CPED is coming to the end of its first phase. It has been a productive three years during which we have gained a deep understanding of the complexities and challenges of transforming the professional practice doctorate in education. Though, in some respects, these first three years have been a necessary foundation for moving our agenda forward, we have struggled with competing efforts to define both principles of practice and candidate outcomes. In the next phase of CPED, we will seek to develop concrete program designs that can be shared nationally and to test those designs across the network of a-like institutions. As a result, CPED leadership is working hard to establish an agenda and to identify funding for the second phase.

One of the immediate avenues we are pursuing is the FIPSE Comprehensive Grant Program for Innovative Institutions. In order to compete in this competition, we need suggestions and comments from CPED membership relative to building an inclusive and cooperative structure in Phase II. Below is a description of the FIPSE Comprehensive Grant. We ask that you read this and answer four questions from the perspective of your institution.

Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) - Operating Principles

The Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) is a unit of the Higher Education Programs located within the Office of Postsecondary Education, U.S. Department of Education. FIPSE's mandate is to "improve postsecondary educational opportunities" across a broad range of concerns. Through its primary vehicle, the Comprehensive Program grant competition, FIPSE seeks to support the implementation of innovative educational reform ideas, to evaluate how well they work, and to share the lessons learned with the larger education community.

FIPSE has mainly worked through modest "seed" grants serving as incentives for improvement. FIPSE grant competitions share certain characteristics:

• They focus on widely felt issues and problems in postsecondary education, rather than on special interest groups or prescribed solutions.
• FIPSE programs are responsive to local initiative, leaving to the applicants the tasks of identifying specific local problems and proposing solutions. Responses to local problems, however, should have the potential for wider influence.
• FIPSE programs are comprehensive with respect to the variety of problems addressed and the range of institutions and learners served.
• FIPSE projects are action-oriented, usually involving direct implementation of new ideas or approaches rather than basic research.
• FIPSE is risk-taking in its willingness to support new and unproven ideas as well as proven ones.