April 3, 2008

Dear Colleague:

The Full Service Community Schools (FSCS) Program at the U.S. Department of Education (ED) is recruiting peer reviewers for its upcoming grant competition. This program encourages coordination of educational, developmental, family, health, and other services through partnerships between (1) public elementary and secondary schools and (2) community-based organizations and public or private entities. Grants are intended to provide comprehensive educational, social, and health services for students, families, and communities.

Awards will support projects that propose to establish, through collaborative efforts among State and local agencies, community service organizations, and parents, full-service community schools offering a range of student services. More detailed information concerning the FSCS grant competition is available in the notice inviting applications that was published in the Federal Register on February 15, 2008 or on the program webpage at http://www.ed.gov/programs/communityschools/index.html.

The peer reviewer role is a crucial part of the grant making process. ED relies on the recommendations and scores of peer reviewers in deciding which applications to fund. Additionally, ED relies on reviewers to provide constructive feedback and comments to aid unsuccessful applicants in identifying how their applications could be strengthened in the future.

Each peer reviewer will serve as a member of a review panel that will evaluate assigned FSCS applications based on the selection criteria for FSCS grants that were published in the Federal Register notice announcing this grant competition. Reviewers will be expected to read each assigned application, participate in a facilitated teleconference discussion concerning the strengths and weaknesses of each assigned application, and complete a review form for each assigned application that documents strengths, weaknesses and scores. Each peer reviewer will also be expected to participate in a reviewer orientation teleconference prior to beginning application review work.

Orientation teleconferences are scheduled for June 9, 10 and 11 (each reviewer must participate in one of the sessions). Review panel discussions will begin on Monday, June 16 and we expect to finish the process by Friday, June 27. Some reviewers may also be asked to participate in a second level application review scheduled for July 7 to 11. Prospective reviewers should be aware of the fact that reading applications, analyzing and discussing applications, and completing the application review forms may take several hours per application. Consequently, prospective reviewers should be prepared to devote a substantial amount of time during the period of the review to application review activities.

To qualify for consideration as a peer reviewer under this competition, you must meet the following common guidelines:

• Expertise in early childhood education; remedial education and academic enrichment activities; programs that promote parental involvement and family literacy activities; mentoring and other youth development programs; parenting education and parent leadership; community service and service learning opportunities; programs that provide assistance to students who have been truant, suspended, or expelled; job training and career counseling services; nutrition services; primary health and dental care; mental health counseling services; OR adult education, including instruction of adults in English as a second language.
• Ability to objectively review and thoroughly document the strengths and weaknesses of applications
• Ability to work effectively in groups
• Commitment to ensuring the confidentiality of applications

If you meet all of the above criteria and are interested in serving as a peer reviewer, please e-mail a copy of a current resume to us by April 25, 2008. We are also providing you with a checklist to help ensure that your resume includes all of the information about your experience that we need. Please send your resume and completed checklist to us using the subject heading "Peer Reviewer" to:

ED solicits reviewers without regard to race, color, national origin, gender, age or disability.

Individuals selected as peer reviewers will receive an honorarium.

The number of reviewers needed will depend on the number of applications actually received. We will notify potential reviewers of their status when we have a better estimate of the number of applications that will be reviewed.

We hope you will consider serving as a peer reviewer for the Full Service Community Schools program. Also, if you know of any other qualified and interested individuals, please feel free to pass on this information and the attached forms. If you have any questions please contact Jill Staton at fscs@ed.gov or (202) 401-2492.

Sincerely,

Steven L. Brockhouse
Deputy Director
Parental Options and Information