T C E B TRIANGLE COALITION ELECTRONIC BULLETIN AUGUST 16, 2001 VOL. 7, NO. 30 _____________________________________________________ Published by the TRIANGLE COALITION FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION _____________________________________________________ THIS WEEK'S TOPICS: SEED MONEY DRYING UP FOR EDUCATION-RELATED BUSINESSES TEACHERS LEARN WAYS TO TAP INTO TECHNOLOGY NEA HAILS NEW REPORT ON SCHOOL TECHNOLOGY NEEDS AWARD-WINNING SEATTLE SCIENCE EDUCATION PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM NOW IN ITS 10TH YEAR REPORT URGES STRONGER TIES FROM PRE-K THROUGH COLLEGE GROUPS PUSHING FOR MEASURES TO ATTRACT, RETAIN PRINCIPALS NASA "WHY" FILES ____________________________________________________ SEED MONEY DRYING UP FOR EDUCATION-RELATED BUSINESSES (Source: Education Week, August 8, 2001) Just over a year ago, anyone armed with an idea for improving education and a business plan could get a lot of money from venture capitalists, or so it seemed in the supercharged economy. Now, that well has all but dried up. Venture investments in education businesses have declined steadily since a peak of just over $1 billion for the first quarter of 2000. In the second quarter of this year, the figure had fallen to $247 million, with none of that going to businesses focused on K-12 education, according to Eduventures.com. "What we saw last year was a record amount of venture capital going into education," said Thomas S. Evans, a director and senior analyst with the Boston-based research firm, whose figures are widely respected in the industry. "But if you dug behind the headlines, there was a steady decline throughout the year." Companies involved in K-12 received $723 million out of the total invested in education businesses last year, about 25 percent. But that figure is in for a sharp drop this year, with just $134 million invested in K-12 ventures in the first three months, and none in the second quarter, Eduventures reports. What does the drop-off in venture capital mean? For entrepreneurs who were late to the party but still believe they have a business plan worthy of investment, it will mean tough going in getting first-stage funding. The lack of venture capital also leads to more merger and acquisition activity, analysts say. Companies that are up and running but can't get additional rounds of capital may be targets for acquisition. In the school management world, such consolidation has begun: Edison Schools Inc. has acquired LearnNow, while Mosaica Education Inc. has bought Advantage Schools Inc. Both deals were announced in June. ************************************ TEACHERS LEARN WAYS TO TAP INTO TECHNOLOGY (Source: Washington Post, August 5, 2001) Nearly three-quarters of Maryland's classrooms are wired to the Internet, and a majority of teachers now have access to computers. Increasingly, teachers are expected to e-mail their colleagues and students' parents, to tabulate grades with computer programs, and to search the Internet for information they can't find in their often-outdated textbooks. They even have to present material in tidy PowerPoint displays instead of messy chalkboards. Yet many teachers still don't know how to use all the technology at their disposal. Some teachers think they do not have time to learn it all. Others simply feel uncomfortable around the new equipment. School districts have certainly beefed up their computer labs. In 2000, 72 percent of all Maryland classrooms were connected to the Internet, up from 58 percent in 1999, according to a survey by the Maryland Business Roundtable for Education, a consortium of private businesses that works with public officials on education and other issues. Now school officials are trying to do the same with their technology training programs. School districts in Southern Maryland have asked teachers to go back to school this summer to learn how to incorporate technology into instruction. As part of a partnership with the Comcast Foundation and Cable in the Classroom, teachers have taken classes on using the Internet more effectively, using video in the classroom, designing Internet-based projects, and making lesson plans and presentations with PowerPoint. Attendance has been good at the summer academy, and the Comcast Foundation has agreed to pay for continued training through the coming school year. School officials, meanwhile, hope teachers will take what they learn back to their schools. ************************************ NEA HAILS NEW REPORT ON SCHOOL TECHNOLOGY NEEDS National Education Association (NEA) President Bob Chase called the CEO Forum on Education and Technology's report recently released a "blueprint for addressing technology issues in today's classrooms." The report, titled Key Building Blocks for Student Achievement in the 21st Century, concludes a five-year analysis of the effect of technology on education by calling for new strategies to prepare students for the Information Age. To ensure the nation's investment in education technology improves student achievement and benefits education, the CEO Forum suggests six recommendations for schools, government, and parents. They are: -Focus education technology investment on specific educational objectives -Make the development of 21st Century skills a key educational objective -Align student assessment with educational objectives while including 21st Century skills -Adopt continuous improvement strategies to measure student progress -Increase investment in research and development and dissemination of best practices -Ensure equitable access to technology for all students The CEO Forum, a partnership between business and education leaders, emphasizes the importance of these core principles in accomplishing the ultimate goal of education technology -- increasing student achievement and the development of 21st Century skills. This report is the fourth and final in a series that has explored the impact of education technology in the classroom. To download a PDF file copy of the report or to take a self-assessment tool designed to provide schools with the information they need to better integrate technology into their educational process, visit www.ceoforum.org . ************************************ AWARD-WINNING SEATTLE SCIENCE EDUCATION PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM NOW IN ITS 10TH YEAR More than two dozen middle and high school science teachers from across Washington state -- as well as two of southeast Asia's best and brightest science educators -- spent part of their summer vacation working beside scientists in research laboratories at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and several other partner sites throughout Seattle. Since the Hutchinson Center's Science Education Partnership (SEP) program began ten years ago, 215 teachers have participated; and the program has touched more than 100,000 students throughout the state, said program director Hutchison. Working in labs at the Hutchinson Center, the University of Washington, Seattle Biomedical Research Institute, and the corporate biotechnology firms Immunex Corp. and ZymoGenetics Inc., this summer's crop of teachers will update and hone their lab techniques and teaching skills in subjects ranging from genetics to molecular biology. The teachers will spend about half of their time working one-on-one with a mentor in a research laboratory on projects tailored to their interests. Lab work over the past several years has focused on such topics as protein structure, DNA sequencing, oncogenes, yeast genetics, and fruit-fly development. The other half of the educators' time was spent in The Teaching Laboratory at the Hutchinson Center, where they worked as a group to brainstorm better ways to use scientific techniques in the classroom and develop curricula for the coming school year. This mentorship often leads to lasting partnerships that extend beyond the summer session to include classroom visits by scientists during the school year. Key to their planning is access to the SEP's science-kit loan program, which is available on an ongoing basis to all teachers who participate in the year-long program. The kits, assembled and maintained at the Hutchinson Center, contain all the equipment necessary for experiments in such areas as DNA gel electrophoresis, bacterial transformation, and fruit-fly genetics. Last year, more than 13,000 students used SEP kits in their science classes. The SEP also provides teachers with surplus lab supplies that have been donated by scientists from throughout the community, a resource library from which to borrow the latest teaching tools, from textbooks to videodiscs, and a $500 stipend and graduate-level credit through the University of Washington Department of Genetics. For more information, contact Kristen Woodward of The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, 206-667-5095, or [EMAIL PROTECTED] ************************************ REPORT URGES STRONGER TIES FROM PRE-K THROUGH COLLEGE (Source: Education Week, July 11, 2001) Most states could learn from New York City when it comes to creating a more unified education system that promotes partnerships between higher education and secondary schools, according to a report that highlights the city's efforts in making pre-K-16 collaboration a priority. The report, "Building a Highway to Higher Ed: How Collaborative Efforts Are Changing Education in America," released in June by the New York-based Center for an Urban Future, documents how the nation's largest city has become a leader in building better pathways between secondary and postsecondary schools in just a short period of time. Strengthening ties between different levels of American education has become an increasingly popular theme among academicians, educators, politicians, and even parents, as the systems of pre-kindergarten through 12th grade and higher education realize each can benefit by bridging the deeply entrenched divide separating them. New York City has for decades maintained some of the strongest "P-16" collaborations, as efforts to link the education system from early childhood to the senior year in college are often called. Middle College High School at LaGuardia Community College, for example, the nation's first high school set on a two-year college campus, has served as a model for other such efforts nationwide. But the report says that Matthew Goldstein, the chancellor of the City University of New York (CUNY) system and Harold O. Levy, the chancellor of the city's 1.1 million-student public schools, have extended the secondary and postsecondary connections significantly. Last year, for example, Mr. Goldstein and Mr. Levy announced that a dual-enrollment program piloted at Kingsborough Community College, which allows high school students to take college classes for credit while still in high school, would be expanded to every CUNY campus and high school in the city. The two chancellors moved quickly, securing $7 million in city and state funding -- and money from their own institutions' budgets -- to pay for the expansion. Today, all 17 undergraduate colleges in the CUNY system participate, working with 161 secondary schools to provide courses to more than 13,000 high school students. "Building a Highway to Higher Ed: How Collaborative Efforts Are Changing Education in America," is available from the Center for an Urban Future at www.nycfuture.org/education/building.htm. ************************************ GROUPS PUSHING FOR MEASURES TO ATTRACT, RETAIN PRINCIPALS (Source: Education Week, July 11, 2001) Soon after the current congressional session began in January, key lawmakers were handed an 85-page, blue-and-purple booklet measuring about 6 by 10 inches. It was called "The Principal, Keystone of a High-Achieving School: Attracting and Keeping the Leaders We Need." Months later, with the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act not yet final, the book is almost certain to reappear on Capitol Hill. The national associations representing elementary and secondary school principals are anxious about the fate of their two top legislative goals: bills that aim to attract and keep school leaders. "We've had a real struggle getting the message out that principals are just as important as teachers," said Stephen W. DeWitt, the associate director of government relations for the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP), based in Reston, VA. Released early last year, the booklet is now serving as the legislative blueprint for the NASSP and the National Association of Elementary School Principals. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) sponsored legislation to tackle one issue of concern to both groups: a shortage of principals. And Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Gordon Smith (R-OR) proposed a bill to address worries about retaining school leaders. While both bills sailed through the Senate as amendments to the ESEA reauthorization, most of their supporters expect them to face obstacles in an upcoming conference committee, when negotiators reconcile the House and Senate versions of the flagship K-12 law. Sen. Clinton's bill to attract school administrators would authorize spending up to $50 million a year on a "national principal-recruitment program" in "high need" districts. Under the measure, grants would be available for districts where more than 30 percent of the students live in poverty. Promoting the measure last year during her successful Senate bid, Ms. Clinton cited figures showing that 40 percent of school principals were expected to retire within 10 years. "We clearly have a serious teacher shortage in this country, but there's a principal shortage as well," she said in a recent interview at the Capitol. ************************************ NASA "WHY" FILES The NASA "Why?" Files (http://whyfiles.larc.nasa.gov) is a series of instructional programs consisting of a television broadcast, print, and on-line elements. Emphasizing standards-based instruction, problem-based learning, and science as inquiry, the series seeks to motivate students in grades 3-5 to become critical thinkers and active problem solvers. Each program supports the national mathematics, science, and technology standards and includes a 60-minute television broadcast (divided into 4, 15-minute "teachable" parts), a companion educator's guide, web-based activities and materials, and information about NASA programs, facilities, and researchers. Included in the teacher area is information about Problem-Based Learning (PBL), summaries of the on-line PBL activities, frequently asked questions, information about the video programs, downloadable educator guides, and many other helpful resources. 2000-2001 season materials are stored on the website and new programs are now scheduled, beginning in October 2001 for the 2001-2002 school year. _____________________________________________________ This TCEB is made possible by a grant from AT&T. Please visit their web site at www.att.com for more information about their educational support programs. The TCEB is a newsletter provided to members of the Triangle Coalition. Members may forward individual articles or the issue in its entirety providing that credit is given to the Triangle Coalition, and all of the following contact information is included in any republication. For TCEB subscription or membership information, contact: Triangle Coalition for Science and Technology Education 1201 New York Avenue, NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC 20005 phone: 800-582-0115 fax: 202-289-1303 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.triangle-coalition.org To submit information for possible inclusion in TCEB, contact: Joanne Van Voorhis, Target Marketing, Editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] ************************************ THE MISSION OF THE TRIANGLE COALITION IS TO FOSTER COLLABORATION AMONG LEADERS IN EDUCATION, BUSINESS, AND GOVERNMENT TO IMPROVE SCIENCE, MATHEMATICS, AND TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION. The Triangle Coalition membership includes business, labor, education, science, mathematics, technology and engineering organizations, and community and state-based alliances. ************************************ -- This is the CPS Science Teacher List. To unsubscribe, send a message to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For more information: <http://home.sprintmail.com/~mikelach/subscribe.html>. 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