[Federal Register: October 18, 1999 (Volume 64, Number 200)]
[Notices]
[Page 56248-56250]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr18oc99-118]
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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
National Awards Program for Model Professional Development
AGENCY: Office of Educational Research and Improvement, Department of
Education.
ACTION: Notice of eligibility and selection criteria.
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SUMMARY: The Assistant Secretary for Educational Research and
Improvement (Assistant Secretary) announces eligibility and selection
criteria to govern competitions under the National Awards Program for
Model Professional Development for fiscal year (FY) 2000 and future
years. Using these criteria, the National Awards Program will recognize
a variety of schools and school districts with model professional
development activities at the pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade
levels that have led to increases in student achievement.
DATES: These eligibility and selection criteria are effective November
17, 1999.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Sharon Horn, Office of Educational
Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education, 555 New Jersey
Avenue, NW., room 506E, Washington, DC 20208-5644. Telephone: (202)
219-2203 or FAX to (202) 219-2198. Inquiries also may be sent by e-mail
to: sharon_horn@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
alternate format (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, or computer
diskette) on request to the contact person listed in the preceding
paragraph.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This notice announces definitions and
criteria to govern applications for recognition submitted under the
National Awards Program for Model Professional Development. This
Program began in 1996, in coordination with a wide range of national
education organizations, to highlight and recognize schools and school
districts whose professional development activities are well aligned
with the statement of the Mission and Principles of Professional
Development that the Department developed in 1995.
The public has expressed great interest in this program. In the
first three years of the program, the Department received nearly 300
applications for national recognition. The Secretary has recognized 20
schools and school districts in 12 states--Arizona, California,
Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Kansas, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New
York, Oklahoma, Texas and Washington--for the high quality of their
professional development activities and the link between those
activities and improved student learning. Moreover, the National Awards
Program has helped educators at all levels to learn both how teachers
and others in these sites have succeeded in implementing high-quality
professional development activities, and what educators in other
locations can do to better evaluate the effectiveness of their own
professional development efforts.
The importance of encouraging even more schools and school
districts to implement high-quality professional development that is
tied to increased student achievement, and having even greater numbers
of exemplary sites as models for others, demands that this awards
program be continued.
On July 28, 1999, the Assistant Secretary published a Notice of
[[Page 56249]]
Proposed Eligibility and Selection Criteria for this program in the
Federal Register (64 FR 40856-58). This notice proposed to continue the
eligibility and selection criteria that the Department announced in the
Federal Register on October 30, 1997 (62 FR 58870-73) with the
following exceptions:
* To meet criterion D, which requires applicants to
demonstrate the link between their professional development activities
and increased student achievement, applicants would need to present
data on student achievement using multiple measures that cover a period
of three years or more.
* If a school and a school district that served that school
both submitted applications under the National Awards program, the
Department only would consider the school district's application.
* All applicants would need to certify that they have no
outstanding violations of the Individuals With Disabilities Education
Act (IDEA) in a Department monitoring report or, if findings do exist,
that the findings either have been corrected or are part of an
agreement for corrective action.
There are no differences between the final eligibility and
selection criteria for this program, and those proposed in the July 28,
1999 notice.
Note: This notice does not solicit applications. A notice
inviting applications under this competition is published elsewhere
in this edition of the Federal Register.
Analysis of Comments and Changes
In response to the Assistant Secretary's invitation in the notice
of proposed eligibility and selection criteria, two parties submitted
comments. An analysis of the comments follows.
Comment: One commenter noted that applicants may have difficulty
meeting the proposed criterion that they use data from multiple
measures and over three or more years to demonstrate the link between
their professional development activities and increased student
achievement. The commenter observed that school districts are still in
the process of aligning their assessment systems with State content and
performance standards in core subjects. Therefore, it will be difficult
for school districts to provide the kind of longitudinal assessment
data over a period of three years or more that the commenter believes
the selection criteria require.
Discussion: We recognize that few schools and school districts are
able now to generate three or more years of data on student achievement
through new assessment measures that are aligned with State content and
student performance standards. Most States only very recently have
developed their State content and student performance standards, and
curriculum and teaching methods that complement them need to be in
place before these new assessment methods can be properly used.
Where school districts do use these newly aligned assessments as
measures of student achievement, the data they generate are available
to the districts for presentation in their National Awards Program
applications. However, because these student assessment measures are so
new, we agree that most school districts cannot be expected to use them
as the source of their multiyear data on student achievement. The
proposed selection criteria simply require applicants to describe both
their professional development activities and how the measures they
have used and relied upon during a period of three years or more
demonstrate that the achievement level of their students has increased.
We do not believe that any change in the selection criteria is
needed. However the program application packet has been revised to
clarify that in establishing the link between their professional
development activities and increased student achievement, applicants
are expected to describe whatever data sources they have relied upon
during this multi-year period to measure student achievement.
Changes: None.
Comment: One commenter stressed (1) the special circumstances of
schools with small, rural underserved populations including those that
serve Indian students, and (2) these schools' resource limitations and
relative inexperience in grant writing. The commenter recommended that
the criteria for the National Awards Program permit applications from
Native American schools, charter schools, and rural schools to be
separated from those from other schools.
Discussion: We are aware of the significant challenges faced by
many schools in rural areas, including those that serve Indian
students. However, for all students in the nation to achieve to their
potential, the Principles of Professional Development that the
Department developed in collaboration with the education and research
communities must be the same for all schools and school districts
regardless of their circumstances or geographic location. Similarly,
the criteria under which any school or school district would be
recognized for how well it has aligned its professional development
activities with those principles--the basis for recognition under the
National Awards Program--must be the same for all applicants.
We have worked to implement procedures that can ensure that those
selected for national recognition earn this recognition because of the
quality of their professional development activities rather than the
quality of their grant writing. The key to a successful application is
specific information that demonstrates that a school's or school
district's professional development activities are aligned with each of
the research-based Principles of Professional Development. The
Department developed this statement of principles in 1995 in
collaboration with the education community, and they are included in
the application packet. The program selection criteria and application
instructions have been crafted so that those classroom teachers and
others most familiar with a school or district's professional
development activities can prepare the application. Moreover, teams of
experts conduct on-site examinations of many applicants to ensure that
those whom the Secretary would recognize under the National Awards
Program earn this recognition because of the work of their teachers,
school leaders, and other staff, and not because of the quality of
their written applications.
Since the program's inception, the Secretary has recognized urban
and rural schools and school districts throughout the nation--including
an Indian school in Arizona. (Profiles of this and other past
recipients of recognition under the National Awards Program are
available through the Internet at http://www.ed.gov/inits/teachers/
research.html.) We are confident that this fact validates our
insistence that all schools and school districts that seek recognition
under the National Awards Program meet the same high standards for the
quality of their professional development activities.
Changes: None.
Eligibility and Selection Criteria
Eligible Applicants
As with previous years' programs, eligible applicants are schools
and school districts in the States (including schools located on Indian
reservations, and in the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the
outlying areas) that provide educational programs at the pre-
kindergarten through twelfth grade levels.
[[Page 56250]]
Selection Criteria
For reasons stated in the July 28, 1999 Notice of Proposed
Eligibility and Selection Criteria, the eligibility and application
selection criteria and selection procedures for the FY 2000 and future
year competitions are the same as those published in the Federal
Register on October 30, 1997 (59 FR 63773), subject to the following
three changes:
1. Criterion D (``Objective Evidence of Success'') includes
additional language requiring applicants to provide and discuss data
that indicate the connection between needs assessments, improvement
plans, professional development activities, and teacher and student
outcomes. In addition, in order to confirm that student achievement has
increased, the data that applicants provide on student achievement must
reflect multiple measures and cover a period of three years or more.
2. A school that applies for national recognition must apply on its
own or as part of its LEA's application. A school may not apply through
both applications. Should the Department receive an application from a
school and the LEA in which the school is located, it will review only
the LEA's application.
3. Those applying for National Awards Program recognition must
certify that there are no outstanding findings of violations of IDEA in
a Department monitoring report or, if findings do exist, the findings
either have been corrected or are subject to an agreement for
corrective action.
Goals 2000: Educate America Act
The Goals 2000: Educate America Act (Goals 2000) focuses the
Nation's education reform efforts on the eight National Education Goals
and provides a framework for meeting them. Goals 2000 promotes new
partnerships to strengthen schools and expands the Department's
capacities for helping communities to exchange ideas and obtain
information needed to achieve the goals.
These eligibility and selection criteria address the National
Education Goal that the Nation's teaching force will have the content
knowledge and teaching skills needed to instruct all American students
for the next century.
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995
The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 does not require you to respond
to a collection of information unless it displays a valid OMB control
number. The procedures and requirements contained in this notice relate
to the content of an application packet that the Department has
developed under the three National Awards program for Model
Professional Development. The public may obtain copies of these packets
by calling or writing the individuals identified at the beginning of
this notice as the Department's contact, or through the Department's
website: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OPE/heatqp/index.html.
As required by the Paperwork Reduction Act, the Office of
Management and Budget has approved the use of these application
packets, and the selection criteria announced in this notice, under the
following OMB control number 1880-0534, which expires September 30,
2002.
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 is intended to provide early notification of our
specific plans and actions for this program.
Electronic Access to This Document
You may review 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 (GPO), toll free, at 1-888-293-6498; or in the Washington, D.C.
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. 8001.
Dated: October 13, 1999.
C. Kent McGuire,
Assistant Secretary for Educational Research and Improvement.
[FR Doc. 99-27094 Filed 10-13-99; 3:55 pm]
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