Sunday, February 15, 2009

Education/Stimulus Package (Knowledge Alliance)

You will note that there are significant boosts in many programs including Title I and IDEA. Programs of very special interest to mnay of you are:

* School Improvement Fund: $3 billion (amazingly up from $2 billion in House and $1.4 billion in the Senate)
* State wide data systems: $250 million
* Innovation fund: $650 million
* Education Technology: $650 million

In conversations with several Obama adminstration education reps over the past several days, we learned that the next two key concerns will be 1) distributing the funding as quickly as possible in accordance with the statute 2) ensuring the funds will have a significant impact on reform efforts. Over the weekend we will be having further discussions about how our members can play a significant role in these efforts.

Arne speaks --- Check out the Secretary’s interview with U.S. News & World Report outlining what he thinks about NCLB and the reauthorization of ESEA:

--focus on accountability for student achievement
--Less punitive.
--Academic standards that are more rigorous, aligned with each other, benchmarked with other leading nations.
--Fewer, better tests
--Better data management systems

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Proposed ed. funds in stimulus package

This is information from Knowledge Alliance posted by Jim Kohlmoos:

A major coup! Education in the Stimulus Package --- During the Obama ed policy reception on Inauguration Day(see above) there was lots of chatter about the “victory” for education in the proposed $825 billion stimulus billion package which contains $142 billion for education. Indeed the Obama team negotiated hard for education with House Congressional leaders. There is some talk about how this injection of new funding when added to existing funding levels will become the new base for future appropriations. This is very big stuff for all of us. Here is a review:

· $41 billion to local school districts through Title I ($13 billion of which $2 billion is allocated to the school improvement fund), IDEA ($13 billion), a new School Modernization and Repair Program ($14 billion), and the Education Technology program ($1 billion).

* $79 billion in state fiscal relief to prevent cutbacks to key services, including $39 billion to local school districts and public colleges and universities distributed through existing state and federal formulas, $15 billion to states as bonus grants as a reward for meeting key performance measures, $25 billion to states for other high priority needs such as public safety and other critical services, which may include education, and $250 million for state longitudinal data systems..
* $15.6 billion to increase the Pell grant by $500.
* $6 billion for higher education modernization.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Hi all. Thanks for setting this up Hiller.
After the last meeting, I said I would post the ideas that came up.

We discussed the following topics for the RAP

1.  Data mining and intelligence
2. Reaching out to form collaboratives in relation to methodologies and the involvement of junior or less active senior colleagues
3. Non-NSF development sources
4. Organizing to go after non-common NSF targets:  not ITEST, DRK-12
5. Providing examples and assistance with the sections of "evaluation" and "dissemination".  This could include identifying local evaluators, asking Iris Weiss to talk on evaluation, or providing help with the issues of the use of media, sustainability, scaleabilty and practitioner outreach on dissemination.  

Please let me know if I forgot any of these.  Jere

New era for education . . .

Given Obama's emphasis on technology and innovation in education, how will we position our research agendas to have the greatest impact?


“We will transform our schools . . . to meet the demands of a new age.” Obama’s Inaugural Speech,Jan. 20, 2009, 12:15 pm

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This blog was set up under the direction of Dr. Hiller Spires. Please contact Dr. Spires with any questions or concerns.