Instructions for Perkins III Postsecondary Accountability Reporting
 Revised:  September 06, 2007

Index

Introduction
Definitions
Special Populations
Accountability LEA Process Flow
Accountability Navigation
Accountability Submission and Approval
Form description
Error Messages
Important
Career Clusters

Introduction.


The Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act of 1998 requires all recipients of federal funds to provide accountability data to the U.S. Department of Education. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) is the Missouri state agency responsible for collecting and reporting this data. The Act requires LEA's to meet state established performance measures and show improvement in their performance. Levels of performance have been established for the four performance indicators required by the Act. These indicators are:
Core Indicator 1 - Attainment
Core Indicator 2 - Completion
Core Indicator 3 - Placement and Retention
Core Indicator 4 - Participation In and Completion Of Nontraditional


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Definitions:

The following definitions apply to the Perkins III performance measures:

Career Education Participant: A student enrolled in at least one DESE approved occupational Career Education course.

Career Education Concentrator: A Career Education participant who completes a minimum of five hundred (500) clock hours or earns 75% of the total number of credit hours required to complete the degree. For a two year AAS degree program, this may be 45 credit hours (75%) of a 60 credit hour degree program.

Career Education Completer: A Career Education concentrator who receives a certificate of completion or earns a degree in the reporting year.

Reporting Year: The most recent academic year data is available. Placement will be from one year before the most recently completed year.  The current reporting year for Perkins III is July 1, 2006 to June 30, 2007 for all performance indicators with the exception of placement, which will be for students who completed between July 1, 2005 and June 30, 2006.

Tech Prep: A student is considered a Tech Prep student when they initially enroll in a DESE approved Career Education course(s) portion of a program and when they make a commitment to pursue completion of an associate or baccalaureate degree, two-year postsecondary certificate, or two-year plus apprenticeship program in a specific career field. Tech Prep students (Line 20 of each form) are included in the total (Line 1 of each form) for each performance measure. [Note: In order to count a student as Tech Prep at the postsecondary level the student must have completed at least two (2) years of secondary instruction linked to a two-year or four-year postsecondary institution through a nonduplicative sequence of courses in a DESE approved occupational Career Education program.  Institutions should maintain copies of the signed articulation agreement for each student.]
 

NOTE:  Data collection for Tech Prep will be collected and reported by the Tech Prep consortium fiscal agent.


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Special Populations:

Disabled: An individual with a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of such individual; a record of such an impairment; or being regarded as having such an impairment.

Economically Disadvantaged: Families or individuals who are determined to be low-income according to the latest available data from the Department of Commerce. Other indicators include Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF); Food Stamps; Chapter 1, Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA); free or reduced lunch, National School Lunch Act; Pell Grant; or Workforce Development Act (WIA) eligibility.

Displaced Homemaker: An individual who has worked primarily without remuneration to care for a home and family and for that reason has diminished marketable skills; or has been dependent on the income of another family member but is no longer supported by that income, or is a parent whose youngest dependent child will become ineligible to receive assistance under social security; and is unemployed or underemployed and is experiencing difficulty in obtaining or upgrading employment.

Limited English Proficiency: An individual who has limited ability in speaking, reading, writing, or understanding the English language, and whose native language is a language other than English; or who lives in a family or community environment in which a language other than English is the dominant language.

Nontraditional: enrolled and attending a Career Education course/program that appears on the U.S. Department of Education list of Nontraditional programs is considered nontraditional. The list is available here.

Single Parents: An individual who is unmarried or separated from their spouse and is pregnant or has sole or joint custody of a minor child or children.

Students With Other Barriers:  May include individuals who under previous Career Education legislation were considered educationally disadvantaged.  Educationally disadvantaged means an individual who scores at or below the 25th percentile on a standardized achievement or aptitude test, whose secondary grades are below 2.0 on a 4.0 scale (where the grade "A" equals 4.0), or who fails to attain minimum academic competencies.  A student may also be considered educationally (academically) disadvantaged if they have scored the "Below Basic" level on any section of the Missouri Assessment Program.  This definition does not include individuals with learning disabilities.
 

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Perkins III Accountability LEA Process Flow (in steps):

  1. Choose Post-Secondary or Secondary or Tech-Prep from Application Menu
  2. Choose desired cycle from the Accountability section of the Cycle Select Page
  3. Choose Perkins III Accountability section from menu
  4. Enter Data and District Information
  5. Submit report once all data errors have been resolved
  6. Notification of submission


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Accountability Navigation

Each subindicator is located on a separate worksheet. To move from one worksheet to another, click on the pulldown at the top right corner of the page. Select the subindicator you wish to work on. Cycle Select, Approval/Submission and District Information are all accessed using this dropdown.

To reach the Budget Cycles for your district, you must return to the Cycle Select Page using the dropdown.

To reach the accountability report for a Tech Prep Grant, you must return to the Application Menu.

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Accountability Submission and Approval

To submit your data, select "Approval" from the pulldown at the top right corner of the page. This should be the last page you access. You cannot submit if you have not filled out all of the forms, including the District Information Form.
  • The first time each year you go to the Approval, you see an Assurance Page. This assurance certifies you agree to abide by the rules and regulations of the Perkins III Grant. Read and click Institution Agrees.
  • Once you agree, or on any subsequent amendments, you will come to the submit page.
  • Do not submit unless all information as been entered. Once you click on the submit button, you will not be able to make changes in the data.
  • When you push the submit button, a series of cross page data quality edits will be run. If these checks find errors in your data, the data will not be submitted to DESE.
    A list of errors will appear on the submission page.
    You will then need to correct those errors and attempt to submit again.
    If no errors are found, DESE will be notified and the status of your cycle will change. DESE will look over the data and ultimately approve or disapprove.
  • If approved, the district will receive an e-mail with that information.
  • If not approved, the district will receive an e-mail with that information. If data is not approved, you must correct and resubmit the data. Payments for a district will be held until all data for that district is collected.

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    Form Layout for Perkins III Postsecondary Accountability Reporting

    Each form to be completed is very similar in appearance and layout. For example, all the headings along the left-hand side are exactly the same for each worksheet. For each subindicator you are required to disaggregate the data by gender (male or female), race/ethnicity (American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, White, or Unknown/Other), special populations (economically disadvantaged, limited English proficiency, disabled, single parents, displaced homemaker, nontraditional, students with other barriers), and Tech Prep.

    Lines 1, 4 and 12 are self calculating fields. The total gender (Line 1) MUST equal the total race/ethnicity (Line 4). Students may be included in multiple special population categories. Therefore, the total special populations (Line 12) might not be equal to Lines 1 and 4.

    For Perkins accountability performance is measured in terms of a denominator and a numerator. Column A on each reporting form is the denominator. Column B is the numerator. The LEA’s Level of Performance (bottom left) is the percent derived from dividing Column B by Column A. This percent is compared to the State-Adjusted Level of Performance (bottom middle) which is the level the U.S. Department of Education has determined the state must meet. A variance in the level of performance by the LEA and the state-adjusted level (LEA - State Target) is shown at the bottom right. A positive variance between the LEA’s performance level and the state-adjusted performance level indicates the LEA has met or exceeded the standard. A negative variance between the LEAs performance level and the state-adjusted level indicates the LEA has not met the standard. These values are updated when you hit the save button.

    Errors:

    These are all the error messages.  Comments are below.

    Within the Worksheet

    1. Numerator cannot exceed the Denominator - Error
    2. Total # Race does not match Total # Gender - Error
    3. Special Population cannot exceed Total Gender - Error
    4. Tech Prep Total cannot exceed Gender Total - Error
    5. Non-Numeric Data - Error
    6. For 3S1 - Total Placed cannot exceed total Completers. - Error

    Between Pages

    1. Nontraditional Completers were reported on 4p2, but no Nontraditional Participants were reported on 4p1 - Error
    2. Warning No Nontraditional Completers on 4P2 with Participation Reported on 4P1 - Warning
    3. More Concentrators eligible to Complete on 2P1 than Concentrators on 1P2 - Error
    4. Warning, More Concentrators eligible to Complete on 2P1 than Concentrators on 1P1 - Warning
    5. Skill assessments on 1P2 not reported for all students assessed on 1P1.
    6. Total denominator on 1P1 must be less than or equal to the participants on the enroll report - Error
    7. Total denominator on 1P2 must be less than or equal to the participants on the enroll report - Error
    8. Total denominator on 2P1 must be less than or equal to the participants on the enroll report - Error
    9. Total denominator on 3P1 must be less than or equal to the participants on the enroll report - Error
    10. Total denominator on 3P2 must be less than or equal to the participants on the enroll report - Error
    11. Total denominator on 4P1 must be less than or equal to the participants on the enroll report - Error
    12. Total denominator on 4P2 must be less than or equal to the participants on the enroll report - Error
    13. You must have Enrollment data entered to submit. - Error
    14. Please add a comment about your Amendment - Error
    15. There is no data entered. You must have data to submit. - Error

    Comments on Errors

    This is what the error messages are looking for and why. Individual error messages include the relevant pages or highlight the relevant field in yellow.

    Within each worksheet.

    1. Numerator Greater than Denominator
      The numerator is all the students who achieved the standard. The denominator is everyone. All students reported in the Numerator should be part of the Denominator for that row.
    2. Total Race does not equal Total Gender
      All students should be reported as exactly one race and one sex.
    3. Number Entered Greater than Total Gender
      All students reported in any field should be part of the Total Students for that column. The computer won't accept more students in a Special Population or TechPrep than are reported for that column.

    Between worksheets.

    When you attempt to submit, the worksheets will be compared against each other.
    1. No Enrollment Reported
      Please don't forget the enrollment report.
    2. Total denominator is greater than the total participation on the enrollment report.
      Report all participants on the enrollment report. Anyone who gets any Career Education credit is a participant, even half a credit. If they are a concentrator they are also a participant.
    3. More Academic Assessments than Skill Assessments
      You should have skill assessments for every concentrator in each program that they enrolled in during the reporting year.  Students should be assessed relative to the training they have received.

    4. More Concentrators Eligible to Complete than Concentrators.
      All Concentrators should report Academic Assessments on 1P1. Concentrators eligible to complete are included in that group.
    5. More Nontraditional Completers than Participants Reported 
      Anyone who completed should also have participated. All Nontraditional Participants should be counted on 4P1 not just Concentrators. You report more Completers than Participants in at least one category. i.e. The Numerator of 4P2 is greater than that of 4P1.

    Important:

    Some errors block saving of the data. If there is a box with errors at the top of the form, the data was not saved. You must correct all errors before it can save the data. Errors are highlighted in yellow. Mismatched totals will highlight the total rows.

    To verify that data was saved correctly. Leave the Web Application and return.

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    Core Indicator 1 - Attainment

    Subindicator 1P1 - Postsecondary Academic Attainment


    Subindicator 1P1 measures the percent of postsecondary concentrators who score at or above the 50th percentile on a nationally normed or averaged academic assessment
    This percentile was selected in order to align DESE reporting requirements with the Coordinating Board for Higher Education (CBHE) reporting requirements of community colleges.

    Sub Indicator 1P2 - Postsecondary Vocational & Technical Skills Attainment

    Subindicator 1P2 measures the percent of postsecondary concentrators who master at least 80% of the identified essential skills for all DESE approved occupational Career Education courses/programs offered by the LEA.

    Note: GPA will no longer be accepted as a measure of skill mastery.

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    Core Indicator 2 - Completion

    Sub Indicator 2S1 - Postsecondary Completion

    Subindicator 2P1 measures the percent of postsecondary concentrators who actually complete their course of study and earn a certificate or degree. Only concentrators who are eligible to complete their Career Education program during the reporting year should be included in the calculation.
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    Core Indicator 3 - Placement and Retention

    Sub Indicator 3P1 - Postsecondary Placement

    Subindicator 3P1 measures the percent of postsecondary completers (use Perkins completer definition) who were placed in employment, military or continuing education. This subindicator includes both related and non-related placement categories.  Students may only be reported in one of the placement categories; not multiple categories.
    LEAs should use the most recent graduates for which placement data has been reported to DESE. Of that population, LEAs should identify those students who meet the Perkins completer definition to determine whether or not they are to be included in this subindicator.

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    Sub Indicator 3P2 - Postsecondary Retention

    Note: This data is obtained through administrative record exchange, therefore the LEAs are not required to submit additional data for this subindicator.

    Subindicator 3P2 measures the percent of students who were placed in employment and one year later were found to still be employed based upon Unemployment Insurance records. The population of Career Education completers is derived from the individual Career Education follow-up. Those records with a valid Social Security Number (SSN) were kept for matching purposes. Summary earnings records from 4th quarter in the previous two years from unemployment insurance systems of insurance systems of Missouri and Kansas provide data on employment status. The University of MO-Columbia Economics Department compiles the summary earnings records from files submitted by the states' labor departments. SSNs from the Career Education follow-up file are matched to the first 4th quarter earnings records. When a SSN from the Career Education file is Career Education follow-up file is matched in the earnings file, that record is counted as an employed completer. Those SSNs are then considered placed in employment and are matched against the second 4th quarter earnings records. A SSN from the Career Education follow-up file that is found in both the years 4th quarter earnings files is counted as a retained completer for this subindicator.

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    Core Indicator 4 - Participation In and Completion Of Nontraditional

    Sub Indicator 4P1 - Participation in Postsecondary Nontraditional Programs

    Subindicator 4P1 measures the participation (enrollment) of underrepresented genders in postsecondary nontraditional programs as identified by the U.S. Department of Education. This subindicator looks at all postsecondary students who were enrolled in nontraditional programs during the most recently completed school year. It does not require students to meet the concentrator definition in order to be counted. Nontraditional programs are identified as female nontraditional and male nontraditional. For example, Welding appears on the list as a female nontraditional program. Therefore, all students enrolled in Welding are considered nontraditional and the female students are the underrepresented gender.

    The denominator includes students of both genders. The numerator is only the underrepresented gender.

    Note: The list of programs that are identified by the U.S. Department of Education as nontraditional are available here. Only programs that appear on this list should be considered nontraditional.

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    Sub Indicator 4P2 - Completion of Postsecondary Nontraditional Programs

    Subindicator 4P2 measures the completion of underrepresented genders in postsecondary nontraditional programs as identified by the U.S. Department of Education. This subindicator looks at all postsecondary students who completed their nontraditional program during the most recently completed school year. It does not require students to meet the concentrator definition in order to be counted. Nontraditional programs are identified as female nontraditional and male nontraditional. For example, Practical Nursing appears on the list as a male nontraditional program. Therefore, all students enrolled in Practical Nursing are considered nontraditional and the male students would be considered the underrepresented gender.

    The denominator includes students of both genders. The numerator is only the underrepresented gender.

    The denominator includes students of both genders. The numerator is only the underrepresented gender.

    Note: The list of programs that are identified by the U.S. Department of Education as nontraditional are available here. Only programs that appear on this list should be considered nontraditional.


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    Enrollment - Participation in Occupational Programs

    Report unduplicated enrollment of all students taking at least one Occupational Career Education Course during the reporting year. Disaggregate the students by Career Cluster (see below). If a student is enrolled in courses within more than one cluster, report them only in their primary field of study. Only report participation in Occupational courses.

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    Career Clusters

    A crosswalk of CoreDate Courses to Career Clusters is available here. Back to index.