Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 86 / Wednesday, May 5, 2010 / Notices 24671 

1Westat and Policy Studies Associate. The 

longitudinal evaluation of school change and 

performance (LESCP) in title I schools. Prepared for 

the U.S. Department of Education. Available 

January 2010 online at http:// 

www.policystudies.com/studies/school/lescp

_vol2.pdf. 

2Rumberger, Russell W., & Palardy, G. J. ‘‘Does 

segregation still matter? The impact of student 

composition on academic achievement in high 

school,’’ Teacher College Record, 107(9), Sept 2005. 

3Sharkey, Patrick. ‘‘Neighborhoods and the BlackWhite Mobility Gap.’’ Economic Mobility Project: 

An Initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts, 2009. 

you access the information collection, 

click on ‘‘Download Attachments’’ to 

view. Written requests for information 

should be addressed to U.S. Department 

of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, 

SW., LBJ, Washington, DC 20202–4537. 

Requests may also be electronically 

mailed to the Internet address 

ICDocketMgr@ed.gov or faxed to 202– 

401–0920. Please specify the complete 

title of the information collection when 

making your request. 

Comments regarding burden and/or 

the collection activity requirements 

should be electronically mailed to 

ICDocketMgr@ed.gov. Individuals who 

use a telecommunications device for the 

deaf (TDD) may call the Federal 

Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 

1–800–877–8339. 

[FR Doc. 2010–10463 Filed 5–4–10; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4000–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 

Office of Innovation and Improvement; 

Overview Information; Promise 

Neighborhoods Program 

Notice inviting applications for new 

awards for fiscal year (FY) 2010. 

Catalog of Federal Domestic 

Assistance (CFDA) Number: 84.215P. 

Dates: 

Applications Available: May 5, 2010. 

Deadline for Notice of Intent to Apply: 

May 21, 2010. 

Date of Pre-Application Webinars: 

Wednesday, May 5, 2010 and Monday, 

May 10, 2010. 

Deadline for Transmittal of 

Applications: June 25, 2010. 

Deadline for Intergovernmental 

Review: August 24, 2010. 

Full Text of Announcement 

I. Funding Opportunity Description 

Purpose of Program: The Department 

of Education Appropriations Act, 2010 

provided funds for Promise 

Neighborhoods under the legislative 

authority of the Fund for the 

Improvement of Education Program 

(FIE), title V, part D, subpart 1, sections 

5411 through 5413 of the Elementary 

and Secondary Education Act of 1965, 

as amended (ESEA) (20 U.S.C. 7243– 

7243b). FIE supports nationally 

significant programs to improve the 

quality of elementary and secondary 

education at the State and local levels 

and help all children meet challenging 

State academic content and student 

academic achievement standards. 

The purpose of Promise 

Neighborhoods is to improve 

significantly the educational and 

developmental outcomes of children in 

our most distressed communities, and to 

transform those communities by— 

(1) Supporting efforts to improve 

child outcomes and ensure that data on 

those outcomes are communicated and 

analyzed on an ongoing basis by leaders 

and members of the community; 

(2) Identifying and increasing the 

capacity of eligible entities (as defined 

in this notice) that are focused on 

achieving results and building a collegegoing culture (as defined in this notice) 

in the neighborhood; 

(3) Building a complete continuum of 

cradle-through-college-to-career 

solutions (continuum of solutions) 

(as defined in this notice), which has 

both academic programs and family and 

community supports (both as defined in 

this notice), with a strong school or 

schools at the center. Academic 

programs must include (a) High-quality 

early learning programs designed to 

improve outcomes in multiple domains 

of early learning (as defined in this 

notice); (b) programs, policies, and 

personnel for children in kindergarten 

through the 12th grade that are linked 

to improved academic outcomes; and 

(c) programs that prepare students for 

college and career success. Family and 

community supports must include 

programs to improve student health, 

safety, community stability, family and 

community engagement, and student 

access to 21st century learning tools. 

The continuum of solutions also must 

be linked and integrated seamlessly (as 

defined in this notice) so there are 

common outcomes, a focus on similar 

milestones, support during transitional 

time periods, and no time or resource 

gaps that create obstacles for students in 

making academic progress. The 

continuum also must be based on the 

best available evidence including, 

where available, strong or moderate 

evidence (as defined in this notice), and 

include programs, policies, practices, 

services, systems, and supports that 

result in improving educational and 

developmental outcomes for children 

from cradle through college to career; 

(4) Integrating programs and breaking 

down agency ‘‘silos’’ so that solutions 

are implemented effectively and 

efficiently across agencies; 

(5) Supporting the efforts of eligible 

entities, working with local 

governments, to build the infrastructure 

of policies, practices, systems, and 

resources needed to sustain and ‘‘scale 

up’’ proven, effective solutions across 

the broader region beyond the initial 

neighborhood; and 

(6) Learning about the overall impact 

of Promise Neighborhoods and about 

the relationship between particular 

strategies in Promise Neighborhoods 

and student outcomes, including a 

rigorous evaluation of the program. 

Background: Children who are from 

low-income families and grow up in 

high-poverty neighborhoods face 

academic and life challenges above and 

beyond the challenges faced by children 

who are from low-income families who 

grow up in neighborhoods without a 

high concentration of poverty. A Federal 

evaluation of the reading and 

mathematics outcomes of elementary 

students in 71 schools in 18 districts 

and 7 States found that even when 

controlling for individual student 

poverty, there is a significant negative 

association between school-level 

poverty and student achievement.1 The 

evaluation found that students have 

lower academic outcomes when a 

higher percentage of their same-school 

peers qualify for free and reducedpriced lunch (FRPL) compared to when 

a lower percentage of their same-school 

peers qualify for FRPL. Another study 

found that, even when controlling for a 

student’s own socioeconomic status, 

there is a significant negative 

association between individual student 

achievement growth during high school 

and the socioeconomic status of 

students in the school.2 The 

compounding effects of neighborhood 

poverty continue later in life: A third 

study found that, for children with 

similar levels of family income, growing 

up in a neighborhood where the number 

of families in poverty was between 20 

and 30 percent increased the chance of 

downward economic mobility—moving 

down the income ladder relative to their 

parents—by more than 50 percent 

compared with children who grew up in 

neighborhoods with under 10 percent of 

families in poverty.3

Because challenges in distressed 

communities with high concentrations 

of poverty are interrelated, the 

Department, through the Promise 

Neighborhoods Program, is taking a 

comprehensive approach to ensure that 

children have access to a continuum of 

cradle-through-college-to-career 

solutions designed to support academic 

achievement, healthy development, and 

college and career success. 


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4Memorandum from the Office of Management 

and Budget (OMB). Developing Effective PlaceBased Policies for the FY 2011 Budget. August, 11, 

2009. Available online at http:// 

www.whitehouse.gov/omb/assets/memoranda

_fy2009/m09–28.pdf. 

5For the purposes of this notice, the Department 

uses the terms ‘‘neighborhood’’ and ‘‘geographic 

area’’ interchangeably. 

To effectively improve outcomes for 

children in these distressed 

communities, schools, academic 

programs, and family and community 

supports must include several core 

features: 

(a) Organizations and schools 

implementing academic programs and 

family and community supports that 

have the capacity to collect, analyze, 

and use data to evaluate their efforts. 

(b) Academic programs, family and 

community supports, and schools that 

work together and closely integrate their 

efforts so that time and resource gaps 

that contribute to children missing 

academic and developmental milestones 

do not occur. 

(c) Academic programs and family 

and community supports that are 

managed, directly or indirectly, by a 

leader and an organization that can 

engage the community and are 

accountable for results. 

(d) Schools, academic programs, and 

family and community supports that are 

implemented by using a ‘‘place-based’’ 

approach that leverages investments by 

focusing resources in targeted places, 

drawing on the compounding effect of 

well-coordinated actions.4

Consistent with this approach, we 

believe that it is important for 

communities to develop a 

comprehensive neighborhood 

revitalization strategy that addresses 

each of the essential neighborhood 

assets (as defined in this notice), which 

include accessible developmental, 

commercial, recreational, physical, and 

social assets that are vital to 

transforming distressed neighborhoods 

into healthy and vibrant communities of 

opportunity. We believe that Promise 

Neighborhoods will be most successful 

when they are part of, and contributing 

to, a city’s or region’s broader 

neighborhood revitalization strategy. 

Because Promise Neighborhoods focuses 

on accessible, high-quality academic 

programs, effective schools, and family 

and community supports, which are all 

primarily developmental assets, the 

program is a Federal investment 

designed, in part, to support the 

implementation of a broader 

comprehensive neighborhood 

revitalization strategy. Only through the 

development of such comprehensive 

neighborhood revitalization plans, 

which embrace the coordinated use of 

programs and resources to effectively 

address the interrelated needs within a 

community, will the broader vision of 

neighborhood transformation occur. 

Through this notice, the Department 

is establishing priorities and 

requirements, and inviting applications, 

for one-year grants that will support the 

development of a plan to implement a 

Promise Neighborhood. At the 

conclusion of the planning grant period, 

grantees should, at a minimum, have a 

feasible plan to implement a continuum 

of solutions with the potential to 

improve results for children in the 

community being served. 

To be eligible for a planning grant, an 

eligible entity must operate a school or 

partner with at least one school, and 

coordinate with the school’s local 

educational agency (LEA). The school or 

schools must be in a geographically 

defined area in which there are multiple 

signs of distress based on indicators of 

need (as defined in this notice) and 

other relevant indicators. Examples of 

signs of distress are low-performing 

schools (as defined in this notice); 

significant achievement gaps among the 

subgroups of students identified in 

section 1111(b)(3)(C)(xiii) of the ESEA; 

high dropout rates; significant levels of 

child poverty; high student mobility 

rates; high rates of crime, including 

violent crime; high rates of vacant or 

substandard homes; and prevalent 

indicators of poor health, such as 

asthma, poor nutrition, dental problems, 

obesity, or avoidable developmental 

delays (e.g., delays in cognitive, 

communication, adaptive, physical, and 

socio-emotional development). 

As described in this notice, Promise 

Neighborhoods planning grantees will 

undertake the following activities 

during the planning year: 

(1) Conduct a comprehensive needs 

assessment of children along the cradlethrough-college-to-career continuum 

that builds on the statement of need 

prepared to address the selection 

criteria in this notice, and includes the 

collection of data for the academic and 

family and community support 

indicators described in this notice for 

children in the geographic area 5

proposed to be served. 

(2) Conduct a segmentation analysis 

(as defined in this notice) of the needs 

in the neighborhood to better target 

solutions for the children in that 

neighborhood. 

(3) Develop a plan to deliver the 

continuum of solutions that addresses 

the challenges and gaps identified 

through the needs assessment and 

segmentation analysis. 

(4) Work with public and private 

agencies, organizations (including 

philanthropic organizations), and 

individuals to gather and leverage 

resources needed to support the 

financial sustainability of the plan. 

Planning grantees must demonstrate this 

financial sustainability by identifying 

the sources and amounts of current 

Federal, State, and local funds, 

including public and private funds, that 

can be used for the project. 

(5) Identify strategies for building 

upon and leveraging high-quality 

academic programs and family and 

community supports; existing and 

anticipated Federal resources, including 

the American Recovery and 

Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA); and 

existing and anticipated investments in 

neighborhood revitalization efforts and 

similar place-based initiatives funded 

by other Federal agencies such as the 

U.S. Departments of Housing and Urban 

Development, Health and Human 

Services, and Justice. Efforts funded by 

other Federal agencies include programs 

such as HOPE VI and Choice 

Neighborhoods, Health Centers, and the 

Byrne Criminal Justice Innovation and 

Weed and Seed Programs. 

Note: The Departments of Health and 

Human Services, Housing and Urban 

Development, and Justice, along with the 

Department of Education, may establish 

incentives in future competitions for 

communities intending to implement more 

than one of these place-based initiatives. 

(6) Build community support for and 

involvement in the development of the 

plan, which includes establishing 

outcomes for children in the 

neighborhood that are communicated 

and analyzed on an ongoing basis by 

leaders and members of the community. 

(7) Obtain commitments from partners 

to work long-term to implement the 

plan, help ensure continued 

programmatic success of their plan, and 

develop a strategy to hold partners 

accountable for meeting performance 

goals and milestones. 

(8) Plan, build, adapt, or expand a 

comprehensive, longitudinal data 

management system, while abiding by 

Federal, State, and other privacy laws 

and requirements, for all academic and 

family and community support 

indicators, as described in this notice, as 

well as for additional indicators needed 

for the Promise Neighborhoods 

evaluation, such as demographic 

characteristics. 

(9) Work with a national evaluator for 

Promise Neighborhoods. Planning 

grantees must cooperate with the 

national evaluator to ensure their 

project design and data collection plan 

allows for a rigorous evaluation, using 


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6American Community Survey, 2006. 

7Balfanz, Robert, Letgers, N. Locating the Dropout 

Crisis: Which High Schools Produce the Nation’s 

Dropouts? Johns Hopkins University, 2004. 

8 Institute for Education Sciences. Status and 

Trends in the Education of American Indians and 

Alaska Natives, 2008. 

9The Civil Rights Project. The Dropout/ 

Graduation Crisis Among American Indian and 

Alaska Native Students: Failure to Respond Places 

the Future of Native Peoples at Risk, 2010. 

standard methodologies across Promise 

Neighborhoods sites, of the overall 

impact of the Promise Neighborhoods 

Program and the relationship between 

particular solutions pursued by the 

grantee and student outcomes. 

(10) Participate in a community of 

practice (as described in this notice). 

The Department will monitor the 

grantees’ progress toward completion of 

these activities. During the planning 

year, grantees must be able to 

demonstrate performance, or show 

significant progress toward completion, 

of activities (1)–(10), including by 

responding to the Department’s 

questions and concerns regarding 

progress. 

In subsequent years, contingent on the 

availability of funds, the Department 

intends to conduct competitions for 

Promise Neighborhoods implementation 

grants, as well as competitions for new 

Promise Neighborhoods planning 

grants. While all eligible entities will be 

able to apply for implementation grants, 

eligible entities that have effectively 

carried out the planning activities 

described in this notice, whether 

independently or with a Promise 

Neighborhoods planning grant, are 

likely to be well positioned with the 

plan, commitments, data, and 

organizational leadership and capacity 

necessary to develop a quality 

application for an implementation grant. 

Applicants will be at different points 

of readiness, in terms of developing a 

plan, when they apply for a planning 

grant. For that reason, we are requiring 

applicants to demonstrate throughout 

the application their: (a) Current 

organizational capacity to plan for and 

implement a Promise Neighborhood, 

including the expertise of their 

management team and partners; (b) 

prior experience in carrying out 

neighborhood revitalization or school 

improvement initiatives, placing 

emphasis on the applicant’s 

performance and on the impact of its 

work; and (c) ability to ensure ongoing 

sustainability of Promise Neighborhood 

activities. 

Because a diverse group of 

communities could benefit from 

Promise Neighborhoods, the Secretary 

establishes an absolute priority for 

applications that propose to serve one or 

more rural communities only (as 

defined in this notice) and an absolute 

priority for applications that propose to 

serve one or more Indian Tribes (as 

defined in this notice). Child poverty 

rates in rural areas are higher than in 

urban areas 6 and more than one fifth of 

the Nation’s 2,000 ‘‘dropout factories,’’ 

in which the graduation rate is less than 

60 percent, are located in rural areas.7

Our focus on rural communities is 

consistent with the Senate 

Appropriations Committee report on the 

FY 2010 Department of Education, 

Appropriations Act—S. REP. No. 111– 

66 at 192 (August 4, 2009). Compared to 

White students, American Indian 

students have lower academic outcomes 

and higher poverty rates.8 Moreover, 

American Indian and Alaska Native 

students have a graduation rate of less 

than 50 percent nationally.9

The Secretary also recognizes that a 

broad set of solutions is required to 

improve academic and developmental 

outcomes for children and to transform 

communities. In that regard, the 

Secretary establishes an invitational 

priority to signal our interest in 

applicants addressing the unique needs 

of students with disabilities and 

students with limited English 

proficiency, and solutions related to 

increasing internet connectivity, 

improving civic engagement, and 

accessing the arts and humanities. 

Priorities: We are establishing these 

priorities for the FY 2010 grant 

competition only, in accordance with 

section 437(d)(1) of the General 

Education Provisions Act (GEPA), 

20 U.S.C. 1232(d)(1). 

Absolute Priorities: These priorities 

are absolute priorities. Under 34 CFR 

75.105(c)(3) we consider only 

applications that meet either Absolute 

Priority 1, Absolute Priority 2, or 

Absolute Priority 3. 

Note: Applicants must indicate in their 

application whether they are applying under 

Absolute Priority 1, Absolute Priority 2, or 

Absolute Priority 3. An applicant that applies 

under Absolute Priority 2, but is not eligible 

for funding under Absolute Priority 2, or 

applies under Absolute Priority 3, but is not 

eligible for funding under Absolute Priority 

3, may be considered for funding under 

Absolute Priority 1. 

These priorities are: 

Absolute Priority 1: Proposal To 

Develop a Promise Neighborhood Plan 

To meet this priority, an applicant 

must submit a proposal for how it will 

plan to create a Promise Neighborhood. 

This proposal must— 

1. Describe the geographically defined 

area to be served and the level of 

distress in that area based on indicators 

of need and other relevant indicators. 

Applicants may propose to serve 

multiple, non-contiguous geographically 

defined areas. In cases where target 

areas are not contiguous, the applicant 

must explain its rationale for including 

non-contiguous areas; 

2. Describe how the applicant will 

plan to build a continuum of solutions 

(as defined in this notice) designed to 

significantly improve educational 

outcomes and to support the healthy 

development and well-being of children 

in the neighborhood. The plan to be 

developed by the applicant must ensure 

that children in the target school or 

schools described in paragraph 2(a)(i), 

2(a)(ii), or 2(a)(iii) have access to a 

complete continuum of solutions. The 

applicant must explain how it will use 

its needs assessment and segmentation 

analysis to determine the children with 

the highest needs and ensure that they 

receive the appropriate services from 

the continuum of solutions. Each 

applicant will propose solutions, such 

as programs, policies, practices, 

services, systems, and supports that will 

result in improvements on the project 

indicators, as defined in this notice and 

described in paragraph 10 of this 

priority. There may be more than one 

solution for each project indicator, and 

a single solution may contribute to 

improvement on more than one project 

indicator. Applicants are not required to 

propose solutions for program 

indicators (as defined in this notice) that 

are not also project indicators (see 

paragraph 10 of this priority for an 

explanation of the difference between 

project indicators and program 

indicators). 

Although the continuum of solutions 

must be designed to significantly 

improve outcomes for children in the 

neighborhood, applicants may also 

propose to plan for solutions for adults 

in the neighborhood that support 

student learning, such as family literacy 

programs. If an applicant proposes 

solutions for adults, the application 

must include an explanation of how the 

services for adults directly align with 

improved academic and family and 

community support outcomes for 

children. 

The core component of the applicant’s 

proposed continuum of solutions must 

be a strategy, or a plan to develop a 

strategy, to— 

(a)(i) Significantly improve one or 

more persistently lowest-achieving 

schools (as defined in this notice) in the 

neighborhood by implementing one of 

the four school intervention models 

(turnaround model, restart model, 

school closure, or transformation model) 


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described in Appendix C of the Race to 

the Top Notice Inviting Applications for 

New Awards for FY 2010, 74 FR 59836, 

59866 (November 18, 2009); 

(ii) Significantly improve one or more 

low-performing schools in the 

neighborhood that is not also a 

persistently lowest-achieving school, by 

implementing ambitious, rigorous, and 

comprehensive interventions to assist, 

augment, or replace schools, which may 

include implementing one of the four 

school intervention models (turnaround 

model, restart model, school closure, or 

transformation model) described in 

Appendix C of the Race to the Top 

Notice Inviting Applications for New 

Awards for FY 2010, 74 FR 59836, 

59866 (November 18, 2009), or may 

include another model of sufficient 

ambition, rigor, and comprehensiveness 

to significantly improve academic and 

other outcomes for students, with 

elements that include addressing the 

effectiveness of teachers and leaders and 

the school’s use of time and resources, 

including increased learning time 

(as defined in the notice); or 

(iii) Support and sustain one or more 

effective schools (as defined in this 

notice) in the neighborhood by 

providing academic programs in a 

manner that significantly enhances and 

expands current efforts to improve the 

academic outcomes of the children in 

the neighborhood. 

Note regarding school reform strategies: 

So as not to penalize an applicant from 

working with an LEA that has implemented 

rigorous reform strategies prior to the 

publication of this notice, an applicant is not 

required to propose a new reform strategy in 

place of an existing reform strategy in order 

to be eligible for a Promise Neighborhoods 

planning grant. For example, an LEA might 

have begun to implement improvement 

activities that meet many, but not all, of the 

elements of a transformation model of school 

intervention. 

In this case, the applicant could 

propose, as part of its Promise 

Neighborhood, to work with the LEA as 

the LEA continues with its reforms; 

(b) Ensure, as appropriate, that 

children in the neighborhood who do 

not attend the school or schools 

described in paragraph 2(a)(i), 2(a)(ii), or 

2(a)(iii) have access to solutions 

designed to significantly improve 

educational and developmental 

outcomes. Examples of these solutions 

are— 

(i) High-quality early learning 

programs designed to improve outcomes 

in multiple domains of early learning 

for young children; 

(ii) After-school and other programs 

that provide increased learning time (as 

defined in the notice); 

(iii) Supports to address barriers to 

student achievement, such as family 

and community supports; 

(iv) For children in kindergarten 

through the 12th grade, instructional 

programs based on the best available 

evidence including, where available, 

strong or moderate evidence that the 

programs improve educational 

outcomes; 

(v) Multiple pathways for students to 

earn regular high school diplomas (e.g., 

using schools that serve the needs of 

over-aged, under-credited, or other 

students with an exceptional need for 

flexibility regarding when they attend 

school or the additional supports they 

require; awarding credit based on 

demonstrated evidence of student 

competency; or offering dual-enrollment 

options); or 

(vi) Other solutions based on the best 

available evidence including, where 

available, strong or moderate evidence 

that the solutions improve educational 

and developmental outcomes. 

(c) To the extent feasible and 

appropriate, the plan to be developed by 

the applicant must leverage and 

integrate existing high-quality programs 

in the neighborhood into the continuum 

of solutions. An applicant must identify 

in its application the school or schools 

described in paragraph 2(a)(i), 2(a)(ii), or 

2(a)(iii) of this priority. In cases where 

an eligible applicant operates a school 

or partners with a school that does not 

serve all students in the neighborhood, 

the applicant must partner with at least 

one additional school or schools that 

serves students in the neighborhood. In 

cases where an eligible applicant is a 

nonprofit organization that manages, 

operates, or partners with a private 

school in the neighborhood, and the 

school does not serve all students in the 

neighborhood, the applicant must 

partner with at least one additional 

public school or schools that serve 

students in the neighborhood. 

(d) As part of the description of how 

the applicant will plan to build a 

continuum of solutions, an applicant 

must— 

(i) Propose solutions based on the best 

available evidence including, where 

available, strong or moderate evidence 

that the applicant will plan to 

implement in the geographic area 

proposed to be served; 

(ii) Describe the evidence supporting 

each proposed solution; and 

(iii) Propose one or more partners that 

will participate in the implementation 

of each solution (in any case in which 

the applicant does not implement the 

solution directly); 

3. Describe the applicant’s 

organizational capacity to plan and 

implement a Promise Neighborhood, 

including the applicant’s experience 

and lessons learned, in all of the 

following areas: 

(a) Working with the school or 

schools described in paragraph 2 of this 

priority; the LEA in which those schools 

are located; Federal, State, and local 

government leaders; and other service 

providers. 

(b) Serving the neighborhood and its 

residents. The application must include 

a description of the applicant’s and 

partners’ historical commitment and 

service to the neighborhood. 

(c) Collecting, analyzing, and using 

data for decision-making and ongoing 

improvement. 

(d) Creating formal and informal 

relationships, and generating 

community support to achieve results. 

(e) Securing and integrating funding 

streams from multiple public and 

private sources. 

(f) Implementing efforts similar or 

related to the proposed Promise 

Neighborhood. In the case of a newly 

created eligible entity, the applicant 

must describe the prior performance of 

its management team in developing and 

managing projects or programs similar 

to the proposed Promise Neighborhood; 

4. Describe how the applicant will 

plan to sustain and ‘‘scale up’’ the 

proposed Promise Neighborhood across 

the broader region beyond the initial 

neighborhood over time. This must 

include a description of how the 

applicant will estimate during the 

planning phase the start-up and 

operating costs per child, including 

indirect and administrative costs, for 

each solution proposed in its 

application, and how the applicant will 

measure these costs during the 

implementation phase; 

5. Describe the commitment the 

applicant anticipates receiving from 

partners by— 

(a) Providing a preliminary 

memorandum of understanding, signed 

by each organization or agency with 

which it would partner in planning and 

implementing the proposed Promise 

Neighborhood. The preliminary 

memorandum of understanding must 

describe— 

(i) Each partner’s financial and 

programmatic commitment; 

(ii) How each partner’s existing 

vision, theory of change (as defined in 

this notice), theory of action (as defined 

in this notice), and existing activities 

align with those of the proposed 

Promise Neighborhood; and 

(iii) The governance structure of the 

proposed Promise Neighborhood, 

including how the eligible entity’s 

governing board or advisory board is 


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representative of the geographic area 

proposed to be served (as defined in this 

notice), and how residents of the 

geographic area would have an active 

role in the organization’s decisionmaking; and 

(b) Explaining how the applicant will 

plan to secure a commitment from local, 

State, and Federal government leaders 

to develop an infrastructure of policies, 

practices, systems, and resources that 

supports the continuum of solutions in 

the proposed Promise Neighborhood 

and ‘‘scales up’’ those elements of the 

continuum that are proven effective; 

6. Describe how the applicant will 

plan to track available sources and 

funding levels of Federal, State, and 

local funds that could be utilized in the 

project; 

7. Describe how the applicant will 

plan to identify Federal, State, or local 

policies, regulations, or other 

requirements that would impede the 

applicant in achieving its goals and 

report those impediments to the 

Department and other relevant agencies; 

8. Describe how the applicant will 

plan to use data to manage program 

implementation, inform decisionmaking, engage stakeholders, and 

measure success. The applicant must 

describe— 

(a) Its proposal to plan, build, adapt, 

or expand a longitudinal data system 

that measures academic and family and 

community support indicators for all 

children in the neighborhood, 

disaggregated by the subgroups listed in 

section 1111(b)(3)(C)(xiii) of the ESEA; 

(b) How the applicant will link the 

longitudinal data system to schoolbased, LEA, and State data systems; 

make the data accessible to program 

partners, researchers, and evaluators 

while abiding by Federal, State, and 

other privacy laws and requirements; 

and manage and maintain the system; 

(c) How the applicant will use rapidtime (as defined in this notice) data both 

in the planning year and, once the 

Promise Neighborhood is implemented, 

for continuous program improvement; 

and 

(d) How the applicant will document 

the planning process, including by 

describing lessons learned and best 

practices; 

9. Describe the applicant’s 

commitment to work with the 

Department and with a national 

evaluator for Promise Neighborhoods to 

ensure that data collection and program 

design are consistent with plans to 

conduct a rigorous national evaluation 

of the Promise Neighborhoods Program 

during the implementation phase and of 

specific solutions and strategies pursued 

by individual grantees. This 

commitment must include, but need not 

be limited to— 

(a) Ensuring that the national 

evaluator has access to relevant program 

and project data sources (e.g., 

administrative data and program and 

project indicator data) through 

memoranda of understanding with 

appropriate entities; 

(b) Developing, in consultation with 

the national evaluator, an evaluation 

strategy, including identifying a credible 

comparison group; and 

(c) Developing, in consultation with 

the national evaluator, a plan for 

identifying and collecting reliable and 

valid baseline data for both program 

participants and a designated 

comparison group of non-participants; 

10. Identify and describe the 

academic and family and community 

support indicators that the applicant 

will use in conducting the needs 

assessment during the planning year. 

Applicants must— 

(a) Collect data for the academic 

indicators listed in Table 1 and use 

them as both program and project 

indicators; 

(b) Collect data for the family and 

community support indicators in Table 

2 and use them as program indicators; 

and 

(c) Collect data for unique family and 

community support indicators, 

developed by the applicant, that align 

with the goals and objectives of projects 

and use them as project indicators or 

use the indicators in Table 2 as project 

indicators. 

TABLE 1—ACADEMIC INDICATORS AND RESULTS THEY ARE INTENDED TO MEASURE

Indicator Result 

—# and % of children birth to five years old who have a place where they usually go, other 

than an emergency room, when they are sick or in need of advice about their health. 

Children enter kindergarten ready to learn. 

—# and % of three-year-olds and children in kindergarten who demonstrate at the beginning of 

the program or school year age-appropriate functioning across multiple domains of early 

learning (as defined in this notice) as determined using developmentally-appropriate early 

learning measures (as defined in this notice). 

—# & % of children, from birth to kindergarten entry, participating in center-based or formal 

home-based early learning settings or programs, which may include Early Head Start, Head 

Start, child care, or publicly funded preschool. 

—# & % of students at or above grade level according to State mathematics and English language arts assessments in at least the grades required by the ESEA (3rd through 8th and 

once in high school).

Students are proficient in core academic subjects. 

—Attendance rate of students in 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th grade ....................................................... Students successfully transition from middle 

grades to high school. 

—Graduation rate (as defined in this notice) .................................................................................. Youth graduate from high school. 

—# & % of Promise Neighborhood students who graduate with a regular high school diploma, 

as defined in 34 CFR 200.19(b)(1)(iv), and obtain postsecondary degrees, vocational certificates, or other industry-recognized certifications or credentials without the need for remediation.

High school graduates obtain a postsecondary 

degree, certification, or credential. 

TABLE 2—FAMILY AND COMMUNITY SUPPORT INDICATORS AND RESULTS THEY ARE INTENDED TO MEASURE

Indicator Result 

—# & % of children who participate in at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity daily and consume five or more servings of fruits and vegetables daily; or Students are healthy. 

—possible second indicator, to be determined (TBD) by applicant. 

—# & % of students who feel safe at school and traveling to and from school, as measured by 

a school climate survey (as defined in this notice); or 

Students feel safe at school and in their community. 


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TABLE 2—FAMILY AND COMMUNITY SUPPORT INDICATORS AND RESULTS THEY ARE INTENDED TO MEASURE—Continued 

Indicator Result 

—possible second indicator, TBD by applicant. 

—Student mobility rate (as defined in this notice); or .................................................................... Students live in stable communities. 

—possible second indicator, TBD by applicant. 

—# & % of students who say they have a caring adult in their home, school, and community or 

# & % of family members who attend parent-teacher conferences; or 

Families and community members support 

learning in Promise Neighborhood schools. 

—possible second indicator TBD by applicant 

—# & % of students who have school and home access (and % of the day they have access) 

to broadband internet (as defined in this notice) and a connected computing device; or 

Students have access to 21st century learning 

tools. 

—possible second indicator TBD by applicant. 

Note: The indicators in Tables 1 and 2 are 

not intended to limit an applicant from 

collecting and using data for additional 

indicators. Examples of additional indicators 

are— 

(i) The # and % of children who participate 

in high-quality learning activities during outof-school hours; 

(ii) The # and % of suspensions or 

discipline referrals during the year; 

(iii) The share of housing stock in the 

geographically defined area that is rentprotected, publicly assisted, or targeted for 

redevelopment with local, State, or Federal 

funds; 

(iv) The # and % of children who are 

homeless or in foster care and who have an 

assigned adult advocate; and 

(v) The # and % of young children who are 

read to frequently by family members. 

While the Department believes there 

are many programmatic benefits of 

collecting data on every child in the 

proposed neighborhood, if the applicant 

chooses to collect data on only a sample 

of the children in the neighborhood for 

some indicators, the applicant must 

describe in its application how a sample 

would be drawn that is representative of 

children in the neighborhood. 

Absolute Priority 2: Promise 

Neighborhoods in Rural Communities 

The Secretary establishes a priority 

for applicants proposing to develop 

plans for implementing a Promise 

Neighborhood that (1) meet all the 

requirements in Absolute Priority 1; and 

(2) serve one or more rural communities 

only. 

Absolute Priority 3: Promise 

Neighborhoods in Tribal Communities 

The Secretary establishes a priority 

for applications that (1) Meet all 

requirements in Absolute Priority 1; (2) 

serve one or more Indian tribes; and (3) 

are submitted by either an eligible entity 

that partners with an Indian Tribe (as 

defined in this notice), or by an Indian 

Tribe that meets the definition of an 

eligible entity. 

Invitational Priority: Under this 

competition we are particularly 

interested in applications that address 

the following priority. For FY 2010, this 

priority is an invitational priority. 

Under 34 CFR 75.105(c)(1) we do not 

give an application that meets this 

invitational priority a competitive or 

absolute preference over other 

applications. 

This priority is: 

Invitational Priority: Unique Learning 

Needs, Quality Internet Connectivity, 

Civic Engagement, or Arts and 

Humanities 

The Secretary establishes a priority 

for applicants proposing to develop 

plans that include one or more 

practices, strategies, or programs 

designed to— 

1. Address the unique learning needs 

of students with disabilities or students 

with limited English proficiency. This 

may include activities designed to 

improve academic outcomes; close 

achievement gaps identified in section 

1111(b)(3)(C)(xiii) of the ESEA between 

students with disabilities as compared 

to nondisabled students, and between 

students with limited English 

proficiency and their English proficient 

peers; and increase college- and careerreadiness, including increasing high 

school graduation rates for students 

with disabilities or students with 

limited English proficiency; 

2. Ensure that almost all students in 

the geographic area proposed to be 

served have broadband internet access 

(as defined in this notice) at home and 

at school, a connected computing 

device, and the knowledge and skills to 

use broadband internet access 

effectively and a connected computing 

device to support schoolwork; 

3. Include meaningful civic 

engagement opportunities in the 

geographic area proposed to be served. 

Examples of these opportunities are 

efforts to increase the participation of 

residents, including children and youth, 

in decisions that affect their community 

and may improve school performance; 

efforts to use the perspectives of 

residents in shaping and evaluating 

programs; and positive youth 

development activities such as servicelearning (as defined in 42 U.S.C. 12511) 

programs for students and families that 

address specific challenges in the 

neighborhood; or 

4. Include opportunities for children 

and youth to experience and participate 

actively in the arts and humanities in 

their community so as to broaden, 

enrich, and enliven the educational, 

cultural, and civic experiences available 

in the neighborhood. Applicants may 

propose to develop plans for offering 

these activities in school and out-ofschool settings and at any time during 

the calendar year. 

Definitions: We are establishing these 

definitions for the FY 2010 grant 

competition only in accordance with 

section 437(d)(1) of GEPA, 20 U.S.C. 

1232(d)(1). 

Academic programs means programs 

that include, but are not limited to— 

(a) High-quality early learning 

programs designed to improve outcomes 

in multiple domains of early learning 

for young children. Such programs must 

be specifically intended to align 

standards, practices, strategies, or 

activities across as broad an age range as 

birth through third grade so as to ensure 

that young children enter kindergarten 

and the early elementary school grades 

demonstrating age-appropriate 

functioning across the multiple 

domains; 

(b) For children in kindergarten 

through the 12th grade, programs, 

policies, and personnel that are linked 

to improved academic outcomes. The 

programs, policies, and personnel— 

(i) Must include effective teachers and 

effective principals; 

(ii) Must include strategies, practices, 

or programs that encourage and 

facilitate the evaluation, analysis, and 

use of student achievement, student 

growth, and other data by educators, 

families, and other stakeholders to 

inform decision-making; 

(iii) Must include college and careerready standards, assessments, and 

practices, including a well-rounded 

curriculum, instructional practices, 

strategies, or programs in, at a 


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minimum, core academic subjects as 

defined in section 9101(11) of the ESEA, 

that are aligned with high academic 

content and achievement standards and 

with high-quality assessments based on 

those standards; and 

(iv) May include creating multiple 

pathways for students to earn regular 

high school diplomas (e.g., using 

schools that serve the needs of overaged, under-credited, or other students 

with an exceptional need for flexibility 

regarding when they attend school or 

the additional supports they require; 

awarding credit based on demonstrated 

evidence of student competency; or 

offering dual-enrollment options). 

(c) Programs that prepare students for 

college and career success, which may 

include programs that— 

(i) Create and support partnerships 

with community colleges, four-year 

colleges, or universities and that help 

instill a college-going culture in the 

neighborhood; 

(ii) Provide dual-enrollment 

opportunities for secondary students to 

gain college credit while in high school; 

(iii) Provide, through relationships 

with businesses and other organizations, 

apprenticeship opportunities to 

students; 

(iv) Align curricula in the core 

academic subjects with requirements for 

industry-recognized certifications or 

credentials, particularly in high-growth 

sectors; and 

(v) Provide access to career and 

technical education programs so that 

individuals can attain the skills and 

industry-recognized certifications or 

credentials for success in their careers. 

Broadband internet access means 

internet access sufficient to provide 

community members with the internet 

available when and where they need it 

and for the uses they require. 

College-going culture means a local 

culture that includes an expectation that 

all students in the geographic area 

proposed to be served will have the 

academic preparation, financial 

resources, and other supports necessary 

to go to college or pursue other 

postsecondary training. That 

expectation is apparent in the attitudes, 

experiences, practices, beliefs, and 

values of individuals in the 

neighborhood. 

Continuum of cradle-through-collegeto-career solutions or continuum of 

solutions means solutions that— 

(a) Include programs, policies, 

practices, services, systems, and 

supports that result in improving 

educational and developmental 

outcomes for children from cradle 

through college to career; 

(b) Are based on the best available 

evidence, including, where available, 

strong or moderate evidence; 

(c) Are linked and integrated 

seamlessly (as defined in this notice); 

and 

(d) Include both academic programs 

and family and community supports. 

Developmentally appropriate early 

learning measures means a range of 

assessment instruments that are used in 

ways consistent with the purposes for 

which they were designed and 

validated; appropriate for the ages and 

other characteristics of the children 

being assessed; designed and validated 

for use with children whose ages, 

cultures, languages spoken at home, 

socioeconomic status, abilities and 

disabilities, and other characteristics are 

similar to those of the children with 

whom the assessments will be used; and 

used in compliance with the 

measurement standards set forth by the 

American Educational Research 

Association (AERA), the American 

Psychological Association (APA), and 

the National Council for Measurement 

in Education (NCME) in the 1999 

Standards for Educational and 

Psychological Testing. 

Effective school means a school that 

has— 

(a) Significantly closed the 

achievement gaps between subgroups of 

students (as identified in section 

1111(b)(3)(C)(xiii) of the ESEA) within 

the school or district; or 

(b)(i) Demonstrated success in 

significantly increasing student 

academic achievement in the school for 

all subgroups of students (as identified 

in section 1111(b)(3)(C)(xiii) of the 

ESEA) in the school; and 

(ii) Made significant improvements in 

other areas, such as graduation rates (as 

defined in this notice) or recruitment 

and placement of effective teachers and 

effective principals. 

Eligible entity means an entity that— 

(a) Is representative of the geographic 

area proposed to be served (as defined 

in this notice); 

(b) Is one of the following: 

(i) A nonprofit organization that meets 

the definition of a nonprofit under 34 

CFR 77.1(c), which may include a faithbased nonprofit organization; or 

(ii) An institution of higher education 

as defined by section 101(a) of the 

Higher Education Act of 1965, as 

amended; and 

(c) Currently provides at least one of 

the solutions from the applicant’s 

proposed continuum of solutions in the 

geographic area proposed to be served. 

Note: An eligible entity proposing to plan 

to ‘‘scale up’’ existing activities beyond the 

geographic area that the eligible entity is 

currently serving must partner with at least 

one organization or entity that provides at 

least one of the solutions from the applicant’s 

proposed continuum of solutions in the 

geographic area proposed to be served. 

Family and community supports 

means— 

(a) Student health programs, such as 

mental health and physical health 

programs (e.g., home visiting programs; 

Early Head Start; programs to improve 

nutrition and fitness, reduce childhood 

obesity, and create healthier 

communities); 

(b) Safety programs, such as programs 

in school and out of school to prevent, 

control, and reduce crime, violence, 

drug and alcohol use, and gang activity; 

programs that address classroom and 

school-wide behavior and conduct, such 

as Positive Behavioral Interventions and 

Supports; programs to prevent child 

abuse and neglect; programs to prevent 

truancy and reduce and prevent 

bullying and harassment; and programs 

to improve the physical and emotional 

security of the school setting as 

perceived, experienced, and created by 

students, staff, and families; 

(c) Community stability programs, 

such as programs that— 

(i) Increase the stability of families in 

communities by expanding access to 

quality, affordable housing, providing 

legal support to help families secure 

clear legal title to their homes, and 

providing housing counseling or 

housing placement services; 

(ii) Provide employment 

opportunities and training to improve 

job skills and readiness in order to 

decrease unemployment, with a goal of 

increasing family stability; 

(iii) Improve families’ awareness of, 

access to, and use of a range of social 

services, if possible at a single location; 

(iv) Provide unbiased, outcomefocused, and comprehensive financial 

education, inside and outside the 

classroom and at every life stage; 

(v) Increase access to traditional 

financial institutions (e.g., banks and 

credit unions) rather than alternative 

financial institutions (e.g., check cashers 

and payday lenders); 

(vi) Help families increase their 

financial assets and savings; and 

(vii) Help families access 

transportation to education and 

employment opportunities; 

(d) Family and community 

engagement programs, such as family 

literacy programs and programs that 

provide training and opportunities for 

family members and other members of 

the community to support student 

learning and establish high expectations 

for academic achievement; mentorship 


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programs that create positive 

relationships between children and 

adults; and programs that provide for 

the use of such community resources as 

libraries, museums, and local businesses 

to support improved student academic 

outcomes; and 

(e) 21st century learning tools, such as 

technology (e.g., computers and mobile 

phones) used by students in the 

classroom and in the community to 

support their education. This includes 

programs that help students use the 

tools to develop knowledge and skills in 

such areas as reading and writing, 

mathematics, research, critical thinking, 

communication, creativity, innovation, 

and entrepreneurship. 

Graduation rate means the four-year 

or extended-year adjusted cohort 

graduation rate as defined by 34 CFR 

200.19(b)(1). 

Note: This definition is not meant to 

prevent a grantee from also collecting 

information about the reasons why students 

do not graduate from the target high school, 

e.g., dropping out or moving outside of the 

school district for non-academic or academic 

reasons. 

Increased learning time means using 

a longer school day, week, or year to 

significantly increase the total number 

of school hours. It is used to redesign 

the school’s program in a manner that 

includes additional time for (a) 

Instruction in core academic subjects as 

defined in section 9101 of the ESEA; (b) 

instruction in other subjects and 

enrichment activities that contribute to 

a well-rounded education, including, for 

example, physical education, service 

learning, and experiential and workbased learning opportunities that are 

provided by partnering, as appropriate, 

with other organizations; and (c) 

teachers to collaborate, plan, and engage 

in professional development within and 

across grades and subjects. 

Indian Tribe means any Indian or 

Alaska Native tribe, band, nation, 

pueblo, village or community that the 

Secretary of the Interior acknowledges 

to exist as an Indian tribe, 25 U.S.C. 

479a and 479a–1. 

Indicators of need means currently 

available data that describe— 

(a) Academic need, which means— 

(i) All or a portion of the 

neighborhood includes or is within the 

attendance zone of a low-performing 

school that is a high school, especially 

one in which the graduation rate (as 

defined in this notice) is less than 60 

percent or a school that can be 

characterized as low-performing based 

on another proxy indicator, such as 

students’ on-time progression from 

grade to grade; and 

(ii) Other indicators, such as 

significant achievement gaps between 

subgroups of students (as identified in 

section 1111(b)(3)(C)(xiii) of the ESEA) 

within a school or LEA, high teacher 

and principal turnover, or high student 

absenteeism; and 

(b) Family and community support 

need, which means— 

(i) Percentages of children with 

preventable chronic health conditions 

(e.g., asthma, poor nutrition, dental 

problems, obesity) or avoidable 

developmental delays; 

(ii) Immunization rates; 

(iii) Rates of crime, including violent 

crime; 

(iv) Student mobility rates; 

(v) Teenage birth rates; 

(vi) Percentage of children in singleparent or no-parent families; 

(vii) Rates of vacant or substandard 

homes, including distressed public and 

assisted housing; or 

(viii) Percentage of the residents 

living at or below the Federal poverty 

threshold. 

Linked and integrated seamlessly, 

with respect to the continuum of 

solutions, means solutions that have 

common outcomes, focus on similar 

milestones, support transitional time 

periods (e.g., the beginning of 

kindergarten, the middle grades, or 

graduation from high school) along the 

cradle-through-college-to-career 

continuum, and address time and 

resource gaps that create obstacles for 

students in making academic progress. 

Low-performing schools means 

schools receiving assistance through 

Title I that are in corrective action or 

restructuring in the State, as determined 

under section 1116 of the ESEA, and the 

secondary schools (both middle and 

high schools) in the State that are 

equally as low-achieving as these Title 

I schools and are eligible for, but do not 

receive, Title I funds. 

Moderate evidence means evidence 

from previous studies with designs that 

can support causal conclusions (i.e., 

studies with high internal validity) but 

have limited generalizability (i.e., 

moderate external validity) or from 

studies with high external validity but 

moderate internal validity. 

Multiple domains of early learning 

means physical well-being and motor 

development; social and emotional 

development; approaches to learning, 

which refers to the inclinations, 

dispositions, or styles, rather than skills, 

that reflect ways that children become 

involved in learning and develop their 

inclinations to pursue learning; 

language development, including 

emergent literacy; and cognition and 

general knowledge, which refers to 

thinking and problem-solving as well as 

knowledge about particular objects and 

the way the world works. Cognition and 

general knowledge include 

mathematical and scientific knowledge, 

abstract thought, and imagination. 

Neighborhood assets means— 

(a) Developmental assets that allow 

residents to attain the skills needed to 

be successful in all aspects of daily life 

(e.g., educational institutions, early 

learning centers, and health resources); 

(b) Commercial assets that are 

associated with production, 

employment, transactions, and sales 

(e.g., labor force and retail 

establishments); 

(c) Recreational assets that create 

value in a neighborhood beyond work 

and education (e.g., parks, open space, 

community gardens, and arts 

organizations); 

(d) Physical assets that are associated 

with the built environment and physical 

infrastructure (e.g., housing, commercial 

buildings, and roads); and 

(e) Social assets that establish wellfunctioning social interactions (e.g., 

public safety and community 

engagement). 

Persistently lowest-achieving school 

means, as determined by the State— 

(a) Any school receiving assistance 

through Title I that is in improvement, 

corrective action, or restructuring and 

that— 

(i) Is among the lowest-achieving five 

percent of Title I schools in 

improvement, corrective action, or 

restructuring or the lowest-achieving 

five Title I schools in improvement, 

corrective action, or restructuring in the 

State, whichever number of schools is 

greater; or 

(ii) Is a high school that has had a 

graduation rate that is less than 60 

percent over a number of years; and 

(b) Any secondary school that is 

eligible for, but does not receive, Title 

I funds that— 

(i) Is among the lowest-achieving five 

percent of secondary schools or the 

lowest-achieving five secondary schools 

in the State that are eligible for, but do 

not receive, Title I funds, whichever 

number of schools is greater; or 

(ii) Is a high school that has had a 

graduation rate that is less than 60 

percent over a number of years. 

Program indicators are indicators that 

the Department will use only for 

research and evaluation purposes and 

for which an applicant is not required 

to propose solutions. 

Project indicators are indicators for 

which an applicant proposes solutions 

intended to result in progress on the 

indicators. 

Public officials means elected officials 

(e.g., council members, aldermen and 


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women, commissioners, State 

legislators, Congressional 

representatives, members of the school 

board), appointed public officials (e.g., 

members of a planning or zoning 

commission, or of any other regulatory 

or advisory board or commission), or 

individuals who are not necessarily 

public officials, but who have been 

appointed by a public official to serve 

on the Promise Neighborhoods 

governing board or advisory board. 

Rapid-time, in reference to reporting 

and availability of locally-collected 

data, means that data are available 

quickly enough to inform current 

lessons, instruction, and related 

academic programs and family and 

community supports. 

Representative of the geographic area 

proposed to be served means that 

residents of the geographic area 

proposed to be served have an active 

role in decision-making and that at least 

one-third of the eligible entity’s 

governing board or advisory board is 

made up of— 

(a) Residents who live in the 

geographic area proposed to be served; 

(b) Residents of the city or county in 

which the neighborhood is located but 

who live outside the geographic area 

proposed to be served, and who are lowincome (which means earning less than 

80 percent of the area’s median income 

as published by the Department of 

Housing and Urban Development); 

(c) Public officials (as defined in this 

notice) who serve the geographic area 

proposed to be served (although not 

more than one-half of the governing 

board or advisory board may be made 

up of public officials); or 

(d) Some combination of individuals 

from the three groups listed in 

paragraphs (a), (b), and (c) of this 

definition. 

Rural community means a community 

that is served by an LEA that is 

currently eligible under the Small Rural 

School Achievement (SRSA) program or 

the Rural and Low-Income School 

(RLIS) program authorized under Title 

VI, Part B of the ESEA. Applicants may 

determine whether a particular LEA is 

eligible for these programs by referring 

to information on the following 

Department Web sites. For the SRSA 

program: http://www.ed.gov/programs/ 

reapsrsa/eligible09/index.html. 

For the RLIS program: http:// 

www.ed.gov/programs/reaprlisp/ 

eligible09/index.html. 

School climate survey means an 

evaluation tool that measures the extent 

to which the school setting promotes or 

inhibits academic performance by 

collecting perception data from 

individuals, which could include 

students, staff, or families. 

Segmentation analysis means the 

process of grouping and analyzing data 

from children and families in the 

geographic area proposed to be served 

according to indicators of need (as 

defined in this notice) or other relevant 

indicators. 

Note: The analysis is intended to allow 

grantees to differentiate and more effectively 

target interventions based on what they learn 

about the needs of different populations in 

the geographic area. 

Strong evidence means evidence from 

studies with designs that can support 

causal conclusions (i.e., studies with 

high internal validity), and studies that, 

in total, include enough of the range of 

participants and settings to support 

scaling up to the State, regional, or 

national level (i.e., studies with high 

external validity). 

Student achievement means— 

(a) For tested grades and subjects: 

(i) A student’s score on the State’s 

assessments under the ESEA; and, as 

appropriate, 

(ii) Other measures of student 

learning, such as those described in 

paragraph (b) of this definition, 

provided they are rigorous and 

comparable across classrooms. 

(b) For non-tested grades and subjects: 

Alternative measures of student learning 

and performance, such as student scores 

on pre-tests and end-of-course tests; 

student performance on English 

language proficiency assessments; and 

other measures of student achievement 

that are rigorous and comparable across 

classrooms. 

Student growth means the change in 

achievement data for an individual 

student between two or more points in 

time. Growth may also include other 

measures that are rigorous and 

comparable across classrooms. 

Student mobility rate is calculated by 

dividing the total number of new 

student entries and withdrawals at a 

school, from the day after the first 

official enrollment number is collected 

through the end of the academic year, 

by the first official enrollment number 

of the academic year. 

Note: This definition is not meant to limit 

a grantee from also collecting information 

about why students enter or withdraw from 

the school, e.g., transferring to charter 

schools, moving outside of the school district 

for non-academic or academic reasons. 

Theory of action means an 

organization’s strategy regarding how, 

considering its capacity and resources, 

it will take the necessary steps and 

measures to accomplish its desired 

results. 

Theory of change means an 

organization’s beliefs about how its 

inputs, and early and intermediate 

outcomes, relate to accomplishing its 

long-term desired results. 

Waiver of Proposed Rulemaking: 

Under the Administrative Procedure Act 

(5 U.S.C. 553), the Department generally 

offers interested parties the opportunity 

to comment on proposed priorities, 

definitions, requirements, and selection 

criteria. Section 437(d)(1) of GEPA, 

however, allows the Secretary to exempt 

from rulemaking requirements and 

regulations governing the first grant 

competition under a new or 

substantially revised program authority. 

This is the first grant competition for 

Promise Neighborhoods planning grants 

and, therefore, qualifies for this 

exemption. In order to ensure timely 

grant awards, the Secretary has decided 

to forgo public comment on the 

priorities, definitions, requirements, and 

selection criteria under section 437(d)(1) 

of GEPA. These priorities, definitions, 

requirements, and selection criteria will 

apply to the FY 2010 grant competition 

only. 

Program Authority: 20 U.S.C. 7243– 

7243b. 

Applicable Regulations: The 

Education Department General 

Administrative Regulations (EDGAR) in 

34 CFR parts 74, 75, 77, 79, 80, 81, 82, 

84, 85, 86, 97, 98, and 99. 

Note: The regulations in 34 CFR part 79 

apply to all applicants except federally 

recognized Indian tribes. 

Note: The regulations in part 86 apply to 

institutions of higher education only. 

II. Award Information 

Type of Award: Discretionary grants. 

Estimated Available Funds: 

$10,000,000. 

Estimated Range of Awards: 

$400,000–$500,000. 

Estimated Average Size of Awards: 

$450,000. 

Maximum Award: $500,000. The 

Department does not intend to award 

any grant with a budget exceeding 

$500,000. 

Estimated Number of Awards: 20. 

Note: The Department is not bound by any 

estimates in this notice. 

Project Period: Up to 12 months. 

III. Eligibility Information 

1. Eligible Applicants: An eligible 

applicant is an eligible entity (as 

defined in this notice) that operates a 

school or partners, in coordination with 

the school’s LEA, with at least one 

school in the geographic area proposed 

to be served in which there are multiple 


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signs of distress based on indicators of 

need and other relevant indicators. 

For purposes of Absolute Priority 3, 

an eligible applicant is an eligible entity 

that partners with an Indian Tribe, or is 

an Indian Tribe that meets the definition 

of an eligible entity. To be eligible under 

Absolute Priority 3, an applicant must 

also operate a school or partner, in 

coordination with the school’s LEA, 

with at least one school in the 

geographic area proposed to be served. 

All eligible applicants may also partner 

with such entities as an LEA; Federal, 

State, and local government leaders; and 

providers of family and community 

supports. Partnering with such entities 

is strongly encouraged but is not 

required. 

2. Cost-Sharing or Matching: To be 

eligible for an award, an applicant must 

demonstrate that it has established a 

commitment from one or more entities 

in the public or private sector, which 

may include philanthropic 

organizations, to provide financial 

assistance, and that the entities will 

provide matching funds for the planning 

process. An applicant must obtain 

matching funds, excluding other Federal 

funds, or in-kind donations for the 

planning process equal to at least 50 

percent of its grant award, except that 

an applicant proposing a project that 

meets Absolute Priority 2: Promise 

Neighborhoods in Rural Communities or 

Absolute Priority 3: Promise 

Neighborhoods in Tribal Communities 

must obtain matching funds or in-kind 

donations equal to at least 25 percent of 

the grant award. Each applicant must 

demonstrate a commitment of matching 

funds in its application. In addition, the 

applicant must specify the source of the 

cost or contribution and in the case of 

a third-party in-kind contribution, a 

description of how the value was 

determined for the donated or 

contributed goods or service. Applicants 

must demonstrate the match 

commitment by including letters in 

their applications explaining the type 

and quantity of the match commitment, 

including original signatures from the 

executives of organizations or agencies 

providing the match. The Secretary may 

consider decreasing the matching 

requirement in the most exceptional 

circumstances, on a case-by-case basis. 

An applicant that is unable to meet the 

matching requirement must include in 

its application a request to the Secretary 

to reduce the matching level 

requirement, including the amount of 

the requested reduction and a statement 

of the basis for the request. An applicant 

should review the Department’s costsharing and cost-matching regulations, 

which include specific limitations in 34 

CFR 74.23 applicable to non-profit 

organizations and institutions of higher 

education and 34 CFR 80.24 applicable 

to State, local, and Indian tribal 

governments, and the Office of 

Management and Budget (OMB) cost 

principles for entity types regarding 

donations, capital assets, depreciations 

and allowable costs. These circulars are 

available on OMB’s Web site at http:// 

www.whitehouse.gov/omb/circulars/ 

index.html. 

IV. Application and Submission 

Information 

1. Address to Request Application 

Package: Larkin Tackett, U.S. 

Department of Education, 400 Maryland 

Avenue, SW., Room 4W338, LBJ, 

Washington, DC 20202–5970. 

Telephone: (202) 453–6615 or by e-mail: 

promiseneighborhoods@ed.gov. 

If you use a telecommunications 

device for the deaf (TDD), call the 

Federal Relay Service (FRS), toll free, at 

1–800–877–8339. 

Individuals with disabilities can 

obtain a copy of the application package 

in an accessible format (e.g., Braille, 

large print, audiotape, or computer 

diskette) by contacting the program 

contact person listed in this section. 

2. Content and Form of Application 

Submission: Requirements concerning 

the content of an application, together 

with the forms you must submit, are in 

the application package for this 

competition. 

Notice of Intent to Apply: The 

Department will be able to develop a 

more efficient process for reviewing 

grant applications if it has a better 

understanding of the number of entities 

that intend to apply for funding under 

this competition. Therefore, the 

Secretary strongly encourages each 

potential applicant to notify the 

Department by completing and emailing the form on the Department’s 

Web site. The Department may publish 

on the Department’s Web site a list of 

applicants who submit an intent to 

apply. This e-mail notification should 

be sent to pnintent@ed.gov with ‘‘PN 

Intent to Apply’’ in the subject heading. 

Applicants that fail to provide this email notification may still apply for 

funding. 

Page Limit: The application narrative 

(Part III of the application) is where you, 

the applicant, address the selection 

criteria that reviewers use to evaluate 

your application. 

You must limit the application 

narrative (Part III) to the equivalent of 

no more than 40 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). 

• Use one of the following fonts: 

Times New Roman, Courier, Courier 

New, or Arial. An application submitted 

in any other font (including Times 

Roman or Arial Narrow) will not be 

accepted. 

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 memorandum of 

understanding, or the match 

commitment. However, the page limit 

does apply to all of the application 

narrative section (Part III). 

3. Submission Dates and Times: 

Applications Available: May 5, 2010. 

Deadline for Notice of Intent to Apply: 

May 21, 2010. 

Date of Pre-Application Webinars: 

Wednesday, May 5, 2010 and Monday, 

May 10, 2010. These pre-application 

webinars are designed to provide 

technical assistance to interested 

applicants for Promise Neighborhoods 

planning grants. Detailed information 

regarding the pre-application webinar 

times will be available through the 

Department of Education Web site at 

http://www.ed.gov/programs/ 

promiseneighborhoods/index.html. 

Deadline for Transmittal of 

Applications: June 25, 2010. 

Applications for grants under this 

program must be submitted 

electronically using the Electronic Grant 

Application System (e-Application) 

accessible through the Department’s 

e-Grants site. For information (including 

dates and times) about how to submit 

your application electronically, or in 

paper format by mail or hand delivery 

if you qualify for an exception to the 

electronic submission requirement, 

please refer to section IV. 7. Other 

Submission Requirements of this notice. 

We do not consider an application 

that does not comply with the deadline 

requirements. 

Individuals with disabilities who 

need an accommodation or auxiliary aid 

in connection with the application 

process should contact the person listed 

under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

CONTACT in section VII of this notice. If 


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the Department provides an 

accommodation or auxiliary aid to an 

individual with a disability in 

connection with the application 

process, the individual’s application 

remains subject to all other 

requirements and limitations in this 

notice. 

Deadline for Intergovernmental 

Review: August 24, 2010. 

4. Intergovernmental Review: This 

program is subject to Executive Order 

12372 and the regulations in 34 CFR 

part 79. Information about 

Intergovernmental Review of Federal 

Programs under Executive Order 12372 

is in the application package for this 

competition. 

5. Funding Restrictions: We reference 

regulations outlining funding 

restrictions in the Applicable 

Regulations section of this notice. 

6. Participation in a Community of 

Practice: Grantees will be required to 

participate in, organize, or facilitate, as 

appropriate, communities of practice for 

Promise Neighborhoods. A community 

of practice is a group of grantees that 

agrees to interact regularly to solve a 

persistent problem or improve practice 

in an area that is important to them and 

the success of their project. 

Establishment of communities of 

practice under Promise Neighborhoods 

will enable grantees to meet, discuss, 

and collaborate with each other 

regarding grantee projects. 

7. Other Submission Requirements: 

Applications for grants under this 

program must be submitted 

electronically unless you qualify for an 

exception to this requirement in 

accordance with the instructions in this 

section. 

a. Electronic Submission of 

Applications. 

Applications for grants under the 

Promise Neighborhoods Program— 

CFDA Number 84.215P must be 

submitted electronically using eApplication, accessible through the 

Department’s e-Grants Web site at: 

http://e-grants.ed.gov. 

We will reject your application if you 

submit it in paper format unless, as 

described elsewhere in this section, you 

qualify for one of the exceptions to the 

electronic submission requirement and 

submit, no later than two weeks before 

the application deadline date, a written 

statement to the Department that you 

qualify for one of these exceptions. 

Further information regarding 

calculation of the date that is two weeks 

before the application deadline date is 

provided later in this section under 

Exception to Electronic Submission 

Requirement. 

While completing your electronic 

application, you will be entering data 

online that will be saved into a 

database. You may not e-mail an 

electronic copy of a grant application to 

us. 

Please note the following: 

• You must complete the electronic 

submission of your grant application by 

4:30:00 p.m., Washington, DC time, on 

the application deadline date. EApplication will not accept an 

application for this program after 

4:30:00 p.m., Washington, DC time, on 

the application deadline date. 

Therefore, we strongly recommend that 

you do not wait until the application 

deadline date to begin the application 

process. 

• The hours of operation of the eGrants Web site are 6:00 a.m. Monday 

until 7:00 p.m. Wednesday; and 6:00 

a.m. Thursday until 8:00 p.m. Sunday, 

Washington, DC time. Please note that, 

because of maintenance, the system is 

unavailable between 8:00 p.m. on 

Sundays and 6:00 a.m. on Mondays, and 

between 7:00 p.m. on Wednesdays and 

6:00 a.m. on Thursdays, Washington, 

DC time. Any modifications to these 

hours are posted on the e-Grants Web 

site. 

• You will not receive additional 

point value because you submit your 

application in electronic format, nor 

will we penalize you if you qualify for 

an exception to the electronic 

submission requirement, as described 

elsewhere in this section, and submit 

your application in paper format. 

• You must submit all documents 

electronically, including all information 

you typically provide on the following 

forms: The Application for Federal 

Assistance (SF 424), the Department of 

Education Supplemental Information for 

SF 424, Budget Information—NonConstruction Programs (ED 524), and all 

necessary assurances and certifications. 

You must attach any narrative sections 

of your application as files in a .DOC 

(document), .RTF (rich text), or .PDF 

(Portable Document) format. If you 

upload a file type other than the three 

file types specified in this paragraph or 

submit a password protected file, we 

will not review that material. 

• Your electronic application must 

comply with any page limit 

requirements described in this notice. 

• Prior to submitting your electronic 

application, you may wish to print a 

copy of it for your records. 

• After you electronically submit 

your application, you will receive an 

automatic acknowledgment that will 

include a PR/Award number (an 

identifying number unique to your 

application). 

• Within three working days after 

submitting your electronic application, 

fax a signed copy of the SF 424 to the 

Application Control Center after 

following these steps: 

(1) Print SF 424 from e-Application. 

(2) The applicant’s Authorizing 

Representative must sign this form. 

(3) Place the PR/Award number in the 

upper right hand corner of the hardcopy signature page of the SF 424. 

(4) Fax the signed SF 424 to the 

Application Control Center at (202) 

245–6272. 

• We may request that you provide us 

original signatures on other forms at a 

later date. 

Application Deadline Date Extension 

in Case of e-Application Unavailability: 

If you are prevented from electronically 

submitting your application on the 

application deadline date because eApplication is unavailable, we will 

grant you an extension of one business 

day to enable you to transmit your 

application electronically, by mail, or by 

hand delivery. We will grant this 

extension if— 

(1) You are a registered user of eApplication and you have initiated an 

electronic application for this 

competition; and 

(2) (a) E-Application is unavailable for 

60 minutes or more between the hours 

of 8:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., Washington, 

DC time, on the application deadline 

date; or 

(b) E-Application is unavailable for 

any period of time between 3:30 p.m. 

and 4:30:00 p.m., Washington, DC time, 

on the application deadline date. 

We must acknowledge and confirm 

these periods of unavailability before 

granting you an extension. To request 

this extension or to confirm our 

acknowledgment of any system 

unavailability, you may contact either 

(1) the person listed elsewhere in this 

notice under For Further Information 

Contact (see VII. Agency Contact) or (2) 

the e-Grants help desk at 1–888–336– 

8930. If e-Application is unavailable 

due to technical problems with the 

system and, therefore, the application 

deadline is extended, an e-mail will be 

sent to all registered users who have 

initiated an e-Application. Extensions 

referred to in this section apply only to 

the unavailability of e-Application. 

Exception to Electronic Submission 

Requirement: You qualify for an 

exception to the electronic submission 

requirement, and may submit your 

application in paper format, if you are 

unable to submit an application through 

e-Application because–– 

• You do not have access to the 

Internet; or 


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• You do not have the capacity to 

upload large documents to eApplication; and 

• No later than two weeks before the 

application deadline date (14 calendar 

days or, if the fourteenth calendar day 

before the application deadline date 

falls on a Federal holiday, the next 

business day following the Federal 

holiday), you mail or fax a written 

statement to the Department, explaining 

which of the two grounds for an 

exception prevents you from using the 

Internet to submit your application. If 

you mail your written statement to the 

Department, it must be postmarked no 

later than two weeks before the 

application deadline date. If you fax 

your written statement to the 

Department, we must receive the faxed 

statement no later than two weeks 

before the application deadline date. 

Address and mail or fax your 

statement to: Larkin Tackett, U.S. 

Department of Education, 400 Maryland 

Avenue, SW., Room 4W338, 

Washington, DC 20202. Fax: (202) 401– 

4123. 

Your paper application must be 

submitted in accordance with the mail 

or hand delivery instructions described 

in this notice. 

b. Submission of Paper Applications 

by Mail. 

If you qualify for an exception to the 

electronic submission requirement, you 

may mail (through the U.S. Postal 

Service or a commercial carrier) your 

application to the Department. You 

must mail the original and two copies 

of your application, on or before the 

application deadline date, to the 

Department at the following address: 

U.S. Department of Education, 

Application Control Center, Attention: 

(CFDA Number 215P), LBJ Basement 

Level 1, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW., 

Washington, DC 20202–4260. 

You must show proof of mailing 

consisting of one of the following: 

(1) A legibly dated U.S. Postal Service 

postmark. 

(2) A legible mail receipt with the 

date of mailing stamped by the U.S. 

Postal Service. 

(3) A dated shipping label, invoice, or 

receipt from a commercial carrier. 

(4) Any other proof of mailing 

acceptable to the Secretary of the U.S. 

Department of Education. 

If you mail your application through 

the U.S. Postal Service, we do not 

accept either of the following as proof 

of mailing: 

(1) A private metered postmark. 

(2) A mail receipt that is not dated by 

the U.S. Postal Service. 

If your application is postmarked after 

the application deadline date, we will 

not consider your application. 

Note: The U.S. Postal Service does not 

uniformly provide a dated postmark. Before 

relying on this method, you should check 

with your local post office. 

c. Submission of Paper Applications 

by Hand Delivery. 

If you qualify for an exception to the 

electronic submission requirement, you 

(or a courier service) may deliver your 

paper application to the Department by 

hand. You must deliver the original and 

two copies of your application, by hand, 

on or before the application deadline 

date, to the Department at the following 

address: U.S. Department of Education, 

Application Control Center, Attention: 

(CFDA Number 215P), 550 12th Street, 

SW., Room 7041, Potomac Center Plaza, 

Washington, DC 20202–4260. 

The Application Control Center 

accepts hand deliveries daily between 

8:00 a.m. and 4:30:00 p.m., Washington, 

DC time, except Saturdays, Sundays, 

and Federal holidays. 

Note for Mail or Hand Delivery of Paper 

Applications: If you mail or hand deliver 

your application to the Department— 

(1) You must indicate on the envelope 

and—if not provided by the Department—in 

Item 11 of the SF 424 the CFDA number, 

including suffix letter, if any, of the 

competition under which you are submitting 

your application; and 

(2) The Application Control Center will 

mail to you a notification of receipt of your 

grant application. If you do not receive this 

grant notification within 15 business days 

from the application deadline date, you 

should call the U.S. Department of Education 

Application Control Center at (202) 245– 

6288. 

V. Application Review Information 

1. Selection Criteria: We are 

establishing selection criteria for the FY 

2010 grant competition only in 

accordance with section 437(d)(1) of 

GEPA, 20 U.S.C. 1232(d)(1). For these 

selection criteria, we rely in large part 

on the criteria in 34 CFR 75.210, with 

some modifications to tailor the criteria 

to this program. 

The maximum score for all the 

selection criteria is 100 points. The 

maximum score for each criterion is 

indicated in parentheses with the 

criterion. The selection criteria are as 

follows: 

(1) Need for project (up to 10 points). 

(a) The Secretary considers the need 

for the proposed project. 

(b) In determining the need for the 

proposed project, the Secretary 

considers— 

(i) The magnitude or severity of the 

problems to be addressed by the 

proposed project as described by 

indicators of need and other relevant 

indicators; 

(ii) The extent to which the 

geographically defined area has been 

described; and 

(iii) The extent to which specific gaps 

or weaknesses in services, 

infrastructure, or opportunities will be 

identified and addressed by the 

proposed project. 

(2) Significance (up to 10 points). 

(a) The Secretary considers the 

significance of the proposed project. 

(b) In determining the significance of 

the proposed project, the Secretary 

considers— 

(i) The likelihood that the proposed 

project will result in long-term systems 

change or improvement; 

(ii) The extent to which the proposed 

project is likely to build local capacity 

to provide, improve, or expand services 

that address the needs of the target 

population; 

(iii) The extent to which the proposed 

project involves the development or 

demonstration of promising new 

strategies that build on, or are 

alternatives to, existing strategies; and 

(iv) The potential to sustain and apply 

the model of the proposed project or 

strategies, including, as appropriate, the 

potential for implementation of the 

model in a variety of settings. 

(3) Quality of the project design (up 

to 20 points). 

(a) The Secretary considers the quality 

of the design of the proposed project. 

(b) In determining the quality of the 

design of the proposed project, the 

Secretary considers the following 

factors— 

(i) The extent to which the applicant 

describes how it will plan to build a 

continuum of solutions designed to 

significantly improve the academic and 

family and community support 

indicators in this notice; 

(ii) The extent to which the 

continuum of solutions includes a 

strategy, or a plan to develop a strategy, 

that will lead to significant 

improvements in one or more schools 

described in paragraph 2 of Absolute 

Priority 1; 

(iii) The extent to which the applicant 

describes strategies for using data to 

manage program implementation, 

inform decision-making, engage 

stakeholders, and measure success; 

(iv) The extent to which the applicant 

identifies and describes academic and 

family and community support 

indicators to be used for the needs 

assessment during the planning year; 

(v) The extent to which the applicant 

demonstrates a commitment to work 

with the Department and with a 


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national evaluator for Promise 

Neighborhoods to ensure that data 

collection and program design are 

consistent with plans to conduct a 

rigorous national evaluation of the 

Promise Neighborhoods Program during 

the implementation phase and of 

specific solutions and strategies pursued 

by individual grantees; and 

(vi) The extent to which the proposed 

project will be coordinated with similar 

or related efforts, and with other 

appropriate community, State, and 

Federal resources. 

(4) Quality of project services (up to 

15 points). 

(a) The Secretary considers the quality 

of the services to be provided by the 

proposed project. 

(b) In determining the quality of the 

project services, the Secretary 

considers— 

(i) The extent to which the applicant 

describes proposed solutions to be 

provided by the proposed project that 

are based on the best available evidence 

including, where available, strong or 

moderate evidence; 

(ii) The likelihood that the services to 

be provided by the proposed project 

will lead to improvements in the 

achievement of students as measured 

against rigorous academic standards; 

and 

(iii) The extent to which the applicant 

explains how the needs assessment and 

segmentation analysis will be used to 

determine that children with the highest 

needs receive appropriate services to 

meet academic and developmental 

outcomes. 

(5) Quality of project personnel (up to 

25 points). 

(a) The Secretary considers the quality 

of the project personnel who will carry 

out the proposed project. 

(b) In determining the quality of the 

project personnel, the Secretary 

considers the qualifications, including 

relevant training and experience, of the 

applicant, including the project director, 

and the prior performance of the 

applicant on efforts similar or related to 

the proposed Promise Neighborhood. 

(c) Relevant experience includes the 

applicant’s experience in and lessons 

learned by— 

(i) Working with the school or schools 

described in paragraph 2 of Absolute 

Priority 1; 

(ii) Serving the neighborhood and its 

residents; 

(iii) Collecting, analyzing, and using 

data for decision-making and ongoing 

improvement; 

(iv) Creating formal and informal 

relationships, and generating 

community support to achieve results; 

and 

(v) Securing and integrating funding 

streams from multiple public and 

private sources. 

(6) Quality of the management plan 

(up to 20 points). 

(a) The Secretary considers the quality 

of the management plan for the 

proposed project. 

(b) In determining the quality of the 

management plan of the proposed 

project, the Secretary considers— 

(i) The adequacy of the management 

plan to achieve the objectives of the 

proposed project on time and within 

budget, including clearly defined 

responsibilities, timelines, and 

milestones for accomplishing project 

tasks; 

(ii) The extent to which the 

memorandum of understanding 

described in paragraph 5 of Absolute 

Priority 1 describes each partner’s 

financial and programmatic 

commitment; how each partner’s 

existing vision, theory of action, and 

theory of change, and existing activities 

align with those of the proposed 

Promise Neighborhood; and the 

governance structure of the proposed 

Promise Neighborhood; 

(iii) How the applicant will ensure 

that a diversity of perspectives are 

brought to bear in the operation of the 

proposed project, including those of 

families, school staff, the business 

community, a variety of disciplinary 

and professional fields, recipients or 

beneficiaries of services, or others, as 

appropriate; and 

(iv) The potential for continued 

support of the project after Federal 

funding ends, including, as appropriate, 

the demonstrated commitment of 

appropriate entities to sustain and ‘‘scale 

up’’ the proposed Promise 

Neighborhood. 

To facilitate the review of the 

application, the Department strongly 

recommends that applicants include a 

table of contents for their project 

narrative and address each of the 

selection criteria and priorities from 

Absolute Priority 1 in the order in 

which they are described in Table 3. 

After addressing the selection criteria, 

applicants may address the invitational 

priority included in the proposal to 

plan. 

TABLE 3—RECOMMENDED ORGANIZATION OF PROJECT NARRATIVE

Selection criteria Absolute priority one requirement 

Need for project (up to 10 points) ............................................................ 1. Description of the neighborhood and level of distress. 

Quality of project design (up to 20 points) ............................................... 2. Description of how the applicant will plan to build the continuum; 

Quality of project services (up to 15 points) ............................................ 8. Description of how the applicant will plan to use data; 

9. Description of commitment to work with national evaluator; and 

10. Description of indicators to be used for needs assessment. 

Quality of project personnel (up to 25 points) .......................................... 3. Description of the applicant’s organizational capacity to plan and implement a Promise Neighborhood. 

Quality of management plan (up to 20 points) ........................................ 4. Description of how the applicant will plan to sustain and ‘‘scale up’’ 

the proposed Promise Neighborhood; and 

5. Description of commitment the applicant anticipates receiving from 

partners, including the preliminary memorandum of understanding 

described in paragraph 5(a). 

Significance (up to 10 points) ................................................................... 6. Description of how the applicant will plan to track available sources 

and funding levels of Federal, State, and local funds that could be 

utilized in the project; and 

7. Description of how the applicant will identify Federal, State, or local 

policies, regulations, or other requirements that would impede the 

applicant in achieving its goals. 

Note: It may also be appropriate for an 

applicant to address a requirement under 

more than one selection criterion. 

2. Review and Selection Process: The 

Department will screen applications 

submitted in accordance with the 

requirements in this notice, and will 


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determine which applications are 

eligible to be read based on whether 

they have met eligibility and other 

statutory and regulatory requirements. 

For the grant reviews, the Department 

will use independent reviewers from 

various backgrounds and professions 

including: Pre-kindergarten–12 teachers 

and principals, college and university 

educators, researchers and evaluators, 

social entrepreneurs, strategy 

consultants, grant makers and managers, 

community development practitioners 

(in areas such as health or safety), and 

others with education expertise. The 

Department will thoroughly screen all 

reviewers for conflicts of interest to 

ensure a fair and competitive review 

process. 

Reviewers will read, prepare a written 

evaluation, and score the applications 

assigned to their panel, using the 

selection criteria provided in this 

notice. 

For applications addressing Absolute 

Priority 1, Absolute Priority 2, and 

Absolute Priority 3, the Secretary 

prepares a rank order of applications for 

each absolute priority based solely on 

the evaluation of their quality according 

to the selection criteria. In accordance 

with 34 CFR 75.217(d), the Secretary 

will make final awards after considering 

the rank ordering and other information 

including an applicant’s performance 

and use of funds and compliance 

history under a previous award under 

any Department program. In making 

awards under any future competitions, 

the Secretary will consider an 

applicant’s past performance. 

VI. Award Administration Information 

1. Award Notices: If your application 

is successful, we notify your U.S. 

Representative and U.S. Senators and 

send you a Grant Award Notification 

(GAN). We may notify you informally 

also. 

If your application is not evaluated or 

not selected for funding, we notify you. 

2. Administrative and National Policy 

Requirements: We identify 

administrative and national policy 

requirements in the application package 

and reference these and other 

requirements in the Applicable 

Regulations section of this notice. 

We reference the regulations outlining 

the terms and conditions of an award in 

the Applicable Regulations section in 

this notice and include these and other 

specific conditions in the GAN. The 

GAN also incorporates your approved 

application as part of your binding 

commitments under the grant. 

3. Reporting: At the end of your 

project period, you must submit a final 

performance report, including financial 

information, as directed by the 

Secretary. The Secretary may also 

require more frequent performance 

reports under 34 CFR 75.720(c). For 

specific requirements on reporting, 

please go to http://www.ed.gov/fund/ 

grant/apply/appforms/appforms.html. 

4. Performance Measures: The 

Secretary has established one 

performance indicator: The percentage 

of planning grantees that produce a 

high-quality plan as measured by their 

receiving at least 90 percent of the total 

possible points in the competition for 

FY 2011 implementation grants. All 

grantees will be required to submit a 

final performance report documenting 

their contribution in assisting the 

Department in measuring the 

performance of the program against this 

indicator, as well as other information 

requested by the Department. 

VII. Agency Contact 

For Further Information Contact: 

Larkin Tackett, U.S. Department of 

Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, SW., 

Room 4W338, Washington, DC 20202– 

5970. Telephone: (202) 453–6615 or by 

e-mail: promiseneighborhoods@ed.gov. 

If you use a TDD, call the FRS, toll 

free, at 1–800–877–8339. 

VIII. Other Information 

Accessible Format: Individuals with 

disabilities can obtain this document 

and a copy of the application package in 

an accessible format (e.g., braille, large 

print, audiotape, or computer diskette) 

on request to the program contact 

person listed under For Further 

Information Contact in section VII of 

this notice. 

Electronic Access to This Document: 

You can view this document, as well as 

all other documents of this Department 

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. 

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. 

Dated: April 29, 2010. 

James H. Shelton, III, 

Assistant Deputy Secretary for Innovation and 

Improvement. 

[FR Doc. 2010–10492 Filed 5–4–10; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4000–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY 

Environmental Management SiteSpecific Advisory Board, Savannah 

River Site 

AGENCY: Department of Energy. 

ACTION: Notice of open meeting. 

SUMMARY: This notice announces a 

meeting of the Environmental 

Management Site-Specific Advisory 

Board (EM SSAB), Savannah River Site. 

The Federal Advisory Committee Act 

(Pub. L. 92–463, 86 Stat. 770) requires 

that public notice of this meeting be 

announced in the Federal Register. 

DATES: Monday, May 24, 2010 1 p.m.– 

5 p.m. Tuesday, May 25, 2010 8:30 

a.m.–4:30 p.m. 

ADDRESSES: The Mulberry Inn, 601 East 

Bay Street, Savannah, Georgia 31401. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Gerri Flemming, Office of External 

Affairs, Department of Energy, 

Savannah River Operations Office, P.O. 

Box A, Aiken, SC 29802; Phone: (803) 

952–7886. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Purpose of the Board: The purpose of 

the Board is to make recommendations 

to DOE–EM and site management in the 

areas of environmental restoration, 

waste management, and related 

activities. 

Tentative Agenda: 

Monday, May 24, 2010 

1 p.m. Combined Committee Session. 

5 p.m. Adjourn. 

Tuesday, May 25, 2010 

8:30 a.m. Approval of Minutes, 

Agency Updates, Public Comment 

Session, Chair and Facilitator 

Updates, Waste Management 

Committee Report, Public Comment 

Session. 

12 p.m. Lunch Break. 

1 p.m. Nuclear Materials Committee 

Report, Strategic and Legacy 

Management Committee Report, 

Facility Disposition and Site 

Remediation Committee Report, 

Administrative Committee Report, 

Public Comment Session. 

4:30 p.m. Adjourn. 

If needed, time will be allotted after 

public comments for items added to the 

agenda and administrative details. A 

final agenda will be available at the 

meeting on Monday, May 24, 2010. 

Public Participation: The EM SSAB, 

Savannah River Site, welcomes the 

attendance of the public at its advisory 

committee meetings and will make 

every effort to accommodate persons 

with physical disabilities or special 


sroberts on DSKD5P82C1PROD with NOTICES