0044 IDEA Public Schools
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Table of Contents Applicant Background .................................................................................................. 3 Need for the Project ...................................................................................................... 5 Competitive Preference Priority 1—Need for Assistance ........................................ 15 (a) The costs of fully implementing the magnet school project as proposed .............................. 15 (b) The resources available to IDEA Public Schools to carry out the project if funds under the program were not provided ....................................................................................................... 16 (c) The extent to which costs of the project exceed IDEA’s resources ....................................... 17 (d) The difficulty of effectively carrying out the approved plan and the project for which assistance is sought, including consideration of how the design of the magnet schools project impacts IDEA’s ability to successfully carry out the approved plan ............................................ 17 Competitive Preference Priority 2—New or Revised Magnet Schools Projects and Strength of Evidence to Support Proposed Projects ............................................... 23 IDEA Public Schools will carry out a new magnet schools project ............................................................ 24 Competitive Preference Priority 3—Selection of Students ...................................... 28 IDEA Public Schools will select students to attend magnet schools by lottery rather than through academic examination ................................................................................................................................. 28 Competitive Preference Priority 4—Increasing Racial Integration and Socioeconomic Diversity ............................................................................................ 29 (a) Desegregation ........................................................................................................ 32 (1) IDEA Public Schools will recruit students from different social, economic, ethnic, and racial backgrounds into the magnet school ......................................................................................... 32 (2) IDEA’s plan will foster interaction among students of different social, economic, ethnic, and racial backgrounds in classroom activities, extracurricular activities, or other activities in the magnet school........................................................................................................................... 44 (3) IDEA Public Schools will ensure equal access and treatment for eligible project participants who have been traditionally underrepresented in courses or activities offered as part of the magnet school, e.g., women and girls in STEM courses, and disabled students ....................... 55 (4) The effectiveness of all other desegregation strategies proposed by IDEA Public Schools for the elimination, reduction, or prevention of minority group isolation in elementary schools and secondary schools with substantial proportions of minority students ......................................... 60 (b) Quality of Project Design ...................................................................................... 66 (1) IDEA Comprehensive Health Professions will improve student academic achievement for all students attending the magnet school program and will increase student academic achievement in the program offered ............................................................................................................... 66 IDEA’s curriculum model builds toward college graduation ..................................................................... 74 (2) IDEA Public Schools has the resources to operate the project beyond the length of the grant .................................................................................................................................................................... 83 Multi-year financial and operating model and accompanying plan ......................................... 83 Demonstrated commitment of project partners ...................................................................................... 86 Evidence of broad support from stakeholders critical to the project’s long-term success ....... 91 (3) The training or professional development services to be provided by the proposed project are of sufficient quality, intensity, and duration to lead to improvements in practice among the recipients of those services ....................................................................................................... 92 IDEA Comprehensive Health Professions: An open-enrollment magnet public charter 1 school PR/Award # U165A170044 Page e19 (4) IDEA Comprehensive Health Professions is supported by strong theory ............................. 97 (c) Quality of Management Plan ................................................................................ 101 (1) The management plan will achieve IDEA Comprehensive Health Professions objectives on time and within budget, including clearly defined responsibilities, timelines, and milestones for accomplishing project tasks .................................................................................................... 101 (i) IDEA’s Comprehensive Health Professions project management responsibilities, timelines, and milestones ................................................................................................................................................. 105 (2) IDEA Public Schools will ensure a diversity of perspectives is brought to bear in the operation of IDEA Comprehensive Health Professions, including those of parents, teachers, the business community, a variety of disciplinary and professional fields, recipients or beneficiaries of services, or others, as appropriate ...................................................................................... 115 Guiding vision....................................................................................................................................... 115 Ensuring a diversity of perspectives includes a set of diverse voices and build a culture in which differences of opinion are encouraged. Differences and diversity are valued and the norm at IDEA Comprehensive Health Professions. Classroom and school leaders model the expectation that healthy debate about issues and ideas. Ongoing DEI training and education will be provided to students and classroom and school leaders ............................................................................................................... 115 Program planning................................................................................................................................. 115 District- and campus-level support and guidance ................................................................................ 116 Ongoing community-based input and support for implementation ...................................................... 117 (d) Key Project Personnel .......................................................................................... 118 (1) The project director is qualified to manage the project ....................................................... 118 (2) Other key personnel are qualified to manage the project ................................................... 120 (3) Teachers who will provide instruction for IDEA Comprehensive Health Professions are qualified to implement the school’s magnet curriculum ............................................................ 128 (e) Quality of Project Evaluation .............................................................................................. (1) The methods of evaluation will, if well-implemented, produce evidence of promise ............ 133 (2) The methods of evaluation include the use of objective performance measures that are clearly related to the intended outcomes of the project and will produce quantitative and qualitative data to the extent possible ...................................................................................... 140 (3) The methods of evaluation to which the costs are reasonable in relation to the objectives, design, and potential significance of the project ...................................................................... 147 IDEA Comprehensive Health Professions: An open-enrollment magnet public charter 2 school PR/Award # U165A170044 Page e20 Applicant Background IDEA Public Schools has successfully grown its high-performing public charter network from one campus established in Donna, Texas, in 2000 to 51 schools operating across three regions of Texas—Rio Grande Valley, San Antonio, and Austin—17 years later. IDEA’s continued expansion includes the first-ever health professions secondary school in the city of Austin and the first comprehensive public charter magnet school in the country focused on building a STEM pipeline from pre-K-12 by gradually building knowledge and skills related to health professions, culminating in high school. When the school’s graduates begin their careers in the mid-21st century, IDEA Comprehensive Health Professions will have significantly increased the pipeline and diversity of local talent to become physicians, allied health care practitioners, and other health professionals in Central Texas. Today, IDEA is proving that through an evidence-based, individualized learning program