25816 Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 86 / Wednesday, May 3, 2000 / Notices

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

[CFDA No. 84.295A]

Office of Educational Research and

Improvement; Ready-To-Learn (RTL)

Television Program; Notice Inviting

Applications for New Awards for Fiscal

Year (FY) 2000

Purpose of Program: The Ready-ToLearn Television program supports the

development of: (1) Educational

programming for preschool and early

elementary school children and their

families; (2) educational television

programming and ancillary materials to

increase school readiness for young

children in limited-English proficient

households and to increase family

literacy; and (3) accompanying support

materials and services that promote the

effective use of educational

programming.

For FY 2000 the competition for new

awards focuses on projects designed to

meet the priority we describe in the

PRIORITY section of this application

notice.

Eligible Applicants: Non-profit

organizations, including public

telecommunication entities, able to

demonstrate a capacity (1) To develop

and distribute educational and

instructional television programming of

high quality for preschool and

elementary school children; and (2) to

contract with the producers of

children’s television programming for

the purpose of developing educational

television programming of high quality

for preschool and elementary school

children.

Deadline for the Transmittal of

Applications: June 5, 2000.

Estimated Available Funds: $16

Million.

Estimated Range of Awards: Up to

$16 Million.

Estimated Average Size of Awards:

Up to $16 Million.

Estimated Number of Awards: One.

Note: The Department is not bound by any

estimates in this notice.

Project Period: Up to 60 months.

Page Limit: The application narrative

(Part III of the application) is where you,

the applicant, address the selection

criteria reviewers use to evaluate your

application. You must limit Part III to

the equivalent of no more than 60 pages,

using the following standards:

• A page is 8.5′′ × 11′′, on one side

only, with 1’’ margins at the top,

bottom, and both sides.

• Double space (no more than three

lines per vertical inch) all text in the

application narrative, including titles,

headings, footnotes, quotations,

references, and captions, as well as all

text in charts, tables, figures, and

graphs.

• Use a font that is either 12-point or

larger or no smaller than 10 pitch

(characters per inch).

The page limit does not apply to Part

I, the cover sheet; Part II, the budget

section, including the narrative budget

justification; Part IV, the assurances and

certifications; or the one-page abstract,

the resumes, the bibliography, or the

letters of support. However, you must

include all of the application narrative

in Part III.

If, to meet the page limit, you use

more than one side of the page, you use

a larger page, or you use a print size,

spacing, or margins smaller than the

standards in this notice, we will reject

your application.

Applicable Regulations: The

Education Department General

Administrative Regulations (EDGAR) in

34 CFR parts 74, 75, 77, 80, 81, 82, 85,

86, 97, 98, and 99.

Priority

Absolute Priority

The Secretary gives an absolute

preference to applications that meet the

criteria in the next paragraph. The

Secretary funds under this competition

only an application that meets this

absolute priority (34 CFR 75.105(c)(3)).

The Secretary will only fund an

application that documents how the

proposed project will—

(1) Collaborate with Head Start

Centers and family based child care

organizations, public school prekindergarten programs, and Even Start

Family Literacy Programs;

(2) Work with after-school programs

funded under the 21st Century

Community Learning Centers; and

(3) Work with early childhood

literacy, language, and reading

organizations.

An application for funding under this

program also must propose to:

(1) Develop a minimum of two new

children’s television shows during the 5

year project, of which at least one will

be designed to expand the language,

literacy, and reading competencies of

young children who do not use English

as their primary language.

(2) Use state-of-the-art technology to

create new programming and materials

especially targeted to families who: (a)

Have limited literacy; (b) do not use

English as their primary language; (c)

have young children with disabilities;

and (d) live in rural areas.

(3) Establish a technical assistance

center for the Ready-To-Learn

coordinators and station representatives

in order to provide on-going training,

using state-of-the-art methods,

including: on-line training, distance

learning, and face-to-face education and

professional development, with an

emphasis on developing strategies and

materials for reaching diverse

populations of children and families.

(4) Establish performance indicators

to determine Ready-To-Learn’s impact

on children and families.

(5) Establish performance indicators

to measure the impact of training and

education on Ready-To-Learn

coordinators and station representatives,

including improving their knowledge,

skills, and competencies related to early

childhood development and learning

and parenting education.

(6) Develop a management

information system for collecting data

from all participating Ready-to-Learn

Television stations and establish criteria

for measuring the effectiveness of local

workshops.

(7) Convene an annual conference for

the Ready-to-Learn Television

coordinators and station representatives,

including community partners.

(8) Establish a National Advisory

Board for Ready-To-Learn Television.

Waiver of Proposed Rulemaking

In accordance with the

Administrative Procedure Act, (5 U.S.C.

553), it is the practice of the Department

to offer interested parties the

opportunity to comment on proposed

priorities that are not taken directly

from the statute. Ordinarily, this

practice would have applied to the

priority in this notice. Section 437(d)(1)

of the General Education Provisions Act

(GEPA), however, exempts rules that

apply to the first competition under a

new program from this requirement.

The Ready-to-Learn Television program

was first authorized by Congress as part

of the Improving America’s Schools Act

of 1994, Pub L. 103–382. This is the first

competition to award a grant under this

program. Consequently, the Secretary,

in accordance with section 437(d)(1) of

GEPA and to ensure a timely grant

award, has decided to forego public

comment with respect to the absolute

priority. This priority will apply to the

FY 2000 grant competition only.

For Applications and Further

Information Contact: Joe Caliguro, U.S.

Department of Education, 555 New

Jersey Avenue, NW., room 604–I,

Washington, DC 20202–5520.

Telephone: (202) 219–1596. If you use a

telecommunications device for the deaf

(TDD), you may call the Federal

Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1–

800–877–8339.

Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 86 / Wednesday, May 3, 2000 / Notices 25817

Individuals with disabilities may

obtain this document in an alternative

format (e.g., Braille, large print,

audiotape, or computer diskette) on

request to the program contact person

listed in the previous paragraph.

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 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, 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. 6921–6928.

Dated: April 28, 2000.

C. Kent McGuire,

Assistant Secretary for Educational Research

and Improvement.

[FR Doc. 00–11014 Filed 5–2–00; 8:45 am]

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