The Ohio Department of Education just released the RFP for the Striving Readers grant competition.
Application deadline is March 2nd and submission is through CCIP.
Only LEAs and non-profit Early Childhood Organizations that submitted Intent to Apply forms by January 10 are eligible to apply. However, due to the overwhelming response, participation in the ODE Literacy Academy held this week is no longer an application requirement. If you missed the event, please go to Literacy Academy website and you can download materials. ODE also plans to upload videos from at least some of the sessions.
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High quality applications that tell the story of complex consortia with differentiated needs can be extremely challenging to capture in 4000 characters. Did you know? 47% of all Straight A Grant funds were awarded to EnvisionEdPlus partners |
Food for Thought on Competitive Consortia
Districts across the state have been asking our team for advice as they plan their applications and work to create competitive consortia. Here are some key strategies as you move forward.
- Consortia applications are likely to be the most competitive. ESCs and other natural convening organizations are well-positioned to facilitate development of strong consortia.
- Think strategically and create consortia that balance cost per student (lower is better) and numbers of disadvantaged children (higher is better).
- Organizations may ONLY submit ONE application. Be strategic in determining how to position your organization for success.
- ESCs may only submit one application under the ESC itself, but they may be partners on multiple applications.
- Medium to large districts (EEP recommends 4,000+ children) can be competitive alone if they serve high numbers of disadvantaged children.
- Competitive preference points are awarded to schools/districts in Ohio’s Early Literacy Pilot. Consider recruiting them for consortia applications.
- While consortia do not have limits on the number of participating schools/districts, implementation will be based on local literacy plans. Reminder: if there are not common types of interventions, your consortia will not be able to gain the economy of scale needed for low per student cost.
- SST staff (and regional Literacy Coaches) need to become your new BFF (Best Friend Forever). They will provide key technical assistance during pre-application and post award periods.
Free Technical Assistance
Ohio Small & Rural Collaborative is hosting the Ohio Literacy Summit on January 23rd at Clark State College. This will be a great day for districts to connect and find partners for consortia. EnvisionEdPlus is attending and presenting. We will have a table so you can meet 1-1 with us for support any time during the day. Stop by and see us! We will also run a workshop for Striving Readers grant applicants. If you haven’t already registered – get to it 🙂
If you have questions or would like to talk to us about how we can help with Striving Readers, please contact us through our website. Feel free to also contact Tricia Moore, our Director of Partnership and Engagement (tricia@envisionedplus.com or 614.357.4439).
~Michele Timmons, President (michele@envisionedplus.com or 614.893.7341)