We want to take this opportunity to bring you up to date and provide some new timelines.
The
Just Read, Florida!
Office is waiting final approval of Florida’s
Reading First
grant
application from USDE. Florida’s
Reading First
application is an aggressive and
comprehensive plan to change the nature of reading instruction in grades K-3. Many of
the district and school-level components must be in place in the summer to ensure
meaningful instruction from the first day of school. As you know, Florida does not have
a standardized year-round academic calendar. Some schools begin on August 1; others
begin at the end of August. To that end, we have revised the subgrant selection process
to occur in January and April of 2003, with implementation to begin school year 2003-04.
While this is not our intended schedule, be assured that awarded districts will have a full
six years of implementation (provided they can show progress at the end of the third
year) if they are funded during one of the first three rounds of Reading First. Our
revisions to the subgrant selection process timelines can be found below.
In the interim, state funds are available through a Reading Coach Model grant program.
This $11 million grant program is a competitive grant to fund new reading coach
programs or enhance existing reading coach programs in school districts. Reading
coaches are a critical component to the success of reading programs, including
Reading
First
. This state grant is to be used as a catalyst for eligible
Reading First
schools that
are ready to implement scientifically based reading research. All districts are eligible to
apply for the Reading Coach Model grants, but priority will be given to eligible
Reading
First
schools and elementary and middle schools receiving a “F” school letter grade in
2002. The Request for Proposals will be distributed on Wednesday June 19, 2002. The
deadline for application is July 15, 2002, for implementation in the 2002-03 school year.
Timeline as of June 11, 2002
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Release state-funded Reading Coach Model grant Request for Proposals on June 19,
2002.
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Reading Coach Model grant application due to the Florida Department of Education
by July 15, 2002.
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Reading Coach Model grant awards announced by August 1, 2002.
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Reading Coach Model grant funds distributed to the districts no later than August 15,
2002.
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The
Just Read, Florida!
Leadership Conference, provided with existing funds, will be
held July 9-11, 2002, to prep on the elements of an effective reading program in K-3.
The purpose of the conference is to deepen selected principals’ knowledge of the
findings from scientifically based research in reading, to provide training in the
mandatory elements (assessments and evaluation) of
Reading First
programs in
Florida, and to refine their knowledge of management practices required to support an
effective reading program in their schools.
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Pending approval from USDE, Florida will release the LEA
Reading First
application
on October 1, 2002.
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Pre-application workshops will be held regionally for eligible LEAs October -
December, to help LEAs prepare their applications.
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A letter of intent must be filed by December 15, 2002, for the January 15, 2003
competition.
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Applications will be due to the Department of Education by January 15, 2003.
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Applications for Year 1 grants will be due to the Department of Education by January
15, 2003, and awards will be announced in March 2003 for the 2003-04 school year.
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Districts not funded in the January competition will be able to revise and re-submit
applications on April 15, 2003. In addition, schools that did not apply in January may
apply on April 15, 2003, for Year 2 funding for the 2003-04 school year.
(Approximately $73 million will be available for
Reading First
subgrants grants for
start up programs in the 2003-04 school year with two waves of application review
processes.)
Intense, ongoing technical assistance will be provided by the DOE staff, the Florida
Center for Reading Research, and the FLaRE Center to districts in order to submit a
successful
Reading First
application, or to those districts that are not successful during
the first application cycle.