A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Challenge Grants will average $1 million a year for five years. During the first year, one and a quarter million students will be served by these grants, and the number of students served will grow each year during the life of the projects.

In each Challenge Grant community a consortium of schools, businesses, libraries, museums and community organizations are matching the grant with substantial commitments for equipment, software development, technical support, telecommunications services and other costs. These Challenge Grant communities are making a significant educational investment in the future of their children. The total value of matching commitments is over $70 million in the first year, and during the five year life of these projects the total value of these investments is expected to be over $300 million. Funds awarded through the Challenge Grants will augment these local investments and support new curriculum design, teacher training, and the evaluation of educational effectiveness.

Over 380 partners will participate in the activities of these nineteen Challenge Grant communities. A total of 153 school districts will use new technologies for education reform. Over 120 business firms are participating in Challenge Grant community partnerships, along with 34 universities and colleges, ten museums, five libraries, nine State Education Agencies, the education offices of five national parks and a state park system, two regional education laboratories, an energy laboratory, a Navy base, an Army base, three Governor's Offices, and two Mayor's offices. Of the participating school districts 84 are urban and 70 are rural. The rural school districts include eight Bureau of Indian Affairs schools. Of the 120 businesses committed to these partnerships, 14 are hardware manufacturers; 12 are software developers; and 18 are telecommunications firms. Additional school districts, firms, and community organizations are encouraged to join these partnerships in the future.

Nineteen local school districts, one in each community, will administer these grants. A list of the school districts is attached, along with a map designating the locations of the 19 Challenge Grant communities and the rest of the 134 participating school districts. A one page abstract of each Challenge Grant community's initiative is also attached.

These communities are responding to an ambitious challenge. Everywhere we look, technology is changing the way we work and live -- everywhere, that is, but in our schools and classrooms. In classrooms that should be modern information centers for learning, the basic media of instruction continue to be black boards and chalk. The implications for education and economic competitiveness are enormous. In a strong economy, employers must have well-educated employees who make skillful use of information technologies to increase their knowledge and continuously improve their productivity. But few schools today are able to provide the high performance learning tools that would allow students to develop these skills.

As catalysts for change, challenge grants will support communities of educators, parents, industry partners, and community leaders who are working to retool their schools for the 21st century. Powerful new technologies and the information superhighway create new possibilities for extending the time, the place, and the resources for learning. Schools can be linked to the home, and to libraries, museums, community centers and the work place, to provide high quality learning opportunities at any time and any place. Challenge grant communities will make these connections and open their schools to new educational resources available across the nation and around the world.

As each Challenge Grant community acts on its vision for education reform, careful attention is being paid to ensure that we do not become a society in which low income communities and other areas with the greatest need for technology are left behind in the acquisition of skills and knowledge needed to be productive citizens in the 21st century. These grants support local alliances of educators, industry partners, and community leaders who are committed to developing creative responses to the information age requirements of all learners, including those in inner cities and rural areas.

These 19 Challenge Grant communities are likely to succeed because they have begun with a clear definition of the educational problems they want to address. In most cases these communities are working on the integration of new technologies into state or local education reform efforts that have been stimulated by the National Education Goals. Effective use of new technologies in these communities will contribute to school readiness and improved student achievement in reading, writing, science, mathematics, the arts and other disciplines. Each project will support professional development for teachers and promote greater parent and community involvement in education. And each will help smooth the transition from school to work by engaging students in real life learning experiences through which they can develop the life-long learning skills necessary to compete in the economy of the 21st century. In several cases, district-wide, state-wide, and regional efforts to set clear expectations for what all students should know will enable these communities to form major markets that stimulate demand for new high quality learning systems and software.

Although the funds available this year limit these Challenge Grants to just a handful of the 530 communities that applied, during the 1995-96 school year we plan to conduct a second round competition, which could lead to an additional award of 20 new grants by September 1996.

For additional information on this program contact:

[San Mateo County Office of Education]