Yes, however, to be considered for both the Washington Fellowship and the Classroom Fellowship positions, you must complete both vacancy postings. The first four narrative questions are identical for both applications and you submit the same response. The fifth and sixth questions are similar in both applications, but you must tailor your response to the different nature of the Washington and Classroom Fellowship experience and requirements. Please note that if selected for one type of Fellowship, you will likely not have the opportunity to apply for the other Fellowship type in future competitions.

Applicants should submit all of the required application components through USA Jobs. You may go directly to the vacancy announcements for the Washington or Classroom. Both the Classroom Fellowship and the Washington Fellowship vacancy postings include three components: a resume, narrative responses, and two letters of support – one from a school or district administrator (see Question 8 under Eligibility and Requirements) and one from someone knowledgeable about your participation in an intensive teacher/professional development program (See Question 9 under Eligibility and Requirements). Please see the Applicant Info section of the program web site for more details about the application process.

Federal agencies must provide reasonable accommodation to applicants with disabilities where appropriate. Applicants requiring reasonable accommodation for any part of the application and hiring process should contact 202-401-1259. Determinations on requests for reasonable accommodation will be made on a case-by-case basis.

The deadline is 12:00 midnight Eastern Time on January 17, 2011. Midnight January 17 means up to and including 11:59 p.m. on Monday January 17. We highly recommend that you submit your application significantly prior to the deadline to avoid technical difficulties and that you elect to email yourself your final application upon submission to keep for your records.

We recommend keeping your narratives to 500 words per answer. USAJobs should allow no more than 3500 characters per question. Even if your answer is not automatically cut off, our experience has been that strong applicants provide thorough, but succinct responses.

Unfortunately, given the volume of applications, we are not able to give specific feedback. Overall we were looking for concise and thorough responses to the narrative questions. Strong applicants provided specific examples that demonstrated their ability to affect student outcomes, lead and work with others in education, and successfully communicate their insights on major current education policy and programmatic issues from their school and classroom experience. Successful applicants also provided demonstration of active involvement with professional networks, school community support, and comfort with the kinds of activities in which Fellows engage based on their previous experience.

Once in the application, the third section is called "Documents." The fourth box on the page requests "Letters." You have two options for submitting letters. As the letters should contain the signature of the author, you may scan the letters and upload them.

Alternatively you may fax the letter to have it electronically attached to your application. To fax the letter, you MUST use the cover sheet generated by the system which has a barcode that will be used to link your fax with your application. In the Letters box, select "Fax," read the Fax instructions, and "Generate" the cover sheet. We recommend that you fax both letters under one cover sheet to avoid confusion.

You will note that the "Documents" section states that there are a few documents required for the vacancy and lists: SF-50, Sch. A Ltr., and Transcript. These additional documents are not required for responding to the announcement and will not be used in the selection of Teaching Ambassador Fellows. We request that you do not upload or attempt to fax these documents.

In the fourth section of the Application Process, "Application Review," you will have the opportunity to review all of your responses and to request that the system email you a copy for your records. You may revisit your application at any time before midnight on January 17, 2011 to update your responses.

Due to the unique nature of this application process, all applications are referred to the Teaching Ambassador Fellowship team for review. As a result, every applicant may get this standard response; however the wording is not accurate in this case. All applications will be reviewed by the Fellowship team. Individuals selected for follow-up interviews will be contacted directly.

Yes, it is our intention to notify finalists by phone or email, ideally in March 2011, to invite them to participate in more in-depth interviews. It is also our intent to notify those who have not made it to the finalist round at the same time by email. Please note that while we hope to notify applicants as early as possible, and understand the scheduling constraints faced by teachers, schools and districts, the time required to conduct a thorough and fair application review is difficult to predict.

Once the selection and hiring process is finalized, information about each of the Fellows will be available on the Fellowship website at http://www2.ed.gov/programs/teacherfellowship/index.html by July 2011.