RFA-Grow Your Own Program

The Oregon Department of Education and Educator Advancement Council are issuing a Request for Grant Applications (RFA) for the Grow Your Own (GYO) Educator Program, seeking to invest funds in partnerships across Oregon that will develop and support educator recruitment, preparation, and retention strategies. The procurement aims to establish or continue GYO partnerships focusing on addressing disparities and workforce needs, particularly targeting racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse educator candidates. Applicants must submit comprehensive project plans detailing partnership structures, regional workforce focus, equity problems of practice, and proposed strategies to be implemented over a two-year grant period from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2025. Evaluation criteria will assess the partnership composition, workforce areas, identified equity challenges, project plan quality, and budget alignment. The RFA requires detailed documentation including a partner commitment form, budget narrative, and project timeline. The application deadline is May 5, 2023, at 3:00 PM, with a pre-application webinar held on March 30, 2023, to provide additional guidance and answer potential applicants' questions.

Eligible applicants include public and non-profit entities in Oregon that can form partnerships with at least one other qualifying entity such as school districts, education service districts, early learning providers, tribal governments, post-secondary institutions, or community organizations. Each applicant may submit only one application, though they can be named as a partner in multiple proposals. The RFA anticipates awarding grants to at least one applicant in each of Oregon's ten regional educator networks, with a focus on high-need areas like bilingual/multilingual, rural, special education, and culturally responsive instruction. Grant funding is available up to $700,000 for the two-year period, with potential additional start-up funds of up to $75,000 for new GYO programs. Tribal Nations may be eligible for non-competitive grant funds through the Tribal Nations Educator Collaborative, pending legislative approval. The agency reserves the right to award varying amounts based on applicant requests and the goal of funding multiple programs across the state, encouraging applicants to submit flexible and scalable budgets.