[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 210 (Thursday, October 30, 1997)]
[Notices]
[Pages 58870-58874]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-28825]
[[Page 58869]]
_______________________________________________________________________
Part VII
Department of Education
_______________________________________________________________________
National Awards Program for Model Professional Development Inviting
Applications for New Awards for Fiscal Year (FY) 1998; Notices
Federal Register / Vol. 62, No. 210 / Thursday, October 30, 1997 /
Notices
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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
RIN 1850-ZA02
National Awards Program for Model Professional Development
AGENCY: Department of Education.
ACTION: Notice of final eligibility and selection criteria.
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SUMMARY: The Secretary announces eligibility and selection criteria to
govern the National Awards Program for Model Professional Development
for Fiscal Year 1998. Under these criteria, the National Awards Program
will recognize a variety of schools (public and private) and school
districts with model professional development activities in the pre-
kindergarten through twelfth grade levels that have led to increases in
student achievement.
EFFECTIVE DATE: These criteria take effect December 1, 1997.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Sharon Horn, Office of Educational
Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education, 555 New Jersey
Avenue, NW, Room 506e, Washington, DC 20208-5644. Telephone: 202-219-
2203 or 202-219-2187. Inquiries also may be sent by e-mail to
sharon__horn@ed.gov or by FAX at 202-219-2198. Individuals who use a
telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) may call the Federal
Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1-800-877-8339 between 8 a.m. and 8
p.m.
Individuals with disabilities may obtain this document in an
alternate format (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, or computer
diskette) on request to the contact person listed in the preceding
paragraph.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Through this notice the Secretary announces
definitions and criteria to govern applications for recognition
submitted under the second National Awards Program for Model
Professional Development. This program began in 1996, in coordination
with a wide range of national education organizations, to highlight and
recognize schools and school districts whose professional development
activities are aligned with the statement of Mission and Principles of
Professional Development that the Department developed in 1994. See
Appendix A. This second National Awards Program, to be conducted during
Fiscal Year (FY) 1998, will be implemented in ways similar to last
year's program (see, for example, the Notice Inviting Applications for
Awards published in the Federal Register on June 14, 1996 at 61 FR
30450) but with criteria designed to better inform applicants of the
kind of information that successful applicants will need to provide.
Again this year, the Secretary intends to recognize successful
applicants at a ceremony in Washington, DC, and present each successful
applicant with an award of not less than $5,000 that the recipient
could use to expand, promote, or publicize its professional development
activities.
The reasons for wanting to continue the National Awards Program are
clear. Schools and school districts throughout the Nation are
undertaking efforts to raise academic standards and to improve the
academic achievement of all students. For these efforts to be
successful they must include strategies for permitting teachers (and
other school and local educational agency (LEA) staff) to obtain the
skills and knowledge they need to enable all students to achieve.
Indeed, whatever the school reform initiative, teachers are the core.
However, teachers need access to new knowledge and skills to enable
them to continue to teach to higher standards and to respond to the
challenges facing education today.
Realizing that high-quality professional development must be at the
core of any effort to achieve educational excellence, the Secretary in
1994 directed a broadly representative team within the U.S. Department
of Education to examine the best available research and exemplary
practices related to professional development and work with the field
to develop a set of basic principles of high-quality professional
development. Out of this national effort came the Department's
Statement of Mission and Principles of Professional Development. This
statement reflected both extensive collaboration with a wide range of
education constituents and review of public comment received on a draft
Statement of Mission and Principles of Professional Development
published in the Federal Register on December 9, 1994 (59 FR 63773).
The Department issued the final Statement of Mission and Principles
(Appendix A) in 1995 after review of public comment and re-examination
of the best available research on exemplary practices. This Statement--
grounded in the practical wisdom of leading educators across the
country--describes the kind of professional development that, if
implemented, maintained, and supported, will have a positive and
lasting effect on teaching and learning in America.
The Statement of Mission and Principles of Professional Development
represents a framework for guiding school and school district staff as
they design and implement their professional development activities.
Many of the same national education organizations that worked with the
Department to develop the Mission and Principles of Professional
Development sought the Department's help last year in identifying and
recognizing those professional development efforts across the pre-
kindergarten through twelfth grade spectrum that reflect the Mission
and Principles. Given the efforts of schools and school districts
throughout the Nation to pursue school reform initiatives, the
Secretary agreed with these organizations about the urgent need to
identify sites whose professional development activities can be models
for other schools and districts that are working to enhance their own
professional development activities.
Therefore, the Secretary last year announced the first National
Awards Program for Model Professional Development. The public expressed
great interest in the program, and the Department received over 100
applications. In February of this year, the Department recognized five
schools and school districts in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Kansas, and
California for the high quality of their professional development
activities and the link between those activities and improved student
learning. But the importance of high-quality professional development
to successful strategies to increase student achievement demands that
this awards program be continued and that more schools and school
districts have the opportunity for national recognition. Therefore, the
Secretary is pleased to announce definitions and criteria to govern the
second National Awards Program.
On August 19, 1997, the Acting Assistant Secretary for Educational
Research and Improvement published a notice of proposed eligibility and
selection criteria for this program in the Federal Register (62 FR
44194-98). In response to public comment, the final eligibility
criteria invite applicants to identify and describe any important
partnering with institutions of higher education and other entities
that have contributed to the high quality of their professional
development activities. Otherwise, except for minor editorial revisions
made to enhance clarity, there are no differences between the
eligibility and selection criteria proposed in that notice and the
final eligibility and selection criteria announced in this notice.
Note: This notice does not solicit applications. A notice
inviting applications
[[Page 58871]]
under this competition is published elsewhere in this edition of the
Federal Register.
Summary of Comments and Changes
In response to the invitation in the notice of proposed eligibility
and selection criteria, the Department received two comments.
Comment: One commenter noted that his State requires professional
development to be aligned with State education standards, and requested
that the ``Supplementary Information'' section of the notice state that
successful applicants must demonstrate a link between their
professional development activities and improved student achievement
and teacher effectiveness ``toward attaining State standards.''
Discussion: The notice of proposed eligibility and selection
criteria would have required applicants to demonstrate a link between
their professional development activities and ``high'' standards. These
high standards are the content and student performance standards that
states and school districts have adopted or are adopting as key parts
of their strategies to increase student achievement. Upon review of the
commenter's suggestion, no change in the background discussion
contained in the ``Supplementary Information'' section of the notice
seems necessary. However, the language of Selection Criterion B,
``Goals and Outcomes,'' has been clarified to require applicants to
address ``how professional development goals and outcomes promote
teaching and learning to State or local standards, or both.'' Moreover,
while alignment with challenging State content and student performance
standards is crucial to successful education reform, the language of
the criterion is not limited to ``State standards'' so as not to
penalize schools and districts with local standards that now are more
rigorous than their States' standards.
Changes: Selection Criterion B, ``Goals and Outcomes,'' has been
changed accordingly.
Comment: One commenter noted the importance that institutions of
higher education (IHEs) play in promoting high-quality professional
development at the school and school district level, and urged that
eligibility for the National Awards Program be extended to IHEs.
Discussion: Individual IHEs do play an increasingly important role
in helping many schools and school districts improve the quality of
their professional development activities. However, the Secretary has
determined that eligibility for the program should continue to be
limited to schools and school districts--the places where K-12 teaching
and learning actually occurs--both to maintain focus on the quality
professional development within schools and school districts, and
because of the difficulty of using common criteria to evaluate the
relative merit of applications that otherwise would come from such very
different kinds of institutions.
Changes: In view of the comment, the ``Eligibility Criteria''
section of this notice now specifically invites applicants to describe
their partnerships with IHEs and other entities in their applications.
Comment: None.
Discussion: The discussion of ``Proposed Selection Procedures''
contained in the Notice of Proposed Eligibility and Selection Criteria
failed to advise the public that, like last year, the Secretary expects
to give recognition under this National Awards Program to no more than
ten schools and school districts. In addition, the proposed notice
stated that the Secretary anticipated the size of a recipient's
monetary award to be between $5,000 and $10,000. While the Secretary
still hopes that this is the case, this notice clarifies that the
Department anticipates that each successful applicant will receive a
monetary award of no less than $5,000.
Changes: The ``Selection Procedures'' portion of this notice has
been changed accordingly.
Eligibility Criteria
As with last year's program, eligible applicants are schools and
school districts in the States (including schools located on Indian
reservations, and in the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the
outlying areas) serving students in the pre-kindergarten through
twelfth grade range. While only schools and school districts may apply,
the Secretary recognizes that the high quality of a school or
district's professional development activities may be the result of its
successful partnering with institutions of higher education and other
entities such as public and private nonprofit organizations,
businesses, and community organizations. The Secretary invites
applicants to describe these partnerships in their National Award
Program applications.
In addition, this year's program retains application selection
criteria that are built on two key elements: (1) A demonstration that
the professional development activities are fully aligned with the
Mission and Principles of Professional Development, and (2) a
demonstration of how, consistent with the Mission and Principles, the
professional development activities benefit all affected students and
have led to improved student achievement and improved teacher
effectiveness. As noted above, the Statement of Mission and Principles
of Professional Development reflects broad agreement on what is ``best
practice.'' It was prepared in collaboration with a great many national
educational associations and upon review of public comment. The
Secretary believes that professional development activities can only be
considered exemplary if they, in fact, are linked to increased student
achievement.
Again this year, the format of applications remains fairly simple.
However, the application material has been revised to better identify
topics applicants will need to consider in order to demonstrate
alignment with the Mission and Principles of Professional Development
and a link to increased student achievement. In addition, to promote
fairness among those seeking recognition under the National Awards
Program, all applications must be prepared in accordance with
formatting instructions included in the application packet.
Selection Criteria
Applicants are free to respond to these selection criteria in any
way they choose as long as they comply with the formatting requirements
set out in the application packet. The degree to which applicants
demonstrate alignment with the Mission and Principles of Professional
Development and a link to increased student achievement will be
evaluated using the following criteria:
Guiding Principles
In evaluating applications for the National Awards Program,
reviewers will look to see whether the application, taken as a whole,
demonstrates that the school's or school district's professional
development activities are comprehensive and lead to improved teacher
effectiveness and increased student achievement. In doing so, reviewers
will be guided by the extent to which and how well applicants respond
to the following criteria, the most important of which would concern
objective evidence of success. Each criterion includes one or more
questions that are designed to help applicants formulate their
responses. It is not necessary for applicants to answer each question
individually. But, taken as a whole, the description of their
professional development activities must address each criterion and
provide enough information so that reviewers
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can determine whether the school's or district's professional
development is comprehensive and leads to improved teacher
effectiveness and increased student achievement. In this regard, this
description must provide evidence of improved student achievement and
show how the improvement is linked to the professional development
activities that have been implemented.
A. Background and Overview of Professional Development
In this section applicants must provide a brief explanation of why
they consider professional development in their schools or districts
exemplary by describing its key components and relating those to the
U.S. Department of Education's Mission and Principles of Professional
Development. This description must provide evidence that the
professional development activities are not narrowly focused on one
subgroup of students or staff within the school or district.
In responding to this criterion, applicants should consider the
following questions:
1. What are the infrastructure, content, and process components of
professional development in the school or district?
2. How does professional development in the school or district
reflect the U.S. Department of Education's Mission and Principles of
Professional Development?
3. Why is professional development in the school or district
exemplary?
B. Goals and Outcomes
In this section, applicants must describe their professional
development goals, how they were developed, how they relate to school
improvement, and how they are based on needs assessment and address the
achievement of all students (regardless of gender; socio-economic
level; disadvantaged status; racial, ethic or cultural background;
exceptional abilities or disabilities; or limited English proficiency).
Applicants also must address the changes in teaching and student
learning that are expected to result from professional development. In
doing so, they must include how professional development goals and
outcomes promote teaching and learning to State or local standards, or
both.
In responding to this criterion, applicants should consider the
following questions:
1. What are the broad goals of professional development in its
school or district?
2. What are the goals for ALL students' achievement through
professional development?
3. What are the ways that the professional development goals are
connected to long-term school improvement plans?
4. What process was used to create the professional development
goals and plan, and who was involved in the development?
5. What are the ways in which teachers' professional development
needs are assessed and incorporated in the plan for professional
development?
6. How do the professional development goals and outcomes focus on
increasing teachers' expertise in teaching to high standards?
7. What changes in teaching and student learning result from
participation in professional development in the school or district?
What is the rationale for believing these changes would result in
improved teaching and learning?
C. Professional Development Design and Implementation
Overall, the applicant's response to this section must show how the
context, content, and processes of its professional development
activities are consistent with the Department's Mission and Principles
of Professional Development. The description must provide evidence that
professional development reflects research and best practice; includes
comprehensive evaluation; includes organizational structures (e.g.,
administrative policy and support) and resources (e.g., use of time,
expertise, funds) that support it; promotes continuous inquiry and
improvement; and ensures that the larger school community understands
its importance to school improvement.
The applicant must describe the data-based processes that are used
for ensuring that professional development is connected to the school
or district improvement plan and that the professional development
design supports the attainment of expected changes in teaching practice
and student learning. The description must include any formal and
informal processes used to routinely collect information for monitoring
how the school or district is progressing toward its goals; for
assessing the links between the plan, professional development
activities, and teacher and student outcomes; and for adjusting what
isn't working.
Applicants already integrating technology into classroom
instruction also must include a discussion of how professional
development has contributed to ensuring that technology is an effective
teaching tool or, if applicable, how technology has been used to
support effective professional development.
In responding to this criterion, applicants should consider the
following questions:
1. How is professional development a part of what ALL teachers do?
What role do administrators and other members of the school community
play in professional development?
2. How do the applicant's professional development design and
activities reflect research and best practice?
3. How does the applicant's professional development design and
activities reflect comprehensive evaluation? What data are routinely
collected to assess the alignment of program activities and outcomes?
How are collected data used to refine professional development?
4. Why were the specific content, instructional strategies, and
learning activities selected for professional development?
5. What are the processes for ensuring and documenting that the
improvement plans, professional development activities, and teacher and
student outcomes are in alignment?
6. What structures support the implementation of professional
development at individual, collegial and organizational levels?
7. What resources and types of sustained support (financial and
other) are available for professional development for individuals,
groups, and the whole school or district? How are current resources
obtained?
8. How does the applicant ensure that the school community
understands how the professional development components fit together
and connect to the overall school plan?
D. Objective Evidence of Success
This portion of the application is fundamental to the
characterization of the applicant's professional development and is the
most important selection criterion that reviewers will use. Applicants
must demonstrate clearly that teacher effectiveness and student
learning have improved as a direct result of the implemented
professional development. Data that indicate this connection must be
provided and discussed; the focus is objective evidence. In doing so,
applicants are expected to make a compelling argument for how
professional development positively affects outcomes for all teachers
and all students, emphasizing areas where any achievement gaps between
groups (e.g.,
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gender, socio-economic status, ethnicity) have been closed.
In responding to this criterion, applicants should consider the
following questions:
1. What evidence is there that demonstrate that professional
development in the school or district has improved the effectiveness of
all teachers?
2. What evidence is there that professional development in the
school or district has improved student achievement across all grade
levels and all subject areas?
3. What evidence is there that professional development in the
school or district leads to a narrowing of existing achievement gaps
between groups of students?
E. Implications for the Field
In this section of the application, applicants must describe the
lessons learned as their professional development activities have
matured.
In responding to this criterion, applicants should consider the
following questions:
1. What knowledge and documentation (e.g., training materials,
strategies, or processes) are available that can benefit others?
2. What lessons and practical advice about providing quality
professional development has the applicant learned that other schools
and districts could use?
Selection Procedures
The Secretary will evaluate applications using unweighted selection
criteria. The Secretary believes that the use of unweighted criteria is
most appropriate because they will allow the reviewers maximum
flexibility to apply their professional judgments in identifying the
particular strengths and weaknesses in individual applications.
However, to receive recognition under the National Awards Program,
reviewers will need to find that the applicant's professional
development activities reflect model practices as evidenced by
exemplary responses to each of the criteria identified under the
``Selection Criteria'' section of this notice. A key element in review
of any application will be the extent to which the applicant
demonstrates clear links between professional development activities
and increases in student achievement. See Selection Criteria D,
Objective Evidence of Success. In analyzing the response to Selection
Criterion E, Implications for the Field, reviewers will not expect the
same level of specificity from applications as will be expected in
response to the other selection criteria. In examining the response to
Selection Criterion E, reviewers will be primarily interested in seeing
that applicants have considered the lessons they have learned and can
pass on to others.
After an initial screening, the Department will use outside panels
of experts to evaluate the quality of the applications against these
basic criteria. This stage in the process may include telephone
interviews with project contacts to discuss and clarify information,
and will lead to the selection of up to twenty semifinalists. The
Department then will use outside experts to conduct site visits, which
may involve the examination of documentation to confirm the
effectiveness of the semifinalists' professional development
activities, and the collection of additional supporting information
from them. Based on the recommendations of the site reviewers (and
possibly through a final panel of outside experts), the Secretary will
select those schools or school districts that merit national
recognition. Again this year, the Secretary intends to recognize up to
ten schools and school districts with the very best professional
development practices at a national ceremony in Washington, DC.
Successful applicants also will receive other forms of recognition
including a monetary award that the Department anticipates will be no
less than $5,000 per recipient. Recipients will be able to use these
funds to support their professional development activities and make
them known to others.
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995
Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, no persons are required
to respond to a collection of information unless it displays a valid
OMB control number. The valid OMB control number assigned to the
collection of information in this notice of eligibility and selection
criteria is 1880-0534.
Electronic Access to This Document
Anyone may view this document, as well as all other Department of
Education documents published in the Federal Register, in text or
portable document format (pdf) on the World Wide Web at either of the
following sites:
http://gcs.ed.gov/fedreg.htm
http://www.ed.gov/news.html
To use pdf you must have the Adobe Acrobat Reader Program with Search,
which is available free at either of the previous sites. If you have
questions about using pdf, call the U.S. Government Printing Office
toll free at 1-888-293-6498.
Anyone may also view these documents in text copy only on an
electronic bulletin board of the Department. Telephone: (202) 219-1511
or, toll free, 1-800-222-4922. The documents are located under Option
G--Files/Announcements, Bulletins and Press Releases.
Note: The official version of this document is the document
published in the Federal Register.
Program Authority: 20 U.S.C. 8001.
Dated: October 24, 1997.
Ricky T. Takai,
Acting Assistant Secretary for Educational Research and Improvement.
Appendix A--Mission and Principles of Professional Development, U.S.
Department of Education--Professional Development Team
July 5, 1995
Professional development plays an essential role in successful
education reform. Professional development serves as the bridge
between where prospective and experienced educators are now and
where they will need to be to meet the new challenges of guiding all
students in achieving to higher standards of learning and
development.
High-quality professional development as envisioned here refers
to rigorous and relevant content, strategies, and organizational
supports that ensure the preparation and career-long development of
teachers and others whose competence, expectations and actions
influence the teaching and learning environment. Both pre-and in-
service professional development require partnerships among schools,
higher education institutions and other appropriate entities to
promote inclusive learning communities of everyone who impacts
students and their learning. Those within and outside schools need
to work together to bring to bear the ideas, commitment and other
resources that will be necessary to address important and complex
educational issues in a variety of settings and for a diverse
student body.
Equitable access for all educators to such professional
development opportunities is imperative. Moreover, professional
development works best when it is part of a systemwide effort to
improve and integrate the recruitment, selection, preparation,
initial licensing, induction, ongoing development and support, and
advanced certification of educators.
High-quality professional development should incorporate all of
the principles stated below. Adequately addressing each of these
principles is necessary for a full realization of the potential of
individuals, school communities and institutions to improve and
excel.
The mission of professional development is to prepare and
support educators to help all students achieve to high standards of
learning and development.--Professional Development
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Focuses on teachers as central to student learning, yet
includes all other members of the school community;
Focuses on individual, collegial, and organizational
improvement;
Respects and nurtures the intellectual and leadership
capacity of teachers, principals, and others in the school
community;
Reflects best available research and practice in
teaching, learning, and leadership;
Enables teachers to develop further expertise in
subject content, teaching strategies, uses of technologies, and
other essential elements in teaching to high standards;
Promotes continuous inquiry and improvement embedded in
the daily life of schools;
Is planned collaboratively by those who will
participate in and facilitate that development;
Requires substantial time and other resources;
Is driven by a coherent long-term plan;
Is evaluated ultimately on the basis of its impact on
teacher effectiveness and student learning; and this assessment
guides subsequent professional development efforts.
[FR Doc. 97-28825 Filed 10-29-97; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P
