Schools that receive services under a Striving Readers grant must be eligible for Title I, Part A funds. However, the schools need not be receiving Title I funds. The program recognizes that many school districts do not serve their middle and/or high school grades with Title I funds. Schools that are part of the Striving Readers program only for the purposes of evaluation – and are not receiving services under Striving Readers – are not required to be eligible for Title I.

Schools participating in the Striving Readers program do not need to be receiving Title I funds, but need to meet the federal eligibility requirements for Title I. Information on Title I eligibility can be found in Section 1113 of Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and the regulations at 34 CFR 200.77 and 200.78.

For assistance determining Title I eligibility see Title I program guidance (especially Question 10 on the use of feeder patterns to establish eligibility for middle and high schools): August 2003 - Non-Regulatory Guidance: Local Educational Agency Identification and Selection of School Attendance Areas and Schools and Allocation of Title I Funds to Those Areas and Schools.
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Participation in Striving Readers does not change how Title I requirements apply to a local educational agency (LEA) or its schools. A Title I-eligible school is not subject to Title I accountability requirements and does not become subject to those requirements as a result of participation in the Striving Readers program.

Yes.

There are no specific size restrictions or requirements for applicants. However, the program mandates a rigorous experimental evaluation and small districts with small numbers of middle and/or high schools or students may, on their own, have difficulty meeting the absolute priority for establishing a rigorous experimental evaluation of the targeted intervention implemented. Small LEAs may partner with other LEAs and with their States/SEAs to help meet the requirements of this priority.

The large range of funds is an estimate provided by the Department. The Department is not bound by such estimates. The broad range was set for Striving Readers, not out of a preference for large projects in large districts with many students, but out of recognition of the likely high costs of implementing the key components of Striving Readers. This includes an intensive intervention for struggling readers, a school level reading improvement strategy, and a rigorous evaluation (including a random assignment experiment for the intensive intervention). The Department does not intend to support any projects larger than $5 million per year.

The $3 million funding average and $1-$5 million funding range stated in the Federal Register notice inviting applications for Striving Readers are per year estimates.

Yes. Planned expenditures will be reviewed and evaluated for their reasonableness and connection to the program design and expected outcomes. There is no prohibition on spending Striving Readers funds for such purposes to the extent such expenditures are reasonable, necessary, and integral to the proposed Striving Readers program.

For more information on scientific research designs, please see the resources page of the Striving Readers website. Resources include:

• Identifying and Implementing Educational Practices Supported by Rigorous Evidence: A User Friendly Guide
• Random Assignment in Program Evaluation and Intervention Research: Questions and Answers

No. This is the first year of funding for the Striving Readers grant program. There are no previous proposals.

Charter schools are eligible if they are local educational agencies (LEAs) by their States and receive Title I funds.

While grantees are not required to have definitive evaluation/outcome data on the literacy program they adopt under Striving Readers, the evaluation criteria demand that, for programs proposed that do not have scientifically proven results, applicants explain in detail how the strategies proposed are solidly grounded in research. It is important to demonstrate that there is a research basis and justification for the literacy strategies chosen -- why the chosen strategies are likely to yield student achievement results -- if there are not full-scale evaluation results on the particular model/program design. As a demonstration program, one of the goals of Striving Readers is to build the scientific research base around promising literacy strategies.

Yes. The term instructional level, used in the Striving Readers application, refers to the grade levels served.

Under the Striving Readers program, grantees must implement both intensive targeted interventions for students reading at least two years behind grade level and school-level strategies to enhance reading achievement. Both the targeted and school-level literacy improvement strategies are to be directed at students in grades 6 and above only.

We recognize that there are many different school configurations and want to clarify that Striving Reading services may be carried out in schools that contain grades other than grades 6-12 (for example, K-8, 5-8, or K-12 schools).

The targeted interventions must be for students in grades six through twelve who are reading at least two years below grade level. In schools that include grades K-8, for example, the targeted intervention must be targeted at struggling readers in one or more grades 6-8; however, the program does not have to serve all students reading two or more years below grade level.

The school level strategies must focus on improving literacy for the entire grade span/student population in the grades 6-12 included in the school. In a K-12 school, for example, the school level strategies must be designed to assist all students in grades 6 through 12. In a high school with grades 9-12, the school-level strategies would encompass all of the grades in the school.

The Department requested that letters of intent be submitted to the Department by September 14, 2005. However, the letter of intent was not mandatory. Interested applicants may still apply and may still e-mail a letter to StrivingReaders@ed.gov. Letters of intent should not include any program specific information. Submitting a letter of intent does not commit you to apply for the program. If you do not submit a letter of intent, eligible applicants still may apply for a grant.

November 14, 2005. Applicants, with few exceptions, are required to submit applications using the Departments e-grants system. See http://e-grants.ed.gov. Applicants, especially those who have never submitted an electronic application for a discretionary grant program through the Department, are encouraged to leave themselves ample time to register with the e-grants system and enter application information into the system.

No. The Striving Readers program authority does not provide the equitable participation of private school students.

Yes. However, the Department encourages grantees to limit the amount of indirect costs charged in order to maximize the funds available for services to students and for a rigorous evaluation.

We expect that applicants may use the spring/summer 2006 to prepare for full implementation of Striving Readers beginning in fall 2006 – referred to as a “planning period” in the Striving Readers application package. We expect that the final months of the project period (fall 2010) may be a period within which grantees would complete final evaluation reports.

For the purposes of the budget narrative portion of Striving Reader applications, applicants should treat the 5-year budget periods as follows:

• Budget/Project Period 1: January 2006-Deccember 2006
• Budget/Project Period 2: January 2007-December 2007
• Budget/Project Period 3: January 2008-December 2008
• Budget/Project Period 4: January 2009-December 2009
• Budget/Project Period 5: January 2010-December 2010

Yes.

While there may be some refinements to the evaluation or implementation plans during the planning period (Spring/Summer 2006) of Striving Readers grants, the Department expects that evaluation partners and participating schools will be identified and committed to the Striving Readers project as part of the application submitted. Applicants who have not secured and confirmed such participation and partnership are unlikely to be competitive.

The Department does not recommend a specific amount or percent of funds that must be reserved for evaluation. We encourage applicants to set aside an amount that is adequate for the scope and rigor of the evaluation project the Department is asking grantees to carry out. The Department expects that these costs are significant.

Applicants may design a random assignment evaluation of the intensive intervention for struggling readers at the school or student level. However, applicants need to consult with evaluation partners about what kind of experimental design they can support based on number of schools, size of student population, planned intervention and other factors.

The Department's Protection of Human Subjects in Research website includes information on the protection of human subjects in research. Evaluation partners will need to have procedures in place (review boards, guidelines) for conducting research involving human subjects.

The Department is willing to consider random assignment evaluation designs where one cohort participates in a randomized trial. However, it is the Department’s expectation that in such designs there would still be multiple years of follow up on students who participated in the trial. Applicants may want to propose multiple cohorts throughout project years. Either way, the evaluation must extend over the full period of Striving Readers program implementation.

Yes. Both the intensive intervention and the school-level strategies must be implemented in each year of the grant beginning no later than the start of the 2006-2007 school year.

No.

Yes. The school level improvement efforts required by Striving Readers are meant to benefit the entire school population in the grades 6-12 included in the schools. The Department specifies that strategies must be research based, cross disciplinary, and enhance overall reading achievement. This means that students in control groups within schools receiving Striving Readers services as well as students involved in targeted, intensive interventions for struggling readers would also benefit from school level literacy improvement strategies.

Yes.

The Department does not specify that the intervention must be supplemental or replacement. This is left to the applicant's discretion/design.

Grantees will be expected to submit performance reports to the Department annually. How many evaluation reports and the timing of such reports required by the Department are to be determined. However, we anticipate that Striving Reader grantees would need to submit a baseline/year 1 evaluation report, one interim evaluation report, and one final evaluation report.