FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS Upward Bound Program

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Fiscal Year 2007
Upward Bound Program
Competition
This document reflects a compilation of the answers we have provided in response to
questions received from potential applicants. We hope this information is useful in
assisting you with developing a successful UB application.
Q1: What is the maximum award for an Upward Bound applicant that is seeking a
first time award?
A: The maximum award for a new applicant is $250,000 for regular Upward
Bound, Upward Bound Math and Science and Veterans Upward Bound.
Q 2: For the past four years we have received the Upward Bound Initiative funds.
Are we to include the amount of the UB Initiative funds in our base award for
purposes of determining the maximum award under the FY 2007 competition?
A: No, the Upward Bound Initiative is a four-year project. The UB Initiative will
not be renewed. However, in determining the maximum award under the FY
2007 competition, grantees may add one-half of their UB Initiative funds to
their 2006 base award amount. The maximum award will be 103 percent of
that combined amount. (In other words, the 3 percent increase is applied to
BOTH the base amount AND one-half of the UB Initiative amount.) You
should also note that the number of participants a project is required to serve
will also increase by one-half of the number served under the UB Initiative.
Q3: Where in the budget do you put all costs that relates to students? Are these
costs included in the indirect costs?
A: All costs related to stipends, room and board, meals, tuition and related fees
should be placed under the “Training Stipends” category on the budget form
(ED Form 524). These costs are not to be included in the calculation of
indirect costs. Please identify the various categories of expenses in the
budget summary. With the transition to grants.gov we are no longer able to
modify the standard budget forms to accommodate the specifics of the TRIO
programs as we have done in previous competitions.
Q4: May we use bullets in the program narrative and single-space the text
following the bullets?
A: Yes and no. You may use bullets in the program narrative but the text must
be double-spaced.
Q5: May more than one Upward Bound project or both a regular Upward Bound
and Upward Bound Math and Science project serve the same target area and
schools?
A: The number and type of Upward Bound projects that serve a particular target
area or school is not an issue. What the relevant issue is whether there are
a sufficient number of eligible students in the target area or school for each
Upward Bound project to serve its required number of eligible students
without duplicating eligible students. Clearly, we would prefer that multiple
Upward Bound projects not identify the same target schools. However,
having more than one application proposing to serve students at the same
target school(s) in itself will not render an application ineligible.
Q6: Is 2000 Census data acceptable if it is the latest available source data for the
following Need Section sub-criteria: (a) family income levels and (b)
educational attainment levels?
A: You should use the most recent data available to convince the reader of the
need for the program in your target area and schools. It will be left to the
reader’s discretion as to whether the data presented in the application
achieved its intended purpose.
Q7: Are Upward Bound Math and Science projects required to have an academic
year component in addition to the summer component.
A: No. However, it is anticipated that all Upward Bound Math and Science
applicants will propose both an academic year and summer component. If an
applicant proposes only a summer component, the budget that is included in
the application should cover only the costs of the summer component.
Q8: Are we correct to understand that Upward Bound Math and Science projects
must provide math and science-specific services in addition to those services
required of all types of Upward Bound projects?
A: Yes. The services that must be provided by all types of Upward Bound
projects are found in section 645.11(a) and the additional services Upward
Bound Math and Science projects must provide are found in section 645.13(a)
of the program regulations. A copy of the regulations is in the application
package.
Q9: I currently have a regional Upward Bound Math and Science project that
serves students attending schools in three states. In the new proposal I wish
to reduce my target area to serve students attending schools in one of the
three states. Since I will no longer be serving all the same target areas and
schools will my new proposal qualify for prior experience points?
A: Yes. The regulations provide that an applicant for a new grant that proposes
to continue to serve substantially the same target population or schools
qualify for prior experience points. In the example described, 100 percent of
the proposed target population and schools are currently served by the
existing grant. Therefore, the new application will have substantially the same
target population and schools.
Q10: The absolute priority for the regular Upward Bound program allows projects to
select new students from the 10th grade, BUT the 30 percent with a high
academic risk for failure MUST be selected from students who have not
completed the 9th grade. My Upward Bound project only serves target high
schools that begin with the 10th grade. Will my project be exempt from the
requirement to select students who have not completed the 9th grade?
A: No. Your application must include at least one target school from which you
will select eligible students that have not completed the 9th grade, otherwise
the application will be determined to be ineligible and not included in the
competition.
Q11: The middle schools in my target area include the 9th grade. High schools
include the 10th through 12 grades. The middle schools serve as “feeder
schools” and students from the middle schools may enroll in any of 100 or
more high schools. In selecting the 30 percent of students that have not
completed the 9th grade who have a high academic risk for failure, we must
select from the middle schools. We do not know which of 100 or more high
schools the students will attend. Must we include all high schools as target
schools?
A: No. The target schools are the schools for which a UB project proposes to
focus its project services including the recruitment of eligible students.
Simply because a student selected to participate in an Upward Bound project
subsequently attends a different school than the school the student attended
at the time of selection does not make the new school a target school. The
target schools are the schools for which the applicant will address the “need
for the project” selection criteria.
Q12: Further clarification is needed on Standardized Program Objective (Academic
Improvement). Is the intent that we measure all students who ever
participated in Upward Bound each year and not just seniors expected to
graduate that particular year?
A: The standardized objective reads,
"(a) Academic Improvement on Standardized Test:
_____ percent of all UB participants, who at the time of entrance into the
project had an expected high school graduation date during the school
year, will have achieved at the proficient level during high school on
state assessments in reading/language arts and math."
ALL students have an expected high school graduation year at the time they
are admitted into an Upward Bound project. This objective measures this
entire cohort of students with the same expected graduation year, regardless
of whether they enter any subsequent year of school or whether they enter
any subsequent year of UB. What this objective does is-- Measures the results
of the UB students' performance on the standardized tests by the time they
reach, or would have reached, their senior year. The tests are given no later
than the 11th grade. For example, a student in the 9th grade that enters the
UB project in 2007 (at the time of entrance into the project) would have "an
expected high school graduation date during the school year (2010).
Likewise, a student in the 10th grade that enters the UB project in 2007 (at
the time of entrance into the project) would have" an expected high school
graduation date during the school year (2009). The objective does not
measure only UB participants who are seniors, it measures students who
participated in the UB project at any time who are or (if they had stayed in
school) would have been seniors in the relevant year for which the annual
performance report is being submitted.
Q13: The Standardized Objective (a)..." will have achieved at the proficient level
during high school on state assessments in reading/language arts and math.
This objective asks for only one percentage at the beginning of the objective
but asks us to report proficiency levels on assessments in reading/language
arts AND math. Our state reports a percentage in both math and reading.
Which one should we choose? Should we choose an average of the two? Do
we report both?
A: Both, but it is only those participants who will achieve at the proficient level
on both tests. So there is only one percentage that will be included in the
objective. The objective is measuring the percent of UB students that achieve
at the proficient level on both tests by the time they reach, or would have
reached, their senior year. For example, if a student achieves at the
proficient level in reading/language arts, but not math, that student would not
have achieved the requirement of this objective.
Q14: In my districts, they are only giving the state standardized tests in
reading/language arts and math required for graduation in the 10th and 11th
grade. Would this mean that all 30 percent of the new 9th grade students
must have below a 2.5 GPA? Is it possible to look at the 7th grade test
scores and project how a student may do? It was suggested to me that we
could select any otherwise eligible 9th grade student because they have not
passed the tests since they have not taken the tests yet.
A: Every State is required to give the tests in reading/language arts and math in
the 8th grade. The 8th grade tests are two of the four options you may use
to identify students who have a high risk of academic failure. The students’
achievement on the 10th/11th grade tests in reading/language arts and math
are used to determine the extent to which the project achieved the
standardized objective --Academic Improvement on Standardized Test.
Q15: The Veterans Upward Bound (VUB) Objective (d) Postsecondary Persistence
reads:
____ percent of participants who enroll in postsecondary education during
each budget period will be enrolled for the fall term of the second academic
year.
Does the postsecondary persistence objective measure all VUB students who
enroll in a program of postsecondary education during each budget period or
only those that were scheduled to complete their VUB educational program
during each budget period? For example, how is a VUB student counted that
does not enroll in a program of postsecondary education by the fall term
following the scheduled completion of the VUB educational program but does
enroll by the second fall term and continues enrollment in subsequent
periods?
A: The postsecondary persistence objective is intended to track only those VUB
students who enroll in a program of postsecondary education by the fall term
following their scheduled completion of the VUB educational program. In
other words, the denominator of the postsecondary persistence objective is
the numerator of the postsecondary enrollment objective from the previous
year. The student in the example above would not be counted as achieving
either the postsecondary enrollment objective or the postsecondary
persistence objective but would be reported in the annual performance report.
Q16: The Veterans Upward Bound (VUB) Objective (c) Postsecondary Enrollment
reads:
Percent of participants served during each budget period will enroll in
a program of postsecondary education by the fall term following the
scheduled completion of their prescribed VUB educational program.
By the use of the term “scheduled completion,” does the objective measure
the extent to which VUB participants enroll in programs of postsecondary
education by the fall term, regardless of whether they actually completed the
prescribed VUB educational program at the scheduled completion date?
A: Each VUB participant should have a scheduled completion date established at
the time of entry into the VUB project. However, all VUB participants served
during any given budget period will not necessarily be scheduled to complete
the VUB educational program during the same budget period. The objective
measures only those VUB participants who were “scheduled” to complete the
VUB program during the budget period (regardless of whether they actually
completed the VUB program during the budget period) who enroll in a
program of postsecondary education by the fall term following the scheduled
completion date.