[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 61 (Monday, March 31, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 15646-15648]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-7762]


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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

[CFDA NO: 84.349A]


Early Childhood Educator Professional Development Program

AGENCY: Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, Department of 
Education.

ACTION: Notice of final achievement indicators.

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SUMMARY: The Under Secretary announces final achievement indicators for 
the Early Childhood Educator Professional Development Program, for 
fiscal year (FY) 2003 and future years' grants. These achievement 
indicators will help ensure that the professional development provided 
under these discretionary grants will improve the knowledge and skills 
of early childhood educators who work in high-poverty communities, and 
will enhance the school readiness of young children, particularly 
disadvantaged young children, to prevent them from encountering 
difficulties once they enter school.

EFFECTIVE DATE: These achievement indicators are effective April 30, 
2003.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Melanie Kadlic, U.S. Department of 
Education, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, 400 Maryland 
Avenue, SW., room 3C138, FB-6, Washington, DC 20202-2645. Telephone 
(202) 260-3793 or via Internet: [email protected].
    If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), you may 
call the TDD number at (202) 205-4475.
    Individuals with disabilities may obtain this document in an 
alternative format (e.g., Braille, large print, or computer diskette) 
on request to the contact person listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION 
CONTACT.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Early Childhood Educator Professional 
Development Program (ECEPD) is a discretionary grant program authorized 
by section 2151(e) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act 
(ESEA), as added by the No Child Left Behind Act, Public Law 107-110. 
The ECEPD program provides funds for projects that carry out activities 
to improve the knowledge and skills of early childhood educators 
working in programs that are located in high-need communities, 
particularly those serving disadvantaged young children. These programs 
are based on the best available research on early childhood pedagogy 
and on child development and learning, including the age-appropriate 
development of oral language, phonological awareness, print awareness, 
alphabet knowledge, and numeracy skills. The grants serve an important 
purpose because high-quality, intensive, research-based professional 
development is critical for implementing effective early childhood 
programs that improve young children's readiness for school.
    ECEPD grants are made to partnerships of: providers of professional 
development for early childhood educators; State or local public 
agencies or private organizations; and, if feasible, a provider 
experienced in training early childhood educators to identify and 
prevent behavior problems or work with children identified as or 
suspected to be victims of abuse.

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    Section 2151(e)(6) of the ESEA requires the Secretary to announce 
achievement indicators for the ECEPD program. These achievement 
indicators must be designed: (1) To measure the quality and 
accessibility of the professional development provided; (2) to measure 
the impact of that professional development on the early childhood 
education provided by the individuals who receive the professional 
development; and (3) to provide any other measures of program impact 
that the Secretary determines to be appropriate. The statute requires 
each partnership receiving an ECEPD grant to report annually to the 
Secretary on the partnership's progress toward attaining these 
achievement indicators. The Secretary may terminate an ECEPD grant if 
the Secretary determines that the partnership receiving the grant is 
not making satisfactory progress toward attaining the achievement 
indicators.
    The Secretary will use these final achievement indicators for the 
ECEPD grant competition for FY 2003, and for future years, unless 
otherwise announced.
    On January 6, 2003, the Secretary published a Notice of Proposed 
Achievement Indicators for this program (68 FR 547). These final 
achievement indicators are similar to those proposed indicators, with 
two differences. First, these final indicators will measure the extent 
to which projects provide professional development on the effective, 
age-appropriate assessment of young children. Second, these indicators 
clarify that research-based approaches in early childhood pedagogy and 
child development and learning domains include activities that promote 
the age-appropriate development of oral language, phonological 
awareness, print awareness, alphabet knowledge, and numeracy skills. 
These changes from the proposed indicators are explained in the 
Analysis of Comments and Changes in this notice.

Analysis of Comments and Changes

    The Department received relevant comments from three parties in 
response to the Assistant Secretary's invitation to comment in the 
Notice of Proposed Achievement Indicators. The Department also received 
other comments that were not relevant to the proposed indicators. 
Commenters indicated their support of a number of aspects of the 
proposed indicators, including commending the indicators' general 
emphasis on child development research and high-quality professional 
development, supporting in particular the indicator on participation in 
and intensity of the professional development (Indicator 2), and 
supporting the indicator on using research-based approaches that 
include using a content-rich curriculum and activities (Indicator 4). 
An analysis of other relevant comments, and the Secretary's responses 
to those comments, is presented below. Comments are grouped according 
to subject.
    Comment: One commenter requested that the achievement indicators 
include professional development in the areas of effective observation, 
tracking, and assessment of young children, including children with 
disabilities. The commenter indicated that, to ensure that content-rich 
curriculum and activities that promote cognitive, language, social, 
physical, and emotional development are achieving desired child 
outcomes, early childhood educators must have access to high-quality, 
research-based instruction and best practices in effective data 
gathering, tracking, assessment, and analysis of child development. The 
commenter indicated that professional development should include 
specific, targeted training in how to use, and analyze effectively, 
diverse valid and reliable research-based assessment instruments for 
young children, including those that effectively track and measure the 
developmental progress of children with disabilities.
    Discussion: The applicable definition of ``professional 
development'' in section 9101(34) of the ESEA includes instruction in 
the use of data and assessments to inform and instruct classroom 
practice. The Secretary agrees that specific training for early 
childhood educators in the effective, age-appropriate assessment of 
young children is an integral part of a high-quality professional 
development program. This training will enable the educators to 
administer screening and other assessments effectively and use the 
results to inform instruction, and to identify children with special 
needs.
    Change: A clarifying change has been made to the first, third, and 
fourth achievement indicators to clarify that the effective, age-
appropriate assessment of young children is included in a high-quality 
professional development program.
    Comment: One commenter expressed the understanding that mastery and 
control over a variety of teaching strategies is included in ``high-
quality professional development'' in the first indicator and 
``effective strategies to support school readiness'' in the third 
indicator.
    Discussion: The Secretary agrees that high-quality professional 
development, and effective strategies to support school readiness, both 
generally require knowledge and understanding of a variety of teaching 
strategies to meet the diverse learning needs of all students in the 
classroom, including students with special needs.
    Changes: None.
    Comment: One commenter addressed the specific ways that children 
may demonstrate ``improved readiness for school'' in Indicator 5. With 
respect to social and emotional child behaviors, the commenter 
indicated that behaviors that demonstrate readiness include growth in 
initiative, ability to orient to and feel comfortable in a group 
setting, decision making, and negotiating ideas and social interactions 
with peers and adults. The commenter also stated that readiness in the 
areas of language and literacy will be demonstrated when children can 
show growth in the use of language to express ideas, relate to others, 
and explain and discuss their thinking as they investigate their 
surroundings.
    Discussion: The Secretary believes that the indicator on how 
children will demonstrate improved readiness for school needs to remain 
broad, to provide applicants with the flexibility to be responsive in 
their grant proposals to their own State standards. School readiness is 
defined by what each child should know and be able to do by the time 
that child enters elementary school in the State in which that child 
lives. That is, early childhood education should prepare children with 
the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to meet a State's 
preschool standards or content guidelines, if any, and the foundational 
knowledge and skills that the children will need in order to meet that 
State's content standards when the children reach the lowest grade for 
which the State has elementary content standards.
    Change: None.
    Comment: Two commenters suggested that the achievement indicators 
would be stronger if they were more specific concerning content and 
quality of professional development. For example, one commenter 
suggested that achievement indicators should indicate how early 
childhood educators: engage children in appropriate interactions that 
encourage early language and cognitive development; individualize 
experiences for young children based on observation of children's 
abilities, development, and learning; and form and maintain culturally 
competent relationships with parents of young children served. Another 
commenter suggested that the achievement indicators specify the 
experiences in which early childhood

[[Page 15648]]

educators will engage children. For example, the commenter defined 
``content-rich,'' as referenced in Indicator 4, to mean ``conceptually 
rich experiences that grow out of direct experience with concrete 
materials related to the disciplines of the physical and natural 
sciences and the social sciences.''
    Discussion: High-quality professional development for early 
childhood education programs must be based on scientific research on 
early childhood cognitive and social development. The Secretary agrees 
that the indicators would be strengthened by indicating the specific 
types of early childhood developmental skills that research shows are 
included in early language and cognitive development, namely, the age-
appropriate development of oral language, phonological awareness, print 
awareness, alphabet knowledge, and numeracy skills.
    As provided in Indicator 4, research-based approaches in early 
childhood pedagogy and child development and learning domains include 
using a content-rich curriculum. The Secretary believes that the 
specific content and context of the curriculum should remain broadly 
defined in the indicators, however, to give applicants the flexibility 
to align their high-quality, research-based professional development 
programs with their State's preschool standards or content guidelines, 
if any, and to address the foundational knowledge and skills that the 
children will need in order to meet that State's content standards when 
the children reach the lowest grade for which the State has elementary 
content standards.
    Change: Changes are made to the first and fourth indicator to 
clarify that research-based approaches on early childhood cognitive and 
social development include the age-appropriate development of oral 
language, phonological awareness, print awareness, alphabet knowledge, 
and numeracy skills. A change is made to the fifth indicator by adding 
numeracy to the competencies that children need to demonstrate improved 
readiness for school.
    Achievement Indicators: The Secretary announces the following final 
achievement indicators for the ECEPD program, as required by section 
2151(e)(6) of the ESEA.
    In accordance with the timeline included in the approved 
application:
     Indicator 1: Projects will offer an increasing number of hours of 
high-quality professional development to early childhood educators. 
High-quality professional development is ongoing, intensive, classroom-
focused, and based on scientific research on early childhood cognitive 
and social development, including the age-appropriate development of 
oral language, phonological awareness, print awareness, alphabet 
knowledge, and numeracy skills, and on effective pedagogy for young 
children. High-quality professional development also includes 
instruction in the effective administration of age-appropriate 
assessments of young children and the use of assessment results.
    Indicator 2: Early childhood educators who work in early childhood 
programs serving low-income children will participate in greater 
numbers, and in increasing numbers of hours, in high-quality 
professional development.
    Indicator 3: Early childhood educators will demonstrate increased 
knowledge and understanding of effective strategies to support school 
readiness based on scientific research on cognitive and social 
development in early childhood and effective pedagogy for young 
children, and in the effective administration of age-appropriate 
assessments of young children and the use of assessment results.
    Indicator 4: Early childhood educators will more frequently apply 
research-based approaches in early childhood pedagogy and child 
development and learning domains, including using a content-rich 
curriculum and activities that promote the age-appropriate development 
of oral language, age-appropriate social and emotional behavior, 
phonological awareness, print awareness, alphabet knowledge, and 
numeracy skills. Early childhood educators also will more frequently 
participate in the effective administration of age-appropriate 
assessments of young children and the use of assessment results.
    Indicator 5: Children will demonstrate improved readiness for 
school, especially in the areas of appropriate social and emotional 
behavior and early language, literacy, and numeracy skills.

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 provides early notification of our specific plans and 
actions for this program.

Electronic Access to This Document

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Education documents published in the Federal Register, in text or Adobe 
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    You may also view this document in text or PDF at the following 
site: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OESE/SASA/ecprofdev.html.

    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(e).

(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number 84.349A. Early 
Childhood Educator Professional Development Program)

    Dated: March 26, 2003.
Eugene W. Hickok,
Under Secretary.
[FR Doc. 03-7762 Filed 3-28-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P