A r c h i v e d I n f o r m a t i o n
ED BEGINS STATE SUPPORT ACTIVITIES
OERI is part of a collaborative U.S. Department of Education (ED) effort
to help states, districts, and schools develop education improvement plans. ED has taken a series
of steps to provide resources supporting the state grant program authorized under the recent
Goals 2000: Educate America Act. The program supports comprehensive state and local
improvements aimed at helping students reach challenging academic standards.
Congress appropriated $105 million for FY 94 for states to develop their improvement plans.
To craft the plans, each state will establish broad-based State Planning Panels, with participation
from parents, teachers, principals, administrators, business, labor, and policymakers. States
already undertaking improvement initiatives can fold them into their plans. By the end of
September, over two-thirds of the states had submitted applications and about 30 had received
grants.
Funding support is envisioned as a 5-year effort to boost improvement at the school level. At
least 60 percent of the allotted first-year funds must go to local school districts (LEAs) to use
in developing their own plans and for professional and preservice development. At least 75
percent of that money will go toward individual school improvement initiatives. After that, LEAs
will receive 90 percent of the funding and will pass through at least 85 percent to schools.
OERI has been given the responsibility for establishing a Department-wide state support team
to assist in implementing Goals 2000 activities. Among its first steps, the team
- is setting up a "listserv," an electronic meeting place on the Internet. Primarily
created for state planning panels, it will allow panel members and others in the planning process
to share ideas and documents and retrieve information from other sources;
- prepared a resource book of articles on key aspects of education reform, profiles
of national organizations that offer technical assistance, and lists of experts in nine areas of
reform. Single copies of Changing Education: Resources for Systemic Reform (#PIP 94-1509)
are free from OERI;
- will contract with a firm to map technical assistance resources, inside and outside
of government, to form a regularly updated electronic database available to anyone in the
country through the Internet;
- is planning regional meetings to provide an opportunity for the Goals 2000 state
planning panels and state officials to share information about planning and implementation issues
and gain relevant knowledge in support of their improvement efforts;
- is exploring ways it can provide a "one-stop" contact for anyone seeking
information on education reform;
- is developing training sessions on education reform issues for ED employees who
respond to requests for assistance by states and others involved in education improvement.
OERI staff are exploring other ways to support the state and local planning. For more
information, contact Thelma Leenhouts, OERI, 555 New Jersey Avenue NW, Washington, DC
20208-5570 or e-mail to Thelma_Leenhouts@ed.gov.
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