ESEA: Mentoring Program

FY 2006 Program Performance Report

Strategic Goal 3
Discretionary
ESEA, Title IV, Part A-2, Section 4130
Document Year 2006 Appropriation: $48,814
CFDA 84.184B: Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Mentoring Program

Program Goal: To support mentoring programs and activities for children who
are at risk of educational failure, dropping out of school, or
involvement in criminal or delinquent activities, or who lack
strong positive role models.
Objective 1 of 1: Provide grants to community-based organizations and local school districts
to support mentoring programs for high-risk youth.
Measure 1.1 of 4: The percentage of student-mentor matches that are sustained by the
grantees for a period of 12 months: 2004 cohort. (Desired direction: increase)
Actual
Year Target Status
(or date expected)
2006 Set a Baseline 44.86 Target Met
2007 BL+50% (December 2007) Pending
Source. U.S. Department of Education, Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools, Mentoring Program,
Annual Grantee Performance Reports.
Frequency of Data Collection. Annual
Data Quality. Of 100 reports sampled (from a total of 165 in the 2004 cohort), 65% (n=65) provided valid,
aggregable, data for this measure. In order to be valid and aggregable, grantees needed to report on
matches that were sustained for at least 12 months (for example, some grantees provided the number of
matches that were sustained for nine months, and we were not able to include this in the calculation).
Additionally, grantees needed to provide the total number of matches made, regardless of duration, as a
denominator on which to calculate the percentage.
Target Context.

The grant application for the 2004 Mentoring Program laid out the following targets for this measure:

The percentage of student/mentor matches that are sustained for a period of twelve months will increase
by:

• 0% by 2005;
• 25% by 2006;
• 50% by 2007.

Explanation. 44.86 percent (2092 of 4663 total matches) of the student-mentor partnerships by the
grantees providing valid, aggregable data were sustained for at least 12 months.

Measure 1.2 of 4: The percentage of mentored students who demonstrate improvement in core
academic subjects as measured by grade point average after 12 months: 2004 cohort.
(Desired direction: increase)

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 Actual
Year Target Status
(or date expected)
2006 Set a Baseline 49.62 Target Met
2007 BL+30% (December 2007) Pending
Source. U.S. Department of Education, Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools, Mentoring Program,
Annual Grantee Performance Reports.
Frequency of Data Collection. Annual
Data Quality. Of 100 reports sampled (from a total of 165 in the 2004 cohort), 58% (n=58) provided valid,
aggregable, data for this measure. In order to be valid and aggregable, grantees needed to report on the
number of students whose GPA in core academic subjects improved during the 12 months preceding the
performance report. Some inconsistencies which may affect data quality include:

-Some grantees reported on improvement during the school year, rather than comparing grades over a
12-month period. For practical reasons, these data were included in the aggregate.

-Some reports only provided data that were disaggregated by academic subject (i.e., reading, math,
language arts). In this case, for consistency's sake, we used the percentage of students whose GPA in
reading had improved.
Target Context.

The application for the 2004 Mentoring Program stated the following targets for this measure:

The percentage of mentored students who demonstrate improvement in core academic subjects as
measured by grade point average after 12 months will increase:
-5% by 2005;
-15% by 2006;
-30% by 2007.

Measure 1.3 of 4: The percentage of mentored students who have unexcused absences from
school: 2004 cohort. (Desired direction: decrease)
Actual
Year Target Status
(or date expected)
2005 Set a Baseline 39.4 Target Met
2006 47.81 Measure not in place
2007 24 (December 2007) Pending
Source. U.S. Department of Education, Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools, Mentoring Program,
Annual Grantee Performance Reports.
Frequency of Data Collection. Annual
Data Quality.

Of 100 reports sampled (from a total of 165 in the 2004 cohort), 43% (n=43) provided valid, aggregable,
data for this measure. In order to be valid and aggregable, grantees needed to report on the number of
students with unexcused absences during the reporting period. Some grantees provided data for all
absences, for number of suspensions, or for the number of students who improved their attendance; we
were not able to include these in the aggregate, resulting in the low response rate.

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Target Context. The application for the 2004 Mentoring program included the following target:

The percentage of mentored students who have unexcused absences from school wil decrease:
-10% by 2005
-30% by 2006
-40% by 2007

Decreases will be measured from baseline data. Based on these targets, the target for 2006 was 28
percent. The program did not meet this target. The target for 2007 is 24 percent.
Explanation. 47.81 percent-- or 1246 of 2606-- of students served by Mentoring grants submitting valid,
aggregable data had at least one unexcused absence during the reporting period.

Measure 1.4 of 4: (Desired direction: increase)

Actual
Year Target Status
(or date expected)
2006 Set a Baseline 78.01 Target Met
2007 55 (December 2007) Pending
2008 47 (December 2008) Pending
Source. U.S. Department of Education, Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools, Mentoring Program,
Annual Grantee Performance Reports.
Frequency of Data Collection. Annual
Data Quality.

This data should be interpreted with caution due to the low response rate and the small amount of
valid aggregable data provided by grantees. Of 80 reports examined from the 2005 cohort, 8 (10%)
provided valid, aggregable data.

Explanation. 78.01 percent, or 330 of 425 students served by mentoring grants reporting valid,
aggregable data for this measure had at least one unexcused absence during the reporting period.

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