Table 5 Follow-Up

Understanding how the data populates Table 5, when to do follow-up, and where to enter the data is extremely important. The new version of Table 5 is no longer populated using goals or cohorts, but instead generates based on evidence in a student’s record that meets the requirements set by OCTAE for inclusion in that outcome.  The following outcomes are now tracked:

•  Employment Second Quarter after exit

• Employment Fourth Quarter after exit

• Median Earnings Second Quarter after exit

•  Attained a Secondary School Diploma/Recognized Equivalent and Enrolled in Postsecondary Education or Training within one year of exit

• Attained a Secondary School Diploma/Recognized Equivalent and Employed within one year of exit

• Attained a Postsecondary Credential while enrolled or within one year of exit

• (Beginning FY 18/19) Attained any credential (this outcome is not yet added, OCTAE announced its inclusion in late 2018 so LiteracyPro will be adding this to the table ASAP.)

For ALL of these outcomes, students must be NRS participants, as defined by the following:

• 12+ instructional hours within a period of participation within the fiscal year

•  All required NRS demographic information: 

  • Age

  • Gender

  • Ethnicity

  • Race

  • Highest Level of Education Completed at Entry

  • Highest Level of Education Completed at Entry Location

  • Employment Status       

Additionally, students do not populate Table 5 until they are officially exited from the program. Table 5 has a delay in the reporting period time, and the majority of the data displayed will be for students who were NRS participants in the prior fiscal year. Students only populate Table 5 if they were NRS participants and had an exit in the reportable time frame, as defined by having no attendance hours for 90 or more days and no scheduled services.

If your program shuts down for the summer and will be closed for 90 or more days, you should enroll your students into classes for the new fiscal year prior to the FY end, either by duplicating existing classes or creating new classes and pre-enrolling the students who will return in the new fiscal year. By doing this, you will show a scheduled service for the student and they will not be considered “exited” based on the 90 days without hours since they will show a scheduled service.

Correctional students and institutionalized students do not populate Table 5, but will instead populate Table 10, which is a similar outcomes table only populated by NRS participants in correctional or institutional programs.

How LACES makes the determination for which students populate Column B (Number of Participants who Exited {with evidence indicating inclusion in this outcome}) and how you can enter the follow-up information to show the outcome has been met so that they populate Column C (Number of Participants who Exited Achieving Outcome or Median Earnings Value) for the 18/19 Table 5 will be discussed for each individual row of data below:

Employment Second Quarter after Exit:

• Column B (Number of Participants who Exited {with evidence indicating inclusion in this outcome}) will populate with all non-correctional/institutional NRS participants who exited between 7-1-17 to 6-30-18, regardless of Employment Status.

• Column C (Number of Participants who Exited Achieving Outcome or Median Earnings Value) will populate with students from Column B who have evidence of employment indicated in their record, either through data match import from the state, or manual follow-up by the local program. This data must have accurate date information reflecting the correct follow-up quarter aligning with the student exit.

To conduct follow-up, you can use several different methods available in LACES. Follow-up should be done at least quarterly. The Dashboard Student Alerts display students who exited two quarters ago, but the alert will update with a new list of students at the start of each new quarter on 7-1, 10-1, 1-1, and 4-1. Students will remain on the Alert as requiring survey until they show a positive outcome (have an Employed record with a Start Date in the correct quarter of follow-up) or until the new quarter begins.

The Dashboard contains a Widget called Student Alerts, which you can add to your Dashboard by clicking on the Widget Library and clicking on the Student Alerts. The Student Alerts widget has two rows relevant to second quarter employment follow-up:

•  Students requiring survey for 2nd quarter employment with median earnings- ALL: this will display all NRS participant students who exited two quarters ago based on the current quarter. This number will change at the beginning of each new quarter. If your state office does not conduct data matching for employment, you should use this option.

• Students requiring survey for 2nd quarter employment with median earnings- No SSN: this will display NRS participant students with no social security number entered in the Demographics tab>Identification panel who exited two quarters ago based on the current quarter. This number will change at the beginning of each new quarter. If your state office conducts data matching for employment, you can use this option to see the list of students who cannot be data matched and should therefore have a manual follow-up done.

• These options are based on current quarters, meaning that the quarter you are in is the time in which the second quarter follow-up should be conducted because the student exited two quarters ago. The data being collected and entered based on these widgets will not populate the current FY Table 5 due to the lag in reporting time, but will populate the next year’s Table 5.

Go to the Student grid and click the blue Searches link on the left-hand side of the screen. Click the triangle to the left of the Outcomes header to expand the outcomes searches, and click the green Replace button for Employment Outcomes for Follow-up.

These searches allow you to view the students who exited in specific quarters. It additionally displays the reporting period for which the data will be reported so you can determine if it would affect the current year’s Table 5, or next year’s Table 5. Students will only display if they were NRS participants with an exit (as defined by 90 or more days without hours or scheduled services) in the indicated quarter and do not already show a met outcome for employment within the correct follow-up quarter.

Click the number for the quarter in you wish to perform follow-up. Use the chart below to see the corresponding exit quarter/follow-up quarter. In the Work History record, enter a date within the correct follow-up period as the Start Date.

 You can also open the Table 5 search.  Go to the Student grid and click the blue Searches link on the left-hand side of the screen. Click the triangle to the left of the NRS searches. Click the green Replace button to the right of the Table 5 option.

Select the current FY reporting system year. Once the table loads, click the number in the cell for Employment Second Quarter after exit, Column B. This is all non-correctional/institutional NRS participants who exited in the reportable time frame. Some of these may already have their follow-up completed. To remove those, run a very similar search. Go to Searches>NRS>Table 5 but this time click the green Add button to the right of the Table 5 option. This time, click the number in the cell for Employment Second Quarter after exit, Column C. This is all non-correctional/institutional NRS participants who exited in the reportable time frame and already have a follow-up record entered.

Now click the “And” button between the two green Table 5 tiles to change it to “And Not.” This is all non-correctional/institutional NRS participants who exited in the reportable time frame and do not yet have a follow-up record entered. You can conduct follow-up based on their Left Date and enter the data for follow-up.

If desired, use Custom Views to add a Contact Info view with the student’s contact information, or create a custom view that has their contact information plus fields that could assist you in conducting effective employment follow-up. This might include fields such as

• Family Income Range- if you collect income at the time of entry, it is easier to follow-up after exit

• Employment Status

• Left Date

•  Additional contact information fields

Conduct the follow-up and add the data to the student record. Employment follow-up is added in the History tab>Work History panel. Click Add New Record, as a new record must be added for the 2nd quarter follow-up and the 4th quarter follow-up. Do not just edit the existing record; add a new record, even if the employment status is the same as the entry record.

When you click Add New Record, a pop-up window will appear, allowing you to enter the follow-up employment information.

You must enter the following fields for the data to correctly populate Table 5 for 2nd quarter employment follow-up:

• Start Date

• Employment Status

• Earnings

• Earnings Period

The Start Date should not be the date they actually started that employment, but should instead be a date that is within the correct follow-up period (two quarters after exit). Typically, this is the contact date when you obtained the information, although if you are doing retroactive data entry, the Start Date should be a date within the correct follow-up quarter.

EX: If a student exited 6-17-18, the follow-up should be done sometime between 10-1-18 and 12-31-18, as that quarter would be two quarters after the student’s exit date. Use the provided chart to determine the appropriate quarter for follow-up and select any date within the follow-up quarter range as the Start Date.

Enter the Employment Status, even if it is the same, then enter the Earnings and Earning Period, which will then automatically convert the earnings into Quarterly Earnings for Table 5 population. You must enter a non-zero amount in Earnings if the student is employed; a $0 earnings record will not count as an obtained employment outcome.

Attempt to learn earnings through student report, or through estimated knowledge of that occupation, and feel free to use ranges if the student will not give an exact earnings amount. Although we want the information to be as accurate as possible, always be sure to put something other than $0 even if you are not 100% of their exact earnings. The database is calculating median quarterly wages, not exact or average earnings.

You can enter additional information regarding the employment, as desired or based on state policy.

To verify that the employment follow-up information has correctly populated for inclusion on Table 5, go to the student’s Outcome tab>PoP Summary>Measurable Outcomes panel. View the Employed 2nd Quarter (Outcome Measure) and 2nd Quarter Earnings (Outcome Measure) columns to verify that the follow-up information has correctly populated. Remember that the information will not populate Table 5 until a new FY Summary is run for the student, and the data entered may not affect the current FY Table 5, depending on the time frame for which you are conducting follow-up.

Employment Fourth Quarter after Exit:

In 2018/2019, Column B (Number of Participants who Exited {with evidence indicating inclusion in this outcome}) will populate with all non-correctional/institutional NRS participants who exited the program between 1-1-17 to 12-31-17, regardless of Employment Status.

All other information for 4th quarter follow-up would be the same as 2nd quarter follow-up, with the following exceptions:

• You do not need to collect median earnings in the 4th quarter follow-up

•  Use the 4th quarter follow-up rows instead of the 2nd quarter rows

• The provided follow-up quarter chart contains the corresponding follow-up quarter for both 2nd and 4th quarter follow-up

Follow-up should be done at least quarterly. The Dashboard Student Alerts display students who exited four quarters ago, but the alert will update with a new list of students at the start of each new quarter on 7-1, 10-1, 1-1, and 4-1. Students will remain on the Alert as requiring survey until they show a positive outcome (have an Employed record with a Start Date in the correct quarter of follow-up) or until the new quarter begins.

Median Earnings 2nd Quarter After exit

For this row, Column B will be automatically populated based on the participants who populate the Employed 2nd Quarter after Exit row and have a non-zero quarterly earnings record entered. Column C will display the median earnings for those in Column B. The Percent Achieving Outcome column will always be blank, as this measures the median earnings for the participants populating this section rather than being a percentage-based number.

Table 5 is Period of Participation based and students required 2nd and 4th quarter follow-up for employment outcomes for EACH period of participation.

Attained a Secondary School Diploma/Recognized Equivalent and Enrolled in Postsecondary Education or Training within one year of exit

This outcome is not tracking attainment of a secondary school diploma or recognized equivalent by itself but will count the combined outcome when accompanied by enrollment in postsecondary education or training (or employment, discussed below).

•  For the 2018/2019 FY, Column B (Number of Participants who Exited {with evidence indicating inclusion in this outcome}) will populate with all non-correctional/institutional NRS participants who:

• Exited the program between 1-1-17 to 12-31-17 -and-

• Did not already have a secondary school diploma or recognized equivalent at the time of entry into the program, based on the Highest Education Level Completed at Entry field   

-and-

• Were at a 9th grade level equivalent or higher, as indicated by assessment or by receiving instruction at 9th grade level or higher. This would be indicated one of the following ways:

• Assessment Educational Functioning Level in any subject area in which they have a valid assessment within the period of participation/fiscal year is ABE L5 or ABE L6 -or-

• Enrollment in a class for which the checkbox indicator of “9th grade level or higher” is checked/displays True or Yes.

To conduct follow-up for this educational outcome, you can use several different methods available in LACES. Follow-up is only required annually, but you can conduct surveys as often as you feel is appropriate.

The Dashboard contains a Widget called Student Alerts, which you can add to your Dashboard by clicking on the Widget Library and clicking on the Student Alerts. The Student Alerts widget has several rows relevant to the combined Attained a Secondary School Diploma/Recognized Equivalent and Enrolled in Postsecondary Education or Training within one year of exit -or- Employed within one year of exits rows.

You can also open the Table 5 search.  Go to the Student grid and click the blue Searches link on the left-hand side of the screen. Click the triangle to the left of the NRS searches. Click the green Replace button to the right of the Table 5 option.

Select the current FY reporting system year. Once the table loads, click the number in the cell for Attained a Secondary School Diploma/Recognized Equivalent and Enrolled in Postsecondary Education or Training within one year of exit, Column B. This is all non-correctional/institutional NRS participants who exited in the reportable time frame. Some of these may already have their follow-up completed. To remove those, run a very similar search. Go to Searches>NRS>Table 5 but this time click the green Add button to the right of the Table 5 option. This time, click the number in the cell for Attained a Secondary School Diploma/Recognized Equivalent and Enrolled in Postsecondary Education or Training within one year of exit, Column C. This is all non-correctional/institutional NRS participants who exited in the reportable time frame and already have a follow-up record entered.

Now click the “And” button between the two green Table 5 tiles to change it to “And Not.” This is all non-correctional/institutional NRS participants who exited in the reportable time frame and do not yet have a follow-up record entered. You can conduct follow-up and enter the information for students who have attained this outcome. If the student has not attained the outcome, you do not need to enter anything, as there is no longer a requirement to meet a percentage of survey results.

Use Custom Views to add a Contact Info view with the student’s contact information and conduct the follow-up and add the data to the student record.

Educational outcome data for this outcome is added as a two-step process.

First, the student must show evidence of attainment of the secondary school diploma/recognized equivalent. This is evidenced when the state does the data match or through HSE integration and does not get manually entered at the program level.

With the attainment of the secondary school diploma/recognized equivalent entered, you can then proceed to enter the additional information for the enrollment in post-secondary education or training.

• Go to the student’s Education tab

• Click the Postsecondary Education or Training panel

• Click +Add New Record

• In the provided pop-up window, enter at least the four required fields (you may fill out additional fields as desired or based on state policy, but you must have these four):

• Type

• Enroll Date- the Enroll Date must be after the exit date from the adult education program

Attained a Secondary School Diploma/Recognized Equivalent and Employed within one year of exit

This outcome has all the same requirements as Attained a Secondary School Diploma/Recognized Equivalent and Enrolled in PS Education/Training within one year of exit.

• For the 2018/2019 FY, Column B (Number of Participants who Exited {with evidence indicating inclusion in this outcome}) will populate with all non-correctional/institutional NRS participants who:

• Exited the program between 1-1-17 to 12-31-17 -and-

• Did not already have a secondary school diploma or recognized equivalent at the time of entry into the program, based on the Highest Education Level Completed at Entry field   

-and-

• Were at a 9th grade level equivalent or higher, as indicated by assessment or by receiving instruction at 9th grade level or higher. This would be indicated one of the following ways:

• Assessment Educational Functioning Level in any subject area in which they have a valid assessment within the period of participation/fiscal year is ABE L5 or ABE L6 -or-

• Enrollment in a class for which the checkbox indicator of “9th grade level or higher” is checked/displays True or Yes.

Educational outcome confirmation data for this outcome is added as a two-step process.

First, the student must show evidence of attainment of the secondary school diploma/recognized equivalent. This is evidenced when the state does the data match or through HSE integration and does not get manually entered at the program level.

With the attainment of the secondary school diploma/recognized equivalent entered, you can then proceed to enter the additional information for the employment, based on the instructions provided above in the section related to employment outcomes. You do not need to survey separately for employment for this outcome if you have already surveyed for the employment in the 2nd or 4th quarter outcomes.

Attained a Postsecondary Credential while enrolled or within one year of exit

•  For the 18/19 FY, Column B (Number of Participants who Exited {with evidence indicating inclusion in this outcome}) will populate with all non-correctional/institutional NRS participants who:

• Exited the program between 1-1-17 to 12-31-17 -and-

• Have a class enrollment with IETP/Credential indicated -or-

• Show evidence of co-enrollment in adult education and postsecondary education programs.

To conduct follow-up for this educational outcome, you can use the same methods described above.

To indicate attainment of a post-secondary credential:

•  Go to the student’s Education tab

• Click the Postsecondary Education or Training panel

• Click +Add New Record

•  In the provided pop-up window, enter at least the six required fields (the same 4 required for indicating enrollment in PS Ed/Training, and 2 additional fields noted below). (You may fill out additional fields as desired or based on state policy, but you must have these six):

• Type

• Enroll Date

• Credential Attained

• Date Earned – must be after the Enroll Date