23690 Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 77 / Friday, April 20, 2012 / Notices 

1Westat and Policy Studies Associates. 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://www2.ed.gov/offices/ 

OUS/PES/esed/lescp_vol1.pdf. 

2Sharkey, Patrick. ‘‘Neighborhoods and the 

Black-White Mobility Gap.’’ Economic Mobility 

Project: An Initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts, 

2009. 

Register. Free Internet access to the 

official edition of the Federal Register 

and the Code of Federal Regulations is 

available via the Federal Digital System 

at: www.gpo.gov/fdsys. At this site you 

can view this document, as well as all 

other documents of this Department 

published in the Federal Register, in 

text or Adobe Portable Document 

Format (PDF). To use PDF you must 

have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is 

available free at the site. 

You may also access documents of the 

Department published in the Federal 

Register by using the article search 

feature at: www.federalregister.gov/. 

Specifically, through the advanced 

search feature at this site, you can limit 

your search to documents published by 

the Department. 

Dated: April 17, 2012. 

James H. Shelton, III, 

Assistant Deputy Secretary for Innovation and 

Improvement. 

[FR Doc. 2012–9597 Filed 4–19–12; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4000–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 

Applications for New Awards; Promise 

Neighborhoods Program—Planning 

Grant Competition 

AGENCY: Office of Innovation and 

Improvement, Department of Education. 

ACTION: Notice. 

Overview Information 

Promise Neighborhoods Program— 

Planning Grant Competition Notice 

inviting applications for new awards for 

fiscal year (FY) 2012. 

Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance 

(CFDA) Number: 84.215P (Planning 

grants). 

Dates: 

Applications Available: April 20, 

2012. 

Deadline for Notice of Intent To 

Apply: June 8, 2012. 

Date of Pre-Application Webinars: 

May 15, 2012, and June 12, 2012. 

Deadline for Transmittal of 

Applications: July 27, 2012. 

Deadline for Intergovernmental 

Review: September 25, 2012. 

Full Text of Announcement 

I. Funding Opportunity Description 

Purpose of Program: The Promise 

Neighborhoods program is carried out 

under the legislative authority of the 

Fund for the Improvement of Education 

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

5411 through 5413 of the Elementary 

and Secondary Education Act of 1965 

(ESEA), as amended (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 to help all children meet 

challenging State academic content and 

student academic achievement 

standards. 

The purpose of the Promise 

Neighborhoods program is to 

significantly improve the educational 

and developmental outcomes of 

children and youth in our most 

distressed communities, and to 

transform those communities by— 

(1) Identifying and increasing the 

capacity of eligible organizations (as 

defined in this notice) that are focused 

on achieving results for children and 

youth throughout an entire 

neighborhood; 

(2) Building a complete continuum of 

cradle-through-college-to-career 

solutions (continuum of solutions) (as 

defined in this notice) of both education 

programs and family and community 

supports (both as defined in this notice), 

with great schools at the center. All 

solutions in the continuum of solutions 

must be accessible to children with 

disabilities (CWD) (as defined in this 

notice) and English learners (EL) 

(as defined in this notice); 

(3) Integrating programs and breaking 

down agency ‘‘silos’’ so that solutions 

are implemented effectively and 

efficiently across agencies; 

(4) Developing the local infrastructure 

of systems and resources needed to 

sustain and scale up proven, effective 

solutions across the broader region 

beyond the initial neighborhood; and 

(5) Learning about the overall impact 

of the Promise Neighborhoods program 

and about the relationship between 

particular strategies in Promise 

Neighborhoods and student outcomes, 

including through a rigorous evaluation 

of the program. 

Background: The vision for this 

program is that all children and youth 

growing up in Promise Neighborhoods 

have access to great schools and strong 

systems of family and community 

support that will prepare them to attain 

an excellent education and successfully 

transition to college and a career. 

A Promise Neighborhood is both a 

place and a strategy. A place eligible to 

become a Promise Neighborhood is a 

geographic area that is distressed, often 

facing inadequate access to high-quality 

early learning programs and services, 

with struggling schools, low high school 

and college graduation rates, high rates 

of unemployment, high rates of crime, 

and indicators of poor health. These 

conditions contribute to and intensify 

the negative outcomes associated with 

children and youth living in poverty. 

Children and youth who are from lowincome families and grow up in 

neighborhoods of concentrated poverty 

face educational 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. The 

compounding effects of neighborhood 

poverty continue later in life: Another 

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.2

A Promise Neighborhood is also a 

strategy for addressing the issues in 

distressed communities. Promise 

Neighborhoods are led by organizations 

that work to ensure that all children and 

youth in the target geographic area have 

access to the continuum of solutions 

needed to graduate from high school 

ready for college and a career. Within 

these geographic areas, Promise 

Neighborhoods create a high level of 

participation in cradle-through-collegeto-career supports for children and 

youth, where over time a greater 

proportion of the neighborhood is 

served by programs and neighborhood 

indicators show significant progress. For 

this reason, each Promise Neighborhood 

grantee must have several core features: 

(1) Significant need in the neighborhood 

the grant serves; (2) a strategy to build 


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a continuum of solutions with strong 

schools at the center; and (3) the 

capacity to achieve results. As the 

proportion of neighborhood children, 

students, and families accessing services 

and attending great schools increases, 

the entire neighborhood will be 

positively affected. 

While there are a number of 

organizations and communities that are 

working on developing Promise 

Neighborhoods strategies, these entities 

are at different stages of readiness to 

create a Promise Neighborhood. We 

have established priorities, 

requirements, definitions, and selection 

criteria for both planning and 

implementation grants in a notice of 

final priorities, requirements, 

definitions, and selection criteria 

published in the Federal Register on 

July 6, 2011 (76 FR 39590) (2011 

Promise Neighborhoods NFP). The 

priorities, requirements, and selection 

criteria are different for planning grant 

and implementation grant applicants, 

while the definitions apply to both 

groups of applicants. This current notice 

invites applications for FY 2012 

planning grants. Elsewhere in this issue 

of the Federal Register, we have 

published a notice inviting applications 

for FY 2012 implementation grants. 

Planning grants will support eligible 

organizations that seek to develop 

feasible plans to create a continuum of 

solutions with the potential to 

significantly improve the educational 

and developmental outcomes of 

children and youth in a neighborhood. 

These grants will support eligible 

organizations that demonstrate the need 

for creating a Promise Neighborhood in 

the geographic areas they are targeting, 

a sound strategy for developing a 

feasible plan to create a continuum of 

solutions, and the capacity to develop 

the plan. 

Under Absolute Priority 1 for 

planning grants, Promise 

Neighborhoods planning grantees 

generally must undertake the following 

activities during the planning year (the 

complete and exact requirements of the 

priority are specified elsewhere in the 

notice): 

(1) Conduct a comprehensive needs 

assessment and segmentation analysis 

(as defined in this notice) of children 

and youth in the neighborhood. 

(2) Develop a plan to deliver a 

continuum of solutions with the 

potential to drive results. This includes 

building community support for and 

involvement in the development of the 

plan. 

(3) Establish effective partnerships 

both to provide solutions along the 

continuum and to commit resources to 

sustain and scale up what works. 

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

longitudinal data system that will 

provide information that the grantee 

will use for learning, continuous 

improvement, and accountability. 

(5) Participate in a community of 

practice (as defined in this notice). 

Implementation grants will support 

eligible organizations in carrying out 

their plans to create a continuum of 

solutions that will significantly improve 

the educational and developmental 

outcomes of children and youth in the 

target neighborhood. These grants will 

aid eligible organizations that have 

developed a plan that demonstrates the 

need for the creation of a Promise 

Neighborhood in the geographic area 

they are targeting, a sound strategy for 

implementing a plan to create a 

continuum of solutions, and the 

capacity to implement the plan. More 

specifically, grantees will use 

implementation grant funds to develop 

the administrative capacity necessary to 

successfully implement a continuum of 

solutions, such as managing 

partnerships, integrating multiple 

funding sources, and supporting the 

grantee’s longitudinal data system. 

While implementation grantees will be 

best positioned to determine the 

allocation of grant funds given the 

results of their needs assessments and 

plans to build their organizational 

capacity, the Department expects that 

the majority of resources that provide 

solutions within the continuum of 

solutions will come from public and 

private funding sources that are 

integrated and aligned with the Promise 

Neighborhoods strategy. 

Under Absolute Priority 1 for 

implementation grants, Promise 

Neighborhoods implementation grantees 

generally will undertake the following 

activities during the implementation 

years (the complete and exact 

requirements of the priority are 

specified elsewhere in the notice): 

(1) Implement a continuum of 

solutions that addresses neighborhood 

challenges, as identified through a 

needs assessment and segmentation 

analysis, and that will improve results 

for children and youth in the 

neighborhood. 

(2) Continue to build and strengthen 

partnerships that will provide solutions 

along the continuum of solutions and 

that lead to additional commitments of 

resources to sustain and scale up what 

works. 

(3) Collect data on indicators at least 

annually, and use and improve a 

longitudinal data system for learning, 

continuous improvement, and 

accountability. 

(4) Demonstrate progress on goals for 

improving systems, such as by making 

changes in policies and organizations, 

and by leveraging resources to sustain 

and scale up what works. 

(5) Participate in a community of 

practice (as defined in this notice). 

Considering the time and urgency 

required to dramatically improve 

outcomes for children and youth in our 

most distressed neighborhoods and to 

transform those neighborhoods, 

implementation grantees will establish 

both short- and long-term goals to define 

success. 

Consistent with the overall vision for 

the Promise Neighborhoods program, 

we believe that it is important for 

communities to develop a 

comprehensive neighborhood 

revitalization strategy that addresses 

neighborhood assets (as defined in this 

notice) that are essential to transforming 

distressed neighborhoods into healthy 

and vibrant communities of 

opportunity. Although not a proposed 

requirement for planning or 

implementation applicants, we believe 

that a Promise Neighborhood will be 

most successful when it is part of, and 

contributing to, an area’s broader 

neighborhood revitalization strategy. We 

believe that only through the 

development of such comprehensive 

neighborhood revitalization plans that 

embrace the coordinated use of 

programs and resources in order to 

effectively address the interrelated 

needs within a community will the 

broader vision of neighborhood 

transformation occur. 

Because a diverse group of 

communities could benefit from 

Promise Neighborhoods, the Secretary 

has established an absolute priority for 

applicants that propose to serve one or 

more rural communities (as defined in 

this notice) only and an absolute 

priority for applicants that propose to 

serve one or more Indian tribes (as 

defined in this notice). 

Note: In developing their strategies for 

planning or implementing a continuum of 

solutions, applicants should be mindful of 

the importance of ensuring that all children, 

including infants and toddlers in the 

neighborhood, have an opportunity to 

benefit. For example, individuals with 

disabilities and English Learners, particularly 

recent immigrants, may encounter unique 

challenges that prevent them from accessing 

the benefits of a Promise Neighborhoods 

project. 

Successful applicants under this 

competition must comply with Federal 

civil rights laws that apply to recipients 

and sub-recipients of Federal financial 


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3For the purposes of this notice, the Department 

uses the terms ‘‘geographic area’’ and 

‘‘neighborhood’’ interchangeably. 

assistance including: Title VI of the 

Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended 

(prohibiting discrimination on the basis 

of race, color, or national origin); 

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 

1973, as amended and Title II of the 

Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, 

as amended (prohibiting discrimination 

on the basis of disability); Title IX of the 

Education Amendments of 1972, as 

amended (prohibiting discrimination on 

the basis of sex); and the Age 

Discrimination Act of 1975, as amended 

(prohibiting discrimination on the basis 

of age). 

Applicants, therefore, in designing 

their projects and preparing their 

required General Education Provisions 

Act (GEPA) section 427 assurance, will 

need to address barriers to participation 

for individuals, including individuals 

with disabilities and limited English 

proficiency, and must consider the steps 

they will take to ensure equitable 

participation of all children and families 

in the project, in compliance with civil 

rights obligations. (Section 427 requires 

each applicant to include in its 

application a description of the steps 

the applicant proposes to take to ensure 

equitable access to, and participation in, 

its federally assisted program for 

students, teachers, and other program 

beneficiaries with special needs.) 

Priorities: This competition includes 

three absolute priorities, four 

competitive preference priorities, and 

one invitational priority that are 

explained in the following paragraphs. 

These priorities are from the 2011 

Promise Neighborhoods NFP. 

Absolute Priorities: For FY 2012 and 

any subsequent year in which we make 

awards from the list of unfunded 

applicants from this competition, these 

priorities are absolute priorities. Under 

34 CFR 75.105(c)(3) we consider only 

applications that meet one or more of 

these absolute priorities. 

Note: Applicants must indicate in their 

application whether they are applying under 

Planning Grant Priority 1 (Absolute), 

Planning Grant Priority 2 (Absolute), or 

Planning Grant Priority 3 (Absolute). An 

applicant that applies under Planning Grant 

Priority 2 (Absolute) but is not eligible for 

funding under Planning Grant Priority 2 

(Absolute), or applies under Planning Grant 

Priority 3 (Absolute) but is not eligible for 

funding under Planning Grant Priority 3 

(Absolute), may be considered for funding 

under Planning Grant Priority 1 (Absolute). 

These priorities are: 

Planning Grant Priority 1 (Absolute) 

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 describe the need in 

the neighborhood, a strategy to build a 

continuum of solutions, and the 

applicant’s capacity to achieve results. 

Specifically, an applicant must— 

(1) Describe the geographically 

defined area 3 (neighborhood) 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, noncontiguous geographically defined 

areas. In cases where target areas are not 

contiguous, the applicant must explain 

its rationale for including noncontiguous areas; 

(2) Describe how it will plan to build 

a continuum of solutions based on the 

best available evidence, including, 

where available, strong or moderate 

evidence (as defined in this notice) 

designed to significantly improve 

educational outcomes and to support 

the healthy development and well-being 

of children and youth in the 

neighborhood. The applicant must also 

describe how it will build community 

support for and involvement in the 

development of the plan. The plan must 

be designed to ensure that over time, 

children and youth in the neighborhood 

who attend the target school or schools 

have access to a complete continuum of 

solutions, and ensure, as appropriate, 

that children and youth in the 

neighborhood who do not attend the 

target school or schools have access to 

solutions within the continuum of 

solutions. The plan must also ensure 

that students not living in the 

neighborhood who attend the target 

school or schools have access to 

solutions within the continuum of 

solutions. 

The success of the applicant’s strategy 

to build a continuum of solutions will 

be based on the results of the project, as 

measured against the project indicators 

defined in this notice and described in 

Table 1 and Table 2. In its strategy, the 

applicant must describe how it will 

determine which solutions within the 

continuum of solutions to implement, 

and must include— 

(a) High-quality early learning 

programs and services designed to 

improve outcomes across multiple 

domains of early learning (as defined in 

this notice) for children from birth 

through third grade; 

(b) Ambitious, rigorous, and 

comprehensive education reforms that 

are linked to improved educational 

outcomes for children and youth in 

preschool through the 12th grade. 

Public schools served through the grant 

may include persistently lowestachieving schools (as defined in this 

notice) or low-performing schools (as 

defined in this notice) that are not also 

persistently lowest-achieving schools. 

An applicant (or one or more of its 

partners) may serve an effective school 

or schools (as defined in this notice) but 

only if the applicant (or one or more of 

its partners) also serves at least one lowperforming school (as defined in this 

notice) or persistently lowest-achieving 

school (as defined in this notice). An 

applicant must identify in its 

application the public school or schools 

that would be served and the current 

status of reforms in the school or 

schools, including, if applicable, the 

type of intervention model being 

implemented. In cases where an 

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 also 

serves students in the neighborhood. An 

applicant proposing to work with a 

persistently lowest-achieving school 

must include as part of its strategy 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 (RTT) notice inviting 

applications for new awards for FY 2010 

that was published in the Federal 

Register on November 18, 2009 (74 FR 

59836, 59866). 

An applicant proposing to work with 

a low-performing school must include, 

as part of its strategy, ambitious, 

rigorous, and comprehensive 

interventions to assist, augment, or 

replace schools, which may include 

implementing one of the four school 

intervention models, or may include 

another model of sufficient ambition, 

rigor, and comprehensiveness to 

significantly improve academic and 

other outcomes for students. An 

applicant proposing to work with a lowperforming school must include an 

intervention that addresses the 

effectiveness of teachers and leaders and 

the school’s use of time and resources, 

which may include increased learning 

time (as defined in this notice); 

Note regarding school reform strategies: 

So as not to penalize an applicant for 

proposing to work 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 


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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 strategy, to work with 

the LEA as the LEA continues with its 

reforms. 

(c) Programs that prepare students to 

be college- and career-ready; and 

(d) Family and community supports 

(as defined in this notice). 

To the extent feasible and 

appropriate, the applicant must 

describe, in its plan, how the applicant 

and its partners will leverage and 

integrate high-quality programs, related 

public and private investments, and 

existing neighborhood assets into the 

continuum of solutions. 

An applicant must also describe in its 

plan how it will identify Federal, State, 

or local policies, regulations, or other 

requirements that would impede its 

ability to achieve its goals and how it 

will report on those impediments to the 

Department and other relevant agencies. 

As part of the description of how it 

will plan to build a continuum of 

solutions, the applicant must describe 

how it will participate in, organize, or 

facilitate, as appropriate, communities 

of practice (as defined in this notice) for 

Promise Neighborhoods. 

(3) Specify how it will conduct a 

comprehensive needs assessment and 

segmentation analysis of children and 

youth in the neighborhood during the 

planning grant project period and 

explain how it will use this needs 

assessment and segmentation analysis to 

determine the children with the highest 

needs and ensure that those children 

receive the appropriate services from 

the continuum of solutions. In this 

explanation of how it will use the needs 

assessment and segmentation analysis, 

the applicant must identify and describe 

in the application both the educational 

indicators and the family and 

community support indicators that the 

applicant will use in conducting the 

needs assessment during the planning 

year. During the planning year, the 

applicant must— 

(a) Collect data for the educational 

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. 

Note: Planning grant applicants are not 

required to propose solutions in their 

applications; however, they are required to 

describe how they will identify solutions, 

including the use of available evidence, 

during the planning year that will result in 

improvements on the project indicators. 

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

Indicator Result 

—# and % of children birth to kindergarten entry 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 succeed 

in school. 

—# 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). 

—# and % 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 preschool. 

—# and % of students at or above grade level according to State mathematics and reading or 

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 

school grades to high school. 

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

—# and % 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 

—# and % of children who participate in at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical 

activity daily; and—# & % of children who consume five or more servings of fruits and vegetables daily; or 

Students are healthy. 

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

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

by a school climate needs assessment (as defined in this notice); or 

Students feel safe at school and in their community. 

—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. 

—For children birth to kindergarten entry, the # and % of parents or family members who report that they read to their child three or more times a week; Families and community members support 

learning in Promise Neighborhood schools. 

—For children in kindergarten through the eighth grade, the # and % of parents or family members who report encouraging their child to read books outside of school; and 

—For children in the ninth through twelfth grades, the # and % of parents or family members 

who report talking with their child about the importance of college and career; or 

—possible fourth indicator TBD by applicant. 


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

Indicator Result 

—# and % 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 Table 1 and Table 

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 or in the hours after the 

traditional school day ends; 

(ii) The # and % of children who are 

suspended or receive discipline referrals 

during the school 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; and 

(iv) The # and % of children who are 

homeless or in foster care and who have an 

assigned adult advocate. 

Note: While the Department believes there 

are many programmatic benefits of collecting 

data on every child in the proposed 

neighborhood, the Department will consider 

requests to collect data on only a sample of 

the children in the neighborhood for some 

indicators so long as the applicant describes 

in its application how it would ensure the 

sample would be representative of the 

children in the neighborhood. 

(4) Describe the experience and 

lessons learned, and describe how the 

applicant will build the capacity of its 

management team and project director 

in all of the following areas: 

(a) Working with the neighborhood 

and its residents, including parents and 

families that have children or other 

family members with disabilities or ELs, 

as well as with the school(s) described 

in paragraph (2) of this priority; the LEA 

in which the school or schools are 

located; Federal, State, and local 

government leaders; and other service 

providers. 

(b) Collecting, analyzing, and using 

data for decision-making, learning, 

continuous improvement, and 

accountability. The applicant must 

describe— 

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

or expand a longitudinal data system 

that integrates student-level data from 

multiple sources in order to measure 

progress on educational 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; 

(ii) How the applicant will link the 

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

make the data accessible to parents, 

families, community residents, program 

partners, researchers, and evaluators 

while abiding by Federal, State, and 

other privacy laws and requirements; 

and manage and maintain the system; 

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

in the planning year and, once the 

Promise Neighborhood strategy is 

implemented, for continuous program 

improvement; and 

(iv) How the applicant will document 

the planning process, including by 

describing lessons learned and best 

practices; 

(c) Creating formal and informal 

partnerships, for such purposes as 

providing solutions along the 

continuum of solutions and attaining 

resources to sustain and scale up what 

works. An applicant, as part of its 

application, must submit a preliminary 

memorandum of understanding, signed 

by each organization or agency with 

which it would partner in planning the 

proposed Promise Neighborhood. The 

preliminary memorandum of 

understanding must describe— 

(i) Each partner’s financial and 

programmatic commitment; and 

(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 strategy; 

(d) The governance structure 

proposed for the Promise Neighborhood, 

including a system for holding partners 

accountable, how the eligible entity’s 

governing board or advisory board is 

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 

(e) Securing and integrating funding 

streams from multiple public and 

private sources from the Federal, State, 

and local level. Examples of public 

funds include Federal resources from 

the U.S. Department of Education, such 

as the 21st Century Community 

Learning Centers program and title I of 

the ESEA, and from other Federal 

agencies, such as the U.S. Departments 

of Health and Human Services, Housing 

and Urban Development, Justice, Labor, 

and Treasury. 

(5) Describe the applicant’s 

commitment to work with the 

Department, and with a national 

evaluator for Promise Neighborhoods or 

another entity designated by the 

Department, to ensure that data 

collection and program design are 

consistent with plans to conduct a 

rigorous national evaluation of the 

Promise Neighborhoods program and of 

specific solutions and strategies pursued 

by individual grantees. This 

commitment must include, but need not 

be limited to— 

(a) Ensuring that, through memoranda 

of understanding with appropriate 

entities, the national evaluator and the 

Department have access to relevant 

program and project data (e.g., 

administrative data and program and 

project indicator data), including data 

on a quarterly basis if requested by the 

Department; 

(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. 

Planning Grant Priority 2 (Absolute) 

Promise Neighborhoods in Rural 

Communities 

To meet this priority, an applicant 

must propose to develop a plan for 

implementing a Promise Neighborhood 

strategy that (1) meets all of the 

requirements in Absolute Priority 1; and 

(2) proposes to serve one or more rural 

communities only. 

Planning Grant Priority 3 (Absolute) 

Promise Neighborhoods in Tribal 

Communities 

To meet this priority, an applicant 

must propose to develop a plan for 

implementing a Promise Neighborhood 

strategy that (1) meets all of the 

requirements in Absolute Priority 1; and 

(2) proposes to serve one or more Indian 

tribes (as defined in this notice). 

Competitive Preference Priorities: For 

FY 2012, these priorities are competitive 


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preference priorities. Under 34 CFR 

75.105(c)(2)(i) we award additional 

points to an application depending on 

how well the application meets 

Planning Grant Priorities 4, 5, 6, or 7 

(Competitive Preference). Applicants 

may address more than one of the 

competitive preference priorities; 

however, the Department will review 

and award points only for a maximum 

of two of the competitive preference 

priorities. Therefore, an applicant must 

identify in the project narrative section 

of its application the priority or the two 

priorities it wishes the Department to 

consider for purposes of earning the 

competitive preference priority points. 

Note: The Department will not review or 

award points under any competitive 

preference priority for an application that (1) 

fails to clearly identify the competitive 

preference priority or two priorities it wishes 

the Department to consider for purposes of 

earning the competitive preference priority 

points, or (2) identifies more than two 

competitive preference priorities. 

These priorities are: 

Planning Grant Priority 4 (Competitive 

Preference) 

Comprehensive Local Early Learning 

Network (Zero, One, or Two Points) 

To meet this priority, an applicant 

must propose to develop a plan to 

expand, enhance, or modify an existing 

network of early learning programs and 

services to ensure that they are highquality and comprehensive for children 

from birth through the third grade. The 

plan must also ensure that the network 

establishes a high standard of quality 

across early learning settings and is 

designed to improve outcomes across 

multiple domains of early learning. 

Distinct from the early learning 

solutions described in paragraph (2) of 

Absolute Priority 1, this priority 

supports proposals to develop plans that 

integrate various early learning services 

and programs in the neighborhood in 

order to enhance the quality of such 

services and programs, i.e., school-based 

early learning programs; locally or Statefunded preschool programs; Early Head 

Start and Head Start; the local child care 

resource and referral agency, if 

applicable; Individuals with Disabilities 

Education Act (IDEA) services and 

programs; services through private 

providers; home visiting programs; 

public and private child care providers 

that are licensed by the State, including 

public and private providers and centerbased care; and family, friend, or 

neighbor care in the Promise 

Neighborhood. 

The local early learning network must 

address or incorporate ongoing Statelevel efforts regarding the major 

components of high-quality early 

learning programs and services, such as 

State early learning and development 

standards, program quality standards, 

comprehensive assessment systems, 

workforce and professional 

development systems, health 

promotion, family and community 

engagement, a coordinated data 

infrastructure, and a method of 

measuring, monitoring, evaluating, and 

improving program quality. For 

example, an applicant might address 

how the Promise Neighborhoods project 

will use the State’s early learning 

standards, as applicable, and the Head 

Start Child Development and Early 

Learning Framework (Framework), as 

applicable, to define the expectations of 

what children should know and be able 

to do before entering kindergarten. The 

Framework is available on the Office of 

Head Start’s Web site at: http://eclkc.

ohs.acf.hhs.gov/hslc/tta-system/

teaching/eecd/Assessment/

Child%20Outcomes/HS_Revised_Child_

Outcomes_Framework(rev-Sept2011).

pdf. Similarly, an applicant that 

addresses this priority must discuss, 

where applicable, how it would align 

with the State’s Quality Rating and 

Improvement System (QRIS), as 

applicable, professional development 

and workforce infrastructure, and other 

appropriate State efforts. In addition, 

the proposal must describe how the 

project will provide, to the extent 

practicable, early learning opportunities 

on multiple platforms (e.g., public 

television, Web-based) and in multiple 

locations (e.g., at home, at school, and 

at other community locations.) 

Note regarding accessibility of early 

learning programs and services: These 

early learning opportunities must be 

fully accessible to individuals with 

disabilities, including individuals who 

are blind or have low vision; otherwise, 

the plans must describe how 

accommodations or modifications will 

be provided to ensure that the benefits 

of the early learning opportunities are 

provided to children and youth with 

disabilities in an equally effective and 

equally integrated manner. 

The proposal to develop a plan for a 

high-quality and comprehensive local 

early learning network must describe 

the governance structure and how the 

applicant will use the planning year to 

plan solutions that address the major 

components of high-quality early 

learning programs and services as well 

as establish goals, strategies, and 

benchmarks to provide early learning 

programs and services that result in 

improved outcomes across multiple 

domains of early learning (as defined in 

this notice). An applicant addressing 

this priority must designate an 

individual responsible for overseeing 

and integrating the early learning 

initiatives and must include a resume or 

position description and other 

supporting documentation to 

demonstrate that the individual 

designated, or individual hired to carry 

out those responsibilities, possesses the 

appropriate State certification, and has 

experience and expertise in managing 

and administering high-quality early 

learning programs, including in 

coordinating across various high-quality 

early learning programs and services. 

Planning Grant Priority 5 (Competitive 

Preference) 

Quality Internet Connectivity (Zero or 

One Point) 

To meet this priority, an applicant 

must propose to develop a plan to 

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, the knowledge and skills to use 

broadband internet access effectively, 

and a connected computing device to 

support schoolwork. 

Planning Grant Priority 6 (Competitive 

Preference) 

Arts and Humanities (Zero or One 

Point) 

To meet this priority, an applicant 

must propose to develop a plan to 

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 in out-ofschool settings and at any time during 

the calendar year. 

Planning Grant Priority 7 (Competitive 

Preference) 

Quality Affordable Housing (Zero or 

One Point) 

To meet this priority, an applicant 

must propose to serve geographic areas 

that were the subject of an affordable 

housing transformation pursuant to a 

Choice Neighborhoods or HOPE VI grant 

awarded by the U.S. Department of 

Housing and Urban Development during 

FY 2009 or later years. To be eligible 

under this priority, the applicant must 

either (1) be able to demonstrate that it 

has received a Choice Neighborhoods or 

HOPE VI grant or (2) provide, in its 

application, a memorandum of 


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understanding between it and a partner 

that is a recipient of Choice 

Neighborhoods or HOPE VI grant. The 

memorandum must indicate a 

commitment on the part of the applicant 

and partner to coordinate planning and 

align resources to the greatest extent 

practicable. 

Invitational Priority: For FY 2012, 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: 

Planning Grant Priority 8 (Invitational) 

Family Engagement in Learning 

Through Adult Education 

To meet this priority, an applicant 

must propose to develop a plan that is 

coordinated with adult education 

providers serving neighborhood 

residents, such as those funded through 

the Adult Education and Family 

Literacy Act. Coordinated services may 

include adult basic and secondary 

education 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 

student educational achievement. 

Examples of services and programs 

include preparation for the General 

Education Development (GED) test; 

English literacy, family literacy, and 

work-based literacy training; or other 

training that prepares adults for 

postsecondary education and careers or 

supports adult engagement in the 

educational success of children and 

youth in the neighborhood. 

Definitions 

The following definitions apply to 

this program: 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. 

Children with disabilities or CWD means 

individuals who meet the definition of 

child with a disability in 34 CFR 300.8, 

infant or toddler with a disability in 34 

CFR 300.25, handicapped person in 34 

CFR 104.3(j), or disability as it pertains 

to an individual in 42 U.S.C. 12102. 

Community of practice means 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 projects. Establishment of 

communities of practice under Promise 

Neighborhoods will enable grantees to 

meet, discuss, and collaborate with each 

other regarding grantee projects. 

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

solutions means solutions that— 

(1) Include programs, policies, 

practices, services, systems, and 

supports that result in improving 

educational and developmental 

outcomes for children from cradle 

through college to career; 

(2) Are based on the best available 

evidence, including, where available, 

strong or moderate evidence (as defined 

in this notice); 

(3) Are linked and integrated 

seamlessly (as defined in this notice); 

and 

(4) Include both education programs 

and family and community supports. 

Credible comparison group includes a 

comparison group formed by matching 

project participants with nonparticipants based on key characteristics 

that are thought to be related to 

outcomes. These characteristics include, 

but are not limited to: (1) Prior test 

scores and other measures of academic 

achievement (preferably the same 

measures that will be used to assess the 

outcomes of the project); (2) 

demographic characteristics, such as 

age, disability, gender, English 

proficiency, ethnicity, poverty level, 

parents’ educational attainment, and 

single- or two-parent family 

background; (3) the time period in 

which the two groups are studied (e.g., 

the two groups are children entering 

kindergarten in the same year as 

opposed to sequential years); and (4) 

methods used to collect outcome data 

(e.g., the same test of reading skills 

administered in the same way to both 

groups). 

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. 

Education programs means programs 

that include, but are not limited to— 

(1) High-quality early learning 

programs or services designed to 

improve outcomes across multiple 

domains of early learning for young 

children. Such programs must be 

specifically intended to align with 

appropriate State early learning and 

development 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 progress through the 

early elementary school grades 

demonstrating age-appropriate 

functioning across the multiple 

domains; 

(2) For children in preschool through 

the 12th grade, programs, inclusive of 

related policies and personnel, that are 

linked to improved educational 

outcomes. The programs— 

(a) Must include effective teachers 

and effective principals; 

(b) Must include strategies, practices, 

or programs that encourage and 

facilitate the evaluation, analysis, and 

use of student achievement, student 

growth (as defined in this notice), and 

other data by educators, families, and 

other stakeholders to inform decisionmaking; 

(c) Must include college- and careerready standards, assessments, and 

practices, including a well-rounded 

curriculum, instructional practices, 

strategies, or programs in, at a 

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 

(d) 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); and 

(3) Programs that prepare students for 

college and career success, which may 

include programs that— 

(a) Create and support partnerships 

with community colleges, four-year 

colleges, or universities and that help 

instill a college-going culture in the 

neighborhood; 

(b) Provide dual-enrollment 

opportunities for secondary students to 

gain college credit while in high school; 

(c) Provide, through relationships 

with businesses and other organizations, 


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apprenticeship opportunities to 

students; 

(d) Align curricula in the core 

academic subjects with requirements for 

industry-recognized certifications or 

credentials, particularly in high-growth 

sectors; 

(e) 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; 

(f) Help college students, including 

CWD and ELs from the neighborhood to 

transition to college, persist in their 

academic studies in college, graduate 

from college, and transition into the 

workforce; and 

(g) Provide opportunities for all youth 

(both in and out of school) to achieve 

academic and employment success by 

improving educational and skill 

competencies and providing 

connections to employers. Such 

activities may include opportunities for 

on-going mentoring, supportive 

services, incentives for recognition and 

achievement, and opportunities related 

to leadership, development, decisionmaking, citizenship, and community 

service. 

Effective school means a school that 

has— 

(1) 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 

(2)(a) 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 (b) 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 organization means an 

organization that— 

(1) Is representative of the geographic 

area proposed to be served (as defined 

in this notice); 

(2) Is one of the following: 

(a) A nonprofit organization that 

meets the definition of a nonprofit 

under 34 CFR 77.1(c), which may 

include a faith-based nonprofit 

organization. 

(b) An institution of higher education 

as defined by section 101(a) of the 

Higher Education Act of 1965, as 

amended. 

(c) An Indian tribe (as defined in this 

notice); 

(3) Currently provides at least one of 

the solutions from the applicant’s 

proposed continuum of solutions in the 

geographic area proposed to be served; 

and 

(4) Operates or proposes to work with 

and involve in carrying out its proposed 

project, in coordination with the 

school’s LEA, at least one public 

elementary or secondary school that is 

located within the identified geographic 

area that the grant will serve. 

English learners or ELs means 

individuals who meet the definition of 

limited English proficient, as defined in 

section 9101(25) of the ESEA. 

Family and community supports 

means— 

(1) Child and youth health programs, 

such as physical, mental, behavioral, 

and emotional health programs (e.g., 

home visiting programs; Early Head 

Start; programs to improve nutrition and 

fitness, reduce childhood obesity, and 

create healthier communities); 

(2) 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; 

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; 

(3) Community stability programs, 

such as programs that— 

(a) 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; 

(b) Provide adult education and 

employment opportunities and training 

to improve educational levels, job skills 

and readiness in order to decrease 

unemployment, with a goal of 

increasing family stability; 

(c) Improve families’ awareness of, 

access to, and use of a range of social 

services, if possible at a single location; 

(d) Provide unbiased, outcomefocused, and comprehensive financial 

education, inside and outside the 

classroom and at every life stage; 

(e) Increase access to traditional 

financial institutions (e.g., banks and 

credit unions) rather than alternative 

financial institutions (e.g., check cashers 

and payday lenders); 

(f) Help families increase their 

financial literacy, financial assets, and 

savings; and 

(g) Help families access transportation 

to education and employment 

opportunities; 

(4) Family and community 

engagement programs that are systemic, 

integrated, sustainable, and continue 

through a student’s transition from K–12 

school to college and career. These 

programs may include family literacy 

programs and programs that provide 

adult education and training and 

opportunities for family members and 

other members of the community to 

support student learning and establish 

high expectations for student 

educational achievement; mentorship 

programs that create positive 

relationships between children and 

adults; programs that provide for the use 

of such community resources as 

libraries, museums, television and radio 

stations, and local businesses to support 

improved student educational 

outcomes; programs that support the 

engagement of families in early learning 

programs and services; programs that 

provide guidance on how to navigate 

through a complex school system and 

how to advocate for more and improved 

learning opportunities; and programs 

that promote collaboration with 

educators and community organizations 

to improve opportunities for healthy 

development and learning; and 

(5) 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. This strategy 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(11) 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 work-based learning 

opportunities that are provided by 

partnering, as appropriate, with other 


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4The Department considers schools that are 

identified as Tier I or Tier II schools under the 

School Improvement Grants Program (see 75 FR 

66363) as part of a State’s approved FY 2009 or FY 

2010 applications to be persistently lowestachieving schools. A list of these Tier I and Tier II 

schools can be found on the Department’s Web site 

at http://www2.ed.gov/programs/sif/index.html. 

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 or any Alaska Native 

village or regional or village corporation 

as defined in or established pursuant to 

the Alaska Native Claims Settlement 

Act, 43 U.S.C. 1601, et seq., that is 

recognized as eligible for the special 

programs and services provided by the 

United States to Indians because of their 

status as Indians. The term ‘‘Indian’’ 

means a member of an Indian tribe. 

Indicators of need means currently 

available data that describe— 

(1) Education need, which means— 

(a) 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 

(b) 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 

(2) Family and community support 

need, which means— 

(a) Percentages of children with 

preventable chronic health conditions 

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

problems, obesity) or avoidable 

developmental delays; 

(b) Immunization rates; 

(c) Rates of crime, including violent 

crime; 

(d) Student mobility rates; 

(e) Teenage birth rates; 

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

(g) Rates of vacant or substandard 

homes, including distressed public and 

assisted housing; or 

(h) 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 of the Elementary and Secondary 

Education Act of 1965, as amended 

(ESEA), 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-emotional 

development; approaches toward 

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 and literacy 

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— 

(1) 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); 

(2) Commercial assets that are 

associated with production, 

employment, transactions, and sales 

(e.g., labor force and retail 

establishments); 

(3) Recreational assets that create 

value in a neighborhood beyond work 

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

community gardens, and arts 

organizations); 

(4) Physical assets that are associated 

with the built environment and physical 

infrastructure (e.g., housing, commercial 

buildings, and roads); and 

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

public safety, community engagement, 

and partnerships with youth, parents, 

and families). 

Persistently lowest-achieving school 4

means, as determined by the State— 

(1) Any school receiving assistance 

through Title I that is in improvement, 

corrective action, or restructuring and 

that— 

(a) 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 

(b) Is a high school that has had a 

graduation rate that is less than 60 

percent over a number of years; and 

(2) Any secondary school that is 

eligible for, but does not receive, Title 

I funds that— 

(a) 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 

(b) 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 

women, commissioners, State 

legislators, Congressional 

representatives, members of the school 

board), appointed 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 

education programs and family and 

community supports. 

Representative of the geographic area 

proposed to be served means that 


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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— 

(1) Residents who live in the 

geographic area proposed to be served, 

which may include residents who are 

representative of the ethnic and racial 

composition of the neighborhood’s 

residents and the languages they speak; 

(2) 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); 

(3) 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 

(4) Some combination of individuals 

from the three groups listed in 

paragraphs (1), (2), and (3) of this 

definition. 

Rural community means a 

neighborhood that— 

(1) 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://www2.ed.gov/programs/ 

reapsrsa/eligible10/index.html. For the 

RLIS program: http://www2.ed.gov/ 

programs/reaprlisp/eligible10/ 

index.html; or 

(2) Includes only schools designated 

with a school locale code of 42 or 43. 

Applicants may determine school locale 

codes by referring to the following 

Department Web site: http:// 

nces.ed.gov/ccd/schoolsearch/. 

School climate needs assessment 

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— 

(1) For tested grades and subjects: 

(a) A student’s score on the State’s 

assessments under the ESEA; and, as 

appropriate, 

(b) Other measures of student 

learning, such as those described in 

paragraph (2) of this definition, 

provided they are rigorous and 

comparable across classrooms and 

programs. 

(2) 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. 

Program Authority: 20 U.S.C.7243– 

7243b. 

Applicable Regulations: (a) 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. (b) The notice 

of final priorities, requirements, 

definitions, and selection criteria 

published in the Federal Register on 

July 6, 2011 (76 FR 39590). 

Note: The regulations in 34 CFR part 79 

apply to all applicants except federally 

recognized Indian tribes. 

Note: The regulations in 34 CFR part 86 

apply to institutions of higher education 

only. 

II. Award Information 

Type of Award: Discretionary grants. 

Estimated Available Funds: 

$7,000,000. 

These estimated available funds are 

only for Planning grants under the 

Promise Neighborhoods program. 

Contingent upon the availability of 

funds and the quality of the 

applications, we may make additional 

awards in FY 2013 or in subsequent 

years from the list of unfunded 

applicants from this competition. 

Estimated Range of Awards: Up to 

$500,000. 

Estimated Average Size of Awards: 

$467,000. 

Maximum Award: $500,000. 

The maximum award amount is 

$500,000 per 12-month budget period. 

We may choose not to further consider 

or review applications with budget 

requests for any 12-month budget period 

that exceed this amount, if we conclude, 

during our initial review of the 

application, that the proposed goals and 

objectives cannot be obtained with the 

specified maximum amount. 

Estimated Number of Awards: Up to 

15. 

Note: The Department is not bound by any 

estimates in this notice. 

Project Period: Up to 12 months. 

III. Eligibility Information 

1. Eligible Applicants: To be eligible 

for a grant under this competition, an 

applicant must be an eligible 

organization (as defined in this notice). 

For purposes of Absolute Priority 3: 

Promise Neighborhoods in Tribal 

Communities, an eligible applicant is an 

eligible organization that partners with 

an Indian tribe or is an Indian tribe that 

meets the definition of an eligible 

organization. 

2. Cost-Sharing or Matching: 

To be eligible for a planning grant 

under this competition, an applicant 

must demonstrate that it has established 

a commitment from one or more entities 

in the public or private sector, which 

may include Federal, State, and local 

public agencies, philanthropic 


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organizations, private businesses, or 

individuals, to provide matching funds 

for the planning process. An applicant 

for a planning grant must obtain 

matching 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. 

Both planning and implementation 

applicants must demonstrate a 

commitment of matching funds in the 

applications. The applicants must 

specify the source of the funds or 

contributions and, in the case of a thirdparty 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 

with 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 

requirement, including the amount of 

the requested reduction, the total 

remaining match contribution, and a 

statement of the basis for the request. 

An applicant should review the 

Department’s cost-sharing and costmatching regulations. These include 

specific limitations in 34 CFR 74.23, 

which is applicable to non-profit 

organizations and institutions of higher 

education, and 34 CFR 80.24, which is 

applicable to State, local, and Indian 

tribal governments. Applicants should 

also review the Office of Management 

and Budget (OMB) cost principles 

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. 

3. Other: Funding Categories: An 

applicant must state in its application 

whether it is applying for a Planning 

grant or an Implementation grant. An 

applicant will be considered for an 

award only for the type of grant for 

which it applies. 

IV. Application and Submission 

Information 

1. Address To Request Application 

Package 

Adrienne Hawkins, U.S. Department 

of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue 

SW., room 4W256, LBJ, Washington, DC 

20202. Telephone: (202) 453–5638 or by 

email: 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 compact disc) 

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: June 8, 

2012. 

We will be able to develop a more 

efficient process for reviewing grant 

applications if we know the 

approximate number of applicants that 

intend to apply for funding under this 

competition. Therefore, the Secretary 

strongly encourages each potential 

applicant to notify us of the applicant’s 

intent to submit an application for 

funding by completing a Web-based 

form. When completing this form, 

applicants will provide (1) the applicant 

organization’s name and address, and 

(2) the type of grant for which the 

applicant intends to apply. Applicants 

may access this form online at http:// 

wdcrobcolp01.ed.gov/CFAPPS/survey/ 

survey.cfm?ID=5c306e04-40e0-4cb3- 

b6e7-4a8ea1d2012e. Applicants that do 

not complete this form 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 are strongly 

encouraged to limit the application 

narrative [Part III] for a planning 

application to 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. Text in charts, 

tables, figures, and graphs may be 

single-spaced. 

• 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 is 

strongly encouraged: Times New 

Roman, Courier, Courier New, or Arial. 

• Include page numbers at the bottom 

of each page in your application 

narrative. 

The suggested page limit does not 

apply to Part I, the cover sheet; Part II, 

the budget section, including the 

narrative budget justification; Part IV, 

the assurances and certifications; or the 

one-page abstract, the resumes, the 

bibliography, or the letters of support. 

However, the page limit does apply to 

all of the application narrative section 

[Part III]. 

3. Submission Dates and Times 

Applications Available: April 20, 

2012. 

Deadline for Notice of Intent To 

Apply: June 8, 2012. 

Date of Pre-Application Webinars: 

May 15, 2012, and June 12, 2012. Preapplication webinars are designed to 

provide technical assistance to 

interested applicants for Promise 

Neighborhoods grants. Detailed 

information regarding the preapplication webinar times will be 

available through the Department of 

Education Web site at http:// 

www2.ed.gov/programs/ 

promiseneighborhoods/index.html. 

Deadline for Transmittal of 

Applications: June 19, 2012. 

Applications for grants under this 

competition must be submitted 

electronically using the Grants.gov 

Apply site (Grants.gov). 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 

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. 


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Deadline for Intergovernmental 

Review: September 25, 2012. 

4. Intergovernmental Review 

This competition 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. Data Universal Numbering System 

Number, Taxpayer Identification 

Number, and Central Contractor 

Registry 

To do business with the Department 

of Education, you must— 

a. Have a Data Universal Numbering 

System (DUNS) number and a Taxpayer 

Identification Number (TIN); 

b. Register both your DUNS number 

and TIN with the Central Contractor 

Registry (CCR), the Government’s 

primary registrant database; 

c. Provide your DUNS number and 

TIN on your application; and 

d. Maintain an active CCR registration 

with current information while your 

application is under review by the 

Department and, if you are awarded a 

grant, during the project period. 

You can obtain a DUNS number from 

Dun and Bradstreet. A DUNS number 

can be created within one business day. 

If you are a corporate entity, agency, 

institution, or organization, you can 

obtain a TIN from the Internal Revenue 

Service. If you are an individual, you 

can obtain a TIN from the Internal 

Revenue Service or the Social Security 

Administration. If you need a new TIN, 

please allow 2–5 weeks for your TIN to 

become active. 

The CCR registration process may take 

five or more business days to complete. 

If you are currently registered with the 

CCR, you may not need to make any 

changes. However, please make certain 

that the TIN associated with your DUNS 

number is correct. Also note that you 

will need to update your CCR 

registration on an annual basis. This 

may take three or more business days to 

complete. 

In addition, if you are submitting your 

application via Grants.gov, you must (1) 

be designated by your organization as an 

Authorized Organization Representative 

(AOR); and (2) register yourself with 

Grants.gov as an AOR. Details on these 

steps are outlined at the following 

Grants.gov Web page: www.grants.gov/ 

applicants/get_registered.jsp. 

7. Other Submission Requirements 

Applications for grants under this 

competition 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 

(Implementation grants), CFDA Number 

84.215N, must be submitted 

electronically using the 

Governmentwide Grants.gov Apply site 

at www.grants.gov. Through this site, 

you will be able to download a copy of 

the application package, complete it 

offline, and then upload and submit 

your application. You may not email an 

electronic copy of a grant application to 

us. 

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. 

You may access the electronic grant 

application for Promise Neighborhoods 

Planning Grant Competition at 

www.Grants.gov. You must search for 

the downloadable application package 

for this competition by the CFDA 

number. Do not include the CFDA 

number’s alpha suffix in your search 

(e.g., search for 84.215, not 84.215P). 

Please note the following: 

• When you enter the Grants.gov site, 

you will find information about 

submitting an application electronically 

through the site, as well as the hours of 

operation. 

• Applications received by Grants.gov 

are date and time stamped. Your 

application must be fully uploaded and 

submitted and must be date and time 

stamped by the Grants.gov system no 

later than 4:30:00 p.m., Washington, DC 

time, on the application deadline date. 

Except as otherwise noted in this 

section, we will not accept your 

application if it is received—that is, date 

and time stamped by the Grants.gov 

system—after 4:30:00 p.m., Washington, 

DC time, on the application deadline 

date. We do not consider an application 

that does not comply with the deadline 

requirements. When we retrieve your 

application from Grants.gov, we will 

notify you if we are rejecting your 

application because it was date and time 

stamped by the Grants.gov system after 

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

the application deadline date. 

• The amount of time it can take to 

upload an application will vary 

depending on a variety of factors, 

including the size of the application and 

the speed of your Internet connection. 

Therefore, we strongly recommend that 

you do not wait until the application 

deadline date to begin the submission 

process through Grants.gov. 

• You should review and follow the 

Education Submission Procedures for 

submitting an application through 

Grants.gov that are included in the 

application package for this competition 

to ensure that you submit your 

application in a timely manner to the 

Grants.gov system. You can also find the 

Education Submission Procedures 

pertaining to Grants.gov under News 

and Events on the Department’s G5 

system home page at www.G5.gov. 

• 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 upload any narrative 

sections and all other attachments to 

your application as files in a PDF 

(Portable Document) read-only, nonmodifiable format. Do not upload an 

interactive or fillable PDF file. If you 

upload a file type other than a readonly, non-modifiable PDF 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. 

• After you electronically submit 

your application, you will receive from 

Grants.gov an automatic notification of 

receipt that contains a Grants.gov 

tracking number. (This notification 

indicates receipt by Grants.gov only, not 

receipt by the Department.) The 

Department then will retrieve your 

application from Grants.gov and send a 


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second notification to you by email. 

This second notification indicates that 

the Department has received your 

application and has assigned your 

application a PR/Award number (an EDspecified identifying number unique to 

your application). 

• We may request that you provide us 

original signatures on forms at a later 

date. 

Application Deadline Date Extension 

in Case of Technical Issues with the 

Grants.gov System: If you are 

experiencing problems submitting your 

application through Grants.gov, please 

contact the Grants.gov Support Desk, 

toll free, at 1–800–518–4726. You must 

obtain a Grants.gov Support Desk Case 

Number and must keep a record of it. 

If you are prevented from 

electronically submitting your 

application on the application deadline 

date because of technical problems with 

the Grants.gov system, we will grant you 

an extension until 4:30:00 p.m., 

Washington, DC time, the following 

business day to enable you to transmit 

your application electronically or by 

hand delivery. You also may mail your 

application by following the mailing 

instructions described elsewhere in this 

notice. 

If you submit an application after 

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

the application deadline date, please 

contact the person listed under FOR

FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT in 

section VII of this notice and provide an 

explanation of the technical problem 

you experienced with Grants.gov, along 

with the Grants.gov Support Desk Case 

Number. We will accept your 

application if we can confirm that a 

technical problem occurred with the 

Grants.gov system and that that problem 

affected your ability to submit your 

application by 4:30:00 p.m., 

Washington, DC time, on the 

application deadline date. The 

Department will contact you after a 

determination is made on whether your 

application will be accepted. 

Note: The extensions to which we refer in 

this section apply only to the unavailability 

of, or technical problems with, the Grants.gov 

system. We will not grant you an extension 

if you failed to fully register to submit your 

application to Grants.gov before the 

application deadline date and time or if the 

technical problem you experienced is 

unrelated to the Grants.gov system. 

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 

the Grants.gov system because— 

• You do not have access to the 

Internet; or 

• You do not have the capacity to 

upload large documents to the 

Grants.gov system; 

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: Adrienne Hawkins, U.S. 

Department of Education, 400 Maryland 

Avenue SW., Room 4W256, 

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

5638. 

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 84.215P), 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 84.215P), 550 12th Street SW., 

Room 7041, Potomac Center Plaza, 

Washington, DC 20202–4260. 

The Application Control Center 

accepts hand deliveries daily between 

8 a.m. and 4:30 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 

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 

The selection criteria for this 

competition are from the 2011 Promise 

Neighborhoods NFP and from 34 CFR 

75.210. The points assigned to each 

criterion are indicated in the 

parenthesis next to the criterion. 

Applicants may earn up to a total of 100 

points. The selection criteria for 

planning grants are as follows: 

A. Need for Project (15 Points) 

The Secretary considers the need for 

the proposed project. 

In determining the need for the 

proposed project, the Secretary 

considers— 

(1) The magnitude or severity of the 

problems to be addressed by the 

proposed project as described by 


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indicators of need and other relevant 

indicators (10 points); and 

(2) The extent to which the 

geographically defined area has been 

described (5 points). 

B. Quality of the Project Design (20 

Points) 

The Secretary considers the quality of 

the design of the proposed project. 

In determining the quality of the 

design of the proposed project, the 

Secretary considers— 

(1) The extent to which the 

continuum of solutions will be aligned 

with an ambitious, rigorous, and 

comprehensive strategy for 

improvement of schools in the 

neighborhood (10 points); 

(2) The extent to which the applicant 

describes a proposal to plan to create a 

complete continuum of solutions, 

including early learning through grade 

12, college- and career-readiness, and 

family and community supports, 

without time and resource gaps that will 

prepare all children in the 

neighborhood to attain an excellent 

education and successfully transition to 

college and a career (5 points); and 

(3) The extent to which solutions 

leverage existing neighborhood assets 

and coordinate with other efforts, 

including programs supported by 

Federal, State, local, and private funds 

(5 points). 

C. Quality of Project Services (20 Points) 

The Secretary considers the quality of 

the services to be provided by the 

proposed project. 

In determining the quality of the 

project services, the Secretary 

considers— 

(1) The extent to which the applicant 

describes how the needs assessment and 

segmentation analysis, including 

identifying and describing indicators, 

will be used during the planning phase 

to determine each solution within the 

continuum (10 points); and 

(2) The extent to which the applicant 

describes how it will determine that 

solutions are based on the best available 

evidence including, where available, 

strong or moderate evidence, and ensure 

that solutions drive results and lead to 

changes on indicators (10 points). 

D. Quality of the Management Plan 

(45 Points) 

The Secretary considers the quality of 

the management plan for the proposed 

project. 

In determining the quality of the 

management plan for the proposed 

project, the Secretary considers the 

experience, lessons learned, and 

proposal to build capacity of the 

applicant’s management team and 

project director in all of the following 

areas— 

(1) Working with the neighborhood 

and its residents; the schools described 

in paragraph (2)(b) of Absolute Priority 

1; the LEA in which those schools are 

located; Federal, State, and local 

government leaders; and other service 

providers (10 points); 

(2) Collecting, analyzing, and using 

data for decision-making, learning, 

continuous improvement, and 

accountability (15 points); 

(3) Creating formal and informal 

partnerships, including the alignment of 

the visions, theories of action, and 

theories of change described in its 

memorandum of understanding, and 

creating a system for holding partners 

accountable for performance in 

accordance with the memorandum of 

understanding (10 points); and 

(4) Integrating funding streams from 

multiple public and private sources, 

including its proposal to leverage and 

integrate high-quality programs in the 

neighborhood into the continuum of 

solutions (10 points). 

2. Review and Selection Process 

The Department will screen 

applications submitted in accordance 

with the requirements in this notice, 

and will determine which applications 

have met eligibility and other statutory 

requirements. 

The Department will use independent 

reviewers from various backgrounds and 

professions including: Prekindergarten—12 teachers and 

principals, college and university 

educators, researchers and evaluators, 

social entrepreneurs, strategy 

consultants, grant makers and managers, 

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. The Department 

may use more than one tier of reviews 

in determining grantees. Additional 

information about the review process 

will be posted on the Department’s Web 

site. 

We remind potential applicants that 

in reviewing applications in any 

discretionary grant competition, the 

Secretary may consider, under 34 CFR 

75.217(d)(3), the past performance of the 

applicant in carrying out a previous 

award, such as the applicant’s use of 

funds, achievement of project 

objectives, and compliance with grant 

conditions. The Secretary may also 

consider whether the applicant failed to 

submit a timely performance report or 

submitted a report of unacceptable 

quality. 

In addition, in making a competitive 

grant award, the Secretary also requires 

various assurances including those 

applicable to Federal civil rights laws 

that prohibit discrimination in programs 

or activities receiving Federal financial 

assistance from the Department of 

Education (34 CFR 100.4, 104.5, 106.4, 

108.8, and 110.23). 

3. Special Conditions 

Under 34 CFR 74.14 and 80.12, the 

Secretary may impose special 

conditions on a grant if the applicant or 

grantee is not financially stable; has a 

history of unsatisfactory performance; 

has a financial or other management 

system that does not meet the standards 

in 34 CFR parts 74 or 80, as applicable; 

has not fulfilled the conditions of a 

prior grant; or is otherwise not 

responsible. 

4. Transparency and Open Government 

Policy 

After awards are made under this 

competition, all of the submitted 

successful applications, together with 

reviewer scores and comments, will be 

posted on the Department’s Web site. 

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 of 

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: (a) If you apply for a 

grant under this competition, you must 


tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES
23704 Federal Register / Vol. 77, No. 77 / Friday, April 20, 2012 / Notices 

ensure that you have in place the 

necessary processes and systems to 

comply with the reporting requirements 

in 2 CFR part 170 should you receive 

funding under the competition. This 

does not apply if you have an exception 

under 2 CFR 170.110(b). 

(b) At the end of your project period, 

you must submit a final performance 

report, including financial information, 

as directed by the Secretary. If you 

receive a multi-year award, you must 

submit an annual performance report 

that provides the most current 

performance and financial expenditure 

information as directed by the Secretary 

under 34 CFR 75.118. The Secretary 

may also require more frequent 

performance reports under 34 CFR 

75.720(c). For specific requirements on 

reporting, please go to www.ed.gov/ 

fund/grant/apply/appforms/ 

appformshtml. 

4. Performance Measures: The 

Secretary has established one 

performance indicator for this program: 

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 2013 

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. 

5. Continuation Awards: In making a 

continuation award, the Secretary may 

consider, under 34 CFR 75.253, the 

extent to which a grantee has made 

‘‘substantial progress toward meeting 

the objectives in its approved 

application.’’ This consideration 

includes the review of a grantee’s 

progress in meeting the targets and 

projected outcomes in its approved 

application, and whether the grantee 

has expended funds in a manner that is 

consistent with its approved application 

and budget. In making a continuation 

grant, the Secretary also considers 

whether the grantee is operating in 

compliance with the assurances in its 

approved application, including those 

applicable to Federal civil rights laws 

that prohibit discrimination in programs 

or activities receiving Federal financial 

assistance from the Department (34 CFR 

100.4, 104.5, 106.4, 108.8, and 110.23). 

VII. Agency Contact 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Adrienne Hawkins, U.S. Department of 

Education, 400 Maryland Avenue SW., 

room 4W256, Washington, DC 20202. 

Telephone: (202) 453–5638 or by email: 

PromiseNeighborhoods@ed.gov. 

If you use a TDD or a TTY, 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 compact disc) on 

request to the program contact person 

listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

CONTACT in section VII of this notice. 

Electronic Access to This Document: 

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 via the Federal Digital System 

at: www.gpo.gov/fdsys. At this site you 

can view this document, as well as all 

other documents of this Department 

published in the Federal Register, in 

text or Adobe Portable Document 

Format (PDF). To use PDF you must 

have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is 

available free at the site. 

You may also access documents of the 

Department published in the Federal 

Register by using the article search 

feature at: www.federalregister.gov. 

Specifically, through the advanced 

search feature at this site, you can limit 

your search to documents published by 

the Department. 

Dated: April 17, 2012. 

James H. Shelton, III, 

Assistant Deputy Secretary for Innovation and 

Improvement. 

[FR Doc. 2012–9595 Filed 4–19–12; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4000–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY 

U.S. Energy Information 

Administration 

Agency Information Collection 

Extension 

AGENCY: U.S. Energy Information 

Administration (EIA), Department of 

Energy (DOE). 

ACTION: Agency Information Collection 

Activities: Information Collection 

Extension; Notice and Request for 

Comments. 

SUMMARY: The EIA, pursuant to the 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, 

intends to extend for three years, Form 

NWPA–830G ‘‘Appendix G—Standard 

Remittance Advice for Payment of Fees 

(including Annex A to Appendix G),’’ 

with the Office of Management and 

Budget (OMB). The Nuclear Waste 

Policy Act (NWPA) of 1982 required 

that the DOE enter into Standard 

Contracts with all generators or owners 

of spent nuclear fuel and high-level 

radioactive waste of domestic origin. 

Form NWPA–830G is part of the 

Standard Contract for Disposal of Spent 

Nuclear Fuel and/or High-Level 

Radioactive Waste. Generators and 

owners of spent nuclear fuel and highlevel radioactive waste of domestic 

origin pay fees into the nuclear waste 

fund based on net electricity generated 

and sold as defined in the Standard 

Contract. Together, forms ‘‘Appendix G’’ 

and ‘‘Annex A to Appendix G’’ are 

commonly referred to as Remittance 

Advice (RA) forms. Comments are 

invited on: (a) Whether the proposed 

collection of information is necessary 

for the proper performance of the 

functions of the agency, including 

whether the information shall have 

practical utility; (b) the accuracy of the 

agency’s estimate of the burden of the 

proposed collection of information, 

including the validity of the 

methodology and assumptions used; 

(c) ways to enhance the quality, utility, 

and clarity of the information to be 

collected; and (d) ways to minimize the 

burden of the collection of information 

on respondents, including through the 

use of automated collection techniques 

or other forms of information 

technology. 

DATES: Comments regarding this 

proposed information collection must 

be received on or before June 19, 2012. 

If you anticipate difficulty in submitting 

comments within that period, contact 

the person listed in ADDRESSES as soon 

as possible. 

ADDRESSES: Send comments to Marta 

Gospodarczyk. To ensure receipt of the 

comments by the due date, submission 

by FAX (202–586–3045) or email 

(marta.gospodarczyk@eia.gov) is 

recommended. The mailing address is 

Office of Electricity, Coal, Nuclear, and 

Renewables Analysis, EI–34, Forrestal 

Building, U.S. Department of Energy, 

Washington, DC 20585. Alternatively, 

Ms. Gospodarczyk may be contacted by 

telephone at 202–586–0527. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Requests for additional information or 

copies of any forms and instructions 

should be directed to Ms. Gospodarczyk 

at the address listed above. 

Additionally, forms and instructions 

may be viewed at http://www.eia.gov/ 

survey/#nwpa-830G. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This 

information collection request contains: 

(1) OMB No. 1901–0260; 

(2) Information Collection Request 

Title: Standard Contract for Disposal of 


tkelley on DSK3SPTVN1PROD with NOTICES