Report 2021-101 Recommendation 15 Responses

Report 2021-101: K-12 Strong Workforce Program: State and Regional Administrative Shortcomings Limit the Program's Effectiveness in Supporting Grant Applicants (Release Date: February 2022)

Recommendation #15 To: Orange County Regional Consortium

To ensure consistency in scoring applications, the Orange County Regional Consortium should collaborate with the other regional consortia to establish a standard approach for addressing score variations that selection committees statewide will use, beginning with the fiscal year 2022-23 grant application period, when evaluating whether applications meet eligibility criteria.

6-Month Agency Response

Determining Eligibility K12SWP Audit recommendation is to have statewide process determining whether applications are eligible for funding. Criteria: Reduce the number of applications that require an additional reviewer for determining eligibility. Rationale: Find reviewers able to review applications in a relatively short time. Criteria: Bias the process towards ruling applications as eligible Rationale: This will increase the number of applications eligible for funding.

1. Region determines the number of reviewers that will score each application. 2. Reviewers read and score applications 3. Average score is determined for each application. An application is considered against each of the following steps in sequence. When a particular step determines the application's eligibility, it is not considered against any of the subsequent steps. 4. When the AVERAGE of ALL scores is >=75, the proposal is eligible and no additional reviewers are assigned. 5. When ALL individual scores are <75, the proposal is ineligible and no additional reviewers are assigned. 6. When the difference between the highest score and the lowest score is <20 AND the average score is <70, the proposal is ineligible and no additional reviewers are assigned. 7. If the above doesn't result in a determination of eligibility in regions using 4 or 5 reviewers. 7a. Applications with least 3 scores >=75, have their lowest score dropped and the average recalculated. Those with a recalculated average >= 75 are eligible. 7b. Applications with at least 3 scores < 75 have their highest score dropped and the average recalculated. Those with a recalculated average < 75 are ineligible. 8. For all remaining applications, an additional reviewer will be assigned. The lowest score will be dropped to arrive at a final average score. Recalculated average scores >= 75 will be eligible and those <75 will be ineligible.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Fully Implemented

60-Day Agency Response

The regional consortia chairs and K14 TAPs are in discussion about this recommendation and one drafted strategy has been presented to the group; however, some elements still need to be worked out over the course of the next couple of statewide meetings. We anticipate having a comprehensive process in place before the next Selection Committee meeting.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

We look forward to reviewing the results of the consortia's collaboration in the six-month response to this recommendation.

All Recommendations in 2021-101

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.