Section 365.50  Criteria for the Review of Initial Proposals

a)         Initial applications shall be evaluated in accordance with the following criteria:

1)         Quality of the Plan (50 points)

A)        The proposal identifies schools to be served that are experiencing teacher shortages in particular curricular areas, limited access to Advanced Placement courses, low performance on the State assessment administered pursuant to Section 2-3.64 of the School Code, or high rates of dropping out.

B)        The proposal indicates how the prevalence of personal laptop computers and other technological resources can be used to mitigate the problems identified.

C)        The proposal discusses specific strategies that will be used by teachers and administrators, respectively, to improve the schools' and students' outcomes with respect to the specific problems noted.

D)        The proposal demonstrates that the teachers and administrators responsible for the classrooms to be served are amenable to the kinds of changes in their work that will occur if a greater reliance on technology is made possible.

E)         The proposal links the plan for the use of personal computing technology to other school improvement initiatives relevant to the schools to be served.

2)         Need (30 points)

A)        The proposal demonstrates that the schools to be served currently have inadequate access to technological resources that can be used directly by students and teachers.

B)        The proposal discusses other initiatives and strategies that have not been as effective as hoped in improving students' performance over time.

3)         Evaluation Plan (20 points)

The proposal identifies how and by whom each of the data elements implicit in the reporting requirement of Section 2-3.135(f) of the School Code will be collected and how each of the applicable comparisons will be made.

b)         Proposals shall be grouped according to the geographic areas delineated in Section 2-3.135(d) of the School Code, and each proposal shall be ranked only in comparison to proposals from other eligible entities within its respective group.