Digital Innovation Outpaces E-Rate Policies

In its role helping the nation’s schools connect to the Internet and other telecommunications services, the E-rate has been among the most consistent of federal programs. But perhaps too consistent, educators and experts say.

Funding for the “education rate” program has held at about $2.25 billion a year since it was created under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, and it covers few of the technology services available to schools beyond simple Internet and phone connectivity.

But now, with a critical mass of schools connected to the Web, experts say inadequate funding and the program’s onerous and often confusing rules and procedures can complicate schools’ efforts to pursue more innovative tech-based approaches to teaching and learning.

“The scope of technology is expanding, but the E-rate is not there yet,” said Gary Rawson, Mississippi’s E-rate coordinator and the chair of the State E-rate Coordinators Alliance. “All the schools love it, all of them apply for it, but if you use E-rate you are going to have to deal with some frustration.”

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  From Great Schools.Org :Follow these suggestions to encourage your child's budding writing skills.learn more

The greatest revolution in education in the United States today is taking place in Los Angeles. It is the mandate of the Los Angeles Unified School District School Board to convert almost a third of its schools either to charter schools, the public schools of choice that are the one shining light in an otherwise dysfunctional system, or other alternatives such as magnet schools. The change is not only a mighty one for the state's largest school district, but in time it could double the number of public schools of choice in California.

What is remarkable is not just the magnitude of this earth-shaking change, but the complete shift of the paradigm about how we think about public education.

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 A 2009 book about three young adults who graduated from or spent several years in New York City high schools without being able to read. The three students, all children of Dominican immigrants, win from the school system payment for one-on-one tutoring by private education centers.  USA Today's take on the book. Buy Book

In two quick days, I finished Thomas Newkirk’s new book for teachers. Like a long drink of water, it was just what my parched spirit needed. Holding on to Good Ideas in a Time of Bad Ones just might get me through 2010.

This school year has been a tough one all over the teaching map. With our school system facing budget cuts when two teachers left our department, the decision was made not to replace them. Despite the increase in student load, the pressure to achieve AYP has not abated. Each year the achievement bar is raised another notch and the inexorable pressure to do more with less has made the stress palpable every time I step outside my room.

After nearly a decade of high stakes accountability, the meetings, data collection, pre-tests, post-tests, required lesson plans, reports, and more reports have diluted my view of what kids really need to be “well educated.” Newkirk has written a good reminder.

His book, subtitled Six Literacy Principles Worth Fighting For, is something of a manifesto on behalf of quality instruction—recalling for us the basics that good teachers know but may have lost sight of: Keep the curriculum simple, use what kids already know, let kids write a lot. Read More...  Buy Book