Office of Innovation and Improvement--Advanced Placement (AP) Test Fee Program; Notice Inviting Applications for New Awards for Fiscal Year (FY) 2003; CFDA No.: 84.330B [OII]

[Federal Register: May 16, 2003 (Volume 68, Number 95)]
[Notices]
[Page 26955-26957]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr16my03-166]

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Part IX

Department of Education

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Office of Innovation and Improvement--Advance Placement (AP) Test Fee
Program; Notice Inviting Applications for New Awards for Fiscal Year
(FY) 2003; Notice

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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

[CFDA No.: 84.330B]
RIN 1855-ZA01

Office of Innovation and Improvement--Advanced Placement (AP)
Test Fee Program; Notice Inviting Applications for New Awards for
Fiscal Year (FY) 2003

Purpose of Program: The AP Test Fee program provides grants to
States to enable them to pay advanced placement test fees on behalf of
eligible low-income students who (1) are enrolled in an advanced
placement course; and (2) plan to take an advanced placement exam. The
program is designed to increase the number of low-income students who
take advanced placement tests and receive scores for which college
academic credit is awarded. Through participation in this program, low-
income students will achieve to higher standards in English,
mathematics, science, and other core subjects. The program also seeks
to increase the number of low-income students who achieve a
baccalaureate or advanced degree.
The AP Test Fee program provides resources that State Educational
agencies (SEAs) and other eligible applicants can use in pursuit of the
objectives of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 which aims for all
elementary and secondary students to achieve to high standards. In
particular, this program provides an opportunity for eligible entities
to support advanced placement programs in schools identified for
improvement, corrective action, or restructuring under Title I, Part A
of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended.
Eligible Applicants: SEAs in any State, including the District of
Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the United States Virgin
Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana
Islands, and the freely associated states of the Republic of the
Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, and the Republic
of Palau.

Note: For purposes of this program, the Bureau of Indian Affairs
is treated as an SEA.

Applications Available: 5-16-03.
Notification of Intent to Apply for Funding: The Department will be
able to develop a more efficient process for reviewing grant
applications if it has a better understanding of the number of entities
that intend to apply for funding under this competition. Therefore, the
Secretary strongly encourages each potential applicant for the AP Test
Fee program to notify the Department by e-mail that it intends to
submit an application for funding. The notification of intent to apply
for funding should be sent no later than June 16, 2003 to the following
Internet address: madeline.baggett@ed.gov.
Applicants who fail to provide this e-mail notification may still
apply for funding.
Deadline for Transmittal of Applications: 6-30-03.
Deadline for Intergovernmental Review: 8-30-03.
Estimated Available Funds: Approximately $3 million.

Note: The Department expects to award a total of approximately
$3 million in grants to States under the AP Test Fee program but, in
accordance with statutory requirements, will make more funds
available from the Advanced Placement Incentive program (CFDA No.
84.330C) if necessary.

Estimated Range of Awards: $50,000 to $500,000 per year.
Estimated Average Size of Awards: $275,000 per year.
Estimated Number of Awards: 4-50.

Note: These estimates are projections for the guidance of
potential applicants. The Department is not bound by any estimates
in this notice.

Project Period: Up to 36 months.
Applicable Regulations and Statute: (a) Regulations. Education
Department General Administrative Regulations (EDGAR) in 34 CFR parts
75, 77, 79, 80, 81, 82, 85, 86, 97, 98, and 99. (b) Statute. Title I,
Part G of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), as
amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), 20 U.S.C. 6531-
6537.

Test Fee Funding Rule

In accordance with statutory requirements, the Department gives
priority to funding proposals to use grant funds to pay advanced
placement test fees on behalf of eligible low-income individuals. The
Department intends to fund, at some level, all applications that meet
the minimum Requirements for Approval of Applications as described in
the application package.

Allowable Activities

States receiving grants under this program may use the grant funds
to pay part or all of the cost of advanced placement test fees for low-
income individuals who (1) are enrolled in an advanced placement class;
and (2) plan to take an advanced placement test.

Award Basis

In determining grant award amounts, the Department will consider,
among other things, the number of children in the State eligible to be
counted under section 1124(c) of Title I of the ESEA in relation to the
number of such children counted in all the States that apply for
funding. Complete budget data must be submitted for each year of
funding requested.

Definitions

The following definitions and other provisions are taken from the
Advanced Placement Programs authorizing statute, in Title I, Part G of
the ESEA. They are repeated in this application notice for the
convenience of the applicant.
As used in this section:
(a) The term advanced placement test means an advanced placement
test administered by the College Board or approved by the Secretary of
Education.

Note: In addition to advanced placement tests administered by
the College Board, the Department has approved advanced placement
tests administered by the International Baccalaureate Organization.
As part of the grant application process, applicants may request
approval of tests from other educational entities that provide
comparable programs of rigorous academic courses and testing through
which students may earn college credit.

(b) The term low-income individual means an individual who is
determined by an SEA or local educational agency to be a child from a
low-income family on the basis of data used by the Secretary to
determine allocations under section 1124 of Title I of the ESEA, data
on children in families receiving assistance under part A of title IV
of the Social Security Act, or data on children eligible to receive
medical assistance under the Medicaid program under title XIX of the
Social Security Act, or through an alternate method that combines or
extrapolates from those data.

Information Dissemination

An SEA awarded a grant under the AP Test Fee program must
disseminate information regarding the availability of advanced
placement test fee payments under this program to eligible individuals
through secondary school teachers and guidance counselors.

Supplement, Not Supplant, Rule

Funds provided under this program may be used only to supplement,
and not supplant, other non-Federal funds that are available to assist
low-income individuals in paying advanced placement test fees.

Waiver of Proposed Rulemaking

In accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act (5 U.S.C.

[[Page 26957]]

553), it is the practice of the Secretary to offer interested parties
the opportunity to comment on proposed rules that are not taken
directly from the statute. Ordinarily, this practice would have applied
to the rules in this notice. Section 437(d)(2) of the General Education
Provisions Act (GEPA), however, exempts from this rulemaking
requirement those rules where the Secretary determines it would cause
extreme hardship to the intended beneficiaries of the program affected
by the regulations. The Secretary, in accordance with section 437(d)(2)
of GEPA, has decided to forego public comment with respect to the rules
in this grant competition in order to ensure timely and high-quality
awards. These rules will apply only to the FY 2003 grant competition.
For Applications Contact: Education Publications Center (ED Pubs),
P.O. Box 1398, Jessup, MD 20794-1398. Telephone (toll free): 1-877-433-
7827. FAX: (301) 470-1244. If you use a telecommunications device for
the deaf (TDD) you may call (toll free): 1-877-576-7734.
You may also contact ED Pubs at its Web site: http://www.edpubs.org/webstore/Content/search.asp.
Or you may contact ED Pubs at its e-mail address:
edpubs@inet.ed.gov. If you request an application from ED Pubs, be sure to identify
this competition as follows: CFDA number 84.330B.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Madeline E. Baggett, U.S. Department
of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20202-6140.
Telephone: (202) 260-2502 or via Internet: madeline.baggett@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 program contact person listed under FOR
FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.
Individuals with disabilities may obtain a copy of the application
package in an alternative format by contacting that person. However,
the Department is not able to reproduce in an alternative format the
standard forms included in the application package.

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/legislation/FedRegister/.
To use PDF, you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available
free at this site. If you have questions about using PDF, call the U.S.
Government Printing Office (GPO), toll free, at 1-888-293-6498; or in
the Washington, DC area at (202) 512-1530.

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.access.gpo.gov/nara/index.html.

Program Authority: 20 U.S.C. 6531-6537.

Dated: May 12, 2003.
Nina Rees,
Deputy Under Secretary for Innovation and Improvement.
[FR Doc. 03-12285 Filed 5-15-03; 8:45 am]

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