15645
Federal Register
/Vol. 68, No. 61/Monday, March 31, 2003/Notices
awareness, alphabet knowledge, andnumeracy skills. The grants areparticularly important because there is acritical need for more high-quality,intensive, research-based professionaldevelopment programs for earlychildhood educators to enable them tohelp young children better develop theknowledge, skills, and dispositionsnecessary for school readiness.These grants will fund projects thatcarry out activities to improve theknowledge and skills of early childhoodeducators working in early childhoodprograms that are located in high-needcommunities. Under the invitationalpriority identified in this notice, theSecretary is particularly interested inproposals that focus on providingprofessional development for earlychildhood educators to work withchildren who have limited Englishproficiency, children with disabilities asidentified under Parts B or C of theIndividuals with Disabilities EducationAct, and children with other specialneeds. An application that meets thisinvitational priority, however, receivesno competitive or absolute preferenceover applications that do not meet thepriority.The specific activities for whichrecipients may use grant funds areidentified in the application package.The Secretary will expect fundedprojects to use rigorous methodologiesto measure progress toward attainingproject objectives and the finalachievement indicators that aredescribed in this notice under
Achievement Indicators.Definitions
The following terms used in theapplication package for this grantcompetition have specific statutorymeanings that are included in thatpackage:
‘‘
child with a disability,
’’
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early childhood educator,
’’
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high-needcommunity,
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low-income family,
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poverty line,
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professionaldevelopment,
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and
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scientifically basedresearch.
’’
The Secretary stronglyencourages applicants to review thestatutory definitions of these terms before preparing their grantapplications.
Applications
Early Childhood EducatorProfessional Development Programgrants for FY 2003 will be awardedthrough a competitive process. Thestatute requires each applicant to submitan application that contains specificinformation and assurances that aredescribed in the application package.Applicants must meet a statutoryrequirement to be eligible forconsideration for funding, and mustaddress the selection criteria fromsection 75.210 of EDGAR that areidentified in the application package.The application narrative addressing thestatutory requirement, the selectioncriteria, and other informationidentified in the application package islimited to 30 double-spaced, typedpages. The Appendices, including therequired Partnership Agreement, are notpart of this page limit. The additional budget narrative is limited to 5 double-spaced, typed pages. Other applicationmaterials are limited to the specificmaterials indicated in the applicationpackage, and may not include any videoor other non-print materials.
Achievement Indicators
On January 6, 2003, the Secretarypublished in the
Federal Register
(68FR 547
–
548) proposed achievementindicators for these grants. Afterreceiving public comment, the Secretarynow is publishing the following finalachievement indicators in accordancewith section 2151(e)(6) of the ESEA,elsewhere in this issue of the
FederalRegister
. That Notice of FinalAchievement Indicators contains theSecretary
’
s response to submitted publiccomments to the proposed achievementindicators. The Notice of FinalAchievement Indicators also is postedon the Department
’
s website at thefollowing address:
http://www.ed.gov/ offices/OESE/SASA/ecprofdev.html.
These final achievement indicatorswill govern these FY 2003 grants.Applicants must describe in theirapplications how their project objectivesand measurement methods are alignedwith these final achievement indicators,and report annually on their progresstoward attaining these indicators.
Final Achievement Indicators
In accordance with the timelineincluded in the approved application:
Indicator 1:
Projects will offer anincreasing number of hours of high-quality professional development toearly childhood educators. High-qualityprofessional development is ongoing,intensive, classroom-focused, and basedon scientific research on earlychildhood cognitive and socialdevelopment, including the age-appropriate development of orallanguage, phonological awareness, printawareness, alphabet knowledge, andnumeracy skills, and on effectivepedagogy for young children. High-quality professional development alsoincludes instruction in the effectiveadministration of age-appropriateassessments of young children and theuse of assessment results.
Indicator 2:
Early childhoodeducators who work in early childhoodprograms serving low-income childrenwill participate in greater numbers, andin increasing numbers of hours, in high-quality professional development.
Indicator 3:
Early childhoodeducators will demonstrate increasedknowledge and understanding of effective strategies to support schoolreadiness based on scientific researchon cognitive and social development inearly childhood and effective pedagogyfor young children, and in the effectiveadministration of age-appropriateassessments of young children and theuse of assessment results.
Indicator 4:
Early childhoodeducators will more frequently applyresearch-based approaches in earlychildhood pedagogy and childdevelopment and learning domains,including using a content-richcurriculum and activities that promotethe age-appropriate development of orallanguage, age-appropriate social andemotional behavior, phonologicalawareness, print awareness, alphabetknowledge, and numeracy skills. Earlychildhood educators also will morefrequently participate in the effectiveadministration of age-appropriateassessments of young children and theuse of assessment results.
Indicator 5:
Children willdemonstrate improved readiness forschool, especially in the areas of appropriate social and emotional behavior and early language, literacy,and numeracy skills.
Statutory Requirement—High-Need Communities:
Section 2151(e)(5)(A) of the ESEA (20 U.S.C. 6651(e)(5)(A))requires that grant funds be used tocarry out activities that will improve theknowledge and skills of early childhoodeducators who are working in earlychildhood programs that are located inhigh-need communities. Thus, thestatute requires that each earlychildhood program, in which the earlychildhood educators work who willreceive professional development underthe project, must be located in a
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high-need community.
’’
To be considered forfunding under this program, an eligibleapplicant must demonstrate in itsapplication narrative how it meets thisstatutory requirement by includingrelevant demographic andsocioeconomic information about thosecommunities.
‘‘
High-need community,
’’
as defined in section 2151(e)(9)(B) of theESEA, means: (a) A political subdivisionof a State, or a portion of a politicalsubdivision of a State, in which at least50 percent of the children are from low-income families; or (b) a politicalsubdivision of a State that is among the
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