Office of Innovation and Improvement; Overview Information; Promise Neighborhoods Program, 24671-24684 [2010-10492]
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[FR Doc. 2010–10463 Filed 5–4–10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000–01–P
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Office of Innovation and Improvement;
Overview Information; Promise
Neighborhoods Program
Notice inviting applications for new
awards for fiscal year (FY) 2010.
Catalog of Federal Domestic
Assistance (CFDA) Number: 84.215P.
Dates:
Applications Available: May 5, 2010.
Deadline for Notice of Intent to Apply:
May 21, 2010.
Date of Pre-Application Webinars:
Wednesday, May 5, 2010 and Monday,
May 10, 2010.
Deadline for Transmittal of
Applications: June 25, 2010.
Deadline for Intergovernmental
Review: August 24, 2010.
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Full Text of Announcement
I. Funding Opportunity Description
Purpose of Program: The Department
of Education Appropriations Act, 2010
provided funds for Promise
Neighborhoods under the legislative
authority of the Fund for the
Improvement of Education Program
(FIE), title V, part D, subpart 1, sections
5411 through 5413 of the Elementary
and Secondary Education Act of 1965,
as amended (ESEA) (20 U.S.C. 7243–
7243b). FIE supports nationally
significant programs to improve the
quality of elementary and secondary
education at the State and local levels
and help all children meet challenging
State academic content and student
academic achievement standards.
The purpose of Promise
Neighborhoods is to improve
significantly the educational and
developmental outcomes of children in
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our most distressed communities, and to
transform those communities by—
(1) Supporting efforts to improve
child outcomes and ensure that data on
those outcomes are communicated and
analyzed on an ongoing basis by leaders
and members of the community;
(2) Identifying and increasing the
capacity of eligible entities (as defined
in this notice) that are focused on
achieving results and building a collegegoing culture (as defined in this notice)
in the neighborhood;
(3) Building a complete continuum of
cradle-through-college-to-career
solutions (continuum of solutions)
(as defined in this notice), which has
both academic programs and family and
community supports (both as defined in
this notice), with a strong school or
schools at the center. Academic
programs must include (a) High-quality
early learning programs designed to
improve outcomes in multiple domains
of early learning (as defined in this
notice); (b) programs, policies, and
personnel for children in kindergarten
through the 12th grade that are linked
to improved academic outcomes; and
(c) programs that prepare students for
college and career success. Family and
community supports must include
programs to improve student health,
safety, community stability, family and
community engagement, and student
access to 21st century learning tools.
The continuum of solutions also must
be linked and integrated seamlessly (as
defined in this notice) so there are
common outcomes, a focus on similar
milestones, support during transitional
time periods, and no time or resource
gaps that create obstacles for students in
making academic progress. The
continuum also must be based on the
best available evidence including,
where available, strong or moderate
evidence (as defined in this notice), and
include programs, policies, practices,
services, systems, and supports that
result in improving educational and
developmental outcomes for children
from cradle through college to career;
(4) Integrating programs and breaking
down agency ‘‘silos’’ so that solutions
are implemented effectively and
efficiently across agencies;
(5) Supporting the efforts of eligible
entities, working with local
governments, to build the infrastructure
of policies, practices, systems, and
resources needed to sustain and ‘‘scale
up’’ proven, effective solutions across
the broader region beyond the initial
neighborhood; and
(6) Learning about the overall impact
of Promise Neighborhoods and about
the relationship between particular
strategies in Promise Neighborhoods
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and student outcomes, including a
rigorous evaluation of the program.
Background: Children who are from
low-income families and grow up in
high-poverty neighborhoods face
academic and life challenges above and
beyond the challenges faced by children
who are from low-income families who
grow up in neighborhoods without a
high concentration of poverty. A Federal
evaluation of the reading and
mathematics outcomes of elementary
students in 71 schools in 18 districts
and 7 States found that even when
controlling for individual student
poverty, there is a significant negative
association between school-level
poverty and student achievement.1 The
evaluation found that students have
lower academic outcomes when a
higher percentage of their same-school
peers qualify for free and reducedpriced lunch (FRPL) compared to when
a lower percentage of their same-school
peers qualify for FRPL. Another study
found that, even when controlling for a
student’s own socioeconomic status,
there is a significant negative
association between individual student
achievement growth during high school
and the socioeconomic status of
students in the school.2 The
compounding effects of neighborhood
poverty continue later in life: A third
study found that, for children with
similar levels of family income, growing
up in a neighborhood where the number
of families in poverty was between 20
and 30 percent increased the chance of
downward economic mobility—moving
down the income ladder relative to their
parents—by more than 50 percent
compared with children who grew up in
neighborhoods with under 10 percent of
families in poverty.3
Because challenges in distressed
communities with high concentrations
of poverty are interrelated, the
Department, through the Promise
Neighborhoods Program, is taking a
comprehensive approach to ensure that
children have access to a continuum of
cradle-through-college-to-career
solutions designed to support academic
achievement, healthy development, and
college and career success.
1 Westat and Policy Studies Associate. The
longitudinal evaluation of school change and
performance (LESCP) in title I schools. Prepared for
the U.S. Department of Education. Available
January 2010 online at https://
www.policystudies.com/studies/school/lescp
_vol2.pdf.
2 Rumberger, Russell W., & Palardy, G. J. ‘‘Does
segregation still matter? The impact of student
composition on academic achievement in high
school,’’ Teacher College Record, 107(9), Sept 2005.
3 Sharkey, Patrick. ‘‘Neighborhoods and the BlackWhite Mobility Gap.’’ Economic Mobility Project:
An Initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts, 2009.
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To effectively improve outcomes for
children in these distressed
communities, schools, academic
programs, and family and community
supports must include several core
features:
(a) Organizations and schools
implementing academic programs and
family and community supports that
have the capacity to collect, analyze,
and use data to evaluate their efforts.
(b) Academic programs, family and
community supports, and schools that
work together and closely integrate their
efforts so that time and resource gaps
that contribute to children missing
academic and developmental milestones
do not occur.
(c) Academic programs and family
and community supports that are
managed, directly or indirectly, by a
leader and an organization that can
engage the community and are
accountable for results.
(d) Schools, academic programs, and
family and community supports that are
implemented by using a ‘‘place-based’’
approach that leverages investments by
focusing resources in targeted places,
drawing on the compounding effect of
well-coordinated actions.4
Consistent with this approach, we
believe that it is important for
communities to develop a
comprehensive neighborhood
revitalization strategy that addresses
each of the essential neighborhood
assets (as defined in this notice), which
include accessible developmental,
commercial, recreational, physical, and
social assets that are vital to
transforming distressed neighborhoods
into healthy and vibrant communities of
opportunity. We believe that Promise
Neighborhoods will be most successful
when they are part of, and contributing
to, a city’s or region’s broader
neighborhood revitalization strategy.
Because Promise Neighborhoods focuses
on accessible, high-quality academic
programs, effective schools, and family
and community supports, which are all
primarily developmental assets, the
program is a Federal investment
designed, in part, to support the
implementation of a broader
comprehensive neighborhood
revitalization strategy. Only through the
development of such comprehensive
neighborhood revitalization plans,
which embrace the coordinated use of
programs and resources to effectively
address the interrelated needs within a
4 Memorandum from the Office of Management
and Budget (OMB). Developing Effective PlaceBased Policies for the FY 2011 Budget. August, 11,
2009. Available online at https://
www.whitehouse.gov/omb/assets/memoranda
_fy2009/m09–28.pdf.
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community, will the broader vision of
neighborhood transformation occur.
Through this notice, the Department
is establishing priorities and
requirements, and inviting applications,
for one-year grants that will support the
development of a plan to implement a
Promise Neighborhood. At the
conclusion of the planning grant period,
grantees should, at a minimum, have a
feasible plan to implement a continuum
of solutions with the potential to
improve results for children in the
community being served.
To be eligible for a planning grant, an
eligible entity must operate a school or
partner with at least one school, and
coordinate with the school’s local
educational agency (LEA). The school or
schools must be in a geographically
defined area in which there are multiple
signs of distress based on indicators of
need (as defined in this notice) and
other relevant indicators. Examples of
signs of distress are low-performing
schools (as defined in this notice);
significant achievement gaps among the
subgroups of students identified in
section 1111(b)(3)(C)(xiii) of the ESEA;
high dropout rates; significant levels of
child poverty; high student mobility
rates; high rates of crime, including
violent crime; high rates of vacant or
substandard homes; and prevalent
indicators of poor health, such as
asthma, poor nutrition, dental problems,
obesity, or avoidable developmental
delays (e.g., delays in cognitive,
communication, adaptive, physical, and
socio-emotional development).
As described in this notice, Promise
Neighborhoods planning grantees will
undertake the following activities
during the planning year:
(1) Conduct a comprehensive needs
assessment of children along the cradlethrough-college-to-career continuum
that builds on the statement of need
prepared to address the selection
criteria in this notice, and includes the
collection of data for the academic and
family and community support
indicators described in this notice for
children in the geographic area 5
proposed to be served.
(2) Conduct a segmentation analysis
(as defined in this notice) of the needs
in the neighborhood to better target
solutions for the children in that
neighborhood.
(3) Develop a plan to deliver the
continuum of solutions that addresses
the challenges and gaps identified
through the needs assessment and
segmentation analysis.
5 For the purposes of this notice, the Department
uses the terms ‘‘neighborhood’’ and ‘‘geographic
area’’ interchangeably.
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(4) Work with public and private
agencies, organizations (including
philanthropic organizations), and
individuals to gather and leverage
resources needed to support the
financial sustainability of the plan.
Planning grantees must demonstrate this
financial sustainability by identifying
the sources and amounts of current
Federal, State, and local funds,
including public and private funds, that
can be used for the project.
(5) Identify strategies for building
upon and leveraging high-quality
academic programs and family and
community supports; existing and
anticipated Federal resources, including
the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA); and
existing and anticipated investments in
neighborhood revitalization efforts and
similar place-based initiatives funded
by other Federal agencies such as the
U.S. Departments of Housing and Urban
Development, Health and Human
Services, and Justice. Efforts funded by
other Federal agencies include programs
such as HOPE VI and Choice
Neighborhoods, Health Centers, and the
Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation and
Weed and Seed Programs.
Note: The Departments of Health and
Human Services, Housing and Urban
Development, and Justice, along with the
Department of Education, may establish
incentives in future competitions for
communities intending to implement more
than one of these place-based initiatives.
(6) Build community support for and
involvement in the development of the
plan, which includes establishing
outcomes for children in the
neighborhood that are communicated
and analyzed on an ongoing basis by
leaders and members of the community.
(7) Obtain commitments from partners
to work long-term to implement the
plan, help ensure continued
programmatic success of their plan, and
develop a strategy to hold partners
accountable for meeting performance
goals and milestones.
(8) Plan, build, adapt, or expand a
comprehensive, longitudinal data
management system, while abiding by
Federal, State, and other privacy laws
and requirements, for all academic and
family and community support
indicators, as described in this notice, as
well as for additional indicators needed
for the Promise Neighborhoods
evaluation, such as demographic
characteristics.
(9) Work with a national evaluator for
Promise Neighborhoods. Planning
grantees must cooperate with the
national evaluator to ensure their
project design and data collection plan
allows for a rigorous evaluation, using
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standard methodologies across Promise
Neighborhoods sites, of the overall
impact of the Promise Neighborhoods
Program and the relationship between
particular solutions pursued by the
grantee and student outcomes.
(10) Participate in a community of
practice (as described in this notice).
The Department will monitor the
grantees’ progress toward completion of
these activities. During the planning
year, grantees must be able to
demonstrate performance, or show
significant progress toward completion,
of activities (1)–(10), including by
responding to the Department’s
questions and concerns regarding
progress.
In subsequent years, contingent on the
availability of funds, the Department
intends to conduct competitions for
Promise Neighborhoods implementation
grants, as well as competitions for new
Promise Neighborhoods planning
grants. While all eligible entities will be
able to apply for implementation grants,
eligible entities that have effectively
carried out the planning activities
described in this notice, whether
independently or with a Promise
Neighborhoods planning grant, are
likely to be well positioned with the
plan, commitments, data, and
organizational leadership and capacity
necessary to develop a quality
application for an implementation grant.
Applicants will be at different points
of readiness, in terms of developing a
plan, when they apply for a planning
grant. For that reason, we are requiring
applicants to demonstrate throughout
the application their: (a) Current
organizational capacity to plan for and
implement a Promise Neighborhood,
including the expertise of their
management team and partners; (b)
prior experience in carrying out
neighborhood revitalization or school
improvement initiatives, placing
emphasis on the applicant’s
performance and on the impact of its
work; and (c) ability to ensure ongoing
sustainability of Promise Neighborhood
activities.
Because a diverse group of
communities could benefit from
Promise Neighborhoods, the Secretary
establishes an absolute priority for
applications that propose to serve one or
more rural communities only (as
defined in this notice) and an absolute
priority for applications that propose to
serve one or more Indian Tribes (as
defined in this notice). Child poverty
rates in rural areas are higher than in
urban areas 6 and more than one fifth of
the Nation’s 2,000 ‘‘dropout factories,’’
6 American
Community Survey, 2006.
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in which the graduation rate is less than
60 percent, are located in rural areas.7
Our focus on rural communities is
consistent with the Senate
Appropriations Committee report on the
FY 2010 Department of Education,
Appropriations Act—S. REP. No. 111–
66 at 192 (August 4, 2009). Compared to
White students, American Indian
students have lower academic outcomes
and higher poverty rates.8 Moreover,
American Indian and Alaska Native
students have a graduation rate of less
than 50 percent nationally.9
The Secretary also recognizes that a
broad set of solutions is required to
improve academic and developmental
outcomes for children and to transform
communities. In that regard, the
Secretary establishes an invitational
priority to signal our interest in
applicants addressing the unique needs
of students with disabilities and
students with limited English
proficiency, and solutions related to
increasing internet connectivity,
improving civic engagement, and
accessing the arts and humanities.
Priorities: We are establishing these
priorities for the FY 2010 grant
competition only, in accordance with
section 437(d)(1) of the General
Education Provisions Act (GEPA),
20 U.S.C. 1232(d)(1).
Absolute Priorities: These priorities
are absolute priorities. Under 34 CFR
75.105(c)(3) we consider only
applications that meet either Absolute
Priority 1, Absolute Priority 2, or
Absolute Priority 3.
Note: Applicants must indicate in their
application whether they are applying under
Absolute Priority 1, Absolute Priority 2, or
Absolute Priority 3. An applicant that applies
under Absolute Priority 2, but is not eligible
for funding under Absolute Priority 2, or
applies under Absolute Priority 3, but is not
eligible for funding under Absolute Priority
3, may be considered for funding under
Absolute Priority 1.
These priorities are:
Absolute Priority 1: Proposal To
Develop a Promise Neighborhood Plan
To meet this priority, an applicant
must submit a proposal for how it will
plan to create a Promise Neighborhood.
This proposal must—
1. Describe the geographically defined
area to be served and the level of
7 Balfanz, Robert, Letgers, N. Locating the Dropout
Crisis: Which High Schools Produce the Nation’s
Dropouts? Johns Hopkins University, 2004.
8 Institute for Education Sciences. Status and
Trends in the Education of American Indians and
Alaska Natives, 2008.
9 The Civil Rights Project. The Dropout/
Graduation Crisis Among American Indian and
Alaska Native Students: Failure to Respond Places
the Future of Native Peoples at Risk, 2010.
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distress in that area based on indicators
of need and other relevant indicators.
Applicants may propose to serve
multiple, non-contiguous geographically
defined areas. In cases where target
areas are not contiguous, the applicant
must explain its rationale for including
non-contiguous areas;
2. Describe how the applicant will
plan to build a continuum of solutions
(as defined in this notice) designed to
significantly improve educational
outcomes and to support the healthy
development and well-being of children
in the neighborhood. The plan to be
developed by the applicant must ensure
that children in the target school or
schools described in paragraph 2(a)(i),
2(a)(ii), or 2(a)(iii) have access to a
complete continuum of solutions. The
applicant must explain how it will use
its needs assessment and segmentation
analysis to determine the children with
the highest needs and ensure that they
receive the appropriate services from
the continuum of solutions. Each
applicant will propose solutions, such
as programs, policies, practices,
services, systems, and supports that will
result in improvements on the project
indicators, as defined in this notice and
described in paragraph 10 of this
priority. There may be more than one
solution for each project indicator, and
a single solution may contribute to
improvement on more than one project
indicator. Applicants are not required to
propose solutions for program
indicators (as defined in this notice) that
are not also project indicators (see
paragraph 10 of this priority for an
explanation of the difference between
project indicators and program
indicators).
Although the continuum of solutions
must be designed to significantly
improve outcomes for children in the
neighborhood, applicants may also
propose to plan for solutions for adults
in the neighborhood that support
student learning, such as family literacy
programs. If an applicant proposes
solutions for adults, the application
must include an explanation of how the
services for adults directly align with
improved academic and family and
community support outcomes for
children.
The core component of the applicant’s
proposed continuum of solutions must
be a strategy, or a plan to develop a
strategy, to—
(a)(i) Significantly improve one or
more persistently lowest-achieving
schools (as defined in this notice) in the
neighborhood by implementing one of
the four school intervention models
(turnaround model, restart model,
school closure, or transformation model)
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described in Appendix C of the Race to
the Top Notice Inviting Applications for
New Awards for FY 2010, 74 FR 59836,
59866 (November 18, 2009);
(ii) Significantly improve one or more
low-performing schools in the
neighborhood that is not also a
persistently lowest-achieving school, by
implementing ambitious, rigorous, and
comprehensive interventions to assist,
augment, or replace schools, which may
include implementing one of the four
school intervention models (turnaround
model, restart model, school closure, or
transformation model) described in
Appendix C of the Race to the Top
Notice Inviting Applications for New
Awards for FY 2010, 74 FR 59836,
59866 (November 18, 2009), or may
include another model of sufficient
ambition, rigor, and comprehensiveness
to significantly improve academic and
other outcomes for students, with
elements that include addressing the
effectiveness of teachers and leaders and
the school’s use of time and resources,
including increased learning time
(as defined in the notice); or
(iii) Support and sustain one or more
effective schools (as defined in this
notice) in the neighborhood by
providing academic programs in a
manner that significantly enhances and
expands current efforts to improve the
academic outcomes of the children in
the neighborhood.
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Note regarding school reform strategies:
So as not to penalize an applicant from
working with an LEA that has implemented
rigorous reform strategies prior to the
publication of this notice, an applicant is not
required to propose a new reform strategy in
place of an existing reform strategy in order
to be eligible for a Promise Neighborhoods
planning grant. For example, an LEA might
have begun to implement improvement
activities that meet many, but not all, of the
elements of a transformation model of school
intervention.
In this case, the applicant could
propose, as part of its Promise
Neighborhood, to work with the LEA as
the LEA continues with its reforms;
(b) Ensure, as appropriate, that
children in the neighborhood who do
not attend the school or schools
described in paragraph 2(a)(i), 2(a)(ii), or
2(a)(iii) have access to solutions
designed to significantly improve
educational and developmental
outcomes. Examples of these solutions
are—
(i) High-quality early learning
programs designed to improve outcomes
in multiple domains of early learning
for young children;
(ii) After-school and other programs
that provide increased learning time (as
defined in the notice);
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(iii) Supports to address barriers to
student achievement, such as family
and community supports;
(iv) For children in kindergarten
through the 12th grade, instructional
programs based on the best available
evidence including, where available,
strong or moderate evidence that the
programs improve educational
outcomes;
(v) Multiple pathways for students to
earn regular high school diplomas (e.g.,
using schools that serve the needs of
over-aged, under-credited, or other
students with an exceptional need for
flexibility regarding when they attend
school or the additional supports they
require; awarding credit based on
demonstrated evidence of student
competency; or offering dual-enrollment
options); or
(vi) Other solutions based on the best
available evidence including, where
available, strong or moderate evidence
that the solutions improve educational
and developmental outcomes.
(c) To the extent feasible and
appropriate, the plan to be developed by
the applicant must leverage and
integrate existing high-quality programs
in the neighborhood into the continuum
of solutions. An applicant must identify
in its application the school or schools
described in paragraph 2(a)(i), 2(a)(ii), or
2(a)(iii) of this priority. In cases where
an eligible applicant operates a school
or partners with a school that does not
serve all students in the neighborhood,
the applicant must partner with at least
one additional school or schools that
serves students in the neighborhood. In
cases where an eligible applicant is a
nonprofit organization that manages,
operates, or partners with a private
school in the neighborhood, and the
school does not serve all students in the
neighborhood, the applicant must
partner with at least one additional
public school or schools that serve
students in the neighborhood.
(d) As part of the description of how
the applicant will plan to build a
continuum of solutions, an applicant
must—
(i) Propose solutions based on the best
available evidence including, where
available, strong or moderate evidence
that the applicant will plan to
implement in the geographic area
proposed to be served;
(ii) Describe the evidence supporting
each proposed solution; and
(iii) Propose one or more partners that
will participate in the implementation
of each solution (in any case in which
the applicant does not implement the
solution directly);
3. Describe the applicant’s
organizational capacity to plan and
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implement a Promise Neighborhood,
including the applicant’s experience
and lessons learned, in all of the
following areas:
(a) Working with the school or
schools described in paragraph 2 of this
priority; the LEA in which those schools
are located; Federal, State, and local
government leaders; and other service
providers.
(b) Serving the neighborhood and its
residents. The application must include
a description of the applicant’s and
partners’ historical commitment and
service to the neighborhood.
(c) Collecting, analyzing, and using
data for decision-making and ongoing
improvement.
(d) Creating formal and informal
relationships, and generating
community support to achieve results.
(e) Securing and integrating funding
streams from multiple public and
private sources.
(f) Implementing efforts similar or
related to the proposed Promise
Neighborhood. In the case of a newly
created eligible entity, the applicant
must describe the prior performance of
its management team in developing and
managing projects or programs similar
to the proposed Promise Neighborhood;
4. Describe how the applicant will
plan to sustain and ‘‘scale up’’ the
proposed Promise Neighborhood across
the broader region beyond the initial
neighborhood over time. This must
include a description of how the
applicant will estimate during the
planning phase the start-up and
operating costs per child, including
indirect and administrative costs, for
each solution proposed in its
application, and how the applicant will
measure these costs during the
implementation phase;
5. Describe the commitment the
applicant anticipates receiving from
partners by—
(a) Providing a preliminary
memorandum of understanding, signed
by each organization or agency with
which it would partner in planning and
implementing the proposed Promise
Neighborhood. The preliminary
memorandum of understanding must
describe—
(i) Each partner’s financial and
programmatic commitment;
(ii) How each partner’s existing
vision, theory of change (as defined in
this notice), theory of action (as defined
in this notice), and existing activities
align with those of the proposed
Promise Neighborhood; and
(iii) The governance structure of the
proposed Promise Neighborhood,
including how the eligible entity’s
governing board or advisory board is
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representative of the geographic area
proposed to be served (as defined in this
notice), and how residents of the
geographic area would have an active
role in the organization’s decisionmaking; and
(b) Explaining how the applicant will
plan to secure a commitment from local,
State, and Federal government leaders
to develop an infrastructure of policies,
practices, systems, and resources that
supports the continuum of solutions in
the proposed Promise Neighborhood
and ‘‘scales up’’ those elements of the
continuum that are proven effective;
6. Describe how the applicant will
plan to track available sources and
funding levels of Federal, State, and
local funds that could be utilized in the
project;
7. Describe how the applicant will
plan to identify Federal, State, or local
policies, regulations, or other
requirements that would impede the
applicant in achieving its goals and
report those impediments to the
Department and other relevant agencies;
8. Describe how the applicant will
plan to use data to manage program
implementation, inform decisionmaking, engage stakeholders, and
measure success. The applicant must
describe—
(a) Its proposal to plan, build, adapt,
or expand a longitudinal data system
that measures academic and family and
community support indicators for all
children in the neighborhood,
disaggregated by the subgroups listed in
section 1111(b)(3)(C)(xiii) of the ESEA;
(b) How the applicant will link the
longitudinal data system to schoolbased, LEA, and State data systems;
make the data accessible to program
partners, researchers, and evaluators
while abiding by Federal, State, and
other privacy laws and requirements;
and manage and maintain the system;
(c) How the applicant will use rapidtime (as defined in this notice) data both
in the planning year and, once the
Promise Neighborhood is implemented,
for continuous program improvement;
and
(d) How the applicant will document
the planning process, including by
describing lessons learned and best
practices;
9. Describe the applicant’s
commitment to work with the
Department and with a national
evaluator for Promise Neighborhoods to
ensure that data collection and program
design are consistent with plans to
conduct a rigorous national evaluation
of the Promise Neighborhoods Program
during the implementation phase and of
specific solutions and strategies pursued
by individual grantees. This
commitment must include, but need not
be limited to—
(a) Ensuring that the national
evaluator has access to relevant program
and project data sources (e.g.,
administrative data and program and
project indicator data) through
memoranda of understanding with
appropriate entities;
(b) Developing, in consultation with
the national evaluator, an evaluation
strategy, including identifying a credible
comparison group; and
(c) Developing, in consultation with
the national evaluator, a plan for
identifying and collecting reliable and
valid baseline data for both program
participants and a designated
comparison group of non-participants;
10. Identify and describe the
academic and family and community
support indicators that the applicant
will use in conducting the needs
assessment during the planning year.
Applicants must—
(a) Collect data for the academic
indicators listed in Table 1 and use
them as both program and project
indicators;
(b) Collect data for the family and
community support indicators in Table
2 and use them as program indicators;
and
(c) Collect data for unique family and
community support indicators,
developed by the applicant, that align
with the goals and objectives of projects
and use them as project indicators or
use the indicators in Table 2 as project
indicators.
TABLE 1—ACADEMIC INDICATORS AND RESULTS THEY ARE INTENDED TO MEASURE
Indicator
Result
—# and % of children birth to five years old who have a place where they usually go, other
than an emergency room, when they are sick or in need of advice about their health.
—# and % of three-year-olds and children in kindergarten who demonstrate at the beginning of
the program or school year age-appropriate functioning across multiple domains of early
learning (as defined in this notice) as determined using developmentally-appropriate early
learning measures (as defined in this notice).
—# & % of children, from birth to kindergarten entry, participating in center-based or formal
home-based early learning settings or programs, which may include Early Head Start, Head
Start, child care, or publicly funded preschool.
—# & % of students at or above grade level according to State mathematics and English language arts assessments in at least the grades required by the ESEA (3rd through 8th and
once in high school).
—Attendance rate of students in 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th grade .......................................................
—Graduation rate (as defined in this notice) ..................................................................................
—# & % of Promise Neighborhood students who graduate with a regular high school diploma,
as defined in 34 CFR 200.19(b)(1)(iv), and obtain postsecondary degrees, vocational certificates, or other industry-recognized certifications or credentials without the need for remediation.
Children enter kindergarten ready to learn.
Students are proficient in core academic subjects.
Students successfully transition from middle
grades to high school.
Youth graduate from high school.
High school graduates obtain a postsecondary
degree, certification, or credential.
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TABLE 2—FAMILY AND COMMUNITY SUPPORT INDICATORS AND RESULTS THEY ARE INTENDED TO MEASURE
Indicator
Result
—# & % of children who participate in at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity daily and consume five or more servings of fruits and vegetables daily; or
—possible second indicator, to be determined (TBD) by applicant.
—# & % of students who feel safe at school and traveling to and from school, as measured by
a school climate survey (as defined in this notice); or
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Students are healthy.
Students feel safe at school and in their community.
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TABLE 2—FAMILY AND COMMUNITY SUPPORT INDICATORS AND RESULTS THEY ARE INTENDED TO MEASURE—Continued
Indicator
Result
—possible second indicator, TBD by applicant.
—Student mobility rate (as defined in this notice); or ....................................................................
—possible second indicator, TBD by applicant.
—# & % of students who say they have a caring adult in their home, school, and community or
# & % of family members who attend parent-teacher conferences; or
—possible second indicator TBD by applicant
—# & % of students who have school and home access (and % of the day they have access)
to broadband internet (as defined in this notice) and a connected computing device; or
—possible second indicator TBD by applicant.
Note: The indicators in Tables 1 and 2 are
not intended to limit an applicant from
collecting and using data for additional
indicators. Examples of additional indicators
are—
(i) The # and % of children who participate
in high-quality learning activities during outof-school hours;
(ii) The # and % of suspensions or
discipline referrals during the year;
(iii) The share of housing stock in the
geographically defined area that is rentprotected, publicly assisted, or targeted for
redevelopment with local, State, or Federal
funds;
(iv) The # and % of children who are
homeless or in foster care and who have an
assigned adult advocate; and
(v) The # and % of young children who are
read to frequently by family members.
While the Department believes there
are many programmatic benefits of
collecting data on every child in the
proposed neighborhood, if the applicant
chooses to collect data on only a sample
of the children in the neighborhood for
some indicators, the applicant must
describe in its application how a sample
would be drawn that is representative of
children in the neighborhood.
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Absolute Priority 2: Promise
Neighborhoods in Rural Communities
The Secretary establishes a priority
for applicants proposing to develop
plans for implementing a Promise
Neighborhood that (1) meet all the
requirements in Absolute Priority 1; and
(2) serve one or more rural communities
only.
Absolute Priority 3: Promise
Neighborhoods in Tribal Communities
The Secretary establishes a priority
for applications that (1) Meet all
requirements in Absolute Priority 1; (2)
serve one or more Indian tribes; and (3)
are submitted by either an eligible entity
that partners with an Indian Tribe (as
defined in this notice), or by an Indian
Tribe that meets the definition of an
eligible entity.
Invitational Priority: Under this
competition we are particularly
interested in applications that address
the following priority. For FY 2010, this
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priority is an invitational priority.
Under 34 CFR 75.105(c)(1) we do not
give an application that meets this
invitational priority a competitive or
absolute preference over other
applications.
This priority is:
Invitational Priority: Unique Learning
Needs, Quality Internet Connectivity,
Civic Engagement, or Arts and
Humanities
The Secretary establishes a priority
for applicants proposing to develop
plans that include one or more
practices, strategies, or programs
designed to—
1. Address the unique learning needs
of students with disabilities or students
with limited English proficiency. This
may include activities designed to
improve academic outcomes; close
achievement gaps identified in section
1111(b)(3)(C)(xiii) of the ESEA between
students with disabilities as compared
to nondisabled students, and between
students with limited English
proficiency and their English proficient
peers; and increase college- and careerreadiness, including increasing high
school graduation rates for students
with disabilities or students with
limited English proficiency;
2. Ensure that almost all students in
the geographic area proposed to be
served have broadband internet access
(as defined in this notice) at home and
at school, a connected computing
device, and the knowledge and skills to
use broadband internet access
effectively and a connected computing
device to support schoolwork;
3. Include meaningful civic
engagement opportunities in the
geographic area proposed to be served.
Examples of these opportunities are
efforts to increase the participation of
residents, including children and youth,
in decisions that affect their community
and may improve school performance;
efforts to use the perspectives of
residents in shaping and evaluating
programs; and positive youth
development activities such as service-
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Students live in stable communities.
Families and community members support
learning in Promise Neighborhood schools.
Students have access to 21st century learning
tools.
learning (as defined in 42 U.S.C. 12511)
programs for students and families that
address specific challenges in the
neighborhood; or
4. Include opportunities for children
and youth to experience and participate
actively in the arts and humanities in
their community so as to broaden,
enrich, and enliven the educational,
cultural, and civic experiences available
in the neighborhood. Applicants may
propose to develop plans for offering
these activities in school and out-ofschool settings and at any time during
the calendar year.
Definitions: We are establishing these
definitions for the FY 2010 grant
competition only in accordance with
section 437(d)(1) of GEPA, 20 U.S.C.
1232(d)(1).
Academic programs means programs
that include, but are not limited to—
(a) High-quality early learning
programs designed to improve outcomes
in multiple domains of early learning
for young children. Such programs must
be specifically intended to align
standards, practices, strategies, or
activities across as broad an age range as
birth through third grade so as to ensure
that young children enter kindergarten
and the early elementary school grades
demonstrating age-appropriate
functioning across the multiple
domains;
(b) For children in kindergarten
through the 12th grade, programs,
policies, and personnel that are linked
to improved academic outcomes. The
programs, policies, and personnel—
(i) Must include effective teachers and
effective principals;
(ii) Must include strategies, practices,
or programs that encourage and
facilitate the evaluation, analysis, and
use of student achievement, student
growth, and other data by educators,
families, and other stakeholders to
inform decision-making;
(iii) Must include college and careerready standards, assessments, and
practices, including a well-rounded
curriculum, instructional practices,
strategies, or programs in, at a
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minimum, core academic subjects as
defined in section 9101(11) of the ESEA,
that are aligned with high academic
content and achievement standards and
with high-quality assessments based on
those standards; and
(iv) May include creating multiple
pathways for students to earn regular
high school diplomas (e.g., using
schools that serve the needs of overaged, under-credited, or other students
with an exceptional need for flexibility
regarding when they attend school or
the additional supports they require;
awarding credit based on demonstrated
evidence of student competency; or
offering dual-enrollment options).
(c) Programs that prepare students for
college and career success, which may
include programs that—
(i) Create and support partnerships
with community colleges, four-year
colleges, or universities and that help
instill a college-going culture in the
neighborhood;
(ii) Provide dual-enrollment
opportunities for secondary students to
gain college credit while in high school;
(iii) Provide, through relationships
with businesses and other organizations,
apprenticeship opportunities to
students;
(iv) Align curricula in the core
academic subjects with requirements for
industry-recognized certifications or
credentials, particularly in high-growth
sectors; and
(v) Provide access to career and
technical education programs so that
individuals can attain the skills and
industry-recognized certifications or
credentials for success in their careers.
Broadband internet access means
internet access sufficient to provide
community members with the internet
available when and where they need it
and for the uses they require.
College-going culture means a local
culture that includes an expectation that
all students in the geographic area
proposed to be served will have the
academic preparation, financial
resources, and other supports necessary
to go to college or pursue other
postsecondary training. That
expectation is apparent in the attitudes,
experiences, practices, beliefs, and
values of individuals in the
neighborhood.
Continuum of cradle-through-collegeto-career solutions or continuum of
solutions means solutions that—
(a) Include programs, policies,
practices, services, systems, and
supports that result in improving
educational and developmental
outcomes for children from cradle
through college to career;
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(b) Are based on the best available
evidence, including, where available,
strong or moderate evidence;
(c) Are linked and integrated
seamlessly (as defined in this notice);
and
(d) Include both academic programs
and family and community supports.
Developmentally appropriate early
learning measures means a range of
assessment instruments that are used in
ways consistent with the purposes for
which they were designed and
validated; appropriate for the ages and
other characteristics of the children
being assessed; designed and validated
for use with children whose ages,
cultures, languages spoken at home,
socioeconomic status, abilities and
disabilities, and other characteristics are
similar to those of the children with
whom the assessments will be used; and
used in compliance with the
measurement standards set forth by the
American Educational Research
Association (AERA), the American
Psychological Association (APA), and
the National Council for Measurement
in Education (NCME) in the 1999
Standards for Educational and
Psychological Testing.
Effective school means a school that
has—
(a) Significantly closed the
achievement gaps between subgroups of
students (as identified in section
1111(b)(3)(C)(xiii) of the ESEA) within
the school or district; or
(b)(i) Demonstrated success in
significantly increasing student
academic achievement in the school for
all subgroups of students (as identified
in section 1111(b)(3)(C)(xiii) of the
ESEA) in the school; and
(ii) Made significant improvements in
other areas, such as graduation rates (as
defined in this notice) or recruitment
and placement of effective teachers and
effective principals.
Eligible entity means an entity that—
(a) Is representative of the geographic
area proposed to be served (as defined
in this notice);
(b) Is one of the following:
(i) A nonprofit organization that meets
the definition of a nonprofit under 34
CFR 77.1(c), which may include a faithbased nonprofit organization; or
(ii) An institution of higher education
as defined by section 101(a) of the
Higher Education Act of 1965, as
amended; and
(c) Currently provides at least one of
the solutions from the applicant’s
proposed continuum of solutions in the
geographic area proposed to be served.
Note: An eligible entity proposing to plan
to ‘‘scale up’’ existing activities beyond the
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geographic area that the eligible entity is
currently serving must partner with at least
one organization or entity that provides at
least one of the solutions from the applicant’s
proposed continuum of solutions in the
geographic area proposed to be served.
Family and community supports
means—
(a) Student health programs, such as
mental health and physical health
programs (e.g., home visiting programs;
Early Head Start; programs to improve
nutrition and fitness, reduce childhood
obesity, and create healthier
communities);
(b) Safety programs, such as programs
in school and out of school to prevent,
control, and reduce crime, violence,
drug and alcohol use, and gang activity;
programs that address classroom and
school-wide behavior and conduct, such
as Positive Behavioral Interventions and
Supports; programs to prevent child
abuse and neglect; programs to prevent
truancy and reduce and prevent
bullying and harassment; and programs
to improve the physical and emotional
security of the school setting as
perceived, experienced, and created by
students, staff, and families;
(c) Community stability programs,
such as programs that—
(i) Increase the stability of families in
communities by expanding access to
quality, affordable housing, providing
legal support to help families secure
clear legal title to their homes, and
providing housing counseling or
housing placement services;
(ii) Provide employment
opportunities and training to improve
job skills and readiness in order to
decrease unemployment, with a goal of
increasing family stability;
(iii) Improve families’ awareness of,
access to, and use of a range of social
services, if possible at a single location;
(iv) Provide unbiased, outcomefocused, and comprehensive financial
education, inside and outside the
classroom and at every life stage;
(v) Increase access to traditional
financial institutions (e.g., banks and
credit unions) rather than alternative
financial institutions (e.g., check cashers
and payday lenders);
(vi) Help families increase their
financial assets and savings; and
(vii) Help families access
transportation to education and
employment opportunities;
(d) Family and community
engagement programs, such as family
literacy programs and programs that
provide training and opportunities for
family members and other members of
the community to support student
learning and establish high expectations
for academic achievement; mentorship
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programs that create positive
relationships between children and
adults; and programs that provide for
the use of such community resources as
libraries, museums, and local businesses
to support improved student academic
outcomes; and
(e) 21st century learning tools, such as
technology (e.g., computers and mobile
phones) used by students in the
classroom and in the community to
support their education. This includes
programs that help students use the
tools to develop knowledge and skills in
such areas as reading and writing,
mathematics, research, critical thinking,
communication, creativity, innovation,
and entrepreneurship.
Graduation rate means the four-year
or extended-year adjusted cohort
graduation rate as defined by 34 CFR
200.19(b)(1).
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Note: This definition is not meant to
prevent a grantee from also collecting
information about the reasons why students
do not graduate from the target high school,
e.g., dropping out or moving outside of the
school district for non-academic or academic
reasons.
Increased learning time means using
a longer school day, week, or year to
significantly increase the total number
of school hours. It is used to redesign
the school’s program in a manner that
includes additional time for (a)
Instruction in core academic subjects as
defined in section 9101 of the ESEA; (b)
instruction in other subjects and
enrichment activities that contribute to
a well-rounded education, including, for
example, physical education, service
learning, and experiential and workbased learning opportunities that are
provided by partnering, as appropriate,
with other organizations; and (c)
teachers to collaborate, plan, and engage
in professional development within and
across grades and subjects.
Indian Tribe means any Indian or
Alaska Native tribe, band, nation,
pueblo, village or community that the
Secretary of the Interior acknowledges
to exist as an Indian tribe, 25 U.S.C.
479a and 479a–1.
Indicators of need means currently
available data that describe—
(a) Academic need, which means—
(i) All or a portion of the
neighborhood includes or is within the
attendance zone of a low-performing
school that is a high school, especially
one in which the graduation rate (as
defined in this notice) is less than 60
percent or a school that can be
characterized as low-performing based
on another proxy indicator, such as
students’ on-time progression from
grade to grade; and
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(ii) Other indicators, such as
significant achievement gaps between
subgroups of students (as identified in
section 1111(b)(3)(C)(xiii) of the ESEA)
within a school or LEA, high teacher
and principal turnover, or high student
absenteeism; and
(b) Family and community support
need, which means—
(i) Percentages of children with
preventable chronic health conditions
(e.g., asthma, poor nutrition, dental
problems, obesity) or avoidable
developmental delays;
(ii) Immunization rates;
(iii) Rates of crime, including violent
crime;
(iv) Student mobility rates;
(v) Teenage birth rates;
(vi) Percentage of children in singleparent or no-parent families;
(vii) Rates of vacant or substandard
homes, including distressed public and
assisted housing; or
(viii) Percentage of the residents
living at or below the Federal poverty
threshold.
Linked and integrated seamlessly,
with respect to the continuum of
solutions, means solutions that have
common outcomes, focus on similar
milestones, support transitional time
periods (e.g., the beginning of
kindergarten, the middle grades, or
graduation from high school) along the
cradle-through-college-to-career
continuum, and address time and
resource gaps that create obstacles for
students in making academic progress.
Low-performing schools means
schools receiving assistance through
Title I that are in corrective action or
restructuring in the State, as determined
under section 1116 of the ESEA, and the
secondary schools (both middle and
high schools) in the State that are
equally as low-achieving as these Title
I schools and are eligible for, but do not
receive, Title I funds.
Moderate evidence means evidence
from previous studies with designs that
can support causal conclusions (i.e.,
studies with high internal validity) but
have limited generalizability (i.e.,
moderate external validity) or from
studies with high external validity but
moderate internal validity.
Multiple domains of early learning
means physical well-being and motor
development; social and emotional
development; approaches to learning,
which refers to the inclinations,
dispositions, or styles, rather than skills,
that reflect ways that children become
involved in learning and develop their
inclinations to pursue learning;
language development, including
emergent literacy; and cognition and
general knowledge, which refers to
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thinking and problem-solving as well as
knowledge about particular objects and
the way the world works. Cognition and
general knowledge include
mathematical and scientific knowledge,
abstract thought, and imagination.
Neighborhood assets means—
(a) Developmental assets that allow
residents to attain the skills needed to
be successful in all aspects of daily life
(e.g., educational institutions, early
learning centers, and health resources);
(b) Commercial assets that are
associated with production,
employment, transactions, and sales
(e.g., labor force and retail
establishments);
(c) Recreational assets that create
value in a neighborhood beyond work
and education (e.g., parks, open space,
community gardens, and arts
organizations);
(d) Physical assets that are associated
with the built environment and physical
infrastructure (e.g., housing, commercial
buildings, and roads); and
(e) Social assets that establish wellfunctioning social interactions (e.g.,
public safety and community
engagement).
Persistently lowest-achieving school
means, as determined by the State—
(a) Any school receiving assistance
through Title I that is in improvement,
corrective action, or restructuring and
that—
(i) Is among the lowest-achieving five
percent of Title I schools in
improvement, corrective action, or
restructuring or the lowest-achieving
five Title I schools in improvement,
corrective action, or restructuring in the
State, whichever number of schools is
greater; or
(ii) Is a high school that has had a
graduation rate that is less than 60
percent over a number of years; and
(b) Any secondary school that is
eligible for, but does not receive, Title
I funds that—
(i) Is among the lowest-achieving five
percent of secondary schools or the
lowest-achieving five secondary schools
in the State that are eligible for, but do
not receive, Title I funds, whichever
number of schools is greater; or
(ii) Is a high school that has had a
graduation rate that is less than 60
percent over a number of years.
Program indicators are indicators that
the Department will use only for
research and evaluation purposes and
for which an applicant is not required
to propose solutions.
Project indicators are indicators for
which an applicant proposes solutions
intended to result in progress on the
indicators.
Public officials means elected officials
(e.g., council members, aldermen and
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women, commissioners, State
legislators, Congressional
representatives, members of the school
board), appointed public officials (e.g.,
members of a planning or zoning
commission, or of any other regulatory
or advisory board or commission), or
individuals who are not necessarily
public officials, but who have been
appointed by a public official to serve
on the Promise Neighborhoods
governing board or advisory board.
Rapid-time, in reference to reporting
and availability of locally-collected
data, means that data are available
quickly enough to inform current
lessons, instruction, and related
academic programs and family and
community supports.
Representative of the geographic area
proposed to be served means that
residents of the geographic area
proposed to be served have an active
role in decision-making and that at least
one-third of the eligible entity’s
governing board or advisory board is
made up of—
(a) Residents who live in the
geographic area proposed to be served;
(b) Residents of the city or county in
which the neighborhood is located but
who live outside the geographic area
proposed to be served, and who are lowincome (which means earning less than
80 percent of the area’s median income
as published by the Department of
Housing and Urban Development);
(c) Public officials (as defined in this
notice) who serve the geographic area
proposed to be served (although not
more than one-half of the governing
board or advisory board may be made
up of public officials); or
(d) Some combination of individuals
from the three groups listed in
paragraphs (a), (b), and (c) of this
definition.
Rural community means a community
that is served by an LEA that is
currently eligible under the Small Rural
School Achievement (SRSA) program or
the Rural and Low-Income School
(RLIS) program authorized under Title
VI, Part B of the ESEA. Applicants may
determine whether a particular LEA is
eligible for these programs by referring
to information on the following
Department Web sites. For the SRSA
program: https://www.ed.gov/programs/
reapsrsa/eligible09/.
For the RLIS program: https://
www.ed.gov/programs/reaprlisp/
eligible09/.
School climate survey means an
evaluation tool that measures the extent
to which the school setting promotes or
inhibits academic performance by
collecting perception data from
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individuals, which could include
students, staff, or families.
Segmentation analysis means the
process of grouping and analyzing data
from children and families in the
geographic area proposed to be served
according to indicators of need (as
defined in this notice) or other relevant
indicators.
Note: The analysis is intended to allow
grantees to differentiate and more effectively
target interventions based on what they learn
about the needs of different populations in
the geographic area.
Strong evidence means evidence from
studies with designs that can support
causal conclusions (i.e., studies with
high internal validity), and studies that,
in total, include enough of the range of
participants and settings to support
scaling up to the State, regional, or
national level (i.e., studies with high
external validity).
Student achievement means—
(a) For tested grades and subjects:
(i) A student’s score on the State’s
assessments under the ESEA; and, as
appropriate,
(ii) Other measures of student
learning, such as those described in
paragraph (b) of this definition,
provided they are rigorous and
comparable across classrooms.
(b) For non-tested grades and subjects:
Alternative measures of student learning
and performance, such as student scores
on pre-tests and end-of-course tests;
student performance on English
language proficiency assessments; and
other measures of student achievement
that are rigorous and comparable across
classrooms.
Student growth means the change in
achievement data for an individual
student between two or more points in
time. Growth may also include other
measures that are rigorous and
comparable across classrooms.
Student mobility rate is calculated by
dividing the total number of new
student entries and withdrawals at a
school, from the day after the first
official enrollment number is collected
through the end of the academic year,
by the first official enrollment number
of the academic year.
Note: This definition is not meant to limit
a grantee from also collecting information
about why students enter or withdraw from
the school, e.g., transferring to charter
schools, moving outside of the school district
for non-academic or academic reasons.
Theory of action means an
organization’s strategy regarding how,
considering its capacity and resources,
it will take the necessary steps and
measures to accomplish its desired
results.
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Theory of change means an
organization’s beliefs about how its
inputs, and early and intermediate
outcomes, relate to accomplishing its
long-term desired results.
Waiver of Proposed Rulemaking:
Under the Administrative Procedure Act
(5 U.S.C. 553), the Department generally
offers interested parties the opportunity
to comment on proposed priorities,
definitions, requirements, and selection
criteria. Section 437(d)(1) of GEPA,
however, allows the Secretary to exempt
from rulemaking requirements and
regulations governing the first grant
competition under a new or
substantially revised program authority.
This is the first grant competition for
Promise Neighborhoods planning grants
and, therefore, qualifies for this
exemption. In order to ensure timely
grant awards, the Secretary has decided
to forgo public comment on the
priorities, definitions, requirements, and
selection criteria under section 437(d)(1)
of GEPA. These priorities, definitions,
requirements, and selection criteria will
apply to the FY 2010 grant competition
only.
Program Authority: 20 U.S.C. 7243–
7243b.
Applicable Regulations: The
Education Department General
Administrative Regulations (EDGAR) in
34 CFR parts 74, 75, 77, 79, 80, 81, 82,
84, 85, 86, 97, 98, and 99.
Note: The regulations in 34 CFR part 79
apply to all applicants except federally
recognized Indian tribes.
Note: The regulations in part 86 apply to
institutions of higher education only.
II. Award Information
Type of Award: Discretionary grants.
Estimated Available Funds:
$10,000,000.
Estimated Range of Awards:
$400,000–$500,000.
Estimated Average Size of Awards:
$450,000.
Maximum Award: $500,000. The
Department does not intend to award
any grant with a budget exceeding
$500,000.
Estimated Number of Awards: 20.
Note: The Department is not bound by any
estimates in this notice.
Project Period: Up to 12 months.
III. Eligibility Information
1. Eligible Applicants: An eligible
applicant is an eligible entity (as
defined in this notice) that operates a
school or partners, in coordination with
the school’s LEA, with at least one
school in the geographic area proposed
to be served in which there are multiple
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signs of distress based on indicators of
need and other relevant indicators.
For purposes of Absolute Priority 3,
an eligible applicant is an eligible entity
that partners with an Indian Tribe, or is
an Indian Tribe that meets the definition
of an eligible entity. To be eligible under
Absolute Priority 3, an applicant must
also operate a school or partner, in
coordination with the school’s LEA,
with at least one school in the
geographic area proposed to be served.
All eligible applicants may also partner
with such entities as an LEA; Federal,
State, and local government leaders; and
providers of family and community
supports. Partnering with such entities
is strongly encouraged but is not
required.
2. Cost-Sharing or Matching: To be
eligible for an award, an applicant must
demonstrate that it has established a
commitment from one or more entities
in the public or private sector, which
may include philanthropic
organizations, to provide financial
assistance, and that the entities will
provide matching funds for the planning
process. An applicant must obtain
matching funds, excluding other Federal
funds, or in-kind donations for the
planning process equal to at least 50
percent of its grant award, except that
an applicant proposing a project that
meets Absolute Priority 2: Promise
Neighborhoods in Rural Communities or
Absolute Priority 3: Promise
Neighborhoods in Tribal Communities
must obtain matching funds or in-kind
donations equal to at least 25 percent of
the grant award. Each applicant must
demonstrate a commitment of matching
funds in its application. In addition, the
applicant must specify the source of the
cost or contribution and in the case of
a third-party in-kind contribution, a
description of how the value was
determined for the donated or
contributed goods or service. Applicants
must demonstrate the match
commitment by including letters in
their applications explaining the type
and quantity of the match commitment,
including original signatures from the
executives of organizations or agencies
providing the match. The Secretary may
consider decreasing the matching
requirement in the most exceptional
circumstances, on a case-by-case basis.
An applicant that is unable to meet the
matching requirement must include in
its application a request to the Secretary
to reduce the matching level
requirement, including the amount of
the requested reduction and a statement
of the basis for the request. An applicant
should review the Department’s costsharing and cost-matching regulations,
which include specific limitations in 34
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CFR 74.23 applicable to non-profit
organizations and institutions of higher
education and 34 CFR 80.24 applicable
to State, local, and Indian tribal
governments, and the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) cost
principles for entity types regarding
donations, capital assets, depreciations
and allowable costs. These circulars are
available on OMB’s Web site at https://
www.whitehouse.gov/omb/circulars/
index.html.
IV. Application and Submission
Information
1. Address to Request Application
Package: Larkin Tackett, U.S.
Department of Education, 400 Maryland
Avenue, SW., Room 4W338, LBJ,
Washington, DC 20202–5970.
Telephone: (202) 453–6615 or by e-mail:
promiseneighborhoods@ed.gov.
If you use a telecommunications
device for the deaf (TDD), call the
Federal Relay Service (FRS), toll free, at
1–800–877–8339.
Individuals with disabilities can
obtain a copy of the application package
in an accessible format (e.g., Braille,
large print, audiotape, or computer
diskette) by contacting the program
contact person listed in this section.
2. Content and Form of Application
Submission: Requirements concerning
the content of an application, together
with the forms you must submit, are in
the application package for this
competition.
Notice of Intent to Apply: The
Department will be able to develop a
more efficient process for reviewing
grant applications if it has a better
understanding of the number of entities
that intend to apply for funding under
this competition. Therefore, the
Secretary strongly encourages each
potential applicant to notify the
Department by completing and emailing the form on the Department’s
Web site. The Department may publish
on the Department’s Web site a list of
applicants who submit an intent to
apply. This e-mail notification should
be sent to pnintent@ed.gov with ‘‘PN
Intent to Apply’’ in the subject heading.
Applicants that fail to provide this email notification may still apply for
funding.
Page Limit: The application narrative
(Part III of the application) is where you,
the applicant, address the selection
criteria that reviewers use to evaluate
your application.
You must limit the application
narrative (Part III) to the equivalent of
no more than 40 pages, using the
following standards:
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• A ‘‘page’’ is 8.5″ × 11″, on one side
only, with 1″ margins at the top, bottom,
and both sides.
• Double space (no more than three
lines per vertical inch) all text in the
application narrative, including titles,
headings, footnotes, quotations,
references, and captions, as well as all
text in charts, tables, figures, and
graphs.
• Use a font that is either 12 point or
larger or no smaller than 10 pitch
(characters per inch).
• Use one of the following fonts:
Times New Roman, Courier, Courier
New, or Arial. An application submitted
in any other font (including Times
Roman or Arial Narrow) will not be
accepted.
The page limit does not apply to Part
I, the cover sheet; Part II, the budget
section, including the narrative budget
justification; Part IV, the assurances and
certifications; or the one-page abstract,
the resumes, the memorandum of
understanding, or the match
commitment. However, the page limit
does apply to all of the application
narrative section (Part III).
3. Submission Dates and Times:
Applications Available: May 5, 2010.
Deadline for Notice of Intent to Apply:
May 21, 2010.
Date of Pre-Application Webinars:
Wednesday, May 5, 2010 and Monday,
May 10, 2010. These pre-application
webinars are designed to provide
technical assistance to interested
applicants for Promise Neighborhoods
planning grants. Detailed information
regarding the pre-application webinar
times will be available through the
Department of Education Web site at
https://www.ed.gov/programs/
promiseneighborhoods/.
Deadline for Transmittal of
Applications: June 25, 2010.
Applications for grants under this
program must be submitted
electronically using the Electronic Grant
Application System (e-Application)
accessible through the Department’s
e-Grants site. For information (including
dates and times) about how to submit
your application electronically, or in
paper format by mail or hand delivery
if you qualify for an exception to the
electronic submission requirement,
please refer to section IV. 7. Other
Submission Requirements of this notice.
We do not consider an application
that does not comply with the deadline
requirements.
Individuals with disabilities who
need an accommodation or auxiliary aid
in connection with the application
process should contact the person listed
under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
CONTACT in section VII of this notice. If
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the Department provides an
accommodation or auxiliary aid to an
individual with a disability in
connection with the application
process, the individual’s application
remains subject to all other
requirements and limitations in this
notice.
Deadline for Intergovernmental
Review: August 24, 2010.
4. Intergovernmental Review: This
program is subject to Executive Order
12372 and the regulations in 34 CFR
part 79. Information about
Intergovernmental Review of Federal
Programs under Executive Order 12372
is in the application package for this
competition.
5. Funding Restrictions: We reference
regulations outlining funding
restrictions in the Applicable
Regulations section of this notice.
6. Participation in a Community of
Practice: Grantees will be required to
participate in, organize, or facilitate, as
appropriate, communities of practice for
Promise Neighborhoods. A community
of practice is a group of grantees that
agrees to interact regularly to solve a
persistent problem or improve practice
in an area that is important to them and
the success of their project.
Establishment of communities of
practice under Promise Neighborhoods
will enable grantees to meet, discuss,
and collaborate with each other
regarding grantee projects.
7. Other Submission Requirements:
Applications for grants under this
program must be submitted
electronically unless you qualify for an
exception to this requirement in
accordance with the instructions in this
section.
a. Electronic Submission of
Applications.
Applications for grants under the
Promise Neighborhoods Program—
CFDA Number 84.215P must be
submitted electronically using eApplication, accessible through the
Department’s e-Grants Web site at:
https://e-grants.ed.gov.
We will reject your application if you
submit it in paper format unless, as
described elsewhere in this section, you
qualify for one of the exceptions to the
electronic submission requirement and
submit, no later than two weeks before
the application deadline date, a written
statement to the Department that you
qualify for one of these exceptions.
Further information regarding
calculation of the date that is two weeks
before the application deadline date is
provided later in this section under
Exception to Electronic Submission
Requirement.
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While completing your electronic
application, you will be entering data
online that will be saved into a
database. You may not e-mail an
electronic copy of a grant application to
us.
Please note the following:
• You must complete the electronic
submission of your grant application by
4:30:00 p.m., Washington, DC time, on
the application deadline date. EApplication will not accept an
application for this program after
4:30:00 p.m., Washington, DC time, on
the application deadline date.
Therefore, we strongly recommend that
you do not wait until the application
deadline date to begin the application
process.
• The hours of operation of the eGrants Web site are 6:00 a.m. Monday
until 7:00 p.m. Wednesday; and 6:00
a.m. Thursday until 8:00 p.m. Sunday,
Washington, DC time. Please note that,
because of maintenance, the system is
unavailable between 8:00 p.m. on
Sundays and 6:00 a.m. on Mondays, and
between 7:00 p.m. on Wednesdays and
6:00 a.m. on Thursdays, Washington,
DC time. Any modifications to these
hours are posted on the e-Grants Web
site.
• You will not receive additional
point value because you submit your
application in electronic format, nor
will we penalize you if you qualify for
an exception to the electronic
submission requirement, as described
elsewhere in this section, and submit
your application in paper format.
• You must submit all documents
electronically, including all information
you typically provide on the following
forms: The Application for Federal
Assistance (SF 424), the Department of
Education Supplemental Information for
SF 424, Budget Information—NonConstruction Programs (ED 524), and all
necessary assurances and certifications.
You must attach any narrative sections
of your application as files in a .DOC
(document), .RTF (rich text), or .PDF
(Portable Document) format. If you
upload a file type other than the three
file types specified in this paragraph or
submit a password protected file, we
will not review that material.
• Your electronic application must
comply with any page limit
requirements described in this notice.
• Prior to submitting your electronic
application, you may wish to print a
copy of it for your records.
• After you electronically submit
your application, you will receive an
automatic acknowledgment that will
include a PR/Award number (an
identifying number unique to your
application).
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• Within three working days after
submitting your electronic application,
fax a signed copy of the SF 424 to the
Application Control Center after
following these steps:
(1) Print SF 424 from e-Application.
(2) The applicant’s Authorizing
Representative must sign this form.
(3) Place the PR/Award number in the
upper right hand corner of the hardcopy signature page of the SF 424.
(4) Fax the signed SF 424 to the
Application Control Center at (202)
245–6272.
• We may request that you provide us
original signatures on other forms at a
later date.
Application Deadline Date Extension
in Case of e-Application Unavailability:
If you are prevented from electronically
submitting your application on the
application deadline date because eApplication is unavailable, we will
grant you an extension of one business
day to enable you to transmit your
application electronically, by mail, or by
hand delivery. We will grant this
extension if—
(1) You are a registered user of eApplication and you have initiated an
electronic application for this
competition; and
(2) (a) E-Application is unavailable for
60 minutes or more between the hours
of 8:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., Washington,
DC time, on the application deadline
date; or
(b) E-Application is unavailable for
any period of time between 3:30 p.m.
and 4:30:00 p.m., Washington, DC time,
on the application deadline date.
We must acknowledge and confirm
these periods of unavailability before
granting you an extension. To request
this extension or to confirm our
acknowledgment of any system
unavailability, you may contact either
(1) the person listed elsewhere in this
notice under For Further Information
Contact (see VII. Agency Contact) or (2)
the e-Grants help desk at 1–888–336–
8930. If e-Application is unavailable
due to technical problems with the
system and, therefore, the application
deadline is extended, an e-mail will be
sent to all registered users who have
initiated an e-Application. Extensions
referred to in this section apply only to
the unavailability of e-Application.
Exception to Electronic Submission
Requirement: You qualify for an
exception to the electronic submission
requirement, and may submit your
application in paper format, if you are
unable to submit an application through
e-Application because––
• You do not have access to the
Internet; or
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• You do not have the capacity to
upload large documents to eApplication; and
• No later than two weeks before the
application deadline date (14 calendar
days or, if the fourteenth calendar day
before the application deadline date
falls on a Federal holiday, the next
business day following the Federal
holiday), you mail or fax a written
statement to the Department, explaining
which of the two grounds for an
exception prevents you from using the
Internet to submit your application. If
you mail your written statement to the
Department, it must be postmarked no
later than two weeks before the
application deadline date. If you fax
your written statement to the
Department, we must receive the faxed
statement no later than two weeks
before the application deadline date.
Address and mail or fax your
statement to: Larkin Tackett, U.S.
Department of Education, 400 Maryland
Avenue, SW., Room 4W338,
Washington, DC 20202. Fax: (202) 401–
4123.
Your paper application must be
submitted in accordance with the mail
or hand delivery instructions described
in this notice.
b. Submission of Paper Applications
by Mail.
If you qualify for an exception to the
electronic submission requirement, you
may mail (through the U.S. Postal
Service or a commercial carrier) your
application to the Department. You
must mail the original and two copies
of your application, on or before the
application deadline date, to the
Department at the following address:
U.S. Department of Education,
Application Control Center, Attention:
(CFDA Number 215P), LBJ Basement
Level 1, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW.,
Washington, DC 20202–4260.
You must show proof of mailing
consisting of one of the following:
(1) A legibly dated U.S. Postal Service
postmark.
(2) A legible mail receipt with the
date of mailing stamped by the U.S.
Postal Service.
(3) A dated shipping label, invoice, or
receipt from a commercial carrier.
(4) Any other proof of mailing
acceptable to the Secretary of the U.S.
Department of Education.
If you mail your application through
the U.S. Postal Service, we do not
accept either of the following as proof
of mailing:
(1) A private metered postmark.
(2) A mail receipt that is not dated by
the U.S. Postal Service.
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If your application is postmarked after
the application deadline date, we will
not consider your application.
Note: The U.S. Postal Service does not
uniformly provide a dated postmark. Before
relying on this method, you should check
with your local post office.
c. Submission of Paper Applications
by Hand Delivery.
If you qualify for an exception to the
electronic submission requirement, you
(or a courier service) may deliver your
paper application to the Department by
hand. You must deliver the original and
two copies of your application, by hand,
on or before the application deadline
date, to the Department at the following
address: U.S. Department of Education,
Application Control Center, Attention:
(CFDA Number 215P), 550 12th Street,
SW., Room 7041, Potomac Center Plaza,
Washington, DC 20202–4260.
The Application Control Center
accepts hand deliveries daily between
8:00 a.m. and 4:30:00 p.m., Washington,
DC time, except Saturdays, Sundays,
and Federal holidays.
Note for Mail or Hand Delivery of Paper
Applications: If you mail or hand deliver
your application to the Department—
(1) You must indicate on the envelope
and—if not provided by the Department—in
Item 11 of the SF 424 the CFDA number,
including suffix letter, if any, of the
competition under which you are submitting
your application; and
(2) The Application Control Center will
mail to you a notification of receipt of your
grant application. If you do not receive this
grant notification within 15 business days
from the application deadline date, you
should call the U.S. Department of Education
Application Control Center at (202) 245–
6288.
V. Application Review Information
1. Selection Criteria: We are
establishing selection criteria for the FY
2010 grant competition only in
accordance with section 437(d)(1) of
GEPA, 20 U.S.C. 1232(d)(1). For these
selection criteria, we rely in large part
on the criteria in 34 CFR 75.210, with
some modifications to tailor the criteria
to this program.
The maximum score for all the
selection criteria is 100 points. The
maximum score for each criterion is
indicated in parentheses with the
criterion. The selection criteria are as
follows:
(1) Need for project (up to 10 points).
(a) The Secretary considers the need
for the proposed project.
(b) In determining the need for the
proposed project, the Secretary
considers—
(i) The magnitude or severity of the
problems to be addressed by the
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proposed project as described by
indicators of need and other relevant
indicators;
(ii) The extent to which the
geographically defined area has been
described; and
(iii) The extent to which specific gaps
or weaknesses in services,
infrastructure, or opportunities will be
identified and addressed by the
proposed project.
(2) Significance (up to 10 points).
(a) The Secretary considers the
significance of the proposed project.
(b) In determining the significance of
the proposed project, the Secretary
considers—
(i) The likelihood that the proposed
project will result in long-term systems
change or improvement;
(ii) The extent to which the proposed
project is likely to build local capacity
to provide, improve, or expand services
that address the needs of the target
population;
(iii) The extent to which the proposed
project involves the development or
demonstration of promising new
strategies that build on, or are
alternatives to, existing strategies; and
(iv) The potential to sustain and apply
the model of the proposed project or
strategies, including, as appropriate, the
potential for implementation of the
model in a variety of settings.
(3) Quality of the project design (up
to 20 points).
(a) The Secretary considers the quality
of the design of the proposed project.
(b) In determining the quality of the
design of the proposed project, the
Secretary considers the following
factors—
(i) The extent to which the applicant
describes how it will plan to build a
continuum of solutions designed to
significantly improve the academic and
family and community support
indicators in this notice;
(ii) The extent to which the
continuum of solutions includes a
strategy, or a plan to develop a strategy,
that will lead to significant
improvements in one or more schools
described in paragraph 2 of Absolute
Priority 1;
(iii) The extent to which the applicant
describes strategies for using data to
manage program implementation,
inform decision-making, engage
stakeholders, and measure success;
(iv) The extent to which the applicant
identifies and describes academic and
family and community support
indicators to be used for the needs
assessment during the planning year;
(v) The extent to which the applicant
demonstrates a commitment to work
with the Department and with a
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national evaluator for Promise
Neighborhoods to ensure that data
collection and program design are
consistent with plans to conduct a
rigorous national evaluation of the
Promise Neighborhoods Program during
the implementation phase and of
specific solutions and strategies pursued
by individual grantees; and
(vi) The extent to which the proposed
project will be coordinated with similar
or related efforts, and with other
appropriate community, State, and
Federal resources.
(4) Quality of project services (up to
15 points).
(a) The Secretary considers the quality
of the services to be provided by the
proposed project.
(b) In determining the quality of the
project services, the Secretary
considers—
(i) The extent to which the applicant
describes proposed solutions to be
provided by the proposed project that
are based on the best available evidence
including, where available, strong or
moderate evidence;
(ii) The likelihood that the services to
be provided by the proposed project
will lead to improvements in the
achievement of students as measured
against rigorous academic standards;
and
(iii) The extent to which the applicant
explains how the needs assessment and
segmentation analysis will be used to
determine that children with the highest
needs receive appropriate services to
meet academic and developmental
outcomes.
(5) Quality of project personnel (up to
25 points).
(a) The Secretary considers the quality
of the project personnel who will carry
out the proposed project.
(b) In determining the quality of the
project personnel, the Secretary
considers the qualifications, including
relevant training and experience, of the
applicant, including the project director,
and the prior performance of the
applicant on efforts similar or related to
the proposed Promise Neighborhood.
(c) Relevant experience includes the
applicant’s experience in and lessons
learned by—
(i) Working with the school or schools
described in paragraph 2 of Absolute
Priority 1;
(ii) Serving the neighborhood and its
residents;
(iii) Collecting, analyzing, and using
data for decision-making and ongoing
improvement;
(iv) Creating formal and informal
relationships, and generating
community support to achieve results;
and
(v) Securing and integrating funding
streams from multiple public and
private sources.
(6) Quality of the management plan
(up to 20 points).
(a) The Secretary considers the quality
of the management plan for the
proposed project.
(b) In determining the quality of the
management plan of the proposed
project, the Secretary considers—
(i) The adequacy of the management
plan to achieve the objectives of the
proposed project on time and within
budget, including clearly defined
responsibilities, timelines, and
24683
milestones for accomplishing project
tasks;
(ii) The extent to which the
memorandum of understanding
described in paragraph 5 of Absolute
Priority 1 describes each partner’s
financial and programmatic
commitment; how each partner’s
existing vision, theory of action, and
theory of change, and existing activities
align with those of the proposed
Promise Neighborhood; and the
governance structure of the proposed
Promise Neighborhood;
(iii) How the applicant will ensure
that a diversity of perspectives are
brought to bear in the operation of the
proposed project, including those of
families, school staff, the business
community, a variety of disciplinary
and professional fields, recipients or
beneficiaries of services, or others, as
appropriate; and
(iv) The potential for continued
support of the project after Federal
funding ends, including, as appropriate,
the demonstrated commitment of
appropriate entities to sustain and ‘‘scale
up’’ the proposed Promise
Neighborhood.
To facilitate the review of the
application, the Department strongly
recommends that applicants include a
table of contents for their project
narrative and address each of the
selection criteria and priorities from
Absolute Priority 1 in the order in
which they are described in Table 3.
After addressing the selection criteria,
applicants may address the invitational
priority included in the proposal to
plan.
TABLE 3—RECOMMENDED ORGANIZATION OF PROJECT NARRATIVE
Selection criteria
Absolute priority one requirement
Need for project (up to 10 points) ............................................................
Quality of project design (up to 20 points) ...............................................
Quality of project services (up to 15 points) ............................................
1. Description of the neighborhood and level of distress.
2. Description of how the applicant will plan to build the continuum;
8. Description of how the applicant will plan to use data;
9. Description of commitment to work with national evaluator; and
10. Description of indicators to be used for needs assessment.
3. Description of the applicant’s organizational capacity to plan and implement a Promise Neighborhood.
4. Description of how the applicant will plan to sustain and ‘‘scale up’’
the proposed Promise Neighborhood; and
5. Description of commitment the applicant anticipates receiving from
partners, including the preliminary memorandum of understanding
described in paragraph 5(a).
6. Description of how the applicant will plan to track available sources
and funding levels of Federal, State, and local funds that could be
utilized in the project; and
7. Description of how the applicant will identify Federal, State, or local
policies, regulations, or other requirements that would impede the
applicant in achieving its goals.
Quality of project personnel (up to 25 points) ..........................................
Quality of management plan (up to 20 points) ........................................
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Significance (up to 10 points) ...................................................................
Note: It may also be appropriate for an
applicant to address a requirement under
more than one selection criterion.
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2. Review and Selection Process: The
Department will screen applications
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submitted in accordance with the
requirements in this notice, and will
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determine which applications are
eligible to be read based on whether
they have met eligibility and other
statutory and regulatory requirements.
For the grant reviews, the Department
will use independent reviewers from
various backgrounds and professions
including: Pre-kindergarten–12 teachers
and principals, college and university
educators, researchers and evaluators,
social entrepreneurs, strategy
consultants, grant makers and managers,
community development practitioners
(in areas such as health or safety), and
others with education expertise. The
Department will thoroughly screen all
reviewers for conflicts of interest to
ensure a fair and competitive review
process.
Reviewers will read, prepare a written
evaluation, and score the applications
assigned to their panel, using the
selection criteria provided in this
notice.
For applications addressing Absolute
Priority 1, Absolute Priority 2, and
Absolute Priority 3, the Secretary
prepares a rank order of applications for
each absolute priority based solely on
the evaluation of their quality according
to the selection criteria. In accordance
with 34 CFR 75.217(d), the Secretary
will make final awards after considering
the rank ordering and other information
including an applicant’s performance
and use of funds and compliance
history under a previous award under
any Department program. In making
awards under any future competitions,
the Secretary will consider an
applicant’s past performance.
VI. Award Administration Information
1. Award Notices: If your application
is successful, we notify your U.S.
Representative and U.S. Senators and
send you a Grant Award Notification
(GAN). We may notify you informally
also.
If your application is not evaluated or
not selected for funding, we notify you.
2. Administrative and National Policy
Requirements: We identify
administrative and national policy
requirements in the application package
and reference these and other
requirements in the Applicable
Regulations section of this notice.
We reference the regulations outlining
the terms and conditions of an award in
the Applicable Regulations section in
this notice and include these and other
specific conditions in the GAN. The
GAN also incorporates your approved
application as part of your binding
commitments under the grant.
3. Reporting: At the end of your
project period, you must submit a final
performance report, including financial
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information, as directed by the
Secretary. The Secretary may also
require more frequent performance
reports under 34 CFR 75.720(c). For
specific requirements on reporting,
please go to https://www.ed.gov/fund/
grant/apply/appforms/appforms.html.
4. Performance Measures: The
Secretary has established one
performance indicator: The percentage
of planning grantees that produce a
high-quality plan as measured by their
receiving at least 90 percent of the total
possible points in the competition for
FY 2011 implementation grants. All
grantees will be required to submit a
final performance report documenting
their contribution in assisting the
Department in measuring the
performance of the program against this
indicator, as well as other information
requested by the Department.
VII. Agency Contact
For Further Information Contact:
Larkin Tackett, U.S. Department of
Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW.,
Room 4W338, Washington, DC 20202–
5970. Telephone: (202) 453–6615 or by
e-mail: promiseneighborhoods@ed.gov.
If you use a TDD, call the FRS, toll
free, at 1–800–877–8339.
VIII. Other Information
Accessible Format: Individuals with
disabilities can obtain this document
and a copy of the application package in
an accessible format (e.g., braille, large
print, audiotape, or computer diskette)
on request to the program contact
person listed under For Further
Information Contact in section VII of
this notice.
Electronic Access to This Document:
You can view this document, as well as
all other documents of this Department
published in the Federal Register, in
text or Adobe Portable Document
Format (PDF) on the Internet at the
following site: https://www.ed.gov/news/
fedregister. To use PDF you must have
Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is
available free at this site.
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: https://www.gpoaccess.gov/nara/
index.html.
Dated: April 29, 2010.
James H. Shelton, III,
Assistant Deputy Secretary for Innovation and
Improvement.
[FR Doc. 2010–10492 Filed 5–4–10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000–01–P
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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Environmental Management SiteSpecific Advisory Board, Savannah
River Site
Department of Energy.
Notice of open meeting.
AGENCY:
ACTION:
SUMMARY: This notice announces a
meeting of the Environmental
Management Site-Specific Advisory
Board (EM SSAB), Savannah River Site.
The Federal Advisory Committee Act
(Pub. L. 92–463, 86 Stat. 770) requires
that public notice of this meeting be
announced in the Federal Register.
DATES: Monday, May 24, 2010 1 p.m.–
5 p.m. Tuesday, May 25, 2010 8:30
a.m.–4:30 p.m.
ADDRESSES: The Mulberry Inn, 601 East
Bay Street, Savannah, Georgia 31401.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Gerri Flemming, Office of External
Affairs, Department of Energy,
Savannah River Operations Office, P.O.
Box A, Aiken, SC 29802; Phone: (803)
952–7886.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Purpose of the Board: The purpose of
the Board is to make recommendations
to DOE–EM and site management in the
areas of environmental restoration,
waste management, and related
activities.
Tentative Agenda:
Monday, May 24, 2010
1 p.m.
5 p.m.
Combined Committee Session.
Adjourn.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
8:30 a.m. Approval of Minutes,
Agency Updates, Public Comment
Session, Chair and Facilitator
Updates, Waste Management
Committee Report, Public Comment
Session.
12 p.m. Lunch Break.
1 p.m. Nuclear Materials Committee
Report, Strategic and Legacy
Management Committee Report,
Facility Disposition and Site
Remediation Committee Report,
Administrative Committee Report,
Public Comment Session.
4:30 p.m. Adjourn.
If needed, time will be allotted after
public comments for items added to the
agenda and administrative details. A
final agenda will be available at the
meeting on Monday, May 24, 2010.
Public Participation: The EM SSAB,
Savannah River Site, welcomes the
attendance of the public at its advisory
committee meetings and will make
every effort to accommodate persons
with physical disabilities or special
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[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 86 (Wednesday, May 5, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 24671-24684]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-10492]
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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Office of Innovation and Improvement; Overview Information;
Promise Neighborhoods Program
Notice inviting applications for new awards for fiscal year (FY)
2010.
Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number: 84.215P.
Dates:
Applications Available: May 5, 2010.
Deadline for Notice of Intent to Apply: May 21, 2010.
Date of Pre-Application Webinars: Wednesday, May 5, 2010 and
Monday, May 10, 2010.
Deadline for Transmittal of Applications: June 25, 2010.
Deadline for Intergovernmental Review: August 24, 2010.
Full Text of Announcement
I. Funding Opportunity Description
Purpose of Program: The Department of Education Appropriations Act,
2010 provided funds for Promise Neighborhoods under the legislative
authority of the Fund for the Improvement of Education Program (FIE),
title V, part D, subpart 1, sections 5411 through 5413 of the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended (ESEA) (20
U.S.C. 7243-7243b). FIE supports nationally significant programs to
improve the quality of elementary and secondary education at the State
and local levels and help all children meet challenging State academic
content and student academic achievement standards.
The purpose of Promise Neighborhoods is to improve significantly
the educational and developmental outcomes of children in our most
distressed communities, and to transform those communities by--
(1) Supporting efforts to improve child outcomes and ensure that
data on those outcomes are communicated and analyzed on an ongoing
basis by leaders and members of the community;
(2) Identifying and increasing the capacity of eligible entities
(as defined in this notice) that are focused on achieving results and
building a college-going culture (as defined in this notice) in the
neighborhood;
(3) Building a complete continuum of cradle-through-college-to-
career solutions (continuum of solutions) (as defined in this notice),
which has both academic programs and family and community supports
(both as defined in this notice), with a strong school or schools at
the center. Academic programs must include (a) High-quality early
learning programs designed to improve outcomes in multiple domains of
early learning (as defined in this notice); (b) programs, policies, and
personnel for children in kindergarten through the 12th grade that are
linked to improved academic outcomes; and (c) programs that prepare
students for college and career success. Family and community supports
must include programs to improve student health, safety, community
stability, family and community engagement, and student access to 21st
century learning tools. The continuum of solutions also must be linked
and integrated seamlessly (as defined in this notice) so there are
common outcomes, a focus on similar milestones, support during
transitional time periods, and no time or resource gaps that create
obstacles for students in making academic progress. The continuum also
must be based on the best available evidence including, where
available, strong or moderate evidence (as defined in this notice), and
include programs, policies, practices, services, systems, and supports
that result in improving educational and developmental outcomes for
children from cradle through college to career;
(4) Integrating programs and breaking down agency ``silos'' so that
solutions are implemented effectively and efficiently across agencies;
(5) Supporting the efforts of eligible entities, working with local
governments, to build the infrastructure of policies, practices,
systems, and resources needed to sustain and ``scale up'' proven,
effective solutions across the broader region beyond the initial
neighborhood; and
(6) Learning about the overall impact of Promise Neighborhoods and
about the relationship between particular strategies in Promise
Neighborhoods and student outcomes, including a rigorous evaluation of
the program.
Background: Children who are from low-income families and grow up
in high-poverty neighborhoods face academic and life challenges above
and beyond the challenges faced by children who are from low-income
families who grow up in neighborhoods without a high concentration of
poverty. A Federal evaluation of the reading and mathematics outcomes
of elementary students in 71 schools in 18 districts and 7 States found
that even when controlling for individual student poverty, there is a
significant negative association between school-level poverty and
student achievement.\1\ The evaluation found that students have lower
academic outcomes when a higher percentage of their same-school peers
qualify for free and reduced-priced lunch (FRPL) compared to when a
lower percentage of their same-school peers qualify for FRPL. Another
study found that, even when controlling for a student's own
socioeconomic status, there is a significant negative association
between individual student achievement growth during high school and
the socioeconomic status of students in the school.\2\ The compounding
effects of neighborhood poverty continue later in life: A third study
found that, for children with similar levels of family income, growing
up in a neighborhood where the number of families in poverty was
between 20 and 30 percent increased the chance of downward economic
mobility--moving down the income ladder relative to their parents--by
more than 50 percent compared with children who grew up in
neighborhoods with under 10 percent of families in poverty.\3\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Westat and Policy Studies Associate. The longitudinal
evaluation of school change and performance (LESCP) in title I
schools. Prepared for the U.S. Department of Education. Available
January 2010 online at https://www.policystudies.com/studies/school/lescp_vol2.pdf.
\2\ Rumberger, Russell W., & Palardy, G. J. ``Does segregation
still matter? The impact of student composition on academic
achievement in high school,'' Teacher College Record, 107(9), Sept
2005.
\3\ Sharkey, Patrick. ``Neighborhoods and the Black-White
Mobility Gap.'' Economic Mobility Project: An Initiative of The Pew
Charitable Trusts, 2009.
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Because challenges in distressed communities with high
concentrations of poverty are interrelated, the Department, through the
Promise Neighborhoods Program, is taking a comprehensive approach to
ensure that children have access to a continuum of cradle-through-
college-to-career solutions designed to support academic achievement,
healthy development, and college and career success.
[[Page 24672]]
To effectively improve outcomes for children in these distressed
communities, schools, academic programs, and family and community
supports must include several core features:
(a) Organizations and schools implementing academic programs and
family and community supports that have the capacity to collect,
analyze, and use data to evaluate their efforts.
(b) Academic programs, family and community supports, and schools
that work together and closely integrate their efforts so that time and
resource gaps that contribute to children missing academic and
developmental milestones do not occur.
(c) Academic programs and family and community supports that are
managed, directly or indirectly, by a leader and an organization that
can engage the community and are accountable for results.
(d) Schools, academic programs, and family and community supports
that are implemented by using a ``place-based'' approach that leverages
investments by focusing resources in targeted places, drawing on the
compounding effect of well-coordinated actions.\4\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\4\ Memorandum from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).
Developing Effective Place-Based Policies for the FY 2011 Budget.
August, 11, 2009. Available online at https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/assets/memoranda_fy2009/m09-28.pdf.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Consistent with this approach, we believe that it is important for
communities to develop a comprehensive neighborhood revitalization
strategy that addresses each of the essential neighborhood assets (as
defined in this notice), which include accessible developmental,
commercial, recreational, physical, and social assets that are vital to
transforming distressed neighborhoods into healthy and vibrant
communities of opportunity. We believe that Promise Neighborhoods will
be most successful when they are part of, and contributing to, a city's
or region's broader neighborhood revitalization strategy. Because
Promise Neighborhoods focuses on accessible, high-quality academic
programs, effective schools, and family and community supports, which
are all primarily developmental assets, the program is a Federal
investment designed, in part, to support the implementation of a
broader comprehensive neighborhood revitalization strategy. Only
through the development of such comprehensive neighborhood
revitalization plans, which embrace the coordinated use of programs and
resources to effectively address the interrelated needs within a
community, will the broader vision of neighborhood transformation
occur.
Through this notice, the Department is establishing priorities and
requirements, and inviting applications, for one-year grants that will
support the development of a plan to implement a Promise Neighborhood.
At the conclusion of the planning grant period, grantees should, at a
minimum, have a feasible plan to implement a continuum of solutions
with the potential to improve results for children in the community
being served.
To be eligible for a planning grant, an eligible entity must
operate a school or partner with at least one school, and coordinate
with the school's local educational agency (LEA). The school or schools
must be in a geographically defined area in which there are multiple
signs of distress based on indicators of need (as defined in this
notice) and other relevant indicators. Examples of signs of distress
are low-performing schools (as defined in this notice); significant
achievement gaps among the subgroups of students identified in section
1111(b)(3)(C)(xiii) of the ESEA; high dropout rates; significant levels
of child poverty; high student mobility rates; high rates of crime,
including violent crime; high rates of vacant or substandard homes; and
prevalent indicators of poor health, such as asthma, poor nutrition,
dental problems, obesity, or avoidable developmental delays (e.g.,
delays in cognitive, communication, adaptive, physical, and socio-
emotional development).
As described in this notice, Promise Neighborhoods planning
grantees will undertake the following activities during the planning
year:
(1) Conduct a comprehensive needs assessment of children along the
cradle-through-college-to-career continuum that builds on the statement
of need prepared to address the selection criteria in this notice, and
includes the collection of data for the academic and family and
community support indicators described in this notice for children in
the geographic area \5\ proposed to be served.
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\5\ For the purposes of this notice, the Department uses the
terms ``neighborhood'' and ``geographic area'' interchangeably.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
(2) Conduct a segmentation analysis (as defined in this notice) of
the needs in the neighborhood to better target solutions for the
children in that neighborhood.
(3) Develop a plan to deliver the continuum of solutions that
addresses the challenges and gaps identified through the needs
assessment and segmentation analysis.
(4) Work with public and private agencies, organizations (including
philanthropic organizations), and individuals to gather and leverage
resources needed to support the financial sustainability of the plan.
Planning grantees must demonstrate this financial sustainability by
identifying the sources and amounts of current Federal, State, and
local funds, including public and private funds, that can be used for
the project.
(5) Identify strategies for building upon and leveraging high-
quality academic programs and family and community supports; existing
and anticipated Federal resources, including the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA); and existing and anticipated
investments in neighborhood revitalization efforts and similar place-
based initiatives funded by other Federal agencies such as the U.S.
Departments of Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human
Services, and Justice. Efforts funded by other Federal agencies include
programs such as HOPE VI and Choice Neighborhoods, Health Centers, and
the Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation and Weed and Seed Programs.
Note: The Departments of Health and Human Services, Housing and
Urban Development, and Justice, along with the Department of
Education, may establish incentives in future competitions for
communities intending to implement more than one of these place-
based initiatives.
(6) Build community support for and involvement in the development
of the plan, which includes establishing outcomes for children in the
neighborhood that are communicated and analyzed on an ongoing basis by
leaders and members of the community.
(7) Obtain commitments from partners to work long-term to implement
the plan, help ensure continued programmatic success of their plan, and
develop a strategy to hold partners accountable for meeting performance
goals and milestones.
(8) Plan, build, adapt, or expand a comprehensive, longitudinal
data management system, while abiding by Federal, State, and other
privacy laws and requirements, for all academic and family and
community support indicators, as described in this notice, as well as
for additional indicators needed for the Promise Neighborhoods
evaluation, such as demographic characteristics.
(9) Work with a national evaluator for Promise Neighborhoods.
Planning grantees must cooperate with the national evaluator to ensure
their project design and data collection plan allows for a rigorous
evaluation, using
[[Page 24673]]
standard methodologies across Promise Neighborhoods sites, of the
overall impact of the Promise Neighborhoods Program and the
relationship between particular solutions pursued by the grantee and
student outcomes.
(10) Participate in a community of practice (as described in this
notice).
The Department will monitor the grantees' progress toward
completion of these activities. During the planning year, grantees must
be able to demonstrate performance, or show significant progress toward
completion, of activities (1)-(10), including by responding to the
Department's questions and concerns regarding progress.
In subsequent years, contingent on the availability of funds, the
Department intends to conduct competitions for Promise Neighborhoods
implementation grants, as well as competitions for new Promise
Neighborhoods planning grants. While all eligible entities will be able
to apply for implementation grants, eligible entities that have
effectively carried out the planning activities described in this
notice, whether independently or with a Promise Neighborhoods planning
grant, are likely to be well positioned with the plan, commitments,
data, and organizational leadership and capacity necessary to develop a
quality application for an implementation grant.
Applicants will be at different points of readiness, in terms of
developing a plan, when they apply for a planning grant. For that
reason, we are requiring applicants to demonstrate throughout the
application their: (a) Current organizational capacity to plan for and
implement a Promise Neighborhood, including the expertise of their
management team and partners; (b) prior experience in carrying out
neighborhood revitalization or school improvement initiatives, placing
emphasis on the applicant's performance and on the impact of its work;
and (c) ability to ensure ongoing sustainability of Promise
Neighborhood activities.
Because a diverse group of communities could benefit from Promise
Neighborhoods, the Secretary establishes an absolute priority for
applications that propose to serve one or more rural communities only
(as defined in this notice) and an absolute priority for applications
that propose to serve one or more Indian Tribes (as defined in this
notice). Child poverty rates in rural areas are higher than in urban
areas \6\ and more than one fifth of the Nation's 2,000 ``dropout
factories,'' in which the graduation rate is less than 60 percent, are
located in rural areas.\7\ Our focus on rural communities is consistent
with the Senate Appropriations Committee report on the FY 2010
Department of Education, Appropriations Act--S. REP. No. 111-66 at 192
(August 4, 2009). Compared to White students, American Indian students
have lower academic outcomes and higher poverty rates.\8\ Moreover,
American Indian and Alaska Native students have a graduation rate of
less than 50 percent nationally.\9\
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\6\ American Community Survey, 2006.
\7\ Balfanz, Robert, Letgers, N. Locating the Dropout Crisis:
Which High Schools Produce the Nation's Dropouts? Johns Hopkins
University, 2004.
\8\ Institute for Education Sciences. Status and Trends in the
Education of American Indians and Alaska Natives, 2008.
\9\ The Civil Rights Project. The Dropout/Graduation Crisis
Among American Indian and Alaska Native Students: Failure to Respond
Places the Future of Native Peoples at Risk, 2010.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Secretary also recognizes that a broad set of solutions is
required to improve academic and developmental outcomes for children
and to transform communities. In that regard, the Secretary establishes
an invitational priority to signal our interest in applicants
addressing the unique needs of students with disabilities and students
with limited English proficiency, and solutions related to increasing
internet connectivity, improving civic engagement, and accessing the
arts and humanities.
Priorities: We are establishing these priorities for the FY 2010
grant competition only, in accordance with section 437(d)(1) of the
General Education Provisions Act (GEPA), 20 U.S.C. 1232(d)(1).
Absolute Priorities: These priorities are absolute priorities.
Under 34 CFR 75.105(c)(3) we consider only applications that meet
either Absolute Priority 1, Absolute Priority 2, or Absolute Priority
3.
Note: Applicants must indicate in their application whether they
are applying under Absolute Priority 1, Absolute Priority 2, or
Absolute Priority 3. An applicant that applies under Absolute
Priority 2, but is not eligible for funding under Absolute Priority
2, or applies under Absolute Priority 3, but is not eligible for
funding under Absolute Priority 3, may be considered for funding
under Absolute Priority 1.
These priorities are:
Absolute Priority 1: Proposal To Develop a Promise Neighborhood Plan
To meet this priority, an applicant must submit a proposal for how
it will plan to create a Promise Neighborhood. This proposal must--
1. Describe the geographically defined area to be served and the
level of distress in that area based on indicators of need and other
relevant indicators. Applicants may propose to serve multiple, non-
contiguous geographically defined areas. In cases where target areas
are not contiguous, the applicant must explain its rationale for
including non-contiguous areas;
2. Describe how the applicant will plan to build a continuum of
solutions (as defined in this notice) designed to significantly improve
educational outcomes and to support the healthy development and well-
being of children in the neighborhood. The plan to be developed by the
applicant must ensure that children in the target school or schools
described in paragraph 2(a)(i), 2(a)(ii), or 2(a)(iii) have access to a
complete continuum of solutions. The applicant must explain how it will
use its needs assessment and segmentation analysis to determine the
children with the highest needs and ensure that they receive the
appropriate services from the continuum of solutions. Each applicant
will propose solutions, such as programs, policies, practices,
services, systems, and supports that will result in improvements on the
project indicators, as defined in this notice and described in
paragraph 10 of this priority. There may be more than one solution for
each project indicator, and a single solution may contribute to
improvement on more than one project indicator. Applicants are not
required to propose solutions for program indicators (as defined in
this notice) that are not also project indicators (see paragraph 10 of
this priority for an explanation of the difference between project
indicators and program indicators).
Although the continuum of solutions must be designed to
significantly improve outcomes for children in the neighborhood,
applicants may also propose to plan for solutions for adults in the
neighborhood that support student learning, such as family literacy
programs. If an applicant proposes solutions for adults, the
application must include an explanation of how the services for adults
directly align with improved academic and family and community support
outcomes for children.
The core component of the applicant's proposed continuum of
solutions must be a strategy, or a plan to develop a strategy, to--
(a)(i) Significantly improve one or more persistently lowest-
achieving schools (as defined in this notice) in the neighborhood by
implementing one of the four school intervention models (turnaround
model, restart model, school closure, or transformation model)
[[Page 24674]]
described in Appendix C of the Race to the Top Notice Inviting
Applications for New Awards for FY 2010, 74 FR 59836, 59866 (November
18, 2009);
(ii) Significantly improve one or more low-performing schools in
the neighborhood that is not also a persistently lowest-achieving
school, by implementing ambitious, rigorous, and comprehensive
interventions to assist, augment, or replace schools, which may include
implementing one of the four school intervention models (turnaround
model, restart model, school closure, or transformation model)
described in Appendix C of the Race to the Top Notice Inviting
Applications for New Awards for FY 2010, 74 FR 59836, 59866 (November
18, 2009), or may include another model of sufficient ambition, rigor,
and comprehensiveness to significantly improve academic and other
outcomes for students, with elements that include addressing the
effectiveness of teachers and leaders and the school's use of time and
resources, including increased learning time (as defined in the
notice); or
(iii) Support and sustain one or more effective schools (as defined
in this notice) in the neighborhood by providing academic programs in a
manner that significantly enhances and expands current efforts to
improve the academic outcomes of the children in the neighborhood.
Note regarding school reform strategies:
So as not to penalize an applicant from working with an LEA that
has implemented rigorous reform strategies prior to the publication
of this notice, an applicant is not required to propose a new reform
strategy in place of an existing reform strategy in order to be
eligible for a Promise Neighborhoods planning grant. For example, an
LEA might have begun to implement improvement activities that meet
many, but not all, of the elements of a transformation model of
school intervention.
In this case, the applicant could propose, as part of its Promise
Neighborhood, to work with the LEA as the LEA continues with its
reforms;
(b) Ensure, as appropriate, that children in the neighborhood who
do not attend the school or schools described in paragraph 2(a)(i),
2(a)(ii), or 2(a)(iii) have access to solutions designed to
significantly improve educational and developmental outcomes. Examples
of these solutions are--
(i) High-quality early learning programs designed to improve
outcomes in multiple domains of early learning for young children;
(ii) After-school and other programs that provide increased
learning time (as defined in the notice);
(iii) Supports to address barriers to student achievement, such as
family and community supports;
(iv) For children in kindergarten through the 12th grade,
instructional programs based on the best available evidence including,
where available, strong or moderate evidence that the programs improve
educational outcomes;
(v) Multiple pathways for students to earn regular high school
diplomas (e.g., using schools that serve the needs of over-aged, under-
credited, or other students with an exceptional need for flexibility
regarding when they attend school or the additional supports they
require; awarding credit based on demonstrated evidence of student
competency; or offering dual-enrollment options); or
(vi) Other solutions based on the best available evidence
including, where available, strong or moderate evidence that the
solutions improve educational and developmental outcomes.
(c) To the extent feasible and appropriate, the plan to be
developed by the applicant must leverage and integrate existing high-
quality programs in the neighborhood into the continuum of solutions.
An applicant must identify in its application the school or schools
described in paragraph 2(a)(i), 2(a)(ii), or 2(a)(iii) of this
priority. In cases where an eligible applicant operates a school or
partners with a school that does not serve all students in the
neighborhood, the applicant must partner with at least one additional
school or schools that serves students in the neighborhood. In cases
where an eligible applicant is a nonprofit organization that manages,
operates, or partners with a private school in the neighborhood, and
the school does not serve all students in the neighborhood, the
applicant must partner with at least one additional public school or
schools that serve students in the neighborhood.
(d) As part of the description of how the applicant will plan to
build a continuum of solutions, an applicant must--
(i) Propose solutions based on the best available evidence
including, where available, strong or moderate evidence that the
applicant will plan to implement in the geographic area proposed to be
served;
(ii) Describe the evidence supporting each proposed solution; and
(iii) Propose one or more partners that will participate in the
implementation of each solution (in any case in which the applicant
does not implement the solution directly);
3. Describe the applicant's organizational capacity to plan and
implement a Promise Neighborhood, including the applicant's experience
and lessons learned, in all of the following areas:
(a) Working with the school or schools described in paragraph 2 of
this priority; the LEA in which those schools are located; Federal,
State, and local government leaders; and other service providers.
(b) Serving the neighborhood and its residents. The application
must include a description of the applicant's and partners' historical
commitment and service to the neighborhood.
(c) Collecting, analyzing, and using data for decision-making and
ongoing improvement.
(d) Creating formal and informal relationships, and generating
community support to achieve results.
(e) Securing and integrating funding streams from multiple public
and private sources.
(f) Implementing efforts similar or related to the proposed Promise
Neighborhood. In the case of a newly created eligible entity, the
applicant must describe the prior performance of its management team in
developing and managing projects or programs similar to the proposed
Promise Neighborhood;
4. Describe how the applicant will plan to sustain and ``scale up''
the proposed Promise Neighborhood across the broader region beyond the
initial neighborhood over time. This must include a description of how
the applicant will estimate during the planning phase the start-up and
operating costs per child, including indirect and administrative costs,
for each solution proposed in its application, and how the applicant
will measure these costs during the implementation phase;
5. Describe the commitment the applicant anticipates receiving from
partners by--
(a) Providing a preliminary memorandum of understanding, signed by
each organization or agency with which it would partner in planning and
implementing the proposed Promise Neighborhood. The preliminary
memorandum of understanding must describe--
(i) Each partner's financial and programmatic commitment;
(ii) How each partner's existing vision, theory of change (as
defined in this notice), theory of action (as defined in this notice),
and existing activities align with those of the proposed Promise
Neighborhood; and
(iii) The governance structure of the proposed Promise
Neighborhood, including how the eligible entity's governing board or
advisory board is
[[Page 24675]]
representative of the geographic area proposed to be served (as defined
in this notice), and how residents of the geographic area would have an
active role in the organization's decision-making; and
(b) Explaining how the applicant will plan to secure a commitment
from local, State, and Federal government leaders to develop an
infrastructure of policies, practices, systems, and resources that
supports the continuum of solutions in the proposed Promise
Neighborhood and ``scales up'' those elements of the continuum that are
proven effective;
6. Describe how the applicant will plan to track available sources
and funding levels of Federal, State, and local funds that could be
utilized in the project;
7. Describe how the applicant will plan to identify Federal, State,
or local policies, regulations, or other requirements that would impede
the applicant in achieving its goals and report those impediments to
the Department and other relevant agencies;
8. Describe how the applicant will plan to use data to manage
program implementation, inform decision-making, engage stakeholders,
and measure success. The applicant must describe--
(a) Its proposal to plan, build, adapt, or expand a longitudinal
data system that measures academic and family and community support
indicators for all children in the neighborhood, disaggregated by the
subgroups listed in section 1111(b)(3)(C)(xiii) of the ESEA;
(b) How the applicant will link the longitudinal data system to
school-based, LEA, and State data systems; make the data accessible to
program partners, researchers, and evaluators while abiding by Federal,
State, and other privacy laws and requirements; and manage and maintain
the system;
(c) How the applicant will use rapid-time (as defined in this
notice) data both in the planning year and, once the Promise
Neighborhood is implemented, for continuous program improvement; and
(d) How the applicant will document the planning process, including
by describing lessons learned and best practices;
9. Describe the applicant's commitment to work with the Department
and with a national evaluator for Promise Neighborhoods to ensure that
data collection and program design are consistent with plans to conduct
a rigorous national evaluation of the Promise Neighborhoods Program
during the implementation phase and of specific solutions and
strategies pursued by individual grantees. This commitment must
include, but need not be limited to--
(a) Ensuring that the national evaluator has access to relevant
program and project data sources (e.g., administrative data and program
and project indicator data) through memoranda of understanding with
appropriate entities;
(b) Developing, in consultation with the national evaluator, an
evaluation strategy, including identifying a credible comparison group;
and
(c) Developing, in consultation with the national evaluator, a plan
for identifying and collecting reliable and valid baseline data for
both program participants and a designated comparison group of non-
participants;
10. Identify and describe the academic and family and community
support indicators that the applicant will use in conducting the needs
assessment during the planning year. Applicants must--
(a) Collect data for the academic indicators listed in Table 1 and
use them as both program and project indicators;
(b) Collect data for the family and community support indicators in
Table 2 and use them as program indicators; and
(c) Collect data for unique family and community support
indicators, developed by the applicant, that align with the goals and
objectives of projects and use them as project indicators or use the
indicators in Table 2 as project indicators.
Table 1--Academic Indicators and Results They Are Intended To Measure
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Indicator Result
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- and % of children birth to five Children enter
years old who have a place where they kindergarten ready to
usually go, other than an emergency room, learn.
when they are sick or in need of advice
about their health.
-- and % of three-year-olds and
children in kindergarten who demonstrate at
the beginning of the program or school year
age-appropriate functioning across multiple
domains of early learning (as defined in
this notice) as determined using
developmentally-appropriate early learning
measures (as defined in this notice).
-- & % of children, from birth to
kindergarten entry, participating in center-
based or formal home-based early learning
settings or programs, which may include
Early Head Start, Head Start, child care, or
publicly funded preschool.
-- & % of students at or above grade Students are proficient
level according to State mathematics and in core academic
English language arts assessments in at subjects.
least the grades required by the ESEA (3rd
through 8th and once in high school).
--Attendance rate of students in 6th, 7th, Students successfully
8th, and 9th grade. transition from middle
grades to high school.
--Graduation rate (as defined in this notice) Youth graduate from high
school.
-- & % of Promise Neighborhood High school graduates
students who graduate with a regular high obtain a postsecondary
school diploma, as defined in 34 CFR degree, certification,
200.19(b)(1)(iv), and obtain postsecondary or credential.
degrees, vocational certificates, or other
industry-recognized certifications or
credentials without the need for remediation.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Table 2--Family and Community Support Indicators and Results They Are
Intended to Measure
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Indicator Result
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- & % of children who participate Students are healthy.
in at least 60 minutes of moderate to
vigorous physical activity daily and consume
five or more servings of fruits and
vegetables daily; or
--possible second indicator, to be determined
(TBD) by applicant.
-- & % of students who feel safe at Students feel safe at
school and traveling to and from school, as school and in their
measured by a school climate survey (as community.
defined in this notice); or
[[Page 24676]]
--possible second indicator, TBD by
applicant.
--Student mobility rate (as defined in this Students live in stable
notice); or. communities.
--possible second indicator, TBD by
applicant.
-- & % of students who say they have Families and community
a caring adult in their home, school, and members support learning
community or & % of family members in Promise Neighborhood
who attend parent-teacher conferences; or schools.
--possible second indicator TBD by applicant
-- & % of students who have school Students have access to
and home access (and % of the day they have 21st century learning
access) to broadband internet (as defined in tools.
this notice) and a connected computing
device; or
--possible second indicator TBD by applicant.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: The indicators in Tables 1 and 2 are not intended to limit
an applicant from collecting and using data for additional
indicators. Examples of additional indicators are--
(i) The and % of children who participate in high-
quality learning activities during out-of-school hours;
(ii) The and % of suspensions or discipline referrals
during the year;
(iii) The share of housing stock in the geographically defined
area that is rent-protected, publicly assisted, or targeted for
redevelopment with local, State, or Federal funds;
(iv) The and % of children who are homeless or in
foster care and who have an assigned adult advocate; and
(v) The and % of young children who are read to
frequently by family members.
While the Department believes there are many programmatic benefits
of collecting data on every child in the proposed neighborhood, if the
applicant chooses to collect data on only a sample of the children in
the neighborhood for some indicators, the applicant must describe in
its application how a sample would be drawn that is representative of
children in the neighborhood.
Absolute Priority 2: Promise Neighborhoods in Rural Communities
The Secretary establishes a priority for applicants proposing to
develop plans for implementing a Promise Neighborhood that (1) meet all
the requirements in Absolute Priority 1; and (2) serve one or more
rural communities only.
Absolute Priority 3: Promise Neighborhoods in Tribal Communities
The Secretary establishes a priority for applications that (1) Meet
all requirements in Absolute Priority 1; (2) serve one or more Indian
tribes; and (3) are submitted by either an eligible entity that
partners with an Indian Tribe (as defined in this notice), or by an
Indian Tribe that meets the definition of an eligible entity.
Invitational Priority: Under this competition we are particularly
interested in applications that address the following priority. For FY
2010, this priority is an invitational priority. Under 34 CFR
75.105(c)(1) we do not give an application that meets this invitational
priority a competitive or absolute preference over other applications.
This priority is:
Invitational Priority: Unique Learning Needs, Quality Internet
Connectivity, Civic Engagement, or Arts and Humanities
The Secretary establishes a priority for applicants proposing to
develop plans that include one or more practices, strategies, or
programs designed to--
1. Address the unique learning needs of students with disabilities
or students with limited English proficiency. This may include
activities designed to improve academic outcomes; close achievement
gaps identified in section 1111(b)(3)(C)(xiii) of the ESEA between
students with disabilities as compared to nondisabled students, and
between students with limited English proficiency and their English
proficient peers; and increase college- and career-readiness, including
increasing high school graduation rates for students with disabilities
or students with limited English proficiency;
2. Ensure that almost all students in the geographic area proposed
to be served have broadband internet access (as defined in this notice)
at home and at school, a connected computing device, and the knowledge
and skills to use broadband internet access effectively and a connected
computing device to support schoolwork;
3. Include meaningful civic engagement opportunities in the
geographic area proposed to be served. Examples of these opportunities
are efforts to increase the participation of residents, including
children and youth, in decisions that affect their community and may
improve school performance; efforts to use the perspectives of
residents in shaping and evaluating programs; and positive youth
development activities such as service-learning (as defined in 42
U.S.C. 12511) programs for students and families that address specific
challenges in the neighborhood; or
4. Include opportunities for children and youth to experience and
participate actively in the arts and humanities in their community so
as to broaden, enrich, and enliven the educational, cultural, and civic
experiences available in the neighborhood. Applicants may propose to
develop plans for offering these activities in school and out-of-school
settings and at any time during the calendar year.
Definitions: We are establishing these definitions for the FY 2010
grant competition only in accordance with section 437(d)(1) of GEPA, 20
U.S.C. 1232(d)(1).
Academic programs means programs that include, but are not limited
to--
(a) High-quality early learning programs designed to improve
outcomes in multiple domains of early learning for young children. Such
programs must be specifically intended to align standards, practices,
strategies, or activities across as broad an age range as birth through
third grade so as to ensure that young children enter kindergarten and
the early elementary school grades demonstrating age-appropriate
functioning across the multiple domains;
(b) For children in kindergarten through the 12th grade, programs,
policies, and personnel that are linked to improved academic outcomes.
The programs, policies, and personnel--
(i) Must include effective teachers and effective principals;
(ii) Must include strategies, practices, or programs that encourage
and facilitate the evaluation, analysis, and use of student
achievement, student growth, and other data by educators, families, and
other stakeholders to inform decision-making;
(iii) Must include college and career-ready standards, assessments,
and practices, including a well-rounded curriculum, instructional
practices, strategies, or programs in, at a
[[Page 24677]]
minimum, core academic subjects as defined in section 9101(11) of the
ESEA, that are aligned with high academic content and achievement
standards and with high-quality assessments based on those standards;
and
(iv) May include creating multiple pathways for students to earn
regular high school diplomas (e.g., using schools that serve the needs
of over-aged, under-credited, or other students with an exceptional
need for flexibility regarding when they attend school or the
additional supports they require; awarding credit based on demonstrated
evidence of student competency; or offering dual-enrollment options).
(c) Programs that prepare students for college and career success,
which may include programs that--
(i) Create and support partnerships with community colleges, four-
year colleges, or universities and that help instill a college-going
culture in the neighborhood;
(ii) Provide dual-enrollment opportunities for secondary students
to gain college credit while in high school;
(iii) Provide, through relationships with businesses and other
organizations, apprenticeship opportunities to students;
(iv) Align curricula in the core academic subjects with
requirements for industry-recognized certifications or credentials,
particularly in high-growth sectors; and
(v) Provide access to career and technical education programs so
that individuals can attain the skills and industry-recognized
certifications or credentials for success in their careers.
Broadband internet access means internet access sufficient to
provide community members with the internet available when and where
they need it and for the uses they require.
College-going culture means a local culture that includes an
expectation that all students in the geographic area proposed to be
served will have the academic preparation, financial resources, and
other supports necessary to go to college or pursue other postsecondary
training. That expectation is apparent in the attitudes, experiences,
practices, beliefs, and values of individuals in the neighborhood.
Continuum of cradle-through-college-to-career solutions or
continuum of solutions means solutions that--
(a) Include programs, policies, practices, services, systems, and
supports that result in improving educational and developmental
outcomes for children from cradle through college to career;
(b) Are based on the best available evidence, including, where
available, strong or moderate evidence;
(c) Are linked and integrated seamlessly (as defined in this
notice); and
(d) Include both academic programs and family and community
supports.
Developmentally appropriate early learning measures means a range
of assessment instruments that are used in ways consistent with the
purposes for which they were designed and validated; appropriate for
the ages and other characteristics of the children being assessed;
designed and validated for use with children whose ages, cultures,
languages spoken at home, socioeconomic status, abilities and
disabilities, and other characteristics are similar to those of the
children with whom the assessments will be used; and used in compliance
with the measurement standards set forth by the American Educational
Research Association (AERA), the American Psychological Association
(APA), and the National Council for Measurement in Education (NCME) in
the 1999 Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing.
Effective school means a school that has--
(a) Significantly closed the achievement gaps between subgroups of
students (as identified in section 1111(b)(3)(C)(xiii) of the ESEA)
within the school or district; or
(b)(i) Demonstrated success in significantly increasing student
academic achievement in the school for all subgroups of students (as
identified in section 1111(b)(3)(C)(xiii) of the ESEA) in the school;
and
(ii) Made significant improvements in other areas, such as
graduation rates (as defined in this notice) or recruitment and
placement of effective teachers and effective principals.
Eligible entity means an entity that--
(a) Is representative of the geographic area proposed to be served
(as defined in this notice);
(b) Is one of the following:
(i) A nonprofit organization that meets the definition of a
nonprofit under 34 CFR 77.1(c), which may include a faith-based
nonprofit organization; or
(ii) An institution of higher education as defined by section
101(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended; and
(c) Currently provides at least one of the solutions from the
applicant's proposed continuum of solutions in the geographic area
proposed to be served.
Note: An eligible entity proposing to plan to ``scale up''
existing activities beyond the geographic area that the eligible
entity is currently serving must partner with at least one
organization or entity that provides at least one of the solutions
from the applicant's proposed continuum of solutions in the
geographic area proposed to be served.
Family and community supports means--
(a) Student health programs, such as mental health and physical
health programs (e.g., home visiting programs; Early Head Start;
programs to improve nutrition and fitness, reduce childhood obesity,
and create healthier communities);
(b) Safety programs, such as programs in school and out of school
to prevent, control, and reduce crime, violence, drug and alcohol use,
and gang activity; programs that address classroom and school-wide
behavior and conduct, such as Positive Behavioral Interventions and
Supports; programs to prevent child abuse and neglect; programs to
prevent truancy and reduce and prevent bullying and harassment; and
programs to improve the physical and emotional security of the school
setting as perceived, experienced, and created by students, staff, and
families;
(c) Community stability programs, such as programs that--
(i) Increase the stability of families in communities by expanding
access to quality, affordable housing, providing legal support to help
families secure clear legal title to their homes, and providing housing
counseling or housing placement services;
(ii) Provide employment opportunities and training to improve job
skills and readiness in order to decrease unemployment, with a goal of
increasing family stability;
(iii) Improve families' awareness of, access to, and use of a range
of social services, if possible at a single location;
(iv) Provide unbiased, outcome-focused, and comprehensive financial
education, inside and outside the classroom and at every life stage;
(v) Increase access to traditional financial institutions (e.g.,
banks and credit unions) rather than alternative financial institutions
(e.g., check cashers and payday lenders);
(vi) Help families increase their financial assets and savings; and
(vii) Help families access transportation to education and
employment opportunities;
(d) Family and community engagement programs, such as family
literacy programs and programs that provide training and opportunities
for family members and other members of the community to support
student learning and establish high expectations for academic
achievement; mentorship
[[Page 24678]]
programs that create positive relationships between children and
adults; and programs that provide for the use of such community
resources as libraries, museums, and local businesses to support
improved student academic outcomes; and
(e) 21st century learning tools, such as technology (e.g.,
computers and mobile phones) used by students in the classroom and in
the community to support their education. This includes programs that
help students use the tools to develop knowledge and skills in such
areas as reading and writing, mathematics, research, critical thinking,
communication, creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship.
Graduation rate means the four-year or extended-year adjusted
cohort graduation rate as defined by 34 CFR 200.19(b)(1).
Note: This definition is not meant to prevent a grantee from
also collecting information about the reasons why students do not
graduate from the target high school, e.g., dropping out or moving
outside of the school district for non-academic or academic reasons.
Increased learning time means using a longer school day, week, or
year to significantly increase the total number of school hours. It is
used to redesign the school's program in a manner that includes
additional time for (a) Instruction in core academic subjects as
defined in section 9101 of the ESEA; (b) instruction in other subjects
and enrichment activities that contribute to a well-rounded education,
including, for example, physical education, service learning, and
experiential and work-based learning opportunities that are provided by
partnering, as appropriate, with other organizations; and (c) teachers
to collaborate, plan, and engage in professional development within and
across grades and subjects.
Indian Tribe means any Indian or Alaska Native tribe, band, nation,
pueblo, village or community that the Secretary of the Interior
acknowledges to exist as an Indian tribe, 25 U.S.C. 479a and 479a-1.
Indicators of need means currently available data that describe--
(a) Academic need, which means--
(i) All or a portion of the neighborhood includes or is within the
attendance zone of a low-performing school that is a high school,
especially one in which the graduation rate (as defined in this notice)
is less than 60 percent or a school that can be characterized as low-
performing based on another proxy indicator, such as students' on-time
progression from grade to grade; and
(ii) Other indicators, such as significant achievement gaps between
subgroups of students (as identified in section 1111(b)(3)(C)(xiii) of
the ESEA) within a school or LEA, high teacher and principal turnover,
or high student absenteeism; and
(b) Family and community support need, which means--
(i) Percentages of children with preventable chronic health
conditions (e.g., asthma, poor nutrition, dental problems, obesity) or
avoidable developmental delays;
(ii) Immunization rates;
(iii) Rates of crime, including violent crime;
(iv) Student mobility rates;
(v) Teenage birth rates;
(vi) Percentage of children in single-parent or no-parent families;
(vii) Rates of vacant or substandard homes, including distressed
public and assisted housing; or
(viii) Percentage of the residents living at or below the Federal
poverty threshold.
Linked and integrated seamlessly, with respect to the continuum of
solutions, means solutions that have common outcomes, focus on similar
milestones, support transitional time periods (e.g., the beginning of
kindergarten, the middle grades, or graduation from high school) along
the cradle-through-college-to-career continuum, and address time and
resource gaps that create obstacles for students in making academic
progress.
Low-performing schools means schools receiving assistance through
Title I that are in corrective action or restructuring in the State, as
determined under section 1116 of the ESEA, and the secondary schools
(both middle and high schools) in the State that are equally as low-
achieving as these Title I schools and are eligible for, but do not
receive, Title I funds.
Moderate evidence means evidence from previous studies with designs
that can support causal conclusions (i.e., studies with high internal
validity) but have limited generalizability (i.e., moderate external
validity) or from studies with high external validity but moderate
internal validity.
Multiple domains of early learning means physical well-being and
motor development; social and emotional development; approaches to
learning, which refers to the inclinations, dispositions, or styles,
rather than skills, that reflect ways that children become involved in
learning and develop their inclinations to pursue learning; language
development, including emergent literacy; and cognition and general
knowledge, which refers to thinking and problem-solving as well as
knowledge about particular objects and the way the world works.
Cognition and general knowledge include mathematical and scientific
knowledge, abstract thought, and imagination.
Neighborhood assets means--
(a) Developmental assets that allow residents to attain the skills
needed to be successful in all aspects of daily life (e.g., educational
institutions, early learning centers, and health resources);
(b) Commercial assets that are associated with production,
employment, transactions, and sales (e.g., labor force and retail
establishments);
(c) Recreational assets that create value in a neighborhood beyond
work and education (e.g., parks, open space, community gardens, and
arts organizations);
(d) Physical assets that are associated with the built environment
and physical infrastructure (e.g., housing, commercial buildings, and
roads); and
(e) Social assets that establish well-functioning social
interactions (e.g., public safety and community engagement).
Persistently lowest-achieving school means, as determined by the
State--
(a) Any school receiving assistance through Title I that is in
improvement, corrective action, or restructuring and that--
(i) Is among the lowest-achieving five percent of Title I schools
in improvement, corrective action, or restructuring or the lowest-
achieving five Title I schools in improvement, corrective action, or
restructuring in the State, whichever number of schools is greater; or
(ii) Is a high school that has had a graduation rate that is less
than 60 percent over a number of years; and
(b) Any secondary school that is eligible for, but does not
receive, Title I funds that--
(i) Is among the lowest-achieving five percent of secondary schools
or the lowest-achieving five secondary schools in the State that are
eligible for, but do not receive, Title I funds, whichever number of
schools is greater; or
(ii) Is a high school that has had a graduation rate that is less
than 60 percent over a number of years.
Program indicators are indicators that the Department will use only
for research and evaluation purposes and for which an applicant is not
required to propose solutions.
Project indicators are indicators for which an applicant proposes
solutions intended to result in progress on the indicators.
Public officials means elected officials (e.g., council members,
aldermen and
[[Page 24679]]
women, commissioners, State legislators, Congressional representatives,
members of the school board), appointed public officials (e.g., members
of a planning or zoning commission, or of any other regulatory or
advisory board or commission), or individuals who are not necessarily
public officials, but who have been appointed by a public official to
serve on the Promise Neighborhoods governing board or advisory board.
Rapid-time, in reference to reporting and availability of locally-
collected data, means that data are available quickly enough to inform
current lessons, instruction, and related academic programs and family
and community supports.
Representative of the geographic area proposed to be served means
that residents of the geographic area proposed to be served have an
active role in decision-making and that at least one-third of the
eligible entity's governing board or advisory board is made up of--
(a) Residents who live in the geographic area proposed to be
served;
(b) Residents of the city or county in which the neighborhood is
located but who live outside the geographic area proposed to be served,
and who are low-income (which means earning less than 80 percent of the
area's median income as published by the Department of Housing and
Urban Development);
(c) Public officials (as defined in this notice) who serve the
geographic area proposed to be served (although not more than one-half
of the governing board or advisory board may be made up of public
officials); or
(d) Some combination of individuals from the three groups listed in
paragraphs (a), (b), and (c) of this definition.
Rural community means a community that is served by an LEA that is
currently eligible under the Small Rural School Achievement (SRSA)
program or the Rural and Low-Income School (RLIS) program authorized
under Title VI, Part B of the ESEA. Applicants may determine whether a
particular LEA is eligible for these programs by referring to
information on the following Department Web sites. For the SRSA
program: https://www.ed.gov/programs/reapsrsa/eligible09/.
For the RLIS program: https://www.ed.gov/programs/reaprlisp/eligible09/.
School climate survey means an evaluation tool that measures the
extent to which the school setting promotes or inhibits academic
performance by collecting perception data from individuals, which could
include students, staff, or families.
Segmentation analysis means the process of grouping and analyzing
data from children and families in the geographic area proposed to be
served according to indicators of need (as defined in this notice) or
other relevant indicators.
Note: The analysis is intended to allow grantees to
differentiate and more effectively target interventions based on
what they learn about the needs of different populations in the
geographic area.
Strong evidence means evidence from studies with designs that can
support causal conclusions (i.e., studies with high internal validity),
and studies that, in total, include enough of the range of participants
and settings to support scaling up to the State, regional, or national
level (i.e., studies with high external validity).
Student achievement means--
(a) For tested grades and subjects:
(i) A student's score on the State's assessments under the ESEA;
and, as appropriate,
(ii) Other measures of student learning, such as those described in
paragraph (b) of this definition, provided they are rigorous and
comparable across classrooms.
(b) For non-tested grades and subjects: Alternative measures of
student learning and performance, such as student scores on pre-tests
and end-of-course tests; student performance on English language
proficiency assessments; and other measures of student achievement that
are rigorous and comparable across classrooms.
Student growth means the change in achievement data for an
individual student between two or more points in time. Growth may also
include other measures that are rigorous and comparable across
classrooms.
Student mobility rate is calculated by dividing the total number of
new student entries and withdrawals at a school, from the day after the
first official enrollment number is collected through the end of the
academic year, by the first official enrollment number of the academic
year.
Note: This definition is not meant to limit a grantee from also
collecting information about why students enter or withdraw from the
school, e.g., transferring to charter schools, moving outside of the
school district for non-academic or academic reasons.
Theory of action means an organization's strategy regarding how,
considering its capacity and resources, it will take the necessary
steps and measures to accomplish its desired results.
Theory of change means an organization's beliefs about how its
inputs, and early and intermediate outcomes, relate to accomplishing
its long-term desired results.
Waiver of Proposed Rulemaking: Under the Administrative Procedure
Act (5 U.S.C. 553), the Department generally offers interested parties
the opportunity to comment on proposed priorities, definitions,
requirements, and selection criteria. Section 437(d)(1) of GEPA,
however, allows the Secretary to exempt from rulemaking requirements
and regulations governing the first grant competition under a new or
substantially revised program authority. This is the first grant
competition for Promise Neighborhoods planning grants and, therefore,
qualifies for this exemption. In order to ensure timely grant awards,
the Secretary has decided to forgo public comment on the priorities,
definitions, requirements, and selection criteria under section
437(d)(1) of GEPA. These priorities, definitions, requirements, and
selection criteria will apply to the FY 2010 grant competition only.
Program Authority: 20 U.S.C. 7243-7243b.
Applicable Regulations: The Education Department General
Administrative Regulations (EDGAR) in 34 CFR parts 74, 75, 77, 79, 80,
81, 82, 84, 85, 86, 97, 98, and 99.
Note: The regulations in 34 CFR part 79 apply to all applicants
except federally recognized Indian tribes.
Note: The regulations in part 86 apply to institutions of higher
education only.
II. Award Information
Type of Award: Discretionary grants.
Estimated A