[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 61 (Monday, March 31, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 15644-15646]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-7763]



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Part V





Department of Education





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Early Childhood Educator Professional Development Program; Notice of 
Final Achievement Indicators and Invitation for Applications for New 
Awards for Fiscal Year 2003; Notices

  Federal Register / Vol. 68, No. 61 / Monday, March 31, 2003 / 
Notices  

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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

[CFDA NO: 84.349A]


Early Childhood Educator Professional Development Program; Notice 
Inviting Applications for New Awards for Fiscal Year (FY) 2003

Purpose of Program

    The purpose of the Early Childhood Educator Professional 
Development 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, is to enhance the school readiness of young 
children, particularly disadvantaged young children, and to prevent 
them from encountering difficulties once they enter school. The program 
is designed to improve the knowledge and skills of early childhood 
educators who work in communities that have high concentrations of 
children living in poverty.
    Projects funded under the Early Childhood Educator Professional 
Development Program provide high-quality, sustained, and intensive 
professional development for these early childhood educators in how to 
provide developmentally appropriate school-readiness services for 
preschool-age children that 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. These grants are part of the President's early 
childhood initiative, ``Good Start, Grow Smart,'' and complement other 
early learning grant programs, such as Early Reading First, by helping 
States and local communities strengthen early learning for young 
children. The Department intends to disseminate information about the 
funded projects that prove to be effective professional development.

Eligible Applicants

    A partnership consisting of at least one entity from each of the 
following categories, as indicated below--
    (i) One or more institutions of higher education, or other public 
or private entities (including faith-based organizations), that provide 
professional development for early childhood educators who work with 
children from low-income families in high-need communities; and
    (ii) One or more public agencies (including local educational 
agencies, State educational agencies, State human services agencies, 
and State and local agencies administering programs under the Child 
Care and Development Block Grant Act of 1990), Head Start agencies, or 
private organizations (including faith-based organizations); and
    (iii) If feasible, an entity with demonstrated experience in 
providing training to educators in early childhood education programs 
concerning identifying and preventing behavior problems or working with 
children identified as or suspected to be victims of abuse. This entity 
may be one of the partners described above, if appropriate.
    Applications Available: March 31, 2003.
    Deadline for Transmittal of Applications: May 16, 2003.
    Deadline for Intergovernmental Review: July 15, 2003.
    Estimated Available Funds: $14,875,000.
    Estimated Range of Awards: $1,200,000-$2,800,000.
    Estimated Average Size of Awards: $2,000,000.
    Estimated Number of Awards: 5-12 awards.

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

    Project Period: Up to 2 years.
    Applicable Regulations: The following provisions of the Education 
Department General Administrative Regulations (EDGAR) apply to these 
Early Childhood Educator Professional Development program grants: 34 
CFR parts 74, 75, 77, 79, 80, 81, 82, 85, 86, 97, 98, and 99.
    These regulations are available at the following Web site: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OCFO/grants/edgar.html.

Matching and Use of Funds Requirements

    Cost-sharing: Each partnership carrying out a project through an 
Early Childhood Educator Professional Development Program grant under 
this program must provide a cost share of (1) at least 50 percent of 
the total cost of the project for the entire grant period; and (2) at 
least 20 percent of the project cost for each year. The project may 
provide this cost share from any source other than funds under this 
program, including other Federal sources.
    The partnership may provide the project cost share through 
contributions of cash or in-kind, fairly evaluated, including plant, 
equipment, and services. Only allowable costs may be counted as part of 
the cost share. For example, any indirect costs over and above the 
allowable amount (see ``Indirect Costs'' section under this heading) 
may not be counted toward a grantee's cost share.
    Indirect Costs: For purposes of indirect cost charges, the 
Secretary considers all Early Childhood Educator Professional 
Development Program grants to be ``educational training grants'' within 
the meaning of section 75.562(a) of EDGAR (34 CFR 75.562(a)). 
Consistent with 34 CFR 75.562, the indirect cost rate for any fiscal 
agent other than a State agency or agency of local government (such as 
a local educational agency) is limited to a maximum of eight percent or 
the amount permitted by the fiscal agent's negotiated indirect cost 
rate agreement, whichever is less. Further information about indirect 
cost rates, and on how to apply for a negotiated indirect cost rate for 
fiscal agents that do not yet have one, is available at the following 
Web site: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OCFO/FIPAO/icgindex.html.
    Pre-award Costs: The Department's regulations authorize grant 
recipients to incur allowable pre-award costs up to 90 calendar days 
before the grant award (sections 75.263 and 74.25(e)(1) of EDGAR, 34 
CFR 75.263 and 74.25(e)(1)). In this case, pre-award costs may include 
the necessary and reasonable costs of the needs assessment that the 
statute requires applicants to conduct before submitting their 
applications, to determine the most critical professional development 
needs of the early childhood educators to be served by the project and 
in the broader community. The Secretary extends the period for 
recipients to charge necessary and reasonable pre-award costs incurred 
related to the needs assessment for these grants for up to 90 days 
before the application due date. Applicants incur any pre-award costs 
at their own risk. That is, the Secretary is under no obligation to 
reimburse these costs if for any reason the applicant does not receive 
an award or if the award is less than anticipated and inadequate to 
cover these costs.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    These Early Childhood Educator Professional Development Program 
grants will provide a small but significant base of high-quality, 
intensive, replicable, professional development programs for early 
childhood educators. These programs will be based on the best available 
research on both effective adult professional development approaches, 
and on early childhood pedagogy and on child development and learning, 
including the age-appropriate development of oral language, 
phonological awareness, print

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awareness, alphabet knowledge, and numeracy skills. The grants are 
particularly important because there is a critical need for more high-
quality, intensive, research-based professional development programs 
for early childhood educators to enable them to help young children 
better develop the knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary for 
school readiness.
    These grants will fund projects that carry out activities to 
improve the knowledge and skills of early childhood educators working 
in early childhood programs that are located in high-need communities. 
Under the invitational priority identified in this notice, the 
Secretary is particularly interested in proposals that focus on 
providing professional development for early childhood educators to 
work with children who have limited English proficiency, children with 
disabilities as identified under Parts B or C of the Individuals with 
Disabilities Education Act, and children with other special needs. An 
application that meets this invitational priority, however, receives no 
competitive or absolute preference over applications that do not meet 
the priority.
    The specific activities for which recipients may use grant funds 
are identified in the application package. The Secretary will expect 
funded projects to use rigorous methodologies to measure progress 
toward attaining project objectives and the final achievement 
indicators that are described in this notice under Achievement 
Indicators.

Definitions

    The following terms used in the application package for this grant 
competition have specific statutory meanings that are included in that 
package: ``child with a disability,'' ``early childhood educator,'' 
``high-need community,'' ``low-income family,'' ``poverty line,'' 
``professional development,'' and ``scientifically based research.'' 
The Secretary strongly encourages applicants to review the statutory 
definitions of these terms before preparing their grant applications.

Applications

    Early Childhood Educator Professional Development Program grants 
for FY 2003 will be awarded through a competitive process. The statute 
requires each applicant to submit an application that contains specific 
information and assurances that are described in the application 
package. Applicants must meet a statutory requirement to be eligible 
for consideration for funding, and must address the selection criteria 
from section 75.210 of EDGAR that are identified in the application 
package. The application narrative addressing the statutory 
requirement, the selection criteria, and other information identified 
in the application package is limited to 30 double-spaced, typed pages. 
The Appendices, including the required Partnership Agreement, are not 
part of this page limit. The additional budget narrative is limited to 
5 double-spaced, typed pages. Other application materials are limited 
to the specific materials indicated in the application package, and may 
not include any video or other non-print materials.

Achievement Indicators

    On January 6, 2003, the Secretary published in the Federal Register 
(68 FR 547-548) proposed achievement indicators for these grants. After 
receiving public comment, the Secretary now is publishing the following 
final achievement indicators in accordance with section 2151(e)(6) of 
the ESEA, elsewhere in this issue of the Federal Register. That Notice 
of Final Achievement Indicators contains the Secretary's response to 
submitted public comments to the proposed achievement indicators. The 
Notice of Final Achievement Indicators also is posted on the 
Department's website at the following address: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OESE/SASA/ecprofdev.html.
    These final achievement indicators will govern these FY 2003 
grants. Applicants must describe in their applications how their 
project objectives and measurement methods are aligned with these final 
achievement indicators, and report annually on their progress toward 
attaining these indicators.

Final Achievement Indicators

    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.
    Statutory Requirement--High-Need Communities: Section 2151(e)(5)(A) 
of the ESEA (20 U.S.C. 6651(e)(5)(A)) requires that grant funds be used 
to carry out activities that will improve the knowledge and skills of 
early childhood educators who are working in early childhood programs 
that are located in high-need communities. Thus, the statute requires 
that each early childhood program, in which the early childhood 
educators work who will receive professional development under the 
project, must be located in a ``high-need community.'' To be considered 
for funding under this program, an eligible applicant must demonstrate 
in its application narrative how it meets this statutory requirement by 
including relevant demographic and socioeconomic information about 
those communities. ``High-need community,'' as defined in section 
2151(e)(9)(B) of the ESEA, means: (a) A political subdivision of a 
State, or a portion of a political subdivision of a State, in which at 
least 50 percent of the children are from low-income families; or (b) a 
political subdivision of a State that is among the

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10 percent of political subdivisions of the State having the greatest 
numbers of such children.
    The Secretary will fund under this competition only applications 
that meet this statutory requirement.

    Note: The following terms used in this statutory requirement 
have statutory definitions that are included in the application 
package: ``early childhood educator,'' ``high-need community,'' 
``low-income family,'' and ``professional development.''

    Invitational Priority--Special Needs Children: The Secretary is 
particularly interested in receiving applications that propose to focus 
on providing professional development for early childhood educators to 
work with young children who have limited English proficiency, children 
with disabilities as identified under parts B or C of the Individuals 
with Disabilities Education Act, and children with other special needs.

    Note: The following term used in this invitational priority has 
a statutory definition that is included in the application package: 
``child with a disability.''

    Under section 75.105(c)(1) of EDGAR (34 CFR 75.105(c)(1)), an 
application that meets this invitational priority receives no 
competitive or absolute preference over applications that do not meet 
the priority.

Selection Criteria

    The Secretary will use selection criteria from section 75.210 of 
EDGAR (34 CFR 75.210) to evaluate applications under this competition. 
Those selection criteria are identified in the application package. The 
Secretary will use the procedures in Sec.  75.217 of EDGAR (34 CFR 
75.217) to select applications for funding.
    For Applications Contact: Education Publications Center (ED Pubs), 
P.O. 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/pubs/edpubs.html
    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 84.349A. The public also may 
obtain a copy of the application package on the Department's website at 
the following address: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OESE/SASA/ecprofdev.html.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Melanie Kadlic, U.S. Department of 
Education, Student Achievement and School Accountability Programs, 
Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, 400 Maryland Avenue SW., 
Washington, DC 20202-6132. Telephone: (202) 260-3793, or via Internet: 
[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 a copy of the application 
package in an alternative format by contacting that person. However, 
the Department is not able to reproduce in an alternative format the 
standard forms included in the application package.

Electronic Access to This Document

    You may view 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 the following site: 
http://www.ed.gov/legislation/fedregister.
    To use PDF, you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available 
free at that 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.

    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).

    Dated: March 26, 2003.
Eugene W. Hickok,
Under Secretary.
[FR Doc. 03-7763 Filed 3-28-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P