Program Office: Office of Innovation and Improvement (OII)
CFDA Number: 84.165A
Program Type: Discretionary/Competitive Grants

The Magnet Schools Assistance program provides grants to eligible local educational agencies to establish and operate magnet schools that are operated under a court-ordered or federally approved voluntary desegregation plan. These grants assist in the desegregation of public schools by supporting the elimination, reduction, and prevention of minority group isolation in elementary and secondary schools with substantial numbers of minority group students. In order to meet the statutory purposes of the program, projects also must support the development and implementation of magnet schools that assist in the achievement of systemic reforms and provide all students with the opportunity to meet challenging academic content and student academic achievement standards. Projects support the development and design of innovative education methods and practices that promote diversity and increase choices in public education programs. The program supports capacity development–the ability of a school to help all its students meet more challenging standards–through professional development and other activities that will enable the continued operation of the magnet schools at a high performance level after funding ends. Finally, the program supports the implementation of courses of instruction in magnet schools that strengthen students’ knowledge of academic subjects and their grasp of tangible and marketable vocational skills.

The statute defines a magnet school as a public elementary school, public secondary school, public elementary education center, or public secondary education center that offers a special curriculum capable of attracting substantial numbers of students of different racial backgrounds.

Magnet schools offer a wide range of distinctive education programs. Some emphasize academic subjects such as math, science, technology, language immersion, visual and performing arts, or humanities. Others use specific instructional approaches, such as Montessori methods, or approaches found in international baccalaureate programs or early college programs.

Posted in the Federal Register on November 13, 2012. PDF

For copies of previously funded MSAP applications, please see the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Reading Room: http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/leg/foia/readingroom_oii.html. The ten highest scoring applications from the FY 2010 competition and the eleven highest scoring applications from the FY 2007 competition are available as PDFs.

Posted in the Federal Register on December 31, 2012 PDF HTML

FY 2013 MSAP Competition Timeline

Pre-Application Webinar: January 17, 2013

Deadline for Notice of Intent to Apply: January 30, 2013

Deadline for Transmittal of Applications: March 1, 2013

Deadline for Intergovernmental Review: April 30, 2013

The Department encourages individuals from various backgrounds and professions with content expertise to apply to be a peer reviewer for the FY 2013 MSAP Competition. If you are interested in serving as a peer reviewer for the FY 2013 MSAP Competition, please see the FY 2013 Call for Peer Reviewers MS Word (55KB), which describes the necessary qualifications. If you meet the necessary qualifications, please complete and submit the Peer Reviewer Checklist PDF (347KB) along with your resume to msap.team@ed.gov. We are currently accepting new applications and are reviewing those that we have received.

The MSAP team hosted a webinar on January 17, 2013, for entities interested in submitting an FY 2013 application. The webinar provided an opportunity for interested applicants to submit questions during the live presentation. Here is the PowerPoint PPT (2MB) that was presented during the webinar. Below, you will find the link to the audio recording of the webinar: https://educate.webex.com/educate/ldr.php?AT=pb&SP=MC&rID=49954137&rKey=c26e96096fbced25.

Applicants were strongly encouraged to notify the U.S. Department of Education of the applicant’s intent to submit an application for funding by completing a web-based form. An entity may submit an application even if they did not submit a notice of intent to apply. The deadline to submit the intent to apply was January 30, 2013.

Please note that the MSAP Application Package is for applicants to download and use as a guide only. Unless the applicant qualifies for an exception to the electronic submission requirement, all MSAP grant applications must be submitted electronically via Grants.gov.

FY 2013 MSAP Application Packet MS Word (920KB)

Please Note: most of these forms are already in the electronic application packet in Grants.gov. Here is a list of the required forms that must be completed.

ED Form 424--Application for Federal Education Assistance (Form and Instructions)

ED Form 524--Budget Information, Non-Construction Programs

ED Form 524--Instructions

Standard Form 424B--Assurances, Non-Construction Programs

Grants.gov Lobbying Form; Debarment, Suspension and Other Responsibility Matters; and Drug-Free Workplace Requirements

Standard Form LLL--Disclosure of Lobbying Activities

Survey on Ensuring Equal Opportunity for Applicants

Required Response to Section 427 of GEPA

Desegregation Plan Information Form (must retrieve from this application packet and submit as attachment)

Magnet Schools Assistance Program Assurances (must retrieve from this application packet and submit as attachment)

The enrollment data tables are fillable PDFs. They are not located in the Grants.gov application packet. They must be downloaded, completed electronically, and uploaded into the Grants.gov system as attachments. DO NOT SCAN THE COMPLETED FORMS. When downloading, please save the form by the correct name. For example, if you are completing Table #1, save the PDF as Table #1 and be sure to upload the correct tables.

Table 1 and 2 —LEA-Level Enrollment Data PDF (1.15MB)

Table 3 —Magnet School Enrollment Data PDF (1.13MB)

Table 4 —Feeder School Enrollment Data PDF (1.13MB)

Table 5 —Selection of Students-Competitive Preference Priority 3 PDF (555KB)

Table 6 —New or Revised Magnet School Projects-Competitive Preference Priority 2 PDF (579KB)

For additional details on the purpose of the program, see Sec. 5301 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Authorization.