Section 60.40  Implementation Grants – Procedure and Content of Proposals

New implementation grants shall be offered in years when the level of available funding is such that one or more new programs or cohorts of candidates can be supported given the requirements of Section 25 of the Act for ongoing support of cohorts that have begun their preparation in previous years.  (See Section 60.70 of this Part.)

a)         When sufficient funding is available, the State Superintendent of Education will issue an RFP specifying the information that proposals must include and specifying a deadline for their submission, which shall provide at least 45 calendar days in which to submit proposals.

b)         Each RFP shall specify the descriptive information that applicants will be required to provide, which shall be designed to permit comparative judgments of the degree to which each program will address the requirements of Section 20 of the Act and shall address:

1)         the teacher preparation programs involved and their qualifications relevant to the requirements of the Act, including specific information on the institution's success in preparing teachers for positions in schools that serve a substantial percentage of low-income students;

2)         the consortium's plans for recruiting and providing support to participants, including information that demonstrates that potential or existing members of the cohort are paraeducators or parent and community leaders as defined in the Act;

3)         the preparation status of existing candidates, if a cohort is already engaged in the program;

4)         the hard-to-staff schools and positions that are targeted; and

5)         the demographic make-up of the area served by the targeted schools.

c)         Each RFP shall describe the required proposal format, if any (e.g., cover page, proposal abstract, proposal narrative, letters of intent to participate, etc.).

d)         Each RFP shall identify the categories of allowable expenditures and require the submission of a budget summary and payment schedule, completed on the forms provided, as well as a narrative budget breakdown that provides a detailed explanation of each line item of expenditure and covers the entire period of time during which the identified cohort is expected to be enrolled in the teacher preparation program.

1)         Applicants shall be required to demonstrate that grant funds will supplement and not supplant amounts typically devoted by the institution of higher education to, and other resources available for, assisting teacher candidates.

2)         Applicants shall be required to describe the steps that will be taken to decrease the need for external financial support for the consortium and its program over time.

e)         Each RFP shall identify the information that consortia will be required to collect and furnish to the entity that conducts the evaluation required by Section 35 of the Act, including but not limited to zip codes of the candidates, the racial/ethnic make-up of the candidate cohort, the percentage of candidates who progress at the expected rate through the preparation program, the percentage who complete the program, and information on the positions eventually taken by these candidates.

f)          Each RFP shall identify the assurances and certifications that entities receiving funding must furnish.