FY 26 Teacher Quality Partnership (TQP) Program Competition

The Teacher Quality Partnership Program is a Federal discretionary grant program administered by the U.S. Department of Education with operational support from the U.S. Department of Labor. The program is authorized under Title II of the Higher Education Act and is intended to strengthen teacher preparation, improve educator effectiveness, expand teacher residency pathways, and increase the supply of highly qualified teachers and school leaders serving high-need schools and local educational agencies. The FY 2026 competition emphasizes improving student achievement through evidence-based teacher preparation reforms, stronger induction and mentoring systems, literacy instruction, and workforce-aligned educator pipelines, including Registered Apprenticeship models for teachers and school leaders. The program supports eligible partnerships composed of high-need local educational agencies, high-need schools or early childhood education programs, partner institutions of higher education, schools or departments of education, and schools or departments of arts and sciences. Partnerships may also include State educational agencies, charter schools, teacher organizations, nonprofit educational organizations, businesses, educational service agencies, and alternative certification providers. Applicants must demonstrate that participating LEAs meet the definition of high-need LEA through poverty, rural, or teacher shortage indicators. The grant competition includes five absolute priorities focused on teacher preparation programs, teacher residency models, leadership development models, and State-led education initiatives. Applicants may only apply under one absolute priority category, though Absolute Priority 5 may be combined with another priority. The funding opportunity provides an estimated $70 million in total available funds for the competition. Individual awards are expected to range from $500,000 to $2 million per 12-month budget period, with projects lasting up to 60 months. Funding beyond the first year is contingent upon continuation approvals and availability of appropriations. The Department expects to issue approximately 7 to 10 awards. Grant recipients are required to provide a non-Federal cost share or matching contribution equal to 100 percent of the Federal award amount, which may include cash or in-kind contributions. Although the Secretary has authority to waive the matching requirement in cases of serious hardship, the notice states that waivers are generally not anticipated. The program also includes supplement-not-supplant requirements and limits administrative costs to no more than two percent of grant funds. Allowable activities depend on the absolute priority selected by the applicant. Eligible activities include redesigning teacher preparation curricula, strengthening literacy instruction, implementing induction and mentoring systems, supporting teaching residency programs, establishing leadership development pathways, integrating evidence-based instructional practices, improving preservice clinical experiences, recruiting teachers in shortage areas, and supporting Registered Apprenticeship pathways. Teacher residency projects must provide living stipends or salaries to participants and require service commitments in high-need schools. Leadership programs must include intensive clinical learning opportunities, mentoring, and school leadership preparation aligned with urban, rural, or geographically isolated educational environments. Competitive preference priorities encourage workforce readiness initiatives, evidence-based literacy instruction, and strategic staffing or mathematics instruction initiatives. Applications must be submitted electronically through Grants.gov using the Workspace environment. Applicants must maintain active registrations in both SAM.gov and Grants.gov and provide a valid Unique Entity Identifier associated with their SAM registration. The application package requires several components, including the SF-424 forms, budget forms, project abstract, project narrative, budget narrative, required checklists, resumes for key personnel, and lobbying disclosures. Applicants addressing the evidence-based literacy competitive preference priority must also submit evidence documentation with publicly accessible citations. The project narrative is recommended not to exceed 50 pages excluding appendices and supporting documentation. Applications will be evaluated using four major selection criteria: quality of project design, quality of evaluation or evidence-building, quality of the management plan, and adequacy of resources. Reviewers will score applications on a 100-point scale. Additional competitive preference points may be awarded for workforce readiness, literacy, and meaningful learning opportunity initiatives. Applicants are expected to provide measurable goals, logic models, evaluation plans, sustainability strategies, and plans for continuous improvement using quantitative and qualitative data. The Department also established program performance measures related to certification attainment, retention, literacy and mathematics certification, student achievement gains, and Registered Apprenticeship completion rates. Applications became available on May 7, 2026, and the final application deadline is June 23, 2026. Intergovernmental review deadlines occur on August 24, 2026. The Department intends to host informational webinars approximately two weeks after publication of the notice. Contact information for the competition includes Mia Howerton at the U.S. Department of Education, reachable at Mia.Howerton@ed.gov or through the TQPartnership@ed.gov mailbox, with telephone support at (202) 219-0147. The competition appears to be part of an ongoing Federal educator workforce initiative and is likely to recur in future funding cycles.

Align the proposal tightly to a single absolute priority; demonstrate strong evidence-based project design and measurable outcomes; provide detailed sustainability and continuation plans; clearly document high-need LEA eligibility and partner commitments; emphasize literacy instruction, workforce readiness, and clinically rich teacher preparation experiences; integrate continuous improvement and high-quality evaluation methods.