The U.S. Department of Education (ED) recently announced a new competition for the National Professional Development (NPD) discretionary grant program to aid the expansion of bilingual programs. The NPD program provides grants for pre-service and in-service professional development activities to support improved instruction for PK-12 English learners (ELs) by funding teacher training and certification. This year’s competition seeks to increase the number of bilingual or multilingual teachers becoming certified or fully-licensed by supporting pre-service projects that include a grow-your-own strategy. The Department especially encourages applications from potential new grantees. Applications must be submitted by May 13th with a letter of intent by April 11. Applicants can request up to $700,000 per year for 60 months.
If your organization is developing or considering a proposal for an NPD grant, we encourage you to contact us to discuss your project evaluation needs. Rockman et al Cooperative (REA) is the evaluator for four current NPD projects and has completed two past NPD projects. To read more about our current and past NPD funded projects, click here. REA’s broader portfolio of projects for enhancing instruction and learning for multilingual learners includes a project focused on enhancing academic opportunities with English language development instruction for high school newcomers, which received a grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Education Innovation and Research (EIR) program. For more information about these and other evaluations of PK–12 innovations by REA, including evaluations entailing experimental or quasi-experimental designs, please visit the REA website or reach out to us.