Dear Upward Bound Project Director:

It is time to prepare your annual performance report (APR) for program year 2010–11. The due date for submitting your APR follows:

• Most regular Upward Bound projects: November 30, 2011
• Regular Upward Bound projects with December 1 start dates: January 20, 2012
• Upward Bound Math-Science projects: December 31, 2011

The online data collection Web site for the UB programs will be available to you on November 1, 2011, via the Upward Bound and Upward Bound Math-Science "Performance" pages:

• http://www.ed.gov/programs/trioupbound/performance.html;
• http://www.ed.gov/programs/triomathsci/performance.html

Due dates: As you know, the Upward Bound programs will hold a grant competition in 2012, the results of which will be affected by the number of prior experience (PE) points that currently funded projects may earn. TRIO cannot calculate PE points until all UB and UBMS projects have successfully submitted their APRs; therefore, it is essential that you submit your APR on time. APRs not submitted by the relevant deadline above may be excluded from the calculations, with consequent loss of PE points for the 2010–11 year for projects that do not submit on time.

Completeness of data file and accuracy of cohorts: For a significant number of UB and UBMS projects, participants appeared in the APR's Match to Prior and Expected High School Graduation Cohort reports in the 2009–10 APRs, signifying the presence of inconsistencies between the projects' submissions and the UB system of records. TRIO staff worked intensively with projects to resolve these issues in spring and summer of 2011.

The APRs submitted for 2009–10 are now considered correct and final, and therefore essential data (such as cohorts) in your 2010–11 APRs will be matched against the 2009–10 APRs. This means that, except for new students, 2010–11 cohorts must match 2009–10 cohorts, and grantees must restore records for any participants who may appear in the 2010–11 Match to Prior report. With approximately 75,000 UB and UBMS participants in the 2008–09 through 2010–11 cohorts, TRIO cannot accommodate correction of any errors that grantees might have made in earlier APRs. Therefore, the Department will consider additional changes to the UB system of records only if a grantee has documentation that TRIO made an error in resolving issues in 2011.

Avoiding mismatches: Occasionally, a project unintentionally ends up in the confusing situation of having two records for one student, generally due to inconsistencies in how the project recorded identifying data for the student (first name, last name, SSN, and date of birth). Identifying data for each participant in your APR file (except for new students) must match the data in your 2009–10 APR, even if you have discovered that last year's data contained errors or misspellings; for the sake of the UB system of records, consistency trumps other considerations.

This year's APR contains no changes in fields, though we have added some additional data checks to help ensure accuracy and consistency. Should you need to contact the Help Desk regarding a data check, please note the identifying number which you will now find at the very beginning of every message; this will help us to resolve your problem. Please remember that any pop-up that begins with the word "Message" is an important reminder, but it will not require you to make any changes in your data. Pop-ups that begin with the words "Validation error," on the other hand, do require you to revise at least one data entry.

Due to space considerations, the online APR does not include all the information available in the general instructions on TRIO's Web site. We therefore strongly suggest that you consult not only the online APR itself, but also the data structure, instructions, and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) as they appear on TRIO's Web site (or as available by clicking on the "UB/UBMS Instructions" link on each online APR screen). You may also want to download a copy of the User Guide for the APR Web site at https://trio.ed.gov/ub.

HELP DESK AND SUBMITTAL

This year's registration process includes a step in which you will select and answer two security questions that will be used to allow you to receive a new, temporary password, should you forget your first one; otherwise, the registration process is the same as last year's. You may find the data structure and instructions for the report, plus responses to FAQs and links to the secured Web site maintained by our contractor, at http://www.ed.gov/programs/trioupbound/report.html.

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 UBWEB@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 week days that are not Federal holidays from November 1, 2011 until December 31, 2011, and will assist regular UB projects first funded on December 1, 2007 until January 20, 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 your 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/about/offices/list/ope/trio/staffdirectory-cupt.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,

Gaby Watts
Director
Upward Bound and Educational Opportunity Centers Division
Student Service

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