Grant segment on collaboration (tailor as necessary):

Frequently, grantors want to make sure that entities they give money too are collaborating with others so that money is well-spent, projects are cost-effective, and appropriate partners are working together to get the job done.  Here is an example of how you might show collaboration in your specific project (tailor as necessary):

The EDGE Project involves many partners: [Hamline University, local school districts, individual community schools, teachers, and reserve teachers]. Our initiative is, by its very definition, a partnership, because it is a joint program of two Intermediate Districts serving 24 local school districts. The local school districts and community schools within them will also be partners, so that 30-50 different community organizations will partner in the finished project.

In addition to inter-district collaborative planning and execution of our project, [EDGE] will enhance collaboration in schools.  The project will use coaching, training, and planning support to foster a culture of staff development and learning in participating schools.  Such cultures have been shown to benefit students and teachers.  (See Section 2.ii above for references.) The learning communities will also make teachers highly motivated to continue differentiation and identification of gifted students even after the grant support has moved on to other schools. Collaboration will, therefore, add sustainability in the program.

Successful partnerships require time, financial support, skilled facilitation, ongoing commitment, good listening, and mutual respect in order to develop and flourish. The partnerships that would be central to the project we propose would be based on decades of successful partnering on educational topics for the mutual benefit of all. For over thirty years, the Intermediate Districts have been successful facilitators of cooperative educational achievement for hundreds of thousands of students, with a particular emphasis on meeting the needs of underserved populations, including those with special needs, gifted and talented students, and those who use vocational and technical programs. The funding we have received from the State Legislature, the National Science Foundation, the US Department of Labor, the US Department of Education; and the Minnesota Department of Education, and private funders speaks to the confidence that outside funders have in the quality of our services, including numerous teacher training and curriculum development initiatives, such as the one we propose to [Javits].

(Furthermore, GRO Districts take seriously the expertise of our teachers.  We have therefore invited interested district staff to help us develop this initiative.  If we receive a [Javits] grant, interested teacher teams will submit proposals on how receiving the training and support will help them serve students.  We will select for participation teacher-driven, collaborative, school-supported plans that will help us make substantial contributions to research and practice in serving the needs of gifted and talented, dual needs, low-English proficiency, and/or disabled students and those of students across the board.)