[Federal Register Volume 72, Number 46 (Friday, March 9, 2007)]
[Notices]
[Pages 10729-10731]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E7-4272]


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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION


Magnet Schools Assistance Program

AGENCY: Office of Innovation and Improvement, Department of Education.

ACTION: Notice of final priority.

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SUMMARY: The Assistant Deputy Secretary for Innovation and Improvement 
announces a priority under the Magnet Schools Assistance Program 
(MSAP). The Assistant Deputy Secretary may use this priority for 
competitions in fiscal year (FY) 2007 and later years. We intend this 
priority to encourage eligible applicants to focus on expanding their 
capacity to provide public school choice by using magnet schools to 
provide public school choice options to parents whose children attend 
schools that have been identified for school improvement, corrective 
action, or restructuring under Title I of the Elementary and Secondary 
Education Act of 1965, as amended (ESEA).

DATES: Effective Date: This priority is effective April 9, 2007.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Steven L. Brockhouse, U.S. Department 
of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW., room 4W229, Washington, DC 
20202-5970. Telephone: (202) 260-2476 or via Internet: 
[email protected].
    If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), you may 
call the Federal Relay Service (FRS) at 1-800-877-8339.
    Individuals with disabilities may obtain this document in an 
alternative format (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, or computer 
diskette) on request to the contact person listed under FOR FURTHER 
INFORMATION CONTACT.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The MSAP provides grants to eligible local 
educational agencies (LEAs) and consortia of LEAs to support magnet 
schools that are part of an approved desegregation plan. For the 
purpose of the MSAP, a magnet school is a public elementary school, 
public secondary school, public elementary education center, or public 
secondary education center that offers a special curriculum capable of 
attracting substantial numbers of students of different racial 
backgrounds.
    Through the implementation of magnet schools, MSAP resources 
support objectives and activities that enable all elementary and 
secondary students to achieve to high standards, hold schools and LEAs 
accountable for ensuring they do so, and help schools and LEAs develop 
and design innovative educational methods and practices that support 
desegregation efforts to eliminate, reduce, or prevent minority group 
isolation and increase choices in public elementary and secondary 
schools.
    Consistent with the statutory purpose of the MSAP, magnet schools 
are designed to eliminate, reduce, or prevent minority group isolation 
in schools with substantial numbers or percentages of minority group 
students, bring students of different backgrounds together, assist LEAs 
in achieving systemic reforms, provide all students the opportunity to 
meet challenging State content standards and challenging State 
performance standards, and increase choices in public elementary and 
secondary schools.
    The priority, Expanding Capacity to Provide Choice, provides 
eligible LEAs with an opportunity to continue to use magnet schools, 
consistent with their desegregation plan objectives for the 
elimination, reduction, or prevention of

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minority group isolation, to expand their capacity to provide public 
school choice to parents whose children attend schools identified for 
school improvement, corrective action, or restructuring.
    The priority provides eligible applicants the flexibility to use 
either or both of two approaches to expanding their capacity to provide 
public school choice.
    First, an eligible applicant could convert one or more schools 
identified for improvement, corrective action, or restructuring under 
Title I to magnet schools in order to improve the quality of teaching 
and instruction in these schools. Using this approach, conversion of a 
school to a magnet school would benefit students already attending the 
school by offering a magnet curriculum that would include subject 
matter or teaching methodology that is generally not available at other 
schools in the LEA and would be more challenging and innovative than 
the curricular program that the school had previously provided. The 
implementation of the magnet curriculum, along with resources such as 
equipment, supplies and staff development to support the implementation 
of the magnet curriculum, would also help the school reduce, eliminate, 
or prevent minority group isolation at the magnet school and/or at the 
sending schools by attracting other students, including higher-
achieving students of different backgrounds, based on their interest in 
a curricular program that would not be available to them in the schools 
that they would otherwise attend.
    Second, an eligible applicant could use higher-performing schools 
as magnet schools and, by doing so, significantly increase the 
opportunity for students attending schools identified for school 
improvement, corrective action, or restructuring to participate in 
public school choice by attending a higher-performing school. Using 
this approach, an eligible applicant would need to ensure that the 
magnet school would have sufficient space available to accommodate 
students who would likely be interested in transferring from schools 
identified for school improvement, corrective action, or restructuring. 
Additionally, the LEA would need to show how the enrollment of the 
magnet and/or sending schools (i.e., the schools identified for school 
improvement, corrective action, or restructuring from which students 
would transfer) would change in a manner that resulted in the 
elimination, reduction, or prevention of minority group isolation in 
those sending schools.
    Under either approach, an applicant would be required to show how 
it would effectively inform parents whose children attend schools 
identified for school improvement, corrective action, or restructuring 
about the new choices made available to them in the magnet schools to 
be funded under the project.
    We published a notice of proposed priority for this program in the 
Federal Register on April 12, 2006 (71 FR 18728).
    There are no differences between the notice of proposed priority 
and this notice of final priority.

Public Comment

    In the notice of proposed priority, we invited comments on the 
proposed priority. We did not receive any comments.

    Note: This notice does not solicit applications. In any year in 
which we choose to use this priority, we invite applications through 
a notice in the Federal Register. When inviting applications we 
designate the priority as absolute, competitive preference, or 
invitational. The effect of each type of priority follows:
    Absolute priority: Under an absolute priority we consider only 
applications that meet the priority (34 CFR 75.105(c)(3)).
    Competitive preference priority: Under a competitive preference 
priority we give competitive preference to an application by either 
(1) awarding additional points, depending on how well or the extent 
to which the application meets the competitive preference priority 
(34 CFR 75.105(c)(2)(i)); or (2) selecting an application that meets 
the competitive preference priority over an application of 
comparable merit that does not meet the priority (34 CFR 
75.105(c)(2)(ii)).
    Invitational priority: Under an invitational priority we are 
particularly interested in applications that meet the invitational 
priority. However, we do not give an application that meets the 
invitational priority a competitive or absolute preference over 
other applications (34 CFR 75.105(c)(1)).

Priority

Expanding Capacity To Provide Choice

    This priority supports projects that will--
    (1) Help parents whose children attend low-performing schools (that 
is, schools that have been identified for school improvement, 
corrective action, or restructuring under Title I of the Elementary and 
Secondary Education Act of 1965, as amended) by--
    (a) Selecting schools identified for school improvement, corrective 
action, or restructuring under Title I as magnet schools to be funded 
under this project and improving the quality of teaching and 
instruction in these schools; or
    (b) Maximizing the opportunity for students in low-performing 
schools to attend higher-performing magnet schools funded under the 
project and thereby reduce minority group isolation in the low-
performing sending schools; and
    (2) Effectively inform parents whose children attend low-performing 
schools about choices that are available to them in the magnet schools 
to be funded under the project.

    Note: For the purpose of selecting applications under this 
priority, school improvement has the meaning given in 34 CFR 
200.32(a)(1), corrective action has the meaning given in 34 CFR 
200.33(a), and restructuring has the meaning given in 34 CFR 
200.34(a).

Executive Order 12866

    This notice of final priority has been reviewed in accordance with 
Executive Order 12866. Under the terms of the order, we have assessed 
the potential costs and benefits of this regulatory action.
    The potential costs associated with the notice of final priority 
are those resulting from statutory requirements and those we have 
determined as necessary for administering this program effectively and 
efficiently.
    In assessing the potential costs and benefits--both quantitative 
and qualitative--of this notice of final priority, we have determined 
that the benefits of the final priority justify the costs.
    We have also determined that this regulatory action does not unduly 
interfere with State, local, and tribal governments in the exercise of 
their governmental functions.
    Summary of potential costs and benefits: The potential cost 
associated with this final priority is minimal while the benefits are 
significant.
    The benefit of the final priority is that it will help applicants 
prepare high-quality proposals that expand their capacity to provide 
public school choice to parents whose children attend schools that have 
not made adequate yearly progress.

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.

[[Page 10731]]

    This document provides early notification of our specific plans and 
actions for this program.
    Applicable Program Regulations: 34 CFR part 280.

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/news/fedregister.
    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.
    You may also view this document in text or PDF at the following 
site: http://www.ed.gov/programs/magnet/applicant.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.gpoaccess.gov/nara/index.html.

(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Number 84.165A Magnet 
Schools Assistance Program)

    Program Authority: 20 U.S.C. 7231-7231j.

    Dated: March 6, 2007.
Morgan S. Brown,
Assistant Deputy Secretary for Innovation and Improvement.
[FR Doc. E7-4272 Filed 3-8-07; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P