NCLB Titled Programs
Fiscal Information
Field Memo #01-2007
| Date: | January 16, 2007 |
| To: |
Charter School Administrators Deans, Directors and Chairs of Teacher Education District Superintendents New York State Standards and Practices Board for Teaching Nonpublic School Administrators Regional Certification Officers SETRC Professional Development Specialists Superintendents of Public Schools Superintendents of State-Operated Schools |
| From: |
Johanna Duncan-Poitier Deputy Commissioner Office of Higher Education Office of the Professions Jean Stevens Interim Deputy Commissioner Office of Elementary, Middle, Secondary, and Continuing Education Rebecca H. Cort Deputy Commissioner Office of Vocational and Educational Services for Individuals with Disabilities |
| Subject: | Federal Funding Opportunities to Support Teacher Quality |
Consistent with New York State’s Revised Plan to Enhance Teacher Quality of September 2006, which has been approved by the U.S. Department of Education, we are sending you selected information about competitive federal funding opportunities to support teacher quality that may be useful as you plan to meet local and regional teacher workforce needs.
If you would like to receive timely, complete notices about funding opportunities directly from the U.S. Department Education, you can subscribe to a listserv by:
- Sending an email to: listserv@listserv.ed.gov
- Writing in the message's body: subscribe edinfo your name (Example: subscribe edinfo George Washington)
You can view an archive of past messages sent from this listserv at http://www.ed.gov/MailingLists/EDInfo/ 
.
Transition to Teaching – Notice Inviting Applications for New Awards
The Federal Register of January 8, 2007 contained a notice inviting applications for the FY 2007 Transition to Teaching competition 2007. The notice is at the U.S. Department of Education website . A total of approximately $19,000,000 may be available nationwide for new FY 2007 awards, subject to Congressional appropriations.
Additional information on completing the application for the FY 2007 competition is available on the Transition to Teaching website . In addition, a technical assistance workshop for interested applicants is scheduled to be held from 1:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. on January 31, 2007, at the Holiday Inn Capitol, 550 C St. SW, Washington, DC.
The U.S. Department of Education requests that potential applicants send Notices of Intent to Apply to transitiontoteaching@ed.gov by February 7, 2007. Applicants that do not send these notices may still apply.
Applications are due March 26, 2007 and must be submitted electronically using the Grants.gov Apply site. This site requires several days for applicants to register and several days to upload and verify receipt of an application. Late applications (received after 4:30 pm Washington, DC time on the deadline date) are not accepted, so the U.S. Department of Education recommends that potential applicants begin their application process on the grants.gov web site as soon as possible and have plans to submit their final applications electronically at least one week before the final deadline. For further information, see http://www.grants.gov/ or call the e-grants helpline at (800) 386-6820.
The Transition to Teaching program encourages (1) the development and expansion of alternative routes to full State teacher certification, as well as (2) the recruitment and retention of highly qualified mid-career professionals, recent college graduates who have not majored in education, and highly qualified paraprofessionals as teachers in high-need schools operated by high-need local educational agencies (LEAs), including charter schools that operate as high-need LEAs.
The program provides awards for up to 60 months to enable grantees to develop and implement comprehensive approaches to train, place and support teacher candidates whom they have recruited into their programs, who must meet relevant State certification or licensing requirements. Grantees then ensure that program participants are placed to teach in high-need schools and districts and support candidates to serve in these placements for at least three years.
Colleges and universities that do not currently offer alternative teacher preparation programs may contact the New York State Education Department’s Office of College and University Evaluation (ocue@mail.gov) or review its website to obtain information about registering programs leading to Transitional B or C certification.
Applicants are required to place teachers in a "high-need LEA," which is defined as an LEA that:
- (a) serves not fewer than 10,000 children from families with incomes below the poverty line, OR (b) for which not less than 20 percent of the children served by the LEA are from families with incomes below the poverty line;
And for which there is
- (a) a high percentage of teachers not teaching in the academic subjects or grade levels the teachers were trained to teach, OR (b) a high percentage of teachers with emergency, provisional, or temporary certification or licensing.
The U.S. Department of Education’s notice inviting applications provides a link to Census data needed to determine whether an LEA meets the first condition.
To determine whether an LEA meets the second condition, applicants can use a New York State Education Department list that shows the percentage of full-time equivalent teachers who were not appropriately certified for their assignments in each LEA in New York State in 2005-2006. To obtain the list, please write to NYSEDP12@mail.nysed.gov and request "the list of LEAs for TTT applications."
Teacher Incentive Fund – Notice Inviting Applications for New Awards
On November 14, 2006, the Federal Register contained a notice inviting applications for the Teacher Incentive Fund .
This program supports efforts to develop and implement performance-based teacher and principal compensation systems in high-need schools. Goals include:
- improving student achievement by increasing teacher and principal effectiveness;
- reforming teacher and principal compensation systems so that teachers and principals are rewarded for increases in student achievement;
- increasing the number of effective teachers teaching poor, minority, and disadvantaged students in hard-to-staff subjects; and
- creating sustainable performance-based compensation systems.
The deadline for submitting a Notice of Intent to apply for a Teacher Incentive Fund grant has passed, but applicants may still submit an application by the February 12, 2007 deadline. The current competition involves $43,000,000. Eligible applicants include local educational agencies (LEAs), including charter schools that are LEAs in their State; State educational agencies (SEAs); or partnerships of (a) an LEA, an SEA, or both, and (b) at least one non-profit organization. A total of 10 to 20 awards are expected to be made, ranging from $100,000-$10,000,000, with an average size of $3,500,000. Additional information is available online at the U.S. Department of Education website .
To help states and school districts learn about adding incentives to teacher compensation systems, the Education Commission of the States (ECS) published an issue paper on Diversifying Teacher Compensation and maintains a database of research on a number of redesigned teacher compensation programs. The issue paper and the database are available. These may be helpful to those planning to seek funds through this program this year or in future years.