Section 75.50  Criteria for the Review of Proposals; Allocation of Funds

Each applicant may propose to expend grant funds for one or more of the four types of activities discussed in subsection (b) of Section 2-3.80a of the School Code.  Subsection (a) of this Section includes review criteria for all four types of activities; however, the individual criteria that are not relevant to the activities included in a particular proposal shall be disregarded in its review.  The State Superintendent of Education shall make final determinations regarding the amounts to be provided based upon the total funds appropriated for this initiative and the amounts necessary to fund high-quality proposals that are most responsive to the area or areas of priority identified in the request for applications.

a)         Quality of the Plan (80 points)

1)         Proposed recruitment and retention strategies appear likely to:

A)        promote increased awareness of agricultural education as a potential career among students from varied backgrounds and communities;

B)        create enhanced incentives for individual students to enter and persist in teacher preparation programs in agricultural education; and

C)        help eliminate barriers that may otherwise prevent individuals from completing preparation programs in this field.

2)         Proposed expenditures for the services of master teachers and practitioners as support for student teaching will enhance candidates' understanding of agricultural education as a profession and broaden their awareness of the varied facets of agriculture and agriculturally based careers.

3)         Plans for delivery of professional development for new teachers provide evidence that the training is designed in response to the expressed needs of individuals who are in their first five years of teaching in the field of agricultural education and the districts or cooperatives where they are employed.

4)         Planned expenditures for professional development for a university's agricultural education staff are demonstrably related to the needs of those individuals.

b)         Cost-Effectiveness (20 points)

The proposal represents a cost-effective use of State resources, as evidenced by the amounts requested for the proposed activities in relation to the numbers of students or teachers to be served and the services to be provided.