The Michigan Department of Education (MDE) has announced that the application for a competitive grant to improve classroom instruction through regional data initiatives will be available September 1, 2009.

Funding for this program has been awarded to MDE by the U.S. Department of Education under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, Title II, Part D program as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, CFDA Number 84.386. This competitive grant will be known as the Regional Data Initiatives grant.

The purpose of the grant program is to provide Michigan teachers with real-time access to student data at the classroom level to inform instructional decisions. MDE anticipates awarding between five and ten grants to ISDs for the purpose of establishing and leading consortia of other ISDs and their constituent local educational agencies (LEAs) and public school academies (PSAs) in the adoption and use of existing programs of web-based tools, services, resources, and professional development that identify, connect, and combine diverse educational data elements in meaningful ways.

Eligible Applicants
This grant is targeted to eligible partnerships (i.e., consortia of ISDs). All Michigan LEAs and PSAs are eligible and encouraged to participate in the Regional Data Initiatives grant through their ISD. LEAs and PSAs can only participate in the Regional Data Initiatives project in which their ISD is participating.

Submission Instructions
The Grant Award Notification providing general instructions, scoring rubric, and supporting information for the Regional Data Initiatives grant will be posted Thursday, July 23, 2009 on the www.Michigan.gov/edtech website and the http://techplan.org/grants.html website. Applications will be submitted within the Michigan Electronic Grants System (MEGS), with the window for submissions being open between September 1, 2009 and September 15, 2009. The application final submission deadline is 11:59 p.m., September 15, 2009.

Questions regarding the content of this memo may be directed to the Grants Coordination and School Support, Educational Technology and Data Coordination unit by email to umpsteadb@michigan.govor phone 517.335.2957.