[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 144 (Wednesday, July 28, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 40856-40858]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-19309]
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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
National Awards Program for Model Professional Development
AGENCY: Department of Education.
ACTION: Notice of proposed eligibility and selection criteria.
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SUMMARY: The Secretary proposes eligibility and selection criteria to
govern competitions under the National Awards Program for Model
Professional Development for fiscal year (FY) 2000 and future years.
Under these criteria, the National Awards Program would recognize a
variety of schools and school districts with model professional
development activities in the pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade
levels that have led to increases in student achievement.
DATES: We must receive your comments on or before August 27, 1999.
ADDRESSES: Address all comments about these proposed eligibility and
selection criteria to Sharon Horn, Office of Educational Research and
Improvement, US Department of Education, 555 New Jersey Avenue, NW,
room 506E, Washington, DC 20208-5644. If you prefer to send your
comments through the Internet, use the following address:
sharon__horn@ed.gov.
You may also fax your comments to Sharon Horn at (202) 219-2198.
If you want to comment on the information collection requirements
you must send your comments to the Office of Management and Budget at
the address listed in the Paperwork Reduction Act section of this
notice. You may also send a copy of these comments to the Department
representative named in this section.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Sharon Horn. Telephone: (202) 219-
2203. 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 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:
Invitation To Comment
We invite you to submit comments regarding these proposed
eligibility and selection criteria.
We invite you to assist us in complying with the specific
requirements of Executive Order 12866 and its overall requirement of
reducing regulatory burden that might result from these proposed
eligibility and selection criteria. Please let us know of any further
opportunities we should take to reduce potential costs or increase
potential benefits while preserving the effective and efficient
administration of the program.
During and after the comment period, you may inspect all public
comments about these proposed eligibility and selection criteria in
room 506E, 555 New Jersey Avenue, NW, Washington, DC, between the hours
of 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m., Eastern time, Monday through Friday of each
week except Federal holidays.
Assistance to Individuals With Disabilities in Reviewing the
Rulemaking Record
On request, we will supply an appropriate aid, such as a reader or
print magnifier, to an individual with a disability who needs
assistance to review the comments or other documents in the public
rulemaking record for these proposed eligibility and selection
criteria. If you want to schedule an appointment for this type of aid,
you may call (202) 205-8113 or (202) 260-9895. If you use a TDD, you
may call the Federal Information Relay Service at 1-800-877-8339.
General Information
Through this notice the Secretary proposes definitions and criteria
to govern applications for recognition submitted under the 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 well aligned with the
statement of the Mission and Principles of Professional Development
that the Department developed in 1994. The National Awards Program to
be conducted during FY 2000 and future years would be implemented in
ways similar to prior years' programs (see, for example, the Notice of
Final Eligibility and Selection Criteria published in the
[[Page 40857]]
Federal Register on October 30, 1997 (62 FR 58870). However, as
explained more fully in the Proposed Eligibility and Selection Criteria
section of this notice, the program's selection criteria would be
slightly revised to identify information applicants will need to
provide to demonstrate a strong link between their professional
development efforts and increased student achievement, to address
circumstances in which applications are received from both a school and
its local educational agency (LEA), and to require certification of
compliance with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
The Secretary plans to publicly honor and recognize successful
applicants, and to pay the costs incurred in enabling them to make
presentations about their professional development activities at
national and regional meetings.
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. Research indicates that for these
efforts to be successful they must include strategies for permitting
teachers and other school and LEA staff to obtain the skills and
knowledge they need to enable all students to achieve to high
standards. Indeed, teachers are at the core of any school reform
initiative. 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.
The public has expressed great interest in this program. In the
first two years of the program, the Department received over 200
applications and recognized 13 schools and school districts in Arizona,
California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Kansas, Massachusetts, New
York, and Texas for the high quality of their professional development
activities and the link between those activities and improved student
learning. Moreover, the National Awards Program has helped educators at
all levels to learn both how teachers and others in these sites have
succeeded in implementing high-quality professional development
activities, and what educators in other locations can do to better
evaluate the effectiveness of their own professional development
efforts.
Currently, the Department and its outside panels of reviewers are
evaluating the quality of the nearly 65 applications submitted for FY
1999 national recognition. The importance of encouraging even more
schools and LEAs to implement high-quality professional development
that is tied to increased student achievement, and having even greater
numbers of exemplary sites as models for others, demands that this
awards program be continued. Therefore, the Secretary is pleased to
propose definitions and criteria to govern the FY 2000 and future year
National Awards Program.
The Secretary will announce the final eligibility and selection
criteria in a notice in the Federal Register. The final eligibility and
selection criteria will be determined by responses to this notice and
other considerations of the Department.
Note: This notice does not solicit applications. A notice
inviting applications under this competition will be published in
the Federal Register concurrent with or following publication of the
notice of final eligibility and selection criteria.
Proposed Eligibility and Selection Criteria
Eligible Applicants
As with previous years' programs, eligible applicants would be
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) that provide educational programs in the pre-
kindergarten through twelfth grade levels.
Selection Criteria
Subject to the three changes described in the next three items, the
Secretary also proposes to use in the FY 2000 and future year
competitions both the eligibility and application selection criteria
and the selection procedures as published in the Federal Register on
October 30, 1997 (59 FR 63773). Similarly, the Secretary would retain
the relatively simple application format that has been used to date.
Those wishing to review a copy of the FY 1999 application package,
which incorporates the criteria and procedures the Department will
continue to use, may do so by calling or writing the Department contact
identified in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION section of this notice. Those
with access to the Internet also may view the document at the following
URL web site: http://www.ed.gov/inits/TeachersWeb/
1. The application criteria would be revised to better identify
information that applicants would need to present to demonstrate the
link between their professional development activities and increased
student achievement. Specifically, Criterion D (``Objective Evidence of
Success'') in the application package for the FY 1999 competition
required that applicants present evidence that teacher effectiveness
and student learning improved as a direct result of the implementation
of the school's or LEA's professional development activities. While the
application package observed that the highest-quality applications were
likely to be those which include evidence drawn from multiple
assessment measures and cover a period of three years or more, the
selection criteria did not require applicants to present evidence of
this kind. In the fourth and succeeding years of the National Awards
Program, the Secretary believes that it is time that these recommended
measures of exemplary quality be required components of all
professional development activities that would receive national
recognition. Accordingly, the Secretary proposes that for the FY 2000
and future year competitions Criterion D include the following
additional language: ``Applicants here must provide and discuss data
that indicate the connection between needs assessments, improvement
plans, professional development activities, and teacher and student
outcomes. In order to confirm that student achievement has increased,
data on student achievement must reflect multiple measures and cover a
period of three years or more.''
2. Existing selection criteria for the National Awards Program do
not address how the Department responds if a school that applies for
national recognition is located in the area served by an LEA that
applies on its own. This situation occurred in a prior competition, and
the Department had established no criteria for addressing it.
Accordingly, there is a need now to clarify this matter.
The Department's peer reviewers cannot assess the degree to which
professional development activities at a school are independent of the
support provided by the school district in which it is located.
Therefore, in order to promote fairness in the application process, the
Secretary proposes that a school that applies for national recognition
must apply on its own or as part of its LEA's application. A school
would not be able to apply through both applications. Moreover, should
the Department receive an application from a school and the LEA in
which the school is located, it will review only the LEA's application.
Since a school's professional development activities are linked, to
some degree, to the support of the LEA in which it is located, the
proposal to consider the LEA's application but not the school's seems
[[Page 40858]]
the most appropriate response to this problem.
3. It is important that schools and LEAs that would receive
national recognition support the rights of all students, including
those with disabilities, to an appropriate education. Therefore, the
Secretary proposes that those applying for National Awards Program
recognition be required to certify that there are no outstanding
findings of violations of IDEA in a Department monitoring report or, if
findings do exist, the findings either have been corrected or are part
of an agreement for corrective action.
In all other respects, subject to minor editing that does not
affect the program's eligibility or selection criteria, the Secretary
proposes to retain for the FY 2000 and future year competitions the
application package used for the FY 1999 National Awards Program
competition, and the eligibility and selection criteria and selection
procedures published in the Federal Register on October 30, 1997.
Goals 2000: Educate America Act
The Goals 2000: Educate America Act (Goals 2000) focuses the
Nation's education reform efforts on the eight National Education Goals
and provides a framework for meeting them. Goals 2000 promotes new
partnerships to strengthen schools and expands the Department's
capacities for helping communities to exchange ideas and obtain
information needed to achieve the goals.
These proposed eligibility and selection criteria would address the
National Education Goal that the Nation's teaching force will have the
content knowledge and teaching skills needed to instruct all American
students for the next century.
Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995
This notice and the proposed application packet contain information
collection requirements. Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44
U.S.C. 3507(d)), the Department of Education has submitted a copy of
this notice and the application packet to the Office of Management and
Budget (OMB) for its review.
Collection of Information: National Awards Program.
Schools and school districts that operate programs for children in
the pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade levels are eligible to apply
for national recognition of the quality of their professional
development activities. Information in the application would include:
(1) A description of the applicant's professional development
activities in terms of specific criteria designed to clarify the kinds
of activities that would align with the Department's statement of the
Mission and Principles of Professional Development, (2) basic
identifying and demographic information about the applicant school or
school district, and (3) a certification of compliance with
requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
Applications also would be limited in page number and have to meet
basic formatting requirements. The Department would use this
information to select the highest-quality applicants through a review
of responses to the criteria and site visits that can confirm the
accuracy of information contained in the application.
All information is to be collected once only from each applicant.
Annual reporting and record keeping burden for this collection of
information is estimated to average 30 hours for each response for 200
respondents, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching
existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and
completing and reviewing the collection of information. For the 20
applicants selected for site reviews, there will be an additional
annual reporting and record keeping burden that is estimated to average
20 hours for each response. Thus, the total annual reporting and record
keeping burden for this collection is estimated to be 6,400 hours.
If you want to comment on the information collection requirements,
please send your comments to the Office of Information and Regulatory
Affairs, OMB, room 10235, New Executive Office Building, Washington, DC
20503; Attention: Desk Officer for US Department of Education. You may
also send a copy of these comments to the Department representative
named in the ADDRESSES section of this notice.
We consider your comments on this proposed collection of
information in--
Deciding whether the proposed collection is necessary for
the proper performance of our functions, including whether the
information will have practical use;
Evaluating the accuracy of our estimate of the burden of
the proposed collection, including the validity of our methodology and
assumptions;
Enhancing the quality, usefulness, and clarity of the
information we collect; and
Minimizing the burden on those who must respond. This
includes exploring the use of appropriate automated, electronic,
mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or other forms
of information technology; e.g., permitting electronic submission of
responses.
OMB is required to make a decision concerning the collection of
information contained in this notice of proposed eligibility and
selection criteria between 30 and 60 days after publication of this
document in the Federal Register. Therefore, to ensure that OMB gives
your comments full consideration, it is important that OMB receives the
comments within 30 days of publication. This does not affect the
deadline for your comments to us on the notice of proposed eligibility
and selection criteria.
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 is intended to provide early notification of our
specific plans and actions for this program.
Electronic Access to This Document
You may review 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 either of the
following sites:
http://ocfo.ed.gov/fedreg.htm
http://www.ed.gov/news.html
To use the 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 the 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. 8001.
Dated: July 23, 1999.
C. Kent McGuire,
Assistant Secretary for Educational Research and Improvement.
[FR Doc. 99-19309 Filed 7-27-99; 8:45 am]
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