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ExpectMore.govExpectMore.gov home pageEXPECT FEDERAL PROGRAMS TO PERFORM WELL, AND BETTER EVERY YEAR.
 
Program Assessment

Program

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TRIO Talent Search

This program is designed to increase the college enrollment rate of low-income middle and high school students whose parents did not attend college. Talent Search grants are awarded to institutions of higher education and other entities to provide tutoring, counseling, and other support services to these students.

Rating

What This Rating Means

PERFORMING
Moderately Effective

In general, a program rated Moderately Effective has set ambitious goals and is well-managed. Moderately Effective programs likely need to improve their efficiency or address other problems in the programs' design or management in order to achieve better results.
  • Recent evaluation findings and project performance data indicate that Talent Search has positive effects and has met most of its targets for college enrollment. A recent evaluation found that program participants were more likely to enroll in college and to apply for financial aid than were students in a comparison group.
  • Despite generally positive results, the program has not been able to demonstrate improved efficiencies. The Department of Education (ED) developed an efficiency measure and is developing a strategy to increase cost effectiveness.
  • Statutory and regulatory provisions for rewarding prior experience limit the number of first-time applicants that successfully compete for grants. However, ED took steps to ensure that projects were rewarded only for demonstrated performance.

Improvement Plan

About Improvement Plans

We are taking the following actions to improve the performance of the program:

  • Implementing a strategy to use efficiency measures to improve cost effectiveness in achieving the program goals.
  • Developing targets for the efficiency measure.
  • Making disaggregated grantee-level performance data available to the public.

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