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CHALLENGE RFP

The Challenge

Now we are issuing a new challenge to communities across the country. How can we use the information superhighway and powerful new technologies to improve learning, enhance economic competitiveness, and strengthen citizen participation? The hardware alone will not be enough. To enter the information age, we must meet the challenge of using these resources to develop and deliver high quality learning opportunities.

This is an ambitious challenge. We are experiencing a scientific and technological revolution of unprecedented proportions. Everywhere we look, technology is changing the way we work and live. Everywhere, that is, but in our classrooms. In an information age society we have factory era schools. In classrooms that could be modern communication centers for learning, the basic media of instruction continue to be blackboards and chalk. Only a handful of schools has full access to the new technologies that are becoming so central to our lives, and the abundant learning resources available on the information superhighway are out of reach for most of our teachers, students and parents.

The implications for education and economic competitiveness are enormous. In a global economy, employers must have well-educated employees who make skillful use of information technologies to continuously improve their productivity and increase their knowledge. But few schools are able to provide the interactive, high performance learning environments that would allow students to develop these skills.

The potential for creating a new generation of interactive learning environments grows out of advances in technology and telecommunications that have given us dramatic new ways to communicate complex ideas. We learn more when we are actively solving challenging problems and testing our skills in meaningful contexts, rather than through passive listening or watching in the abstract. In these new learning environments the teacher becomes a leader in a community of active learners that includes students, parents, other educators, and a broad spectrum of information resources. It is possible for learners of all ages to connect with these new learning communities in their schools, homes, or workplaces at any hour of the day. In these virtual learning communities the extent of learning and the effectiveness of teaching need no longer be limited by the amount of time in the classroom or the resources of a particular school.

As catalysts for change, challenge grants will support communities of educators, parents, industry partners, and others who are working to transform their factory era schools into information age learning centers. Challenge grants will support the development and innovative use of technology and new learning content in specific communities. Each effort should clearly focus on integrating innovative learning technologies into the curriculum to improve learning productivity in the community.

The information superhighway creates new possibilities for extending the time, the place, and the resources for learning. Challenge grant communities can use it to develop first class learning environments that provide affordable access to quality education and training, anytime and anyplace. Some of the most exciting possibilities might come from a creative synthesis of ideas generated by educators and software developers, telecommunications firms and hardware manufacturers, entertainment producers, and others who are stretching our thinking about how to create new learning communities.

Challenge grant communities need not be limited by geography. The information superhighway can be used to create virtual learning communities linking schools, colleges, libraries, museums, and businesses across the country or around the world. Students of all ages, no matter where they live, could tap vast electronic libraries and museums containing text and video images, music, art, and language instruction. They could work with scientists and scholars around the globe who can help them use mapping tools, primary historical documents, or laboratory experiments to develop strong research and problem-solving skills.

Each community is encouraged to use this challenge grant to act on its most ambitious vision for education reform. But we must guard against a future in which some communities have access to vast technological resources, while others do not. We must not become a society in which low income neighborhoods and other areas with the greatest need for technology are left behind in the acquisition of knowledge and skills needed for productive citizenship in the 21st century. A failure to include these communities will put their future, and the future of the country, at risk. That is why the Secretary of Education will give priority to applications from alliances of educators, industry partners, and community leaders who are developing creative responses to the information age requirements of all learners, including those who have the greatest need for access to new technologies.

Who Can Apply for a Challenge Grant?

Each challenge grant for technology in education can augment the efforts of communities working to meet the National Education Goals. Consortium efforts should be carefully designed to encourage ongoing involvement of educators and parents, business and civic leaders, community organizations and others committed to school improvement and education reform. Specific educational objectives and active participation of teachers, students, and parents at each stage of development will contribute to success.

Partners in the consortia are expected to make substantial commitments for the costs of equipment, software development, technical support, and any other costs that may be associated with acquiring connectivity linkages or services. Funds awarded through these grants will augment those investments by supporting the development of new curriculum, professional development, and the evaluation of educational effectiveness. The total value of commitments made by members of the consortium should significantly exceed the funds provided by the challenge grant.

Subject to availability of funds, approximately 16 challenge grants will be made in 1995. In some cases the grant may be as small as $500,000 per year. The typical grant will be larger, however. Approximately 12 grants will average $1 million a year, and four grants may range between $2 and $3 million a year. In each application the specific contributions of Consortium members should be identified and documented. The projected contributions of consortium members and plans to obtain future of support should be realistic and credible.

The consortium also may draw on other appropriate sources of support at the national, state, or local level. These sources may include foundation grants, philanthropic contributions, and grants or contracts from other government programs. For example, under the Goals 2000: Educate America Act, the Department of Education provides resources to states and local school districts for systemic education reform plans. Through a separate competition grants are available to each state to help integrate technology into these plans. The Department of Commerce provides grants to help develop the telecommunications and information infrastructure. The National Science Foundation has launched several activities to support the use of technology in mathematics and science education, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has several programs to improve the use of technology and space science data in the classroom. There are many other sources of support that could be developed during the life of the project. The Interagency Technology Task Force will provide an information guide to such sources.

Challenge grants will be five-year awards. In the latter half of each year, each grantee will be required to submit a performance report and an application for the specific activities that will be supported with the next year's funding. In year one, each consortium should be prepared to begin start-up activities, including initial trials of technologies and new applications during the 1995-1996 school year. Years two and three will be devoted to refinement and scale-up activities. Years four and five will support full-scale adoptions that can become self sustaining after the fifth year. Each consortium should be prepared to conduct careful evaluations of educational effectiveness at every stage of the effort.

What Can You Do With a Challenge Grant?

Industry will become an even stronger partner for education reform in response to careful planning and clearly defined educational goals. In the current education reform movement, states and school districts across the country are working to set clear goals and challenging academic standards that will help define what educators and families need from new technologies. School-wide and system-wide efforts to set clear expectations for what all students should know could enable some communities, and possibly even some states or regions, to form major markets for high quality learning applications. Industry partners could assume a leadership role in educational technology by developing user-friendly, low maintenance systems that are cost effective and easy to scale up for widespread use. Challenge grant consortia could jump start this process by helping communities generate these new markets for learning technologies.

Each consortium is encouraged to think boldly and to develop ambitious plans. Wildly speculative ideas with little grounding in convincing evidence of feasibility are not likely to be competitive, however. Strong applications will have a well-focused technical concept -- an idea based on an important technology, software application, or other approach that is at an appropriate stage of development for implementation in a specific learning environment. Industry partners may find that partnerships with challenge grant communities provide a unique opportunity for large-scale tests of innovative products or services. The application should make a strong case that the proposed plan of action is an effective and appropriate response to a clearly defined educational opportunity.

For example, new information technologies provide an opportunity to help all children meet high academic standards. Achieving high standards means mastering core academic subjects, including reading, writing, mathematics, sciences, history, geography, and languages. Meeting high standards also means learning to acquire and communicate new information, learning to think mathematically, to solve problems scientifically, to reason well, and to see and express oneself artistically. Through the National Information Infrastructure (NIl) students of all ages, no matter where they live, could access vast electronic libraries and museums containing text and video images, music, simulations, and primary historical documents. Students and teachers could consult with scientists, scholars, and experts around the globe. Meeting high standards means helping all students acquire the knowledge, skills, and habits of mind they will need to get good jobs, be good citizens, and live good lives in a global community.

To support these new learner centered environments, information technologies must contribute to the professional development of teachers who will be using a wider range of instructional resources than is generally available today. The information age and the education reform movement are challenging teachers to become learning coaches managing the activities of diverse learners who are pursuing different questions, learning at different rates, and using a wide range of information resources. New technologies can provide teachers with the tools needed to meet this challenge in the classroom, and electronic networks can help them share their best ideas with colleagues and professionals across town or around the world. Sustained professional development for teachers to support the integration of new learning technologies into the curriculum will be essential to achieve the full potential of these challenge grants.

Involving parents and extending learning into the home will also help us achieve high academic standards. Students stand a greater chance of succeeding when families and teachers are in effective communication. Electronic networks can be used to forge new educational partnerships among parents, teachers, and students. New technologies can help families bring a vast array of educational resources into the home. They can extend the time and place for learning from the classroom to the living room, creating new opportunities for sustained study of core academic subjects.

These are but a few of the benefits that could flow from using information technologies to improve education. Challenge grant consortia are encouraged to go beyond these ideas, to develop innovative responses to the most pressing learning needs in their communities.

Challenge grants will provide seed money for implementing promising new technologies in specific learning communities. If their success is well documented, the most effective practices, and the important lessons from their efforts, will receive widespread use in communities across the country. But the success must be well documented. Applicants are encouraged to avoid unsupported claims of pervasive impact, market demand, or educational effectiveness. A careful evaluation plan should be a central feature of each application. Each effort should be of sufficient scope, depth, and duration to provide a rigorous test of its feasibility and effectiveness. The evaluation design should define what goals, and it should indicate how improvements in student learning or teacher training will be assessed. Data should include measured student performance and achievement at each stage of development. Developing evidence of effectiveness should not be put off until the last stages of the effort. It must be a consideration from the design stage onward. The Interagency Technology Task Force will provide a guide to evaluation resources.

During June and July of 1995, external panels of experts will review applications and make recommendations to the Secretary of Education. The Secretary will use two criteria to select applications for funding: significance and feasibility. Is it important and can it be done?

Significance will be determined by the extent to which the project:

• offers a creative, new vision for using technology, to help all students learn to challenging standards or to promote efficiency and effectiveness in education; and contributes to the advancement of State or local systemic educational reform;

• will achieve far-reaching impact through results, products, or benefits that are easily exportable to other settings and communities;

• will directly benefit students by integrating acquired technologies into the curriculum to enhance teaching, training, and student achievement or by other means;

• will ensure ongoing, intensive professional development for teachers and other personnel to further the use of technology in the classroom, library, or other learning center;

• is designed to serve areas with a high number or percentage of disadvantaged students or other areas with the greatest need for educational technology; and

• is designed to create new learning communities, and expanded markets for high-quality educational technology applications and services.

Feasibility will be determined by the extent to which:

• the project will ensure successful, effective, and efficient uses of technologies for educational reform that will be sustainable beyond the period of the grant;

• the members of the consortium or other appropriate entities will contribute substantial financial and other resources to achieve the goals of the project; and

• the applicant is capable of carrying out the project, as evidenced by the extent to which the project will meet the problems identified; the quality of the project design, including objectives, approaches, evaluation plan, and dissemination plan; the adequacy of resources, including money, personnel, facilities, equipment, and supplies; the qualifications of key personnel who would conduct the project; and the applicant's prior experience relevant to the objectives of the project.

In the final award of grants under this program, the Secretary will give priority to efforts that are designed to serve effectively areas with a high number or percentage of disadvantaged students or the greatest need for educational technology. Sweeping, unsubstantiated claims about the number of low income students or high need communities to be served should be avoided. A well documented plan for meeting specific education problems should be presented.

HOW TO APPLY

Application Deadline: June 2, 1995

ELIGIBLE APPLICANTS

Applications must be developed by a consortium including at least one local educational agency with a high percentage or number of children living below the poverty line. The application must be submitted by a local educational agency, but a single educational agency is not eligible to apply unless it is part of a consortium that may include other local educational agencies, state educational agencies, institutions of higher education, businesses, academic content experts, software designers, museums, libraries, or other appropriate organizations.

APPLICANT BRIEFING

An Applicant Briefing is scheduled from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on March 17, ! 995, at the Crystal City Marriott Hotel, 1999 Jefferson Davis Highway, Arlington, VA 22202-3564 (703-413-5500). At this event Interagency Technology Task Force staff will answer questions about the competition. Potential applicants will have an opportunity to share ideas with each other. For those who are unable to attend this briefing, a summary of the questions and answers will be posted in the Department of Education's On-Line Library, which may be accessed on the Department's WWW Server at URL http://www.ed.gov. Also available is the Internet Gopher Server at gopher. ed.gov (under Announcements, Bulletins, and Press Releases). To receive written instructions on accessing the On-Line Library, call 1-800-USA-LEARN. Those who do not have electronic access to this information may contact the Task Force directly to receive a hard copy at (202) 708-6001.

LETTER OF INTENT

Prospective applicants are asked to submit a letter of intent to apply. This letter should be received by April 4, 1995. Letters should be addressed to: Interagency Technology Task Force, U.S. Department of Education, 600 Independence Ave., S.W., Washington, D.C. 20202-5544. While there are no formal guidelines for this letter, it should not exceed three double-spaced pages. It should identify: the educational needs and opportunities to be addressed; the concept for responding to those needs; the proposed technologies and applications to be used; and a general estimate 'of budget purposes.

APPLICATION CONTENT

• Title Page: Use the Title Page form included in these guidelines or a suitable facsimile to cover each application copy. Please include a brief abstract in the space provided. Additional instructions are printed on the reverse side of the Title Page.

• Table of Contents: Include a one-page table of contents.

• Abstract: Attach a one-page double-spaced abstract following the Title Page (this is in addition to the abstract requested on the Title Page itself). The abstract should mention the problem or need being addressed, the proposed activities, and the intended outcomes.

• Narrative: While we do not require a standard outline, in no more than 25 double-spaced, numbered pages, and approximately 6,250 words, you should address the selection criteria and the issues discussed in this application package.

• List of Consortium Members: In an appendix, list all consortium members, their contact persons, addresses, telephone numbers, and Fax numbers. Similar information should be provided for other sources of support. The roles and contributions of all consortium members should be described clearly within the 25-page narrative. Letters of commitment should be included in an appendix to clearly document the role and contribution of each member.

• Project Personnel: In an appendix, please provide a brief summary of the background and experience of key project staff as they relate to the specific project activities you are proposing.

• Budget: Use the attached Budget Summary form or a suitable facsimile to present a complete, standard budget for each year of the project. In an appendix, please provide, for each year, a detailed budget with a separate narrative justification for each line item, which explains: (1) the basis for estimating the costs of professional personnel salaries, benefits, project staff travel, materials and supplies, consultants and subcontracts, indirect costs, and any projected expenditures; (2.) how the major cost items relate to the proposed activities; (3) the costs of evaluation; and (4) a detailed description explaining the funding provided by members of the consortium. Funds provided under this program are intended to supplement, not supplant, any existing funds or operations of consortium members. Please include project staff travel funds for one trip during each year of the project to an October meeting in Washington, D.C. Each trip will be for three days and for three to five persons. At these meetings each challenge grant community will have an opportunity to strengthen its efforts by collaborating with the other grantees funded in this program.

• List of Application Authors: In an appendix, please list all persons who wrote the application, their organizational affiliation, the sections they worked on, and the approximate percentage of the total effort each one contributed.

• Other Attachments: Reviewers will have a limited time to read each application. Their reading time will be limited to the 25-page narrative and the appendices listed above. To provide background information, applicants may include brief documentation of their track record or history of work in the field, if it is directly relevant to the proposed effort. Reviewers can be expected to consider such information only if it is not excessively long.

• Proprietary Information: Applications may contain innovative technical or business ideas that members of the consortium intend to use to their competitive advantage in commerce or otherwise. Bold legends clearly asserting the proprietary nature of this information should appear at the top and bottom of each page on which it appears. For the purposes of the Freedom of Information Act, the Interagency Task Technology Task Force considers that all applications contain proprietary, commercial, or financial information submitted on a privileged basis for the sole purpose of peer review for funding decisions. Federal employees and external field readers under contract to the government are prohibited from divulging or using such information for any other purpose.

• Number of Copies of Application: All applicants are required to submit one (1) signed original and two (2) copies of the application (one copy unbound). Each application must be covered with a Title Page (form included in these guidelines) or a reasonable facsimile. Applicants are also requested to submit three (3) additional copies of the Title Page itself.

All sections of the application and all appendices or attachments must be suitable for photocopying to be included in the review.

SUBMISSION OF APPLICATIONS

The deadline for receipt of applications is June 2, 1995. All applications must be received on or before that date. This closing date and procedures for guaranteeing timely submission will be strictly observed.

Mailing Address for Applications:

TECHNOLOGY CHALLENGE GRANTS PROGRAM

ATTN: 84.303A

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

APPLICATION CONTROL CENTER

ROOM 3633

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20202-4725

Applications sent by mail must be received no later than June 2, 1995. Applications not received by the deadline date will not be considered for funding unless the applicant can show proof that the application was (1) sent by registered or certified mail not later than five (5) days before the deadline date; or (2) sent by a commercial carrier not later than two (2) days before the deadline date. The following are acceptable as proof of mailing: (1) a legibly dated U.S. Postal Service postmark, (2) a legible mail receipt with the date of mailing stamped by the U.S. Postal Service, (3) a dated shipping label, invoice, or receipt from a commercial carrier, or (4) any other proof of mailing acceptable to the Secretary.

Applications delivered by hand before the deadline date will be accepted daily between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Eastern Daylight Time except Saturdays, Sundays, or Federal holidays at the Application Control Center, U.S. Department of Education, Regional Office Building 3, Room 3633, 7th and D Streets, S.W.,Washington, D.C. Applications delivered by hand on June 2, 1995 (on the deadline date) will not be accepted after 2:00 p.m.

NOTIFICATION OF AWARD

Applicants will be notified by September 1995 whether their application is being funded.

Assurances and Certifications

Applications selected for funding, will require a signed Form ED 80-0013 ("Certifications Regarding Lobbying; Debarment, Suspension and Other Responsibility Matters; and Drug-Free Workplace Requirements"), Standard Form SF 424B ("Assurances-Non-Construction Programs"), and Standard Form LLL ("Disclosure of Lobbying Activities") before an award is made.

Interagency Technology Task Force

U.S. Department of Education

600 independence Ave., S.W.

Washington, D.C. 20202-5544

Phone: 202-708-6001

Four Directions has received support from the Technology Innovation Challenge program, U.S. Department of Education. It is administered by the Pueblo of Laguna Department of Education.