Grants and Other Financial Assistance Programs: FY2018

Title III: English Language Acquisition and Academic Achievement Program for English Learners and Immigrant Children and Youth
Fund Code: 186

Purpose:	Title III of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) provides supplemental resources to local school districts to help ensure that English learners (ELs) and immigrant children and youth attain English proficiency and develop high levels of academic achievement in English, assist teachers and administrators to enhance their capacity to provide effective instructional programs designed to prepare ELs and immigrant children and youth to enter all-English instructional settings, and promote parental, family, and community participation in language instruction educational programs for parents, families, and communities.
Priorities:	The priorities of Title III are to: Increase the English language proficiency of ELs by providing effective language instruction educational programs that meet the needs of ELs and increase English language proficiency and student academic achievement Provide effective professional development designed to improve the instruction and assessment of ELs, to enhance the ability of teachers and school leaders to understand and implement curricula and assessment practices and measures, and to increase children's English language proficiency or substantially increase the subject matter knowledge, teaching knowledge, and teaching skills of teachers Provide and implement other effective activities and strategies that enhance or supplement language instruction educational programs for ELs which shall include parent, family, and community engagement activities In addition to the above priorities, the Title III program supports Massachusetts' goals and strategies (listed below) for increasing student achievement by enhancing grant recipients' capacity to increase students' English language proficiency and academic achievement. State Goal, Core Strategies, and ESSA Priorities The goal of Massachusetts' public K-12 education system is to prepare all students for success after high school. Our five core strategies to accelerate the pace of school improvement are: Strengthening standards, curriculum, instruction, and assessment Promoting educator development Supporting social-emotional learning, health, and safety Turning around the state's lowest performing districts and schools Enhancing resource allocation and data use Additionally, Massachusetts has identified four priority focus areas under its plan for implementing the Every Student Succeeds Act: Early grades literacy Middle grades math High-quality college and career pathways for high school students Supporting historically disadvantaged subgroups of students ESEA requires states and districts to implement "evidence-based" practices, activities, strategies and interventions with demonstrated evidence of effectiveness. Evidence-based practices refer to interventions for which there is evidence of significant positive impact that can be found in published research papers, literature reviews, or DESE research briefs. Alternately, evidence-based practices can be those local practices that a district or state has previously instituted, measured, and found to be effective. See link to "Title III - Required and Authorized Activities" under "Additional Information" below for required and authorized activities for Title III subgrants.
Eligibility:	Funds will be awarded to eligible districts that have experienced a significant growth in immigrant children and youth. Eligibility for the immigrant fund awards will be determined as follows: District must have experienced an increase of 10% or more immigrant students in the October 2017 SIMS over the average number of immigrant students reported in October 2015 and October 2016 SIMS; and Districts must experience an increase of 50 additional immigrant students in the October 2017 SIMS as compared to the number of immigrant students reported in the October 2016 SIMS. All districts in the state with three years of SIMS data will be considered for an immigrant subgrant, whether the district is also eligible for a formula subgrant or not. Please note: An immigrant student is defined for purposes of the Title III immigrant children and youth program as a student who is aged 3-21, who was not born in any state, and who is in his/her first three years of schooling in the United States. (For making this determination, Puerto Rico is considered part of the United States. Students born in Puerto Rico are not immigrant students.) A student can be designated as both immigrant and EL for three years. After three years the student can still be designated EL, if they meet EL eligibility criteria, but can no longer be designated as an immigrant student. See the FY18 List of Eligible School Districts and Consortia under "Additional Information" below.
Funding Type:	Federal funding CFDA#84.365
Funding:	An estimated $900,000 will be available for immigrant subgrants to eligible entities. The grants will be awarded using a formula based on number of immigrant students reported in October SIMS (see "Eligibility" above) and the number of districts eligible to apply. Award notifications with funding amounts of eligible districts will be posted on the DESE website. Funding is contingent upon availability. All dollar amounts listed are estimated/approximate and are subject to change. If more funding is to become available it will be distributed under the same guideline as listed in the initial RFP document.
Fund Use:	Title III formula subgrants are to be used to fund supplemental instruction for ELs and immigrant children and youth, professional development for teachers and administrators of ELs and immigrant children and youth, and EL and immigrant children and youth family and parent engagement. Required and authorized activities can be found in the "Additional Information" section below. Title III funds must be used to supplement the level of local, state, and federal funds that, in the absence of Title III funds, would otherwise be expended for programs for EL and immigrant children and youth and in no case supplant such federal, state, and local funds. There is a maximum 2% cap on direct administrative costs, and suggested maximum 20% for supplies and materials, and 15% for travel. Important: Please note that districts may not use Title III funds to support or provide either the SEI Teacher or SEI Administrator Endorsement course because doing so would violate the federal "supplement, not supplant" requirement. Under this provision, recipients may not use Title III funds to pay for services that are required under federal, state or local laws. These courses are a pathway to the SEI Endorsement, which is mandated under state regulations for all core academic teachers1 with at least one EL and for principals/assistant principals and supervisors/directors who supervise or evaluate core academic teachers with ELs.
Project Duration:	Upon approval - 6/30/2018 (Year 1)* *The period of availability for this grant award can be extended beyond Year 1 based on utilizing the multi-year feature for this Funding Opportunity in EdGrants. Extended period as follows: 7/1/2018 - 6/30/2019 (Year 2); 7/1/2019 - 9/30/2019 (Year 3).
Program Unit:	Office of English Language Acquisition and Academic Achievement
Contact:	Melanie Manares Beth O'Connell
Phone Number:	Melanie Manares (781) 338-3573 Beth O'Connell (781) 338-3571
Date Due:	Monday, January 1, 2018
Required Forms:	FY18 Title III 186 Workbook. Required pages to be completed and uploaded to EdGrants are: Signed Cover Sheet, Narrative, Private Schools Equitable Participation form. Please Note: In EdGrants there is a designated attachment for the Cover Sheet. Print, sign and scan the Cover Sheet and upload to the Part I / Cover Page attachment.
Additional Information:	Required and Authorized Activities List of Eligible School Districts
Submission Instructions:	Submit all required grant materials through the EdGrants In EdGrants, district staff assigned the role of "control user" enter the grant budget and attach the FY18 Title III 186 Application workbook required upload pages, and PDF of the Cover Sheet with an original signature of the Superintendent/Executive Director.

Note:

1 "Core academic teachers" are defined by 603 CMR 7.02 for purposes of sheltered English immersion instruction as early childhood and elementary teachers, teachers of students with moderate disabilities, teachers of students with severe disabilities, and teachers of the following academic subjects: English, reading and language arts, mathematics, science, civics and government, economics, history, and geography.