Call For Peer Reviewers

CONTEXT: The U.S. Department of Education (Department), Office of Innovation and Improvement (OII), is seeking individuals to serve as peer reviewers for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 Charter Schools Program (CSP) Grant competitions. The purpose of CSP is to increase the national understanding of the charter school model and to expand the number of high quality charter schools available to students across the nation. CSP runs competitive grants programs that support the opening of new charter schools and the replication and expansion of high-quality charter schools (State Entity, Replication and Expansion (CMO), and Developer). In addition, CSP runs competitive grant programs that support eligible entities that demonstrate innovative methods of helping charter schools address the cost of acquiring, constructing, and renovating facilities.

WHO: We are seeking peer reviewers from a variety of professions and backgrounds, including but not limited to:

State Entity charter school program grant administration
Charter management organizations
Charter school planning, program design, and implementation
High-quality charter school start-up and expansion
Charter school authorizing and accountability
Charter school research and evaluation
Charter school assessment and evaluation
Charter school policy and research
Charter school authorizing
Charter school technical assistance and resources
Charter school leadership and professional development
Charter school administration and operation
Charter school developer or leader
Experience with facilitating financing by identifying potential lending sources, encouraging private lending, and other similar activities that directly promote lending to, or for the benefit of, charter schools.
Experience with facilitating the issuance of bonds by charter schools, or by other public entities for the benefit of charter schools, by providing technical, administrative, and other appropriate assistance (including the recruitment of bond counsel, underwriters, and potential investors and the consolidation of multiple charter school projects within a single bond issue).
Experience with guaranteeing and insuring leases of personal and real property.
Experience with guaranteeing, insuring, and reinsuring bonds, notes, evidences of debt, loans, and interests therein.

WHAT: Peer reviewers will independently read, score, and provide timely, well written comments, as well as be available to discuss their scoring and comments, of the eligible grant applications submitted to the U.S. Department of Education under the CSP.

REQUIREMENTS: In addition to the skills, attributes, and expertise highlighted above, peer reviewers must also meet the following requirements:

Availability: Reviewers will need to commit between 40 – 60 hours depending on the competition in which you are interested. One competition is onsite (State Entity) and one competition is both onsite in the Washington, D.C. area and remote (Credit Enhancement); both of these competitions fall in the higher range of hours required. The other competitions are remote (CMO, Developer and State Incentive) and fall on the lower range of hours required. This general estimate of time includes participation in an orientation session by conference call, time to read, score, comments, and discuss assigned applications.
Timeline: While exact dates for the reviews have yet to be finalized, we expect that reviews will take place between January 2019 and March 2019 based on the competition. We may do another call in the spring if necessary. If you are interested in the CMO or SE competitions, please submit your resume as soon as possible, as those reviews are expected to begin early in calendar year 2019.
Tools: Each reviewer must have access to the internet, a phone, a computer, a printer, and be able to successfully collaborate within the web environment.
Quality of review: Each reviewer must provide detailed, objective, constructive, and timely, well written reviews for each assigned application. These reviews will be used to make determinations on whether or not to fund applications. The individual reviews will be shared with the respective applicant and the comments regarding the funded applicants will be made public once awards are decided.

IF INTERESTED: To be considered as a peer reviewer, upload your resume and enter your contact information at the following portal: http://new.grantreviewinfo.net/content/charter-schools-program-csp-2019-call-peer-reviewers .The requested information must be provided by Friday, December 14, 2018 at 5:00 pm Eastern Time. Please do not exceed a five-page maximum for resumes. If you experience any difficulties accessing the link, contact us at EDReview@grantreview.org” After this date resumes will be accepted on a rolling basis.

G5 REGISTRATION: To serve as a reviewer you will need to register in G5. If you would like take care of this process prior to selections, please visit the G5 website and follow the steps to register here.
*NOTE: registering in G5 is required if selected to serve as a reviewer but does not guarantee that you will be selected. Please make sure to indicate your competition of choice through the portal.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST: Please remember, if your organization intends to apply for a grant under any CSP competition, you may not be eligible to serve as a reviewer.

As a reviewer, a conflict of interest exists if:

You helped prepare an application, regardless of financial interest in the success or failure of that application.
You have agreed to serve, or you have been offered a position, as an employee, advisor, or consultant on the project.
Your personal financial interest will be affected by the outcome of the competition. This includes any family members, employees or associates of the project applying for funding.

If you have any questions about the peer review process, please contact us by email:
CharterSchools@ed.gov”

NON-DISCRIMINATION: The Department solicits reviewers without regard to race, color, national origin, gender, age or disability. The Department will provide reasonable accommodations for a qualified individual with a disability so that individual might participate in the peer reviewer application process. If you require a reasonable accommodation to apply and participate in this review, please contact the CSP Grant Review Team at EDReview@grantreview.org no later than 5:00 pm ET, Wednesday, December 12, 2018 to ensure we can facilitate the application process.

PROGRAM INFORMATION: For more information about the different Charter Schools Program Grants, click here.

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