[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 144 (Wednesday, July 28, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 40856-40858]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-19309]


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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION


National Awards Program for Model Professional Development

AGENCY: Department of Education.

ACTION: Notice of proposed eligibility and selection criteria.

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SUMMARY: The Secretary proposes eligibility and selection criteria to 
govern competitions under the National Awards Program for Model 
Professional Development for fiscal year (FY) 2000 and future years. 
Under these criteria, the National Awards Program would recognize a 
variety of schools and school districts with model professional 
development activities in the pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade 
levels that have led to increases in student achievement.

DATES: We must receive your comments on or before August 27, 1999.

ADDRESSES: Address all comments about these proposed eligibility and 
selection criteria to Sharon Horn, Office of Educational Research and 
Improvement, US Department of Education, 555 New Jersey Avenue, NW, 
room 506E, Washington, DC 20208-5644. If you prefer to send your 
comments through the Internet, use the following address: 
[email protected].
    You may also fax your comments to Sharon Horn at (202) 219-2198.
    If you want to comment on the information collection requirements 
you must send your comments to the Office of Management and Budget at 
the address listed in the Paperwork Reduction Act section of this 
notice. You may also send a copy of these comments to the Department 
representative named in this section.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Sharon Horn. Telephone: (202) 219-
2203. If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), you 
may call the Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1-800-877-
8339.
    Individuals with disabilities may obtain this document in an 
alternate format (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, or computer 
diskette) on request to the contact person listed in the preceding 
paragraph.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Invitation To Comment

    We invite you to submit comments regarding these proposed 
eligibility and selection criteria.
    We invite you to assist us in complying with the specific 
requirements of Executive Order 12866 and its overall requirement of 
reducing regulatory burden that might result from these proposed 
eligibility and selection criteria. Please let us know of any further 
opportunities we should take to reduce potential costs or increase 
potential benefits while preserving the effective and efficient 
administration of the program.
    During and after the comment period, you may inspect all public 
comments about these proposed eligibility and selection criteria in 
room 506E, 555 New Jersey Avenue, NW, Washington, DC, between the hours 
of 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m., Eastern time, Monday through Friday of each 
week except Federal holidays.

Assistance to Individuals With Disabilities in Reviewing the 
Rulemaking Record

    On request, we will supply an appropriate aid, such as a reader or 
print magnifier, to an individual with a disability who needs 
assistance to review the comments or other documents in the public 
rulemaking record for these proposed eligibility and selection 
criteria. If you want to schedule an appointment for this type of aid, 
you may call (202) 205-8113 or (202) 260-9895. If you use a TDD, you 
may call the Federal Information Relay Service at 1-800-877-8339.

General Information

    Through this notice the Secretary proposes definitions and criteria 
to govern applications for recognition submitted under the National 
Awards Program for Model Professional Development. This Program began 
in 1996, in coordination with a wide range of national education 
organizations, to highlight and recognize schools and school districts 
whose professional development activities are well aligned with the 
statement of the Mission and Principles of Professional Development 
that the Department developed in 1994. The National Awards Program to 
be conducted during FY 2000 and future years would be implemented in 
ways similar to prior years' programs (see, for example, the Notice of 
Final Eligibility and Selection Criteria published in the

[[Page 40857]]

Federal Register on October 30, 1997 (62 FR 58870). However, as 
explained more fully in the Proposed Eligibility and Selection Criteria 
section of this notice, the program's selection criteria would be 
slightly revised to identify information applicants will need to 
provide to demonstrate a strong link between their professional 
development efforts and increased student achievement, to address 
circumstances in which applications are received from both a school and 
its local educational agency (LEA), and to require certification of 
compliance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). 
The Secretary plans to publicly honor and recognize successful 
applicants, and to pay the costs incurred in enabling them to make 
presentations about their professional development activities at 
national and regional meetings.
    The reasons for wanting to continue the National Awards Program are 
clear. Schools and school districts throughout the Nation are 
undertaking efforts to raise academic standards and to improve the 
academic achievement of all students. Research indicates that for these 
efforts to be successful they must include strategies for permitting 
teachers and other school and LEA staff to obtain the skills and 
knowledge they need to enable all students to achieve to high 
standards. Indeed, teachers are at the core of any school reform 
initiative. However, teachers need access to new knowledge and skills 
to enable them to continue to teach to higher standards and to respond 
to the challenges facing education today.
    The public has expressed great interest in this program. In the 
first two years of the program, the Department received over 200 
applications and recognized 13 schools and school districts in Arizona, 
California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Kansas, Massachusetts, New 
York, and Texas for the high quality of their professional development 
activities and the link between those activities and improved student 
learning. Moreover, the National Awards Program has helped educators at 
all levels to learn both how teachers and others in these sites have 
succeeded in implementing high-quality professional development 
activities, and what educators in other locations can do to better 
evaluate the effectiveness of their own professional development 
efforts.
    Currently, the Department and its outside panels of reviewers are 
evaluating the quality of the nearly 65 applications submitted for FY 
1999 national recognition. The importance of encouraging even more 
schools and LEAs to implement high-quality professional development 
that is tied to increased student achievement, and having even greater 
numbers of exemplary sites as models for others, demands that this 
awards program be continued. Therefore, the Secretary is pleased to 
propose definitions and criteria to govern the FY 2000 and future year 
National Awards Program.
    The Secretary will announce the final eligibility and selection 
criteria in a notice in the Federal Register. The final eligibility and 
selection criteria will be determined by responses to this notice and 
other considerations of the Department.

    Note: This notice does not solicit applications. A notice 
inviting applications under this competition will be published in 
the Federal Register concurrent with or following publication of the 
notice of final eligibility and selection criteria.

Proposed Eligibility and Selection Criteria

Eligible Applicants

    As with previous years' programs, eligible applicants would be 
schools and school districts in the States (including schools located 
on Indian reservations, and in the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, 
and the outlying areas) that provide educational programs in the pre-
kindergarten through twelfth grade levels.

Selection Criteria

    Subject to the three changes described in the next three items, the 
Secretary also proposes to use in the FY 2000 and future year 
competitions both the eligibility and application selection criteria 
and the selection procedures as published in the Federal Register on 
October 30, 1997 (59 FR 63773). Similarly, the Secretary would retain 
the relatively simple application format that has been used to date. 
Those wishing to review a copy of the FY 1999 application package, 
which incorporates the criteria and procedures the Department will 
continue to use, may do so by calling or writing the Department contact 
identified in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION section of this notice. Those 
with access to the Internet also may view the document at the following 
URL web site: http://www.ed.gov/inits/TeachersWeb/
 1. The application criteria would be revised to better identify 
information that applicants would need to present to demonstrate the 
link between their professional development activities and increased 
student achievement. Specifically, Criterion D (``Objective Evidence of 
Success'') in the application package for the FY 1999 competition 
required that applicants present evidence that teacher effectiveness 
and student learning improved as a direct result of the implementation 
of the school's or LEA's professional development activities. While the 
application package observed that the highest-quality applications were 
likely to be those which include evidence drawn from multiple 
assessment measures and cover a period of three years or more, the 
selection criteria did not require applicants to present evidence of 
this kind. In the fourth and succeeding years of the National Awards 
Program, the Secretary believes that it is time that these recommended 
measures of exemplary quality be required components of all 
professional development activities that would receive national 
recognition. Accordingly, the Secretary proposes that for the FY 2000 
and future year competitions Criterion D include the following 
additional language: ``Applicants here must provide and discuss data 
that indicate the connection between needs assessments, improvement 
plans, professional development activities, and teacher and student 
outcomes. In order to confirm that student achievement has increased, 
data on student achievement must reflect multiple measures and cover a 
period of three years or more.''
    2. Existing selection criteria for the National Awards Program do 
not address how the Department responds if a school that applies for 
national recognition is located in the area served by an LEA that 
applies on its own. This situation occurred in a prior competition, and 
the Department had established no criteria for addressing it. 
Accordingly, there is a need now to clarify this matter.
    The Department's peer reviewers cannot assess the degree to which 
professional development activities at a school are independent of the 
support provided by the school district in which it is located. 
Therefore, in order to promote fairness in the application process, the 
Secretary proposes that a school that applies for national recognition 
must apply on its own or as part of its LEA's application. A school 
would not be able to apply through both applications. Moreover, should 
the Department receive an application from a school and the LEA in 
which the school is located, it will review only the LEA's application. 
Since a school's professional development activities are linked, to 
some degree, to the support of the LEA in which it is located, the 
proposal to consider the LEA's application but not the school's seems

[[Page 40858]]

the most appropriate response to this problem.
    3. It is important that schools and LEAs that would receive 
national recognition support the rights of all students, including 
those with disabilities, to an appropriate education. Therefore, the 
Secretary proposes that those applying for National Awards Program 
recognition be required to certify that there are no outstanding 
findings of violations of IDEA in a Department monitoring report or, if 
findings do exist, the findings either have been corrected or are part 
of an agreement for corrective action.
    In all other respects, subject to minor editing that does not 
affect the program's eligibility or selection criteria, the Secretary 
proposes to retain for the FY 2000 and future year competitions the 
application package used for the FY 1999 National Awards Program 
competition, and the eligibility and selection criteria and selection 
procedures published in the Federal Register on October 30, 1997.

Goals 2000: Educate America Act

    The Goals 2000: Educate America Act (Goals 2000) focuses the 
Nation's education reform efforts on the eight National Education Goals 
and provides a framework for meeting them. Goals 2000 promotes new 
partnerships to strengthen schools and expands the Department's 
capacities for helping communities to exchange ideas and obtain 
information needed to achieve the goals.
    These proposed eligibility and selection criteria would address the 
National Education Goal that the Nation's teaching force will have the 
content knowledge and teaching skills needed to instruct all American 
students for the next century.

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995

    This notice and the proposed application packet contain information 
collection requirements. Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 
U.S.C. 3507(d)), the Department of Education has submitted a copy of 
this notice and the application packet to the Office of Management and 
Budget (OMB) for its review.
    Collection of Information: National Awards Program.
    Schools and school districts that operate programs for children in 
the pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade levels are eligible to apply 
for national recognition of the quality of their professional 
development activities. Information in the application would include: 
(1) A description of the applicant's professional development 
activities in terms of specific criteria designed to clarify the kinds 
of activities that would align with the Department's statement of the 
Mission and Principles of Professional Development, (2) basic 
identifying and demographic information about the applicant school or 
school district, and (3) a certification of compliance with 
requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. 
Applications also would be limited in page number and have to meet 
basic formatting requirements. The Department would use this 
information to select the highest-quality applicants through a review 
of responses to the criteria and site visits that can confirm the 
accuracy of information contained in the application.
    All information is to be collected once only from each applicant. 
Annual reporting and record keeping burden for this collection of 
information is estimated to average 30 hours for each response for 200 
respondents, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching 
existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and 
completing and reviewing the collection of information. For the 20 
applicants selected for site reviews, there will be an additional 
annual reporting and record keeping burden that is estimated to average 
20 hours for each response. Thus, the total annual reporting and record 
keeping burden for this collection is estimated to be 6,400 hours.
    If you want to comment on the information collection requirements, 
please send your comments to the Office of Information and Regulatory 
Affairs, OMB, room 10235, New Executive Office Building, Washington, DC 
20503; Attention: Desk Officer for US Department of Education. You may 
also send a copy of these comments to the Department representative 
named in the ADDRESSES section of this notice.
    We consider your comments on this proposed collection of 
information in--
     Deciding whether the proposed collection is necessary for 
the proper performance of our functions, including whether the 
information will have practical use;
     Evaluating the accuracy of our estimate of the burden of 
the proposed collection, including the validity of our methodology and 
assumptions;
     Enhancing the quality, usefulness, and clarity of the 
information we collect; and
     Minimizing the burden on those who must respond. This 
includes exploring the use of appropriate automated, electronic, 
mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or other forms 
of information technology; e.g., permitting electronic submission of 
responses.
    OMB is required to make a decision concerning the collection of 
information contained in this notice of proposed eligibility and 
selection criteria between 30 and 60 days after publication of this 
document in the Federal Register. Therefore, to ensure that OMB gives 
your comments full consideration, it is important that OMB receives the 
comments within 30 days of publication. This does not affect the 
deadline for your comments to us on the notice of proposed eligibility 
and selection criteria.

Intergovernmental Review

    This program is subject to Executive Order 12372 and the 
regulations in 34 CFR part 79. One of the objectives of the Executive 
order is to foster an intergovernmental partnership and a strengthened 
federalism. The Executive order relies on processes developed by State 
and local governments for coordination and review of proposed Federal 
financial assistance.
    This document is intended to provide early notification of our 
specific plans and actions for this program.

Electronic Access to This Document

    You may review this document, as well as all other Department of 
Education documents published in the Federal Register, in text or Adobe 
Portable Document Format (PDF) on the Internet at either of the 
following sites:

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

To use the PDF you must have the Adobe Acrobat Reader Program with 
Search, which is available free at either of the previous sites. If you 
have questions about using the PDF, call the U.S. Government Printing 
Office (GPO), toll free, at 1-888-293-6498; or in the Washington, DC 
area, at (202) 512-1530.

    Note: The official version of this document is the document 
published in the Federal Register. Free Internet access to the 
official edition of the Federal Register and the Code of Federal 
Regulations is available on GPO Access at: http://
www.access.gpo.gov/nara/index.html

    Program Authority: 20 U.S.C. 8001.

    Dated: July 23, 1999.
C. Kent McGuire,
Assistant Secretary for Educational Research and Improvement.
[FR Doc. 99-19309 Filed 7-27-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P