June 15, 2021

Dear Colleague:

This Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) seeks to highlight a revision in Program Solicitation NSF 21-578 for the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship program. The definition of "high-need local educational agency" (e.g., "high-need school district") has been revised to reflect the current definition, as defined in section 201 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1021).

The revised definition can be found as #9 in the Definitions of Terms in Section ll: Project Description of NSF 21-578 and is as follows:

The term "high-need local educational agency (or high-need LEA)", as defined in section 201 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1021), means a U.S. local educational agency (e.g., school district) that has at least one school that:

1. meets at least one of the following criteria:
   1. not less than 20% of the children served by the agency are from low income families;
   2. serves at least 10,000 children from low-income families;
   3. is eligible for funding under the Small, Rural School Achievement Program under 20 U.S.C. 7345(b); or
   4. is eligible for funding under the Rural and Low-Income School Program under 20 U.S.C. 7351(b);
2. meets at least one of the following criteria:
   1. has a high percentage of teachers not teaching in the academic subject areas or grade levels in which the teachers were trained to teach; or
   2. has a high teacher turnover rate or a high percentage of teachers with emergency, provisional, or temporary certification or licensure.

Questions about this DCL should be directed to Kathleen Bergin, e-mail kbergin@nsf.gov.

Sincerely,

Karen Marrongelle
Assistant Director
Directorate for Education and Human Resources