TEA Small Grants Program(TEA ASG)

TEA Small Grants Program, a program of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) of the US Department of State, provides grants to alumni of the Teaching Excellence and Achievement (TEA) program for projects designed to improve teaching in participating countries by providing teachers with the tools, access, and expertise necessary to initiate and guide innovative curricular and teaching projects in their home countries. In addition, they may contribute to the development of productive and lasting relationships and mutual understanding between program alumni and their American colleagues by encouraging collaboration and cooperation between schools in the US and other participating countries.

Projects of up to $4,000 (minimum: $250) may provide trainings to the TEA alumni peers in their local schools through round-tables, workshops and seminars; develop and pilot test educational materials; and buy essential materials for the alumni schools. Follow-on grants may also include cooperation between project participants and their US host schools to build on the six-week, U.S.-based institutes.

Possible project ideas include but are not limited to:

In-country projects such as:

• Teacher training events in foreign participants’ home countries on topics such as curriculum development, alternative education programs, educating students with special needs.
• Developing peer mediation or tolerance education programs in foreign participants’ home schools.
• Conducting seminars on gender equity and gender sensitivity in the classroom.
• Establishment of teacher training resource centers.
• Development and/or pilot-testing of teaching materials.
• Projects to purchase materials for alumni schools.
• Establishing school newsletters.
• Or other projects as deemed appropriate by the selection committee.

• "Teaching Expeditions" in which internship mentor teachers or host university faculty travel to their counterpart’s home town to team-teach lessons at different schools or grades or participate in other projects.
• Cross-training projects between alumni of different program countries.
• Development of a sister-school relationship between the U.S. host and international school or between the alumni schools in TEA Eurasia and South Asia countries.
• Training workshop on incorporating technology in the classroom conducted by both a host university faculty member and international alumni at the alumni’s school.
• Or other projects as deemed appropriate by the selection committee.

Eligibility

• Applications must be submitted by TEA program alumni. For collaborative projects, there may be a maximum of three collaborators, including at least one TEA alumni who will serve as the lead applicant. Collaborators may include other TEA alumni, internship mentor teachers, or host university faculty.
• Proposed projects must be implemented in TEA participating countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Georgia, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, or Ukraine).
• The duration of the proposed project should be a minimum of two weeks and maximum of three months.
• Alumni applicants must be in good standing and have successfully fulfilled all program requirements.
• Applicants must submit a complete application packet, including completed application form, project proposal, budget, timeline, CVs, and support letters from participating schools if necessary.
• Applications not meeting the above technical eligibility requirements will not be forwarded to the selection committee.

Selection Criteria
A selection committee will be established to review and rank grant applications. A list of the top ranking proposals will be forwarded to the State Department for final grantee selection. Selection will be based on:

• Importance of the project to the home school or teachers’ community.
• Commitment from parties needed to execute the project, including the head of the school in the home country and any collaborating teachers from the United States.
• Feasibility of project.
• Financial soundness, including a clearly described budget with real and necessary costs.
• Feasibility of timeline.
• Inclusion of cost-share.
• Inclusion of applicable evaluation methods to gauge the success of the project.
• Clearly written and described proposal.

For more information, e-mail us at tea@irex.am