2013.2.0

4/6/2013

Change to Employment Cohorts

The NRS has clarified how students are placed in an employment cohort when the students leave the program. This clarification necessitated a change in LACES.

Clarification from the NRS: The student's employment status at entry determines the cohort at exit.

1. If a student continues into the next program year, the student’s initial employment status is not updated.

2. If the student re-enrolls in a later program year, it is counted as a new enrollment. The student’s employment status on the re-entry date would determine the follow-up cohort at exit.

A change has been made in LACES that places students in an employment cohort based on their employment status at entry and whether or not the student is continuous or re-entering.

Continuing Students

A student is ‘continuous’ if the student continues from one FY to the next with no 90-day gap in hours that cross fiscal years. For continuous students, program entry is the student intake date. When a 'continuous' student leaves the program, the student will be placed in an employment cohort according to their employment status at intake. The student may have additional work history records, but the employment status at the time of intake will determine the employment cohort.

Example 1:

  • A student entered the program with an intake date of 9/14/2011.
  • The student's employment status at the time of intake was employed.
  • The student continues into the 12/13 fiscal year with no 90 day gap in hours.
  • The student will be placed in the Retained Employment cohort upon leaving if all NRS requirements to be fundable have been met.

Example 2:

  • A student entered the program with an intake date of 9/14/2011.
  • The student's employment status at the time of intake was employed.
  • The student continues into the 12/13 fiscal year with no 90 day gap in hours.
  • An unemployed work history record was entered on 11/1/2012.
  • The student will be placed in the Retained Employment cohort upon leaving if all NRS requirements to be fundable have been met because the student initially entered the program employed.

Re-entering Students

Students who have a 90- (or more) day gap in hours that crosses the FY boundary are considered to be ‘re-entered.’ The hours date in the FY in which the student returns will be the ‘re-entry date.’ When a 're-entering' student leaves the program, the most recent work history record from the re-entry date will determine the employment cohort.

Example 1:

  • A student entered the program with an intake date of 7/1/2011.
  • The student's employment status at the time of intake was unemployed.
  • The student's last hours in the 11/12 FY were on 2/1/2012.
  • The student returned in the 12/13 FY.
  • An employed work history record was entered on 8/10/2012.
  • The student's first hours date in the 12/13 FY is 9/1/2012. The student did not get additional hours and is left.
  • The student will be placed in the Retain Employment cohort upon leaving if all NRS requirements to be fundable have been met because the most recent work history record from the hours date is the employed record on 8/10/2012.

Example 2:

  • A student entered the program with an intake date of 8/20/2009.
  • The student's employment status at the time of intake was employed.
  • The student had hours in the 09/10 FY on 3/31/2010.
  • The student returned at the end of the 11/12 FY, and an unemployed work history record was entered on 6/30/2012.
  • The student's first hours date in the 12/13 FY is 9/25/2012. The student did not get additional hours and is left.
  • The student will be placed in the Entered Employment cohort upon leaving if all NRS requirements to be fundable have been met because the most recent work history record from the hours date is the unemployed record on 6/30/2012.

Students Placed in a Different Cohort After the Change

There may be a change in your agency numbers reported on Table 5 after the cohort update takes place. This is because students who were placed in the Entered Employment or Retained Employment cohort upon leaving prior to the change may now be placed in a different employment cohort, or no cohort at all, depending on whether the student is continuous or re-entered.

Example 1:

  • A student entered the program with an intake date of 9/16/2011.
  • The student's employment status at the time of intake was unemployed.
  • The student's last hours date was 12/12/2011.
  • The student returned in the 12/13 FY.
  • An employed work history record was entered on 7/9/2012.
  • The student's first hours date in the 12/13 FY is 8/16/2012. The student did not get additional hours and is left.
  • Prior to the change, this student would have been placed in the Entered Employment cohort because the student's unemployed status carried over to the first day of the 12/13 FY.
  • After the change, this student will be placed in the Retained Employment cohort.

Example 2:

  • A student entered the program with an intake date of 10/1/2009.
  • The student's employment status at the time of intake was Not Looking for Work.
  • The student had continuous hours from intake into the 12/13 FY with no 90-day gaps.
  • An unemployed work history record was entered on 7/1/2012.
  • The student's first hours were on 8/16/2012. The student did not get additional hours and is left.
  • Prior to the change, this student would have been placed in the Entered Employment cohort.
  • After the change, this student will NOT be placed in an employment cohort. The student was continuous and the initial employment status was Not Looking for Work, which is not reportable on Table 5.

Important notes:

  • FY summary updates are scheduled to run on a monthly basis for each ABE state. Once the FY summaries are updated, you may see a slight change in numbers on Table 5.
  • This change only affects cohorts. There is no change in employment goals.
  • The Employment Outcome Cohorts for Followup may be run to help locate students who left in the first and second quarters of the 12/13 FY in the Entered Employment cohort who may require followup.

Updated Employment Outcome Cohorts for Followup Search

The Employment Outcome Cohorts for Followup search has been updated. Students who are in an employment cohort were not being removed from the search results after followup had taken place. This has been fixed. Once 'Responded to Survey' is checked in the cohort record to indicate that follow-up has been done, the student is no longer returned in the search.

New All Follow-up Outcomes tab

The new tab 'All Follow-up Outcomes' has been added for all ABE agencies who report to the NRS. This tab allows agencies to see student follow-up measures in one location. The follow-up measures are Entered Employment, Retained Employment, Obtained GED or Secondary School Diploma, and Entered Postsecondary Education or Training. Records at this tab are for display and cannot be opened. Additional fields may be added to the view and exported to Excel.

Records displayed at this tab meet the following criteria:

  • Students who were NRS fundable in the FY in which they left, and reportable in the current reporting fiscal year
  • Students who are 'left'
  • Students who have a valid social security number

Important note: This tab is not available in Independent literacy agencies.

Update to Table 5

Students with an employment cohort marked as Achieved Outcome = Yes were counting on Table 5, column F. This has been changed. Students with an employment cohort that either auto-populated or was manually marked as achieved will not count on Table 5 until 'Responded to Survey' has been checked to indicate that follow-up has taken place. The update only affects cohorts.

Important note: FY summaries will need to be updated if the cohort record is edited.

Important note: FY summaries are only available in state ABE and state literacy.

Assessment Update

Assessments have been updated so the lowest pretest scaled score in the lowest EFL populates the subject area when multiple pretest assessments are taken on the same date.

Example 1:

The following TABE pretest scores are entered on the same date. Previously, because Reading and Language populated the same EFL of Beginning ABE, which is lower than the EFL populated by the math scaled score, LACES would automatically default the subject area to Reading. Now the subject area will default to Language since the Language subtest has a lower scaled score than Reading.

Pretest TABE scaled scores

Example 2:

The following CASAS pretest scores are entered on the same date. The subject area will default to the lowest scaled score in the lowest EFL. In this example, the subject area will default to Reading.

All NRS approved assessments are affected by this change.

Important notes:

  • Existing subject areas will not be changed for students with assessments entered prior to 4/6/2013.
  • New assessments with a creation date on or after 4/6/2013 will follow the new rule. For example, the first assessment entered for a student on 4/10/2013 will display the creation date of 4/10/2013 even though the assessment may be back-dated to 2/15/2013. This assessment will follow the new rule since the creation of the assessment record occurred after the change went into effect.

Calculated Fields in Pair Record Updated

The following pair fields have been updated to accurately calculate when added to a pair view.

Instructional Hours - calculates the total number of pair instruction hours

Student Total Hours in Pair - calculates the total number of student pair hours, both instruction and non-instruction

Tutor Total Hours in Pair - calculates the total number of tutor pair hours, both instruction and non-instruction.

Important note: Some state ABE agencies do not have access to the pair tab.

Fields Added to All Enrollments and All Group Enrollments Tabs

The following fields have been added to the records at the All Enrollments and All Group Enrollments tabs. These fields may also be added to a view and searched using General Search.

  • SSN
  • Student Unique Number
  • Keyword (student)
  • Keyword2 (student)
  • Custom String 1
  • Custom String 2
  • Custom String 3
  • Instructional Hours
  • Current FY Instruct hours
  • Lifetime Hours
  • Ethnicity
  • Gender
  • Birthdate

Fields Added to All Assessments Tab

The following fields have been added to the records at the All Assessments tab. The fields may also be added to a view and searched using General Search.

  • Student Unique Number
  • Program
  • Date Assessed
  • Keyword (student)
  • Keyword2 (student)
  • Custom String 1
  • Custom String 2
  • Custom String 3
  • Ethnicity
  • Gender
  • Date Assessed

Updated Student Reports

The Student: Instructional Hours report has been updated to display the student and person ID, and has been made available to all agencies. This report displays student instructional hours only.

The Student: All Hours with Hours Type between Date Range has been added. This report displays all student hours types within a date range.

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Last Update

4/6/2013