Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE) Teacher and School Leader (TSL) Incentive Program, CFDA 84.374A | ED GRANTS 040320 002

Opportunity Information: Apply for ED GRANTS 040320 002

The Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE) Teacher and School Leader (TSL) Incentive Program (CFDA 84.374A) is a discretionary grant opportunity from the U.S. Department of Education designed to help improve how educators are supported, evaluated, developed, and compensated. The central goal is to strengthen educator effectiveness and, in particular, to drive better academic outcomes in high-need schools by encouraging systems that reward and retain strong teachers, principals, and other school leaders. The program places a clear emphasis on approaches that can raise student achievement and reduce persistent gaps between higher- and lower-performing students.

TSL funding is meant to support the development, implementation, improvement, or expansion of comprehensive Performance-Based Compensation Systems (PBCS) and/or Human Capital Management Systems (HCMS). In practical terms, that means applicants may propose projects that connect compensation, career advancement, and talent management decisions to meaningful measures of educator performance and contribution to student learning. The intent is not simply to offer bonuses, but to build coherent systems for recruiting, selecting, placing, developing, evaluating, and retaining educators, with an especially strong focus on ensuring high-need schools can attract and keep effective staff.

An additional component of the program is the option to use a portion of the grant funds to study and validate these systems. The notice highlights that grantees may examine whether their PBCS or HCMS approaches are effective and whether they are fair and technically sound. This includes looking at factors such as fairness, quality, consistency, and reliability, which typically relates to whether evaluation measures are applied consistently across schools, whether ratings are stable and evidence-based, and whether the system avoids bias or unintended consequences for particular groups of educators or students.

The opportunity listed is identified as Funding Opportunity Number ED GRANTS 040320 002, categorized as a discretionary grant within the education funding activity area, and it notes Opportunity Zone Benefits. The posting indicates an expected number of awards of about 10, though it does not specify an award ceiling in the synopsis provided. Applications were made available on April 3, 2020, with a deadline for a notice of intent to apply on May 4, 2020, and a final application transmittal deadline of June 2, 2020.

Eligibility is summarized broadly in the listing as "Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification)," and the synopsis repeatedly emphasizes that applicants must rely on the official Federal Register application notice for authoritative eligibility rules, application requirements, priorities, performance measures, and submission instructions. The Department also points applicants to its standard "Common Instructions for Applicants to Department of Education Discretionary Grant Programs" (published February 13, 2019, 84 FR 3768) for procedural guidance on obtaining and submitting applications.

To support applicants, OESE planned to provide technical assistance in the form of pre-recorded pre-application webinars and a Frequently Asked Questions document hosted on the TSL program web page. Those resources were intended to help applicants interpret requirements and prepare more competitive submissions, but the synopsis makes clear that the controlling guidance remains the official notice published in the Federal Register.

• The Department of Education in the education, opportunity zone benefits sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE) Teacher and School Leader (TSL) Incentive Program, CFDA 84.374A" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 84.374.
• This funding opportunity was created on Apr 03, 2020.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jun 02, 2020 Applications Available April 3, 2020. Pre-Application Webinars The Office of Elementary and Secondary Education intends to post pre-recorded informational webinars designed to provide technical assistance to interested applicants for TSL grants. These informational webinars will be available on the TSL web page shortly after this notice is published in the Federal Register at oese.ed.gov/offices/office-of-discretionary-grants-support-services/effective-educator-development-programs/teacher-and-school-leader-incentive-program/applicant-info-eligibility. A TSL Frequently Asked Questions document will also be published on the TSL program web page as soon as it is available at https://oese.ed.gov/#8203offices/#8203office-of-discretionary-grants-support-services/#8203effective-educator-development-programs/#8203teacher-and-school-leader-incentive-program/#8203.Deadline for Notice of Intent to Apply May 4, 2020. Deadline for Transmittal of Applications June 2, 2020.. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 10 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Others (see text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility for clarification).

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