6872 Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 28 / Thursday, February 10, 2000 / Notices

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

[CFDA No.: 84.330]

Office of Elementary and Secondary

Education—Advanced Placement

Incentive Program; Notice Inviting

Applications for New Awards for Fiscal

Year (FY) 2000

Purpose of Program: The Advanced

Placement Incentive Program provides

grants to States, including consortia of

States, to enable them to pay advanced

placement test fees on behalf of eligible

low-income individuals, and to

undertake activities designed to increase

the participation of low-income

students in advanced placement courses

and tests. For FY 2000, we encourage

applicants to design projects that meet

the invitational priority in the

PRIORITIES section of this application

notice.

Eligible Applicants: State educational

agencies (SEAs) in any State, including

the District of Columbia, the

Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the

Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa,

the Northern Mariana Islands, the

Republic of the Marshall Islands, the

Federated States of Micronesia, and the

Republic of Palau.

Deadline for Transmittal of

Applications: March 27, 2000.

Deadline for Intergovernmental

Review: April 26, 2000.

Applications Available: February 10,

2000.

Estimated Available Funds:

$15,000,000.

Estimated Range of Awards: $50,000

to $1,200,000 per year.

Estimated Average Size of Awards:

$375,000 per year.

Estimated Number of Awards: 40.

Note: These estimates are projections for

the guidance of potential applicants. The

Department is not bound by any estimates in

this notice.

Project Period: Up to 36 months.

Allowable Activities

States receiving grants under this

program may use the grant funds to pay

part or all of the cost of advanced

placement test fees for low-income

individuals who (1) are enrolled in an

advanced placement class; and (2) plan

to take an advanced placement test. In

addition, SEAs in States in which no

eligible low-income individual is

required to pay more than a nominal fee

to take advanced placement tests in core

subjects may use grant funds for

activities directly related to increasing

(a) the enrollment of low-income

individuals in advanced placement

courses; (b) the participation of lowincome individuals in advanced

placement tests; and (c) the availability

of advanced placement courses in

schools serving high-poverty areas

(hereinafter referred to as ‘‘section

810(d)(1) activities’’). Examples of

section 810(d)(1) activities may include,

but are not limited to, projects that

provide student access to advanced

placement courses online, and

professional development institutes

designed to prepare teachers to teach

advanced placement courses. An SEA

may apply for funds under this program

both to assist it in meeting the

requirement that no eligible low-income

student in the State be required to pay

more than a nominal fee to take

advanced placement tests in core

subjects and for section 810(d)(1)

activities.

Priorities

(a) Absolute Priority. The Department

is establishing an absolute priority for

proposals to use grant funds to pay

advanced placement test fees on behalf

of eligible low-income individuals. We

have chosen this priority from the

allowable activities specified in the

program statute (see 34 CFR

75.105(b)(2)(v) and section 810(a) of

Title VIII, Part B of the Higher

Education Amendments of 1998 (20

U.S.C. 1070a–11, note)).

To implement this priority, the

Department intends to fund, at some

level, all applications (1) meeting the

minimum REQUIREMENTS FOR

APPROVAL OF APPLICATIONS

described in the application package;

and (2) proposing to use grant funds for

the purpose of paying part or all of the

cost of advanced placement test fees on

behalf of eligible low-income

individuals in the State. For

applications that propose to use grant

funds to pay advanced placement test

fees and to support section 810(d)(1)

activities, the section of the application

proposing to use grant funds for section

810(d)(1) activities will be evaluated

based on the SELECTION CRITERIA

described in the application package

(see 34 CFR 75.105(c)(3)).

(b) Invitational Priority. The

Department is particularly interested in

applications from consortia, or groups,

of States to undertake section 810(d)(1)

activities. The consortium may be

comprised of SEAs from any

combination of States. Under 34 CFR

75.105(c)(1), the Department does not

give an application that meets this

invitational priority a competitive or

absolute preference over applications

that do not meet the invitational

priority.

Allocation of Funds

The Department intends to allocate

approximately $4 million of the funds

available under this program to States

for the purpose of paying advanced

placement test fees on behalf of eligible

low-income individuals. The

Department intends to allocate

approximately $11 million to States to

support section 810(d)(1) activities. In

determining grant award amounts, the

Department will consider, among other

things, the number of children in the

State eligible to be counted under

section 1124(c) of the Elementary and

Secondary Education Act of 1965, in

relation to the number of such children

in all States.

Selection Criteria

The Secretary uses the selection

criteria published in 34 CFR 75.209 and

75.210 to evaluate the section of the

application that proposes to use grant

funds to support section 810(d)(1)

activities. The application package

includes the SELECTION CRITERIA and

the points assigned to each criterion.

Applicable Regulations and Statute

The Education Department General

Administrative Regulations (EDGAR) in

34 CFR Parts 75, 77, 79, 80, 81, 82, 85,

86, and 99. Title VIII, Part B of the

Higher Education Amendments of 1998

(1998 Amendments), 20 U.S.C. 1070a–

11, note.

The following definitions and other

provisions are taken from the Advanced

Placement Incentive Program

authorizing statute, in Title VIII, Part B

of the 1998 Amendments. They are

repeated in this application notice for

the convenience of the applicant.

Definitions

As used in this section:

(a) The term advanced placement test

includes only an advanced placement

test approved by the Secretary of

Education for the purposes of this

program.

Note: To date, the Secretary has approved

advanced placement tests administered by

The College Board and International

Baccalaureate Organisation. As part of the

grant application process, applicants may

request approval of tests from other

educational entities that provide comparable

programs of rigorous academic courses and

testing through which students may earn

college credit.

(b) The term low-income individual

has the meaning given the term in

section 402A(g)(2) of the Higher

Education Act of 1965 (HEA) (20 U.S.C.

1070a-11(g)(2)).

Note: Under section 402A(g)(2) of the HEA,

the term low-income individual means an

Federal Register / Vol. 65, No. 28 / Thursday, February 10, 2000 / Notices 6873

individual from a family whose taxable

income for the preceding year did not exceed

150 percent of an amount equal to the

poverty level determined by using criteria of

poverty established by the Bureau of the

Census (20 U.S.C. 1070a–11(g)(2)).

Information Dissemination

The SEA shall disseminate

information regarding the availability of

test fee payments under this program to

eligible individuals through secondary

school teachers and guidance

counselors (20 U.S.C. 1070a–11, note

(b)).

Supplement, Not Supplant, Rule

Funds provided under this program

must be used to supplement and not

supplant other non-Federal funds that

are available to assist low-income

individuals in paying advanced

placement test fees (20 U.S.C. 1070a–11,

note (d)(2)).

For Applications or Information

Contact: Frank B. Robinson, U.S.

Department of Education, School

Improvement Programs, 400 Maryland

Avenue, SW., Room 3C153,

Washington, DC 20202–6140.

Telephone (202) 260–2669. Internet

address: frank—robinson@ed.gov

Individuals who use a

telecommunications device for the deaf

(TDD) may call the Federal Information

Relay Service (FIRS) at 1–800–877–8339

between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., Eastern time,

Monday through Friday.

Individuals with disabilities may

obtain this document in an alternate

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

audiotape, or computer diskette) upon

request to the contact person listed in

the preceding paragraph. Individuals

with disabilities may obtain a copy of

the application package in an alternate

format, also, by contacting that person.

However, the Department is not able to

reproduce in an alternate format the

standard forms included in the

application package.

Electronic Access to This Document

You may view this document, as well

as all other Department of Education

documents published in the Federal

Register, in text or Adobe Portable

Document Format (PDF) on the Internet

at either of the following sites:

http://ocfo.ed.gov/fedreg.htm

http://www.ed.gov/news.html

To use the PDF, you must have the

Adobe Acrobat Reader Program with

Search, which is available free at either

of the previous sites. If you have

questions about using the PDF, call the

U.S. Government Printing Office toll

free at 1–888–293–6498; or in the

Washington, DC area at (202) 512–1530.

Note: The official version of a document is

the document published in the Federal

Register. Free Internet access to the official

edition of the Federal Register and the Code

of Federal Regulations is available on GPO

Access at: http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/

index.html

Program Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1070a–11,

note.

Dated: February 7, 2000.

Michael Cohen,

Assistant Secretary for Elementary and

Secondary Education.

[FR Doc. 00–3090 Filed 2–9–00; 8:45 am]

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