FR Doc E6-5438
[Federal Register: April 12, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 70)]
[Notices]
[Page 18728-18730]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr12ap06-48]
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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Magnet Schools Assistance Program
AGENCY: Office of Innovation and Improvement, Department of Education.
ACTION: Notice of proposed priority.
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SUMMARY: The Assistant Deputy Secretary for Innovation and Improvement
proposes a priority under the Magnet Schools Assistance Program (MSAP).
The Assistant Deputy Secretary may use this priority for competitions
in fiscal year (FY) 2007 and in later years. We intend this priority to
encourage eligible applicants to focus on expanding their capacity to
provide public school choice by using magnet schools to provide public
school choice options to parents whose children attend schools that
have been identified for school improvement, corrective action, or
restructuring under Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education
Act of 1965, as amended (ESEA).
DATES: We must receive your comments on or before May 12, 2006.
ADDRESSES: Address all comments about this proposed priority to Steven
L. Brockhouse, U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW.,
room 4W229, Washington, DC 20202-5970. If you prefer to send your
comments through the Internet, use the following address:
steve.brockhouse@ed.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Steven L. Brockhouse. Telephone: (202)
260-2476 or via Internet:
steve.brockhouse@ed.gov.
If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), you may
call the Federal Relay Service (FRS) 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 this proposed priority.
To ensure that your comments have maximum effect in developing the
notice of final priority, we urge you to identify clearly the element
of the proposed priority 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 this proposed
priority. 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 this proposed priority in room 4W229, 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 this proposed priority. If you want to schedule
an appointment for this type of aid, please contact the person listed
under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.
General Information
The MSAP provides grants to eligible local educational agencies
(LEAs) and consortia of LEAs to support magnet schools that are part of
an approved desegregation plan. For the purpose of the MSAP, a magnet
school is a public elementary school, public secondary school, public
elementary education center, or public secondary education center that
offers a special curriculum capable of attracting substantial numbers
of students of different racial backgrounds.
Through the implementation of magnet schools, MSAP resources
support objectives and activities that enable all elementary and
secondary students to achieve to high standards, hold schools and LEAs
accountable for ensuring they do so, and help schools and LEAs develop
and design innovative educational methods and practices that support
desegregation efforts to eliminate, reduce, or prevent minority group
isolation and increase choices in public elementary and secondary
schools.
Background on Proposed Priority
Consistent with the statutory purpose of the MSAP, magnet schools
are designed to eliminate, reduce, or prevent minority group isolation
in schools with substantial numbers or percentages of minority group
students, bring students of different backgrounds together, assist LEAs
in achieving systemic reforms, provide all students the opportunity to
meet challenging State content standards and challenging State
performance standards, and increase choices in public elementary and
secondary schools.
The priority we are proposing, Expanding Capacity to Provide
Choice, would provide eligible LEAs with an opportunity to continue to
use magnet schools, consistent with their desegregation plan objectives
for the elimination, reduction, or prevention of minority group
isolation, to expand their capacity to provide public school choice to
parents whose children attend schools identified for school
improvement, corrective action, or restructuring.
The proposed priority would provide eligible applicants the
flexibility to use either or both of two approaches to expanding their
capacity to provide public school choice.
First, an eligible applicant could convert one or more schools
identified for improvement, corrective action, or restructuring under
Title I to magnet schools in order to improve the quality of teaching
and instruction in these schools. Using this approach, conversion of a
school to a magnet school would benefit students already attending the
school by offering a magnet curriculum that would include subject
matter or teaching methodology that is generally not available at other
schools in the LEA and would be more challenging and innovative than
the curricular program that the school had previously provided. The
implementation of the magnet curriculum, along with resources such as
equipment, supplies and staff development to support the implementation
of the magnet curriculum, would also help the school reduce, eliminate,
or prevent minority group isolation at the magnet school and/or at the
sending schools by attracting other students, including higher-
achieving students of different backgrounds, based on their interest in
a curricular program that would not be available to them in the schools
that they would otherwise attend.
Second, an eligible applicant could use higher-performing schools
as magnet schools and, by doing so, significantly increase the
opportunity for students attending schools identified for school
improvement, corrective action, or restructuring to participate in
public school choice by attending a higher-performing school. Using
this approach, an eligible applicant would need to ensure that the
magnet school would have sufficient space available to accommodate
students who would likely be interested in transferring from schools
identified for school improvement, corrective action, or restructuring.
Additionally, the LEA would need to show how the enrollment of the
magnet and/or sending schools
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(i.e., the schools identified for school improvement, corrective
action, or restructuring from which students would transfer) would
change in a manner that resulted in the elimination, reduction, or
prevention of minority group isolation in those sending schools.
Under either approach, an applicant would be required to show how
it would effectively inform parents whose children attend schools
identified for school improvement, corrective action, or restructuring
about the new choices made available to them in the magnet schools to
be funded under the project.
We will announce the final priority in a notice in the Federal
Register. We will determine the final priority after considering
responses to this notice and other information available to the
Department. This notice does not preclude us from proposing 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 this proposed priority, 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)).
Priority
Expanding Capacity to Provide Choice
This proposed priority supports applications that would--
(1) Help parents whose children attend low-performing schools (that
is, schools that have been identified for school improvement,
corrective action, or restructuring under Title I of the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended) by--
(a) Selecting schools identified for school improvement, corrective
action, or restructuring under Title I as magnet schools to be funded
under this project and improving the quality of teaching and
instruction in these schools; or
(b) Maximizing the opportunity for students in low-performing
schools to attend higher-performing magnet schools funded under the
project and thereby reduce minority group isolation in the low-
performing sending schools; and
(2) Effectively inform parents whose children attend low-performing
schools about choices that are available to them in the magnet schools
to be funded under the project.
Note: For the purpose of selecting applications under this
priority, school improvement has the meaning given in 34 CFR
200.32(a)(1), corrective action has the meaning given in 34 CFR
200.33(a), and restructuring has the meaning given in 34 CFR
200.34(a).
Executive Order 12866
This notice of proposed priority 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 priority
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 priority, we have
determined that the benefits of the proposed priority 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: The potential cost
associated with this proposed priority is minimal while the benefits
are significant.
The benefit of the proposed priority is that it will help
applicants prepare high-quality proposals that expand their capacity to
provide public school choice to parents whose children attend schools
that have not made adequate yearly progress.
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.
Applicable Program Regulations: 34 CFR part 280.
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 the following site:
http://www.ed.gov/news/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.
You may also view this document in text at the following site:
http://www.ed.gov/programs/magnet/applicant.html.
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 84.165A Magnet
Schools Assistance Program)
Program Authority: 20 U.S.C. 7231-7231j.
Dated: April 7, 2006.
Christopher J. Doherty,
Acting Assistant Deputy Secretary for Innovation and Improvement.
[FR Doc. E6-5438 Filed 4-11-06; 8:45 am]
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