GRANT ALERT
Greetings: This is a major source of funding for broadband development the contact for a meeting is Barbara Brown, 202-482-4374 or email bbrown@ntia.doc.gov
notice is at
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://www.ntia.doc.gov%2Ffrnotices%2F2009%2Fbroadbandmeetings_090224.pdf
1. NTIA taking meetings for broadband stimulus grant programs
The National Telecommunication and Information Administration (NTIA) has announced its going to hold meetings with interested parties (i.e. people who
want the money) March 2 to talk about the stimulus package broadband grant programs. NTIA is in charge of distributing $4.7 billion in broadband grant monies.
Meetings will be held at the NTIA’s headquarters in Washington D.C. and will give interested parties the opportunity to discuss implementation of the Broadband Grant Programs as described in the stimulus package passed earlier this month.
Under the Recovery Act, the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) has $4.7 billion for eligible parties to develop and expand broadband
services to rural and under-served areas and improve access to broadband by public safety agencies. Of that, $250 million is available for programs that encourage sustainable adoption of broadband services, and there’s at least $200 million marked to upgrade technology and capacity at public computing centers
including community colleges and public libraries.
Plus there’s up to $350 million for the development and maintenance of statewide broadband inventory maps.
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The Art of Leadership
| April 25, 2009 |
My co-author, Dr. Tony Thacker and I will be presenting material from our two books, From At-Risk to Academic Excellence: What Successful Leaders Do and Creating School Cultures That Embrace Learning: What Successful Leaders Do at Alabama State University’s Southern Normal Campus at Brewton, Alabama. The theme of the conference is The Art of Leadership.
Dr. Thacker works for the Alabama Department of Education and is on the Alabama Governor’s Committee on High Quality Teaching.
If you are in the neighborhood of Brewton, come and say hello.
The Times They Are A Changing
The New York Times reported (2/1/2009) that the words used by 12 governors in the State of the State addresses had dramatically changed:
2007 2008
Economy 297 505
Budget 285 389
Jobs 243 351
Revenue 78 134
Recession 2 68
Schools 443 332
Education 389 310
Children 216 187
Students 233 183
As you can see from the above data, education has moved to a back burner on state agendas. Since states fund 93-94% of the school budgets, it is important to take note that we are up to our necks in alligators. Now is the time to notify our local representatives that we are concerned that education does not fall by the wayside in these critical times.
Chapter 1 from Creating School Cultures That Embrace Learning
I am honored to present the first chapter of my new book, “Creating School Cultures That Embrace Learning: What Successful Leaders Do” Some school cultures are hostile to student learning, students, parents and staff. We sent surveys to 300 high performing, high poverty, high minority schools and asked their leaders how were they able to take their toxic learning environments and transform them into high performing schools. The backbone of the book is their responses. It is the second book in a series of three. I have been honored to have written it with two superb co-authors, Dr. Tony Thacker and John S. Bell both from the Alabama Department of Education. To those of you who have read our first book, “From At-Risk to Academic Excellence: What Successful Leaders Do”, this book is even more forceful and powerful. You can order copies from: http://www.eyeoneducation.com/prodinfo.asp?number=7098-3
Here is Chapter One from the book Creating School Cultures That Embrace Learning: What Successful Leaders Do
Introduction from Creating School Cultures That Embrace Learning
Today, my latest book will be published. It is the second book in a series of three. I have been honored to have written it with two superb co-authors, Dr. Tony Thacker and John S. Bell both from the Alabama Department of Education. To those of you who have read our first book, “From At-Risk to Academic Excellence: What Successful Leaders Do”, this book is even more forceful and powerful. You can order copies from: http://www.eyeoneducation.com/prodinfo.asp?number=7098-3
Here is the Introduction from the book Creating School Cultures That Embrace Learning: What Successful Leaders Do
Creating School Cultures That Embrace Learning: What Successful Leaders Do
There are three things which will improve schools. The first was addressed in our book, From At-Risk to Academic Excellence: What Successful Leaders Do. The second is the focus of this book, Creating School Cultures That Embrace Learning: What Successful Leaders Do.
Some schools are hostile, some people would say “toxic” to student learning, students, parents and staff. We need to transform them into schools which embrace and develop supportive learning environments.
Read more
Illiteracy Continues its Growth in the United States
A new federal study finds that an estimated 32 million adults in the USA — about one in seven — have such low literacy skills that it would be tough for them to read anything more challenging than a children’s picture book or to understand a medication’s side effects listed on a pill bottle.
Though many communities are making strides to tackle the problem, it’s worsening elsewhere — in some cases significantly.
Overall, the study finds, the nation hasn’t made a dent in its adult-literacy problem: From 1992 to 2003, it shows, the USA added about 23 million adults to its population; in that period, an estimated 3.6 million more joined the ranks of adults with low literacy skills. How low? For man it would be a challenge to read this newspaper article.
“They really cannot read … paragraphs (or) sentences that are connected,” says Sheida White, a researcher at the U.S. Education Department.
The findings come from the department’s National Assessment of Adult Literacy, a survey of more than 19,000 Americans ages 16 and older. The 2003 survey is a follow-up to a similar one in 1992 and for the first time lets the public see literacy rates as far down as county levels.
In many cases, some states made sizable gains. In Mississippi, the percentage of adults with low skills dropped 9 percentage points, from 25% to 16%. In every one of its 82 counties, low-skill rates dropped — in a few cases by 20 percentage points or more. Minneapolis and Seattle are two cities with the highest literacy rates.
By contrast, in several large states — California, New York, Florida and Nevada, for instance — the number of adults with low skills rose.
David Harvey, president and CEO of ProLiteracy, an adult-literacy organization, says Mississippi “invested more in education … and they have done innovative programming. We need much more of that.”
The findings are published online at nces.ed.gov/naal/estimates/index.aspx.
The Cost of College and the Sagging Economy
Three-quarters of the jobs of the future will require some post-secondary education, but less than half of today’s workforce has the skills and education to fill the jobs. While post-secondary education is a goal for many students,
college is becoming financially out of reach for many families. With increase layoffs, high unemployment, and the increased costs of college (which have grown faster than inflation), higher education needs to review their priorities.
In Pennsylvania about 265,000 people of college age – 18 to 21 – live in families with annual income less than $41,000 for a family of four. Lower income families must dedicate a higher percentage of their annual income to pay for
school than moderate and higher income families.
Loans are a necessity for many college students to attend college, but they can be a financial burden. In 2007, 71 percent of college students in Pennsylvania graduated with an average loan debt of nearly $24,000.
With the increased demands for better and higher trained people entering the workforce, the Obama Administration and the business community need to come up with some answers as well.
Technology is Only a Tool
Carol Bartz, the new CEO of Yahoo stated that meeting face to face is more efficient than sending an email or an instant message, because to be a “great reader of people” you need to see them.
Technology too often isolates us instead of connecting us. It is one of the problems I have with people who believe that computers are the end-all, be-all for solving education’s problems. While technology supplies a valuable resource and tool and helps save time, children lose the ability to converse and interact with others.
The End to Catholic Parochial Education?
The New York Times reported that the Roman Catholic school system is in decline. In Brooklyn, NY the Diocese of Brooklyn has closed 14 schools this year. The projection is that the Diocese of Brooklyn last week proposed closing 14 more elementary schools. Enrollment in the nation’s Catholic schools has steadily dropped by more than half from its peak of five million 40 years ago.
Parochial schools provide a valuable service to many of our nation’s youngsters. In recent years, they have attracted poor and minority students — including non-Catholics — seeking havens of safety and order from troubled public schools. Roughly 20 percent of parochial school students are not Catholic, according to experts.
The Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. was so desperate to save seven struggling parochial schools last year that it took down the crucifixes, hauled away the statues of the Virgin Mary, and — in its own word — “converted” the schools in the nation’s capital into city charter schools.
The Washington choice seemed an extreme measure to deal with the predicament facing Catholic education: How to maintain a Catholic school tradition of no-frills educational rigor, religious teaching and character-building — a system that has helped shape generations of America’s striving classes since the turn of the last century — when Catholics are no longer signing up their children.
Roughly 2,000 parochial schools have been since 1990, a majority in just the last eight years.
At its peak in 1965, the church’s network of parochial schools numbered more than 12,000 in the United States. The bulk of those were built starting at the turn of the century, when Catholic bishops commanded every parish to build one, largely from concern that waves of Catholic immigrants then arriving from Ireland and Italy would be lost in a public school system that was openly hostile to their beliefs.
By 1965, roughly half of all Catholic children in America attended Catholic elementary schools, according to the National Catholic Educational Association. Among Latinos, the fastest-growing church group — soon to comprise a majority of Catholics in the United States — it is only 3 percent.
What has caused this trend? There are a number of factors including a shortage of nuns and priests who once ran the schools at no extra cost and have been replaced by lay staff with pension benefits. Another factor is the rising cost of tuition
