Archived Information

**1998 Challenge Grant Awards**

**Alaska**

**Chugach School District**\
Project Name: Alaska Reform in the Classroom through Technology
Integration and Collaboration (ARCTIC)\
Contact: John Rusyniak\
122 Sundog Trail\
Telephone: (907) 322--8243\
Fax: (305) 425--7901\
E-mail: jrusyniak@aol.com\
Web site: www.arcticak.net/\
Funding: 1st Year: \$1,861,237; 5 Years: \$8,442,793

ARCTIC is an intensive training and support program for all school
districts in Alaska. The Alaska Reform in the Classroom through
Technology Integration and Collaboration Project will facilitate the
application of technology as a tool for change in the classroom and
improve the way teachers teach and students learn. The infusion of
technology performance standards into all Alaska curricular content
areas will help support statewide reform efforts. Participating teachers
will spend a semester in Ohio and work with mentors, resource personnel,
and technical experts. The project provides release time for mentors to
provide support for other colleagues in the district. The project
fosters the development and implementation of a self-sustaining
statewide technology consortium that will cultivate school improvement
and change beyond the 5-year grant period.

**Arizona**

**Phoenix Union High School District**\
Project Name: Global Connections\
Contact: Dr. Mary Ann Barden\
4502 North Central Avenue\
Phoenix, AZ 85012\
Telephone: 602) 764--1338\
Fax: (602) 271--3204\
E-mail: barden@phxhs.k12.az.us\
Web site: www.globalc.org/\
Funding: 1st Year: \$ 1,028,240; 5 Years: \$ 6,960,655

The Phoenix Union High School District and 18 consortium members will
meet the needs of educators through intensive and sustained staff
development programs at 3 progressive levels; ongoing technical and
pedagogic support systems; university teacher preparation centers
located on elementary and high school campuses; and the establishment of
worldwide, electronically connected communities of learners.

**Creighton Elementary School District No. 14**\
Project Name: Project Venture\
Contact: Cathy Poplin\
2702 East Flower Street\
Phoenix, AZ 85016\
Telephone: (602) 522--1021\
Fax: (602) 502--1015\
Web site: www.creighton.k12.az.us/projectventure/\
Funding: 1st Year: \$1,011,324; 5 Years: \$4,721,176

The Project Venture Consortium has developed a training model to
integrate technology into K--12 classroom curriculum that is aligned
with Arizona's State Content Standards. Through skills-based training,
peer collaboration, and mentoring activities, success will be ensured.
Over 3,000 teachers will be impacted to the point where they can
independently facilitate this type of curriculum.

**Illinois**

**Franklin-Williamson Regional Office of Education #21**\
Project Name: \"Blazing Learning Trails\" A Professional Development
Model to Improve School Learning\
Contact: Marla Harp\
202 West Main St\
Benton, IL 62812\
Telephone: (618) 438--9711\
Fax: (618) 435--2861\
E-mail: mharp@roe21.k12.il.us\
Web site: www.blazinglearningtrails.org/\
Funding: 1st Year: \$1,387,370; 5 Years: \$6,708,999

The Blazing Learning Trails three-tiered, three-strand professional
development model takes education professionals from initial
introduction or \"entry\" into the use of technology through \"adoption,
adaptation, appropriation, and innovation\" for three main areas:
Essential Technology Skills, Engaged Learning, and the Illinois Learning
Standards. This research-based model will train educators (current K--12
faculty, staff, and administrators; college of education faculty; and
future preservice teachers) in utilizing technology. The Learning Trails
project will transform classroom from teacher-centered to
student-centered environments, and ensure that all education
professionals have the skills to create a technology-enriched learning
environment to improve student performance.

**Madison County Regional Office of Education**\
Project Name: LITES (Leaders In Technology Enhanced Schools) Kit
Project\
Contact: Don Snyder\
200 Clay Street\
Edwardsville, IL 62025\
Telephone: (618) 692--6200 ext. 5011\
Fax: (618) 659--9338\
E-mail: dsnyders@lth5.k12.il.us\
Web site: www.lites.lth5.k12.il.us/\
Funding: 1st Year: \$2,000,000; 5 Years: \$10,000,000

The LITES Kit Project packages everything necessary to integrate
technology throughout the curriculum in a portable format and provides
ubiquitous access to the world community with training, support, and
resources. This compact technological curriculum is easily replicated to
impact and sustain educational growth. The Engaged Learning Kit will
show teachers how to use technology in ways that enhance, facilitate,
and improve teaching and learning in order for students to achieve high
academic standards. This project supports the acquisition of knowledge
and skills for responsible citizens and productive work in the 21^st^
century.

**Kansas**

**Arkansas City Public Schools, USD 470**\
Project Name: PRAIRY: Professional Replenishment (Renewal, Reciprocity
Rethinking) Approach (which Activates) Innovative Resources for Youth\
Contact: Ron Young\
2207 North Eighth\
Arkansas City, KS 67005\
Telephone: (620) 441--2088\
Fax: (620) 441--2089\
E-mail: reyoung@arkcity.com\
Web site: www.prairy.org/\
Funding: 1st Year: \$ 993,400; 5 Years: \$ 5,311,144

A diverse consortium of 22 partners including the Kansas State
Department of Education, a Native American university, a wildlife nature
center, and a School-To-Career local partnership, will help educators
integrate advanced technology into innovative uses and sound teaching
strategies. The project will ultimately benefit about 14,000 students
from rural south central Kansas through improved
instruction---connecting school, community, and home through advanced
technology with particular emphasis on local history, culture, and
career awareness.

**Louisiana**

**Concordia Parish School Board**\
Project Name: AMERICA 2000: Making Inroads to the Backroads\
Contact: Leinda Peterman\
P.O. Box 1738\
508 John Dale Drive\
Ferryiday, LA 71334\
Telephone: (318) 757--7789\
Fax: (318) 757--7791\
E-mail: lpete@nls.k12.la.us\
Web site: america2000challenge.org/\
Funding: 1st Year: \$1,345,266; 5 Years: \$7,313,349

This proposal builds upon existing connectivity among Concordia and
Catahoula Parish (County) School Boards, the number-one ranked Macon
Ridge Enterprise Community, and the Louisiana Department of Education,
and establishes new partnerships. The goal is to expand an existing
Trainer of Trainers professional development model to other poor, rural
school systems in order to enhance student learning opportunities in
real world applications of challenging new Louisiana content and
performance standards in English/language arts, mathematics, science,
and social studies. The project will scale up existing electronic
capabilities to establish technology-rich classrooms and
interdisciplinary learning centers for grades 6--12 in 25 project
schools.

**Maryland**

**Montgomery County Public Schools**\
Project Name: Maryland Teaching and Learning with Technology\
Contact: Dr. Elizabeth Glowa\
200 W. Baltimore Street, 6th Floor\
Baltimore, MD 21201\
Telephone: (410) 767--0734\
Fax: (301) 279--3242\
E-mail: lglowa@msde.state.md.us\
Web site: www.mcps.k12.md.us/mtlt/main.html\
Funding: 1st Year: \$1,774,635; 5 Years: \$9,056,132

The Maryland Teaching and Learning with Technology consortium brings
together three school districts that serve large numbers of
disadvantaged students to increase the effective use of technology in
schools through enhanced professional development. The consortium will
achieve its goals and objectives through the integration of six
components: the state-wide technology academy, a network of professional
development schools, graduate school programs in technology integration,
district-based professional development activities, distance learning
events and videos, and online communications for training and mentoring.

**Massachusetts**

**Springfield Public Schools**\
Project Name: Project MEET: Massachusetts Empowering Educators with
Technology Teaching, Support, and Policy\
Contact: Connie Louie\
350 Main Street\
Malden, MA 02148\
Telephone: (781) 388--6865\
Fax: (781) 388--6850\
E-mail: clouie@doe.mass.edu\
Funding: 1st Year: \$1,999,878; 5 Years: \$9,999,878

Project MEET, a statewide collaborative technology professional
development effort, will help Massachusetts educators become proficient
in integrating technology into the curriculum and help improve student
learning. Through a three-tiered systemic process of teaching, support,
and policy setting, with focus on the Massachusetts Curriculum
Frameworks, and components of universal design, the project will meet
the needs of about 40,000 students.

**Montana**

**Polson Public Schools**\
Project Name: Montana TALES: Technology and Learning in Every School\
Contact: Richard Van den Pol\
111 4th Avenue East\
Polson, MT 59860\
Telephone: (406) 883--6355\
Fax: (406) 883--6345\
E-mail: rvan@selway.umt.edu\
Web site: webback.educ.umt.edu/tales/\
Funding: 1st Year: \$1,812,318; 5 Years: \$9,100,752

Montana TALES: Technology and Learning in Every School will implement an
exemplary model of professional development in which teachers become
thoughtful, innovative learners infusing multimedia technology into the
school curriculum. Participating with teachers, parents, and community
members, students will acquire language, mathematics, science,
technology, social studies, and literacy skills, while designing
interdisciplinary multimedia learning experiences built around the
traditions, customs, beliefs, and legends of Montana.

**New Mexico**

**Gadsen Independent School District**\
Project Name: Regional Educational Technology Assistance Initiative\
Contact: Carmen Gonzales\
NMSC 3CUR/O\'Donnell Hall\
Stewart/Sweet, Room 138\
Las Cruces, NM 88003--8001\
Telephone: (505) 646--1650\
Fax: (505) 646--5436 Fax\
Web site: reta.nmsu.edu/\
Funding: 1st Year: \$1,138,083; 5 Years: \$8,723,841

The Regional Educational Technology Assistance Initiative Project will
establish Regional Resource Centers to support continuing professional
development, curriculum dissemination, and ongoing sustainability. The
project will focus on the professional development needs of educators
and administrators who supervise the education of New Mexico's students.
It is anticipated that about 2,400 teachers and 48,000 students will
benefit from this project.

**Central Consolidated School District**\
Project Name: The Education Technology Improvement Plan Project\
Contact: Don Fischer\
640 South Broadman\
Gallup, NM 87301\
Telephone: (505) 722--7711 ext. 51200\
Fax: (505) 722--8916\
E-mail: dfischer@uhm.edu\
Web site: nettrain.unm.edu/\
Funding: 1st Year: \$1,827,481; 5 Years: \$7,600,537

A consortium of school districts, state departments of education, and
universities will initiate a program of technology-based professional
development in 4 centers across the four-corner region. Using a \"train
the trainers\" model, team of staff and parents will receive training in
the four centers and return to their respective schools to train all
other teachers. Training will be for implementing standards---based
instructional technology in the classroom, and will be augmented by a
free-access Web site that will allow wide dissemination of the resulting
professional development modules to other teachers across the southwest.

**Pennsylvania**

**New York Community School District 2**\
Project Name: Net Learn: Networked Learning Communities for Educational
Reform\
Contact: Dr. Alan Lesgold\
Learning Research and Development Center\
University of Pittsburgh\
3939 O'Hara Street\
Pittsburgh, PA 15260\
Telephone: (412) 624--7045\
Fax: (412) 624--7453\
E-mail: al+@pitt.edu\
Web site: www.lrdc.pitt.edu/netlearn\
Funding: 1st Year: \$ 1,988,797; 5 Years: \$ 9,933,801

A consortium of urban school districts nationwide, university
professional developers and educational technology leaders, and the
Microsoft Corporation. The group of partners have joined together to
develop networked groupware for the collaborative work of educators
engaged in an educational reform effort designed to bring all students
to high standards of learning. The implementation plan applies
innovative technology to professional development, while also providing
training in the use of technology for education. Educators learn both
how to teach effectively and how to leverage the potential of technology
for learning, by experiencing how technology can facilitate their own
learning as well as their students learning.

**North Carolina**

**North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics** **(NCSSM)**\
Project Name: Education Future Now\
Contact: Peggy Manning\
P.O. Box 2418\
Durham, NC 27715-2418\
Telephone: (919) 286--3366 ext. 261\
Fax: (919) 286--2581\
E-mail: manningp@ncssm.edu\
Web site: www.dlt.ncssm.edu/\
Funding: 1st Year: \$911,809; 5 Years: \$6,486,589

The Education Future Now (NOW) Project is the professional development
phase of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics Education
Future Center. NOW takes existing partnerships and outreach in distance
education and combines them with statewide professional development
services to seven remote, low-wealth regions, recently equipped by NCSSM
with advanced technology facilities. The NOW project will serve up to
4,000 educators in 51 countries.

**North Dakota**

**Bismark Public School District #1**\
Project Name: Teaching with Technology Initiative\
Contact: Tanna M. Kincaid\
600 East Boulevard Avenue\
Department 270\
Bismarck, ND 58505-0610\
Telephone: (701) 328--1720\
Fax: (701) 328--1255\
tkincaid@state.nd.us\
Web site: www.ndtwt.org/\
Funding: 1st Year: \$789,390; 5 Years: \$7,282,557

The Teaching with Technology Initiative will provide instruction and
assistance that will enable North Dakota teachers, students, and other
staff to effectively integrate technology as a teaching and learning
tool in K--12 curriculum. The content and outcome standards will be
based on the NCATE technology standards for teacher education.
Certification will be offered at three levels of proficiency. A variety
of state and regional entities will coordinate an initiative to serve
the professional development needs of the state educators. Improved
instructional methodology will increase opportunities for students to
learn in ways they learn best.

**New Jersey**

**Polaris Joint Vocational School District**\
Project Name: Alliance+ Technology Innovation Challenge Grant\
Contact: Edward Frieidman\
Center for Improving Engineering and Science Education\
Stevens Institute of Technology\
Castle Point on Hudson\
Hoboken, NJ 07030\
Telephone: (20l) 216--5188\
Fax: (20l) 216--8069\
friedman@stevens-tech.edu\
Web site: www.k12science.org/alliance\
Funding: 1st Year: \$1,800,055; 5 Years: \$9,283,687

Alliance+ unites the experiences of 35 state, local, and higher
education partners, and builds on a proven training model in New Jersey
and successful adaptation in three cities. Through use of powerful
Internet applications, Alliance+ addresses: students learning in core
content areas, teacher content knowledge, and ongoing staff development.
The approach includes: supporting materials in a variety of formats,
train-the-trainer strategies, continuous follow-up support, and ongoing
K--12/community college partnerships. The project will impact more than
9,000 teachers and 225,000 students in Cleveland, OH, Miami, FL, and
Phoenix, AZ.

**South Dakota**

**Black Hills Special Services/TIE**\
Project Name: Learning Organizations for Technology Integration (LOFTI)\
Contact: Jim Parry\
1925 Plaza Boulevard\
Rapid City, SD 57702--9302\
Telephone: (602) 271--3203\
Fax: (602) 271-3204\
E-mail: jparry@tie.net\
Web site: www.tie.net/\
Funding: 1st Year: \$1,997,731; 5 Years: \$9,988,655

An array of partners and organizations will join together to form
Learning Organizations for Technology Integration (LOFTI). These key
collaborators will work together to achieve the LOFTI goal, which states
that South Dakota educators will engage in \"learning organizations\"
that build knowledge, skills, and abilities essential for teaching and
learning in our changing, technological world. Capacity for innovative
technology integration for teaching and learning will be enhanced
through Professional Learning Organizations (PLO) involving
technology-using educators from across the state. Collegial Learning
Organizations (CLO) involving team of educators around the state will
engage in project-based, telecollaborative curriculum development for
K--12, preservice, and inservice. Systemic Learning Organizations (SLO)
involving entire districts will build district-wide capacity to support
innovative technology integration. The network of LOFTI professional
development will impact 9,000 educators and 90 percent of the school
districts in the state.

**Texas**

**Region 19 ESC**\
Project Name: The El Paso \"Trainer of Trainers Model in Curriculum &
Technology Integration\"\
Contact: James Vasques\
6611 Boeing Drive\
El Paso, TX 79968\
Telephone: (915) 747--8923\
Fax: (915) 747--8968\
E-mail: jvasques@esc19.net\
Web site: www.challenge.utep.edu/\
Funding: 1st Year: \$1,946,609; 5 Years: \$9,869,164

The El Paso Project will provide job-embedded teacher transformation
activities to integrate educational technology across the curriculum to
500 teachers; graduate 160 classroom teachers with master's degree in
technology integration; provide 100 school administrators with
leadership and advocacy training; train 200 parent educators to develop
Parent Centers in the 100 participating schools; refit 25 preservice
teacher preparation courses; and develop materials that will assist
other communities and school districts to replicate the trainer of
trainers model.

**Vermont**

**Montpelier Public Schools**\
Project Name: Virtual Professional Development School Consortium\
Contact: Robert T. McLaughlin\
235 Main Street\
Montpelier, VT 05602\
Telephone: (802) 223--0463\
Fax: (802) 229--2013\
E-mail: mclaughb@nici-mc2.org\
Web site: www.nici-mc2.org/\
Funding: 1st Year: \$1,996,649; 5 Years: \$9,917,023

The Virtual Professional Development School Consortium will assist 30
professional development school partnerships to develop a technology
infusion model to improve teacher preservice and inservice in technology
to strengthen K-12 student learning. Teacher educators, K--12 teachers,
and preservice students will develop skills together in using data,
technology planning, professional development planning, and technology
use to deliver teacher development and K--12 instruction.

**West Virginia**

**Marion County Board of Education**\
Project Name: West Virginia TurnKey Solution\
Contact: Lydotta M. Taylor\
200 Gaston Avenue\
Fairmont, WV 26554\
Telephone: (304) 367--2100\
Fax: (304) 367--2111\
E-mail: taylor@access.mountain.net\
Web site: www.thesolutionsite.com/\
Funding: 1st Year: \$1,153,893; 5 Years: \$7,020,466

The West Virginia TurnKey Solution Project focuses on statewide
high-quality professional development and fosters the integration of
technology, curriculum, teaching strategies, learning activities, and
student evaluation. The Phase 10 Professional Development Model will
provide a 2-day training session for administrators and a 5 day
integration workshop for 560 teams of 3 teachers. Both will include
hands-on training, equipment distribution, and the use of a teacher
created Web site, The Solution Site, for technology integration projects
and lesson plans.