[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 170 (Wednesday, September 2, 1998)]
[Notices]
[Pages 46830-46831]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-23605]



[[Page 46829]]

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Part II





Department of Education





_______________________________________________________________________



Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education--Comprehensive 
Program (Preapplications and Applications); Notice

  Federal Register / Vol. 63, No. 170 / Wednesday, September 2, 1998 / 
Notices  

[[Page 46830]]



DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

[CFDA Nos. 84.116A; 84.116B]


Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education-- 
Comprehensive Program (Preapplications and Applications); Notice 
Inviting Applications for New Awards for Fiscal Year (FY) 1999

    Purpose of Program: To provide grants or enter into cooperative 
agreements to improve postsecondary education opportunities.
    Eligible Applicants: Institutions of higher education or 
combinations of such institutions and other public and private 
nonprofit educational institutions and agencies.
    Deadline for Transmittal of Preapplications: October 22, 1998.
    Deadline for Transmittal of Final Applications: March 19, 1999.

    Note: All applicants must submit a preapplication to be eligible 
to submit a final application.

    Deadline for Intergovernmental Review: May 18, 1999.
    Applications Available: September 2, 1998.
    Available Funds: The Administration's request for the Fund for the 
Improvement of Postsecondary Education for FY 1999 is $22,500,000. Of 
this amount, it is anticipated that approximately $6,500,000 will be 
available for an estimated 80 new awards under the Comprehensive 
Program. The Congress has not yet completed action on the FY 1999 
appropriation. The estimates in this notice assume passage of the 
Administration's request.
    Estimated Range of Awards: $15,000 to $150,000 per year.
    Estimated Average Size of Awards: $80,000.
    Estimated Number of Awards: 80.

    Note: The Department is not bound by any estimates in this 
notice.

    Project Period: Up to 36 months.
    Applicable Regulations: (a) The Education Department General 
Administrative Regulations (EDGAR) in 34 CFR parts 74, 75, 77, 79, 80, 
82, 85, and 86.

Priorities

Invitational Priorities

    While applicants may propose any project within the scope of 20 
U.S.C. 1135(a), pursuant to 34 CFR 75.105(c)(1) the Secretary is 
particularly interested in applications that meet one or more of the 
following invitational priorities. However, an application that meets 
one or more of these invitational priorities does not receive 
competitive or absolute preference over other applications:
    Invitational Priority 1--Projects to support new ways of ensuring 
equal access to postsecondary education, and to improve rates of 
retention and program completion, especially for low-income and 
underrepresented minority students, whose retention and completion 
rates continue to lag disturbingly behind those of other groups.
    Invitational Priority 2--Projects to improve campus climates for 
learning by creating an environment that is safe, welcoming, and 
conducive to academic growth for all students.
    Invitational Priority 3--Projects to support innovative reforms of 
undergraduate, graduate, and professional curricula that improve not 
only what students learn, but how they learn.
    Invitational Priority 4--Projects to make more productive use of 
resources to improve teaching and learning; and to increase learning 
productivity--that is, to transform programs and teaching to promote 
more student learning relative to institutional resources expended.
    Invitational Priority 5--Projects to support the professional 
development of full-and part-time faculty by assessing and rewarding 
effective teaching; promoting new and more effective teaching methods; 
and improving the preparation of graduate students who will be future 
faculty members.
    Invitational Priority 6--Projects to promote innovative school-
college partnerships and to improve the preparation of K-12 teachers, 
in order to enhance students' preparation for, access to, and success 
in college.
    Invitational Priority 7--Projects to disseminate innovative 
postsecondary educational programs which have already been locally 
developed, implemented, and evaluated.

Selection Criteria

    In evaluating preapplications and final applications for grants 
under this program competition, the Secretary uses the following 
selection criteria chosen from those listed in 34 CFR 75.210.
    Preapplications. In evaluating preapplications, the Secretary uses 
the following selection criteria:
    (a) Need for project. The Secretary reviews each proposed project 
for its need, as determined by the following factors:
    (1) The magnitude or severity of the problem to be addressed by the 
proposed project.
    (2) The magnitude of the need for the services to be provided or 
the activities to be carried out by the proposed project.
    (b) Significance. The Secretary reviews each proposed project for 
its significance, as determined by the following factors:
    (1) The potential contribution of the proposed project to increased 
knowledge or understanding of educational problems, issues, or 
effective strategies.
    (2) 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.
    (3) The importance or magnitude of the results or outcomes likely 
to be attained by the proposed project, especially improvements in 
teaching and student achievement.
    (4) The potential replicability of the proposed project or 
strategies, including, as appropriate, the potential for implementation 
in a variety of settings.
    (c) Quality of the project design. The Secretary reviews each 
proposed project for the quality of its design, as determined by the 
extent to which the design of the proposed project is appropriate to, 
and will successfully address, the needs of the target population or 
other identified needs.
    (d) Quality of the project evaluation. The Secretary reviews each 
proposed project for the quality of its evaluation, as determined by 
the extent to which the evaluation will provide guidance about 
effective strategies suitable for replication or testing in other 
settings.
    Final Applications. In evaluating final applications, the Secretary 
uses the following selection criteria:
    (a) Need for the project. The Secretary reviews each proposed 
project for its need, as determined by the following factors:
    (1) The magnitude or severity of the problem to be addressed by the 
proposed project.
    (2) The magnitude of the need for the services to be provided or 
the activities to be carried out by the proposed project.
    (b) Significance. The Secretary reviews each proposed project for 
its significance, as determined by the following factors:
    (1) The potential contribution of the proposed project to increased 
knowledge or understanding of educational problems, issues, or 
effective strategies.
    (2) 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.

[[Page 46831]]

    (3) The importance or magnitude of the results or outcomes likely 
to be attained by the proposed project, especially improvements in 
teaching and student achievement.
    (4) The potential replicability of the proposed project or 
strategies, including, as appropriate, the potential for implementation 
in a variety of settings.
    (c) Quality of the project design. The Secretary reviews each 
proposed project for the quality of its design, as determined by the 
following factors:
    (1) The extent to which the design of the proposed project is 
appropriate to, and will successfully address, the needs of the target 
population or other identified needs.
    (2) The extent to which the goals, objectives, and outcomes to be 
achieved by the proposed project are clearly specified and measurable.
    (3) The extent to which the design for implementing and evaluating 
the proposed project will result in information to guide possible 
replication of project activities or strategies, including information 
about the effectiveness of the approach or strategies employed by the 
project.
    (d) Quality of the project evaluation. The Secretary reviews each 
proposed project for the quality of its evaluation, as determined by 
the following factors:
    (1) The extent to which the evaluation will provide guidance about 
effective strategies suitable for replication or testing in other 
settings.
    (2) The extent to which the methods of evaluation are thorough, 
feasible, and appropriate to the goals, objectives, and outcomes of the 
proposed project.
    (3) The extent to which the methods of evaluation include the use 
of objective performance measures that are clearly related to the 
intended outcomes of the project and will produce quantitative and 
qualitative data to the extent possible.
    (d) The quality of the management plan. The Secretary reviews each 
proposed project for the quality of its management plan, as determined 
by the plan's adequacy to achieve the objectives of the proposed 
project on time and within budget, including clearly defined 
responsibilities, timelines, and milestones for accomplishing project 
tasks.
    (e) Quality of project personnel. The Secretary reviews each 
proposed project for the quality of project personnel who will carry 
out the proposed project, as determined by the following factors:
    (1) The extent to which the applicant encourages applications for 
employment from persons who are members of groups that have 
traditionally been underrepresented based on race, color, national 
origin, gender, age, or disability.
    (2) The qualifications, including relevant training and experience, 
of key project personnel.
    (f) Adequacy of resources. The Secretary reviews each proposed 
project for the adequacy of its resources, as determined by the 
following factors:
    (1) The extent to which the budget is adequate to support the 
proposed project.
    (2) The extent to which the costs are reasonable in relation to the 
objectives, design, and potential significance of the proposed project.
    (3) The relevance and demonstrated commitment of each partner in 
the proposed project to the implementation and success of the project.
    (4) The adequacy of support, including facilities, equipment, 
supplies, and other resources, from the applicant organization or the 
lead applicant organization.
    (5) The potential for continued support of the project after 
Federal funding ends, including, as appropriate, the demonstrated 
commitment of appropriate entities to such support.
    For preapplications (preliminary applications) and final 
applications (applications), the Secretary gives equal weight to each 
of the selection criteria. Within each of these criteria, the Secretary 
gives equal weight to each of the factors.
    For Applications or Information Contact: Fund for the Improvement 
of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), U.S. Department of Education, 600 
Independence Avenue SW, Room 3100, ROB-3, Washington, DC 20202-5175. 
Telephone: (202) 358-3041 to order applications; or (202) 708-5750, 
between the hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., Eastern time, Monday through 
Friday, for information. Individuals may also request applications by 
submitting the name of the competition, their name, and postal mailing 
address to the e-mail address [email protected]. Individuals may obtain the 
application text from Internet address http://www.ed.gov/offices/OPE/
FIPSE/. Individuals who use a telecommunications device for the deaf 
(TDD) may call the Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1-800-
877-8339, between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., Eastern time, Monday through 
Friday.
    Individuals with disabilities may obtain this document in an 
alternate format (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, or computer 
diskette) on request to the contact person listed in the preceding 
paragraph.

Electronic Access to This Document

    Anyone may view this document, as well as all other Department of 
Education documents published in the Federal Register, in text or 
portable document format (pdf) on the World Wide Web at either of the 
following sites:

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

    To use the pdf you must have the Adobe Acrobat Reader Program with 
Search, which is available free at either of the previous sites. If you 
have questions about using the pdf, call the U.S. Government Printing 
Office toll free at 1-888-293-6498.
    Anyone may view these documents in text copy only on an electronic 
bulletin board of the Department. Telephone: (202) 219-1511 or, toll 
free, at 1-800-222-4922. The documents are located under Option G--
Files/Announcements, Bulletins, and Press Releases.

    Note: The official version of a document is the document 
published in the Federal Register.

    Program Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1135-1135a-3.

    Dated: August 27, 1998.
David A. Longanecker,
Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education.
[FR Doc. 98-23605 Filed 9-1-98; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P