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The FIPSE Comprehensive Program

The FIPSE Comprehensive Program. Claire D. Cornell, Program Officer, FIPSE Office of Postsecondary Education U.S. Department of Education. What is FIPSE ?. FIPSE is the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education .

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The FIPSE Comprehensive Program

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  1. The FIPSE Comprehensive Program Claire D. Cornell, Program Officer, FIPSE Office of Postsecondary Education U.S. Department of Education

  2. What is FIPSE? • FIPSE is the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education. • Funded projects are innovative—new, different, and they change higher education.

  3. What is a FIPSE Grant? • It is a competitive grant. • It provides an institution/organization with funding for curriculum, programs, reorganization, cost-cutting, consortium-building. • It can support any and all disciplines. • It provides the opportunity to test-drive an interesting, and “novel” initiative or endeavor.

  4. FIPSE supports: • Higher education • Innovations and Improvements

  5. Innovation and Improvements may include: • Curriculum innovations • New programs on campus • New student support mechanisms • Cost-saving innovations • Enrollment, admissions, retention innovations • Teaching innovations • New faculty reward systems

  6. Successful applicants demonstrate: • A careful review of existing programs • that substantiates: • That the proposed program is different from what already exists.

  7. Securing A FIPSE Grant Entails: A Strong, Innovative Project Attention to the Selection Criteria Clear, Concise, Easy-to-Read, Prose Consistency Among the Sections Readability – A Proposal that is Lay-Accessible

  8. How to Prepare a Competitive Application for FIPSE funding • Locate and Open the Application Package—also known as the Application Instructions from grants.gov: • Go to www.grants.gov • Select the Find Grant Opportunities Button • Select Basic Search • Select the CFDA # option • Enter CFDA Number 84.116 • Focus most carefully on the Selection Criteria

  9. Download the Application Package • You will arrive at the FIPSE page • Click on the Application tab—located in the upper right-hand corner of the page and scroll to the bottom of the page • Download the FIPSE Comprehensive Application • Click on Application Instructions (when you are ready to upload your application, you will return to this page and click on the Application tab)

  10. What Can FIPSE Do? FIPSE is Accommodating: • FIPSE is unique because it funds all levels of higher education; it funds all disciplines and it supports a broad array of services in postsecondary institutions. •  FIPSE provides seed capital for innovative projects. •  FIPSE starts new initiatives. FIPSE launches unusual projects. •  FIPSE does not support existing programs. •  FIPSE does not fund ongoing efforts. •  FIPSE supports projects that provide evidence that they will continue after grant funding ends. •  Applicants must explain and document their plans for institutionalization.

  11. Formulating an Application • Successful Applicants Directly and Specifically Address the Program’s Selection Criteria. • Directly align your proposal to the Selection Criteria. • Write clearly and concisely. • Provide detailed information on those topics referenced in each statement in the Selection Criteria. • Tear the Selection Criteria apart.

  12. Deconstructing the Selection Criteria: • The Need Section should cover: • The gravity of the need for this project (need’s magnitude or severity) • The gravity of the need for the services proposed (magnitude of the need for services) • The national implications of the problem/need. • The extent to which the problem is central to your institution's vitality. • The extent to which the problem is central to your institution's educational services. • The remedies to this problem already introduced by your institution or by other institutions/organizations. • The results of these existing or previous efforts.

  13. The Need Section should cover (continued): • The local and national consequences of your proposed project’s successful completion. • The extent to which other institutions/organizations will benefit from or learn from your project. • Describe how--by learning from your efforts--they will improve their services.

  14. Here is the beginning of a MOCK Need Statement. It addresses the Problem’s Magnitude, Severity and National Implications. • In a May 15, 2010 article, U.S. News and World Report indicated that by 2015, 87% of U.S. jobs will require undergraduate degrees in STEM fields or social science disciplines that integrate mathematics and statistics.1 Despite this imperative for American advancement in the sciences and mathematics, in 2011, 256,476 U.S. undergraduates failed calculus, an essential subject in any engineering, natural or physical science, statistics, economics, political science, sociology, geography, mathematics, or architectural program.2 • The Blah Blah Institute of Educational Statistics reported that in 10 years, our country will face a shortage of scientists and engineers that will have dire economic impact.3 This can be foreseen by American high-tech companies’ push for the liberalization of H-1B Visa rules—that would allow U.S. companies to hire more foreign nationals for high-skill jobs.4 In March of 2010, Bill Gates testified to this effect before the House XX Committee and reinforced the national need for college graduates in STEM disciplines.5 The shortage of well-educated American students can undermine our economy, our strength in the global arena, and our national security . In his May 2010, speech at the National Defense Conference of GIS specialists , Secretary of Defense, XX, exhorted the nation to produce greater numbers of geographers), and indicated that if by 2017, we did not have a 40% increase in the number of professional geographers, the.6

  15. Here is the section of the Need Statement that Addresses the Problem’s College Issues and the Problem’s Centrality to the Campus In 2010, 25% of Reverie University’s declared STEM majors failed to complete the mathematics sequence required for the following majors: A, B, C. . . . . 7 Worse, since 2005, the Mathematics Department, which for 100 years was the centerpiece of our institution, failed to graduate a single major. In the past six years, it has seen its enrollment plummet to 2 undergraduates, while it continues to employ 43 faculty members—who do not have terminal degrees, do not publish, do not attend professional meetings, but who do play championship bridge online.8 Reverie’s faculty members are not unique. A scathing 2010 report from the National Association of Faltering Colleges and Universities, indicated that faculty incapacity and interest in online bridge plagues 72% of its members. 9

  16. The Problem’s Roots and Repercussions. Although we can blame students’ failings on the K-12 system, on children’s home lives, or on a variety of sociological and economic factors, every year, U.S. colleges and universities must educate XXXX thousands of undergraduates. Moreover, we can blame the indolence of NAFCU-member faculty on poor pay, bad management, or general emotional desperation among administrators (see EEEK report).10 Regardless of how we assign fault, when students they cannot secure jobs, when they cannot go to graduate school, when they drop out, our nation is at risk; certainly our economy is at risk and Reverie University seems perched on a cliff with lemmings. That we allow students to drop out, to fail mathematics, to pursue English literature majors, redounds to the serious failings in the entire American Higher Education enterprise.

  17. The Problem’s Relevance to the Applicant Institution’s Vitality. If by 2020, Reverie University does not succeed in graduating 85% of its students with STEM degrees, the institution will declare bankruptcy. In a dramatic and dire report, our finance office (see attached YIKES report in Appendix XX)11 has indicated that without employment, 70% of students will default on loans, 65% will fail to pay their overdue tuition, 87% of our donors will withdraw their pledges, and our endowment (which we will have to use to compensate for these shortfalls) will shrink by half. The Problem’s Relevance to the Applicant Institution’s Educational Services. If it does not improve its academic offerings, by July 1, 2012, Reverie University will lose its accreditation and be dropped from the list of American Colleges and Universities that appears in the US Department of Education’s tally of postsecondary institutions. In essence, the ZZ team that visited campus in the fall of 2010 indicated that it was so appalled by Reverie’s mathematics and geography departments that it could not offer probationary accreditation as it would under normal circumstances.12 The faculty senate is in turmoil; and stating that he wanted greater intellectual stimulation, Dr. Spock, our Provost has just recently begun working in the campus Subway sandwich outlet on weekends. Without a more robust mathematics curriculum, seven other campus departments declared that they are ready to disband.

  18. Past Attempts to Remedy the Situation. Although Reverie U and its fellow four year colleges and universities in National Association of Faltering Colleges and Universities have instituted reforms that address STEM inadequacies, to date, none have proven effective. In 2009, Reverie invested $2M in faculty development, sent our mathematics faculty to 17 campuses across the country and instituted a mathematics across the curriculum program—which 95 % of the faculty subsequently refused to implement. The NAFCU members’ attempts at retooling curriculum have been equally fruitless. Although we know that the National Science Foundation and the US Department of Education have installed hundreds, if not thousands of STEM and Mathematics initiatives in colleges, these seem to have fared better than ours. One factor may be that almost none of our mathematics faculty have training in mathematics. This may have impaired their ability to comprehend the content that their immersion experiences provided. We have conducted a thorough review of other colleges and universities—and found that across the nation, none has a more poorly prepared faculty than does Reverie. This makes us capable of instituting the most draconian measures—short of firing all mathematics faculty. We should add that few mathematicians were willing to take full-time teaching positions for the $10,000 per year wage that we have offered. It is only the existing faculty who seem agreeable to this salary.

  19. Local and National Consequences of the Successful Completion of Project Ruse. The successful implementation of Project Ruse will enable Reverie University to continue to exist, to retain its accreditation, to retain its faculty and staff, to satisfy its creditors, and to provide a modicum of services to its hapless student body. The 57 member institutions in the National Organization of Totally Hopeless Institutions of National Geography (NOTHING will likewise be able to retain their accreditation, their student enrollment. . . . .

  20. A competitive proposal will: • Respond to each sentence or statement in every Selection Criterion. • Answer each issue raised in each Selection Criterion.

  21. FIPSE Competitions May Include Preference Priorities

  22. Annual Priorities or Preferences Three (3) Types of Annual Priorities

  23. Invitational Priority or Preference Congress or the Executive Branch invites proposals that address a particular priority. The Secretary of Education invites applications that address Invitational Priorities. Applications that meet any Invitational Priority receive no points, no weight, and no special consideration or preference over other applications.

  24. Competitive Priority or Preference Congress or the Executive Branch has indicated that it will award extra points to applications that address Competitive Priorities. The Secretary of Education may award all or some bonus points to applications that meet the Competitive Priorities.

  25. Absolute Priority or Preference Congress or the Executive Branch has indicated that it will award grants to applications that meet the Absolute Priority (ies).

  26. Addressing Priorities • When an applicant addresses priorities, he/she must weave the focus on that priority throughout the application. • In the 2011 Competition: • Selection Criteria Yield no more than 100 points • Competitive Preference Priorities Yield no more than 6 Points (no more than 2 Points for each Competitive Preference Priority) • Invitational Priorities yield no (0) Points

  27. The Importance of Priorities • They present the government’s focus. • They may present the field’s focus. • Responding to them indicates the applicant’s interest in current issues. • They can yield extra points, or make an applicant eligible (Absolute Priorities). • However, they are not necessary or sufficient for a successful application.

  28. The Value of Specificity • Need Statement: Document your need with recent citations. • Significance Section: Document your assertions with recent citations. • Show the reviewer that you have scoured the landscape looking for similar endeavors—and yet, you can demonstrate that your proposed project is unique.

  29. Specificity Continued • The Project Design should provide details on: • Who • What • Where • When • How • Why

  30. A Mock List of Activities • Who: Engaged faculty content experts develop project-supported “Mars Travel via Transporter, Living on Mars, Staying on Mars, Dying on Mars” courses. • Faculty members (attach vitae, indicate time on project, and in budget forms and budget narrative, indicate the faculty members’ compensation) : • Project Director: James Tiberius Kirk • Faculty: • Dr. Spock • Leonard H. (Bones) McCoy, • Nyota Uhuru • Hariku Sulu • What Create innovative electronic courses on the following topics: • Mars Travel: May 2011 • Living on Mars: September 2011 • Staying on Mars: January 2011 • Dying on Mars: March 2011

  31. Where: • Location for curriculum development—Starship Enterprise • Location for attending efforts: Space • When: • See Timeline in Appendix GG

  32. Discuss Contingency Plans

  33. What if some elements no longer work?

  34. Make the Project Leap Off the Page • Include some phrase or sentence that is relevant—and will grab the reviewer’s attention. • Grandmaster Flash (aka Joseph Saddler) will help faculty to convey electronics equipment repair courses in a more engaging manner. • Charlie Sheen will help faculty to develop attention-getting components for large lectures. • These are MOCK examples--

  35. Contact FIPSE • E-mail us. • Call us. http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ope/fipse/staff.html

  36. Questions??

  37. We’ve Finished!

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