[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 100 (Thursday, May 23, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Pages 36159-36162]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-13022]


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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

[CFDA No. 84.363A]


Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, School Leadership 
Program; Notice Inviting Applications for New Awards for Fiscal Year 
(FY) 2002

    Purpose of Program: The School Leadership Program is designed to 
assist high-need local educational agencies (LEAs) in the development, 
enhancement, or expansion of innovative programs to recruit, train and 
mentor principals (including assistant principals) to serve in high-
need schools.
    For FY 2002, the competition focuses on projects designed to meet 
the priority that appears in the ``Requirements for FY 2002 
Competition: Competitive Preference'' section of this notice.
    Eligible Applicants: High-need LEAs, consortia of high-need LEAs, 
or partnerships that consist of at least one high-need LEA and at least 
one nonprofit organization or institution of higher education. See the 
``Requirements for FY 2002 Competition: Eligibility'' section of this 
notice for the definition of high-need LEA.
    Applications Available: May 23, 2002.
    Deadline for Transmittal of Applications: July 8, 2002.
    Deadline for Intergovernmental Review: September 5, 2002.
    Estimated Available Funds: $10,000,000 for the first 12 months of 
the 36-month project period. Funding for the second and third 12-month 
project periods is subject to the availability of funds and to a 
grantee's meeting the requirements for receipt of continuation awards 
contained in 34 CFR 75.253.
    Estimated Range of Awards: $150,000-$750,000.
    Estimated Average Size of Awards: $450,000.
    Estimated Number of Awards: 22.

    Note:
    The Department is not bound by any estimates in this notice. The 
Administration has not requested funding for this program for FY 
2003.

    Project Period: Up to 36 months.
    Applicable Regulations: (a) The Education Department General 
Administrative Regulations (EDGAR) in

[[Page 36160]]

34 CFR parts 74, 75, 77, 79, 80, 81, 82, 85, 86, 97, 98, and 99. (b) 
The special rules announced in this notice.
    Page Limit: The application narrative is where you, the applicant, 
address the selection criteria that reviewers use to evaluate your 
application. You must limit the narrative to the equivalent of no more 
than 50 pages, using the following standards:
     A page is 8.5# x 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).
    The page limit does not apply to Standard Form 424; the project 
abstract; the budget section, including the narrative budget 
justification; the assurances and certifications; or the resumes, 
bibliography, or letters of support.
    Our reviewers will not read any pages of your applications that--
     Exceed the page limit if you apply these standards; or
     Exceed the equivalent of the page limit if you apply other 
standards.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Research has shown that what principals do 
on a daily basis makes a difference in how well students learn. 
Principals influence teaching and classroom practice through such 
activities as formulating school goals, setting and communicating high 
achievement expectations, organizing resources for instruction, 
supervising and evaluating teachers' performance, and monitoring 
student progress. The primary responsibility of the principal is to 
create an environment that will enable all students to achieve.
    It is clear that strong leadership is essential for effective 
school reform. However, fewer and fewer eligible candidates appear 
willing to accept the role of school administrator. Two hundred 
superintendents surveyed by Education Research Service in 1998 reported 
difficulties filling principal vacancies in their districts. The 
challenge does not rest with recruiting and training future principals. 
Attention must also focus on providing professional development to 
current administrators who, according to a 1997 report by the National 
Center for Education Statistics, are on average 48 years old and nearly 
a decade past their original training.
    In this regard, section 2151(b) of Title II, Part A of the 
Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), as amended by the No 
Child Left Behind Act of 2001, authorizes a new competitive grant 
program to assist high-need LEAs in recruiting, training and retaining 
principals (including assistant principals). The School Leadership 
program will fund applicants that effectively address the competitive 
priority and selection criteria while demonstrating to the satisfaction 
of reviewers that receipt of a grant award will enable them to do one 
or both of the following:
    (1) Hire, train, and mentor highly qualified individuals to become 
principals (and assistant principals) in high-need schools.
    (2) Provide current principals (and assistant principals) who serve 
in high-need school districts with sustained professional development 
that is standards-focused and job-embedded.

Waiver of Proposed Rulemaking

    It is the Secretary's practice, in accordance with the 
Administrative Procedure Act (5 U.S.C. 553), to offer interested 
parties the opportunity to comment on proposed rules, including 
competitive preferences. Section 437(d)(1) of the General Education 
Provisions Act (GEPA), however, allows the Secretary to exempt from 
rulemaking requirements rules governing the first grant competition 
under a new or substantially revised program authority (20 U.S.C. 
1232(d)(1)). The Secretary, in accordance with section 437(d)(1) of 
GEPA, has decided to forego public comment in order to ensure timely 
grant awards. These requirements will apply to the FY 2002 grant 
competition only.

Requirements for FY 2002 Competition

    Selection Criteria. The Secretary uses the following criteria to 
evaluate an application. The maximum score for each criterion is 
indicated in parenthesis.
    (a) Need for project. (15 points)
    In determining the need for the proposed project, the Secretary 
considers:
    (i) The magnitude of the need for recruiting and training highly 
qualified principals by the proposed project.
    (ii) The extent to which the proposed project will prepare 
personnel to be highly qualified principals in which shortages have 
been demonstrated.
    (b) Quality of project design. (25 points)
    In determining the quality of project design of the proposed 
project, the Secretary considers:
    (i) The extent to which the goals, objectives, and outcomes to be 
achieved by the proposed project are clearly specified and measurable.
    (ii) The extent to which the design of the proposed project is 
appropriate to, and will successfully address the need to improve 
student achievement through effective school leadership.
    (iii) The extent to which the proposed activities constitute a 
coherent, sustained program of training for principals in instructional 
leadership, community leadership, and systems management.
    (iv) The extent to which the proposed project is designed to build 
capacity and yield results that will extend beyond the period of 
Federal financial assistance.
    (c) Quality of project services. (25 points)
    In determining the quality of the services to be provided by the 
proposed project, the Secretary considers the quality and sufficiency 
of strategies for ensuring equal access and treatment for eligible 
project participants who are members of groups that have traditionally 
been underrepresented based on race, color, national origin, gender, 
age, or disability.
    In addition, the Secretary considers:
    (i) The extent to which the services to be provided by the proposed 
project are appropriate to the needs of the principal candidates or 
current principals to be served or both.
    (ii) The extent to which the training or professional development 
services to be provided by the proposed project are of sufficient 
quality, intensity, and duration to lead to improvements in school 
leadership.
    (iii) The extent to which the services to be provided by the 
proposed project involve the collaboration of appropriate partners for 
maximizing the effectiveness of project services.
    (iv) The extent to which the services to be provided by the 
proposed project are focused on high-need schools.
    (d) Quality of project personnel. (10 points)
    In determining the quality of project personnel, the Secretary 
considers 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.
    In addition, the Secretary considers:
    (i) The qualifications, including relevant training and experience, 
of the project director or principal investigator.
    (ii) The qualifications, including relevant training and 
experience, of key project personnel.
    (e) Adequacy of resources. (5 points) In determining the adequacy 
of

[[Page 36161]]

resources for the proposed project, the Secretary considers the 
following:
    (i) The adequacy of support, including facilities, equipment, 
supplies, and other resources, from the applicant organization or the 
lead applicant organization.
    (ii) The extent to which the costs are reasonable in relation to 
the number of persons to be served and to the anticipated results and 
benefits.
    (f) Quality of the management plan. (10 points)
    In determining the quality of the management plan for 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 milestones for accomplishing 
project tasks.
    (ii) The adequacy of procedures for ensuring feedback and 
continuous improvement in the operation of the proposed project.
    (iii) The extent to which the time commitments of the project 
director and principal investigator and other key project personnel are 
appropriate and adequate to meet the objectives of the proposed 
project.
    (g) Quality of the project evaluation. (10 points) In determining 
the quality of the evaluation, the Secretary considers:
    (i) The extent to which the methods of evaluation are thorough, 
feasible, and appropriate to the goals, objectives, and outcomes of the 
proposed project.
    (ii) 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.
    (iii) The extent to which the evaluation will provide guidance 
about effective strategies suitable for replication or testing in other 
settings.
    Competitive Preference. Under 34 CFR 75.105(c)(2)(i) we award up to 
an additional 10 points to an application, depending on how well the 
application meets this competitive preference. The priority points are 
in addition to any points an application earns under the selection 
criteria for the program.
    To promote sustained gains in student achievement, principals today 
need to be strong leaders and managers. Principals must effectively 
serve as leaders of the instructional school staff; leaders of the 
school, family, and business communities; and managers of the human, 
financial, and material resources of the school. In addition, the very 
purpose of this program is to help those schools and LEAs most in need 
of improved school leadership.
    Therefore, a competitive preference is awarded to applications 
whose projects would both--
    (1) Provide comprehensive and sustained training or professional 
development to current or prospective principals or assistant 
principals in each of the following three key areas: Instructional 
leadership, community leadership, and systems management; and,
    (2) Support a district-wide effort to improve the academic 
achievement of students attending schools that are most in need of 
strong school leaders. For purposes of this program, schools most in 
need of strong leaders are ``high-need schools'' as defined in section 
2312(3) of the ESEA, i.e., a school that--
    (A) Is either located in an area in which the percentage of 
students from families with incomes below the poverty line is 30 
percent or more; or
    (B)(i) Is located in an area with a high percentage of out-of-field 
teachers, as defined in section 2102 of the ESEA;
    (ii) Is within the top quartile of elementary schools and secondary 
schools statewide, as ranked by the number of unfilled, available 
teacher positions at the school;
    (iii) Is located in an area in which there is a high teacher 
turnover rate; or
    (iv) Is located in an area in which there is a high percentage of 
teachers who are not certified or licensed. Eligibility. An eligible 
application must propose a project directly benefits one or more named 
``high-need LEA(s)''. If the applicant is not the LEA(s), the 
application must contain a letter of support from the LEA(s). As this 
term is defined in section 2102 (3) of the ESEA, a high-need LEA is an 
LEA--
    1. (a) That serves not fewer than 10,000 children from families 
with incomes below the poverty line, or (b) for which not less than 20 
percent of the children in the area served by the LEA are from families 
with incomes below the poverty line; and
    2. For which there is (a) a high percentage of teachers not 
teaching in the academic subjects or grade levels the teachers were 
trained to teach, or (b) a high percentage of teachers with emergency, 
provisional, or temporary certification or licensing.
    Applicants will need to include information in their applications 
that demonstrates that they, or the LEA(s) with which they will work, 
meet this definition.

    Note: For purposes of the four elements of this statutory 
definition of ``high-need LEA'':
    1.a. The total number of children in poverty, as referenced 
above, can be found on the Census Bureau Web site at: http://www.census.gov/housing/saipe/sd97/. This site reports the number of 
children in poverty for every school district in the United States. 
See the file for your State's data, and find your LEA. The sixth 
column provides the number of children in poverty.
    1.b. LEA poverty rates referenced in 1(b) can be accessed on the 
Department's Web site at the following address: www.ed.gov/offices/OESE/reap.html. See at this address ``Instructions and Tools for 
Submitting Data,'' and find ``Its Own State Spreadsheet.'' Column 11 
identifies the percentage of an LEA's children from families below 
the poverty line. These poverty rates are available for LEAs that 
are included in the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) 
Common Core of Data (CCD).
    An LEA not included in the CCD must provide other data, such as 
the adjusted poverty data that its State used to make its Title I 
allocations, to demonstrate its eligibility.
    2.a. The Department does not have available to it suitable data 
with which to define a ``high percentage'' of teachers not teaching 
in the academic subjects or grade levels the teachers were trained 
to teach. Therefore, to be eligible to receive an award, LEAs unable 
to meet the definition immediately below for ``high percentage of 
teachers with emergency, provisional, or temporary certification or 
licensing'' will need to demonstrate to the Department's 
satisfaction that they have a high percentage of teachers not 
teaching in the academic subjects or grade levels the teachers were 
trained to teach. The Department will review this aspect of the 
applications on a case-by-case basis.
    2.b. The best data available to the Department on the percentage 
of teachers with emergency, provisional, or temporary certification 
or licensing comes from the reports on the quality of teacher 
preparation that States provided to the Department in October 2001 
under section 207 of the Higher Education Act. Specifically, States 
provided the percentage of teachers in their LEAs teaching on 
waivers, both on a statewide basis and in high-poverty LEAs. Based 
on data from these reports, the national average of teachers on 
waivers in high-poverty LEAs is approximately 11 percent. The 
Secretary has determined that it is reasonable to use a percentage 
that meets or exceeds 11 percent in defining high-need LEA in Title 
II of the ESEA (under which this program is authorized) to reflect a 
``high percentage'' of teachers teaching with emergency, 
provisional, or temporary certification or licensing.

Services for Private School Principals and Assistant Principals

    The uniform provisions in Title IX, Part E of the ESEA apply to 
this program. Among other things, this means that an LEA receiving 
financial assistance under the School Leadership Program must, after 
timely and meaningful consultation with private school officials, 
provide to private school staff professional development

[[Page 36162]]

that is equitable to professional development provided with program 
funds to public school principals and assistant principals (or other 
public school staff whom the project serves). See section 9501 of the 
ESEA.

Limitation on Indirect Cost

    The success of the School Leadership Program will depend upon how 
well grantees produce highly qualified principals and assistant 
principals who will work and stay in high-need schools. If the program 
is to achieve its purposes, we need to ensure that the $10 million 
appropriation is used as effectively as possible. To do so, it is 
necessary to place a reasonable limitation on the amount of program 
funds that grant recipients may use to reimburse themselves for the 
``indirect costs'' of program activities. Therefore, the Secretary has 
decided to establish a reasonable limit of eight percent on the 
indirect cost rate that all program recipients may charge to funds 
provided under this program.
    The School Leadership Program does not fund activities that are 
strictly ``educational training projects'' within the meaning of 
section 75.562 of EDGAR, to which this eight-percent limitation already 
expressly applies. However, for reasons we have provided in a limited 
number of other competitive grant programs that focus on improving 
teacher quality or helping students in high-need schools achieve 
academically, we believe that a similar limitation on a recipient's 
indirect costs is necessary here to ensure that program funds are used 
to secure the school leaders that Congress had intended. See, e.g., (1) 
the analysis of EDGAR for proposed 34 CFR 611.61 that governs the 
Teacher Quality Enhancement Grant programs, authorized by Title II, 
Part A of the Higher Education Act (65 FR 6936, 6940 (February 11, 
2000)); and (2) requirements for the FY 2001 grants competition under 
the Transition to Teaching program authorized in the FY 2001 Department 
of Education Appropriations Act, Pub. L. 106-554 (66 FR 19673, 19676-
77(April 16, 2002)).
    For Applications Contact: Education Publications Center (ED Pubs), 
PO Box 1398, Jessup, MD 20794-1398. Telephone (toll free): 1-877-433-
7827. FAX: (301) 470-1244. If you use a telecommunications device for 
the deaf (TDD) you may call (toll free): 1-877-576-7734.
    You may also contact ED Pubs at its Web site: http://www.ed.gov/about/ordering.jsp.
    Or you may contact ED Pubs at its e-mail address: 
[email protected].
    If you request an application from ED Pubs, be sure to identify 
this competition as follows: CFDA number 84.363A.
    For Technical Assistance Contact: Susan Toy, U.S. Department of 
Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW, Room 3E224, Washington, DC 20202-
6140. Telephone: (202) 260-0995 or via Internet: [email protected].

Electronic Access to This Document

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Education documents published in the Federal Register, in text or Adobe 
Portable Document Format (PDF) on the Internet at the following site: 
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    To use PDF you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available 
free at this site. If you have questions about using 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.
    Individuals with disabilities may obtain this document in an 
alternative format (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, or computer 
diskette) on request using the contact information provided under For 
Applications Contact.

    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 6651(b).

    Dated: May 17, 2002.
Susan B. Neuman,
Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education.
[FR Doc. 02-13022 Filed 5-22-02; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P