SMARTT Update, November 2015
1) Data Lock Out and First Automatic Exit in FY16 – December 1st
New student intakes as well as all class, match, and distance learning curricula attendance data must be
entered by November 30. The first late data entry close out requires that July, August, and September data
be entered by November 30,
The first automatic exit in FY16 occurs on December 1, 2015. SMARTT will automatically exit a student from
the site when both of the following conditions occur:
 No attendance (class, match, and distance learning curricula attendance) was recorded for that student
during the months of July, August and September.
No attendance has yet been entered for that student during the months of October and November.
Automatic Exit
Schedule
December 1
January 15
February 15
March 15
April 15
May 15
June 15
July 15
August 15
Month of Last
Attendance
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
January
February
No Attendance in
These Months
July – November
August – December
September – January
October – February
November – March
December – April
January – May
February – June
March – June
System Assigned
Exit Date
June 30
July 31
August 31
September 30
October 31
November 30
December 31
June 30
June 30
September 15
March
April – June
June 30
2) NRS Cohort Follow Up - Entry into Postsecondary Education or Training
Because Massachusetts is required to report student outcomes to the federal government each year, we
ask programs to follow-up with any student belonging to the "Entry into postsecondary education or training"
NRS cohort by November 30th and to note your attempts in SMARTT. Your completion of the follow-up by
the deadlines noted above will help Massachusetts look better as a state in the upcoming annual federal
report. Your efforts will also increase our ability to provide a more accurate performance report this year
since we know that your follow-up will uncover outcomes that Massachusetts would not otherwise be able to
report.
Please review the instructions below related to following-up with your students and entering the information
in SMARTT for the cohort. The first attachment contains the instructions for following-up with students in the
“postsecondary education/occupational training” cohort and the second one describes additional follow-up
procedures for the “employment” cohort since many of the students will belong to both.
To view a listing of students for whom you should contact to inquire about their success in meeting the next
steps goals of entering into postsecondary education (i.e., enrolled in courses within a higher education
program) or an occupational training program (e.g., apprenticeship, internship, or other program that is
structured for the purpose of enabling the acquisition of skills that can be used in an employment setting),
go to the “NRS Cohort” section within the main menu of your program’s SMARTT screen.
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You will be directed to a new page where you will need to specify the cohort. Using the dropdown list, select
“Entry into postsecondary education or training.” Make sure “Requires Follow-up” is selected for “Status”
and then click on “Search.”
Follow-up with anyone who appears within the resulting list. To follow up with a student, click on their name
which will have a blue link.
You will be directed to a new screen which has three sections: Basic Information, Contacts, and Cohorts.
The information needed for contacting is in Basic Information. When making the contact, it is important to
refer to the exit date that is also provided there.
Fill out the Contacts section with the date, type of contact, whether successful or not, and any comments that
you may wish to include. In order to do this, you must first click on the “Edit” tab and then click on the “Add”
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button. Many users find it useful to write comments that indicate the time of day an attempted contact was made
because it helps in guide future attempts at follow-up.
If your contact is successful, you will need to ask your students questions for each of their cohort(s). For the
“Enter into postsecondary education or training” cohort, ask the student whether he/she had attended any
college courses or attended any occupational or job-related training at any point following his/her exit date.
If the student answered yes, you will need to put an entry into the “Date Met” field within the Cohorts section.
Click on the “Edit” tab. Unless it already appears checked, you will need to check off the cohort name. Although
an entry of the form MM/DD/YYYY into the “Date Met” field is required, you will not need to find out anything this
specific from the student. If the student confirmed with you that he/she had some attendance in college courses
or training following his/her ABE exit, enter any date occurring after that exit date. Use the dropdown list under
“Date Contacted” to find the appropriate date by which you contacted the student.
If the Cohorts section shows additional cohorts related to employment outcomes for the student, find out his/her
outcomes for those as well.
Once you have completed your data entries for the student, click “Save.”

NRS Cohort Follow Up – Enter and Retain Employment
Follow up with students who are listed on the NRS Cohort screen who are exited and require follow up.
Here are some tips to use when contacting students. When following up on the employment cohorts, ask the
student when he/she became employed after leaving the program. Note that data matching uses the middle
date of the middle quarter month so we don't expect the dates to be exact.


For enter employment, the dates must be in the quarter after the student exited.
For retained employment, the dates must be in the third quarter after the student exited. You do not
want to follow-up too soon for the retained employment cohort.
See some examples below and review the timeframes for follow up in the chart below.
Entered Employment
Student #1 exited on August 20th which is the first Exit Quarter.
Caller contacts the student at the end of the second quarter which is sometime in January - March. The
caller might ask: "Since you exited on August 20th, did you get a paying job anytime during October December?" Caller can then enter a date employed of November 15th or a specific date given by the
student.
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Exit Quarter
Exit Date in SMARTT
Collect Entered
Employment by the
End of:
Contact Students
First Quarter
(July 1-September 30)
August 20
Second Quarter
(October 1 - December 31)
January - March
Second Quarter
(October 1-December 31)
December 10
Third Quarter
(January 1 - March 31)
April - June
Third Quarter
(January 1-March 31)
March 30
Fourth Quarter
(April 1 - June 30)
July - September
Fourth Quarter
(April 1-June 30)
June 30
First Quarter
Next Program Year
(July 1 - September 30)
October - December
Retained Employment
Student #2 exited on September 20th which is the first Exit Quarter.
Caller contacts the student sometime in July-September and asks: "Since you exited on September 20th,
were you still working anytime during the timeframe of April - June?" Caller can then enter a date employed
of May 15th or a specific date given by the student.
Exit Quarter
Exit Date in
SMARTT
Collect Retained
Employment by the
End of:
Contact Students
First Quarter
(July 1-September 30)
September 20
Fourth Quarter
(April 1 - June 30)
July - September
Second Quarter
(October 1-December 31)
December 10
First Quarter
Next Program Year
(July 1 - September 30)
October December
Third Quarter
(January 1-March 31)
March 30
Second Quarter
Next Program Year
(October 1 - December
31)
January - March
Fourth Quarter(April 1-June
30)
June 30
Third Quarter
Next Program Year
(January 1- March 31)
April - June
If you have any questions related to the instructions, please feel free to contact Brian Newquist
(BNewquist@doe.mass.edu) at (781) 338-3804.
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