Grants and Other Financial Assistance Programs

FY2024: Title III: English Language Acquisition and Academic Achievement Program for English Learners and Immigrant Children and Youth

Fund Code: 0180

Purpose:

Title III of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) provides supplemental resources to local school districts to help ensure that English learners (ELs) and immigrant children and youth attain English proficiency and develop high levels of academic achievement in English, assist teachers and administrators to enhance their capacity to provide effective instructional programs designed to prepare ELs and immigrant children and youth to enter all-English instructional settings, and promote parental, family, and community participation in language instruction programs for parents, families, and communities.

Title III, Part A is one of four principal programs that are available to districts through formula grants under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the current reauthorization of ESEA. The other programs are Title I, Part A; Title II, Part A; and Title IV, Part A.

Priorities:

The priorities of Title III are to:

Increase the English language proficiency of ELs by providing effective language instruction programs that meet the needs of ELs and increase student academic achievement
Provide effective professional development designed to improve the instruction and assessment of ELs, to enhance the ability of teachers and school leaders to understand and implement curricula and assessment practices and measures, and to increase children's English language proficiency or substantially increase the subject matter knowledge, teaching knowledge, and teaching skills of teachers
Provide and implement other effective activities and strategies that enhance or supplement language instruction programs for ELs which shall include parent, family, and community engagement activities

In addition to the above priorities, the Title III program supports Massachusetts' goals and strategies (listed below) for increasing student achievement by enhancing grant recipients' capacity to increase students' English language proficiency and academic achievement.

State Goal, Core Strategies, and ESSA Priorities and Our Way Forward in Massachusetts Initiatives

The goal of Massachusetts' public K–12 education system is to prepare all students for success after high school. Our five core strategies to accelerate the pace of school improvement are:

Strengthening standards, curriculum, instruction, and assessment
Promoting educator development
Supporting social-emotional learning, health, and safety
Turning around the state's lowest performing districts and schools
Enhancing resource allocation and data use

Additionally, Massachusetts has identified four priority focus areas under its plan for implementing the Every Student Succeeds Act:

Early grades literacy
Middle grades math
High-quality college and career pathways for high school students
Supporting historically disadvantaged subgroups of students

Massachusetts Acceleration Roadmap
Massachusetts has developed a tool to support acceleration of student learning. Schools and districts are encouraged to use the self-assessment resources in the Roadmap to identify key areas of focus and related action steps in their work accelerating learning, and then align their funding requests with these identified steps.

Additionally, districts may explore the use of these funds to support the "Our Way Forward" initiatives. This includes:

Deeper Learning for All
Holistic Support and Enrichment
Innovation and Evidence-Based Practices

Eligibility:

Funds are awarded to districts or consortia of districts with enough students identified as English learners (ELs) in each district in the March 2023 student data transmission (SIMS), for which the calculated per-pupil amount yields an allocation greater than or equal to $10,000. Districts interested in forming a consortium for Title III purposes were required to submit an Intent to Participate by June 16, 2023.

Grants are awarded to local school districts after the state reviews and approves a district's grant application.

Funding Type:

Federal CFDA 84.365

Federal grant funds must adhere to:

UGG (2 CFR 200)
EDGAR As Applicable
EDGAR General Fiscal Administration 34 CFR Part 76

Funding:

FY24 Fund Code 0180 Title III, Part A District Allocations

This RFP is the governing document for these grant funds.

Funding is contingent upon availability. All dollar amounts listed are estimated/approximate and are subject to change. If more funding becomes available for allocations, it will be distributed under the same guidelines that appear in this RFP document. Unclaimed funds will be redistributed to eligible districts via the Title III, Part A Immigrant grant.

Fund Use:

Title III formula subgrants are to be used to fund supplemental instruction for ELs, professional development for teachers and administrators of ELs, and EL family and parent engagement. Title III funds must be used to supplement the level of local, state, and federal funds that, in the absence of Title III funds, would otherwise be expended for programs for ELs and in no case supplant such federal, state, and local funds. There is a maximum 2% cap on direct administrative costs.

Important: Please note that Title III funds may not be used to support or provide either the SEI Teacher or SEI Administrator Endorsement course or to meet the requirements under the LOOK Act.

Project Duration:

Upon approval* through 6/30/2024 (Year 1)

The period of availability for this grant award can be extended 15 months beyond Year 1. The extended period is as follows: 7/1/2024 – 6/30/2025 (Year 2); 7/1/2025 – 9/30/2025 (Year 3).

*The grant start date cannot be prior to DESE receiving a substantially approvable application submission as directed in this RFPs Submission Instructions. Funds cannot exceed the project duration end date.

Program Unit:

Resource Allocation Strategy and Planning

Contact:

Federal Grant Programs

Date Due:

Tuesday, September 12, 2023

Required Forms:

FY24 Federal Grant Assurances — The FY24 Federal Grant Assurances Signature Page (Page 1 only) completed and signed by the Superintendent/Executive Director and uploaded in GEM$ in the LEA Document Library under Assurances, in folder Federal Entitlement Grant Assurances. We cannot approve any federal entitlement grant without a signed, properly dated and uploaded Federal Grant Assurance signature page.

Additional Information:

GEM$ Submission Instructions:

The FY2024 Fund Code 0180 Title III: English Language Acquisition and Academic Achievement Program for English Learners grant will be completed and submitted in our new Grants for Education Management System (GEM$). GEM$ is a cloud-based fiscal and program management grant system that will eventually phase out the use of EdGrants.

Last Updated: July 13, 2023