Grants and Other Financial Assistance Programs: FY2008

1. Primary Targeted Assistance Grant priorities are to:

   1. provide ongoing and sustained professional development on successful scientifically based reading instructional approaches for K-3 teachers in MRFP districts that are not eligible for the incentive award; and

   2. provide technical assistance to school and district leaders, coaches, and teachers in MRFP districts that are not eligible for the incentive award.

2. Secondary Targeted Assistance Grant priorities are to:

   1. provide daily intensive intervention for K-3 struggling readers in the recipient district's MRFP schools, delivered by licensed intensive intervention teachers or trained support staff;

   2. provide before school, after school, or summer school reading tutorial programs for K-3 struggling readers in the recipient district's MRFP schools;

3. provide family literacy programs in the recipient district's MRFP schools or libraries;

4. provide training for parents or other volunteers as K-3 reading tutors in the recipient district's MRFP schools;

5. conduct local evaluation of the factors in the recipient district's MRFP that are contributing to the district's success in improving K-3 reading achievement; and

6. provide ongoing support for the recipient district's MRFP priorities, including:

   1. core, supplemental, and intensive intervention curriculum and instructional approaches;

   2. the use of valid and reliable assessments that are part of the MRFP Assessment Framework and assessment tools to inform instruction;

   3. professional development in scientifically based reading instruction for the K-3 teaching staff in the recipient district's MRFP schools;

   4. a school-based Reading First Reading Specialist in each MRFP K-3 school;

   5. a wide range of high quality fiction and nonfiction in the recipient district's MRFP classrooms and school libraries; and

   6. technical assistance by the recipient district in its MRFP schools to help them improve their implementation of the MRFP.

Only MRFP districts that meet the criteria of the two most recent consecutive years of improvement criteria are eligible to apply.

To be eligible, the district as a whole must show improvement in each of the two most recent consecutive years in the percentage of students reading at or above grade level in each of grades 1, 2, and 3 in the aggregate and for identified subgroups at grade 3: English language learners; special education; major racial and ethnic groups; and low income. For FY2008, determinations of eligibility were based upon GRADE data for three data points for districts that received Reading First funding in Round 1.1 and 1.2: Spring 2004, Spring 2005, and Spring 2006. For districts that received Reading First funding in Round 1.3, the three data points are Fall 2004 (baseline), Spring 2005, and Spring 2006. At or above grade level is determined by establishing the number and percentage of students reading at stanine 5 or above on the Total Test score of the Group Reading and Diagnostic Evaluation (GRADE). In addition to eligibility based on data, all eligible districts must be classified as "fully implemented" Reading First projects in the most recent monitoring conducted by the Office of Reading in the Spring of 2007.

In FY2008, approximately $950,000 is available for Targeted Assistance Grants to eligible districts. The Department will notify districts that are eligible to apply.

A district's maximum award for FY2008 is determined by adding the school amount of $133,000 for each Reading First school plus a district outreach amount of $275,000 that is to be used primarily for statewide, regional, and local outreach to Reading First districts that are not eligible for the TAG award.

Example: Two Reading First Schools in an eligible district:

$266,000 (2 schools) + $275,000 (district outreach) = $541,000 (Total of Targeted Assistance Grant)

Targeted Assistance Grants may only be used to support the priorities. Funds must be used for specific purposes, including:

1. leadership and support of statewide efforts to share evidence-based instructional practices with colleagues in Reading First schools and districts;

2. technical assistance to share evidence-based practices with educators in neighboring Reading First districts and schools;

3. professional development and technical assistance, including stipends for staff in each of the funded Reading First districts and other Reading First districts;

4. supplies;

5. trained intervention teachers;

6. before school, after school, and summer school K-3 reading tutorial programs for struggling readers;

7. conference expenses;

8. family literacy;

9. local evaluation activities;

10. high quality fiction and informational text for MRFP K-3 classrooms and school libraries; and

11. other ongoing costs of Reading First in the district.

Cheryl Liebling cliebling@doe.mass.edu

Administrator, Office of Reading and Language Arts

Friday, November 2, 2007

Competitive proposals must be received at the Department by 5:00 p.m. on the date due.

Submit the proposal electronically (by e-mail) to dearle@doe.mass.edu.

Mail the original Part I Superintendent's signature page and the original signed Assurances to:

Dorothy Earle
Office of Reading and Language Arts
Massachusetts Department of
Elementary and Secondary Education
350 Main Street
Malden, MA 02148-5023