Information on the NPD Program and professional development for educators of LEP students is available through: the National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition and Language Instruction Educational Programs:

• www.ncela.gwu.edu
• www.ncela.gwu.edu/oela/OELAprograms

Only institutions of higher education (IHEs), applying in consortia arrangements with one or more local educational agencies (LEAs) or State educational agencies (SEAs), are eligible to apply for a grant under the NPD Program. This means the IHE would be the lead agency and the fiscal agent for the grant.

Allowable activities are those that provide professional development for teachers and other educational personnel who are either serving or preparing to serve LEP students. Such activities may include, but are not limited to: collaborating with local school districts in designing high-quality professional development activities for new teachers; improving teacher training programs to reflect an aligned system of State English language proficiency standards, content standards and assessments; providing programs to assist regular classroom teachers to meet State certification requirements for teachers of LEP students; providing career ladder programs for paraprofessionals.

Applicants should develop measurable project objectives, including benchmarks and associated performance measures, reflecting the NPD Program Measures and the NPD GPRA Measures. Applicants should consider objectives in developing the program design, the management plan, the budget, and the evaluation plan.

The percentage of pre-service program graduates who are placed in instructional settings serving limited English proficient students within one year of graduation.

The percentage of pre-service program graduates who meet NCLB Highly Qualified Teacher requirements.

The percentage of in-service teacher completers who are providing instructional services to limited English proficient students.

Grantees will be expected to report on progress in meeting these performance measures for the NPD Program in their Annual Performance Report and in their Final Performance Report. In addition to the GPRA measures, the Department has developed two additional measures, program measures, used to help monitor the effectiveness of the NPD Program. We will expect each IHE, in consortium with its partnering LEA or SEA that carries out a project funded under this competition to document the extent to which the project is helping the Department meet these program measures.

These measures are:

• The effectiveness of graduates/completers in the instructional setting.
• The degree to which IHE pre-service and in-service training programs are aligned with K-12 State standards and assessments, including English language proficiency standards and content standards.

Grantees will be expected to report on progress in meeting these performance measures for the NPD Program in their Annual Performance Report and in their Final Performance Report.

An applicant may propose training for more than one type of educational personnel, for example, higher education faculty that prepare mainstream teachers and in-service content teachers working toward ESL endorsement or certification. In determining the number and of types of personnel to be trained, applicants should consider the identified needs of the districts to be served and the capacity of the institution to provide services for multiple types of educational personnel. In addition, applicants should also consider that service to multiple types of personnel may require goals, objectives, project activities and evaluation activities for each type of personnel it proposes to serve.

In responding to the selection criteria and priorities, applicants may wish to consider the following questions as a guide for preparing the application narrative:

• What are the specific responsibilities of districts, schools, IHE, States and other partnership organizations in planning, implementing, and evaluating the proposed project?
• How were teachers, administrators and others involved in planning and designing the project? What resources and support will be provided by each of the contributing partners?
• How does the proposed program curriculum reflect State certification requirements, an aligned system of State K-12 English language proficiency standards, content standards and assessments?
• How does the proposed program curriculum reflect current research on effective strategies for the development of LEP students’ language, literacy and content knowledge, including the development of academic language skills?
• How will the project build capacity to improve professional development in the IHE and in the target schools? For example, will project activities result in improved curricula related to preparing all teachers to provide instruction to LEP students; improved content knowledge of teachers; or improved field practice, assessment of teacher skills, or skills of higher education faculty?
• How will participants be prepared to collaborate with other educators, such as content teachers, English language development specialists, bilingual teachers, speech pathologists, administrators, counselors and others in designing instruction, assessing students and in providing support services for students?
• What are the expected outcomes for participant recruitment, participant progress in meeting project requirements, participant success in achieving program standards, graduate effectiveness in the instructional setting, and improved professional development in the school or the university?
• Do objectives reflect Program Measures and GPRA Measures? Will the project use multiple measures to assess participant and program effectiveness?
• What specific assessments and measures will the proposed project use to collect data on the effectiveness of the project in meeting its objectives, such as: field practice assessments; National or State assessments; surveys of graduates, mentor teachers, school administrators; rates of transfer from 2-year to 4-year institutions, graduation rates, placement rates; or achievement of K-12 students?
• How will the project assess progress and performance of participants and communicate meaningful, regular and timely feedback to participants?
• Does the management plan effectively demonstrate the relationship among project objectives and activities (including benchmarks and milestones), budget expenditures (such as personnel, travel, and supplies) for accomplishing project tasks?
• Will support services be provided for participants to ensure that they make progress and complete project requirements, such as special academic support, mentoring, enhanced advisement, test preparation, coordinated release time?

First, read the "Notice to All Applicants" included in the Application Package. Be sure to note the three examples included in the second column. Second, it is recommended that the applicant respond on a separate sheet of paper entitled "GEPA". The required response should include a description of the steps the applicant proposes to take to ensure equitable access to, and participation in, its Federally assisted program for students, teachers, and other program beneficiaries with special needs. (The Department does not use a specific form to for applicants to address GEPA).

Project budgets should reflect proposed project activities. In addition to student support costs, budget items may include costs for the evaluation, personnel, supplies or equipment, and other costs to support developmental activities, such as curriculum development for the professional development program.

A strong evaluation plan should be included in the application narrative and should be used, as appropriate, to shape the development of the project from the beginning of the grant period. The plan should include benchmarks to monitor progress in meeting objectives, and outcome measures to assess the impact on teaching and learning or other important outcomes for the project participants. In addition, the plan should specify the individual and/or organization that have agreed to served as the evaluator for the project and describe the qualifications of the evaluator. The plan should describe the evaluation design, indicating:

• What types of data will be collected;
• When data will be collected;
• What data collection methods will be used;
• What instruments will be developed and when;
• How the data will be analyzed;
• When reports of results and outcomes will be available;
• How the applicant will use the information collected through the evaluation to monitor progress of the funded project and to provide accountability information.

In order for the applicant to develop evaluation techniques that provide valid and reliable data on performance measures, it is important to review the ED 524 B Grant Performance Report Form.

The form may be downloaded at: www.ed.gov/fund/grant/apply/appforms/appforms.html

This program is subject to the requirement of Executive Order 12372 (Intergovernmental Review of Federal Programs) and the regulations in 34 CFR Part 79. The objective of the Executive Order is to foster an intergovernmental partnership and to strengthen federalism by relying on State and local processes for State and local government coordination and review of proposed Federal financial assistance. Applicants must contact the State Single Point of Contact to find out about, and to comply with, the State's process under executive Order 12372. You may locate the name and contact information of State Single Point of Contact on: www.whitehouse.gov/omb/grants/spoc.html

If your State requests this application for review, a copy of the cover letter sent to the State contact must be submitted with the application package. If the program is not covered by Executive Order 12372, or the State has not selected the program for review, you must state the reasons in a letter that must be submitted with the application package.

Grantees under the NPD Program must submit a final performance report at the end of the project period, including financial information, as directed by the Secretary. If you receive a multi-year award, you must submit an annual performance report that provides the most current performance and financial expenditure information as specified by the Secretary in FR 75.118.

The estimated average size of award of $ 257,000 is for each year of the grant period.

No, the actual level of program funding, if any, depends upon final Congressional action each fiscal year; whether substantial progress has been made toward meeting performance measures; and if the grantee is conducting effective fiscal management of the grant. Results of grant monitoring, including review of performance reports, desk monitoring, and site visits may also be used to determine whether a grantee is making substantial progress in order to be awarded continued funding.

Reports submitted by grantees are used by the Department to report program progress to the Office of Management and Budget and to Congress. Their review of the grant performance data may vitally affect future funding for this program.

If you are requesting reimbursement for indirect costs, this information is to be completed by your Business Office.

1) Indicate whether or not your organization has an Indirect Cost Rate Agreement that was approved by the Federal government.

2) Indicate the beginning and ending dates covered by the Indirect Cost Rate Agreement.

In addition, indicate whether ED or another Federal agency issued the approved agreement. An applicant must specify the name of the Federal agency that issued the approved agreement. Indirect costs are limited to 8% on grants under the NPD Program.

The amount of time it can take to upload an application will vary depending on a variety of factors, including the size of the application and the speed of your Internet connection. Therefore, we strongly recommend that you do not wait until the application deadline date to begin the submission process through Grants.gov.

You should review and follow the Education Submission Procedures for submitting an application through Grants.gov that are included in the application package for the NPD Program to ensure that you submit your application in a timely manner to the Grants.gov system.

You can also find the Education Submission Procedures pertaining to Grants.gov at:

e-grants.ed.gov/help/GrantsgovSubmissionProcedures.pdf

Yes. To submit your application via Grants.gov, you must complete all steps in the Grants.gov registration process, located at:

www.grants.gov/applicants/get_registered.jsp

These steps include:

(1) registering your organization, a multi-part process that includes registration with the Central Contractor Registry (CCR);

(2) registering yourself as an Authorized Organization Representative (AOR); and,

(3) getting authorized as an AOR by your organization. Details on these steps are outlined in the Grants.gov 3-Step Registration Guide.
www.grants.gov/section910/Grants.govRegistrationBrochure.pdf

You also must provide on your application the same D-U-N-S Number used with this registration.

Yes. You will need to update your CCR registration on an annual basis. This may take three or more business days to complete.

The registration process may take five or more business days to complete, and you must have completed all registration steps to allow you to submit successfully an application via Grants.gov.

You will not receive additional point value because you submit your application in electronic format, nor will we penalize you if you submit your application in paper format.