Need

• How do data on demographics, school enrollment, student achievement, and teacher qualifications support specific needs for improving the qualifications of teachers and other educational personnel to better serve LEP students?
• How were teachers, administrators and others in the target schools assessed to determine needs addressed by the proposed program? How did school staff, including experienced teachers of LEP students, contribute to the identification of needs and the program plan?

Program Design

• What are the expected outcomes for participant recruitment; participant progress in meeting project requirements, participant success in achieving program standards; graduate effectiveness in the instructional setting; improved professional development in the school or the university?
• Will the project use multiple measures to assess participant and program effectiveness? What measures, assessments will be used, such as field practice assessments, National or State benchmark tests, surveys of graduates and mentor teachers or school administrators, rates of transfer from 2-year to 4-year institutions, graduation rates, placement rates, achievement of k-12 students? Do objectives reflect annual benchmarks of progress for every year of proposed funding?
• What support services will be provided for participants to ensure that they make progress and complete project requirements such as special academic support, mentoring, enhanced advisement, test preparation, coordinated release time?
• Are coursework and field practice well described? Does the narrative explain how project curricula support state certification requirements and k-12 instructional standards?
• How will the project improve professional development in the IHE and in the target schools? For example, will project activities result in improved curricula related to preparing all teachers to provide instruction to LEP students; strengthened content knowledge of teachers; improved field practice and assessment of teacher skills; improved skills of higher education faculty; better support services for participants?
• Is the program design supported by research on effective instructional practices for LEP students, effective professional development practices?

Management Plan

• Does the management plan effectively demonstrate the relationship among project objectives and activities, including benchmarks and milestones, budget expenditures such as personnel, travel, and supplies?
• Does the plan describe specific responsibilities of districts, schools, IHEs and other partnership organizations in planning, implementing and evaluating the proposed project? What resources and support will be provided by each of the contributing partners?
• How will the project coordinate regularly with participating schools, other departments in the IHE, other organizations in providing support services to participants to ensure they progress through their program of study?
• How will the project coordinate regularly with schools, other departments in the IHE, SEAs and national organizations in tracking the placement of graduates and assessing their performance in the instructional setting?

Evaluation

• What evaluation questions related to project, participant, graduate effectiveness are proposed to guide the evaluation design?
• How will the project assess progress and performance of participants and improvement of professional development in the IHE and target schools?
• How will the project collect and analyze data and report on progress and outcomes related to recruitment, participant progress in meeting program requirements, participant success in achieving high standards, and graduate placement and effectiveness in the instructional setting and improved professional development in the IHE and target schools.
• How will the project communicate meaningful, regular and timely feedback to participants about their progress and to partnership members about project progress and effectiveness?