April 10, 2014
A new round of the Virtual Advanced Placement (VAP) Program has been announced by the NYS Education Department, and it “must be evaluated to determine the extent to which identified program goals and outcomes have been achieved.” The Request for Proposals and additional information is available here. Approximately $3 million are available to fund programs in New York State for approximately 1 year, beginning in August 2014.
According to the RFP, “The VAP Program Round 2 is designed to increase the successful participation of low-income students in Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test® (PSAT/NMSQT®) and virtual learning (online and blended instruction) Advanced Placement® (AP®) courses and tests.” This will provide greater opportunities for low-income students to demonstrate college- and career-readiness, and to demonstrate mastery of the New York State Learning Standards. In addition, “The program goals are to provide incentives for larger and more diverse groups of students to participate and succeed in virtual learning AP® programs, and to increase the numbers of low-income and other disadvantaged students who receive AP® credits.”
Evaluation is worth 10 points in the grant application scoring, and additional points are awarded for high-quality objectives that are consistent with NYS Regulations of the Commissioner of Education part 100.5(d) (10), Credit for Online and Blended Learning.
Via Evaluation is currently the independent evaluator for a VAP Round 1 grant, and has substantial experience in this area. This experience includes writing the evaluation section of the successful VAP grant proposal. Via Evaluation also has conducted several evaluations for closely related grants, including the Advanced Placement Initiative (US Department of Education), and the Mathematics and Science Partnerships grant (NYSED), as well as many other evaluations.
Applications must be postmarked by May 23rd, 2014.
Please contact us here at Via Evaluation soon if you are interested in discussing our role in your VAP proposal. We look forward to hearing from you.
