U.S. Department of Education: Teacher Quality Partnership Program

The Teacher Quality Partnership (TQP) Grant Program aims to improve student achievement; improve the quality of prospective and new teachers by improving the preparation of prospective teachers and enhancing professional development activities for new teachers; hold teacher preparation programs at institutions of higher education (IHEs) accountable for preparing teachers who meet applicable State certification and licensure requirements; and recruit highly qualified individuals, including minorities and individuals from other occupations, into the teaching force.

The TQP program contains two absolute priorities and three competitive preference priorities. Applicants must address one—and only one—of the following two absolute priorities in order to be considered for funding:

• Absolute Priority 1: Partnership Grants for the Preparation of Teachers
• Absolute Priority 2: Partnership Grants for the Establishment of Effective Teaching Residency Programs

Competitive preference priorities include:

• Competitive Preference Priority 1: Promoting Science, Technology, Engineering, or Math (STEM) Education, with a particular focus on Computer Science.
• Competitive Preference Priority 2: Promoting Effective Instruction in Classrooms and Schools.
• Competitive Preference Priority 3: Novice applicants. Novice applicant means any applicant for a grant from the Department that: (i) Has never received a grant or subgrant under the program from which it seeks funding; (ii) Has never been a member of a group application, submitted in accordance with 34 CFR 75.127-75.129, that received a grant under the program from which it seeks funding; and (iii) Has not had an active discretionary grant from the Federal government in the five years before the deadline date for applications under the program.

Amount: A total of $17,500,000 is available to make up to 20 awards ranging from $300,000-$1,000,000 and averaging $750,000 per year. The grant period may be up to 5 years, pending appropriation of funding.

Eligibility: An eligible applicant must be an eligible partnership, which means an entity that:

1. Must include:

(i) A high-need Local Education Agency (LEA)
(ii) A high-need school or consortium of high-need schools served by the high-need LEA, or a high-need early childhood education (ECE) program
(iii) A partner institution
(iv) A school, department, or program of education within such partner institution, which may include an existing teacher professional development program with proven outcomes within a four-year IHE that provides intensive and sustained collaboration between faculty and LEAs consistent with the requirements of Title II of the Higher Education Act (HEA)
(v) A school or department of arts and sciences within such partner institution

2. May include:

(i) The Governor of the state
(ii) The state educational agency
(iii) The state board of education
(iv) The state agency for higher education
(v) A business
(vi) A public or private nonprofit educational organization
(vii) An educational service agency
(viii) A teacher organization
(ix) A high-performing LEA, or a consortium of such LEAs, that can serve as a resource to the partnership
(x) A charter school (as defined in section 5210 of the Every Child Succeeds Act [ESEA])
(xi) A school or department within the partner institution that focuses on psychology and human development
(xii) A school or department within the partner institution with comparable expertise in the disciplines of teaching, learning, and child and adolescent development
(xiii) An entity operating a program that provides alternative routes to state certification of teachers

Any of the mandatory or optional entities in the partnership may be the fiscal agent of the grant.

Link: https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=305013

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