postsecondary education to

917 for those with an end grade of enrolled in postsecondary education. The mean SAT-Math score was 451

and the mean SAT-Verbal was 440 for the total participants with scores on the performance reports.

Combined ACT scores ranged from 17.6 for the endgrade group that were high school completers but who

were not enrolled in postsecondary education, to 19.1

for those in the end grade of enrolled in postsecondary,

with an overall mean of 18.5. These scores were similar to the national average scores for students from the

two lowest income categories reported in table 30.

UBMS mean scores were higher than UB scores (495

for SAT-Math and 465 for SAT-Verbal, and 20.6 for

ACT-combined).

F. Credits earned

Some Upward Bound programs have arrangements

with target schools or colleges to allow participants to

earn either high school or college credit for courses

taken as part of a summer or academic program. The

UB reporting form includes items for reporting target

high school and postsecondary host institution credits

earned for Upward Bound participation. For postsecondary credits, the form has separate recording elements for non-summer bridge postsecondary credit

hours, and summer bridge credit and non-credit hours.

Projects were asked to use standardized Carnegie credits for high school (e.g., one credit for one academic

year of a subject and 0.5 credit for a half year).

Table 31. Percentage of UB participants in performance reports with test information and mean score 

for college entrance exams, by end grade level: 2000–01

End grade level

HS graduate/GED

not enrolled in Accepted in Enrolled in

12th grade postsecondary postsecondary postsecondary All

Entrance

examination Percent* Mean Percent* Mean Percent* Mean Percent* Mean Percent* Mean

Scholastic Aptitude Test

Mathematics 

(SAT-M) 19.6% 451 18.1% 434 41.5% 457 30.4% 457 10.9% 451

Verbal

(SAT-V) 19.6 437 18.0 422 41.5 444 30.5 453 10.9 440

Combined 22.6 899 22.2 875 45.0 904 34.7 917 13.7 910

American College Testing Program

Combined 

(ACT-C) 24.8 18.8 35.2 17.6 44.1 18.6 57.7 19.1 15.7 18.5

* Indicates the percentage of Upward Bound participants in the category for which a score was reported for the examination.

NOTE: UB = classic Upward Bound.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01.
Data reported for UB and UBMS indicate that

most participants do not earn standard high school and

college credit for completing Upward Bound activities.

For UB, about 19 percent of participants were reported as earning high school credit, and about 5 percent of

participants were reported as earning postsecondary

credit (table 32). About 7 percent reported credits associated with summer bridge programs. Although projects were asked to use a Carnegie Credit system for

standard reporting of high school credits—that is, one

credit for a full year of work in a single subject—we are

unsure if this measure was used consistently. Among

those reporting more than zero credits and under 

30 credits, the median credits earned for these high

school programs were two Carnegie credits. The median was 6.0 credits for postsecondary programs.

Chapter 5 High School Program Participation, Services, and Academic Measures 45

Table 32. Percentage of UB participants earning credits and credits earned, by type of credits earned: 2000–01

Percent earning Credits earned2

Credit type credits1 Median Max Min

High school 19.0% 2.03 29.5 0.1

Postsecondary education 4.5 6.0 28.5 0.1

Summer bridge with credit 6.9 6.0 24.0 0.6

Summer bridge without credit 1.5 5.0 17.0 0.1

1 The analyses for this table were restricted to new, continuing, and re-entry participants.

2 Records without any reported credits were excluded from analyses. Records with more than 30 high school, postsecondary, and summer bridge credits were also excluded because it was assumed that such records were out of range.

3 Projects were instructed to use Carnegie credits (one credit for a full year’s work in one subject) to report high school credits. The mean number of

credits among those reporting greater than 0 credits was 5.6. This high number may reflect that other forms of credit reporting were used. For this

reason we report the median rather than the mean.

NOTE: UB = classic Upward Bound.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01.
46 A Profile of the Upward Bound Program: 2000–2001
Chapter 6 Postsecondary Enrollment 47

A. Overview

Information on postsecondary outcomes (enrollment and degree completion) for Upward Bound participants represents the primary performance indicator

for the program. With this in mind, the performance

report includes a number of items on postsecondary

education enrollment status:

• Source of enrollment information,

• Postsecondary institution first attended and

enrolled in at end of reporting period,

• Date of first postsecondary enrollment,19

• Postsecondary enrollment status (e.g., full- or

part-time enrollment),

• Financial aid sources,

• Postsecondary grade level,

• Postsecondary standing, and

• Degree certificate awarded.

Projects were instructed to report postsecondary

status for all current and prior-year project participants

who had completed high school or a high school equivalency program. The report instructions stated that

projects should include all prior-year participants who

had completed:

• One calendar year for classic UB participants, or

• A summer program for UBMS participants.

The instructions also specified that applicable

prior-year participants should be followed through college graduation or for four years after completing high

school. Since follow-up data on a full cohort of participants are not yet available, we are able to include only

limited information on the key statistic of interest—the

percentage of those served by Upward Bound who

enter and persist in postsecondary education. In this

report, we summarize information reported from the

first year of data, with a focus on issues of reporting and

interpreting the data, while stopping short of giving an

estimate of the percentage of Upward Bound participants who have enrolled in postsecondary education. In

the next section, we first present contextual information from the Current Population Survey (CPS) data

on secondary and postsecondary enrollment. We then

summarize information from the performance reports.

B. Context: National data on enrollment

As discussed in chapter 1, the years since Upward

Bound began have shown substantial increases in the

percentages of postsecondary enrollment over time,

whereas differences in enrollment rates by income have

persisted. Reporting postsecondary enrollment status is

complex for national statistics as well as for Upward

Bound performance reports. Rates of enrollment

depend upon who is included (especially whether the

rate is based on all individuals in an age cohort or only

on high school graduates) and the time frame involved

(whether it reflects enrollment at a single point in time

or it is based on the percentage ever enrolled).

1. Enrollment status of dependent family members

18–24 years of age

Table 33 and figure 25 display the enrollment status

of 18–24-year-old dependent family members by

income level categories for the year 2000. These numbers are based on the Census Bureau’s CPS and are subject to sampling error, especially for small population

CHAPTER 6 

POSTSECONDARY ENROLLMENT

19Dates of enrollment are not included in this report, but will be

included as more years of data become available.
48 A Profile of the Upward Bound Program: 2000–2001

subsets such as those included for the lowest income

levels in figure 25. It should be noted that this figure is

based on “dependent primary family members” and

excludes those 18–24 year olds who were not reported

as dependents of a family at the time of the survey.

As the table and figure illustrate, there is a strong

relationship between income and high-school statuses, such as high school graduation, and post-high

school statuses, such as obtaining a bachelor’s degree,

college enrollment, and enrollment in a four-year college. For example, among those in families with

incomes of $29,999 or less, about 22 percent of 18–24

year-olds were not high school graduates and were

not enrolled in school, compared with 3 percent for

those with incomes of $75,000 or more (table 33). 

In another example, among families with incomes of

$29,999 or less, about 14 percent of dependent 

18–24 year olds were enrolled full time in a four-year

college, compared with 42 percent in the highest

income level.

Overall, 47 percent of the dependent 18–24 year olds

were enrolled in college or held a bachelor’s degree 

(3 percent held a bachelor’s) in October of 2000. This

measure of college participation ranged from 27 percent

for those in families with incomes of $29,999 or less (the

TRIO requirement of 150 percent of the poverty level

for a family of four in 2002 was $27,150) to 65 percent for

those in families with incomes of $75,000 and over. As

figure 25 illustrates, there was a difference in rates by

gender overall, with the differences between males and

females slightly larger for the middle-income categories.

2. College enrollment for high school graduates 

the October following graduation

Table 34, also from the CPS, gives college enrollment rates for high school graduates the October following graduation by gender and income. The overall

enrollment rate for high school graduates in 2000 was

62 percent (55 percent for males and 69 percent for

females). As with figure 25 discussed above, due to

small sample sizes, the fine breakouts among the lowTable 33. Percentage distribution of enrollment status of dependent primary family members 18 to 24 years

old, by family income level: 2000

Family income level

Enrollment status at All Less than $30,000– $50,000– $75,000 Not

time of survey Incomes $29,999 $49,999 $74,999 or more reported

Number in thousands 14,731 3,363 2,598 2,685 3,953 2,132

All 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

Not enrolled in college

Not high school graduate 10.2 21.9 12.0 3.8 2.8 11.1

High school graduate no college 24.4 30.0 28.6 24.8 16.9 24.0

Less than a bachelor’s degree 9.0 5.9 7.7 10.3 10.4 11.0

Bachelor’s degree or more 3.0 0.5 2.5 3.5 5.4 2.2

Enrolled below college 9.1 14.2 9.2 6.7 5.3 11.0

Enrolled in college

Enrolled full time

Two-year college 9.6 8.4 9.4 11.4 10.4 8.3

Four-year college 28.7 14.2 24.8 31.9 41.5 28.5

Enrolled part time

Two-year college 3.1 2.6 2.6 4.6 3.4 2.0

Four-year college 2.8 1.8 3.0 2.9 3.9 1.9

Enrolled in two- or four-year college

or received bachelor’s degree* 47.2% 27.4% 42.2% 54.4% 64.6% 42.8%

*Represents the sum of the percentages enrolled in college or having a bachelor’s degree or more.

SOURCE: Calculated from information in U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey (Table 14 Enrollment Status of Dependent Primary Family Members 18

to 24 Years Old, by Family Income, Level of Enrollment, Type of School, Attendance Status) (http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/school.html).
Chapter 6 Postsecondary Enrollment 49

est income categories were somewhat unstable; however, the pattern is clear. There were large differences by

income, and females had higher rates than males, with

the differences by gender being somewhat larger in the

middle and upper income levels than among the lowest

income categories. Combining the five income categories most likely to reflect incomes of TRIO families

($29,999 or less), we find that the rates were similar for

males and females (41 percent). This compares with 

86 percent for females and 68 percent for males in the

highest income level grouping of $75,000 and over.

C. Upward Bound performance report data

on postsecondary enrollment

1. Source of information on postsecondary enrollment

The first item in the section of the Upward Bound

performance report form on postsecondary outcomes

asks projects to report on the source of the follow-up

information included in the performance report. As

shown in table 35, among the total group of classic UB

participants reported as having completed secondary

Figure 25. Percentage of dependent primary family members 18–24 years old enrolled full and part time in

two-year and four-year postsecondary institutions or having a bachelor’s degree, by family income

level and by gender: October 2000

NOTE: Percentage of 18–24-year-old dependent primary family members with bachelor’s degrees was 3 percent for the total and ranged from 1 percent for the lowest income category to 5 percent for the highest income category.

SOURCE: Calculated from information in U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey (Table 14 Enrollment Status of Dependent Primary Family

Members 18 to 24 Years Old, by Family Income, Level of Enrollment, Type of School, Attendance Status) (http://www.census.gov/population/www/

socdemo/school.html).

19.8

18.4

28.4

33.5

36.8

34.3

40.9

47.7

54.4

64.6

24.1

16.5

23.9

25.7

30.7

28.8

31.3

38.0

45.8

59.1

17.3

21.9

34.8

43.4

46.6

43.7

52.4

58.3

65.7

70.9

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

Less than $10,000

$10,000 to $14,999

$15,000 to 19,999

$20,000 to $24,999

$25,000 to $29,999

$30,000-$34,999

$35,000 to $39,999

$40,000 to $49,999

$50,000 to $74,999

$75,000 and over

Female Male All Percent
50 A Profile of the Upward Bound Program: 2000–2001

school by the end of the reporting period, projects

indicated they had some form of institutional enrollment data for about 24 percent (5 percent from official

transcripts, 16 percent from other institutional data,

and 3 percent from self-reported information with

transcripts), while they had self reports only for another 20 percent. Thirty-six percent were listed as not

enrolled and another 21 percent as unknown.

The data in table 35 imply that, of all students

reported as having completed secondary school, about

43–44 percent (both UB and UBMS) were reported to

be enrolled in postsecondary education. If we look only

at the prior participants included in the database (those

served in 1999–2000 and not in 2000–01 who had completed secondary), we see that the percentage of individuals for whom there was enrollment information

increases to 73 percent for UB and 68 percent for

UBMS. These estimates, however, represent incomplete cohorts of the first year of reporting. Because

grantees did not always have full data on the extent to

which students had finished high school, the first estimate—that 43 percent of UB students who had finished high school had enrolled in postsecondary education—may understate the extent of enrollment. On the

other hand, the figures for enrollment of prior participants (73 percent in UB, 68 percent in UBMS) are

almost certainly overstated, given that the 2000–01

data collection used in this report excluded from the

cohort of prior participants all those who left the program prior to 1999–2000. The estimates in table 35

should, therefore, be used with caution.

2. Type of postsecondary enrollment

Projects were instructed to report the Department

of Education Student Financial Aid code for the first

postsecondary institution in which the participant

enrolled after completing high school or obtaining a

GED and to also report the institution in which the

student was enrolled at the end of the reporting period.

We merged these codes with IPEDS to obtain information on the types of institutions attended. One question of interest is whether the type of UB host institution is related to the type of institution attended.

Another question is whether UB students are more

likely to enroll in the host program institution than in

another postsecondary education institution.

Table 34. Estimated number of persons in family income categories and percent of high school graduates

enrolled in college the October following high school graduation, by gender and family income:

October 2000

Estimated number

in family income category Percent enrolled October

(in thousands) following high school graduation

Family income category Male Female All Male Female All

All incomes 1,133 1,227 2, 360 54.7% 68.8% 62.0%

Less than $10,000 47 47 94 40.4 19.1 29.8

$10,000 to $14,999 40 41 81 27.5 17.1 22.2

$15,000 to $19,999 31 61 92 54.8 39.3 44.6

$20,000 to $24,999 62 51 113 32.3 70.6 49.6

$25,000 to $29,999 76 60 136 51.3 50.0 50.7

$30,000 to $34,999 56 65 121 48.2 63.1 56.2

$35,000 to $39,999 66 65 131 37.9 66.2 51.9

$40,000 to $49,999 60 95 155 38.3 50.5 45.8

$50,000 to $74,999 219 235 454 57.1 80.4 69.2

$75,000 and above 347 332 679 67.7 86.1 76.7

Income not reported 129 175 304 61.2 74.9 69.1

Incomes $29,999 or less 256 260 516 41.4 40.8 41.1

SOURCE: Adapted from U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, (Table 8. People 15 to 24 Years Old Enrolled in Secondary School in Previous

Year by Current Enrollment Status, Sex, Race, Hispanic Origin, and Family Income (for Dependent Family Members): October 2000)

(http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/school.html).
Chapter 6 Postsecondary Enrollment 51

Of the total records for UB participants, a total of

11,776 individuals had postsecondary codes that

matched the IPEDS file. These data indicate that about

74 percent of UB participants in the 2000–01 reporting

year database who had a postsecondary code associated

with them were listed as enrolled in a four-year institution (table 36). Twenty-five percent were in a two-year

institution (24 percent in two-year public and 1 percent

in two-year private institutions) and 1 percent in “other

postsecondary.” Overall, about 35 percent of participants who enrolled in postsecondary education attended the same institution as the grantee host institution

(figure 26). This percentage was highest among projects hosted by two-year institutions (46 percent) and

least among projects hosted by four-year private institutions (17 percent). These figures may over-represent

the degree to which participants who were enrolled in

postsecondary education were attending the host institution. We would expect that projects would be somewhat more likely to know the participant’s institution

for those that enrolled if it was their own institution

rather than another institution. Among UBMS participants, the percentage attending the host sponsor institution was less than among UB participants (21 percent—data not shown in table).

In general, there was an association between the

sector of the host institution and the type of institution

attended (table 36). For example, overall 19 percent of

UB participants who enrolled attended a four-year private institution; however, among participants from projects hosted by four-year private institutions, 38 percent

were enrolled in a four-year private institution. While

overall about 24 percent attended a two-year public

institution, among those participants from projects

hosted by two-year institutions, 52 percent attended a

two-year public institution.

Table 35. Percentage distribution of source of information on postsecondary activities for UB and UBMS

participants, by gender: 2000–01

UB UBMS

Source of postsecondary information All Male Female All Male Female

All who completed high school by end 

of reporting period

Reported from official transcript 4.5% 4.4% 4.5% 2.6% 2.3% 2.7%

Institutional data but not official 15.9 15.8 16.0 10.0 10.3 9.9

Self reported by participant 20.0 20.1 20.0 28.1 29.0 27.5

Self reported and transcript 3.0 2.8 3.0 2.5 1.8 3.0

Not enrolled 35.7 36.4 35.3 40.8 40.2 41.2

Unknown 20.9 20.5 21.2 15.9 16.3 15.6

Percent reported to have completed high 

school and with postsecondary 

enrollment information 43.4 43.0 43.6 43.3 43.5 43.2

Prior participants only

Reported from official transcript 7.8% 7.4% 8.0% 4.1% 3.6% 4.4%

Institutional data but not official 25.5 24.8 25.9 15.8 18.2 14.4

Self reported by participant 33.6 33.1 33.8 42.7 46.2 40.6

Self reported and transcript 5.6 5.4 5.8 5.5 4.0 6.5

Not enrolled 13.7 15.8 12.5 10.5 9.1 11.4

Unknown 13.8 13.5 14.0 21.3 18.9 22.8

Percent reported to have completed high 

school and with some postsecondary 

enrollment information 72.5 70.7 73.5 68.2 72.0 65.8

NOTE: UB= classic Upward Bound; UBMS = Upward Bound Math-Science. A total of 32,971 UB and 3,846 UBMS individuals in the database indicated

that they had completed secondary education by the end of the reporting period. Prior participants were those who were served in 1999–2000 but not

in 2000–01. A total of 9,619 UB and 1,245 UBMS were reported as prior participants who had also completed high school.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01.
52 A Profile of the Upward Bound Program: 2000–2001

3. Postsecondary enrollment status, financial aid

sources, and standing

Over 90 percent of those enrolled were reported to

be attending full time, with only 5 percent being reported as less than full time and 3 percent reported to have

varied enrollment (table 37). The majority of those

enrolled were reported to have “multiple federal and

other sources of aid,” with another 20 percent reported to

have “multiple federal aid” (table 38). About 10 percent

had a Pell grant only. The other choices listed were

selected by less than 1 percent to 3 percent of participants

(table 38). Overall, 3 percent were reported to have no

aid awarded and another 2 percent to not need aid. There

were few differences by gender or between UB and

UBMS on these items. UBMS had a slightly higher percentage with multiple federal and other aid reported, and

somewhat less reported with only a Pell grant (table 38).

Overall, among those enrolled or accepted, a small

percentage were reported as not being in good standing, but this percentage was larger among UB participants than among UBMS participants (table 39).

Table 36. Percentage distribution of the types of postsecondary institutions first attended by Upward Bound

participants, by sector of grantee institution: 2000–01

Type of first postsecondary institution attended

Four-year Two-year Other

Sector of UB grantee institution Public Private Public Private postsecondary

All 55.9% 18.5% 24.0% 0.8% 0.8%

Four-year public 69.5 13.1 15.5 0.9 1.0

Four-year private 48.0 37.5 12.7 0.9 1.0

Two-year 36.8 10.9 51.6 0.6 0.1

Community organization 53.3 21.0 24.5 0.7 0.7

NOTE: UB = classic Upward Bound. Detail may not sum to 100 percent due to rounding.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01, and National Center for Education

Statistics (IPEDS-IC), 2000–01.

Figure 26. Percentage of UB participants enrolled (or

accepted for enrollment) in postsecondary

education who attended grantee

institutions, by grantee sector: 2000–01

NOTE: UB = classic Upward Bound. This comparison is not applicable

for participants from projects hosted by community organizations.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, Upward

Bound performance reports, 2000–01, and National Center for Education

Statistics (IPEDS-IC), 2000–01.

41.1

17.1

45.5 35.0

58.9

82.9

54.5 65.0

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Four-year 

public

Four-year 

private

Two-year 

institution

All

Not attending grantee institution Attending grantee institution

Percent
Chapter 6 Postsecondary Enrollment 53

Table 37. Percentage distribution of postsecondary enrollment status among those reported as enrolled,

by gender: 2000–01

UB UBMS

Enrollment status All Male Female All Male Female

Full time 92.3% 91.2% 92.9% 93.5% 92.2% 94.2%

Less than full time 4.6 5.4 4.2 1.5 2.3 1.0

Varied enrollment 3.0 3.4 2.9 5.0 5.5 4.7

NOTE: UB = classic Upward Bound; UBMS = Upward Bound Math-Science. At total of 12,629 classic UB and 1,559 UBMS individuals had enrollment

status.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01.

Table 38. Percentage distribution of type of financial aid among those having financial aid status reported,

by gender: 2000–01

UB UBMS

Type of financial aid All Male Female All Male Female

Pell grant only 9.9% 9.6% 10.0% 3.9% 3.0% 4.4%

FFEL Loan 0.6 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.5

Direct Loan only 1.5 1.6 1.5 1.5 2.0 1.3

College work study only 0.2 0.4 0.1 0.6 0.2 0.9

Institutional aid only 3.2 3.3 3.2 5.1 3.6 6.0

State grant only 0.9 0.8 0.9 0.5 < 0.1 0.9

Pell grant and FFEL 1.4 1.3 1.5 2.4 3.0 2.0

Pell grant and Direct Loan 3.5 3.4 3.5 3.2 4.4 2.4

Multiple federal aid 20.0 19.8 20.1 21.4 22.5 20.7

Multiple federal and other aid 52.7 52.2 52.9 55.9 57.4 55.0

Non-federal, non institution 1.8 1.9 1.8 2.6 1.8 3.1

No aid awarded 2.7 3.0 2.6 1.9 1.8 2.0

No aid needed 1.5 2.1 1.2 0.5 < 0.1 0.8

NOTE: UB = classic Upward Bound; UBMS = Upward Bound Math-Science. A total of 11,831of UB and 1,295 UBMS individuals had financial aid 

status reported.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01.

Table 39. Percentage distribution of postsecondary enrollment standing among those reported as enrolled 

in or accepted at postsecondary institutions, by gender: 2000–01

UB UBMS

Postsecondary standing All Male Female All Male Female

Good standing 87.5% 85.6% 88.4% 94.7% 93.6% 95.3%

Not in good standing 3.6 4.7 3.0 1.2 1.7 0.8

Not yet enrolled 8.9 9.7 8.5 4.2 4.7 3.8

NOTE: UB = classic Upward Bound; UBMS = Upward Bound Math-Science. A total of 12,561 UB and 1,389 UBMS individuals had enrollment 

status reported.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01.
54 A Profile of the Upward Bound Program: 2000–2001

4. Postsecondary grade level and degree and

certificate completion status

The distributions of grade level and degree and

certificate status for individuals reported as having

completed secondary school by the end of the reporting period are displayed in tables 40 and 41. The

majority of grade levels were those for the first year,

with almost half reported as not enrolled. As was the

case with the data reported in table 35, because

grantees did not always have full information on high

school and postsecondary status, the percentages

reported as accepted or enrolled in postsecondary may

be understated. As might be expected, in the degree

and certificate distribution (given in table 41), less than

1 percent had attained degrees or certificates and virtually all of those enrolled were in the category of not yet

completing a postsecondary program.

Table 40. Percentage distribution of postsecondary grade level among those reported to have completed

secondary education, by gender: 2000–01

UB UBMS

Postsecondary grade level All Male Female All Male Female

Accepted into postsecondary 5.7% 6.1% 5.5% 3.5% 4.0% 3.1%

1st year, never attended postsecondary 19.7 19.0 20.0 24.3 22.5 25.5

1st year, attended before 5.9 5.9 5.9 3.2 3.5 3.0

2nd year/sophomore 9.9 9.4 10.1 11.7 12.4 11.3

3rd year/junior — — — — — —

4th year/senior — — — — — —

5th year/other — — — — — —

Graduated — — — — — —

Enrolled in graduate — — — — — —

Not enrolled 44.2 45.2 43.6 48.5 49.1 48.1

Unknown 14.7 14.4 14.9 8.7 8.4 9.0

— Not applicable.

NOTE: A total of 32,270 UB and 3,752 UBMS individuals in the database indicated that they had completed secondary education by the end of the

reporting period. Of these, 560 UB and six UBMS cases were removed from the analyses due to inapplicable data. UB = classic Upward Bound; UBMS

= Upward Bound Math-Science.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01.
Chapter 6 Postsecondary Enrollment 55

Table 41. Percentage distribution of postsecondary degree completion status among those reported to have

completed secondary education, by gender: 2000–01

UB UBMS

Postsecondary grade status All Male Female All Male Female

Certificate/diploma for <2–year 

occupational educational program 0.2% 0.2% 0.2% 0.1% < 0.1% < 0.1%

Certificate/diploma for 2+ year 

occupational educational program 0.1 0.1 < 0.1 < 0.1 < 0.1 < 0.1

Associate degree (2–year) 0.3 0.4 0.2 0.1 0.2 < 0.1

First bachelor’s degree — — — — — —

Second bachelor’s degree — — — — — —

Teaching credential — — — — — —

Graduate or first professional — — — — — —

Did not yet complete program 38.6 37.6 39.3 43.6 42.5 44.4

Not enrolled 45.9 47.5 45.1 46.2 47.5 45.3

Unknown 15.0 14.3 15.4 10.1 9.8 10.3

— Not applicable.

NOTE: A total of 32,287 UB and 3,590 UBMS individuals in the database indicated that they had completed secondary education by the end of the

reporting period. Of these, 299 UB records and 34 UBMS records were removed from the analyses due to inapplicable data. Detail may not sum to 

100 percent due to rounding. UB = classic Upward Bound; UBMS = Upward Bound Math-Science.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01.
56 A Profile of the Upward Bound Program: 2000–2001
References 57

Burkheimer, G., Riccobono, J., and Wisenbaker, J.

(1979) Evaluation Study of the Upward Bound

Program—A Second Follow-Up, Final Report.

Research Triangle Park, N.C.: Research Triangle

Institute.

Chou, J.Y., Cahalan, M.W., Humphrey, J.G., Overton,

A.T. (2002) A Profile of the Talent Search Program:

1998–1999. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of

Education, Office of Federal TRIO Programs.

Horn, L.J., and Chen, X. (1998) Toward Resiliency: 

At-Risk Students Who Make It to College. Washington,

D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, Office of

Educational Research and Improvement.

Moore, M.T. (1996) A 1990’s View of Upward Bound:

Programs Offered, Students Served, and Operational

Issues. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of

Education, Planning and Evaluation Service.

Mortenson, T.G. (ed). (2001, October) Postsecondary

Education Opportunity. Oskaloosa, Iowa.

Postsecondary Education Opportunity.

Myers, D. (1991) The Effects of Upward Bound and

Supplemental Service Programs: Findings from Extant

Data. Rockville, Md.: Westat.

Myers, D.E., and Schirm, A. (1999) The Impacts of

Upward Bound: Final Report for Phase I of the National

Evaluation. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of

Education, Office of the Under Secretary.

Myers, D.E., and Schirm, A. (1996) The Short-Term

Impacts of Upward Bound: An Interim Report.

Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education,

Planning and Evaluation Service.

United States Department of Education. (2002)

Strategic Plan 2002–2007. Washington, D.C.

REFERENCES
58 A Profile of the Upward Bound Program: 2000–2001
59

During the 2000–01 program year, a total of 

727 classic Upward Bound (UB) projects were funded

through Upward Bound grants (table A–1). Computer

Business Methods, Inc. (CBMI) processed the files of

each of the projects submitting reports and performed a

variety of data quality and error checks. CBMI combined the submissions of each project into the national

database. Of these funded grantees, 708 projects 

(97 percent of the total) submitted performance reports

containing individual participant records for 69,436 UB

participants. Analyses of individual records using Social

Security numbers and other information identified 

808 UB participants with duplicate records (1 percent).

These duplicate records were removed from the counts

of numbers served presented in the Profile Report.

The unique records represented 55,140 new, current, and re-entry participants (80 percent of the total of

UB participants) and 12,846 individuals identified as

prior-year participants (19 percent).20 In the first reporting period, projects were instructed to include in the

data file individual participant data for all students served

in 1999–2000 and 2000–01. Further, projects were

instructed to provide only one record for each participant and provide or update the information for each participant to reflect each student’s participation and academic status for the 2000–01 project year. Service information was to be provided for 2000–01 participants only.

This report covers the first year of reporting using

participant-level data for Upward Bound. The wealth of

data contained in this report testifies to the strong effort

that projects have made to carefully report the data

requested for each Upward Bound participant. Upward

Bound projects are to be commended on the quality of

the data provided for the first year’s reports. Although

the percentage of missing data is not large overall, items

such as test scores and especially postsecondary enrollment information had the highest percentage of

unknown data reported. The percentage of records with

data reported or legitimately inapplicable ranged from

65 percent for items such as SAT scores to 100 percent

for items such as program type. Most items have over 

95 percent reported, and the average for 71 data eleAPPENDIX A 

UPWARD BOUND PERFORMANCE 

REPORTING: METHODS AND DATA 

QUALITY FOR THE FIRST YEAR

20The participation status of an additional 642 participants (0.9

percent) was unknown.

Table A–1. Number of Upward Bound projects funded and number and percentage that submitted participant

performance reports, by program type: 2000–01

Total

Program type funded Reporting Not reporting

All 895 871 97.3% 24 2.7%

Upward Bound (UB) 727 708 97.4 19 2.6

Upward Bound Math Science (UBMS) 121 118 97.5 3 2.5

Veterans Upward Bound (VUB) 47 45 95.7 2 4.3

UB Veterans 45 43 95.6 2 4.4

UBMS Veterans 2 2 100 0 0

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, Federal TRIO Programs, Upward Bound performance reports, 2000–01.
60 A Profile of the Upward Bound Program: 2000–2001

ments in the file was 91 percent reported or inapplicable. However, the extent of missing data is masked

somewhat by the fact that some items are only applicable to portions of the individuals in the file and that the

inapplicable code is a legitimate response.

Although the reports maintained a high level of

internal consistency for most items, responses to some

items indicated that a portion of projects may not have

understood how to report the item or that selected

response codes were used inappropriately in this the

first year of reporting. We note some of these problem

areas below.

• Duplicate records. In the first year of reporting,

as noted above, about 1 percent of participant

records were duplicates within projects. The

reporting structure allows for only one record

per participant per reporting period.

• Date reporting in the format specified was a

problem for some projects. Accurate reporting of

dates in the form specified is very important as it

is the means by which several key statistics, such

as length of time in the project, are calculated.

• Including valid SSNs only in the field for SSNs.

In a small number of projects, if the SSN was missing, some other form of ID was included. Mixing

other ID schemes with SSN leads to difficulty in

processing. SSN is very important as it allows the

Department of Education to match with the federal student aid files for purposes of tracking participant postsecondary outcomes.

• Target School reporting using The National

Center for Education Statistics (NCES) school ID

(NCESSchID). For the first year of reporting,

about 19 percent of the NCES school identification numbers reported for the UB participants did

not match to the Common Core of Data (CCD).

• The Office of Postsecondary Education codes for

postsecondary institutions first attended and

attended at the end of the reporting period were

also missing for a portion of applicable cases.

Because no names are collected, the codes are the

only way to identify the institutions.

• Grade progression. One of the performance

measures for Upward Bound is progression from

grade to grade. The Upward Bound report form

asks for the grade of new participants at time of

entry into the project and the grade of participants at the end of the reporting period. A larger

number of new participants had the same grade

reported for entering and end grade than might

have been expected given normal progression,

indicating that some projects may have misunderstood how to report this information.

• Grade point average (GPA) reporting. There

are three measures of GPA on the form, representing GPA at entry, at the start of the reporting

period, and at the end of the reporting period.

Some participants had the same GPA reported in

each of these fields. To be able to measure

changes in participant GPAs, it is important that

accurate information be provided.

• Carnegie credits (one credit per subject for entire

year) for high school credits (HSCred). A substantial portion of high school credits earned through

the program was reported using scales other than

Carnegie (which is one credit for a subject for an

entire academic year).

• Postsecondary enrollment items. In the postsecondary enrollment section, there appears to

have been some confusion about how to designate

that the item is inapplicable because the participant has not yet completed secondary school.

• Unknown information. For many items the extent

of unknown data was low; however, for some key

items, such as postsecondary enrollment status, if

one considers only the applicable cases (i.e., those

students who completed high school), the percentage of unknown information increases considerably.

For example, about 30 percent of students who had

completed high school were reported as having an

unknown postsecondary enrollment status.

As the report displays, for the most part, Upward

Bound projects provided complete and accurate information on participants for the period reported.

However, with each reporting year, we anticipate that

the number of unknown statuses will increase as it may

become more difficult to track the postsecondary

progress of prior-year participants several years after

leaving the program. We also anticipate that there will

be a larger proportion of participants with unknown

postsecondary enrollment status among those who

leave the program prior to their senior year and high

school graduation. For this reason, we are working

with the Department of Education to match Upward

Bound participant records annually with the Federal

Financial Aid Application and Recipient files to gain

additional information on postsecondary enrollment
Appendix A 61

and persistence of federal-aid students who participated in Upward Bound. We plan to include the results of

this matching in future reports. In order for these data

matches to be successful, SSNs must be correctly

reported. Also, as additional years of data become available, we look forward to examining the inter-relationships among participant characteristics, length of project participation, types of services received, and the

educational progress of participants.
62 A Profile of the Upward Bound Program: 2000–2001
Appendix B 63

This glossary contains a listing of terms used in the

report. Some of them are specific to the TRIO program and do not necessarily apply to other Department

of Education programs or grants.

Academic year component refers to Upward Bound

services that occur during the regular academic year as

defined by the participant’s secondary school. Section

645.11 of the UB regulations indicates that projects

should provide program participants with one or more

of the core services on a weekly basis throughout the

academic year and to the extent possible should not

prevent participants from fully participating in academic and nonacademic activities at the participants’ secondary school.

Carnegie Classification System is a systematic classification of institutions of higher education in the United

States according to such variables as degrees offered,

size, and commitment to research. The Carnegie

Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in 

Menlo Park, Calif., offers a free online version of 

A Classification of Institutions of Higher Education (2000)

(http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/Classification/).

The Carnegie Classification was originally published in

1973, and subsequently updated in 1976, 1987, 1994,

and 2000.

The Common Core of Data (CCD), sponsored by

the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center

for Education Statistics, is a comprehensive, annual,

national statistical database of information on all

public elementary and secondary schools and school

districts in the U.S and outlying areas—approximately

95,000 schools and 17,000 school districts. The outlying areas include American Samoa, Guam, the

Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands,

Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands 

(1,672 schools). Also included in the CCD are schools

operated directly by the U.S. Government through 

the Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Department of the

Interior (185 schools in 23 states) and the U.S.

Department of Defense (154 overseas schools in 

11 countries and 70 schools in the U.S., Puerto Rico,

and Guam). (For additional information, see

http://nces.ed.gov/ccd/.)

Core Curriculum for Upward Bound includes the

following: instruction in mathematics through precalculus, laboratory science, foreign language, composition, and literature.

Federal regions are defined as follows:

Region 1: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts,

New Hampshire, Rhode Island,

Vermont

Region II: New Jersey, Puerto Rico, Virgin

Islands, New York

Region III: Delaware, District of Columbia,

Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia,

West Virginia

Region IV: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky,

Mississippi, North Carolina, South

Carolina, Tennessee

Region V: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan,

Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin

Region VI: Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico,

Oklahoma, Texas

Region VII: Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska

Region VIII: Colorado, Montana, North Dakota,

South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming

Region IX: Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada,

American Samoa, Guam, Northern

Mariana Islands

Region X: Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, Washington.

APPENDIX B 

GLOSSARY
64 A Profile of the Upward Bound Program: 2000–2001

The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data

System (IPEDS) was established as the core postsecondary education data collection program for NCES.

IPEDS is a comprehensive system of surveys designed

to collect data from all institutions and organizations

whose primary purpose is to provide postsecondary

education, as defined by Title IV of the Higher

Education Act of 1965, as amended. The system is built

around a series of interrelated surveys to collect institution-level data in such areas as enrollments, program

completions, faculty, staff, and finances. The IPEDS

for 2000–01 contains a total of 9,905 postsecondary

institutions. Of these, 3,455 were two- or four-year

public or private not-for-profit degree-granting Title

IV-eligible institutions that served undergraduates.

(See http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/ for additional information on IPEDS.)

Low-income individual is defined in the Upward

Bound regulations as a person 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

U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census,

sets guidelines to determine the definition of the poverty

level. For example, the poverty threshold in 2000 for a

four-person family with two children less than 18 years of

age was $17,463 (Poverty Thresholds by Size of Family

and Number of Children: 1980–2003, U.S. Census

Bureau, Current Population Survey, January 30, 2004,

http://www.census.gov/hhes/poverty/threshld.html). For

this family, 150 percent of the poverty threshold would

be $26,195.

Participant status for performance can be one 

of the following: new, continuing, re-entry, or prior

participants.

• A new participant is an individual who participated in the Upward Bound project for the first time

in the reporting period.

• A continuing participant is an individual who participated in the project in both the current

reporting period and the immediately preceding

project period.

• A re-entry participant is a former project participant who participated in the project during the

current reporting period but not during the preceding project period.

• A prior-year participant is a former project participant who did not participate in the project during the current reporting period.

Potentially first-generation college status is defined in

the Upward Bound regulations as the following:

(1) an individual neither of whose natural or adoptive parents received a baccalaureate degree; or

(2) 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 received a baccalaureate degree.

Rising Grade is used to refer to a student’s status in the

summer prior to the school year cited. Thus, “rising

ninth-grader” and “rising 12th-grader” refer to students who will be entering the ninth or 12th grade in

the next school term. Note: students may first participate in Upward Bound in the summer prior to entering

the ninth grade.

Services. Definitions applicable to “services” include

the following:

• Academic advising means assisting students in

making educational plans, selecting appropriate

courses, developing career plans, meeting academic requirements, and planning for graduation

and further education.

• Assistance with college admissions means workshops

or individualized assistance to help participants

complete college entrance applications.

• Campus visitations means project-sponsored trips

to postsecondary institutions for the purpose of

acquainting students with institutions that the

project participants may wish to attend.

• Career awareness means project-sponsored activities, such as field trips, special lectures, and

workshops, to increase students’ knowledge of

the various career opportunities available.

• College entrance exam preparation means workshops, tutoring, or individualized assistance

specifically designed to help students meet scoring requirements on national or state standardized tests given to students for admission into a

postsecondary educational institution.

• Computer Science means instruction, workshops,

academic support, or tutoring to increase a 

participant’s knowledge and skills in using computer technology, including knowledge of 

the various computer languages, software applications, computer hardware, and World Wide

Web applications.
Appendix B 65

• 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.

• 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 meant to allow participants to earn some

income while participating in the program.

• Family activities means events, workshops, and

meetings that parents and other family members

attend, including program orientation meetings,

year-end award/recognition ceremonies, and

activities designed to provide families with information on postsecondary educational opportunities and financial aid available.

• Financial aid assistance means workshops or individualized assistance to help participants complete various financial aid applications, including

scholarship applications, U.S. Department of

Education federal student financial aid applications, and state applications for financial aid.

• 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 and Science 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.

• Personal counseling means crisis intervention and

assistance with personal problems and decisions.

• Peer counseling/mentoring means a variety of personal or academic support provided by other

high school or college students designed to help

project participants adjust.

• Professional mentoring means professionals, other

than project staff, working with project students

to expose them to career and other opportunities

available to them.

• Reading means instruction, tutorials, or individualized assistance to improve a student’s phonetic

ability and reading comprehension skills.

• Study skills means workshops, tutoring, or individualized assistance specifically designed to help

students develop the skills necessary to succeed

in academic programs.

• Supplemental instruction means organized tutoring sessions for specific courses that are tied

directly to the instruction in the courses.

• Tutoring means individual or small group informal academic assistance provided by professional

staff or students who are either part-time paid,

volunteer, or internship-for-credit students.

• Target school advocacy means project staff intervening with target school officials on behalf of a participant (i.e., individual meetings, academic

advising, participating in parent- teacher conferences) to assist students in their academic efforts.

• Work-study positions (as the term is used in the

Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended in 1998,

Section 402C(b)(10)) mean 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.

Summer component is designed to simulate a 

college-going experience for participants. It is typically

six weeks in length and provides participants with UB

services at least five days a week as described in 645.11

of the regulations.

Summer bridge component provides participants

with services and activities including college courses,

aiding in the transition from secondary education to

postsecondary education. This service is typically provided to UB participants who have graduated from secondary school and intend to enroll in postsecondary

school in the fall term.
66 A Profile of the Upward Bound Program: 2000–2001

Target area is defined as a discrete local or regional

geographic area designated by the applicant as the area

to be served by an Upward Bound project.

Target school is defined as a school designated by the

applicant as the focus of project activities.
Appendix B 67
68 A Profile of the Upward Bound Program: 2000–2001

SM

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

OFFICE OF POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION

FEDERAL TRIO PROGRAMS