[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 200 (Monday, October 18, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 56248-56250]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-27094]


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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION


National Awards Program for Model Professional Development

AGENCY: Office of Educational Research and Improvement, Department of 
Education.

ACTION: Notice of eligibility and selection criteria.

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

DATES: These eligibility and selection criteria are effective November 
17, 1999.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Sharon Horn, Office of Educational 
Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education, 555 New Jersey 
Avenue, NW., room 506E, Washington, DC 20208-5644. Telephone: (202) 
219-2203 or FAX to (202) 219-2198. Inquiries also may be sent by e-mail 
to: [email protected] 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: This notice announces 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 1995.
    The public has expressed great interest in this program. In the 
first three years of the program, the Department received nearly 300 
applications for national recognition. The Secretary has recognized 20 
schools and school districts in 12 states--Arizona, California, 
Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Kansas, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New 
York, Oklahoma, Texas and Washington--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.
    The importance of encouraging even more schools and school 
districts 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.
    On July 28, 1999, the Assistant Secretary published a Notice of

[[Page 56249]]

Proposed Eligibility and Selection Criteria for this program in the 
Federal Register (64 FR 40856-58). This notice proposed to continue the 
eligibility and selection criteria that the Department announced in the 
Federal Register on October 30, 1997 (62 FR 58870-73) with the 
following exceptions:
     To meet criterion D, which requires applicants to 
demonstrate the link between their professional development activities 
and increased student achievement, applicants would need to present 
data on student achievement using multiple measures that cover a period 
of three years or more.
     If a school and a school district that served that school 
both submitted applications under the National Awards program, the 
Department only would consider the school district's application.
     All applicants would need to certify that they have no 
outstanding violations of the Individuals With Disabilities Education 
Act (IDEA) in a Department monitoring report or, if findings do exist, 
that the findings either have been corrected or are part of an 
agreement for corrective action.
    There are no differences between the final eligibility and 
selection criteria for this program, and those proposed in the July 28, 
1999 notice.

    Note: This notice does not solicit applications. A notice 
inviting applications under this competition is published elsewhere 
in this edition of the Federal Register.

Analysis of Comments and Changes

    In response to the Assistant Secretary's invitation in the notice 
of proposed eligibility and selection criteria, two parties submitted 
comments. An analysis of the comments follows.
    Comment: One commenter noted that applicants may have difficulty 
meeting the proposed criterion that they use data from multiple 
measures and over three or more years to demonstrate the link between 
their professional development activities and increased student 
achievement. The commenter observed that school districts are still in 
the process of aligning their assessment systems with State content and 
performance standards in core subjects. Therefore, it will be difficult 
for school districts to provide the kind of longitudinal assessment 
data over a period of three years or more that the commenter believes 
the selection criteria require.
    Discussion: We recognize that few schools and school districts are 
able now to generate three or more years of data on student achievement 
through new assessment measures that are aligned with State content and 
student performance standards. Most States only very recently have 
developed their State content and student performance standards, and 
curriculum and teaching methods that complement them need to be in 
place before these new assessment methods can be properly used.
    Where school districts do use these newly aligned assessments as 
measures of student achievement, the data they generate are available 
to the districts for presentation in their National Awards Program 
applications. However, because these student assessment measures are so 
new, we agree that most school districts cannot be expected to use them 
as the source of their multiyear data on student achievement. The 
proposed selection criteria simply require applicants to describe both 
their professional development activities and how the measures they 
have used and relied upon during a period of three years or more 
demonstrate that the achievement level of their students has increased.
    We do not believe that any change in the selection criteria is 
needed. However the program application packet has been revised to 
clarify that in establishing the link between their professional 
development activities and increased student achievement, applicants 
are expected to describe whatever data sources they have relied upon 
during this multi-year period to measure student achievement.
    Changes: None.
    Comment: One commenter stressed (1) the special circumstances of 
schools with small, rural underserved populations including those that 
serve Indian students, and (2) these schools' resource limitations and 
relative inexperience in grant writing. The commenter recommended that 
the criteria for the National Awards Program permit applications from 
Native American schools, charter schools, and rural schools to be 
separated from those from other schools.
    Discussion: We are aware of the significant challenges faced by 
many schools in rural areas, including those that serve Indian 
students. However, for all students in the nation to achieve to their 
potential, the Principles of Professional Development that the 
Department developed in collaboration with the education and research 
communities must be the same for all schools and school districts 
regardless of their circumstances or geographic location. Similarly, 
the criteria under which any school or school district would be 
recognized for how well it has aligned its professional development 
activities with those principles--the basis for recognition under the 
National Awards Program--must be the same for all applicants.
    We have worked to implement procedures that can ensure that those 
selected for national recognition earn this recognition because of the 
quality of their professional development activities rather than the 
quality of their grant writing. The key to a successful application is 
specific information that demonstrates that a school's or school 
district's professional development activities are aligned with each of 
the research-based Principles of Professional Development. The 
Department developed this statement of principles in 1995 in 
collaboration with the education community, and they are included in 
the application packet. The program selection criteria and application 
instructions have been crafted so that those classroom teachers and 
others most familiar with a school or district's professional 
development activities can prepare the application. Moreover, teams of 
experts conduct on-site examinations of many applicants to ensure that 
those whom the Secretary would recognize under the National Awards 
Program earn this recognition because of the work of their teachers, 
school leaders, and other staff, and not because of the quality of 
their written applications.
    Since the program's inception, the Secretary has recognized urban 
and rural schools and school districts throughout the nation--including 
an Indian school in Arizona. (Profiles of this and other past 
recipients of recognition under the National Awards Program are 
available through the Internet at http://www.ed.gov/inits/teachers/
research.html.) We are confident that this fact validates our 
insistence that all schools and school districts that seek recognition 
under the National Awards Program meet the same high standards for the 
quality of their professional development activities.
    Changes: None.
    Eligibility and Selection Criteria

Eligible Applicants

    As with previous years' programs, eligible applicants are 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 at the pre-
kindergarten through twelfth grade levels.

[[Page 56250]]

Selection Criteria

    For reasons stated in the July 28, 1999 Notice of Proposed 
Eligibility and Selection Criteria, the eligibility and application 
selection criteria and selection procedures for the FY 2000 and future 
year competitions are the same as those published in the Federal 
Register on October 30, 1997 (59 FR 63773), subject to the following 
three changes:
    1. Criterion D (``Objective Evidence of Success'') includes 
additional language requiring applicants to provide and discuss data 
that indicate the connection between needs assessments, improvement 
plans, professional development activities, and teacher and student 
outcomes. In addition, in order to confirm that student achievement has 
increased, the data that applicants provide on student achievement must 
reflect multiple measures and cover a period of three years or more.
    2. A school that applies for national recognition must apply on its 
own or as part of its LEA's application. A school may not apply through 
both applications. 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.
    3. Those applying for National Awards Program recognition must 
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 subject to an agreement for 
corrective action.

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 eligibility and selection criteria 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

    The Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 does not require you to respond 
to a collection of information unless it displays a valid OMB control 
number. The procedures and requirements contained in this notice relate 
to the content of an application packet that the Department has 
developed under the three National Awards program for Model 
Professional Development. The public may obtain copies of these packets 
by calling or writing the individuals identified at the beginning of 
this notice as the Department's contact, or through the Department's 
website: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OPE/heatqp/index.html.
    As required by the Paperwork Reduction Act, the Office of 
Management and Budget has approved the use of these application 
packets, and the selection criteria announced in this notice, under the 
following OMB control number 1880-0534, which expires September 30, 
2002.

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, D.C. 
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: October 13, 1999.
C. Kent McGuire,
Assistant Secretary for Educational Research and Improvement.
[FR Doc. 99-27094 Filed 10-13-99; 3:55 pm]
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