Reply #9: some excerpts - please critique (not criticize!) [View All]

[mzteris]

(I trust you know the difference.)

Supporting student success requires deploying every tool at our disposal. The students most at risk for academic failure too often attend schools and live in communities with insufficient capacity to address the full range of their needs. The result is that students cannot always focus on learning and teachers cannot always focus on teaching.
Preparing students for success requires taking innovative, comprehensive approaches to meeting students’ needs, such as rethinking the length and structure of the school day and year, so that students have the time they need to succeed and teachers have the time they need to collaborate and improve their practice. It means supporting innovative models that provide the services that students need; time for teachers to collaborate to meet academic challenges; environments that help all students be safe, healthy, and supported in their classrooms, schools, and communities; and greater opportunities to engage families in their children’s education and strengthen the role of schools as centers of communities.

Successful, Safe, and Healthy Students

A New Approach
▶▶Providing a cradle through college and career continuum in high-poverty communities that provides effective schools, comprehensive services, and family supports.
▶▶Supporting programs that redesign and expand the school schedule, provide high-quality afterschool programs, and provide comprehensive supports to students.
▶▶Using data to improve students’ safety, health, and well-being, and increasing the capacity of states, districts, and schools to create safe, healthy, and drug-free
environments.

PROMISE NEIGHBORHOODS
Our proposal will provide new, competitive grants to support the development and implementation of a continuum of effective community services, strong family supports, and comprehensive education reforms to improve the educational and life outcomes for children and youths in high-need communities, from birth through college and into careers. Programs must be designed to improve academic and developmental outcomes for children and youths through effective public schools, community-based organizations, and other local agencies. Programs will be encouraged to take a comprehensive approach to meeting student needs, drawing on the contributions of community-based organizations, local agencies, and family and community members. Grantees will conduct a needs assessment of all children in the community in order to establish baseline data against which the grantee will aim to improve outcomes, and will promote and coordinate community involvement, support, and buy-in, including securing and leveraging resources from the public and private sectors.

21ST CENTURY COMMUNITY LEARNING CENTERS

Our proposal will provide competitive grants for states, school districts, nonprofit organizations, and partnerships to implement in school and out of school strategies that provide students and, where appropriate, teachers and family members, with additional time and supports to succeed.
Competitive grants will be awarded to states, school districts, and community-based organizations to leverage models that comprehensively redesign and expand the school day or year, provide full-service community schools, or provide services before school, after school, or during the summer. All programs will focus on improving student academic achievement in core academic subjects, ranging from English language arts, mathematics, and science, to history, the arts, and financial literacy, as part of a well-rounded education, and providing enrichment activities, which may include activities that improve mental and physical health, opportunities for experiential learning, and greater opportunities for families to actively and meaningfully engage in their children’s education.

Priority will be given to applicants that propose to carry out programs to support the improvement of Challenge schools identified under the College- and Career-Ready Students program, and those that propose to implement comprehensive and coordinated programs, including comprehensively redesigning and expanding the school schedule for all students, providing comprehensive supports to students and families through full-service community school models, or establishing partnerships between school districts and nonprofit organizations for in school or out of school strategies.

SUCCESSFUL, SAFE, AND HEALTHY STUDENTS

Our proposal will provide competitive grants to support states, school districts, and their partners in providing learning environments that ensure that students are successful, safe, and healthy. To better measure school climate and identify local needs, grantees will be required to develop and implement a state- or district-wide school climate needs assessment to evaluate school engagement, school safety (addressing drug, alcohol, and violence issues), and school environment, and publicly report this information. This assessment must include surveys of student, school staff, and family experiences with respect to individual schools, and additional data such as suspensions and disciplinary actions. States will use this data to identify local needs and provide competitive subgrants to school districts and their partners to address the needs of students, schools, and communities.

Grantees will use funds under the Successful, Safe, and Healthy Students program to carry out strategies designed to improve school safety and to promote students’ physical and mental health and well-being, nutrition education, healthy eating, and physical fitness. Grantees may support activities to prevent and reduce substance use, school violence (including teen dating violence), harassment, and bullying, as well as to strengthen family and community engagement in order to ensure a healthy and supportive school environment.

Priority will be given to applicants that propose to support partnerships between districts and nonprofit organizations, including community-based organizations. Priority will also be given to grantees willing to direct funds to schools with the greatest need, including Challenge schools, as identified under the College- and Career-Ready Students program, or schools with the greatest needs as identified through the school climate needs assessment.

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A Complete Education
As we ask states to raise their standards to prepare their students for college and the workplace, we will also be asking more from students, families, teachers, principals, and every level of the educational system. To make higher standards meaningful, we must ensure that states, districts, schools, and teachers have the resources and assistance they need to help students reach these standards, such as instructional supports, high-quality professional development, and teaching and learning materials aligned with those standards. This means a new investment in improving teaching and learning in all content areas – from literacy to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics to history, civics, foreign languages, the arts, financial literacy, environmental education, and other subjects – and in providing accelerated learning opportunities to more students to make postsecondary success more attainable.

A Complete Education

A New Approach
▶▶Strengthening instruction in literacy and in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, aligned with improved standards that build toward college- and career-readiness.
▶▶Supporting teachers and students in teaching and learning to more rigorous standards that prepare students for college and a career.
▶▶Improving access to a well-rounded education for students in high-need schools.
▶▶Expanding access to college coursework and other accelerated learning opportunities for students in high-need schools.

. . .

STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES - more -
ENGLISH LEARNER EDUCATION - more -

MIGRANT EDUCATION
Our proposal will continue and strengthen formula grants to states, districts, and other providers to meet the educational needs of migrant students. To ensure that funds are most effectively targeted to the areas in which migrant students live, we will update the current funding formula to incorporate more accurate and timely data. We will also strengthen and facilitate interstate efforts to support the educational transition of migrant students into local schools and communities.

HOMELESS CHILDREN AND YOUTHS EDUCATION
Our proposal will continue and strengthen formula grants to help states and districts put in place systems and services to meet the educational needs of homeless students. First, we will better target funds to serve homeless students by allocating funds on the basis of counts of homeless students rather than by shares of Title I allocations. Second, we will remove barriers to effective services for homeless children. And third, we will clarify provisions of the current statute where ambiguity resulted in delays in services for homeless children and youths. Our proposal will also increase transparency by requiring grantees to report on the academic outcomes for students served by the program.

NEGLECTED AND DELINQUENT CHILDREN AND YOUTHS EDUCATION
Our proposal will continue and strengthen formula grants to states to improve educational services for students in state-operated institutions and community day programs for neglected or delinquent children and youths. To better direct funds to support students in locally-operated institutions, our proposal will ask districts to reserve funds received under the College- and Career-Ready Students program to support programs conducted by locally-operated institutions.

INDIAN, NATIVE HAWAIIAN, AND ALASKA NATIVE EDUCATION
RURAL EDUCATION
IMPACT AID

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adding this just 'cause I like it!

ENSURING A WELL-ROUNDED EDUCATION
To help more students in high-need schools receive a well-rounded education, our proposal will provide competitive grants to states, high-need districts, and nonprofit partners to strengthen the teaching and learning of arts, foreign languages, history and civics, financial literacy, environmental education, and other subjects.

Grants may support either the development of new, promising instructional practices or the expansion of instructional practices for which there is evidence of improving student performance in one or more of these subjects. Such practices, which should be aimed at improving instruction for all students, including English Learners and students with disabilities, may include high-quality professional development, better assessments, high-quality state- or locally-determined curricula aligned with state standards, or innovative uses of technology.

Priority will be given to applicants proposing to integrate teaching and learning across academic subjects; to use technology to address student learning challenges; and at the high school level, to work with colleges or universities to ensure that coursework is truly aligned with those institutions’ expectations.http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/blueprint/blueprint.pdf