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Recovery.gov is the U.S. government's official website that provides easy access to data
related to Recovery Act spending and allows for the reporting of potential fraud, waste, and abuse.

Agency Reporting


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Program Plan
Department of Education - Teacher Quality Enhancement Recovery Plan
Updated 05/14/2009
Objectives
Program Purpose

The Teacher Quality Partnership (TQP) program aims to improve student achievement and teacher quality in high-need schools and early childhood education programs by improving teacher preparation and professional development activities; holding teacher preparation programs accountable for preparing effective teachers; and recruiting highly qualified individuals into the teaching force. Projects may also include a component to train school leaders.


Public Benefits

Expected public benefits from this program include:

(1) increased numbers of new teachers graduating from high-quality teacher preparation programs,

(2) improved subject matter competency for participating new teachers,

(3) increased retention rates for participating new teachers in high-need school districts, and

(4) evidence of the effectiveness of participating teacher preparation program models.


Measures
The measures have been revised to enrich the performance metrics for Recovery targets. In some instances, targets will not be available until additional baseline data has been collected.

MeasureTarget/Actual
2009201020112012
[-] The percentage of program participants, who were not scheduled to graduate in the previous reporting period, and persisted in the postsecondary program in the current reporting period
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Measure Information
Frequency : Annual
Direction : No Data Available
Type : Outcome
Explanation : Because the performance measures already listed would not provide data for a number of years, ED has also created this measure that would provide data on persistence in a shorter time-frame.
Unit : No Data Available
[-] The percentage of beginning teachers who are retained in teaching in the partner high-need local educational agency or high-need early childhood education program one year after being hired by the local educational agency or high-need early childhood education program.
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Measure Information
Frequency : Annual
Direction : No Data Available
Type : Outcome
Explanation : Because the performance measures already listed would not provide data for a number of years, ED has also created this measure that would provide data on employment retention in a shorter time-frame.
Unit : No Data Available
[-] The cost of a successful outcome where success is defined as retention in the partner high-need local educational agency or early childhood education program three years after initial employment.
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Measure Information
Frequency : Annual
Direction : No Data Available
Type : Efficiency
Explanation : This measure will track the cost to the Federal government of employment retention.
Unit : No Data Available
[-] The percentage of program completers (1) who attain initial certification/licensure by passing all necessary certification/licensure assessments and attain a bachelor's degree (pre-baccalaureate program) within six years or a master's degree (residency program) within two years or (2) who attain highly competent early childhood educator status with a bachelor's degree within six years or an associate's degree within three years.
-0/00/00/0

Measure Information
Frequency : Long-term/Annual
Direction : Increasing
Type : Outcome
Explanation : This measure will track the graduation rate.
Unit : Percentage
[-] The percentage of beginning teachers who are retained in teaching in the partner high-need local educational agency or early childhood education program three years after initial employment.
----

Measure Information
Frequency : Long-term/Annual
Direction : No Data Available
Type : Outcome
Explanation : This measure will track employment retention rates.
Unit : No Data Available
[-] The percentage of grantees that report improved scaled scores for initial State certification or licensure of teachers.
----

Measure Information
Frequency : Long-term/Annual
Direction : No Data Available
Type : Outcome
Explanation : This measure will track progress on improving the scores of program participants in certification or licensure tests.
Unit : No Data Available
[-] The percentage of grantees that report improved scaled scores for initial State certification or licensure of teachers.
----

Measure Information
Frequency : Long-term/Annual
Direction : No Data Available
Type : Outcome
Explanation : This measure will track progress on improving the scores of program participants in certification or licensure tests.
Unit : No Data Available
[-] The percentage of grantees that report improved scaled scores for initial State certification or licensure of teachers.
----

Measure Information
Frequency : Long-term/Annual
Direction : No Data Available
Type : Outcome
Explanation : This measure will track progress on improving the scores of program participants in certification or licensure tests.
Unit : No Data Available

Schedule and Milestones

1) The Department will publish a notice requesting applications for the discretionary grant competition that will make awards using the regular fiscal year 2009 appropriation funds and ARRA funds.
2) The Department will award grants using the regular fiscal year 2009 appropriation funds and the ARRA funds.
3) If it is necessary to announce 2nd competition to use any remaining ARRA funds, the Department will publish a notice of proposed priorities with a 30-day comment period.


Milestones
Milestone Completion Date
If it is necessary to announce 2nd competition to use any remaining ARRA funds, the Department will publish a notice of proposed priorities with a 30-day comment period. No Data Available
The Department will publish a notice requesting applications for the discretionary grant competition that will make awards using the regular fiscal year 2009 appropriation funds and ARRA funds. 05/29/2009
The Department will award grants using the regular fiscal year 2009 appropriation funds and the ARRA funds. 09/30/2009

Projects and Activities

ARRA funding will support competitive grants to partnerships among institutions of higher education, high-need school districts (local educational agencies (LEAs)), and high-need schools and/or high-need early childhood education (ECE) programs. These partnerships will create model teacher preparation programs at the pre-baccalaureate level through the implementation of specific reforms of the institution for higher education’s existing teacher preparation programs, and/or model teaching residency programs for individuals with strong academic backgrounds but without teaching experience. The TQP program may also support school leadership programs to train superintendents, principals, ECE program directors, and other school leaders in high-need or rural LEAs.


Review Process

The Department will conduct a range of oversight and monitoring activities to track the progress and performance of grantees and identify and mitigate challenges/risks associated with these grants. These activities will include:

(1) conducting post-award conference calls to assist grantees with strengthening their project goals and objectives and ensuring that their project measures are measurable;

(2) holding a Project Director’s meeting for the project directors and evaluators of each project, providing technical assistance on evaluation issues and improving project-level perforemance objectives and measures;

(3) employing a contractor to work with grantees to strengthen their evaluation plans, specifically tying their project measures to the outcomes of the project;

(4) contracting with an independent evaluator to conduct a five-year evaluation of the impact of the Teacher Residency Program grants on student achievement and other key program outcomes;

(5) conducting on-going monitoring of grantees, including reviewing drawdowns of funds in the Grants Administration and Payments System (GAPS) to ensure that funds are being drawn down appropriately;

(6) conducting regular telephone conferences between Department staff and grantees to discuss the grantee’s progress toward the goals outlined in the application, resolve any budget concerns, and ensure that statutory requirements are being met; and

(7) conducting on-site monitoring visits of grantees on an as-needed basis.


Cost and Performance Plan

The Department will take the following steps to measure program performance and make these data available to the public in a transparent and meaningful way:

(1) collecting grantee information through annual performance reports, including data on measures established under the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA), the statutory reporting requirements of Title II, Section 204(b) of the Higher Education Act as amended, and progress against the project goals and objectives established by the grantee in the initial grant application (abstracts for all projects will be posted on the TQP program website after grants are awarded);

(2) reviewing and compiling data from annual performance reports and placing these data on the Department’s website, including grantee-level data (the Teacher Quality Partnerships website is under construction; a link to the page will be available on the Office of Innovation and Improvement’s website: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oii/programs.html);

(3) making performance measures data for GPRA data purposes available through the Department’s Visual Performance Suite application so that these data can be placed on the Department’s website at www.ed.gov; and

(4) ensuring that projects receiving ARRA funds are aware of the required quarterly reporting requirements for these funds.


Energy Efficiency Spending Plans

Not applicable


Program Plan Award Types
No Data Available