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OMB Approval No: 1840-XXXX

Expiration Date: XX/XX/XXXX

 

Talent Search (TS) Program

Instructions for Completing the Annual Performance Report

for Program Year 2014–15

1. WHAT IS THIS PACKAGE?

This package contains the instructions needed to prepare the annual performance report for the 

Talent Search (TS) program. The Department of Education uses the information provided in the 

performance report to assess a grantee’s progress in meeting its approved goals and objectives 

and to determine a grantee’s prior experience points in accordance with the program 

regulations (34 CFR 643.22). The Department also aggregates grantees' data to report on the 

program as a whole, in particular to respond to the Government Performance and Results Act.

2. WHAT ARE THE LEGISLATIVE AND REGULATORY AUTHORITIES TO COLLECT THIS 

INFORMATION? 

 The Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, Subpart 2, Division 1, Sections 402A and 

402B (Public Law 102-325 as amended by Public Law 110-315);

 Program regulations in 34 CFR Part 643; and 

 Sections 75.591 and 75.720 of the Education Department General Administrative 

Regulations (EDGAR)

3. WHO MUST FILE THIS REPORT?

All grantees funded under the TS program must submit annual performance reports as a 

condition of their grant award.

4. WHAT PERIOD OF TIME IS COVERED IN THE REPORT?

The report covers the 12-month budget period. This information can be found in Block 6 of your

Grant Award Notification.

5. WHAT INFORMATION MUST BE SUBMITTED?

The report consists of four sections. Section I requests basic identifying information about the 

project, while Section II covers demographic information and target schools. Sections III and IV 

reflect the standard objectives found on the Program Profile page of the 2011 application 

package for TS. Section III requests the educational status of different groups of participants at 

the time of first service in the budget period; these groups allow grantees to report on sets of 

participants specified in the objectives. Section IV asks grantees to report on the educational 

status of participants at the end of the budget period and to show the extent to which the 

project succeeded in meeting its objectives. 
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6. WHEN SHOULD THE REPORT BE FILED?

The annual performance report should be submitted electronically via the Web within 90 days 

after the end of each 12-month budget period.

7. HOW MAY THE REPORT BE SUBMITTED?

The entire report must be submitted via the Web. In addition, a grantee must submit, via fax 

___________a signed copy of Section I of the report form that certifies that the information 

submitted electronically is accurate, complete, and readily verifiable. 

The Web application will be available as of____________, via a link to our contractor's Web site 

from the following Web address:

http://www.ed.gov/programs/triotalent/report.html 

The Web site contains the forms and instructions needed to prepare and submit online the 

annual performance report for the TS program. The Web application that TS grantees will use to 

submit the annual performance report has the following features:

 Instructions for using the Web site, an introduction to the data collection, and 

Online Help;

 A Web form for completing all sections online; 

 Edit checks to help increase accuracy in reporting;

 A print button to make a hard copy of the information entered;

 A submit button to send the entire report to the Department of Education; and

 An e-mail confirmation that the report has been submitted (if an e-mail address is 

provided when completing Section I).

8. WHO MAY BE CONTACTED FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION CONCERNING THE SUBMISSION 

OF THE PERFORMANCE REPORT?

Please contact your program specialist directly if you have questions regarding the performance 

report requirements or if you need to revise the performance report submission. A state listing 

of program specialists’ names, telephone numbers, and e-mail addresses is available at the Web 

address provided above.

If you have technical problems accessing the Web site or using the Web application, please 

contact the Help Desk by either telephone _______________or e-mail at_________________.
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Specific Instructions for Completing the Performance Report

Section I: Project Identification, Certification, and Warning

A. Identification

1. To begin completing this report online, from the Department’s Web page you will need to click 

on________________, a Web site hosted by our contractor to support submittal of annual 

performance reports. 

2. Once at the contractor's Web site (entitled "Talent Search Annual Performance Report (APR) for 

Program Year 2011–12"), you will need to register to receive a user ID and temporary password. 

Registration requires entry of the project director's first and last names and e-mail address and 

the project's PR award number (found in block 5 of the Grant Award Notification). If this 

information matches the data that the Department currently has on file, a user ID and 

temporary password will be sent to the e-mail address on file. If discrepancies exist, your 

program specialist and the Help Desk will be sent an e-mail message requesting verification of 

data on the project. Please allow 24 hours for this verification to occur. Once the Help Desk has 

received verification from the program specialist, the grantee will be notified that he or she can 

continue with registration.

3. Once you have received your user ID and temporary password via email, you may enter those 

on the homepage of the website listed above and click "Log in." You will then be prompted to 

create a new password and answer two security questions. After doing so, the website will let 

you continue onto Section I of the APR. 

4. You will be asked to confirm that the PR/Award number and associated grantee name are 

correct; you will then see the page for Section I. Your PR/Award number will be pre-populated 

in line 1 of Section I of the report form. 

5. The name of the organization awarded the grant funds will be pre-populated in line 2.

6. The address of the grantee organization will be pre-populated in line 3. If changes are needed, 

please correct the data.

7. The name of the project director will be pre-populated in line 4. If there has been a change in 

the project director, please contact your program specialist immediately to notify them of the 

change. The APR is not a vehicle for obtaining approval for any project director changes. 

8. The current telephone number, fax number, and electronic mailing address for the project 

director will be pre-populated in line 5. If changes are needed, please correct the data.

9. The budget period covered by this report will be pre-populated in line 6. These dates should 

correspond to the budget period found in block 6 of the Grant Award Notification.
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10. In line 7, provide the name, telephone number, and electronic mailing address for the data entry 

person who has completed the online form.

B. Certification

The project director is the person responsible for administering the project in accordance with 

the terms and conditions of the grant.

The certifying official is the individual (or successor or designee) who signed the grant 

application on behalf of the institution or agency.

C. Warnings

Any person who knowingly makes a false statement or misrepresentation on this report is 

subject to penalties which may include fines, imprisonment, or both, under the United States 

Criminal Code and 20 U.S.C. 1097. Further Federal funds or other benefits may be withheld 

under these programs unless this report is completed and filed as required by existing law (20 

U.S.C. 1231a) and regulations (34 CFR 75.591 and 75.720).
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Section II: Demographic Profile of Project Participants and Listing of Target Schools 

Number of Participants Funded to Serve

The Department will pre-populate this field with the number of participants the grant was funded to 

serve, based on information provided in the project's approved application. Grantees will not be able to 

make changes to this number on the form. If the pre-populated number reflects a data entry error, the 

project must contact its assigned program specialist to resolve the problem. 

A. Number of Participants Assisted

In completing this section of the report, please keep in mind the following definitions of a 

project participant provided in the program regulations in 34 CFR 643.7.

A TS participant means an individual who: (1) is determined to be eligible to participate in the 

project under section 643.3; and (2) receives project services designed for his or her age or 

grade. 

Only those individuals who meet the definition of participant should be counted in this section 

of the report. Participants need not have been enrolled in the program at the beginning of the 

reporting period to be counted. Report only on students served in 2011–12; do not provide 

information on students last served in 2010–11 or any earlier year.

Please provide the number of new participants served in A1 and continuing participants in A2. 

The number of new participants provided in A1 and the number of continuing participants 

provided in A2 must equal the total number of participants in A3. A new participant is one 

served by the project for the first time during this budget period. A continuing participant is one 

who was served by the project for the first time in another budget period (this includes a budget 

period under a previous grant) and who received project services during this budget period.

A3 should be the total of A1 and A2, if applicable, and should be the number of participants 

served by the project during the budget period.

B. Participant Distribution by Eligibility 

The regulations governing the TS program (see 34 CFR 643.11(a)) require that at least two-thirds 

of the individuals a project serves must be low-income individuals who are potential first 

generation college students (these terms are defined below). The remaining participants can be 

low-income individuals, potential first-generation college students, or any individuals in need of 

services. Students may be counted only once in this breakout. The total reported must agree 

with the number in A3 above.

Low-income individual means an individual whose family’s taxable income did not exceed 150 

percent of the poverty level amount in the calendar year preceding the year in which the 

individual initially participated in the project. The poverty level amount is determined using 

criteria of poverty established by the Bureau of the Census of the U.S. Department of 

Commerce.
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Potential first generation college student means (1) an individual neither of whose natural or 

adoptive parents received a baccalaureate degree; or (2) an individual who, prior to the age of 

18, regularly resided with and received support from only one parent and whose supporting 

parent did not receive a baccalaureate degree; or (3) an individual who, prior to the age of 18, 

did not regularly reside with or receive support from a natural or adoptive parent.

In the Other category (B4), count those project participants who are neither low-income nor 

potential first-generation college students. The total should agree with the number in A3.

C. Participant Distribution by Race and Ethnicity

On October 19, 2007, the Department released revised, Department-wide guidance on collecting and 

reporting data on race and ethnicity:

http://www.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister/other/2007-4/101907c.pdf ; or 

http://www.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister/other/2007-4/101907c.html

All grantees of the Department were required to implement the revised guidance as of fall 2010 for the 

2010-11 school year and thereafter.

While the 2007 guidance is largely consistent with the reporting categories for race and ethnicity that TS 

grantees have used in earlier years in APR reporting, the guidance specifies data collection, reporting, 

and maintenance procedures that grantees may or may not have followed in the past, but that now are 

required for full implementation. These procedures, designed to ensure data quality, include these 

points:

 Grantees need to collect racial and ethnic data on all participants using a two-part question: 

first, the grantee asks the respondent--typically a parent or guardian if the participant is at 

the elementary or secondary level, or the participant himself or herself if older--whether the 

participant is Hispanic/Latino; second, the grantee asks the respondent to select one or 

more races from the five racial groups listed. (Instead of asking the respondent, grantees 

may use school records to determine a participant's race and ethnicity, but only if the school 

has implemented the Department's 2007 guidance.)

 If the respondent identifies the participant as Hispanic/Latino, that is the one category the 

grantee should use in reporting to the Department on that participant, regardless of other 

racial information the respondent may provide. Grantees must, however, keep in their files 

the original responses on race and ethnicity of all participants using the two-part question.

 If a respondent belongs in more than one racial group, the grantee should report the 

respondent as belonging to two or more races.

 “Unknown” should not appear on forms grantees use to collect data, though grantees may 

report a participant’s race/ethnicity as “Unknown” if necessary.

 The guidance encourages grantees to have respondents themselves identify the category to 

which they belong, rather than for the grantee to use observation to select a category.
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The points above are highlights only; grantees are responsible for implementing all relevant aspects of 

the guidance.

In Section II C, grantees are to report aggregated data on participants' race and ethnicity. As noted 

above, all students identified as Hispanic or Latino should be included only in the count for C1. NonHispanic/Latino participants identified as one race should be shown in lines C2, C3, C4, 

C5, or C6. Non-Hispanic/Latino participants identified as two or more races should be counted in C7. 

Participants for whom race and ethnicity is unknown should be included in the count for C8. The total, 

C9, should equal the number in Section II, A3. As indicated above, the original responses from 

Hispanic/Latino students or their parents (and indeed all participants) provided on their race and 

ethnicity should be retained in grantees' files.

Definitions for the ethnic and racial categories

Hispanic or Latino: A person of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central or South American, or other 

Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race. 

American Indian or Alaska Native: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and 

South America (including Central America), and who maintains a tribal affiliation or community 

attachment.

Asian: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, and the 

Indian subcontinent. This area includes, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, 

Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Black or African American: A person having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa. 

White: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, North Africa, or the Middle 

East. 

Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of 

Hawaii or other Pacific islands such as Samoa and Guam. 

Two or more races: A person of a multi-racial background.

D. Participant Distribution by Gender

Though these data are not mandatory, they are helpful to the Department in reporting on the 

gender representation of project participants. The total should agree with the number in A3.

E. Participant Distribution by Age

The data requested here represent age ranges most consistent with age groups targeted for 

services by the TS program statute and regulations. Given the permissible exceptions provided 

by statute, this information aids the Department in validating the numbers of middle school 

students, high school students, youth, and adults served by each project. The total should agree 

with the number in A3. The data reported here should reflect the age of project participants at 
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the time of first service in the reporting period. Item E1 has been changed to include 

participants who meet the eligibility requirements but who are younger than 11 years old. 

F. Veterans Served

TS projects may serve veterans regardless of age. If applicable for your project, please provide 

the number of veterans served. 

Veteran means a person who—(1) Served on active duty as a member of the Armed Forces of 

the United States for a period of more than 180 days and was discharged or released under 

conditions other than dishonorable; (2) Served on active duty as a member of the Armed Forces 

of the United States and was discharged or released because of a service connected disability; 

(3) Was a member of a reserve component of the Armed Forces of the United States and was 

called to active duty for a period of more than 30 days; or (4) Was a member of a reserve 

component of the Armed Forces of the United States who served on active duty in support of a 

contingency operation (as that term is defined in section 101(a)(13) of title 10, United States 

Code) on or after September 11, 2001.

G. Participants with Limited English Proficiency

TS projects may adapt project services to meet the needs of students with limited English 

proficiency. If applicable for your project, please provide the number of project participants 

with limited English proficiency.

Limited English proficiency, with reference to an individual, means a person whose native 

language is other than English and who has sufficient difficulty speaking, reading, writing, or 

understanding the English language to deny that individual the opportunity to learn successfully 

in classrooms in which English is the language of instruction.

H. Participants who are in a dual enrollment program

The Department aims to collect information on TS participants that are enrolled in dual 

enrollment programs. If applicable for your project, please enter the number of project 

participants that participate in dual enrollment programs. Report the total number of TS 

participants who participated in a dual enrollment program by taking one or more college level 

courses during the reporting year, not the total number of courses taken by TS participants 

during the reporting year. 

For the purpose of completing the TS APR, the Department defines a dual enrollment program 

as a collaborative effort between high schools and colleges that allow high school students to 

enroll in college-level courses and earn credit toward a high school diploma and a college 

degree (college credit dual enrollment) or a career preparation certificate (career dual 

enrollment) .

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 Include in the count of the number of participants in dual enrollment programs, 

 

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Dual enrollment does NOT count as enrolled in postsecondary education for the postsecondary enrollment 

objective. This will be discussed further below in Section IV. 
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those students who earn college credit as well as those that did not earn college credit because 

they did not complete all the course requirements or did not (or could not afford to) pay the 

required fees .

I. Participants enrolled in rigorous courses that are not offered at target schools

The Department aims to collect specific information on TS participants that enroll in rigorous 

courses outside of the target schools, with particular focus on sources of funding. Please enter 

the number of participants in your project that are enrolled in at least one rigorous course 

outside of their target schools by type of funding source, if applicable, for each of the sub-fields 

listed. Include both seniors and non-seniors in these fields. 

J. TS participants also served during reporting year by another federally funded program (see 34 

CFR 643.32(c)(5))

Please provide the total number of participants in your TS project that are simultaneously 

enrolled in one or more federally funded program. Furthermore, please provide the number of 

participants that in addition to TS, also participated in Upward Bound (UB), Upward Bound 

Math-Science (UBMS), Veterans Upward Bound (VUB), Educational Opportunity Centers (EOC), 

GEAR UP, another federally- funded program; or two or more federally-funded programs. 

K. TS participants completing the FAFSA

Report in this section the number of participants (seniors, individuals in an alternative education 

program who are at an academic level of a high school senior, and other individuals interested 

in enrolling in a program of postsecondary education (e.g., individuals in a GED program)) who 

applied for federal financial aid through the use of FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student 

Aid) during the reporting year. Also, report the number of these participants who used the 

FAFSA to apply for financial aid and then enrolled in a program of postsecondary education 

during the reporting year, by the fall term immediately following the reporting year, or the next 

academic term (e.g., spring term) if the institution deferred the participant’s enrollment.

L. Target Schools

For each target school served by the TS project during the reporting year, provide the school’s 

identification number in the Common Core of Data (CCD) of the National Center for Education 

Statistics (NCES), the name of the school, and its city, state, and zip code. The CCD contains 

valuable information on individual American schools, such as race and ethnicity and number of 

students eligible for free or reduced-price meals. A Web link will appear on the Web application 

to assist you in finding the NCES school identification number for each of your target schools. 

The online version of the form will be pre-populated for schools listed in your previous year's 

APR; please be sure to check all data for accuracy, including the NCES ID numbers. Delete any 

schools that you no longer serve and add any new schools. In addition, please provide the 

number of students served at each target school. 

Projects should discuss any changes in target schools with their program/grants specialist before 

submitting the APR. Projects may not add or drop target schools without written approval from 
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the program/grants specialist. The APR is not a vehicle for obtaining approval of changes in your 

target schools. If a project is phasing out a school (i.e., continuing to serve students in a school 

previously served by the TS project but not adding new students), the project should include the 

school in the list as they would any others; the list in Section II should include all approved 

schools that the project served in 2011–12. If a project did not provide services to students in a 

school in 2011-12, that school should be dropped from the list.

Definitions that Apply to Sections III and IV

Please note the definitions of the following terms that are used frequently in the remainder of the 

document. 

Graduation within the standard number of years: the attainment of a regular secondary school diploma 

at the conclusion of, before the conclusion of, or during the summer immediately following a 

participant’s fourth year of high school, unless a high school begins after ninth grade, in which case the 

standard number of years is the number of grades in the school.

Regular secondary school diploma: a level attained by individuals who meet or exceed the coursework 

and performance standards for high school completion established by the individual’s state.

Alternative awards, including a GED or a certificate of attendance, are not considered regular secondary 

school diplomas under this definition, an interpretation that is consistent with the U.S. Department of 

Education’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education regulations in section 200.19(b)(1)(iv). The 

term regular secondary school diploma does, however, include a “higher diploma” awarded to students 

who complete requirements above and beyond what is required for a regular diploma. A diploma 

awarded by an alternative school would be acceptable, as long as it falls under the definition for regular 

secondary school diploma and is not, in fact, an alternative award.

Rigorous secondary school program of study: a program of study that is--

(1) Established by a state educational agency (SEA) or local educational agency (LEA) and recognized as 

a rigorous secondary school program of study by the Secretary through the process described in 34 CFR 

691.16(a) through 691.16(c) for the Academic Competitiveness Grant (ACG) Program; or

(2) An advanced or honors secondary school program established by States and in existence for the 

2004-2005 school year or later school years; or

(3) Any secondary school program in which a student successfully completes at a minimum the 

following courses:

(i) Four years of English

(ii) Three years of mathematics, including algebra I and a higher-level class such as algebra II, 

geometry, or data analysis and statistics

(iii) Three years of science, including one year each of at least two of the following courses: 

biology, chemistry, and physics

(iv) Three years of social studies 

(v) One year of a language other than English; or 

(4) A secondary school program identified by a State-level partnership that is recognized by the State 

Scholars Initiative of the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE), Boulder, 

Colorado; or

(5) Any secondary school program for a student who completes at least two courses from an 

International Baccalaureate Diploma Program sponsored by the International Baccalaureate 
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Organization, Geneva, Switzerland, and receives a score of a “4” or higher on the examinations for at 

least two of those courses; or 

(6) Any secondary school program for a student who completes at least two Advanced Placement 

courses and receives a score of “3” or higher on the College Board’s Advanced Placement Program 

Exams for at least two of those courses. 

Institution of higher education: an educational institution as defined in sections 101 and 102 of the 

Higher Education Act.

Enrolled in postsecondary education: a participant who has completed the registration requirements 

(except for the payment of tuition and fees) at the institution that he or she is attending

Program of postsecondary education: a formal instructional program whose curriculum is designed 

primarily for students who are beyond the compulsory age for high school. This includes programs 

whose purpose is academic or vocational, and excludes avocational and adult basic education.

Acceptance but deferred enrollment: a participant has received an acceptance letter from the 

institution that he or she will attend, but cannot enroll in the fall semester immediately following high 

school graduation for reasons determined by the institution. The institution defers enrollment until the 

next semester.

Postsecondary attainment: completion of a program of postsecondary education that has led to a 

certificate, associate or baccalaureate degree.
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Section III: Educational Status of Participants (at time of first service in reporting year)

Section III requests data on the educational status of participants at time of first service in the reporting

period. For example, if a participant was a secondary school dropout when first served in October 2011, 

he or she should be counted in Section III as such, even if the participant reenrolled over the course of 

the reporting period.

A. Educational Status of Participants 

A1. Middle school -- Report in the number of participants in grades six, seven, and eight at the time of 

first service in the reporting period.

A2. High school non-senior -- Report in the number of participants in grades nine, ten, and eleven at the 

time of first service in the reporting period. Include twelfth graders in line A3. 

Note: Some school districts include ninth grade as part of junior high school. For consistent national 

data collection and reporting, however, please use the definitions provided above.

A3. High school senior (12th grade only) -- Report the number of participants who were high school 

seniors at the time of first service in the reporting period. Include individuals enrolled in alternative 

education programs that are organized by grade who are at an academic level of a high school senior at 

the time of first service.

A4. Alternative education student – Report the number of participants enrolled in a high school 

equivalency program (e.g., GED) or other alternative education program that is not organized by grade 

or age of the student.

A5. Secondary school dropout—Report participants that were secondary school dropouts at the time of

first service in the reporting year. 

A6. Other-- Report here participants that do not belong in any of the first five categories in this section;

examples include (but are not limited to) a GED graduate not already enrolled in a program of 

postsecondary education.

A7. Unknown -- Report here the number of participants whose educational status at time of first service 

in the reporting period is either unknown or unconfirmed.

A8. Total – The total should equal Section II, A3.

Section IV: Educational Status of Participants (at the end of the reporting period or for fall term 2012) 

and Postsecondary Placements by type and control of the postsecondary institutions

This section of the annual report is your opportunity to report on your project’s progress in meeting its 

approved objectives (Parts A, B, and C). In addition, Part D of this section collects information on the 

postsecondary placements of participants by type and control of the postsecondary institutions. 
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The APR Web application will list each of the standard objectives and will be pre-populated with the 

approved targets (percentages) for your project derived from the Program Profile sheet submitted with 

your approved FY 2011 grant application or subsequently amended. Should you discover a data entry 

error in these percentages, please contact your program/grants specialist.

Note that each objective refers to a certain group of participants that forms the denominator for the 

percentage of students who met the objective. For the first objective (secondary school persistence), 

for example, the denominator is participants who were middle school and high school non-senior 

students (Section III, A1 and A2) at the time of first service in the reporting period minus participants 

who died during the reporting year (Section IV, A4). Consider only the students included in the 

denominator in entering values in the data fields following each objective.

Please enter a positive numeric value in each field; for those not applicable to your project, enter zero

(0). If more than one response is possible for a given participant, choose the most recent status. 

Note that some individuals counted in Section III are not included in any of the new standard objectives 

(for example, Section III, A5). 

A. Objective: Secondary School Persistence

___% of non-senior participants served each project year will complete the current academic 

year and continue in school for the next academic year, at the next grade level

For this objective, the denominator is students reported in Section III, A1 and A2. Secondary school-age 

students who at the time of first service in the reporting period were dropouts are not included in the 

objective, and thus their educational status should not be reported in Section IV, A.

A1. Report the number of participants who at time of first service in the reporting period were middle 

school students or non-senior high school students (Section III, A1 and A2) who continued in school for 

the next academic year, at the next grade level (e.g., 8th grade in 2011-12 academic year; 9thgrade in 

2012-13 academic year).

You may also include here any student who was not classified as a senior at the beginning of the 

reporting year (e.g., junior) who earned a sufficient number of credits to graduate high school by the 

end of the reporting period. Since these individuals were not seniors when first served in the reporting 

period, these individuals will count toward your secondary school persistence objective but not toward 

your secondary school graduation or postsecondary enrollment objectives. 

A2. Report the number of participants who at time of first service in the reporting year were middle 

school students or non-senior high school students (Section III, A1 and A2) who continued in school for 

the next academic year, at the same grade level (e.g., 10th grade in 2011-12 academic year and 10th 

grade at the beginning of the 2012-13 academic year).

A3. Report the number of participants who at time of first service in the reporting year were middle 

school students or non-senior high school students (Section III, A1 and A2) who dropped out of school 

during the 2011-12 academic year or before the 2012-13 academic year.

A4. Deceased – Report on the number of participants who died during the reporting year.
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A5. Other -- Report here the number of middle and non-senior high school participants (Section III, A1 

and A2) whose known educational status does not fit under the three categories listed above.

A6. Unknown -- Report here the number of middle and non-senior high school participants (Section III, 

A1 and A2) whose educational status is either unknown or unconfirmed.

A7. Total -- The total should equal the sum of Section III, A1 and A2.

B. Objective: Secondary School Graduation

i. Secondary School Graduation (regular secondary school diploma)

_____% of seniors served during the project year will graduate during the project year with a 

regular secondary school diploma within the standard number of years. 

ii. Secondary School Graduation (rigorous program of study)

____% of seniors served during the project year will complete a rigorous secondary school 

program of study and will graduate during the project year with a regular secondary school 

diploma within the standard number of years.

Notes: Graduation within the standard number of years means the attainment of a regular secondary 

school diploma (see definition on pages 10 and 11 of these instructions) at the conclusion of, before the 

conclusion of, or during the summer immediately following a participant’s fourth year of high school, 

unless a high school begins after ninth grade, in which case the standard number of years is the number 

of grades in the school.

The term regular secondary school diploma includes a “higher diploma” awarded to students who 

complete requirements above and beyond what is required for a regular diploma.

For these objectives, the denominator is students who at the time of first service were high school 

seniors (Section III, A3).

B1. Report the number of seniors who graduated from high school during the reporting period with a 

regular secondary school diploma within the standard number of years who did not complete a rigorous 

program of study.

B2. Report the number of seniors who graduated from high school during the reporting period with a 

regular secondary school diploma AND who completed a rigorous program of study within the standard 

number of years.

B3. Report the number of seniors who graduated from high school with a regular high school diploma 

but not in the standard number of years.

B4. Report the number of seniors who received an alternative award by the end of the reporting period 

(e.g., received certificate of attendance). 
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B5. Report on the number of high school seniors who neither graduated high school nor received an 

alternative award by the end of the reporting period.

B6. Deceased – Report on the number of high school seniors served during the reporting year who died 

during the reporting year.

B7. Other -- Report here the number of seniors whose known educational status at the end of the

reporting period does not fall within the first five categories of this section. 

B8. Unknown -- Report here the number of seniors whose educational status at the end of the reporting 

period is either unknown or unconfirmed.

B9. Total -- The total should equal the sum of Section III, A3.

B10. Report here the number of participants in Section III, A5 and A6 that completed secondary 

education by the end of the reporting period.

C. Objective: Postsecondary Education Enrollment

____% of participants, who have graduated with a regular secondary school diploma, during the 

project year, will enroll in an institution of higher education by the fall term immediately 

following high school graduation or will have received notification, by the fall term immediately 

following high school, from an institution of higher education, of acceptance but deferred 

enrollment until the next academic term (e.g., spring term).

In this section, we are asking that you report on the postsecondary enrollment status of participants 

who enrolled in postsecondary education by the fall term immediately following high school graduation 

or by the next academic term if the institution deferred the participant’s enrollment. (For example, a 

student who cannot enroll in spring 2013 cannot be counted in this section.) The section provides an 

opportunity to report not only on participants who constitute the denominator for the postsecondary 

enrollment objective, but also on other participants as well.

To determine if your project met its postsecondary enrollment objective, we will only include in the 

denominator (and thus in the calculation) all participants that graduated with a regular secondary school 

diploma during the project year, which includes both those who did complete a rigorous program of 

study, and those who did not (Section IV, B1 and B2). The numerator will be the sum of the number of 

such participants that enrolled in an institution of higher education by the fall term immediately 

following high school graduation and the number of such participants that received a notification from 

the institution that enrollment had been deferred until the next academic term (Section IV, C1 and C2 

below).

Notes: The Program Profile page from the 2011 competition defines an enrolled participant as one who 

has completed the registration requirements (except for the payment of tuition and fees) at the 

institution that he or she is attending. Grantees may consider a participant who completed the 

registration requirements to be enrolled even if the project is aware that the student did not 

subsequently attend class.
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Taking postsecondary courses while still in high school (e.g., dual enrollment) does NOT constitute 

enrollment in a program of postsecondary education. However, participants who were classified as 

dual enrolled during the reporting period, completed high school or received a high school equivalency 

certificate during the reporting year, and enrolled in an institution of higher education by the fall term 

immediately following high school graduation or who received notification, by the fall term immediately 

following high school, from an institution of higher education, of acceptance but deferred enrollment 

until the next academic term may be counted in the number of postsecondary enrollees. Also, joining 

the military does not constitute postsecondary education (unless, of course, a participant enrolls in a 

postsecondary military school, e.g., the U.S. Coast Guard Academy).

Use row 1 to report participants’ enrollment or deferred enrollment within the timeframe of the 

objective. Use row 2 to report students for whom you have no evidence of enrollment or deferred 

enrollment, and students whose status is unknown to you. The types of high school credentials to which 

the columns refer are these:

IV.C1 (column b): Received regular diploma within standard number of years, and did not complete a 

rigorous program of study

IV.C2 (column c): Received regular diploma within standard number of years, and completed a rigorous 

program of study

IV.C3 (column e): Received a regular diploma but not within the standard number of years

IV.C4 (column f): Received an alternative award (e.g., certificate of attendance or high school 

equivalency certificate)

IV.C5 (column g): Neither graduated high school nor received an alternative award; or was included in 

IV.B7, “Other.”

D. Postsecondary Placements: Types of Institutions

For participants enrolled in a program of postsecondary education, as reported in Section IV, C above, 

indicate the number of students enrolled in postsecondary education by type of postsecondary 

institution. Projects are asked to disaggregate each type of postsecondary placement into the same five

categories as were used in IV C: 

IV.C1 (column b): Received regular diploma within standard number of years, and did not complete a 

rigorous program of study

IV.C2 (column c): Received regular diploma within standard number of years, and completed a rigorous 

program of study

IV.C3 (column e): Received a regular diploma but not within the standard number of years

IV.C4 (column f): Received an alternative award (e.g., certificate of attendance or high school 

equivalency certificate)
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IV.C5 (column g): Neither graduated high school nor received an alternative award; or was included in 

IV.B7, “Other.”

The grand total in cell 8(i) should equal the sum of those listed as enrolled in IV, C, cell 1(i). 

For definitions of the types of postsecondary institutions, please see language concerning Title IV 

programs in sections 101 and 102 of Title I of the 1998 Amendments to the Higher Education Act of 

1965 (P.L. 105-244) (http://www.ed.gov/policy/highered/leg/hea98/sec101.html)

E. Objective: Postsecondary Attainment

____% of participants served during the project year who enrolled in an institution of higher 

education, by the fall term immediately following high school graduation or by the next 

academic term (e.g., spring term) as a result of acceptance but deferred enrollment, will

complete a program of postsecondary education within six years. 

Every project will be required to indicate which interpretation of the objective’s wording was followed 

when the project established the objective rate for postsecondary attainment in its FY 2011 application. 

This will help guide the Department to accurately calculate each project’s PE points for this objective. 

Projects will NOT be allowed to change their selection within the same grant cycle to maintain 

consistency in calculating PE points. Once an interpretation has been made in the 2011-12 APR, it 

cannot be changed for the remainder of the grant cycle. The interpretations are as follows; note that the 

only distinction between the two is item 4 in the second interpretation.

 The target population, or denominator, of this objective would include postsecondary 

enrollees that 1) received regular high school diplomas without completing a rigorous 

program of study, 2) received regular high school diplomas and completed a rigorous 

program of study, and 3) received a regular secondary school diploma but not within 

standard number of years (the sum of the number of students in Section IV, C1, C2, and C3), 

OR

 The target population, or denominator, of this objective would include postsecondary 

enrollees that 1) received regular high school diplomas without completing a rigorous 

program of study, 2) received regular high school diplomas and completed a rigorous 

program of study, 3) received a regular secondary school diploma but not within standard 

number of years , and 4) received an alternative award (e.g., certificate of attendance or high 

school equivalency certificate). This second interpretation uses the sum of the number of 

students in Section IV, C1, C2, C3, and C4.

In the online Web application, projects will be able to select the interpretation they followed in setting 

their objectives. In the APR for the 2017-18 project period to be submitted in the fall of 2018, the 

project will be required to report on the postsecondary attainment status of those participants that 

enrolled in postsecondary education during the 2012-13 academic year and, for those that completed a 

program of postsecondary education by the end of the 2017-18 academic year (which includes summer 

of 2018), the type of certificate or degree earned. Depending on which interpretation was followed as 

indicated in the 2011-12 APR, this list will contain both postsecondary enrollees that received high 

school equivalency credentials AND regular high school diplomas (the second interpretation), or only 

postsecondary enrollees that received regular high school diplomas (the first interpretation). 
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Per the FY 2011 application, projects may choose to track all postsecondary enrollees that graduated

high school within a given project year or a random sample of those students. In this APR, projects need 

to indicate whether they choose to track all of their postsecondary enrollees or only a random sample. 

Once a selection is made in the 2011-12 APR, it cannot be changed for the entire duration of the grant 

cycle. Please see the Appendix for information on how to track students through the use of a random 

sample. 

To help projects keep track of the students’ progression to postsecondary attainment, projects are 

required to report the first and last names of the students who enrolled in postsecondary education 

during the 2011-12 project year. Projects may choose to track all students listed or a randomly selected 

group using the method stated in the appendix to these instructions. 

So that projects need not manually enter the names of each postsecondary enrollee, the online Web 

application will be designed so that a project can upload an Excel file with the list of postsecondary 

enrollees. The Excel file must include the first and last name of each enrollee. For a project that will be 

tracking a random sample, the spreadsheet must also include a column that indicates whether the 

student is part of the sample. The project may add additional columns to the Excel spreadsheet, such as 

the student’s middle initial and/or an identifying number, provided this number is not the student’s 

social security number or date of birth.

The first year of measurement for this objective will not take into effect until the 2017-18 APR, or six 

years after 2011-12, the first year of the grant cycle in which high school graduates and their equivalents 

will enroll in postsecondary education. Consequently, the Department will not begin to calculate 

projects’ Prior Experience (PE) points for this objective until 2017-18. In 2017-18, the APR Record 

Structure will be amended to reflect the new data collection requirement for postsecondary attainment.

Project year in which 

high school graduation and postsecondary 

enrollment were reported *

Associated 6-year postsecondary 

attainment year (and the year of PE calculation 

for postsecondary attainment)

2011-12 (1st year of grant cycle) 2017-18

2012-13 (2nd year of grant cycle) 2018-19

2013-14 (3rd year of grant cycle) 2019-20

2014-15 (4th year of grant cycle) 2020-21

2015-16 (5th year of grant cycle) 2021-22

* For the 2011-12 APR (and each subsequent APR), a TS project should report on those students served 

during the reporting year who enrolled in postsecondary education by the by the fall term immediately 

following high school graduation (e.g., fall term 2012) and those who received a notification from the 

institution that enrollment had been deferred until the next academic term (e.g., spring term 2013). 
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Appendix: Guidance on Determining Appropriate Sample Size and Random 

Sampling to Track Students for Postsecondary Attainment Objective

Section 402A(f)(3)(A)(vi) of the Higher Education Act, as amended in 2008 by section 403(a)(5) of the 

Higher Education Opportunity Act, requires the Department to use postsecondary education 

completion, if practicable, to assess the success of a TS (TS) project. To implement this statutory 

requirement, §643.22(d)(6) of the TS program regulations states that an “applicant may determine 

success in meeting the objective by using a randomly selected sample of participants in accordance with 

the parameters established by the Secretary in the Federal Register notice inviting applications or other 

published application materials for the competition.” 

The following guidelines provide the procedure to 1) determine the appropriate sample size based on a 

project’s number of postsecondary enrollees and 2) form a random sample equal to the appropriate 

sample size. Note that this procedure is to reduce, not increase, the burden on grantees by making 

allowances to only track a portion of postsecondary enrollees. Projects may follow the sampling 

guidelines discussed below or choose to track all postsecondary enrollees. 

1. Determining Appropriate Sample Size

A project’s appropriate sample size is primarily determined by the number of postsecondary enrollees in 

a given project year, or the population of interest. Note that the number of postsecondary enrollees in a 

given project year is the denominator of the postsecondary attainment objective. (Projects need to be 

mindful on the interpretation of the postsecondary attainment they chose in Section IV, E in 

determining the number of participants from which the appropriate sample size is determined.)Under a 

random sampling procedure, a project will only need to track a proportion of all postsecondary 

enrollees, or the appropriate sample size.

To determine the appropriate sample size, go to http://www.raosoft.com/samplesize.html.

On the website, the only number a project needs to input is the population size (the third field), which is 

the number of postsecondary enrollees in a given project year (depending on which interpretation was 

chosen in Section IV, F, this would be the sum of Section IV D1, D2, and D3 OR the sum of Section IV D1, 

D2, D3, and D8). Keep the margin of error at 5%, confidence level at 95%, and response distribution at 

50%. 

For example, a Project X has 30 postsecondary enrollees in the 2011-12 reporting period. Raosoft 

determined that the appropriate sample size is 28 postsecondary enrollees. This means that under 

random sampling, Project X will only track 28 out of 30 postsecondary enrollees for their postsecondary 

attainment status for six years. See screenshot below. 

Note: As a project’s number of postsecondary enrollees gets larger, the number of students it needs to 

track proportionally decreases. 
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Once a project has determined the appropriate sample size, it needs to establish a process for randomly 

choosing the participants that constitute the sample. Continuing with the example above, each of the 

30 students must have an equal chance of being chosen to be in the random sample of 28 students 

under random sampling. Project X will need to randomly choose 28 postsecondary enrollees to track out 

of its “pool” of 30 postsecondary enrollees.

2. Postsecondary Enrollee List Randomization

Before forming the random sample, a project first needs to have a randomized list of all its 

postsecondary enrollees, meaning that this list cannot be in any sort of particular order, e.g., 

alphabetical, from which to draw the random sample. In order to successfully form a random sample, 

the list from which the sample is formed must be in random order. A project can randomize its list of 

students by using http://www.random.org/lists/.

On the homepage of this website, enter the postsecondary enrollees’ names, with each name on one 

line. Continuing with the example, Project X wishes to randomize the list of 30 enrollees as its database 

has these participants in alphabetical order. On the website, Project X will enter: 
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(Note: The site can be viewed securely by selecting “secure view” underneath the empty field in Part 1. This is 

highly suggested. For security reasons, do NOT use SSNs or birthdates to randomize the list of students.)

After entering all of the students’ names, click on “Randomize” for the system to randomize the list of 

students.
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The next screen shows the system’s generation of the random list of student names:

Not only has the system provided a random list of student names, it has also assigned each student a 

number, which will be incredibly useful in the final step, as outlined below.

3. Determining the Random Sample

With the randomly generated list of student names with assigned numbers from random.org, a project 

will use the Research Randomizer on http://randomizer.org/form.htm to finally form a random sample 

of postsecondary enrollees to track through postsecondary attainment. After inputting the necessary 

parameters, Research Randomizer will generate a random list of 28 numbers for Project X. Each of these 

28 numbers will correspond to a specific student in the list generated above by random.org. These 28 

students will form the random sample Project X will track their postsecondary attainment status for six 

years.
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Project X will enter the following information on Research Randomizer:

How many sets of numbers do you want to generate? Projects will only want to generate one set of 

numbers, as only one random sample is needed.

How many numbers per set? This refers to the appropriate sample size determined in step 2. For 

Project X, it is 28. This means that the system will only generate 28 random numbers.

Number range refers to total range of possibilities. Looking at the random list generated by random.org, 

the range will be from 1 to 30, as there are 30 postsecondary enrollees for Project X. In this context, the 

number range essentially refers to the number of postsecondary enrollees. 

Do you wish each number in a set to remain unique? Always select “Yes.” This basically means that 

once a number is randomly chosen, it cannot be chosen again. For example, looking at Project X’s list, 

this means that number 21, or Student 8, cannot be included in the random sample twice. 

(A short tutorial is available here: http://randomizer.org/lesson1.htm)
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After clicking on “Randomize Now!,” the following screen appears with a randomly generated list of 

numbers:

This means that the students corresponding to the above numbers in the list generated by random.org 

form Project X’s random sample. Looking at the random list of numbers generated, 8 and 9 are not 

present, meaning Students 28 and 10 (the students corresponding to 8 and 9 in the list) will not be part 

of the random sample, and thus, not tracked.