Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 100 / Wednesday, May 27, 2009 / Notices 25221 

information. The Commission 

specifically solicits information relevant 

to the following topics: 

—Whether the collection of 

information described above is 

necessary for the proper performance of 

the Commission’s functions, including 

whether the information would have 

practical utility; 

—Whether the estimated burden of 

the proposed collection of information 

is accurate; 

—Whether the quality, utility, and 

clarity of the information to be collected 

could be enhanced; and 

—Whether the burden imposed by the 

collection of information could be 

minimized by use of automated, 

electronic or other technological 

collection techniques, or other forms of 

information technology. 

Dated: May 20, 2009. 

Todd A. Stevenson, 

Secretary, Consumer Product Safety 

Commission. 

[FR Doc. E9–12148 Filed 5–26–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6355–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 

Office of Innovation and Improvement; 

Overview Information; Teacher Quality 

Partnership Grants Program; Notice 

Inviting Applications for New Awards 

for Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 

Catalog of Federal Domestic 

Assistance (CFDA) Number: 84.405A. 

Dates: 

Applications Available: May 27, 2009. 

Deadline for Notice of Intent to Apply: 

June 26, 2009. 

Dates of Pre-Application Meeting: 

There will be two pre-application 

meetings for prospective applicants on 

June 8, 2009 from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 

p.m. and on June 8, 2009 from 2:00 p.m. 

to 4:00 p.m. 

Deadline for Transmittal of 

Applications: July 23, 2009. 

Deadline for Intergovernmental 

Review: September 21, 2009. 

Full Text of Announcement 

I. Funding Opportunity Description 

Purpose of Program: The purposes of 

the Teacher Quality Partnership (TQP) 

Grants Program are to: Improve student 

achievement; improve the quality of 

new and prospective teachers by 

improving the preparation of 

prospective teachers and enhancing 

professional development activities for 

new teachers; hold teacher preparation 

programs at institutions of higher 

education (IHEs) accountable for 

preparing highly qualified teachers; and 

recruit highly qualified individuals, 

including minorities and individuals 

from other occupations, into the 

teaching force. 

More specifically, the TQP Grants 

Program seeks to improve the quality of 

new teachers by creating partnerships 

among IHEs, high-need school districts 

(local educational agencies (LEAs)) their 

high-need schools, and/or high-need 

early childhood education (ECE) 

program. These partnerships would 

create model teacher preparation 

programs at the pre-baccalaureate level 

through the implementation of specific 

reforms of the IHE’s existing teacher 

preparation programs, and/or model 

teaching residency programs for 

individuals with strong academic and/ 

or professional backgrounds but without 

teaching experience. The TQP Grants 

Program may also support school 

leadership programs to train 

superintendents, principals, ECE 

program directors, and other school 

leaders in high-need or rural LEAs. 

General Application Requirements: 

All applicants must meet the following 

general application requirements in 

order to be considered for funding. 

Except as specifically noted in this 

section, the general application 

requirements are from section 202 of the 

Higher Education Act of 1965, as 

amended in 2008 by the Higher 

Education Opportunity Act (HEA) (20 

U.S.C. 1022(a)). 

Each eligible partnership desiring a 

grant under this program must submit 

an application that contains— 

(a) A needs assessment of the partners 

in the partnership, for the preparation, 

ongoing training, professional 

development, and retention of general 

education and special education 

teachers, principals, and, as applicable, 

early childhood educators; 

(b) A description of how the 

partnership will— 

(1) Prepare prospective and new 

general education and special education 

teachers to understand and use research 

and data to modify and improve 

classroom instruction and prepare 

prospective and new teachers with 

strong teaching skills; 

(2) Support in-service professional 

development strategies and activities; 

(3) Engage faculty at the partner 

institution to work with highly qualified 

teachers in the classrooms of high-need 

schools served by the high-need LEA in 

the partnership in order to— 

(i) Provide high-quality professional 

development to strengthen the content 

knowledge and teaching skills of 

elementary school and secondary school 

teachers; and 

(ii) Train other classroom teachers to 

implement literacy programs that 

incorporate the essential components of 

reading instruction; 

(4) Design, implement, or enhance a 

year-long and rigorous teaching 

preservice clinical program component; 

(5) Prepare general education teachers 

to teach students with disabilities, 

including training related to 

participation as a member of 

individualized education program 

teams, as defined in section 614(d)(1)(B) 

of the Individuals with Disabilities 

Education Act (IDEA); 

(6) Prepare general education and 

special education teachers to teach 

limited English proficient students; and 

(7) Collect, analyze, and use data on 

the retention of all teachers and early 

childhood educators in high-need 

schools and high-need ECE programs 

located in the geographic area served by 

the partnership to evaluate the 

effectiveness of the partnership’s 

teacher and educator support system; 

(c) A description of the induction 

program activities that demonstrates— 

(1) That the schools and departments 

within the IHE that are part of the 

induction program will effectively 

prepare teachers, including providing 

content expertise and expertise in 

teaching, as appropriate; 

(2) The eligible partnership’s 

capability and commitment to, and the 

accessibility to and involvement of 

faculty in, the use of empirically-based 

practice and scientifically valid research 

on teaching and learning; 

(3) How faculty involved in the 

induction program will be able to 

substantially participate in a high-need 

ECE program or a high-need elementary 

school or high-need secondary school 

classroom setting, as applicable, 

including release time and receiving 

workload credit for such participation; 

and 

(4) How the teacher preparation 

program will support, through not less 

than the first two years of teaching, all 

new teachers who are prepared by the 

teacher preparation program in the 

partnership and who teach in the highneed LEA in the partnership, and, to the 

extent practicable, all new teachers who 

teach in such high-need LEA, in the 

further development of the new 

teachers’ teaching skills, including the 

use of mentors who are trained and 

compensated by the program for the 

mentors’ work with new teachers; 

(d) A description of how the 

partnership will— 

(1) Coordinate strategies and activities 

with other teacher preparation or 

professional development programs, 

including programs funded under the 


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Elementary and Secondary Education 

Act of 1965, as amended (ESEA), and 

the IDEA, and through the National 

Science Foundation; and how those 

activities will be consistent with State, 

local, and other education reform 

activities that promote teacher quality 

and student academic achievement; and 

(2) Align the teacher preparation 

program with the— 

(i) State early learning standards for 

ECE programs, as appropriate, and with 

the relevant domains of early childhood 

development; and 

(ii) Student academic achievement 

standards and academic content 

standards under section 1111(b)(2) of 

the ESEA, established by the State in 

which the partnership is located; 

(e) An assessment that describes the 

resources available to the partnership, 

including— 

(1) The integration of funds from 

other related sources; 

(2) The intended use of the grant 

funds; and 

(3) The commitment of the resources 

of the partnership to the activities 

assisted under this program, including 

financial support, faculty participation, 

and time commitments, and to the 

continuation of the activities when the 

grant ends; 

(f) A description of the partnership’s 

evaluation plan that includes strong and 

measurable performance objectives, 

including objectives and measures for 

increasing— 

(1) Achievement for all prospective 

and new teachers and their students, as 

measured by the eligible partnership. 

The HEA permits the Secretary to 

establish additional requirements for 

applications under this program. In that 

regard, in addition to the statutory 

requirement that each application 

describe in its evaluation plan the 

objectives and measures for increasing 

the achievement for prospective and 

new teachers, we also require the 

application to describe objectives and 

measures for increasing the achievement 

of students taught by teachers who have 

participated in the projects. As one of 

the key statutory purposes of the TQP 

Grants Program is to improve student 

achievement (section 201(1) of the HEA) 

we believe that any evaluation of the 

performance of the projects funded 

under this program should include an 

assessment of the impact of the project 

on student achievement and that 

applicants should describe the 

objectives and measures for doing so in 

their evaluation plan; 

(2) Teacher retention in the first three 

years of a teacher’s career; 

(3) Improvement in the pass rates and 

scaled scores for initial State 

certification or licensure of teachers; 

(4) The percentage of highly qualified 

teachers hired by the high-need LEA 

participating in the eligible partnership, 

including the percentage of those 

teachers— 

(i) Who are members of 

underrepresented groups; 

(ii) Who teach high-need academic 

subject areas (such as reading, 

mathematics, science, and foreign 

language, including less commonly 

taught languages and critical foreign 

languages); 

(iii) Who teach in high-need areas 

(including special education, language 

instruction educational programs for 

limited English proficient students, and 

ECE); and 

(iv) Who teach in high-need schools, 

disaggregated by the elementary school 

and secondary school levels; 

(5) As applicable, the percentage of 

ECE program classes in the geographic 

area served by the eligible partnership 

taught by early childhood educators 

who are highly competent; and 

(6) As applicable, the percentage of 

teachers trained— 

(i) To integrate technology effectively 

into curricula and instruction, including 

technology consistent with the 

principles of universal design for 

learning; and 

(ii) To use technology effectively to 

collect, manage, and analyze data to 

improve teaching and learning for the 

purpose of improving student academic 

achievement; and 

(g) A description of— 

(1) How the partnership will meet the 

purposes of the TQP Grants Program as 

specified in section 201 of the HEA; 

(2) How the partnership will carry out 

the activities required under section 

202(d) of the HEA (Partnership Grants 

for Pre-Baccalaureate Preparation of 

Teachers) and/or section 202(e) of the 

HEA (Partnership Grants for the 

Establishment of Teaching Residency 

Programs); and 

(3) If the partnership chooses to use 

funds under the TQP Grants Program for 

a project or activities under section 

202(f) of the HEA (Partnership Grants 

for the Development of Leadership 

Programs) or section 202(g) of the HEA 

(Partnership with Digital Education 

Content Developer), how the 

partnership will carry out the project or 

required activities based on the needs 

identified in the needs assessment 

described in paragraph (a), with the goal 

of improving student academic 

achievement. 

Program Evaluation Requirements: 

All applicants must cooperate with the 

national evaluation contractor selected 

by ED to evaluate the TQP Grants 

Program. This will include responding 

to modest data requests by the 

evaluation contractor (for example, 

requested program information and 

program participant information such as 

GRE or SAT scores and contact 

information). 

Priorities: This notice contains two 

absolute priorities, four competitive 

preference priorities, and one 

invitational priority that are explained 

in the following paragraphs. 

Absolute Priorities: In accordance 

with 34 CFR 75.105(b)(2)(iv), Absolute 

Priority 1 is from section 202(d) of the 

HEA and Absolute Priority 2 is from 

section 202(e) of the HEA. For FY 2009 

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 both of 

these absolute priorities. These 

priorities are: 

Absolute Priority 1: Partnership 

Grants for Pre-Baccalaureate 

Preparation of Teachers. Under this 

priority, an eligible partnership must 

carry out an effective program for the 

pre-baccalaureate preparation of 

teachers that includes all of the 

following: 

(a) Program Accountability. 

Implementation of reforms, described in 

paragraph (b) of this priority, within 

each of the partnership’s teacher 

preparation programs and, as 

applicable, each of the partnership’s 

preparation program for ECE programs, 

to hold each program accountable for— 

(1) Preparing— 

(i) New or prospective teachers to be 

highly qualified (including teachers in 

rural school LEAs who may teach 

multiple subjects, special educators, and 

teachers of students who are limited 

English proficient who may teach 

multiple subjects); 

(ii) Such teachers and, as applicable, 

early childhood educators, to 

understand empirically-based practice 

and scientifically valid research related 

to teaching and learning and the 

applicability of such practice and 

research, including through the effective 

use of technology, instructional 

techniques, and strategies consistent 

with the principles of universal design 

for learning, and through positive 

behavioral interventions and support 

strategies to improve student 

achievement; and 

(iii) As applicable, early childhood 

educators to be highly competent; and 

(2) Promoting strong teaching skills 

and, as applicable, techniques for early 


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childhood educators to improve 

children’s cognitive, social, emotional, 

and physical development. 

(b) Specific reforms. The reform of the 

quality of each teacher preparation 

program, or each ECE program, by— 

(1) Implementing teacher preparation 

program curriculum changes that 

improve, evaluate, and assess how well 

all prospective and new teachers 

develop teaching skills; 

(2) Ensuring collaboration with 

departments, programs, or units of a 

partner institution outside of the teacher 

preparation program in all academic 

content areas to ensure that prospective 

teachers receive training in both 

teaching and relevant content areas in 

order to become highly qualified (which 

may include training in multiple 

subjects to teach multiple grade levels 

as may be needed for individuals 

preparing to teach in rural communities 

and for individuals preparing to teach 

students with disabilities as described 

in section 602(10)(D) of the IDEA); 

(3) Developing admission goals and 

priorities aligned with the hiring 

objectives of the high-need LEA in the 

eligible partnership; 

(4) Implementing program and 

curriculum changes, as applicable, to 

ensure that prospective teachers have 

requisite content knowledge, 

preparation, and degree to teach 

Advanced Placement or International 

Baccalaureate courses successfully; 

(5) Developing and implementing an 

induction program for new teachers, or 

in the case of an ECE program, 

providing mentoring or coaching for 

new early childhood educators as 

described in paragraph (f) of this 

priority; and 

(6) Using empirically based practice 

and scientifically valid research, where 

applicable, about teaching and learning 

so that all prospective students, and as 

applicable, early childhood educators— 

(i) Understand and can implement 

research based teaching practices in 

classroom instruction; 

(ii) Can successfully employ effective 

strategies for reading instruction using 

the essential components of reading 

instruction; 

(iii) Possess skills to analyze student 

academic achievement data and other 

measures of student learning, and use 

such data and measures to improve 

classroom instruction; 

(iv) Can effectively participate as a 

member of the individualized education 

program team, as defined in section 

614(d)(1)(B) of the IDEA; 

(v) Have knowledge of student 

learning methods; and 

(vi) Possess teaching skills and an 

understanding of effective instructional 

strategies across all applicable content 

areas that enable general education and 

special education teachers and early 

childhood educators in order to— 

(A) Meet the specific learning needs 

of all students, including students with 

disabilities, students who are limited 

English proficient, students who are 

gifted and talented, students with low 

literacy levels, children in ECE 

programs; and 

(B) Differentiate instruction for these 

students. 

(c) Literacy training. Strengthening 

the literacy teaching skills of 

prospective and, as applicable, new 

elementary and secondary school 

teachers to— 

(1) Implement literacy programs that 

incorporate the essential components of 

reading instruction; 

(2) Use screening, diagnostic, 

formative and summative assessments 

to determine students’ literacy levels, 

difficulties, and growth in order to 

improve classroom instruction and 

improve student reading and writing 

skills; 

(3) Provide individualized, intensive, 

and targeted literacy instruction for 

students with deficiencies in literacy 

skills; and 

(4) Integrate literacy skills in the 

classroom across subject areas. 

(d) Clinical experience. Development 

and implementation (or improvement) 

of a sustained and high-quality 

preservice clinical education program, 

offered over the course of a program of 

teacher preparation, to further develop 

the teaching skills of all prospective 

teachers, and as applicable, early 

childhood educators involved in the 

project. This preservice clinical 

education program must— 

(1) Incorporate year-long 

opportunities for enrichment, 

including— 

(i) Clinical learning in classrooms in 

high-need schools served by the highneed LEA in the eligible partnership, 

and identified by the eligible 

partnership; and 

(ii) Closely supervised interaction 

between prospective teachers and 

faculty, experienced teachers, 

principals, other administrators, and 

school leaders at ECE programs (as 

applicable), elementary schools, or 

secondary schools, and providing 

support for such interaction; 

(2) Integrate pedagogy and classroom 

practices and effective teaching skills in 

academic content areas; 

(3) Provide high-quality teacher 

mentoring; 

(4) Be tightly aligned with course 

work (and may be developed as a fifth 

year of a teacher preparation program); 

(5) Where feasible, allow prospective 

teachers to learn to teach in the same 

LEA in which the teachers will work, 

learning the instructional initiatives and 

curriculum of that LEA; and 

(6) As applicable, provide training 

and experience to enhance the teaching 

skills of prospective teachers to better 

prepare such teachers to meet the 

unique needs of teaching in rural or 

urban communities. 

(e) Support for program participation. 

The provision of support and training 

for individuals participating in an 

activity for prospective or new teachers, 

whether in the teacher preparation 

program (or program for early childhood 

educators), the clinical experience, or in 

the LEA’s induction program for new 

teachers, and for individuals who serve 

as mentors for these teachers, based on 

each individual’s experience. This 

support and training may include— 

(1) With respect to a prospective 

teacher or a mentor, release time for 

such individual’s participation; 

(2) With respect to a mentor, a 

stipend, which may include bonus, 

differential, incentive, or performance 

pay, based on the mentor’s extra skills 

and responsibilities; and 

(3) With respect to a faculty member, 

the receipt of course workload credit 

and compensation for time teaching in 

the eligible partnership’s activities. 

(f) Participants in an ECE program. 

Where a project focuses on preparation 

of early childhood educators, 

implementation of initiatives that 

increase compensation for early 

childhood educators who attain 

associate or baccalaureate degrees in 

ECE. 

(g) Teacher recruitment. Development 

and implementation of effective 

mechanisms (which may include 

alternative routes to State certification 

of teachers) to ensure that the eligible 

partnership is able to recruit qualified 

individuals to become highly qualified 

teachers through the activities of the 

eligible partnership. These mechanisms 

may include an emphasis on recruiting 

into the teaching profession— 

(1) Individuals from under 

represented populations; 

(2) Individuals to teach in rural 

communities and teacher shortage areas, 

including mathematics, science, special 

education, and the instruction of limited 

English proficient students; and 

(3) Mid-career professionals from 

other occupations, former military 

personnel, and recent college graduates 

with a record of academic distinction. 

Absolute Priority 2: Partnership 

Grants for the Establishment of Effective 

Teaching Residency Programs. Under 

this priority, an eligible partnership 


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must carry out a teaching residency 

program for high-need subjects and 

areas, as determined by the needs of the 

high-need LEA in the partnership. The 

program must ensure that teaching 

residents who participate in the 

teaching residency program receive the 

preparation and support described in 

the following required program 

components: 

(a) Establishment and design. The 

teaching residency program must be 

based upon models of successful 

teaching residencies that serve as a 

mechanism to prepare teachers for 

success in the high-need schools in the 

eligible partnership, and be designed to 

include the following characteristics of 

successful programs: 

(1) Integration of pedagogy, classroom 

practice, and teacher mentoring. 

(2) Engagement of teaching residents 

in rigorous graduate-level course work 

to earn a master’s degree while 

undertaking a guided teaching 

apprenticeship. 

(3) Grouping of teaching residents in 

cohorts to facilitate professional 

collaboration among such residents. 

(4) The development of admissions 

goals and priorities— 

(i) That are aligned with the hiring 

objectives of the high-need LEA 

partnering with the program, as well as 

the instructional initiatives and 

curriculum of the high-need LEA, in 

exchange for a commitment by the highneed LEA to hire qualified graduates 

from the teaching residency program; 

and 

(ii) Which may include consideration 

of applicants who reflect the 

communities in which they will teach 

as well as consideration of individuals 

from underrepresented populations in 

the teaching profession. 

(5) Experience and learning 

opportunities alongside a trained and 

experienced mentor teacher— 

(i) Whose teaching complements the 

residency program so that classroom 

clinical practice is tightly aligned with 

coursework; 

(ii) Who has been given extra 

responsibilities— 

(A) As a teacher leader of the teaching 

residency program; 

(B) As a mentor for residents; 

(C) As a teacher coach during the 

induction program for new teachers; 

and 

(D) For establishing, within the 

program, a learning community in 

which all individuals are expected to 

continually improve their capacity to 

advance student learning; and 

(iii) Who may be relieved, if 

appropriate, from teaching duties as a 

result of these additional 

responsibilities. 

(6) The establishment of clear criteria 

for the selection of mentor teachers 

based on measures of teacher 

effectiveness and the appropriate 

subject area knowledge. For purposes of 

this section, evaluation of teacher 

effectiveness must be based on, but not 

limited to, observations of the following: 

(i) Planning and preparation, 

including demonstrated knowledge of 

content, pedagogy, and assessment, 

including the use of formative and 

diagnostic assessments to improve 

student learning. 

(ii) Appropriate instruction that 

engages students with different learning 

styles. 

(iii) Collaboration with colleagues to 

improve instruction. 

(iv) Analysis of gains in student 

learning, based on multiple measures 

that are valid and reliable and that, 

when feasible, may include valid, 

reliable, and objective measures of the 

influence of teachers on the rate of 

student academic progress. 

(v) In the case of mentor candidates 

who will be mentoring new or 

prospective literacy and mathematics 

coaches or instructors, appropriate skills 

in the essential components of reading 

instruction, teacher training in literacy 

instructional strategies across core 

subject areas, and teacher training in 

mathematics instructional strategies, as 

appropriate. 

(7) Support for teaching residents, 

once they are hired as teachers of 

record, through an induction program, 

professional development, and 

networking opportunities to support the 

residents through not less then the 

residents’ first two years of teaching. 

(b) Additional support for residents 

after completing the program. In 

addition to the services described in 

paragraph (a)(7) of this priority, a 

partnership must place graduates of the 

teaching residency program in cohorts 

that facilitate professional collaboration, 

both among graduates of the teaching 

residency program and between such 

graduates and mentor teachers in the 

receiving school. 

(c) Selection of individuals as teacher 

residents. 

(1) In order to be eligible to be a 

teacher resident in a teaching residency 

program, an individual must be a recent 

graduate of a four-year IHE or a midcareer professional from outside the 

field of education possessing strong 

content knowledge or a record of 

professional accomplishment, and 

submit an application to the teaching 

residency program. 

(2) An eligible partnership must 

establish criteria for the selection of 

eligible individuals to participate in the 

teaching residency program based on 

the following characteristics— 

(i) Strong content knowledge or 

record of accomplishment in the field or 

subject area to be taught; 

(ii) Strong verbal and written 

communication skills, which may be 

demonstrated by performance on 

appropriate tests; and 

(iii) Other attributes linked to 

effective teaching, which may be 

determined by interviews or 

performance assessments, as specified 

by the eligible partnership. 

(d) Provision of stipends or salaries. 

(1) A teaching residency program 

must provide a one-year living stipend 

or salary during the one-year teaching 

residency program to any teacher 

resident candidate accepted into the 

program who requests the stipend or 

salary and submits the application 

described in paragraph (d)(2) of this 

priority. 

(2) Each teaching residency candidate 

desiring a living stipend or salary 

during the one-year period of the 

residency must submit an application to 

the eligible partnership at such time, 

and containing such information and 

assurances, as the eligible partnership 

may require. 

(3) Each application submitted under 

paragraph (d)(2) of this priority, must 

contain or be accompanied by an 

agreement that the applicant will— 

(i) Serve as a full-time teacher for a 

total of not less than three academic 

years immediately after successfully 

completing the one-year teaching 

residency program; 

(ii) Fulfill the requirement under 

paragraph (d)(3)(i) of this priority by 

teaching in a high-need school served 

by the high-need LEA in the eligible 

partnership and teach a subject or area 

that is designated as high need by the 

partnership; 

(iii) Provide to the eligible partnership 

a certificate, from the chief 

administrative officer of the high-need 

LEA in which the teacher resident is 

employed, documenting the 

employment required under paragraph 

(d)(3)(i) and (ii) of this priority at the 

beginning of, and upon completion of, 

each year or partial year of service; 

(iv) Meet the requirements to be a 

highly qualified teacher, as defined in 

section 9101 of the ESEA, or section 602 

of the IDEA, when the applicant begins 

to fulfill the service obligation under the 

program; and 

(v) Comply with the requirements 

established by the eligible partnership 

under paragraph (e) of this priority if the 


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applicant is unable or unwilling to 

complete the service obligation required 

by the paragraph. 

(e) Repayments. 

(1) Each grantee carrying out a 

teaching residency program must 

require a recipient of a stipend or salary 

under paragraph (d)(1) of this priority 

who does not complete, or who notifies 

the partnership that he or she intends 

not to complete, the service obligation 

required by paragraph (d)(3) of this 

priority to repay the stipend or salary to 

the eligible partnership— 

(i) Together with interest at a rate 

specified by the partnership in the 

agreement; and 

(ii) In accordance with such other 

terms and conditions specified by the 

eligible partnership, as necessary. 

(2) Other terms and conditions 

specified by the eligible partnership 

may include, among other things, 

reasonable provisions for pro-rata 

repayment of the stipend or salary 

described in paragraph (e)(1) of this 

priority, or for deferral of a teaching 

resident’s service obligation required by 

paragraph (d)(3) of this priority, on 

grounds of health, incapacitation, 

inability to secure employment in a 

school served by the eligible 

partnership, being called to active duty 

in the Armed Forces of the United 

States, or other extraordinary 

circumstances. 

(3) An eligible partnership must use 

any repayment received under 

paragraph (e) to carry out additional 

activities that are consistent with the 

purposes of the Teaching Residency 

program. 

Competitive Preference Priorities: 

Within these absolute priorities, we give 

competitive preference to applications 

that address one or more of the 

following priorities. For FY 2009 and 

any subsequent year in which we make 

awards from the list of unfunded 

applicants from this competition, these 

priorities are competitive preference 

priorities. 

Competitive Preference Priority 1: We 

are establishing Competitive Preference 

Priority 1 in accordance with section 

437(d)(1) of the General Education 

Provisions Act (GEPA), 20 U.S.C. 

1232(d)(1). Under 34 CFR 75.105(c)(2)(i) 

we award up to an additional 10 points 

to an application that meets Competitive 

Preference Priority 1, depending on how 

well the application meets the priority. 

We will add any competitive preference 

priority points only to highly rated 

applications on one or both of the 

absolute priorities. 

This priority is: 

Competitive Preference Priority 1: 

Student Achievement and Continuous 

Program Improvement. The Secretary 

gives priority to applications from an 

eligible partnership that would use 

appropriate means to— 

(1) Collect and use data on student 

achievement to assess the effect of 

teachers prepared through the prebaccalaureate teacher preparation and/ 

or teaching residency program on 

student learning in the classrooms of the 

high-need schools in which they work; 

to be eligible to receive the maximum 

number of points, applicants must 

demonstrate their capacity to include 

longitudinal data capturing student 

achievement by teacher from year to 

year, and 

(2) Provide for continuous 

improvement of the participating 

teachers, and of the pre-baccalaureate 

teacher preparation program and/or 

teaching residency program based on 

these data. 

Our purpose in establishing this 

priority is to support the collection and 

use of data showing the effect of 

teachers on student learning and 

achievement. The relevant data would 

include both teachers in the program 

and teachers not in the program. As 

noted earlier, a key statutory purpose of 

this program is to improve student 

achievement. Having these data will 

enable grantees both to assess the 

effectiveness of their projects and to use 

the data to improve the project’s impact 

on student achievement. 

Competitive Preference Priority 2: 

Competitive Preference Priority 2 is 

from section 202(f) of the HEA. As used 

in this priority, the definition of ‘‘LEA 

located in a rural area’’ is established in 

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

General Education Provisions Act 

(GEPA), 20 U.S.C. 1232(d)(1). Under 34 

CFR 75.105(c)(2)(i) we award up to an 

additional 5 points to an application 

that meets Competitive Preference 

Priority 2, depending on how well the 

application meets the priority. We will 

add any competitive preference priority 

points only to highly rated applications 

on one or both of the absolute priorities. 

This priority is: 

Competitive Preference Priority 2: 

Partnership Grants for the Development 

of Leadership Programs. Under this 

competitive preference priority the 

Secretary gives priority to applications 

from eligible partnerships that propose 

to carry out an effective school 

leadership program that will prepare 

individuals enrolled or preparing to 

enroll in those programs for careers as 

superintendents, principals, ECE 

program directors, or other school 

leaders (including individuals preparing 

to work in LEAs located in rural areas 

who may perform multiple duties in 

addition to the role of a school leader). 

An eligible partnership may carry out 

the school leadership program either in 

the partner high-need LEA or in further 

partnership with an LEA located in a 

rural area. 

The school leadership program 

carried out under this priority must 

include the following activities: 

(a) Preparation of school leaders. In 

preparing school leaders, the school 

leadership program must include the 

following activities: 

(1) Promoting strong leadership skills 

and, as applicable, techniques for school 

leaders to effectively— 

(i) Create and maintain a data-driven, 

professional learning community within 

the leader’s schools; 

(ii) Provide a climate conducive to the 

professional development of teachers, 

with a focus on improving student 

achievement and the development of 

effective instructional leadership skills; 

(iii) Understand the teaching and 

assessment skills needed to support 

successful classroom instruction and to 

use data to evaluate teacher instruction 

and drive teacher and student learning; 

(iv) Manage resources and school time 

to improve student academic 

achievement and ensure a safe school 

environment; 

(v) Engage and involve parents, 

community members, the LEA, 

businesses, and other community 

leaders, to leverage additional resources 

to improve student academic 

achievement; and 

(vi) Understand how students learn 

and develop in order to increase 

academic achievement for all students. 

(2) Developing and improving a 

sustained and high-quality preservice 

clinical education program to further 

develop the leadership skills of all 

prospective school leaders involved in 

the program. This clinical education 

program must do the following: 

(i) Incorporate year-long opportunities 

for enrichment, including— 

(A) Clinical learning in high-need 

schools served by the high-need LEA or 

an LEA located in a rural area in the 

eligible partnership and identified by 

the eligible partnership; and 

(B) Closely supervised interaction 

between prospective school leaders and 

faculty, new and experienced teachers, 

and new and experienced school 

leaders, in those high-need schools. 

(ii) Integrate pedagogy and practice 

and promote effective leadership skills, 

meeting the unique needs of urban, 

rural, or geographically isolated 

communities, as applicable. 

(iii) Provide for mentoring of new 

school leaders. 

(3) Creating an induction program for 

new school leaders. 


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(4) Ensuring that individuals who 

participate in the school leadership 

program receive— 

(i) Effective preservice preparation as 

described in paragraph (a)(2) of this 

priority; 

(ii) Mentoring; and 

(iii) If applicable, full State 

certification or licensure to become a 

school leader. 

(5) Developing and implementing 

effective mechanisms to ensure that the 

eligible partnership is able to recruit 

qualified individuals to become school 

leaders through activities that may 

include an emphasis on recruiting into 

school leadership professions— 

(i) Individuals from underrepresented 

populations; 

(ii) Individuals to serve as 

superintendents, principals, or other 

school administrators in rural and 

geographically isolated communities 

and school leader shortage areas; and 

(iii) Mid-career professionals from 

other occupations, former military 

personnel, and recent college graduates 

with a record of academic distinction. 

(b) Selection of Participants. In order 

to be eligible for the school leadership 

program, an individual must— 

(i) Be enrolled in or preparing to 

enroll in an IHE; 

(ii) Be a— 

(A) Recent graduate of an IHE; 

(B) Mid-career professional from 

outside the field of education with 

strong content knowledge or a record of 

professional accomplishment; 

(C) Current teacher who is interested 

in becoming a school leader; or 

(D) School leader who is interested in 

becoming a superintendent; and 

(iii) Submit an application to the 

school leadership program containing 

such information as the eligible 

partnership may require. 

Section 202(g) of the HEA, like this 

priority, permits an eligible partnership 

to implement a school leadership 

program in an LEA that is not a highneed LEA provided the LEA is located 

in a rural area. However, the statute 

does not define the phrase ‘‘LEA located 

in a rural area,’’ for the purpose of this 

priority. The National Center for 

Educational Statistics (NCES), which 

has established locale codes based on 

geographic location, and assigned codes 

to all LEAs, considers an LEA with an 

assigned locale code of 31, 32, 33, 41, 

42, or 43 as located in a rural area. 

(Codes 41–43 correspond with former 

locale codes 7 and 8 used to determine 

eligibility for the Small Rural School 

Achievement program; while codes 31– 

33 correspond to former locale code 6 

used to help determine eligibility for the 

Rural Low Income Schools program.) In 

order to extend the potential benefits of 

the TQP School Leadership program to 

as many rural LEAs as possible, we have 

determined that any LEA assigned any 

of these six locale codes may qualify 

under this TQP program as an ‘‘LEA 

located in a rural area.’’ 

Prospective applicants may determine 

whether a particular LEA has one of 

these six locale codes by referring to the 

following Web site: http:// 

www.nces@ed.gov and using the 

following procedures: 

a. From the options listed across the 

top of this Web page, select ‘‘School, & 

College Library Search.’’ 

b. From the menu that appears, select 

‘‘Search for School Districts.’’ 

c. On the ‘‘Search for Public School 

Districts’’ page, type in the LEA or 

school district name (do not include 

phrases like ‘‘School District’’ or 

‘‘Public Schools’’ that follow the name, 

and the State in which it is located. 

Then select ‘‘Search.’’ 

d. From the list of LEAs shown, select 

the appropriate LEA. On the ‘‘District 

Information’’ page, the NCES locale 

code for the district is shown under the 

subheading ‘‘District Details’’, next to 

‘‘Locale.’’ 

Competitive Preference Priorities 3 

and 4: Competitive Preference Priorities 

3 and 4 are from section 203(b)(2) of the 

HEA. Under 34 CFR 75.105(c)(2)(ii) we 

give preference to an application that 

meets one or both of these priorities 

over an application of comparable merit 

that does not meet the priorities. 

These priorities are: 

Competitive Preference Priority 3: 

Rigorous Selection Process. Eligible 

partnerships that include an IHE whose 

teacher preparation program has a 

rigorous process for selecting students 

entering the program to ensure the 

highest quality of students entering the 

program. 

Competitive Preference Priority 4: 

Broad-based Partners. Applications 

from broad-based eligible partnerships 

with significant involvement of 

businesses or community organizations. 

Invitational Priority: Within Absolute 

Priorities 1 and 2, we are particularly 

interested in applications that address 

the following invitational priority. For 

FY 2009 and any subsequent year in 

which we make awards from the list of 

unfunded applicants from this 

competition, 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: 

Partnership with Digital Education 

Content Developer. Consistent with 

section 202(g) of the HEA, we are 

interested in receiving applications that 

propose to use grant funds to carry out 

one or both of the absolute priorities, 

through partnerships with a television 

public broadcast station, as defined in 

section 397(6) of the Communications 

Act of 1934, as amended (47 U.S.C. 

397(6)), or another entity that develops 

digital educational content, for the 

purpose of improving the quality of prebaccalaureate teacher preparation 

programs or to enhance the quality of 

preservice training for prospective 

teachers. 

Waiver of Proposed Rulemaking: 

Under the Administrative Procedure Act 

(APA) (5 U.S.C. 553) the Department 

generally offers interested parties the 

opportunity to comment on proposed 

priorities, selection criteria, definitions, 

and other requirements. Section 

437(d)(1) of GEPA, however, allows the 

Secretary to exempt from rulemaking 

requirements, regulations governing the 

first grant competition under a new or 

substantially revised program authority. 

This is the first grant competition for the 

TQP Grants Program authorized by 

section 202 of the HEA, and it therefore 

qualifies for this exemption. In order to 

ensure timely grant awards, the 

Secretary has decided to forego public 

comment on (a) the requirement that 

grantees include in their evaluations 

objectives and measures for improving 

student achievement; (b) Competitive 

Preference Priority 1; (c) the definition 

of ‘‘LEA located in a rural area’’ in 

Competitive Preference Priority 2, (d) 

the requirement that a required member 

of the eligible partnership be the fiscal 

agent for the grant; (e) the Teacher Need 

component of the definition of ‘‘highneed LEA’’; and (f) the selection criteria, 

Quality of the Project Design and 

Significance, under section 437(d)(1) of 

GEPA. These priorities, definitions, and 

selection criteria will apply to the FY 

2009 grant competition and any 

subsequent year in which we make 

awards from the list of unfunded 

applicants from this competition. 

Program Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1021– 

1022(c). 

Applicable Regulations: The 

Education Department General 

Administrative Regulations (EDGAR) in 

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

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

Note: The regulations in 34 CFR part 79 

apply to all applicants except Federally 

recognized Indian Tribes. 

Note: The regulations in 34 CFR part 86 

apply to IHEs only. 


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II. Award Information 

Type of Award: Discretionary grants. 

Estimated Available Funds: 

$143,000,000: $43,000,000 from the 

Department of Education’s FY 2009 

appropriation and $100,000,000 from 

the American Recovery and 

Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, 

Public Law No. 111–5. The purposes of 

the ARRA include the following: 

(1) To preserve and create jobs and 

promote economic recovery; 

(2) To assist those most impacted by 

the recession; 

(3) To provide investments needed to 

increase economic efficiency by 

spurring technological advances in 

science and health; 

(4) To invest in transportation, 

environmental protection, and other 

infrastructure that will provide longterm economic benefit; and 

(5) To stabilize State and local 

government budgets in order to 

minimize and avoid reductions in 

essential services and 

counterproductive State and local tax 

increases. 

Estimated Range of Awards: 

$1,000,000–$2,000,000. 

Estimated Average Size of Awards: 

$1,500,000. 

Estimated Number of Awards: 25–35. 

Note: The Department is not bound by any 

estimates in this notice. The Department will 

first fund applications with FY 2009 

appropriations. If the Department does not 

receive enough quality applications, the 

Department may re-open the competition. 

Project Period: 60 months. 

III. Eligibility Information 

1. Eligible Applicants: An eligible 

applicant must be an ‘‘eligible 

partnership’’ as defined in section 

200(6) of the HEA. The fiscal agent of 

the grant must be one of the required 

partners in the eligible partnership, as 

described in section 200 of the HEA. We 

are establishing this requirement in 

accordance with section 437(d)(1) of 

GEPA to ensure that a required member 

of the partnership is responsible for the 

administration of the grant. The eligible 

partnership means an entity that— 

(1) Must include each of the 

following: 

(i) A high-need LEA. 

(ii) A high-need school or consortium 

of high-need schools served by the highneed LEA, or, as applicable, a high-need 

ECE program. 

(iii) A partner institution. 

(iv) A school, department, or program 

of education within such partner 

institution, which may include an 

existing teacher professional 

development program with proven 

outcomes within a four-year IHE that 

provides intensive and sustained 

collaboration between faculty and LEAs 

consistent with the requirements of 

Title II of the HEA. 

(v) A school or department of arts and 

sciences within such partner institution; 

and 

(2) May include any of the following: 

(i) The Governor of the State. 

(ii) The State educational agency. 

(iii) The State board of education. 

(iv) The State agency for higher 

education. 

(v) A business. 

(vi) A public or private nonprofit 

educational organization. 

(vii) An educational service agency. 

(viii) A teacher organization. 

(ix) A high-performing LEA, or a 

consortium of high-performing LEAs, 

that can serve as a resource to the 

partnership. 

(x) A charter school (as defined in 

section 5210 of the ESEA). 

(xi) A school or department within 

the partner institution that focuses on 

psychology and human development. 

(xii) A school or department within 

the partner institution with comparable 

expertise in the disciplines of teaching, 

learning, and child and adolescent 

development. 

(xiii) An entity operating a program 

that provides alternative routes to State 

certification of teachers. 

Definitions: For purposes of the 

definition of ‘‘eligible partnership,’’ the 

following definitions are from section 

200 of the HEA, as amended. 

(1) High-Need Local Educational 

Agency: To be eligible as a ‘‘high-need 

LEA,’’ an LEA must establish that it 

meets one of the criteria for requisite 

poverty or geographic location in 

component (i), below, and one of the 

requisite criteria for teacher need in 

component (ii). Thus, under section 

200(10) of the HEA, the term ‘‘high-need 

LEA’’ means an LEA— 

(i)(A) For which not less than 20 

percent of the children served by the 

agency are children from low-income 

families; 

(B) That serves not fewer than 10,000 

children from low-income families; 

(C) That meets the eligibility 

requirements for funding under the 

Small, Rural School Achievement 

(SRSA) Program under section 6211(b) 

of the ESEA, or 

(D) That meets eligibility 

requirements for funding under the 

Rural and Low-Income School Program 

under section 6221(b) of the ESEA; 

(ii) And— 

(A) For which there is a high 

percentage of teachers not teaching in 

the academic subject areas or grade 

levels in which the teachers were 

trained to teach; or 

(B) There is a high teacher turnover 

rate or a high percentage of teachers 

with emergency, provisional, or 

temporary certification or licensure. 

So that the Department may be able to 

confirm the eligibility of the LEAs 

participating in the partnership as 

‘‘high-need LEAs,’’ applicants will need 

to include information in their 

applications that demonstrates that each 

participating LEA in the partnership 

meets the above definition of ‘‘highneed.’’ This information must be based 

on the most recent data available. 

Poverty Data. Under component (i)(A) 

or (i)(B) of the definition of ‘‘high-need 

LEA,’’ an LEA must show that not less 

than 20 percent of the children served 

by the LEA are children from lowincome families or that the LEA serves 

fewer than 10,000 children from lowincome families. Under section 200(2) of 

the HEA (20 U.S.C. 1021(2)), the term 

‘‘children from low-income families’’ 

means children described in section 

1124(c)(1)(A) of the ESEA (20 U.S.C. 

6333(c)(1)(A)). Consistent with that 

provision, the eligibility of an LEA as a 

‘‘high-need LEA’’ under component 

(i)(A) or (i)(B) must be determined on 

the basis of the most recent U.S. Census 

Bureau data, which is currently for 

2007. U.S. Census Bureau data are 

available for all LEAs with geographic 

boundaries that existed when the U.S. 

Census Bureau collected its information. 

The link to the most recent census data 

is: http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/ 

saipe/district.html. The Department also 

makes these data available at its Web 

site at: http://www.ed.gov/programs/lsl/ 

eligibility.html. 

Some LEAs, such as newly formed 

LEAs or charter schools in States that 

accord them LEA status, are not 

included in Census Bureau poverty 

data. Eligibility of these particular LEAs 

will be determined on a case-by-case 

basis after review of information in the 

application that addresses, as well as 

possible, the number or percentage of 

children from low-income families these 

LEAs serve. 

Eligibility under the Small Rural 

School Achievement (SRSA) Program or 

Rural and Low-Income School (RLIS) 

Program. Under component (i)(C) or 

(i)(D) of the definition of ‘‘high-need 

LEA,’’ an LEA may show that it is 

eligible for the SRSA or RLIS programs 

authorized in the ESEA. Prospective 

applicants may determine whether a 

particular LEA is eligible for these 

programs by referring to information 

available on the following Department 

Web sites. For the SRSA: http://


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www.ed.gov/programs/reapsrsa/

eligible08/index.html. 

For the RLIS: http://www.ed.gov/

programs/reaprlisp/eligibility.html. 

Teacher Need. Under component 

(ii)(A) or (ii)(B) of the definition of a 

‘‘high-need LEA,’’ to be a ‘‘high-need’’ 

LEA, an LEA must have (A) a high 

percentage of teachers not teaching in 

the academic subject areas or grade 

levels in which the teachers were 

trained to teach, or (B) either a high 

teacher turnover rate, or a high 

percentage of teachers with emergency, 

provisional, or temporary certification 

or licensure. 

Under component (ii)(A) of Teacher 

Need, for purposes of the TQP Grants 

Program, and in accordance with 

section 437(d)(1) of GEPA, an LEA has 

‘‘a high percentage of teachers not 

teaching in the academic subject areas 

or grade levels in which the teachers 

were trained to teach’’ if either: 

(1) The percentage of its classes taught 

by teachers of core academic subjects 

who are not highly qualified exceeds the 

average percentage for the State in 

which the LEA is located; or 

(2) The applicant submits other 

information, which the Department 

accepts, that the percentage of the LEA’s 

teachers who lack training in the 

academic subject areas or grade levels in 

which the teachers were trained to teach 

perhaps because of the short amount of 

training that many highly qualified 

teachers may have received before 

becoming teachers of record, is ‘‘high.’’ 

Assuming that the Department accepts 

the applicant’s information, the 

Department will determine eligibility 

under this test on a case-by-case basis if 

the percentage of teachers who lack 

training in the subject area or grade 

levels they were trained to teach is 

below five percent. 

Section 1119 of the ESEA requires 

that all of an LEA’s teachers of core 

academic subjects be highly qualified by 

the end of the 2005–2006 school year, 

and we know that most LEAs are 

relatively close to meeting this goal. 

Because highly qualified teachers are 

generally teachers with sufficient 

knowledge or training in the subject 

they teach, we believe the percentage of 

an LEA’s classes taught by teachers who 

are not highly qualified (data that SEAs 

and LEAs must publicly report under 

section 1111(h)(1)(C)(vii) and (h)(2)(B) 

of the ESEA, respectively), is a 

reasonable proxy for the ‘‘percentage of 

teachers not teaching in the academic 

subject areas or grade levels in which 

the teachers were trained to teach.’’ In 

order to extend eligibility to as many 

LEAs as possible we provide that an 

LEA has a ‘‘high percentage’’ of these 

teachers if the percentage of its classes 

taught by teachers who are not highly 

qualified exceeds the State’s average. 

At the same time, we recognize that 

LEAs that do not meet this test may also 

have a high percentage of teachers not 

teaching in the academic subject areas 

or grade levels in which the teachers 

were trained to teach. For example, an 

LEA might (1) be in a State with a very 

high average for LEAs statewide, or (2) 

have many teachers who, while highly 

qualified in one or more academic 

subject areas, are teaching an academic 

subject or grade level for which they are 

not highly qualified or have little 

training. In order to accommodate these 

other situations, we will determine on a 

case-by-case basis, and based on the 

data a partnership submits with its 

application, whether other LEAs also 

have a ‘‘high percentage’’ of such 

teachers. 

Regarding component (ii)(B) of 

Teacher Need, an LEA is considered to 

meet this component of ‘‘high-need’’ if 

it demonstrates that it has either a high 

teacher turnover rate or a high 

percentage of teachers with emergency, 

provisional, or temporary certification 

or licensure. In determining what is a 

‘‘high teacher turnover rate’’ for 

purposes of this program, pursuant to 

section 437(d)(1) of GEPA we adopt, 

with one minor difference, the same 

interpretation of this phrase that the 

Department used under the HEA 

Teachers for a Competitive Tomorrow 

(TCT) Baccalaureate and Master’s 

programs. For reasons explained in the 

notice inviting applications for new FY 

2008 awards under the baccalaureate 

program (see 73 FR 31835, 31837, June 

4, 2008), we thus determine that a ‘‘high 

teacher turnover rate’’ means an annual 

attrition rate of 16 percent among 

classroom teachers who did not return 

to the same school in the LEA, i.e., those 

teachers who moved the following year 

to a different school as well as those 

who left teaching altogether. We adopt 

this 16 percent rate rather than the 15 

percent rate used in the previously 

authorized HEA Teacher Quality 

Enhancement Grants program 

regulations referenced in the TCT notice 

because the higher rate better reflects 

the more current data on which ED 

relied. Consistent with the discussion in 

the TCT notice, an LEA may calculate 

this attrition rate by averaging data over 

the last three years. 

The alternative criterion in 

component (ii)(B) of the definition of 

‘‘high-need LEA’’ provides that the LEA 

must have a high percentage of teachers 

with emergency, provisional, or 

temporary certification or licensure. In 

accordance with section 437(d)(1) of 

GEPA, and for reasons the Department 

discussed in the April 30, 2004 notice 

announcing requirements for the 

Transition to Teaching Program (69 FR 

24001, 24003), the Department adopts 

the same standard used in that program 

authorized in Title II, Part C of the 

ESEA. This standard relies on data that 

States collect for each LEA on the 

percentage of teachers in the LEA who 

are teaching on waivers of State 

certification, for inclusion in the reports 

on the quality of teacher preparation 

that the States provide to the 

Department in October of each year as 

required by section 207 of the HEA, as 

previously authorized. 

Consistent with the approach the 

Department has taken in the Transition 

to Teaching program, which includes 

this same criterion in its eligibility 

requirements, the Department will 

consider an LEA as meeting the teacher 

need component of the definition of 

‘‘high-need LEA’’ if LEA data the State 

used for purpose of the State’s October 

2008 HEA, section 207 report on 

teachers teaching on waivers of State 

certification demonstrate that at least 

1.37 percent of its teachers (the national 

average for all 2008 HEA, State reports 

submitted under section 207 of the 

HEA, as previously authorized) were on 

waivers of State certification 

requirements. 

(2) High-Need School: Under section 

200(11) of the HEA, the term ‘‘high-need 

school’’ means a school that, based on 

the most recent data available, meets at 

least one of the following: 

(i) The school is in the highest 

quartile of schools in a ranking of all 

schools served by an LEA, ranked in 

descending order by percentage of 

students from low-income families 

enrolled in such schools, as determined 

by the LEA based on one of the 

following measures of poverty: 

(A) The percentage of students aged 5 

through 17 in poverty counted in the 

most recent census data approved by the 

Secretary; 

(B) The percentage of students eligible 

for a free or reduced price school lunch 

under the Richard B. Russell National 

School Lunch Act; 

(C) The percentage of students in 

families receiving assistance under the 

State program funded under Part A of 

Title IV of the Social Security Act; 

(D) The percentage of students eligible 

to receive medical assistance under the 

Medicaid program; or 

(E) A composite of two or more of the 

measures described in paragraphs (A) 

through (D). 

(ii) If the school is— 

(A) An elementary school, not less 

than 60 percent of its students are 


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eligible for a free or reduced price 

school lunch under the Richard B. 

Russell National School Lunch Act; or 

(B) Not an elementary school, not less 

than 45 percent of its students are 

eligible for a free or reduced price 

school lunch under the Richard B. 

Russell National School Lunch Act. 

Note: For criterion (i)(A), the only schoollevel data for these criteria of which the 

Department is aware are those that concern 

eligibility for free and reduced price school 

lunches (paragraph (i)(B)). In addition 

criterion (ii)(A) does not itself permit an LEA 

to determine that a middle school or high 

school is a ‘‘high-need school’’ on the basis 

of the percentage of students attending its 

feeder schools that are eligible for free and 

reduced price school lunch subsidies. 

However, the Special Rule found in Section 

200(11)(B)(i) of the HEA allows the Secretary, 

upon approval of an application submitted 

by an eligible partnership, to designate a 

school as a high-need school for purposes of 

this program even though that school does 

not meet the definition of ‘‘high need’’ under 

the above definition. Specifically, section 

200(11)(B)(i) permits the Secretary to approve 

an eligible partnership’s application to 

designate any school as a high-need school 

based on consideration of the specific 

information identified in section 

200(11)(B)(ii) and, at the Secretary’s option, 

any other information the eligible 

partnership submits. 

The need that middle and high schools 

located in high-poverty areas served by highneed LEAs have for more able, higher quality 

teachers is abundantly clear. However, while 

criterion (i)(A) requires a high-need school to 

have a minimum percentage of its students 

eligible for free and reduced price school 

lunch subsidies, it is common knowledge 

that, as students get older, the percentage of 

them choosing to apply for these lunch 

subsidies decreases. 

We do not believe that Congress 

intended to erect such a barrier to the 

ability of middle and high schools 

located in high-poverty areas to be able 

to benefit from teachers trained through 

the pre-baccalaureate teacher 

preparation program or teaching 

residency program. Therefore, the 

Secretary will identify a middle or high 

school as ‘‘high-need’’ if— 

(a) The aggregate level of poverty of 

the school’s feeder schools, based on the 

aggregate percentage of their students 

eligible for free and reduced price 

school lunch subsidies, yields the 

percentage provided in section 

200(11)(A)(ii); and 

(b) The eligible applicant provides in 

its application the information 

identified in section 200(11)(B)(ii). 

(3) High-Need Early Childhood 

Education Program: Under section 

200(9) of the HEA, the term ‘‘high-need 

ECE program’’ means an ECE program 

serving children from low-income 

families that is located within the 

geographic area served by a high-need 

LEA. 

(4) Partner Institution: Under section 

200(17) of the HEA, the term ‘‘partner 

institution’’ means an IHE, which may 

include a two-year IHE offering a dual 

program with a four-year IHE, 

participating in an eligible partnership 

that has a teacher preparation 

program— 

(i) Whose graduates exhibit strong 

performance on State-determined 

qualifying assessments for new teachers 

through— 

(A) Demonstrating that 80 percent or 

more of the graduates of the program 

who intend to enter the field of teaching 

have passed all of the applicable State 

qualification assessments for new 

teachers, which shall include an 

assessment of each prospective teacher’s 

subject matter knowledge in the content 

area in which the teacher intends to 

teach; or 

(B) Being ranked among the highestperforming teacher preparation 

programs in the State as determined by 

the State using criteria consistent with 

the requirements for the State report 

card under section 205(b) of the HEA 

before the first publication of the report 

card. 

(ii) And that requires— 

(A) Each student in the program to 

meet high academic standards or 

demonstrate a record of success, as 

determined by the institution (including 

prior to entering and being accepted 

into a program), and participate in 

intensive clinical experience; 

(B) Each student in the program 

preparing to become a teacher to 

become ‘‘highly qualified’’ (as defined 

in section 9010(23) of the ESEA); and 

(C) Each student in the program 

preparing to become an ‘‘early 

childhood educator’’ to meet degree 

requirements, as established by the 

State, and become ‘‘highly competent.’’ 

Note: For purposes of paragraph (ii)(C) of 

this definition, the term ‘‘highly competent,’’ 

under section 200(12) of the HEA, means the 

early child educator has— 

(a) Specialized education and training 

in development and education of young 

children from birth up to entry into 

kindergarten; and 

(b)(i) A baccalaureate degree in an 

academic major in the arts and sciences; 

or 

(ii) An associate’s degree in a related 

educational area; and 

(c) Demonstrated a high level 

knowledge and use of content and 

pedagogy in the relevant areas 

associated with quality ECE. 

(5) Additional Definitions: Definitions 

for the following terms that apply to this 

program are in section 200 of the HEA: 

‘‘arts and sciences,’’ ‘‘early childhood 

educator,’’ ‘‘highly qualified,’’ 

‘‘induction program,’’ ‘‘limited English 

proficient,’’ ‘‘professional 

development,’’ ‘‘scientifically valid 

research,’’ ‘‘teacher mentoring’’ and 

‘‘teaching residency program.’’ 

2. Cost Sharing or Matching: 

(1) Under section 203(c) of the HEA 

(20 U.S.C. 1022(b)), each grant recipient 

must provide, from non-Federal sources, 

an amount equal to 100 percent of the 

amount of the grant, which may be 

provided in cash or in-kind, to carry out 

the activities supported by the grant. 

Grantees must budget their matching 

contributions on an annual basis 

relative to each annual award of Teacher 

Quality Partnership Program funds. 

However, the HEA also authorizes the 

Secretary to waive this matching 

requirement for any partnership for any 

fiscal year if the Secretary determines 

that ‘‘applying the matching 

requirement to the eligible partnership 

would result in serious hardship or an 

inability to carry out the authorized 

activities described in’’ the law. In view 

of the impact of the Nation’s current 

economic difficulties on the fiscal 

situation of so many LEAs and IHEs, for 

purposes of this competition the 

Secretary will waive up to 100 percent 

of the required match for each of the 

first two years of the grant based on a 

certification of serious hardship from 

the applicant that is included in the 

application. The Department will not at 

this time entertain a request for a waiver 

of the matching requirement for project 

years three through five, and applicants 

must provide a proposed non-Federal 

budget for these project years. 

Applicants who do not request a waiver 

or who request a waiver for only a 

portion of the matching amount in years 

one and two must provide a non-Federal 

budget for the required portion of their 

years one and two match that they 

intend to provide. 

(2) Supplement-Not-Supplant: This 

program involves supplement-notsupplant funding requirements. In 

accordance with section 202(k) of the 

HEA funds made available under this 

program must be used to supplement, 

and not supplant other Federal, State, 

and local funds that would otherwise be 

expended to carry out activities under 

this program. 

IV. Application and Submission 

Information 

1. Address To Request Application 

Package: Education Publications Center 

(ED Pubs), P.O. Box 1398, Jessup, MD 

20794–1398. Telephone, toll free: 1– 

877–433–7827. FAX: (301) 470–1244. If 


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you use a telecommunications device 

for the deaf (TDD), call, toll free: 1–877– 

576–7734. 

You can contact ED Pubs at its Web 

site, also: http://www.ed.gov/pubs/ 

edpubs.html or at its e-mail address: 

edpubs@inet.ed.gov. 

If you request an application package 

from ED Pubs, be sure to identify this 

program or competition as follows: 

CFDA number 84.405A. 

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 26, 

2009. 

The Department will be able to 

develop a more efficient process for 

reviewing grant applications if it has a 

better understanding of the number of 

entities that intend to apply for funding 

under this competition. Therefore, the 

Secretary strongly encourages each 

potential applicant to notify the 

Department by sending a short e-mail 

message indicating the applicant’s 

intent to submit an application for 

funding. The e-mail need not include 

information regarding the content of the 

proposed application, only the 

applicant’s intent to submit it. The 

Secretary requests that this e-mail 

notification be sent to Peggi Zelinko at 

TQPartnership@ed.gov. Applicants that 

fail to provide this e-mail notification 

may still apply for funding. 

Page Limit: The application narrative 

(Part III of the application) is where you, 

the applicant, address the selection 

criteria that reviewers use to evaluate 

your application. It is recommended 

that the application narrative (Part III) 

be no more than 50 pages, using the 

following standards: 

• A ‘‘page’’ is 8.5′′ x 11′′, on one side 

only, with 1′′ margins at the top, bottom, 

and both sides. 

• Double space (no more than three 

lines per vertical inch) all text in the 

application narrative, including titles, 

headings, footnotes, quotations, 

references, and captions. However, you 

may single space all text in charts, 

tables, figures, and graphs. 

• Use a font that is either 12 point or 

larger or no smaller than 10 pitch 

(characters per inch). 

• Use one of the following fonts: 

Times New Roman, Courier, Courier 

New, or Arial. An application submitted 

in any other font (including Times 

Roman or Arial Narrow) will not be 

accepted. 

The page limit does not apply to Part 

I, the cover sheet; Part II, the budget 

section, including the narrative budget 

justification; Part IV, the assurances and 

certifications; or the one-page abstract, 

the resumes, the 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: May 27, 2009. 

Deadline for Notice of Intent To 

Apply: June 26, 2009. 

Date of Pre-Application Meeting: 

There will be two pre-application 

meetings for prospective applicants: (1) 

June 8, 2009, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 

p.m. in the LBJ Auditorium at the U.S. 

Department of Education headquarters, 

400 Maryland Avenue, SW., 

Washington, DC 20202; and (2) June 8, 

2009 from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. in the 

LBJ Auditorium at the U.S. Department 

of Education headquarters, 400 

Maryland Avenue, SW., Washington, 

DC 20202. The Department is accessible 

by Metro on the Blue, Orange, Green, 

and Yellow lines at the 7th Street and 

Maryland Avenue exit of the L’Enfant 

Plaza Metro Station. Please contact the 

U.S. Department of Education contact 

persons listed under FOR FURTHER

INFORMATION CONTACT if you have any 

questions about the details of the preapplication meetings. 

Individuals interested in attending 

this workshop are encouraged to preregister by e-mailing their name, 

organization, and contact information to 

TQPartnership@ed.gov. There is no 

registration fee for this workshop. 

Assistance to Individuals With 

Disabilities at the Pre-Application 

Meeting: The meeting site is accessible 

to individuals with disabilities, and a 

sign language interpreter will be 

available. If you will need an auxiliary 

aid or service other than a sign language 

interpreter in order to participate in the 

meeting (e.g., other interpreting service 

such as oral, cued speech, or tactile 

interpreter; assistive listening device; or 

materials in alternate format), notify the 

contact person listed in this notice at 

least two weeks before the scheduled 

meeting date. Although we will attempt 

to meet a request we receive after this 

date, we may not be able to make 

available the requested auxiliary aid or 

service because of insufficient time to 

arrange it. 

Deadline for Transmittal of 

Applications: July 23, 2009. 

Applications for grants under this 

program must be submitted 

electronically using the Electronic Grant 

Application System (e-Application) 

accessible through the Department’s eGrants site. For information (including 

dates and times) about how to submit 

your application electronically, or in 

paper format by mail or hand delivery 

if you qualify for an exception to the 

electronic submission requirement, 

please refer to section IV.6. 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. 

Deadline for Intergovernmental 

Review: September 21, 2009. 

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 

additional regulations outlining funding 

restrictions in the Applicable 

Regulations section of this notice. 

6. Other Submission Requirements: 

Applications for grants under this 

program must be submitted 

electronically unless you qualify for an 

exception to this requirement in 

accordance with the instructions in this 

section. 

(a) Electronic Submission of 

Applications. Applications for grants 

under the Teacher Quality 

Partnership—CFDA Number 84.405A 

must be submitted electronically using 

e-Application, accessible through the 

Department’s e-Grants Web site at: 

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

We will reject your application if you 

submit it in paper format unless, as 

described elsewhere in this section, you 

qualify for one of the exceptions to the 

electronic submission requirement and 

submit, no later than two weeks before 

the application deadline date, a written 

statement to the Department that you 

qualify for one of these exceptions. 

Further information regarding 

calculation of the date that is two weeks 

before the application deadline date is 

provided later in this section under 

Exception to Electronic Submission 

Requirement. 

While completing your electronic 

application, you will be entering data 

online that will be saved into a 

database. You may not e-mail an 


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electronic copy of a grant application to 

us. 

Please note the following: 

• You must complete the electronic 

submission of your grant application by 

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

the application deadline date. EApplication will not accept an 

application for this program after 

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

the application deadline date. 

Therefore, we strongly recommend that 

you do not wait until the application 

deadline date to begin the application 

process. 

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

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

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

Washington, DC time. Please note that, 

because of maintenance, the system is 

unavailable between 8:00 p.m. on 

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

between 7:00 p.m. on Wednesdays and 

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

DC time. Any modifications to these 

hours are posted on the e-Grants Web 

site. 

• You will not receive additional 

point value because you submit your 

application in electronic format, nor 

will we penalize you if you qualify for 

an exception to the electronic 

submission requirement, as described 

elsewhere in this section, and submit 

your application in paper format. 

• You must submit all documents 

electronically, including all information 

you typically provide on the following 

forms: The Application for Federal 

Assistance (SF 424), the Department of 

Education Supplemental Information for 

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

necessary assurances and certifications. 

You must attach any narrative sections 

of your application as files in a .DOC 

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

(Portable Document) format. If you 

upload a file type other than the three 

file types specified in this paragraph or 

submit a password protected file, we 

will not review that material. 

• Your electronic application must 

comply with any page limit 

requirements described in this notice. 

• Prior to submitting your electronic 

application, you may wish to print a 

copy of it for your records. 

• After you electronically submit 

your application, you will receive an 

automatic acknowledgment that will 

include a PR/Award number (an 

identifying number unique to your 

application). 

• Within three working days after 

submitting your electronic application, 

fax a signed copy of the SF 424 to the 

Application Control Center after 

following these steps: 

(1) Print SF 424 from e-Application. 

(2) The applicant’s Authorizing 

Representative must sign this form. 

(3) Place the PR/Award number in the 

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

(4) Fax the signed SF 424 to the 

Application Control Center at (202) 

245–6272. 

• We may request that you provide us 

original signatures on other forms at a 

later date. 

Application Deadline Date Extension 

in Case of e-Application Unavailability: 

If you are prevented from electronically 

submitting your application on the 

application deadline date because eApplication is unavailable, we will 

grant you an extension of one business 

day to enable you to transmit your 

application electronically, by mail, or by 

hand delivery. We will grant this 

extension if— 

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

electronic application for this 

competition; and 

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

60 minutes or more between the hours 

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

DC time, on the application deadline 

date; or 

(b) E-Application is unavailable for 

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

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

on the application deadline date. 

We must acknowledge and confirm 

these periods of unavailability before 

granting you an extension. To request 

this extension or to confirm our 

acknowledgment of any system 

unavailability, you may contact either 

(1) the person listed elsewhere in this 

notice under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION

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

the e-Grants help desk at 1–888–336– 

8930. If e-Application is unavailable 

due to technical problems with the 

system and, therefore, the application 

deadline is extended, an e-mail will be 

sent to all registered users who have 

initiated an e-Application. Extensions 

referred to in this section apply only to 

the unavailability of e-Application. 

Exception to Electronic Submission 

Requirement: You qualify for an 

exception to the electronic submission 

requirement, and may submit your 

application in paper format, if you are 

unable to submit an application through 

e-Application because–– 

• You do not have access to the 

Internet; or 

• You do not have the capacity to 

upload large documents to eApplication; and 

• No later than two weeks before the 

application deadline date (14 calendar 

days or, if the fourteenth calendar day 

before the application deadline date 

falls on a Federal holiday, the next 

business day following the Federal 

holiday), you mail or fax a written 

statement to the Department, explaining 

which of the two grounds for an 

exception prevents you from using the 

Internet to submit your application. If 

you mail your written statement to the 

Department, it must be postmarked no 

later than two weeks before the 

application deadline date. If you fax 

your written statement to the 

Department, we must receive the faxed 

statement no later than two weeks 

before the application deadline date. 

Address and mail or fax your 

statement to: Peggi Zelinko, U.S. 

Department of Education, 400 Maryland 

Avenue, SW., room 4W306, 

Washington, DC 20202–5960. Fax: (202) 

401–8466. 

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 84.405A), 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 


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relying on this method, you should check 

with your local post office. 

c. Submission of Paper Applications 

by Hand Delivery. If you qualify for an 

exception to the electronic submission 

requirement, you (or a courier service) 

may deliver your paper application to 

the Department by hand. You must 

deliver the original and two copies of 

your application, by hand, on or before 

the application deadline date, to the 

Department at the following address: 

U.S. Department of Education, 

Application Control Center, Attention: 

(CFDA Number 84.405A), 550 12th 

Street, SW., Room 7041, Potomac Center 

Plaza, Washington, DC 20202–4260. 

The Application Control Center 

accepts hand deliveries daily between 

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

DC time, except Saturdays, Sundays, 

and Federal holidays. 

Note for Mail or Hand Delivery of Paper 

Applications: If you mail or hand deliver 

your application to the Department: 

(1) You must indicate on the envelope 

and—if not provided by the Department—in 

Item 11 of the SF 424 the CFDA number, 

including suffix letter, if any, of the 

competition under which you are submitting 

your application; and 

(2) The Application Control Center will 

mail to you a notification of receipt of your 

grant application. If you do not receive this 

grant notification within 15 business days 

from the application deadline date, you 

should call the U.S. Department of Education 

Application Control Center at (202) 245– 

6288. 

V. Application Review Information 

Selection Criteria: The selection 

criteria governing this competition are 

listed in the following paragraphs. The 

selection criterion, Quality of Project 

Evaluation, is from 34 CFR 75.210 in the 

Education Department General 

Administrative Regulations (EDGAR) 

and section 204 of the HEA. The 

selection criterion, Quality of the 

Management Plan, is from 34 CFR 

75.210 in EDGAR. The selection 

criterion, Quality of the Project Design, 

includes a combination of the factors 

under that criterion in 34 CFR 75.210(c) 

EDGAR and the criterion, Quality of 

Project Services in 34.210(d); 

specifically, factor (2)(i) is from 34 CFR 

75.210(c) and factors (2)(ii), (iii) and (iv) 

are from 34 CFR 75.210(d). The 

selection criterion, Significance, 

includes a combination of the factors 

under that criterion in 34 CFR 75.210(b) 

and the criterion, Quality of Project 

Personnel, in 34 CFR 75.210(e); 

specifically, factors (2)(i), (ii) and (iii) 

are from section 34 CFR 75.210(b) and 

factor (2)(iv) is from section 34 CFR 

75.210(e). We are combining these 

factors under these specific criteria to 

provide greater clarity on how 

applicants should address the criteria in 

their applications. 

The maximum score for all of the 

selection criteria is 100 points. The 

maximum score for each criterion is 

indicated in parentheses with the 

criterion. These criteria are for the FY 

2009 grant competition and any 

subsequent year in which we make 

awards based on the list of unfunded 

applicants from this competition only. 

(a) Quality of the Project Design (up 

to 40 points). 

(1) The Secretary considers the 

quality of the design of the proposed 

project. 

(2) In determining the quality of the 

design of the proposed project, the 

Secretary considers the extent to which 

the proposed project consists of a 

comprehensive plan that includes a 

description of— 

(i) The extent to which the proposed 

project represents an exceptional 

approach to the priority or priorities 

established for this competition; 

(ii) The likely impact of the services 

to be provided by the proposed project 

on the intended recipients of those 

services; 

(iii) The extent to which the training 

or professional development services to 

be provided by the proposed project are 

of sufficient quality, intensity, and 

duration to lead to improvements in 

practice among the recipients of those 

services; and 

(iv) The extent to which the services 

to be provided by the proposed project 

involve the collaboration of appropriate 

partners for maximizing the 

effectiveness of project services. 

Note: The Secretary encourages applicants 

to address this criterion by discussing the 

overall project design and its key 

components, and the degree to which the 

design’s key components are based on sound 

research and practice. Applicants are also 

encouraged to address this criterion by 

connecting the project design to the intended 

impact of the project and how the project 

will affect the participants, including 

preparation, placement, retention, and effect 

on improved student achievement. Finally, 

applicants are encouraged to discuss the role 

and commitment of each partner and 

document each partner’s responsibilities and 

commitment to the project. 

(b) Quality of the Project Evaluation 

(up to 25 points). 

(1) The Secretary considers the 

quality of the evaluation to be 

conducted of the proposed project. 

(2) In determining the quality of the 

evaluation, the Secretary considers— 

(i) The extent to which the methods 

of evaluation include the use of 

objective performance measures that are 

clearly related to intended outcomes of 

the project and will produce 

quantitative and qualitative data to the 

extent possible; 

(ii) The extent to which the methods 

of evaluation address the evaluation 

requirements in section 204(a) of the 

HEA; and 

(iii) The extent to which the methods 

of evaluation will provide performance 

feedback and permit periodic 

assessment of progress toward achieving 

intended outcomes. 

Note: The Secretary encourages applicants 

to include a plan of how the project’s 

evaluation will address the TQP Grants 

Program performance measures established 

by the Department under the Government 

Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA). 

(The specific performance measures 

established for the overall TQP Grants 

Program are discussed under Performance 

Measures in section VI of this notice.) 

Further, each applicant is encouraged to 

describe how the applicant’s evaluation plan 

will be designed to collect both output data 

and outcome data including benchmarks to 

monitor progress. Finally, each applicant is 

encouraged to select an independent, 

objective evaluator who has experience in 

evaluating educational programs and who 

will play an active role in the design and 

development of the project. For resources on 

what to consider in designing and 

conducting project evaluations, go to 

www.whatworkshelpdesk.ed.gov/. 

(c) Significance (up to 20 points). 

(1) The Secretary considers the 

significance of the proposed project. 

(2) In determining the significance of 

the proposed project, the Secretary 

considers the following factors— 

(i) The likelihood that the proposed 

project will result in system change or 

improvement; 

(ii) The extent to which the proposed 

project is likely to build local capacity 

to provide, improve, or expand services 

that address the needs of the target 

population; 

(iii) The importance or magnitude of 

the results or outcomes likely to be 

attained by the proposed project, 

especially improvements in teaching 

and student achievement; and 

(iv) The potential for continued 

support of the project after Federal 

funding ends, including, as appropriate, 

the demonstrated commitment of 

appropriate entities to such support. 

Note: The Secretary encourages applicants 

to describe the use of a needs assessment to 

determine the specific needs of project 

participants and how the project will address 

these needs. Applicants are also encouraged 

to indicate how the project will affect 

teaching and student achievement in the 

proposed service area. Finally, applicants are 

encouraged to include a description of the 

commitment to build local capacity for the 


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project and how this capacity building will 

be achieved. 

(d) Quality of the Management Plan 

(up to 15 points). 

(1) The Secretary considers the 

quality of the management plan for the 

proposed project. 

(2) In determining the quality of the 

management plan for the proposed 

project, the Secretary considers the 

following factors— 

(i) The adequacy of the management 

plan to achieve the objectives of the 

proposed project on time and within 

budget, including clearly defined 

responsibilities, timelines, and 

milestones for accomplishing project 

tasks; 

(ii) The adequacy of procedures for 

ensuring feedback and continuous 

improvement in the operation of the 

proposed project; and 

(iii) The adequacy of mechanisms for 

ensuring high-quality products and 

services from the proposed project. 

Note: The Secretary encourages applicants 

to address these criteria by including in the 

application narrative a clear, well thoughtout implementation plan that includes 

annual timelines, key project milestones, and 

a schedule of activities with sufficient time 

for developing an adequate implementation 

plan, as well as a description of the 

personnel who would be responsible for each 

activity and the level of effort each activity 

entails. 

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. 

Applicants are encouraged to include 

in their budgets funds for at least two 

project staff members to attend two 

meetings of the TQP Grants Program in 

Washington DC during each year of the 

project. 

3. Reporting: 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 

http://www.ed.gov/fund/grant/apply/

appforms/appforms.html. 

Some of the funds awarded through 

this program were appropriated under 

the American Recovery and 

Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, 

Public Law 111–5, and are subject to 

additional accountability and 

transparency reporting requirements, 

which are described in section 1512(c) 

of the ARRA. Grantees receiving funds 

provided by the ARRA must be able to 

distinguish these funds from any other 

funds they receive through this 

program. Recipients of ARRA funds will 

be required to submit quarterly reports 

on the expenditure of these funds no 

later than ten days after the end of each 

calendar quarter through a centralized 

reporting Web site administered by the 

Office of Management and Budget 

(OMB): http://www.federalreporting.gov. 

The information reported at this Web 

site will be available to the Department, 

the White House, OMB and the public 

on http://www.Recovery.gov. Additional 

guidance providing further detail on the 

quarterly report will be provided at a 

later time. 

4. Performance Measures: The 

objective of the TQP Grants Program is 

to increase student achievement in K–12 

schools by developing highly qualified 

teachers. Under GPRA, the following 

measures will be used by the 

Department in assessing the 

performance of this program: 

(a) Performance Measure 1: 

Graduation. The percentage of program 

completers who— 

(1) Attain initial certification/ 

licensure by passing all necessary 

certification/licensure assessments and 

attain a bachelor’s degree (prebaccalaureate program) within six years 

of beginning the program or a master’s 

degree (residency program) within two 

years of beginning the program; or 

(2) Attain Highly Competent Early 

Childhood Educator status by earning a 

bachelor’s degree within six years of 

beginning the program or an associate’s 

degree within three years of beginning 

the program. 

(b) Performance Measure 2: 

Employment Retention. The percentage 

of beginning teachers who are retained 

in teaching in the partner high-need 

LEA or high-need ECE program three 

years after being hired by the high-need 

LEA or high-need ECE program; 

(c) Performance Measure 3: Improved 

Scores. The percentage of grantees that 

report improved scaled scores on 

assessments for initial State certification 

or licensure of teachers; 

(d) Efficiency Measure: Employment 

Retention. The cost of a successful 

outcome where success is defined as 

retention of the teacher in the partner 

high-need LEA or high-need ECE 

program three years after the teacher is 

hired by the high-need LEA or highneed ECE program; 

(e) Short-Term Performance 

Measures. Because the performance 

measures already listed would not 

provide data for a number of years, the 

Department has also established the 

following two measures that will 

provide data in a shorter timeframe— 

(1) Short-Term Performance Measure 

1: Persistence. The percentage of 

program participants, who were not 

scheduled to graduate in the previous 

reporting period, and persisted in the 

postsecondary program in the current 

reporting period; and 

(2) Short-Term Performance Measure 

2: Employment Retention. The 

percentage of beginning teachers who 

are retained in teaching in the partner 

high-need LEA or high-need ECE 

program one year after being hired by 

the LEA or high-need ECE program. 

Note: If funded, you will be asked to 

collect and report data on these measures in 

your project’s annual performance report 

(EDGAR, 34 CFR 75.590). 

Applicants are also advised to consider 

these measures in conceptualizing the 

design, implementation, and evaluation of 

their proposed projects because of their 

importance in the application review 

process. Collection of data on these measures 

should be a part of the evaluation plan, along 

with measures of progress on goals and 

objectives that are specific to your project. 

All grantees will be expected to submit an 

annual performance report documenting 

their success in addressing these 

performance measures. 

VII. Agency Contact 

For Further Information Contact: 

Teacher Quality Partnership Grants 

Program, U.S. Department of Education, 

400 Maryland Avenue, SW., Room 

4W320, Washington, DC 20202. 

Telephone: (202) 260–0563 or by e-mail: 

TQPartnership@ed.gov. 

If you use a TDD, call the Federal 

Relay Service, toll free, at 1–800–877– 

8339. 


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25234 Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 100 / Wednesday, May 27, 2009 / Notices 

1 18 CFR 11.20 (2008). 

1PJM Interconnection, L.L.C., 126 FERC ¶ 61,275 

(2009). 

VIII. Other Information 

Accessible Format: Individuals with 

disabilities can obtain this document 

and a copy of the application package in 

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

print, audiotape, or computer diskette) 

on request to the program contact 

person listed under For Further 

Information Contact in section VII of 

this notice. 

Electronic Access to this Document: 

You can view this document, as well as 

all other documents of this Department 

published in the Federal Register, in 

text or Adobe Portable Document 

Format (PDF) on the Internet at the 

following site: http://www.ed.gov/news/ 

fedregister. 

To use PDF you must have Adobe 

Acrobat Reader, which is available free 

at this site. If you have questions about 

using PDF, call the U.S. Government 

Printing Office (GPO), toll free, at 1– 

888–293–6498; or in the Washington, 

DC, area at (202) 512–1530. 

Note: The official version of this document 

is the document published in the Federal 

Register. Free Internet access to the official 

edition of the Federal Register and the Code 

of Federal Regulations is available on GPO 

Access at: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/nara/

index.html. 

Dated: May 20, 2009. 

James H. Shelton, III, 

Assistant Deputy Secretary for Innovation and 

Improvement. 

[FR Doc. E9–12180 Filed 5–26–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4000–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY 

Federal Energy Regulatory 

Commission 

[Project No. 2079–063] 

Placer County Water Agency; Notice 

Dismissing Pleading 

May 19, 2009. 

On March 26, 2009, the Commission 

issued Placer County Water Agency, 

licensee for the Middle Fork 

Hydroelectric Project No. 2079, a 

Statement of Annual Charges for U.S. 

Lands for fiscal year (FY) 2009. On 

April 26, 2009, the licensee filed a 

request for rehearing of the FY 2009 

annual charge bill and on May 6, 2009, 

the licensee filed a timely appeal of its 

FY 2009 annual charge bill, which is 

still pending. 

Pursuant to section 11.20 of the 

Commission’s regulations,1 if the 

licensee believes its annual charges bill 

is incorrect, the licensee may seek an 

appeal of its bill with the Chief 

Financial Officer within 45 days after 

the bill’s rendition. Subsequently, the 

licensee may seek rehearing within 30 

days after the Chief Financial Officer’s 

decision on the appeal. As noted above, 

the licensee’s appeal for its FY 2009 

annual charge bill is still pending. 

Therefore, the licensee’s request for 

rehearing is dismissed as premature. 

This notice constitutes final agency 

action. Request for rehearing of this 

dismissal notice must be filed within 30 

days of the date of issuance of this 

notice, pursuant to 18 CFR 385.713 

(2008). 

Kimberly D. Bose, 

Secretary. 

[FR Doc. E9–12213 Filed 5–26–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6717–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY 

Federal Energy Regulatory 

Commission 

[Docket Nos. QF88–110–006, EL09–54–000] 

Ripon Cogeneration, LLC; Notice of 

Filing 

May 19, 2009. 

Take notice that on May 12, 2009, 

Ripon Cogeneration, LLC filed a petition 

for limited waiver of the operating and 

efficiency standards for a topping-cycle 

qualifying cogeneration facility located 

in Ripon, San Joaquin County, 

California for years 2009 and 2010, 

pursuant to subsections 209.205(c) and 

209.205(a) of the Commission’s 

Regulations, 18 CFR 292.205(a) and 18 

CFR 29.205(a). 

Any person desiring to intervene or to 

protest this filing must file in 

accordance with Rules 211 and 214 of 

the Commission’s Rules of Practice and 

Procedure (18 CFR 385.211, 385.214). 

Protests will be considered by the 

Commission in determining the 

appropriate action to be taken, but will 

not serve to make protestants parties to 

the proceeding. Any person wishing to 

become a party must file a notice of 

intervention or motion to intervene, as 

appropriate. Such notices, motions, or 

protests must be filed on or before the 

comment date. On or before the 

comment date, it is not necessary to 

serve motions to intervene or protests 

on persons other than the Applicant. 

The Commission encourages 

electronic submission of protests and 

interventions in lieu of paper using the 

‘‘eFiling’’ link at http://www.ferc.gov. 

Persons unable to file electronically 

should submit an original and 14 copies 

of the protest or intervention to the 

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 

888 First Street, NE., Washington, DC 

20426. 

This filing is accessible on-line at 

http://www.ferc.gov, using the 

‘‘eLibrary’’ link and is available for 

review in the Commission’s Public 

Reference Room in Washington, DC. 

There is an ‘‘eSubscription’’ link on the 

Web site that enables subscribers to 

receive e-mail notification when a 

document is added to a subscribed 

docket(s). For assistance with any FERC 

Online service, please e-mail 

FERCOnlineSupport@ferc.gov, or call 

(866) 208–3676 (toll free). For TTY, call 

(202) 502–8659. 

Comment Date: 5 p.m. Eastern Time 

on June 11, 2009. 

Kimberly D. Bose, 

Secretary. 

[FR Doc. E9–12211 Filed 5–26–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6717–01–P 

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY 

Federal Energy Regulatory 

Commission 

[Docket Nos. ER05–1410–000; EL05–148– 

000; ER09–412–000] 

PJM Interconnection L.L.C.; Notice of 

Filings 

May 19, 2009. 

On March 26, 2009, the Commission 

issued an order accepting new tariff 

provisions relating to PJM 

Interconnection, L.L.C. (PJM’s) 

Reliability Pricing Model (RPM) 

capacity market, including changes to 

the procedures governing Incremental 

Auctions that became effective March 

27, 2009.1 One such revision was to the 

table of default Avoidable Cost Rate 

(ACR) values for the Base Residual 

Auction and three subsequent 

Incremental Auctions that PJM 

administers for each Delivery Year. 

Capacity suppliers who fail the market 

power test may use these ACR values as 

default bids when they offer capacity 

into the Incremental Auctions. 

On April 29, 2009, the PJM Market 

Monitor filed a letter to the Commission 

stating that, due to an oversight on its 

part, it believes the ACR values 

contained in those provisions are higher 

than appropriate for the upcoming 

Incremental Auctions in June 2009 and 

January 2010. The Market Monitor is 

concerned that use of these ACR values 

may lead to non-competitive market 

outcomes in the first Incremental 

Auction (June 1–5, 2009) for Delivery 


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