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[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 118 (Wednesday, June 23, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 32908-32909]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-12845]

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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Peer Review Opportunities With the U.S. Department of Education's 
Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE), Office of 
Postsecondary Education (OPE), and Office of Special Education and 
Rehabilitative Services (OSERS)

AGENCY: Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, Office of 
Postsecondary Education, and Office of Special Education and 
Rehabilitative Services, U.S. Department of Education.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Department of Education (Department) announces 
opportunities for individuals to participate in its peer review process 
by reviewing applications for competitive grant funding under the 
programs administered by OESE, OPE, and OSERS.

DATES: Requests to serve as a peer reviewer for fiscal year 2021 will 
be accepted on an ongoing basis, aligned with this year's grant 
competition schedule. Requests to serve as a peer reviewer should be 
submitted at least four weeks prior to the program's application 
deadline noted on the Department's website under ``Forecast of Funding 
Opportunities'' at www2.ed.gov/fund/grant/find/edlite-forecast.html. 
This notice highlights the specific needs of OESE, OPE, and OSERS.

ADDRESSES: An individual interested in serving as a peer reviewer must 
register and upload his or her resume in the Department's grants 
management system known as ``G5'' at www.g5.gov.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 
    OESE: Richard Wilson, U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland 
Avenue SW, Room 3W101, Washington, DC 20202. Telephone: (202) 453-6709. 
Email: [email protected].
    OPE: Tonya Hardin, U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland 
Avenue SW, Room 2C205, Washington, DC 20202. Telephone: (202) 453-7694. 
Email: [email protected].
    OSERS: Kate Friday, U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland 
Avenue SW, Room 5081B, Potomac Center Plaza, Washington, DC 20202-5076. 
Telephone: (202) 245-7605. Email: [email protected].
    If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) or a text 
telephone (TTY), call the Federal Relay Service (FRS), toll free, at 1-
800-877-8339.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The mission of the Department is to promote 
student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by 
fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access. The 
Department pursues its mission by funding programs that will improve 
access to high-quality educational opportunities and programs that 
pursue innovations in teaching and learning with a focus on underserved 
students. The Department also funds programs in other areas as 
authorized by statute. Grant funds are awarded to State educational 
agencies; local educational agencies (i.e., school districts); State, 
local, or Tribal governments; nonprofit organizations; institutions of 
higher education (IHEs), including IHEs that have experience in the 
operation of American Indian Vocational Rehabilitation Service 
programs; and other entities through a competitive process referred to 
as a grant competition.
    Each year the Department convenes panels of external education 
professionals and practitioners to serve as peer reviewers.\1\ Peer 
reviewers evaluate and score submitted applications against program-
specific criteria and announced priorities. Application scores are then 
used to inform the Secretary's funding decisions.
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    \1\ Please note that the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) 
uses different peer review processes and procedures than those 
described in this notice. More information on the IES peer review 
process can be found at: https://ies.ed.gov/director/sro/application_review.asp. IES also administers its research grant 
competitions on a different timeline from other offices in the 
Department.
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    Executive Order 13985, Advancing Racial Equity and Support for 
Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government, directs Federal 
agencies to ``assess whether underserved communities and their members 
face systemic barriers in accessing benefits and opportunities 
available pursuant to those policies and programs.'' We believe that 
increasing the diversity of peer reviewers is an important element of 
the Department's efforts to implement this Executive order. As a 
result, the Department is particularly interested in peer reviewers who 
represent diverse experiences and perspectives and whose expertise 
pertains to OESE, OPE, and OSERS grant competitions.
    This year, OESE is managing nearly 15 grant competitions to fund a 
range of projects that support education innovation and research; 
educator growth and diversity; magnet, community, and charter schools; 
literacy; arts education; history and civics education; and American 
Indian/Alaska Native education.
    Similarly, OPE is conducting over 20 grant competitions to fund a 
wide range of projects, including projects to support improvements in 
educational quality, management, and financial stability at colleges 
and universities that enroll high numbers of underserved students; 
projects to provide high-quality support services to improve retention 
and graduation rates of students who are low income or first-generation 
college students or individuals with disabilities; projects designed to 
strengthen foreign language instruction, area and international studies 
teaching and research, professional preparation and development for 
educators, and curriculum development at the K-12, graduate, and 
postsecondary levels; and other innovative projects designed to improve 
postsecondary education. OPE grant competitions will take place between 
now and the end of the calendar year.
    OSERS is managing nearly 20 grant competitions that will take place 
between now and September 2021. The competitions in OSERS' Office of 
Special Education Programs (OSEP) include those under the following

[[Page 32909]]

programs: State Personnel Development Grants; Personnel Development; 
Technical Assistance and Dissemination; Educational Technology, Media, 
and Materials; and Parent Training and Information. The remaining 
competitions in OSERS' Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) 
include those under the following programs: Training of Interpreters 
for Individuals Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing and Individuals Who Are 
Deaf-Blind, Training in Specialized Training; Rehabilitation Short-Term 
Training, Client Assistance Program; American Indian Vocational 
Rehabilitation Training and Technical Assistance Center; and Section 
21, Traditionally Underserved Populations.
    The Department seeks to expand its pool of peer reviewers to ensure 
that applications are evaluated by individuals with up-to-date and 
relevant knowledge of educational interventions and practices across 
the learning continuum, from early education to college and career, and 
in a variety of learning settings. Department peer reviewers are 
education and vocational rehabilitation professionals who have gained 
subject matter expertise through their education and work as teachers, 
professors, principals, administrators, school counselors, researchers, 
evaluators, content developers, or vocational rehabilitation 
professionals or interpreters. Peer reviewers can be active education 
professionals, in any educational level or sector, or those who are 
retired but stay informed of current educational content and issues. No 
prior experience as a peer reviewer is required.
    Peer reviewers for each competition will be selected based on 
several factors, including each reviewer's program-specific expertise, 
the number of applications to be reviewed, how peer reviewers can 
support the Department's implementation of Executive Order 13985, and 
the availability of prospective reviewers. Individuals selected to 
serve as peer reviewers are expected to participate in training; 
independently read, score, and provide written evaluative comments on 
assigned applications; and participate in facilitated panel 
discussions. Panel discussions are held via conference calls. The time 
commitment for peer reviewers is usually several hours a day over a 
period of one to four weeks. Peer reviewers receive an honorarium 
payment as monetary compensation for successfully reviewing 
applications.
    If you are interested in serving as a peer reviewer for the 
Department, you should first review the program web pages of the grant 
programs that match your area of expertise. You can access information 
on each grant program from the link provided on the Department's grants 
forecast page at www2.ed.gov/fund/grant/find/edlite-forecast.html. If 
you have documented experience that you believe qualifies you to serve 
as a peer reviewer for one or more specific grant programs, please 
register in G5, at www.g5.gov, which allows the Department to manage 
and assign potential peer reviewers to competitions that may draw upon 
their professional backgrounds and expertise. A toolkit that includes 
helpful information on how to be considered as a peer reviewer for 
programs administered by the Department can be found at www2.ed.gov/documents/peer-review/peer-reviewer-toolkit.pptx. Neither the 
submission of a resume nor registration in G5 guarantees you will be 
selected to be a peer reviewer.
    In addition to registering in G5, some OPE and OSERS/RSA peer 
reviews may require being registered in the System for Award Management 
(SAM). Note that registration in SAM.gov requires an active Data 
Universal Numbering System Number (DUNS). Since registration for some 
of these processes can take longer than a week, interested individuals 
are encouraged to register in advance of being contacted by the 
Department. In addition to registering in G5, some OSERS/OSEP peer 
reviews require being approved to serve on the Office of Special 
Education's Standing Panel. Individuals should express their interest 
to serve as a peer reviewer for OSEP competitions directly to the 
competition manager listed in the Notice Inviting Applications at least 
two weeks prior to the application closing date.
    If you have interest in serving as a reviewer specifically for OESE 
competitions (Chart 2 of the Forecast of Funding Opportunities), you 
must also send your resume to [email protected]. If you 
have interest in serving as a reviewer specifically for RSA 
competitions (Chart 4B) also send your resume to [email protected] 
and [email protected]. The subject line of the email should read 
``Prospective 2021 Peer Reviewer.'' In the body of the email list all 
programs for which you would like to be considered to serve as a peer 
reviewer.
    Requests to serve as a peer reviewer should be submitted at least 
four weeks prior to the program's application deadline, noted on the 
forecast page, to provide program offices with sufficient time to 
review resumes and determine an individual's suitability to serve as a 
peer reviewer for a specific competition. If you are selected to serve 
as a peer reviewer, the program office will contact you.
    Accessible Format: On request to the person(s) listed under FOR 
FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT, individuals with disabilities can obtain 
this document and a copy of the application package in an accessible 
format. The Department will provide the requestor with an accessible 
format that may include Rich Text Format (RTF) or text format (txt), a 
thumb drive, an MP3 file, braille, large print, audiotape, or compact 
disc, or other accessible format.
    Electronic Access to This Document: The official version of this 
document is the document published in the Federal Register. You may 
access the official edition of the Federal Register and the Code of 
Federal Regulations at www.govinfo.gov. 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 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.
    Program Authority: Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, 
as amended (20 U.S.C. 6301 et seq.), Higher Education Act of 1965, as 
amended (20 U.S.C. 1001 et seq.), Individuals with Disabilities 
Education Act (20 U.S.C. 1400 et seq.), and the Rehabilitation Act of 
1973, as amended by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (29 
U.S.C. 701 et seq.).

Donna M. Harris-Aikens,
Senior Advisor for Policy and Planning, delegated the authority to 
perform the functions and duties of the Assistant Secretary for 
Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development.
[FR Doc. 2021-12845 Filed 6-22-21; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P
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