[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 77 (Friday, April 19, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 28757-28759]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-08341]


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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION


Peer Review Opportunities With the U.S. Department of Education's 
Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE); Office of English 
Language Acquisition (OELA); Office of Postsecondary Education (OPE); 
and Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS)

AGENCY: Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, Office of English 
Language Acquisition, Office of Postsecondary Education, and Office of 
Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, U.S. Department of 
Education.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Education (Department) announces 
opportunities for individuals to participate in its peer review process 
for competitive grant funding under the programs administered by OESE, 
OELA, OPE, and OSERS.

DATES: Requests to serve as a peer reviewer for fiscal year 2024 will 
be accepted on an ongoing basis, aligned with this year's grant 
competition schedule. Requests to serve as a peer reviewer should be 
submitted at least four weeks prior to the program's application 
deadline noted on the Department's website under ``Forecast of Funding 
Opportunities'' at www2.ed.gov/fund/grant/find/edlite-forecast.html. 
This notice highlights the specific needs of OESE, OELA, OPE, and 
OSERS.

ADDRESSES: An individual interested in serving as a peer reviewer must 
register and upload his or her resume in the Department's grants 
management system known as ``G6'' at www.g6.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 
    OESE: Andrew Brake, U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland 
Avenue SW, Room 4B168, Washington, DC 20202. Telephone: (202) 453-6136. 
Email: [email protected].
    OELA: Francisco Javier L[oacute]pez, U.S. Department of Education, 
400 Maryland Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20202-5076. Telephone: (202) 
558-4880. Email: [email protected].
    OPE: Tonya Hardin, U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland 
Avenue SW, 5th Floor, Washington, DC 20202. Telephone: (202) 453-7694. 
Email: [email protected].
    OSERS: Kate Friday, U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland 
Avenue SW, Room 4A-111, Potomac Center Plaza, Washington, DC 20202-
5076. Telephone: (202) 987-1439. Email: [email protected].
    If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability and 
wish to access telecommunications relay services, please dial 7-1-1.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The mission of the Department is to promote 
student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by 
fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access. The 
Department pursues its mission by funding grant programs that will 
improve access to high-quality educational opportunities and programs 
that pursue innovations in teaching and learning with a focus on 
underserved students. The Department also funds programs in other areas 
as authorized by statute. Grant funds are awarded to State educational 
agencies; local educational agencies (i.e., school districts); State, 
local, or Tribal governments; nonprofit organizations; institutions of 
higher education; and other entities through a competitive process 
referred to as a grant competition.
    Each year the Department convenes panels of external education 
professionals and practitioners to serve as peer reviewers.\1\ Peer 
reviewers evaluate and score submitted applications against 
competition-specific criteria and announced priorities. Application 
scores are then used to inform the Secretary's funding decisions.
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    \1\ Please note that the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) 
uses different peer review processes and procedures than those 
described in this notice. More information on the IES peer review 
process can be found at: https://ies.ed.gov/director/sro/application_review.asp. IES also administers its research grant 
competitions on a different timeline from other offices in the 
Department.
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    Executive Order 13985, Advancing Racial Equity and Support for 
Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government, directs Federal 
agencies to ``assess whether

[[Page 28758]]

underserved communities and their members face systemic barriers in 
accessing benefits and opportunities available pursuant to those 
policies and programs.'' The Department is committed to increasing the 
racial and ethnic diversity of peer reviewers--an important element of 
the Department's efforts to implement this Executive order. Moreover, 
the Department is particularly interested in peer reviewers who 
represent diverse experiences and perspectives, including experiences 
working with diverse and underserved communities, and whose expertise 
pertains to the Department's grant competitions. This emphasis on 
increasing peer reviewer diversity is included in the Department's 
Agency Equity Plan, available at www2.ed.gov/documents/equity/2022-equity-plan.pdf.
    This year, OESE is managing over 20 grant competitions to fund a 
range of projects that support increasing the number of mental health 
providers in schools; education innovation and research; educator 
preparation, growth, and diversity; migratory or seasonal farmworkers; 
magnet schools; charter schools; literacy; Indian education; and 
technical assistance, among others.
    OELA is managing one grant competition: National Professional 
Development. Grants awarded under this program may be used for 
effective pre-service professional development programs that will 
increase the number and diversity of fully licensed or certified 
bilingual or multilingual teachers supporting ELs.
    OPE is managing approximately 15 grant competitions to fund a wide 
range of projects, including projects to support improvements in 
educational quality, management, and financial stability at colleges 
and universities that enroll high numbers of underserved students; 
projects designed to increase college enrollment among students in 
high-poverty schools; projects to strengthen multilingual education and 
foreign language instruction, international studies, teaching and 
research, professional preparation and development for educators, and 
curriculum development at the K-12, graduate, and postsecondary levels; 
projects to fund fellowships to students studying in a field designated 
as an area of national need; projects designed to support high-quality 
teacher preparation at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, 
Tribally Controlled Colleges and Universities, and Minority Serving 
Institutions; and projects to build research and development 
infrastructure at under resourced institutions.
    OSERS is managing nearly 20 grant competitions. The competitions in 
OSERS' Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) include those under 
the following programs: State Personnel Development Grants; Personnel 
Development; Technical Assistance and Dissemination; Educational 
Technology, Media, and Materials; and Technical Assistance on State 
Data Collection. The remaining competitions in OSERS' Rehabilitation 
Services Administration (RSA) are under the following programs: Braille 
Training Program, American Indian Vocational Rehabilitation Services, 
and the Disability Innovation Fund.
    The Department seeks to expand its pool of peer reviewers to ensure 
that applications are evaluated by individuals with up-to-date and 
relevant knowledge of educational interventions and practices across 
the learning continuum, from early education to college and career, in 
a variety of learning settings. Department peer reviewers are education 
professionals and practitioners who have gained subject matter 
expertise through their education and work as teachers, professors, 
principals, administrators, school counselors, researchers, evaluators, 
content developers, or vocational rehabilitation professionals or 
interpreters. Peer reviewers can be active education professionals in 
any educational level or sector, or those who are retired but stay 
informed of current educational content and issues. No prior experience 
as a peer reviewer is required.
    Peer reviewers for each competition will be selected based on 
several factors, including each reviewer's program-specific expertise, 
the number of applications to be reviewed, and the diversity and 
availability of prospective reviewers. Individuals selected to serve as 
peer reviewers are expected to participate in training; independently 
read, score, and provide written evaluative comments on assigned 
applications; and participate in facilitated panel discussions with 
other peer reviewers. Panel discussions are held via conference calls 
or in-person, as identified for the specific competition. The time 
commitment for peer reviewers is usually several hours a day over a 
period of two to four weeks. Peer reviewers receive an honorarium 
payment as monetary compensation for successfully reviewing 
applications.
    If you are interested in serving as a peer reviewer for the 
Department, you should first review the program web pages of the grant 
programs that match your area of expertise. You can access information 
on each grant program from the link provided on the Department's grants 
forecast page at www2.ed.gov/fund/grant/find/edlite-forecast.html. If 
you have documented experience that you believe qualifies you to serve 
as a peer reviewer for one or more specific grant programs, please 
register in G6, at www.g6.gov, which allows the Department to manage 
and assign potential peer reviewers to competitions that may draw upon 
their professional backgrounds and expertise. A toolkit that includes 
helpful information on how to be considered as a peer reviewer for 
programs administered by the Department can be found at www2.ed.gov/documents/peer-review/peer-reviewer-toolkit.pptx. Additional 
information on becoming a peer reviewer is available at www2.ed.gov/fund/grant/about/discretionary/peer-review-flyer-2024.pdf. Neither the 
submission of a resume nor registration in G6 guarantees you will be 
selected to be a peer reviewer.
    In addition to registering in G6, some OPE and OSERS/RSA peer 
reviews may require being registered in the System for Award 
Management. Since registration for this process can take longer than a 
week, interested individuals are encouraged to register in advance of 
being contacted by the Department. In addition to registering in G6, 
some OSERS/OSEP peer reviews require being approved to serve on the 
Office of Special Education's Standing Panel. Individuals should 
express their interest to serve as a peer reviewer for OSEP 
competitions directly to the competition manager listed in the notice 
inviting applications for that competition at least four weeks prior to 
the application closing date.
    If you have interest in serving as a reviewer specifically for OESE 
competitions (Chart 2 of the Forecast of Funding Opportunities), you 
must also send your resume to [email protected].
    If you have interest in serving as a reviewer specifically for the 
OELA competition (Chart 6 of the Forecast of Funding Opportunities), 
you must also send your resume to [email protected]. The subject line of 
the email should read ``Prospective 2024 Peer Reviewer.''
    If you have interest in serving as a reviewer specifically for RSA 
competitions (Chart 4B of the Forecast of Funding Opportunities), you 
must also send your resume to [email protected] and [email protected]. 
The subject line of the email should read ``Prospective 2024 Peer 
Reviewer.'' In the body of the email, list all programs for which you 
would like to be considered to serve as a peer reviewer.

[[Page 28759]]

    Requests to serve as a peer reviewer should be submitted at least 
four weeks prior to the program's application deadline, noted on the 
forecast page, to provide program offices with sufficient time to 
review resumes and determine an individual's suitability to serve as a 
peer reviewer for a specific competition. If you are selected to serve 
as a peer reviewer, the program office will contact you.
    Accessible Format: On request to the person(s) listed under FOR 
FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT, individuals with disabilities can obtain 
this document and a copy of the application package in an accessible 
format. The Department will provide the requestor with an accessible 
format that may include Rich Text Format (RTF) or text format (txt), a 
thumb drive, an MP3 file, braille, large print, audiotape, or compact 
disc, or other accessible format.
    Electronic Access to This Document: The official version of this 
document is the document published in the Federal Register. You may 
access the official edition of the Federal Register and the Code of 
Federal Regulations at www.govinfo.gov. At this site you can view this 
document, as well as all other documents of this Department published 
in the Federal Register, in text or Portable Document Format (PDF). To 
use PDF you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available free at 
the site.
    You may also access documents of the Department published in the 
Federal Register by using the article search feature at 
www.federalregister.gov. Specifically, through the advanced search 
feature at this site, you can limit your search to documents published 
by the Department.
    Program Authority: Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, 
as amended (20 U.S.C. 6301 et seq.); Higher Education Act of 1965, as 
amended (20 U.S.C. 1001 et seq.); Individuals with Disabilities 
Education Act (20 U.S.C. 1400 et seq.); and the Rehabilitation Act of 
1973, as amended by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (29 
U.S.C. 701 et seq.).

Roberto J. Rodriguez,
Assistant Secretary for Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development.
[FR Doc. 2024-08341 Filed 4-18-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P