Approve the Payment to the University of South Florida (USF) College of Education's Anchin Center for Services Associated with Their Partnership in Hillsborough County Public Schools (HCPS) Smaller Learning Communities (SLC) grant, Project #S215L070536 (Division of Student Services and Federal Programs)

The U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) awarded $9,549,227 to HCPS for the district’s SLC grant project, entitled Tomorrow’s Leaders. The purpose of the program is to support activities that improve student academic achievement in large public high schools with enrollments of 1,000 or more students. The following high schools are included in the grant: Armwood, Brandon, Durant, Hillsborough, Jefferson, King, Riverview, and Robinson. The district’s Supervisor for Academic Programs serves as Project Director for this grant. The awarded amount for year three of the five-year project is $2,063,246. Of this total amount, $123,428 is for project services rendered by the USF. Faculty and staff from USF College of Education’s Anchin Center, through the Tampa Bay Educational Partnership, a formal partnership between the district and the university, are providing a Documentation Analysis and Technical Assistance (DATA) team, which will meet with both the project leadership and the individual schools on at least a quarterly basis to assist both groups in data analysis and interpretation. The DATA team will communicate regularly with the Internal and External Evaluator and will play a dynamic role in project decision making. Year three of the project began October 1, 2009, and ends September 30, 2010.

Funding in the amount of $123,428 for this project is provided by the USDOE SLC grant, Project #S215L070536. HCPS is the grant’s fiscal agent and project funds reside with the district.

Under the terms of the grant, HCPS is responsible for project evaluation. A copy of the annual reports and final evaluation report will be provided to HCPS Office of Assessment and Accountability. The anticipated due date for the year three annual report is December 30, 2010.