GEAR UP- Due July 14, 2011

Link to announcement in Federal Register: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-06-14/pdf/2011-14736.pdf

Purpose of Program: The GEAR UP program is a discretionary grant program that provides financial support for academic and related support services that eligible low-income students, including students with disabilities, need to enable them to obtain a secondary school diploma and to prepare for and succeed in postsecondary education.


Priorities: This notice contains two competitive preference priorities and one invitational priority.


Background: The President has set a clear goal for our education system: By 2020, the United States will once again lead the world in college completion. To achieve this goal, the Department has consistently encouraged four key reforms to improve elementary and secondary education—in particular the Department is seeking to: improve the effectiveness of teachers and school leaders and promote equity in the distribution of effective teachers and school leaders; strengthen the use of data to improve teaching and learning;provide high-quality instruction based on rigorous college- and career-ready standards and measure students’ mastery of standards using high-quality assessments aligned with those standards; and turn around the lowes tperforming schools.


The Department views the GEAR UP program as a critical component in the effort to improve the quality of secondary schools so that more students are well prepared for college and careers. In order to more strategically align GEAR UP with these overarching reform strategies for school improvement, the Department is announcing two competitive preference priorities for this competition. The Department also proposes one invitational priority for this competition.


We are using two priorities from the Department’s notice of final supplemental priorities and definitions for discretionary grant programs, published in the Federal Register on December 15, 2010 (75 FR 78486).


The Department is using Competitive Preference Priority 1—Turning Around Persistently Lowest-Achieving Schools because an essential element in strengthening our education system is dramatic improvement of student performance in each State’s persistently lowest-achieving schools. These schools often require intensive interventions to improve the school culture and climate, strengthen the school staff and instructional program, increase student attendance and enrollment in advanced courses, provide more time for learning, and ensure that social services and community support are available for students in order to raise student achievement, graduation rates, and college enrollment rates. In addition, students in these schools can benefit from participating in programs, such as GEAR UP, that offer additional services designed to increase student success.


II. Award Information


Type of Award: Discretionary grants.
Estimated Available Funds: $102,211,000. Contingent upon the availability of funds and the quality of applications, we may make additional awards in FY 2012 from the list of unfunded applicants from this competition.
Estimated Range of Awards: $100,000–$7,000,000.
Estimated Average Size of Awards: $1,161,489.


III. Eligibility Information
1. Eligible Applicants: Partnership consisting of (A) one or more local educational agencies (LEA), and (B) one or more degree granting institutions of higher education (IHE). Partnerships may also contain not less than two other community organizations or entities,  such as businesses, professional organizations, State agencies, institutions or agencies sponsoring programs authorized under the Leveraging Educational Assistance

THE JOBS AND INNOVATION ACCELERATOR CHALLENGE- Deadline for letter of intent June 10

Link to full announcement: http://www.eda.gov/PDF/JobsAccelerator_FFO.pdf


Regions across the nation can compete for complementary Federal resources that will be targeted to address the gaps and opportunities specific to their self-identified, high-potential industry clusters. The Jobs Accelerator leverages existing financial and technical resources from 16 Federal agencies and bureaus to support the development of approximately 20 high-growth industry clusters selected through a competitive inter-agency grant process. Funds awarded to the winning applicants can be used to achieve measurable outcomes such as commercialization, business formation, expansion of existing businesses, job creation, and exports. Total proposed funding for the Jobs Accelerator is approximately $33 million in direct Federal support from funding agencies, subject to the availability of appropriations.



The funding agencies are the Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration, the Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration, and, subject to the availability of appropriations, the Small Business Administration. This collaboration is designed to allow applicants to submit one application to access three complementary Federal sources to comprehensively support cluster development, and applicants must apply for all three funding sources available under the Jobs Accelerator FFO. Awards are expected to range from approximately $1.5 million to $2.2 million per cluster through the three funding agencies, and matching funds are required for a portion of the funding.
For prospective applicants, the EDA, ETA and SBA will hold an information teleconference on June 7, 2011. Please visit the Jobs and Innovation Accelerator Challenge website for the teleconference registration requirements and protocols, http://www.eda.gov/InvestmentsGrants/jobsandinnovationchallenge