[Federal Register: September 22, 2000 (Volume 65, Number 185)]
[Notices]               
[Page 57326-57327]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr22se00-37]                         

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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

[CFDA No. 84.305T]

 
Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI); Field-
Initiated Studies (FIS) Education Research Grant Program; Notice of 
Application Review Procedures for New Awards for Fiscal Year (FY) 2001

SUMMARY: On July 14, 2000 we published in the Federal Register (64 FR 
43957) a notice inviting applications for new awards for FY 2001 for 
the FIS Education Research Grant Program. The procedures governing the 
review of applications are contained in 34 CFR part 700. This notice 
explains modifications to those procedures that OERI will use to review 
applications for this competition.

Application Review Procedure

    OERI will use a one-tier review process for the FIS program 
competition for FY 2001. Applications will be assigned to review panels 
where the expertise of the panel matches the topic of the application. 
Within each panel, each application will be reviewed by at least three 
reviewers. Three selection criteria were included in the application 
package--National Significance, Quality of the Project Design, and 
Quality and Potential Contributions of Personnel. Reviewers will weigh 
the three selection criteria equally to rate each application as 
either--
    (1) Exceptionally high quality,

[[Page 57327]]

    (2) High quality,
    (3) Moderate quality, or
    (4) Low quality.
    To construct the funding slate, an average numerical score will be 
determined for each application through the following procedure. For 
each application, a numerical value of 3 will be assigned for each 
rating of exceptionally high quality that the application receives, a 
numerical value of 2 will be assigned for each rating of high quality 
that the application receives, a numerical value of 1 will be assigned 
for each rating of moderate quality that the application receives, and 
a numerical value of 0 will be assigned for each rating of low quality 
that the application receives. Then, for each application, the total of 
the numeric scores the application receives will be divided by the 
number of reviewers who rated that application to determine the average 
score for that application.
    For this competition, potential applicants were invited to submit 
letters of intent. In the letter of intent, applicants identified the 
panel they thought was best suited to review their application. 
Applicants are hereby notified that the data in the letters of intent 
were collected for administrative purposes only. OERI reserves the 
right to assign any application to any panel where the agency believes 
the reviewers are best qualified to review that application.

Waiver of Proposed Rulemaking

    In accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act (5 U.S.C. 553), 
it is the practice of the Secretary to offer interested parties the 
opportunity to comment on proposed regulations. However, because this 
notice merely establishes procedural requirements for review of 
applications and does not create substantive policy, proposed 
rulemaking is not required under 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(A).

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Elizabeth Payer, Office of Educational 
Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education, 555 New Jersey 
Avenue, NW., room 502e, Washington, DC 20208-5645. Telephone: (202) 
219-1310 or via Internet: Elizabeth_Payer@ed.gov.
    If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), you may 
call the Federal Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1-800-877-8339.
    Individuals with disabilities may obtain this document in an 
alternative format (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, or computer 
diskette) on request to the program contact person listed under FOR 
FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT. 

Electronic Access to This Document

    You may view this document, as well as all other Department of 
Education documents published in the Federal Register, in text or Adobe 
Portable Document Format (PDF) on the Internet at either of the 
following sites:

http://ocfo.ed.gov/fedreg.htm
http://www.ed.gov/news.html

    To use PDF you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available 
free at either of the previous sites. If you have questions about using 
PDF, call the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO), toll free, at 1-
888-293-6498; or in the Washington, DC area at (202) 512-1530.

    Note: The official version of this document is the document 
published in the Federal Register. Free Internet access to the 
official edition of the Federal Register and the Code of Federal 
Regulations is available on GPO Access at: http://
www.access.gpo.gov/nara/index.html



    Program Authority: 20 U.S.C. 6031(c)(2)(B).

    Dated: September 19, 2000.
C. Kent McGuire,
Assistant Secretary for Educational Research and Improvement.
[FR Doc. 00-24391 Filed 9-21-00; 8:45 am]
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