Grants and Other Financial Assistance Programs: FY2018

Massachusetts Early Literacy Intervention Program
Fund Code: 574

Purpose:

This state-funded competitive grant program provides funds to support ongoing professional development for Reading Recovery, an early literacy tutorial program, designed as a short-term intervention program for children struggling with reading in first grade.

This grant program supports implementation of district standards and indicators. Applicants will use grant funds to support these standards and priorities. Grant applications will be reviewed, in part, based on how likely the respondent's plans are to result in improvements in these areas. This grant program supports implementation of the following district standards and indicators:

District Standards	Indicators
Curriculum and Instruction:	Aligned, consistently delivered curriculum; and strong instructional leadership
Human Resources and Professional Development:	Professional development

Priorities:

Research demonstrates that the majority of students can learn to read and write through effective classroom instruction. Some students, however, need short-term individualized intervention. This grant is designed to support:

Districts with a Reading Recovery program that includes:
1. a process for identifying the students most in need of additional literacy support by mid-first grade;
2. ongoing professional development support in early literacy intervention for implementing teachers; and
3. ongoing documentation and evaluation of results, including subsequent referral to special education, retention, or long-term reading services.
Educational collaboratives, along with school districts that are Reading Recovery training sites, to support a Reading Recovery regional training site for the ongoing professional development of teachers who provide the early intervention literacy program. This training site should include long-term university-based ongoing professional development for future teacher trainers that:
1. requires teacher trainers to participate in concurrent training and implementation of the tutorial;
2. has ongoing professional development curriculum centering on theory of literacy acquisition, teaching practice, and leadership; and
3. results in a regional training site that coordinates data collection and reports program results in an annual report.

Eligibility:

Only Reading Recovery Training Sites as defined by the Reading Recovery Council of North America are eligible to apply.

Funding Type:

State

Funding:

A total of $300,000 is available to fund the program statewide. Funds will be allocated to Reading Recovery training sites that apply for the grant based on the number of Reading Recovery teachers that will receive their professional development at a given site.

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:

Funds must be used for professional development of Reading Recovery teachers -- including training, continuing contact, and related expenses.

Regional training sites may request funds to train Teacher Leaders, Teacher Leader affiliation fees, and Teacher Leader Institute travel. If funds are planned for training of a Teacher Leader, an application must be on file with the Massachusetts Teacher Leader Training Site prior to submitting a grant proposal. This application is available by calling (6l7) 349-8165.

Project Duration:

Upon approval - 6/30/2018

Program Unit:

Office of Literacy and Humanities

Contact:

Helene Levine HLevine@doe.mass.edu or 781-338-6240

Please cc all email communications to reading@doe.mass.edu

Date Due:

Friday, March 9, 2018

Competitive proposals must be received at the Department by 5:00 p.m. on the date due.

Required Forms:

Districts applying for funding must submit a grant application that includes all of the following required forms:
Completed Proposals will include:

Part I - General - Program Unit Signature Page - (Standard Contract Form and Application for Program Grants)

Part II - Budget Detail Pages workbook (include both pages.)

Part III - Program Components

Additional Information:

Review Sheet for Evaluating Proposals (Scoring Guide)

Submission Instructions:

Email to HLevine@doe.mass.edu by no later than 5 p.m. on Friday, March 9, 2018 the following:

Part I - A PDF of a printed, signed, and scanned Part I signature page. General - Program Unit Signature Page - (Standard Contract Form and Application for Program Grants)
Part II - Budget Detail Pages workbook (include both pages.)
Part III - Program Components

Awarded Recipients: Upon award, recipients will be required to enter the approved budget, Part I and Part III in EdGrants. Once selected, recipients will be contacted with further instructions on the process.

Grants and Other Financial Assistance Programs: FY2018

Massachusetts Early Literacy Intervention Program Fund Code: 574

Massachusetts Early Literacy Intervention Program
Fund Code: 574