02/10/00:Office of Elementary and Secondary Education--Advanceed Placement Incentive Program; Notice Inviting Applications for New Awards for Fiscal Year (FY) 2000 [OESE]


[Federal Register: February 10, 2000 (Volume 65, Number 28)]
[Notices]
[Page 6871-6873]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr10fe00-163]

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Part III

Department of Education

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Office of Elementary and Secondary Education--Advanceed Placement
Incentive Program; Notice Inviting Applications for New Awards for
Fiscal Year (FY) 2000; Notice

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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

[CFDA No.: 84.330]


Office of Elementary and Secondary Education--Advanced Placement
Incentive Program; Notice Inviting Applications for New Awards for
Fiscal Year (FY) 2000

    Purpose of Program: The Advanced Placement Incentive Program
provides grants to States, including consortia of States, to enable
them to pay advanced placement test fees on behalf of eligible low-
income individuals, and to undertake activities designed to increase
the participation of low-income students in advanced placement courses
and tests. For FY 2000, we encourage applicants to design projects that
meet the invitational priority in the PRIORITIES section of this
application notice.
    Eligible Applicants: State educational agencies (SEAs) in any
State, including the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto
Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana
Islands, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of
Micronesia, and the Republic of Palau.
    Deadline for Transmittal of Applications: March 27, 2000.
    Deadline for Intergovernmental Review: April 26, 2000.
    Applications Available: February 10, 2000.
    Estimated Available Funds: $15,000,000.
    Estimated Range of Awards: $50,000 to $1,200,000 per year.
    Estimated Average Size of Awards: $375,000 per year.
    Estimated Number of Awards: 40.

    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.

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. In addition, SEAs in
States in which no eligible low-income individual is required to pay
more than a nominal fee to take advanced placement tests in core
subjects may use grant funds for activities directly related to
increasing (a) the enrollment of low-income individuals in advanced
placement courses; (b) the participation of low-income individuals in
advanced placement tests; and (c) the availability of advanced
placement courses in schools serving high-poverty areas (hereinafter
referred to as ``section 810(d)(1) activities''). Examples of section
810(d)(1) activities may include, but are not limited to, projects that
provide student access to advanced placement courses online, and
professional development institutes designed to prepare teachers to
teach advanced placement courses. An SEA may apply for funds under this
program both to assist it in meeting the requirement that no eligible
low-income student in the State be required to pay more than a nominal
fee to take advanced placement tests in core subjects and for section
810(d)(1) activities.

Priorities

    (a) Absolute Priority. The Department is establishing an absolute
priority for proposals to use grant funds to pay advanced placement
test fees on behalf of eligible low-income individuals. We have chosen
this priority from the allowable activities specified in the program
statute (see 34 CFR 75.105(b)(2)(v) and section 810(a) of Title VIII,
Part B of the Higher Education Amendments of 1998 (20 U.S.C. 1070a-11,
note)).
    To implement this priority, the Department intends to fund, at some
level, all applications (1) meeting the minimum REQUIREMENTS FOR
APPROVAL OF APPLICATIONS described in the application package; and (2)
proposing to use grant funds for the purpose of paying part or all of
the cost of advanced placement test fees on behalf of eligible low-
income individuals in the State. For applications that propose to use
grant funds to pay advanced placement test fees and to support section
810(d)(1) activities, the section of the application proposing to use
grant funds for section 810(d)(1) activities will be evaluated based on
the SELECTION CRITERIA described in the application package (see 34 CFR
75.105(c)(3)).
    (b) Invitational Priority. The Department is particularly
interested in applications from consortia, or groups, of States to
undertake section 810(d)(1) activities. The consortium may be comprised
of SEAs from any combination of States. Under 34 CFR 75.105(c)(1), the
Department does not give an application that meets this invitational
priority a competitive or absolute preference over applications that do
not meet the invitational priority.

Allocation of Funds

    The Department intends to allocate approximately $4 million of the
funds available under this program to States for the purpose of paying
advanced placement test fees on behalf of eligible low-income
individuals. The Department intends to allocate approximately $11
million to States to support section 810(d)(1) activities. 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 the Elementary and Secondary Education
Act of 1965, in relation to the number of such children in all States.

Selection Criteria

    The Secretary uses the selection criteria published in 34 CFR
75.209 and 75.210 to evaluate the section of the application that
proposes to use grant funds to support section 810(d)(1) activities.
The application package includes the SELECTION CRITERIA and the points
assigned to each criterion.

Applicable Regulations and Statute

    The Education Department General Administrative Regulations (EDGAR)
in 34 CFR Parts 75, 77, 79, 80, 81, 82, 85, 86, and 99. Title VIII,
Part B of the Higher Education Amendments of 1998 (1998 Amendments), 20
U.S.C. 1070a-11, note.
    The following definitions and other provisions are taken from the
Advanced Placement Incentive Program authorizing statute, in Title
VIII, Part B of the 1998 Amendments. They are repeated in this
application notice for the convenience of the applicant.

Definitions

    As used in this section:
    (a) The term advanced placement test includes only an advanced
placement test approved by the Secretary of Education for the purposes
of this program.

    Note: To date, the Secretary has approved advanced placement
tests administered by The College Board and International
Baccalaureate Organisation. 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 has the meaning given the term
in section 402A(g)(2) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA) (20
U.S.C. 1070a-11(g)(2)).

    Note: Under section 402A(g)(2) of the HEA, the term low-income
individual means an

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individual from a family whose taxable income for the preceding year
did not exceed 150 percent of an amount equal to the poverty level
determined by using criteria of poverty established by the Bureau of
the Census (20 U.S.C. 1070a-11(g)(2)).

Information Dissemination

    The SEA shall disseminate information regarding the availability of
test fee payments under this program to eligible individuals through
secondary school teachers and guidance counselors (20 U.S.C. 1070a-11,
note (b)).

Supplement, Not Supplant, Rule

    Funds provided under this program must be used to supplement and
not supplant other non-Federal funds that are available to assist low-
income individuals in paying advanced placement test fees (20 U.S.C.
1070a-11, note (d)(2)).
    For Applications or Information Contact: Frank B. Robinson, U.S.
Department of Education, School Improvement Programs, 400 Maryland
Avenue, SW., Room 3C153, Washington, DC 20202-6140. Telephone (202)
260-2669. Internet address: frank--robinson@ed.gov
    Individuals who use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD)
may call the Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1-800-877-8339
between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., Eastern time, Monday through Friday.
    Individuals with disabilities may obtain this document in an
alternate format (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, or computer
diskette) upon request to the contact person listed in the preceding
paragraph. Individuals with disabilities may obtain a copy of the
application package in an alternate format, also, by contacting that
person. However, the Department is not able to reproduce in an
alternate 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 either of the
following sites:

http://ocfo.ed.gov/fedreg.htm
http://www.ed.gov/news.html

    To use the PDF, you must have the Adobe Acrobat Reader Program with
Search, which is available free at either of the previous sites. If you
have questions about using the PDF, call the U.S. Government Printing
Office toll free at 1-888-293-6498; or in the Washington, DC area at
(202) 512-1530.

    Note: The official version of a 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. 1070a-11, note.

    Dated: February 7, 2000.
Michael Cohen,
Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education.
[FR Doc. 00-3090 Filed 2-9-00; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P