FR Doc 04-3739
[Federal Register: February 20, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 34)]
[Notices]
[Page 7914-7919]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr20fe04-31]
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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
RIN 1855-ZA06
Transition to Teaching
AGENCY: Office of Innovation and Improvement, Department of Education.
ACTION: Notice of proposed priorities and requirements.
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SUMMARY: The Deputy Under Secretary for Innovation and Improvement
proposes two priorities under the Transition to Teaching program. The
Deputy Under Secretary may use one or more of these priorities for
competitions in fiscal year (FY) 2004 and later years. We take this
action to focus Federal financial assistance on State efforts to create
or expand alternative routes to teacher certification and district
efforts to streamline teacher hiring systems and processes. We intend
for the priorities to help States and districts under this program to
lower barriers to certification and hiring and increase the number of
highly qualified teachers who are recruited into teaching from
nontraditional sources. The Deputy Under Secretary also proposes
minimum requirements that are needed for efficient grant competitions
for FY 2004 and future years, and to ensure that grantees focus their
program funds on direct costs of their projects.
DATES: We must receive your comments on or before March 22, 2004.
ADDRESSES: Address all comments about these proposed priorities and
requirements to Thelma Leenhouts, U.S. Department of Education, 400
Maryland Avenue, SW., room 3C102, Washington, DC 20202-5942. If you
prefer to send your comments through the Internet, use the following
address: Transitiontoteaching1@ed.gov.
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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Thelma Leenhouts. Telephone: (202)
260-0223 or via Internet: Thelma.Leenhouts@ed.gov.
If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), you may
call the Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1-800-877-8339.
Individuals with disabilities may obtain this document in an
alternative format (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, or computer
diskette) on request to the contact person listed under FOR FURTHER
INFORMATION CONTACT.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Invitation To Comment
We invite you to submit comments regarding these proposed
priorities and requirements. To ensure that your comments have maximum
effect in developing the notice of final priorities and requirements,
we urge you to identify clearly the specific proposed priority or
requirement that each comment addresses.
We invite you to assist us in complying with the specific
requirements of Executive Order 12866 and its overall requirement of
reducing regulatory burden that might result from these proposed
priorities and requirements. Please let us know of any further
opportunities we should take to reduce potential costs or increase
potential benefits while preserving the effective and efficient
administration of the program.
During and after the comment period, you may inspect all public
comments about these proposed priorities and requirements in room
3C102, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW., Washington, DC, between the hours of
8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m., eastern time, Monday through Friday of each week
except Federal holidays.
Assistance to Individuals With Disabilities in Reviewing the Rulemaking
Record
On request, we will supply an appropriate aid, such as a reader or
print magnifier, to an individual with a disability who needs
assistance to review the comments or other documents in the public
rulemaking record for these proposed priorities and requirements. If
you want to schedule an appointment for this type of aid, please
contact the person listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.
General
All students need highly qualified and effective teachers if they
are to meet their State's challenging academic content standards.
Indeed, one of the pivotal components of the No Child Left Behind Act
of 2001, Pub. L. 107-110 (NCLB), is the law's insistence that every
student be taught by highly qualified teachers. With the beginning of
the 2002-2003 school year, NCLB required that all newly hired teachers
of core academic subjects who teach in Title I programs be highly
qualified, and, by the end of the 2005-2006 school year, NCLB requires
that all teachers of core academic subjects in all public schools be
highly qualified. Both States and local districts face challenges in
meeting these requirements. Some experience difficulty in hiring
teachers in general or in specific subject areas. Others may have an
adequate supply of teachers, but these teachers might not be highly
qualified.
The Transition to Teaching program is designed to address these
challenges by helping high-need schools operated by high-need local
educational agencies (LEAs) secure and retain the highly qualified
teachers that students in those schools need to help them achieve to
challenging academic standards. It does so by encouraging the
development and expansion of alternative pathways to teacher
certification, and by supporting local programs that make use of these
alternative pathways to recruit, hire, and retain highly qualified
teachers.
Transition to Teaching projects (1) recruit as teachers talented
mid-career professionals, recent college graduates who have not
completed a teacher preparation program, and qualified school
paraprofessionals, and (2) help these individuals to become
successfully certified and licensed classroom teachers in high-need
schools of high-need LEAs.
In the most recent Transition to Teaching competition, the
Department awarded 95 grants to national or regional, Statewide, and
local projects to meet the needs of participating high-need LEAs for
highly qualified teachers. However, little of these projects' efforts
focus on the key role of States in developing or changing policies and
implementing strategies that open up certification to talented, non-
traditional candidates. Nor do the projects' efforts focus on the role
of high-need LEAs in streamlining their hiring systems, timelines, and
policies in order to successfully recruit and hire highly qualified
teachers.
Establishing these proposed priorities makes it possible to focus
funds at both the State level, where decisions on teacher certification
requirements are made, and at the district level, where responsibility
for hiring resides. These proposed priorities for opening up
certification through alternative pathways and for streamlining hiring
practices are needed to address the NCLB highly qualified teacher
requirement.
Discussion of Proposed Priorities
We will announce the final priorities and requirements in a notice
in the Federal Register. We will determine the final priorities and
requirements after considering responses to this notice and other
information available to the Department. This notice does not preclude
us from proposing additional requirements or funding additional
priorities, subject to meeting applicable rulemaking requirements.
Note: This notice does not solicit applications. In any year in
which we choose to use these proposed priorities, we invite
applications through a notice in the Federal Register. When inviting
applications we designate the priority as absolute, competitive
preference, or invitational. The effect of each type of priority
follows:
Absolute priority: Under an absolute priority we consider only
applications that meet the priority (34 CFR 75.105(c)(3)).
Competitive preference priority: Under a competitive preference
priority we give competitive preference to an application by either
(1) awarding additional points, depending on how well or the extent
to which the application meets the competitive priority (34 CFR
75.105(c)(2)(i)); or (2) selecting an application that meets the
competitive priority over an application of comparable merit that
does not meet the priority (34 CFR 75.105(c)(2)(ii)).
Invitational priority: Under an invitational priority we are
particularly interested in applications that meet the invitational
priority. However, we do not give an application that meets the
invitational priority a competitive or absolute preference over
other applications (34 CFR 75.105(c)(1)).
Priorities
Proposed Priority 1--State Projects to Create or Expand and Implement
Alternative Pathways to Teacher Certification
This priority supports projects by a State educational agency (SEA)
or a consortium of SEAs and the respective teacher certification agency
of each State (if different from the SEA), over a project period of up
to five years, to create or expand and implement alternative pathways
to certification by conducting both of the following activities:
(a) Create alternatives to the State's traditional certification
requirements. States are encouraged to develop a variety of alternative
pathways to certification as important options in their menu of State-
approved certification methods to ensure that all teachers are fully
certified and highly
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qualified. Alternative routes, such as competency-based approaches to
certification, permit talented individuals interested in teaching to
become fully certified as a result of rigorous assessments of their
content and professional teaching competence. Alternate routes such as
these provide viable options for attracting a diverse and talented
teacher recruitment pool.
(b) Use the alternative routes to recruit individuals from groups
eligible to participate in the Transition to Teaching program. Funded
projects also would, among other things, need to work with
participating high-need LEAs to--
(1) Increase the number and quality of mid-career changers, recent
college graduates who have not majored in education, and qualified
paraprofessionals recruited to teach high-need subjects (such as
mathematics, science, and special education) in identified high-need
LEAs (which may include LEAs that are charter schools), particularly
those in urban and rural areas; and
(2) Provide these newly hired teachers with the support they need
to become certified and effective teachers who will choose to make
teaching their new long-term profession.
In particular, SEAs receiving project funds must--
(i) Target for recruitment and rigorously screen candidates in
areas where there are documented teacher shortages (e.g., mathematics,
science, and special education);
(ii) Place prospective teachers only in high-need schools operated
by high-need LEAs;
(iii) Prepare individuals for specific positions in specific LEAs
and place them in these positions early in the training process;
(iv) Ensure that recruited teachers receive the specific training
they need to become fully certified or licensed teachers; and
(v) Have recruited teachers participate in a well-supervised
induction period that may include the support of experienced, trained
mentors.
Proposed Priority 2--District Projects to Streamline Teacher Hiring
Systems, Timelines, and Processes
This priority supports projects by one or more high-need local
school districts, over a project period of five years, to streamline
their hiring systems, timelines and processes. A participating district
will need to conduct both of the following activities:
(a) Examine its current hiring system, processes, and policies to
identify the critical barriers to hiring highly qualified teachers. The
lack of highly qualified teachers in most urban and rural districts has
often been attributed to their difficulty in recruiting interested and
qualified individuals. However, recent research indicates that the
problem may not be one of recruitment but may stem from inefficient and
untimely district hiring systems and processes. This is especially true
in high-poverty districts and schools--the districts and schools the
Transition to Teaching program is targeted to serve. Accordingly, the
district would have to examine its current hiring processes and
policies and, based upon that examination, identify the critical
barriers to hiring highly qualified teachers.
(b) Design and implement efforts to remove the identified barriers
and put in place systems that streamline and revamp the hiring process.
Districts are encouraged to create an efficient and timely applicant
hiring process with a strong data tracking system and clear hiring
goals. These efforts also will involve negotiating policy reforms that
remove critical barriers, such as delayed notification of vacancies and
seniority and retirement rules.
Districts also would carry out the requirements of the Transition
to Teaching program by recruiting nontraditional candidates, using the
streamlined hiring system to hire them for teaching in high-need
schools, working with them to achieve full State certification, and
retaining them for at least three years.
Discussion of Proposed Requirements for the FY 2004 and Future Year
Grant Competitions and Award of Funds
In order to promote both a fair and efficient program competition
and appropriate uses of Transition to Teaching program funds, the
Deputy Under Secretary proposes the following requirements to govern
grant competitions and awards in FY 2004 and later years. For the most
part, these proposed requirements are the same as those that the
Department announced in the Federal Register on June 17, 2002 (67 FR
41221-41224) and successfully used for the FY 2002 Transition to
Teaching program competition and grants awarded under it. The Notice
Inviting Applications for New Awards for Fiscal Year 2002 on the
Internet is available at the following site: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/index.html
.
The only exceptions concern (1) a proposal, discussed in the
section Application content, that would require each applicant to
include in its application a statement that each participating LEA
will, rather than intends to, hire project participants, assuming that
it has positions to fill and is satisfied that the participants are
qualified to teach these subjects, and (2) a proposal discussed in the
section Participant eligibility, which is needed to close a loophole
that has permitted some grantees to recruit existing teachers into
their projects.
1. Application content. Section 2313(d)(2)(C) of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended (ESEA), requires applicants
to describe in their applications how they will use the funds received
to recruit and retain individuals to teach in high-need schools
operated by high-need LEAs. In addition, section 2313(i) of the ESEA
requires that individuals who participate in training provided under
this program serve in a high-need school operated by a high-need LEA
for at least three years. In this regard, an implicit purpose of this
program and the ESEA as a whole is to help ensure that all students are
able to achieve to high standards, principally in the core academic
subjects defined in section 9101(11) of the ESEA. To ensure that all
grantees properly implement their projects, we propose that each
applicant would need to include information in its application, as the
Secretary may require, that confirms that it (if it is an LEA), or each
LEA with which it will work--
(a) Is a high-need LEA;
(b) Has identified for the grantee the high-need subjects for which
teachers are needed; and
(c) Will hire individuals recruited through the project to meet the
LEA's teaching needs, assuming that the LEA still has positions to fill
and is satisfied that the individuals are qualified to teach those
subjects.
2. Definitions.
High-need LEA. Section 2102(3) of the ESEA defines ``high-need
LEA'' to mean an LEA that--
(a)(1) Serves not fewer than 10,000 children from families with
incomes below the poverty line, or (2) for which not less than 20
percent of the children served by the LEA are from families with
incomes below the poverty line; and
(b) For which there is (1) a high percentage of teachers not
teaching in the academic subjects or grade levels the teachers were
trained to teach, or (2) a high percentage of teachers with emergency,
provisional, or temporary certification or licensing.
We are proposing that an applicant (or a grantee should the grantee
wish to add an LEA to a Transition to Teaching project after receiving
a grant award) would need to demonstrate to the
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Department that each LEA that would participate in the project
satisfies the definition of high-need LEA. The applicant (or grantee)
would need to do so on the basis of the most recent data available in
the year in which the Department would approve the LEA's participation
in the project. In this regard, we propose the following for each of
these two components of the definition--
For component (a) of ``high-need LEA,'' the only
consistent available data for all LEAs that reflect the statutory
requirement for use of the total number or percentage of individuals
age 5-17 from families below the poverty line are data from the U.S.
Census Bureau. Therefore, we propose to require that the eligibility of
an LEA as a ``high-need LEA'' under component (a) be determined on the
basis of the most recent satisfactory Census Bureau data, and we would
identify the year of these data to be used in any announcement of a
program competition for awards in FY 2004 and future years. (We will
provide further information on this subject in the application package
for this program that will be available for each competition. This
information will include the Internet web site where one may obtain the
LEA poverty data that the Census Bureau reports, and the kinds of
poverty data the Department will accept for any LEA that is not
included on this Internet Web site.)
For component (b)(1) of the definition of
``high-need LEA,'' we interpret this phrase ``not teaching in the
academic subjects or grade levels that the teachers were trained to
teach'' as equivalent to ``a high percentage of teachers teaching out
of field.'' The Department does not have available to it suitable data
with which to define what a high percentage would be. Therefore, LEAs
that rely on component (b)(1) would need to demonstrate to the
Department's satisfaction that they have a high percentage of teachers
teaching out of field. The Department would review this aspect of an
LEA's proposed eligibility on a case-by-case basis. To avoid
uncertainty, an LEA might choose instead to try to meet this
eligibility test under component (b)(2).
For component (b)(2) of ``high-need LEA,'' the
best data available to the Department on the percentage of teachers
with emergency, provisional, or temporary certification or licensing
come from the reports on the quality of teacher preparation that States
annually provide to the Department in October of each year under
section 207 of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended (HEA). In
these reports, States provide the percentage of teachers in their LEAs
teaching on waivers, both on a statewide basis and in high-poverty
LEAs. The most recently available data, which were included in the
October 2002 State reports, indicate that the national average of
teachers on waivers in high-poverty LEAs is eight (8) percent.
Based on information in these reports, we would publish the most
current national percentage of uncertified teachers in high-poverty
LEAs in any announcement of a program competition for awards in FY 2004
and future years. To satisfy component (b)(2) of the definition of
high-need LEA, an LEA would need to be able to confirm that, at the
time it would participate in a Transition to Teaching project, it has
at least the percentage of uncertified teachers as the Department
announces is a ``high percentage'' based on the most currently
available HEA section 207 State reports.
High-need subject. For purposes of the Transition to Teaching
program, we propose that a high-need subject means English, reading or
language arts, mathematics, science, foreign languages, civics and
government, economics, arts, history, geography, special education, and
English as a second language (ESL). These subjects include the ``core
academic subjects'' specified in section 9101(11) of the ESEA and the
subjects of special education and ESL. We propose to include these two
additional subjects because of the particular need that many high-need
LEAs have for teachers in these two areas who can help students with
disabilities and English language learners to become proficient in the
ESEA core academic subjects.
High-need SEA. Section 2313(c) of the ESEA requires the Department
to give priority in awarding grants under the program to applications
from ``a partnership or consortium that includes a high-need State
educational agency or local educational agency.'' However, the ESEA
does not define the term high-need SEA. As was the case for the FY 2002
competition, for purposes of this priority we propose to define a high-
need SEA as an SEA of a State that includes at least one high-need LEA.
While our definition of this term might enable all SEAs to be
considered high-need SEAs, given the proposed requirement that all
applications identify the high-need LEA that would participate in the
project, any project that includes one of these LEAs as a partner would
already be eligible to receive this statutory priority. Hence, we see
little value in proposing a more narrow definition of high-need SEA.
3. Application review process. Section 2313(b) of the ESEA provides
that an eligible applicant for a Transition to Teaching grant must be--
(a) An SEA;
(b) A high-need LEA;
(c) A for-profit or nonprofit organization that has a proven record
of effectively recruiting and retaining highly qualified teachers, in a
partnership with a high-need LEA or with an SEA;
(d) An institution of higher education (IHE), in a partnership with
a high-need LEA or with an SEA;
(e) A regional consortium of SEAs; or
(f) A consortium of high-need LEAs.
Given the wide variety of entities that may apply for grants under
this program, the Department expects the scope of proposed recruitment,
training, and placement efforts to vary widely. For example, a
nonprofit organization might propose activities in various communities
throughout the nation, an SEA might propose activities to be conducted
on a statewide basis, and an LEA might propose activities that would
focus on its own teaching needs. It is likely that if applications from
these various entities were reviewed in a single application pool,
reviewers would have difficulty evaluating the relative merits of the
projects. In addition, the Department is interested in supporting
projects of different types that can serve as potential models of
recruitment, training, and retention through alternative routes to
teaching. Given these factors, and in order to evaluate fairly the
relative merits of applications proposing projects of such widely
varied scope, we propose to review applications in FY 2004 and later
years as we did in the FY 2002 program competition--in three different
applicant pools, depending on whether the LEAs to benefit from the
project are located--
(a) In more than one State;
(b) Statewide or in more than one area of a State; or
(c) In a single area of a State.
When the Department announces a competition, it will provide an
estimate of the number and size of awards to be made from applications
in each category. However, the Department would reserve the right to
adjust these estimates based on the number of high-quality applications
in each pool and as a whole, without regard to the relative scores of
applications in each of the three applicant pools.
Finally, because of the variety of entities that could apply for
grants under this competition, it is possible that an LEA might be the
recipient of services under both (1) its own
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application and (2) the application of the SEA of the State in which
the LEA is located, an educational service agency that is a high-need
LEA, or a nonprofit organization. In this event, should those
applications propose duplicative activities the Department would offer
the LEA a choice of receiving its own grant award or participating in
the other entity's project. Should the LEA choose to receive its own
award, the Department would adjust the other entity's grant award
accordingly.
4. Participant eligibility. Section 2312(1) provides that an
individual is eligible to participate in the Transition to Teaching
program if the individual (a) has substantial, demonstrable career
experience, including as a highly qualified paraprofessional, or (b) is
a graduate of an IHE who--
(a) Has graduated not more than three years before applying to join
a Transition to Teaching project in order to become a teacher; and
(b) In the case of an individual wishing to teach in a secondary
school, has completed an academic major (or courses totaling an
equivalent number of credit hours) in the core academic subject that
the individual will teach.
The purpose of the Transition to Teaching program is to provide
financial support to enable grantees to recruit individuals from their
non-teaching positions and, through alternative routes to State
certification, help high-need LEAs to hire and retain them as teachers
of high-need subjects. Indeed, section 2313(d)(2)(E) requires each
application to describe how the proposed project will increase the
number of highly qualified teachers teaching high-need academic
subjects (in high-need schools operated by high-need LEAs). Consistent
with this provision and the program's overall purpose, we propose that
individuals who already have State teacher certification or licenses,
or who are teaching on a provisional, temporary, or emergency license
prior to recruitment into the program, not be eligible to participate
in Transition to Teaching projects.
The Department did not adopt this requirement for the FY 2002
competition because, when we announced that competition, we did not
believe that this clarification was necessary. However, a number of
existing grantees have recruited some project participants from this
group of teachers--typically individuals not yet certified or certified
teachers desiring to change their area of certification or endorsement.
While the statute does not literally prohibit this practice, for
reasons we offer in the preceding paragraph, we are proposing to
clarify that those awarded Transition to Teaching grants in FY 2004 or
future competitions may not recruit these individuals into the program.
5. Evaluation and accountability. Section 2314 of the ESEA requires
grantees to submit to the Department and to the Congress interim and
final reports at the end of the third and fifth years of the grant
period, respectively. Subparagraph (b) of this section provides that
these reports must contain the results of the grantee's interim and
final evaluations, which must describe the extent to which high-need
LEAs that received funds through the grant have met their goals
relating to teacher recruitment and retention as described in the
project application.
However, while each funded project must promote the recruitment and
retention of new teachers in specific identified LEAs, eligible grant
recipients are not limited to LEAs. Therefore, it is possible that one
or more funded projects will not provide funding to participating LEAs.
In order that all project evaluations provide relevant information on
the extent to which the project is meeting these LEA goals, we propose
that the interim and final evaluations would need to describe the
extent to which LEAs that either receive program funds or otherwise
participate in funded projects have met their teacher recruitment and
retention goals.
6. Limitation on indirect costs. The success of the Transition to
Teaching Program depends upon how well grantees and the high-need LEAs
with which they work recruit, hire, train, and retain highly qualified
individuals from other professions and backgrounds to become teachers
in high-need subjects. If the program is to achieve its purpose, we
need to ensure that all appropriated funds are used as effectively as
possible. To do so, we believe it is necessary to place a reasonable
limitation on the amount of program funds that grant recipients may use
to reimburse themselves for the indirect costs of program activities.
Therefore, we propose to place a reasonable limit on the indirect cost
rate that all grantees and other recipients of program funds would be
able to use in determining the amount of indirect costs they may charge
to their Transition to Teaching awards. As was the case for grants
awarded under the FY 2002 competition, this limit would be the lesser
of eight percent or the recipient's negotiated restricted indirect cost
rate.
For reasons we have offered in a limited number of other
competitive grant programs that focus on improving teacher quality, we
believe that a similar limitation on a recipient's indirect costs is
necessary here to ensure that Transition to Teaching program funds are
used to secure the new teachers that Congress intended. See, e.g., the
discussion of (1) 34 CFR 611.61, as proposed, that governs the Teacher
Quality Enhancement Grants program authorized by Title II, part A of
the HEA (65 FR 6936, 6940 (February 11, 2000)), and (2) requirements
for the FY 2002 grants competition under the School Leadership program
authorized by Title II, part A, subpart 5 of the ESEA (67 FR 36159,
36162 (May 23, 2002)), and under this Transition to Teaching program
(67 FR 41223-24 (June 17, 2002)).
Executive Order 12866
This notice of proposed priorities and requirements has been
reviewed in accordance with Executive Order 12866. Under the terms of
the order, we have assessed the potential costs and benefits of this
regulatory action.
The potential costs associated with the notice of proposed
priorities and requirements are those resulting from statutory
requirements and those we have determined as necessary for
administering this program effectively and efficiently.
In assessing the potential costs and benefits--both quantitative
and qualitative--of this notice of proposed priorities and
requirements, we have determined that the benefits of the proposed
priorities and requirements justify the costs.
We have also determined that this regulatory action does not unduly
interfere with State, local, and tribal governments in the exercise of
their governmental functions.
Summary of potential costs and benefits:
Elsewhere in this notice we discuss the potential costs and
benefits of these proposed priorities and requirements under the
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section.
Intergovernmental Review
This program is subject to Executive Order 12372 and the
regulations in 34 CFR part 79. One of the objectives of the Executive
order is to foster an intergovernmental partnership and a strengthened
federalism. The Executive order relies on processes developed by State
and local governments for coordination and review of proposed Federal
financial assistance.
This document provides early notification of our specific plans and
actions for this program.
[[Page 7919]]
Electronic Access to This Document
You may view this document, as well as all other Department of
Education documents published in the Federal Register, in text or Adobe
Portable Document Format (PDF) on the Internet at the following site:
http://www.ed.gov/news/fedregister.
To use PDF you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available
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Note: The official version of this document is the document
published in the Federal Register. Free Internet access to the
official edition of the Federal Register and the Code of Federal
Regulations is available on GPO Access at:
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/nara/index.html
.
(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number 84.350 Transition to
Teaching)
Program Authority: 20 U.S.C. 4683 et seq.
Dated: February 13, 2004.
Nina Shokraii Rees,
Deputy Under Secretary for Innovation and Improvement.
[FR Doc. 04-3739 Filed 2-19-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P