SUPPLEMENTAL PRIORITIES FOR DISCRETIONARY GRANT PROGRAMS FROM THE...

Supplemental Priorities for Discretionary Grant Programs from the U.S. Department of Education

In December 2010, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) released a collection of supplemental priorities for their discretionary grant programs. This document is an overarching look at what the U.S. Department of Education wants to see in grant applications. Stations that plan to apply for grants from the U.S. Department of Education should understand these priorities, so that their proposed projects can respond to the priorities.

While the list is helpful as stations consider which of their assets to highlight in grant applications, the list is also very broad, loosely defined and not mandatory. Understanding these priorities can help stations determine what to highlight in their applications and to understand the U.S. Department of Education's broad policy priorities. These priorities will always be superseded by the priorities articulated in the notices of individual grant programs, but they provide insight into the general policy trends of the U.S. Department of Education.

The supplemental priorities enumerated in December 2010 are as follows:

• Improving early learning outcomes.
• Implementing internationally-benchmarked college- and career-ready elementary and secondary academic standards.
• Improving the effectiveness and distribution of effective teachers or principals.
• Turning around persistently lowest-achieving schools.
• Improving school engagement, school environment and school safety.
• Improving family and community engagement.
• Technology.
• Core reforms.
• Increasing postsecondary success.
• Improving achievement and high school graduation rates.
• Promoting science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education.
• Promoting diversity.
• Support for military families.
• Enabling more data-based decision-making.
• Building evidence of effectiveness.
• Supporting programs, practices or strategies for which there is a strong or moderate evidence of effectiveness.
• Improving productivity.

After their initial release of these priorities, the U.S. Department of Education requested public comment. The APTS Grant Center, PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting submitted comments in response to this request. Two of the suggestions included in our comments were addressed in the final version of the following two priorities:

• Integration of media and technology: As our comments requested, the U.S. Department of Education added an emphasis on educational technology that mirrors the commitment they have expressed in previous documents. Citing comments they received about aligning these priorities with previous initiatives, including the National Education Technology Plan, the U.S. Department of Education included a priority that specifically addresses educational technology. The final priority is for: "Projects that are designed to improve student achievement or teacher effectiveness through the use of high-quality digital tools or materials, which may include preparing teachers to use the technology to improve instruction, as well as developing, implementing or evaluating digital tools or materials."
• Use of digital media for teacher professional development: The comments we submitted asked the U.S. Department of Education to encourage the use of digital media for teacher professional development. In response, the final supplemental priorities notice said, "We agree with the commenters that technology can play a vital role in improving student achievement, increasing students' access to instructional content and increasing teacher and school leader effectiveness through enhanced professional development." The priorities include professional development in the new Technology priority, as well as an emphasis on professional development in the priority for projects that improve the effectiveness and distribution of effective teachers or principals.

Takeaways for Public Broadcasting Stations

Early childhood education is still important to the U.S. Department of Education, but so is success in high school, college and career. Public media has a long history of great success in early childhood education, and that success will continue to be a valuable asset for stations that seek federal education grants. Increasingly, however, college- and career-readiness is a significant priority. As stations apply for grants, they should consider their impact on older youth.

STEM is and will continue to be a subject area on which to focus. The U.S. Department of Education's commitment to STEM remains, and we can expect to see it continue as a competitive preference priority in grant guidelines. Last year's Ready to Learn regulations emphasized traditional literacy, as well as numeracy, indicating an overall shift toward math and science. Fortunately, public media is ahead of the curve on addressing STEM subjects. PBS Kids programming has recently moved toward STEM subjects with series like Sid the Science Kid and Fetch! With Ruff Ruffman, and the system is also embracing STEM in community outreach. Emphasizing this shift toward math and science content can help secure grant funding.

Demonstrating effectiveness should be a critical part of every grant application. The push for data-driven evidence of effectiveness continues, and federal agencies will continue to require strong evidence. The public media system is rich with evidence of effectiveness; stations must be sure to include it in grant applications.

Public media's ingrained use of technology, commitment to diversity and strong evidence of success will continue to benefit grant applications when highlighted appropriately. Many of these priorities are also high priorities for the public media system and serve to illustrate how stations can already be strong candidates for grant funding. While individual grant requirements may be harder or easier for stations to meet, stations already address many of these priorities with existing outreach and programming activities.