November 2012

Dear Talent Search Project Directors:

It is time to prepare your annual performance report (APR) on your Talent Search project for program year 2011–12, the first year of the 2011–16 grant cycle. The Web application you will use to submit your report will "go live" on November 1, with a closing date of November 30. You may find the data structure and instructions for the report, plus links to the secured APR Web site maintained by our contractor at:

• http://www2.ed.gov/programs/triotalent/report.html

The Department revised the Talent Search APR used during the previous grant cycle to address statutory changes to the program and to incorporate the new standard objectives for the 2011–16 cycle. I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge members of the TS community who provided constructive feedback on the draft APR during both public comment periods. Based on these comments, the Department made several changes to the draft form and instructions to reduce burden and improve the data collection and reporting processes.

The new APR is designed to improve transparency in how the Department calculates prior experience (PE) points. The APR will ultimately provide TS grantees with their PE points at the time grantees submit the report. The Department expects to be able to give TS grantees their PE scores annually, beginning next year with the fall 2013 APR data collection (reporting year 2012–13).

COMPLETING THE APR

Our contractor’s APR Web application is not designed to provide comprehensive instructions on completing the report. You must read and follow carefully the full instructions provided on the Department’s Web site at the address above.

The APR includes four sections, the last of which includes your approved objectives and the calculation rules for each of those objectives. Following Section IV, you will upload an Excel file of the names of participants you served during the project year who enrolled in an institution of higher education; providing this file will help you keep track of the students’ progression to postsecondary attainment. As you will recall, these students will serve as the denominator for the objective on postsecondary attainment. The instructions and the Web application will guide you in preparing this Excel file.

HELP DESK AND SUBMITTAL

Help Desk: If you encounter technical problems accessing the Web site or using the Web application, please contact the Help Desk by either telephone at (703) 846-8248 or e-mail at TSWEB@cbmiweb.com. Please note that the Help Desk will try to contact projects within 24 hours of receiving the telephone call or e-mail. The Help Desk will be available to respond to your questions on weekdays that are not Federal holidays from November 1, 2012 until December 7, 2012. During the holidays and peak times, it may take longer for you to receive a response; thus, I encourage you to prepare and submit your performance report as soon as you have collected complete data.

Please remember that, after you submit the completed APR electronically, you must also fax to 703-832-1360 a signed copy of Section I of the report form that certifies that the information submitted electronically is readily verifiable and that the information reported is accurate and complete. If for any reason you need to revise your performance report data after you submit it, please do not fax in the corrections; you should contact the Help Desk for information on revising your report and resubmitting it electronically. Note that TRIO will generally be able to accommodate revisions only until the deadline. If you have questions regarding the performance report requirements, please contact your program specialist directly. To ascertain your program specialist's name, telephone number, and e-mail address, please visit: http://www2.ed.gov/programs/triotalent/contacts.html.

Thank you for the time and effort you dedicate to performance reporting each year and for your commitment to providing complete and accurate data. Please retain source documents in a readily accessible form so that they can be verified during an on-site visit.

Sincerely,

James Davis
Director
GEAR UP and TRIO Talent Search Division
Student Service

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