Coordinator: Elyse Jones

PSC-ED-OUS

Coordinator: Elyse Jones

04-21-16/12:00 pm CT

Confirmation # 7994307

Page 1

PSC-ED-OUS

Coordinator: Elyse Jones

April21, 2016

12:00 pm CT

Coordinator:Welcome, everyone, and thank you for standing by.At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode until the question-and-answer session of today’s call.During the question-and-answer, to ask a question, you may press star, and then the Number 1, and record your name at the prompt.To withdraw your request, just press star, and then the Number 2.

This call is being recorded.If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time.At this point, I would like to hand it over to Ms. Elyse Jones.Ma’am, you may begin.

Elyse Jones:Good afternoon, everyone.My name is Elyse Jones.I’m the Operations and Program Analyst for the White Initiative on HBCUs.Today I bring you greetings on behalf of the initiative and our executive director Ivory Toldson who’s unable to be here with us today.

As some of you know, the HBCU initiative started co-hosting a series of webinars with our federal agency partners to educate the HBCU community on funding opportunities within the federal government.These efforts fully support our executive order mandate which is designed to strengthen their capacity of HBCUs to participate in a federal program.

This webinar is special and unique because not only will we be providing information to the HBCU community, we have also been working very closely with the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, to ensure that the content in this webinar will provide insight to both HBCUs and Hispanic-serving institutions.

As, you know, HBCUs and HSIs are vibrant sectors of intellect, innovation and research.Faculty and students and staff from these institutions continue the rich legacy of America and help us to achieve Obama’s 2020 goal of once again leading the world in the highest proportion of college graduates.At this time, I would like to turn the mic over to my colleague, Jaqueline Cortez Wang, with the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics.

Jaqueline Cortez Wang:Thank you, Elyse.Welcome and thank you for joining the webinar.My name is Jaqueline Cortez Wang with the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics.As many of you are aware, Hispanics are the youngest, largest and fastest-growing minority group,and will represent 60% of our nation’s population growth between 2005 and 2050.

And in an effort to increase the participation of the Hispanic community and Hispanic-serving institutions, in the Department of Education’s programs and other activities, we are excited to partner with the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities to bring you this webinar.

Thank you for joining.Please do not hesitate to reach out to the Hispanic Initiative at ed.gov/hispanic-initiative if you would like to reach out to us.Thank you, Elyse.

Elyse Jones:Okay.So, at this time, I just wanted to do a piece of housekeeping notes.For those on the line, I think the operators are already taking care of this,to mute your line.There is a comment box in the WebEx.I just wanted to make all of you aware that, after each presentation, we will be doing Q&A.But we will only be answering two to three questions after each presentation.And then, we will have a larger Q&A segment at the end of the presentation.

I also wanted to make the audience aware that this presentation, a transcription and a recording will be made available following the webinar on our Website which is listed on the slide shown in the presentation.So you guys will be able to retrieve the information after the webinar.

Very quickly before we go into the webinar, I just wanted to give you an overview of some of the offices that you’ll be hearing from today.So present with us, you’ll be hearing about funding opportunities in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, the Office of Innovation and Improvement, the Office of English Language Acquisition, the Office of Special Education Program and various offices within the Office of Postsecondary Education.

So, without further ado, I would like to begin this webinar.And we will start off with the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education.

(Michael Quiros):Good afternoon.My name is (Michael Quiros).I’m a Program Officer for the Technical Assistance Team in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education.I want to talk to you this afternoon about the upcoming funding opportunity for the Equity Assistance Center Program.The Equity Assistance Centers or EACs are regional centers authorized under Title IV of the Civil Rights Act.It provides technical assistance upon request in the areas of, race, sex and national origin.

The Equity Assistance Centers address many topic areas resulting from desegregation which may include improving school climate; reducing bullying, harassment and hate crime; adjusting the need to diverse learners; ensuring that schools employ a diverse range of teachers; and reducing school violence and drop-out rates among vulnerable populations.

Examples of technical assistance might include (unintelligible) efforts and surveys, providing technical assistance in the form of webinars, summits and toolkits that address the relevant equity issues, and providing coaching and professional development opportunities for teachers and schooladministrators.

Request for technical assistance can come from any governmental unit legally responsible for operating a public school or schools, which may include state education agencies, school districts and individual schools.

The current cohort incentivesis in the final year of a five-year grant cycle.We will hold a competition for new awards this summer.The estimated amount of funding for the fiscal year 2016 competition is $6.7 million and the estimated number of awards is four.

In applying for an award, applicants are expected to address the priorities, outlined by the Department in the notice-inviting application.For this competition, the Department proposes adding a priority to socioeconomic integration which are flexed to broadening definition of equity and addresses the links between racially and socioeconomically isolated schools and communities.

The Department also proposes flexibility in determining the number and makeup of each region.For the upcoming competition, we anticipate creating four regions.So who is eligible to apply for an award?The laws and regulations state that any non-profit organization or public entity agency, other than a state education agency, is eligible to receive an EAC award.If you would like more information about the program, please go to the Department’s website or contact (Bret Young).

Both the notice of proposed priority and the notice of proposed rulemaking are still open for comment.The comment period for the notice of proposed rulemaking will close April 25.And the comment period for the notice of proposed priority will close May 2.If you are interested in reading more about the proposed priorities and regulations or submitting comments, visit the Website listed in this slide.

Elyse Jones:At this point, if any of the audience has any questions, we would like to open it up for two to three questions from the audience, if there are any.

Coordinator:Again, for our participants, I’m sorry, if you have questions, just press star, and then the number 1.We have a couple queuing in for questions.One moment, please.And our first question is from (Tina).And your line is now open.

(Tina):Yes.I’m just wondering.I heard the April 15 deadline.And if you can explain that April 15 deadline for the - was that for the NPP?

(Michael Quiros):So the deadline that I mentioned, I believe, was April 25.And that is the deadline to make comments on the notice of proposed rulemaking.

(Tina):On the proposal.And the actual proposal - proposed deadline is...

(Michael Quiros):So we expect to have the notice-inviting applications out in June.

(Tina):Okay.Perfect.I understand now.Thank you.

Coordinator:Once again, if you have questions, just press star, and then the 1, and record your name at the prompt.

Elyse Jones:Okay.If there are no questions at this time, for the sake of time, we’re going to move onto our next presentation.

Bernadette Hence:Thank you, Elyse.My name is Dr.Bernadette Hence.And I’m here to present from Office of Postsecondary Education the Minority Science and Engineering Improvement Program grant.

So, the purpose of this particular grant is to provide long-term improvements in science and engineering to minority institutions, and also, to increase the participation of underrepresented ethnic minorities into the science and technological careers.

So this is one of the Department’s premier STEM grants.So this grant supports quite a few activities and I want to go over that to give you some idea of the broadness of this particular grant.

So it allows you to provide guidance to eligible participants.These can be pre-college students.And we consider our pre-college students anybody who has not attended college from K to 12.So you can use this particular grant to provide tutoring or anything to help them prepare to go into college into a STEM career.They can receive astipend.

It supports faculty development where faculty are learning new skills or maybe learning how to work on new curriculum; and also, renovation of STEM labs and facilities.What it does not support are scholarships to students or new constructions.But it does support renovation; something that already exists.

So there are some key definitions that you need to be aware of when we talk about the Minority Science and Engineering Improvement Program.One is the definition of a minority institution.So the definition is an accredited college or university whose enrollment of a single minority or a combination of minority groups exceeds 50% of the total enrollment.And when we say exceed, it could be 50.01, but it has to be more than 50%.

Now the minorities that we’re talking about are defined in our legislation.It’s American Indian, Alaskan Native, Black, not of Hispanic origin; Hispanic including persons of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, and Central or South American origin; Pacific islands or other ethnic groups; underrepresented in science and engineering.But it is not defined by gender.

So, again, here is something unique about this particular funding opportunity.MSEIP allows multiple applications from an applicant, as long as the applications describe different projects.We commonly see, when we have a competition, institutions submitting three, four and five applications, and we commonly see a school receiving funding for two.

The last thing that I want to cover, that you need to know about are the awards and the word of mouth.You’re not able, really, to see it well on this particular screen, but now you can.Okay.So we have institutional grants and special project grants.In those particular grants, we award $250,000 maximum per year for three years.Well that would be a total of $750,000.If you apply for a cooperative project grant, that would be $300,000 per year for a maximum of three years, totaling no more than $900,000.

So, if you have any questions about this program, here’s my direct contact information.And I’d be happy to provide additional information to you.At this particular time, the Department is considering funding down the list of applicants that were successful in 2015 that had high scores.So we have not finalized our decision but it’s a high probability that we will not have a competition in 2016 and that our next competition would be in 2017.

However, this is a highly competitive grant.Sometimes the cutoff scores are as high as 99.So it would be to your advantage to go ahead and look at last year’s applications and begin to work.Operator, do you have any questions?Please, open up the line.

Coordinator:Thank you, ma’am.Again, just press star, and then the number 1, and record your name at the prompt.And we have a question from (Lateef).And your line is now open.

(Lateef):Yes.I understand this program focuses on the STEM hard sciences.Would it also encompass related areas?I’m specifically thinking about the patent law which would obviously involve inventions and work in that area but from a legal perspective.

Bernadette Hence:If you’re taking the legal perspective, then no, it wouldn’t.

(Lateef):Okay.Thank you.

Coordinator:And our next question is from (Darlene).And your line is now open.

(Darlene):Okay.Good morning.Good afternoon.We’re here in Los Angeles.A quick question.Would we be able to find summaries of previous successful grants on your Website?Anything of that nature?

Bernadette Hence:What we usually post on the Website are the abstracts.We don’t usually post the actual applications.You’d have to do a Freedom of Information Act in order to receive an actual application.

(Darlene):Okay.Thank you very much.

Bernadette Hence:Okay.You’re welcome.

Coordinator:Again, if you have questions, just press star, and then the Number 1.

Bernadette Hence:Okay.I just I want to remind everyone.Sometimes it’s a disadvantage to see previous applications because they were responding to a particular priority and certain conditions.And it may kind of - misleads you and misguides you.So you may want to look at something fresh, you know, and not used, necessarily, that is, a template.

So it was my pleasure to have spoken to you today.My contact information is up on the screen.And feel free to e-mail me or call me if you have any ideas that you want to discuss or you have any questions about this wonderful STEM program that the Department of Education offers.Thank you, Elyse.

Elyse Jones:Okay.So, at this time, let’s see, we’re going to hand it over to the Office of English Language Acquisition.

Marianna Vinson:Great.Thank you.My name is Marianna Vinson.And I’m the Deputy Director for the Office of English Language Acquisition.And good afternoon, and good morning to those of you joining us from the West Coast.

We are very excited to be able to share little information about the National Professional Development grant program.The administration is committed to equity and access for all students.And the National Professional Development program is one way we can improve equity for English learners.

I would like to note that we are currently reviewing applications for the FY 2016 cycle.But we do expect to open up another competition for FY 2017.So stay tuned for that.

A little bit on the NPD program overview, the program provides funds to institutions of higher education, in consortia with local education agencies or LEAs, also known as school districts, or state education agencies to implement pre-service or in-service training for teachers or other educators working with English learners.

The institutions of higher education are the fiscal agents for the NPD grant.In other words, IHEs are the grantees.However, IHEs cannot submit an NPD grant application without an agreement such as an MoU, a memorandum of understanding, with an LEA or an SEA.And the IHE then should work collaboratively with that LEA or SEA to design their NPD program.

NPD fund grants for a period of up to 60 months or five years.Grantees receive up to $550,000 per year to implement their professional development program.And multiplied over five years, that total grant award is upwards of $2-1/2 million.So it’s a good amount of funding to implement programs.You can go ahead and advance the screen.

The NPD program is authorized under Title III of ESEA.Under current authorization, allowable activities include pre-service professional development training program to help teachers upgrade the qualifications of their pre-service credentials; also supports the development of a curriculum that improves the educational instruction for English learners; as well as financial assistance to cover tuition, fees and books, for teachers or other educators working to complete certification or other professional learning to support English learners.

So these are just some of the allowable activities under the NPD program.However, proposed projects will be driven by the consortia of participants and the needs of the English learners in your community as applicants work together to design their NPD program.

I would also like to mention that the recent re-authorization of the ESEA (unintelligible) every student exceed that does make some changes to the NPD program.And those changes will be shared with applicants and future funding cycles.All right.The next screen.

As mentioned, we are currently reading applications for the FY 2016 funding cycle.Listed here are the priorities for the current competition to give you a sense of what applicants are writing to or have written to.All applicants had to address the absolute priority which, as noted here, speaks to the design and implementation of a professional development program that serves to improve the instruction of English learners,so all programs have to have this.

There were also two competitive preference priorities for which applicants could receive additional points.The competitive preference priorities were moderate evidence of effectiveness and improving parent, family and community engagements.