Small policy changes implemented by the United States Department of Education (USDE) mean state departments of education and individual out-of-school-time (OST) programs can report the outcomes of state assessments in various ways. 

TransACT's AfterSchool21 software supports OST programs at the state and local levels in submitting compliant data for their annual performance report. In July 2021, the government introduced new reporting requirements as part of the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA).   

The USDE gives each state control over how they want to track year-to-year changes in student performance metrics across five categories (math, reading/language arts, grade point average, school attendance, and in-school suspensions). The AS21 September software development release (effective Sep. 23) gives subscribers more flexibility to collect and report program data.  

What is changing with AS21 reporting? 

States will individually define how to measure performance, and now AS21 accommodates the ability to collect and report on data according to state requirements. Performance metrics include: 

• New data outcomes: A new table exists in AS21 for programs or states that submit raw outcome data, such as last year's test scores, to AS21. Either the program or the state can then certify the data from learning assessments and calculate the changes to determine whether a student is improving in a particular outcome area, such as grade point average 
• Student hours attended: In the APR Measurement Outcomes section of AS21, a new field counts the minimum number of hours a student must attend a program. The APR is looking for calculations in these outcomes for students with less than 15 hours. Guidance from USDE says states and programs can pick any number of hours as the lower threshold, and now AS21 users can put in the minimum they want 
• More detail on student attendance: AS21 can also accommodate users who want to report a specific number of attendance hours, such as five hours, and compare scores to last year's results. Both the assessment level and numeric score are available for measurement 
• Track improvement: Subscribers can easily determine the minimum change to track the improvement in student performance. For example, a state that may want to see a 20-point change in the assessment score can enter at least a 20-point change and filter for those results 
• GPA and suspensions tracking: Tracking grade point average and in-school suspensions work similarly – admin users determine the minimum level of improvement and can track the change by the percentage of increase or numerical value 

Teacher Surveys Also Gain Flexibility

Admin users can identify which teacher survey they want to use for evaluating engagement in learning. And they can choose up to 5 survey questions (from their specific survey) to include in the evaluation. Individual programs typically have one or more questions to measure the improvement in the child's engagement in learning since the start of the school year. 

AS21 has been used by over 11 State Departments of Education and hundreds of after-school programs for over 20 years to manage federal reporting requirements.

Use AS21 for Easier Reporting

Even with the flexibility in collecting data, the updates to the GPRA mean extra work for program and district leaders. Collecting additional data, managing analysis, and submitting more frequent reports will tax time and resources without an online data management solution like AS21. The AS21 reporting and data management solution is prepared for GPRA-related data collection.

Schedule a Demonstration or watch the video below to see why more 21CCLC programs use AS21 more than any other after-school program data management software.