Yes, for WIOA students, data is collected through TOPSPro. If your school has AEP students not tracked in TOPSPro, you would have to report them separately through the AEP data system.

It is our understanding that some vendors have created reports that may be used to populate the AEP data tables. You will want to confirm with your specific vendor what they may or may not provide to support reporting to the AEP Office.

In your WIOA data, it will show two level completions for a WIOA student. For a non-WIOA student, you would only use the AEP data system and would only see the one course completion. WIOA data is uploaded into AEP, so all students will be counted, but the students’ WIOA status will dictate how their completion is counted.

Yes, the TE release generates both reports for reviewing and cleaning data, as well as exports for submission to the AEP Office.

Yes – if a non-credit program that falls under one of the AEP program areas is collecting apportionment, and is supported by AEP funds, those students must be entered into TOPSPro Enterprise. If the program is ABE, ASE or ESL, with 12 hours or more of instruction, than those students must be assessed by a federally approved assessment tool (see pre/post testing guidance).

Each consortium member must obtain a unique Agency ID, and report eligible students in TOPS Enterprise – but if an agency has another member do the actual data input at an alternative physical location, that is fine.

For 16/17 follow up measures, please self-report AEP student outcomes via the update form in TOPSPro Enterprise (see the list below). If a student has a social security number, it can be imported with demographics, or manually entered in TE in the SSN field, along with other student demographics.

However, this is not a mandatory requirement, but it will assist the State in its effort to do state level data matching for employment, wage, and postsecondary information.

The regional training will cover the details on how to self-report student outcomes:
Completion of high school diplomas or their recognized equivalents;
Completion of postsecondary certificates, degrees, or training programs:
Placement into jobs; and
Improved wages
Transition to Post-Secondary.

Please see the data dictionary.

There is a Provider Use field in TOPSPro Enterprise that can be used for this purpose. This field can be expanded, if needed.

Use the update form in TOPSPro Enterprise to report student outcome data pertaining to high school diplomas.

Yes – use the TOPSPro Enterprise update form to record any student completed industry certification. TE will also be collecting the type of certification received.

As stated in the response above, please self-report AEP student outcomes via the update form in TOPSPro Enterprise. If a student has a social security number, it can be imported with demographics, or manually entered in TE in the SSN field along with other student demographics.

However, this is not a mandatory requirement, but it will assist the State in its effort to do state level data matching for employment, wage, and postsecondary information. For self-reported student follow up data, there will be no backup data required.

Correct. No more excel spreadsheets for student data reporting.

One license per district. Please contact CASAS for their pricing schedule for your consortium. CASAS will develop and send a customized spreadsheet with more specific information about TE pricing and ordering, and schedule a one on one phone appointment to review.

For state level AEP reporting, TOPSPro Enterprise will meet all requirements.

TOPS Enterprise is an online application, so agencies do not need to submit or upload data for submission each quarter… the data is received automatically.

Agencies can mark “Transition Services, Counseling Services, or Supportive Services” - using the Update form (field #8), or by entering it in directly into the TE software.

Please e-mail aebg@casas.org.

Yes. Details depend on whether your consortium decides to do eTesting, pencil/paper testing, or a combination of both. This issue will be addressed when you set up the phone appointments with CASAS.

The State AEP Office allocated Data and Accountability funding for meeting these requirements to format data systems to connect with TOPSPro, or to purchase TOPSPro.

TOPSPro has fields that will be able to capture services on the update record. Please work with CASAS for technical guidance on capturing this data. A data dictionary has been posted on our AEP website.

Please collect and report data described in the data dictionary.

Yes, those should be included if you set up the courses to achieve the Adult Secondary certification - HSD, Hset, or GED.

Yes, 16/17 student data is to be entered into TE as the data is collected. The student data deadlines for 16/17 are as follows: 3rd Quarter due 4/30/17, and 4th Quarter due 8/1/17.

By August 1, 2017 (4th Quarter).

A calendar of submission due dates has been posted with more details. The first required AEP submission is the 3rd Quarter Report and is due 4/30/17. The 4th Quarter is due 8/1/17. TOPSPro Enterprise will be the data collection system AEP will be using for 16/17 student data collection.

For WIOA II eligibility, all students must have at least 12 or more hours of instruction, so with the alignment of AEP to WIOA II, AEP is maintaining the same requirement.

Here is the definition from the NRS Guidelines:
Hours of instruction or instructional activity the learner receives from the program. Instructional activity includes any program-sponsored activity designed to promote student learning in the program curriculum, such as classroom instruction, assessment, tutoring, or participation in a learning lab.

There is no penalty for less than 70 hours. The AEP Office recommends following the test publisher’s test administration directions for the minimum number of hours required before post-testing, which is 70-100 hours.

If a student already has a high school diploma, there is no need for a pretest.

The pre and post testing for AEP is effective January 3, 2017 for 3rd Quarter Reporting.

Usually, no, but in some instances learners who place at the ASE high level are credited with a pre/post-test pair.

ESL programs need to use the NRS federally approved tests for documenting learning gains for state reporting. Other progress indicators can be used at the local agency level.

High School Diplomas reported by school districts in California are compliant with NRS requirements.

No.

For WIOA, the "Services Received" field mostly pertains to vocational rehabilitation services typically provided by Title IV. I pasted the PIRL information re: Voc Rehab below. As you can see, it is not a straight list of services, it just suggests some examples of services one might provide. So what you can see on field #8 is reflective of this, but definitely not matching any straight laundry list of required options from the DOL. For WIOA II, we don't expect these to come into play much at all...so for now, we are using it temporarily for AEP, knowing what agencies record shouldn't have any effect on WIOA II outcomes. FYI: the WIOA II dictionary listing for field #8 relates more to the PIRL definition, while the AEP dictionary has the one we modified to reflect what you've heard at training for AEP.

You can put “White” in Race and “Hispanic” under Ethnicity. If a student is especially reluctant to input White (or any other race) because they are Hispanic, it is fine if they mark Hispanic under Ethnicity and leave Race blank, if necessary.

The AEP program is officially called “Adults supporting K12 student success.” This is included on the Entry form and in TE. It appears on the form and in the software with the (new and improved) AEP title – not the old “Parent Education” title.

Short answer is if you have Cit Prep, yes it is fine to mark EL Civics under Special Programs. Longer -- Citizenship Prep is actually one version of EL Civics, not the other way around. For California, EL Civics includes Civic Participation, Citizenship Preparation, and Integrated EL Civics.
For CA WIOA II, agencies must designate one of these three focus area at the class level.
For AEP, you can just mark this as a special program – whether the ELC is focused on citizenship, or focused on other areas of ESL.

A: The administrative allowable activities for the AEBG 5% consortium cap are stated in the AEBG Program Guidance as follows:
Consortium Administration Charges (page 13)

The AB104 Legislation for AEBG states in Section 84913:

(b) A consortium may use no more than 5 percent of funds allocated in a given

fiscal year for the sum of the following:
(1) The costs of administration of these programs.

(2) The costs of the consortium.
A consortium may use no more than 5 percent of funds allocated in a given fiscal
year for administration activities. 
 
Examples of consortium administration activities: 
• Rolling up each member’s budget & expenditures for State reporting.

• Breaking out member’s budget & expenditures for State reporting.

• Working with fiscal agent(s) to submit budget & expenditures for State Reporting

· Coordinating the completion of the fiscal administration documentation.

• Ensuring that member decisions are followed through by the fiscal agent(s).

• Submits fiscal deliverables to the State as agreed upon by consortium membership.

• Hiring of consortium level staffing.

• Preparing the payroll for consortium level staffing.

The 5% only applies to these type activities. If you are performing these type of mostly fiscal activities, you may charge part of your salary. For support staff, travel, supplies, etc. – you would have to see how those activities align with these fiscal type activities. No program related charges would be allowed to be charged to the 5% consortium administrative cap.
If you choose direct funding – which would be too late for 17/18 – and would have to made for 18/19 – it would be up to the members on how the consortium operates and who pays for the running of the consortium. If the members fail to set up consortium lead to coordinate all the members AEP requirements, they run the risk of becoming ineffective and a possible reduction or loss of state funding.

Anyone can enter data into TOPSpro Enterprise, not just the school's designated GED person.

Patty will be able to give you any additional details you need, but here is a document that will help you out with details on submissions:
http://aebg.cccco.edu/Portals/1/docs/For%20AEBG%20Grantees/4.3.17%20AEBG-DataSubmissionLetter_FINAL.pdf

If you scroll down on that document, you'll see that you need to submit to aebg@casas.org by August 1. You can also fax the submission by August 1 to 858-292-2910, if you prefer. 

This answer only covers reporting student data into TE. First off, I hope your student enrollment information has demographic and barrier information. Secondarily, just to double check – none of these students identified a course they were enrolled in at the adult school, or the adult school didn’t set them up as cohorts? If not – check with CASAS, but I think you check no identifiable program. Finally, you would need to specify what transitional services they are receiving – if TE will allow it. I would check with CASAS if TE allows you to specify education planning, orientation, counseling, etc. There is a breakdown, but I’m not sure if it’s available for 16/17 or 17/18. CASAS will know.

In addition, you must track any outcomes associated with the services you provided. This is so you can self-report if students receiving these transitional services actually transitioned, or completed any other AEP outcome metric. If you have not been able to, it is critical to obtain the demographic data so we can match the student records in the chancellor’s office MIS and in TE as well.

TE Desktop uses a packaged version of SQL Express 2008, but the new NRS and AEP Tables take advantage of a feature that is only available in SQL Express 2012. Thus, we’ve had to create an upgrade installer for Desktop users, which we’ve completed now, but it still has to be tested in a number of different environments and scenarios. I’m estimating that we may be ready to send you the upgrade around July 13. I’ve just received the backup from Grossmont from Lydia. I expect by tomorrow your data will be fully migrated online and then you’ll be able to run the new reports.

Are you asking for a report that would compare data from TE with your college MIS? Then no, there wouldn’t be a way to create that.
If you’re looking for a report that shows students who were in your program and moved on to community college, we have the Update Program Outcomes report. Go to Reports/Program Outcomes/Enrollment (Update) Summary and then in the report look for Education Results.

Run your AEP DIR; hit the Export button; save as a pdf; send it to aebg@casas.org

The 55+ would fall into the program they were in but we had been told to assign a special program code of Older Adult to our students 55 and over. I did that after asking my question to get my students to appear in the Workforce (Re)Entry field but did not get an answer (and did not pursue an answer) as to why some were already there.

Now that I know what I’m looking for, I’m sure this was my misunderstanding as it’s possible the students who were previously showing in that field already had that marked in their record somehow and I didn’t look for it at the time before assigning the Older Adult to all over 55.

Yes - if the students are in ABE/ASE and also in AwD, then you should mark them as included with program enrollment under both programs. It is fine for any AEP student to be in more than one program, and it will benefit statewide reporting to be able to document the student outcomes in both areas.

 It is permissible to contract with an expert to provide TE assistance. Each member must have their own TE ID for reporting - meaning they have to connect with CASAS and set up an account. The member must work out the details of the subcontractor's access to student data, and make the expert/subcontract uses their unique TE ID for reporting member data. This has taken place around the state especially with new members.

The definition of long-term unemployed, per the Adult Education Data Element Dictionary, is as follows. Among reportable individuals who had more than one instructional contact hour or received support services in the selected program in the selected year, long-term unemployed students are those who were flagged as unemployed for more than 27 consecutive weeks when they enrolled in adult education.

All these items do have specific definitions. None are “meaningless.” Keep in mind that the definitions can change from year to year. We will be updating the Data Dictionary soon, but for now, please use the attached. I’ve included the ones you specified in the email.

According to the Data Dictionary (attached),

Gained Computer or Tech Skills = Increased computer skills, including knowledge of hardware and software.

Skills Progression = Record if participant successfully completed an exam that is required for a particular occupation, or progress in attaining technical or occupational skills as evidenced by trade-related benchmarks such as knowledge-based exams.

Educational Achievement = Achieved at least one educational functioning level in an education program that provides instruction below the post-secondary level.

Training Milestone = Record if the participant had a satisfactory or better progress report towards established milestones from an employer/training provider who is providing training (on-the-job training (OJT), registered apprenticeship, etc.).

Acquired Workforce Readiness Skills = Obtained work experience that enabled the student to receive future employment.

Learning Gains, HSE/HS Diploma, Post-Secondary, Enter Employment, Increase Wages, and Transition Post-Sec.

You could offer this as a noncredit CTE class that is part of the medical/nursing pathway. But you would need to get Chancellor’s Office approval for the curriculum. If it’s CTE noncredit course you could count it as an instructional program.

If you don’t offer it as a CTE course, you could offer it as a transitional service workshop to prep students to enter the CTE pathway. You would record that in TOPSPro Box 8.

If it’s a noncredit college course, and you have chancellor’s office approval, you must follow all existing community college regulations & education code related to paying instructional costs. If you run this as a fee based community serve college course, you cannot use any state funding to supplement it.

BTW - You can’t use WIOA II $$ to fund a CTE course either.

CTE isn’t reported for WIOA II. There should not be a conflict.

They are tied to a student and reflect outcomes in the Instruction Program for that student.

Yes.

There is no need to mark “Retained” at the end of the program year as student status is now determined by attendance. When the new fiscal year begins, students get a new entry record and they get new update records throughout the year.

Attendance can be imported cumulatively once each month.

No middleware is needed. If you’re using the attached specifications files can be exported from your database system directly to TOPSpro Enterprise.

If you need help identifying potential partners in this effort, please contact AEP TAP and provide the local MIS software you are using. AEP TAP will attempt to connect you with a community college that has already mapped the data elements from their MIS to TE.

Yes, they can import cumulative attendance and do it once a month. I would just clarify with them to do Cumulative hours once a month not Daily Attendance.

You can generate the AEP Summary Report in TOPSpro Enterprise at the consortium level. The report manager has options to generate at the member level and aggregate consortium level.

Consortia can generate the AEP Summary Report in TOPSpro Enterprise at the consortium level. The report manager has options to generate at the member level and aggregate consortium level.

TAP's response from Jay: Short answer is yes. If a learner is enrolled in more than one program, ideally you report the student in both.

The "how" is where the "it depends" comes in...

If it is iBest and, both the ESL and CTE teacher are co-teaching, then you could create one class and designate the class for both programs.

If this is two separate classes (eg ESL on Monday/Wed, CTE on Tue/Thursday), then you could create two separate classes and designate one for ESL and one for CTE.

Sorry I'm not sure about the TOPcode -- you'll need to follow up with someone at CCCCO for that. I can say that information is not needed/100% optional for both AEP and WIOA.

Report what you have. Hopefully by Q2 things will be better for you. Attached is document that describes how to use the Notes feature in TE. The Notes description appears on the last 2-3 pages of the document.

Yes, it’s perfectly fine and expected to have any number of programs within a site.

TE will not report to the state any AEP students that are under 18 years of age.

For WIOA II – in certain circumstances it’s ok to report students under 18 – so if you have members that are WIOA II and AEP funded – it would be ok as CASAS will separate them (or allow you to mark if the report is AEP or WIOA II).

Indeed, you want to populate TE with all students. The AEP and WIOA reports themselves will filter out according to age.

Requested.

Currently there are no plans to do this. It’s not a big programming issue, but for most agencies AEP and WIOA are the same students… so making this distinction for most agencies really doesn’t help at all.

Some suggestions:

1. Create a site for non AEP (assuming most are in AEP)
2. Create a class or group of classes for non AEP (making the same assumption as in #1 above)
3. Mark non AEP students and/or classes as “Other Program” and that way they will not be captured in the AEP data count.

In order to find the number of students your consortium serves, I would go back to the data your consortium submitted in TOPSpro. This will tell you the number of students your consortium served during a given time period.

If you are referring to students in ABE, ASE (HSE and HS diploma) or ESL, then yes you should pre/post test. The fact that it is a jail does not make a difference.

If you are referring to students in other programs, then it is not required.

A little more -- there are several jails across California that have done WIOA II for many years, including 38 facilities within CDC-R -- they like everyone else must meet testing requirements. In general this has always worked out fine, with the exception that they usually need to do pencil/paper testing rather than CASAS eTests.

It is not required to report or track service hours for the California Adult Education Program. However, if you did mark service hours in TOPSPro, you would have to go back to your attendance system to see if the service hours were broken out/down by program area. If not, you have no way of validating what program areas are connected to those service hours. You would not report these services in NOVA for this exercise nor should you attempt to guess how many service hours are assigned to each program area.

If using the CASAS program hours report, log on to TOPSPro, go to Reports – then State Reports – California – AEP Program Hours to generate a NOVA compatible view of hours of instruction.

Yes. Please report any of these instructional hours based on the distance-learning model (where students accrue hours without necessarily being in the classroom or being with the teacher). And if those hours are already in Tops Pro, simply use Tops Pro.

The information you are seeking is with CASAS. Contact CASAS Technical Support for access to the report.

Pre- and post-testing are not mandated for CAEP - only for agencies receiving WIOA Title II funding. CAEP only collects and reports adult learner demographics, barriers, and program outcome information. Pre- and Post-assessments are optional for CAEP to show learner gains.

We would recommend that you speak to non-WIOA noncredit reps at colleges that are not WIOA II grantees. Some use CASAS for pre/post testing, and some do not.

As far as non-WIOA college reporting: attached is the Beginning of the Year Letter (BOTYL) as it relates to how to report and to what system.

If the district is non-WIOA, you only need to report your noncredit student data into the Chancellor’s Office MIS (COMIS) – like you are normally doing (no extra reporting is required – as mentioned in the BOTYL). Keep in mind we are having some noncredit issues around the new attendance policy, and we are also fixing some coding in MIS – but that is outside the consortiums control. Should be a pretty simple transition. We would still advise you to talk to other non-WIOA colleges . CASAS can also walk you through the dropping of WIOA II.

There is an Info button at the top of the report setup screen for CAEP Tables, which leads to information about all fields in the report. There are four literacy gains unrelated to pre/post-testing: Carnegie Units/high School Credits, CDCP Certificate, Occupational Skills Gain, and Workforce Preparation. Carnegie units are used for EFL Gains and not used here.

If this question is regarding the CAEP requirements, then as a college they would be using CCCCO MIS, not TE.

CASAS has a page of their website devoted to this subject. They offer guidelines, resources and even a recording of a panel discussion regarding it. That information can be found here: https://www.casas.org/training-and-support/casas-peer-communities/california-adult-education-accountability-and-assessment/California-Employment-and-Earnings-Survey

If you have questions after looking at the site, you can reach out to CASAS directly at caep@casas.org.