CFDA Number: 84.215K; 84.215U
Program Type: Discretionary/Competitive Grants, Contracts
Also Known As: FIE

FIE provides authority for the secretary of education to support nationally significant programs to improve the quality of elementary and secondary education at the state and local levels and help all students meet challenging state academic content standards and student achievement standards. The types of programs that may be supported include: activities to promote systemic education reform at the state and local levels; programs at the state and local levels that are designed to yield significant results, including programs to explore approaches to public school choice and school-based decisionmaking; recognition programs; and scientifically based studies and evaluations of education reform strategies and innovations. All funded programs must be designed so that their effectiveness is readily ascertainable and is assessed using rigorous, scientifically based research and evaluations.

Activities that have been supported included the following:

• Teach for America (TFA) received a one-year grant. TFA is the national corps of outstanding recent college graduates of all academic majors who commit two years to teach in low-income urban and rural public schools and who go on to become lifelong leaders in the movement to expand education opportunity. Under this grant, TFA trained and continues to support 2,100 new teachers (the 2005 corps). This represents at least a 20 percent increase in the number of highly qualified new teachers that TFA placed nationwide for the 2005-06 school year. Grant funds were used to offset a portion of the costs to train the 2,100 new teachers in a fully residential, intensive summer training institute and to provide professional development during the first year in the classroom.
• Public/Private Ventures (P/PV) received a two-year grant. P/PV is working with local intermediaries to assist up to 100 local community- and faith-based organizations in five cities (approximately 20 per city) to become certified providers of Supplemental Educational Services (SES). This project builds upon a successful effort in Philadelphia that enabled 23 such providers to achieve certification and to solidify their capacities to provide reading instruction to eligible low-income children in neighborhoods throughout the city. The current project includes: the production of state-specific guidance and simplified application forms to assist organizations in applying for SES certification; planning and carrying out a careful sequence of training and capacity-building efforts both to strengthen and enrich the local organizations' existing education programs and to assist them in completing the SES application and certification process; and ongoing technical support.
• Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO) is a national, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization whose mission is to actively support parental choice to empower families and increase quality education options for black children. Funding provided in FY 2004 assisted BAEO to further this mission through continuation of Project Clarion. Project Clarion is an outreach and communications campaign designed to educate parents about the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), including parents' opportunity to take advantage of public school choice and supplemental educational services under NCLB, and inform parents about other education options in select cities with BAEO chapters. These select cities have high concentrations of low-income black families in at-risk communities with children in schools identified as in need of improvement SEAs.

The Fund for the Improvement of Education (FIE) supports "Programs of National Significance." It also supports grants to state and local education agencies, nonprofit organizations, for-profit organizations and other public and private entities that have been identified by the Congress in appropriations legislation.

Programs of National Significance: FIE provides authority for the secretary to support nationally significant programs to improve the quality of elementary and secondary education at the state and local levels and help all students meet challenging state academic content standards and student achievement standards. The types of programs that may be supported include:

• Activities to promote systemic education reform at the state and local levels, including scientifically based research, development, and evaluation designed to improve student academic achievement at the state and local levels and strategies for effective parent and community involvement. Programs at the state and local levels that are designed to yield significant results, including programs to explore approaches to public school choice and school-based decision-making.
• Recognition programs, including financial awards to states, local education agencies (LEAs), and schools that have made the greatest progress in improving the academic achievement of economically disadvantaged students and students from major racial and ethnic minority groups and in closing the academic achievement gap for those groups of students farthest away from the proficient level on the academic assessments administered by the state under Sec. 1111 of Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Scientifically based studies and evaluations of education reform strategies and innovations and the dissemination of information on the effectiveness of those strategies and innovations.

All funded programs must be designed so that their effectiveness is readily ascertainable and is assessed using rigorous, scientifically based research and evaluations. Each application for funds must establish clear objectives that are based on scientifically based research for the proposed program and must describe the activities the applicant will carry out in order to meet the stated objectives.

Recipients of awards must evaluate the effectiveness of their programs and report such information as may be required to determine their program's effectiveness. The Department must make these evaluations publicly available.