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Triangle Coalition Electronic Bulletin
August 14, 2008
Volume 14, Number 31
Published by the
Triangle Coalition for Science and Technology Education

This Week's Topics:

  1. CONGRESS PASSES HIGHER EDUCATION OPPORTUNITY ACT
  2. PEARSON FOUNDATION AND ISTE EXPAND PARTNERSHIP THROUGH DIGITAL ARTS ALLIANCE LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE
  3. MICROSOFT AND HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT LEARNING TECHNOLOGY UNVEIL NEXT-GENERATION LEARNING VILLAGE
  4. EQUITY IN MATHEMATICS GRANTS WILL AWARD $8,000 TO MIDDLE SCHOOL MATHEMATICS TEACHERS
  5. NASA ANNOUNCES COMPETITIVE GRANT PROGRAMS
  6. MOBILE LEARNING TO TEACH MATH & SCIENCE AT MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL GAMES
  7. PREVIOUS ISSUES

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CONGRESS PASSES HIGHER EDUCATION OPPORTUNITY ACT
On July 31, 2008, the House and Senate passed the Higher Education Opportunity Act (H.R. 4137). "Today's students face daunting obstacles on the path to college, from skyrocketing tuition prices to predatory student lending tactics. This landmark bipartisan legislation will address these challenges and create a higher education system that is more consumer-friendly, fairer, and easier-to-navigate," said U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. An October 2007 report from the College Board showed that tuition and fees have increased across the board over the last five years, at public and private colleges and at two-year and four-year colleges. These increases have consistently outpaced increases in the rate of inflation and in families' ability to pay, creating a college cost crisis that threatens to prevent qualified students from pursuing a higher education. The bill would address these affordability challenges by encouraging colleges to rein in price increases, ensuring that states maintain their commitments to higher education funding, and providing students and families with consumer-friendly information on college pricing and the factors driving tuition increases. In addition, the Higher Education Opportunity Act would:

* Streamline the federal student financial aid application process;

* Make textbook costs more manageable for students by, among other things, helping them plan for textbook expenses in advance of each semester;

* Allow students to receive year-round Pell Grant scholarships;

* Strengthen college readiness programs;

* Increase college aid and support programs for veterans and military families;

* Improve safety on college campuses and help schools recover and rebuild after a disaster;

* Ensure equal college opportunities and fair learning environments for students with disabilities; and

* Strengthen our nation's workforce and economic competitiveness by boosting science, technology, and foreign language educational opportunities.

The Act also contains supports innovative training programs for K-12 teachers, expands support for minority-serving institutions; and creates special programs to reduce the nation's nursing shortage. The Higher Education Opportunity Act is the third major higher education bill to be passed by Congress in the past year. In July 2007, Congress passed the College Cost Reduction and Access Act (P.L. 110-84), a landmark student aid law that increased Federal aid to college students by more than $20 billion -- the largest increase since the GI Bill. In May 2008, Congress approved the Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act (P.L. 110-227), emergency legislation to ensure the availability of Federal student loans in the face of the current troubles in the credit market. The Higher Education Act was last reauthorized in 1998. The current law expired in 2003. For more information on the Higher Education Opportunity Act, click here.   

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PEARSON FOUNDATION AND ISTE EXPAND PARTNERSHIP
THROUGH DIGITAL ARTS ALLIANCE LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE
The Pearson Foundation recently announced that the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) is expanding its partnership with the digital arts alliance. The Pearson Foundation is the founding partner in the Digital Arts Alliance, which promotes digital arts in K-12 education through fully funded and staffed programs delivered directly to schools and community centers nationwide. For the 2008-09 school year, ISTE and the Pearson Foundation will expand the Digital Arts Alliance Leadership Institute (DAALI), which was first piloted last year. The DAALI recognizes education teams introducing innovative digital arts projects across the United States, and provides additional leadership development specifically in the context of the new National Education Technology Standards (NETS).

Each year, the Digital Arts Alliance makes it possible for more than 15,000 students and their teachers to experience firsthand how laptop computers, video production equipment, and the latest mobile-phone technologies are changing the ways young people can organize, present, and share information and issues that matter to them. Alliance members believe that using technologies to enhance personal expression creates an expanded kind of literacy, often referred to as 21st Century literacy, which people -- especially young people -- already use in their everyday lives. Triangle Coalition member, the Pearson Foundation, extends Pearson's commitment to education by partnering with leading nonprofit, civic, and business organizations to provide financial, organizational, and publishing assistance across the globe. The foundation aims to make a difference by sponsoring innovative educational programs and extending its educational expertise to help in classrooms and in local communities. More information on the Pearson Foundation can be found at www.pearsonfoundation.org.

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MICROSOFT AND HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT
LEARNING TECHNOLOGY UNVEIL NEXT-GENERATION LEARNING VILLAGE
Recently, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Learning Technology (HMHLT) and Microsoft Corporation announced the release of the new Learning Village. The teaching and learning portal is a single sign-on solution where educators, students, and parents can access and organize their schools' instructional content and learning resources quickly and efficiently. Learning Village delivers curricula, content and resources in a unified, personalized, and education-relevant environment for teachers, administrators, parents, and students -- providing a central point for communication, collaboration, teaching, and professional development. It enhances district level decision-making and promotes student achievement.

"Learning Village showcases how teachers, students, and parents all benefit when lesson plans, content, and curricula are centralized and accessible," said Scott Kirkpatrick, president, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Learning Technology. "Learning Village combines Microsoft's technology platform with innovative curriculum management to deliver an incredible level of teaching and learning resources to the educational experience -- making teachers more productive, students more engaged and parents more informed." Triangle Coalition member, Houghton Mifflin Company, is one of the leading educational publishers in the United States, with more than $1.4 billion in sales. The Company publishes a comprehensive set of educational solutions, ranging from research-based textbook programs to instructional technology to standards-based assessments for elementary and secondary schools and colleges. The Company also publishes an extensive line of reference works and award-winning fiction and nonfiction for adults and young readers. More details are at www.hmco.com.   

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EQUITY IN MATHEMATICS GRANTS WILL AWARD
$8,000 TO MIDDLE SCHOOL MATHEMATICS TEACHERS

The Mathematics Education Trust of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) has announced an increase in its Equity in Mathematics Grants for 2009-2010. MET will award an $8,000 grant, increased from $3,000 last year, to an individual or a small group of teachers currently teaching mathematics in grades 6-8. Funded by the Iris Carl Fund and NCTM, this grant supports teachers to incorporate middle school classroom materials or lessons that will improve the achievement of student groups that have records of underachievement. Proposals must address the following: the mathematics content as defined in the Principles and Standards for School Mathematics of NCTM; the plan for improving achievement of the targeted students; and the anticipated impact on their achievement. Recipients of the Equity in Mathematics Grant must be members of NCTM. They must be current teachers of mathematics in grades 6-8 at least 50 percent of the school day. Activities are to be completed between June 1, 2009, and May 31, 2010. The Equity in Mathematics Grant application packet must be postmarked by November 14, 2008. For more information, visit www.nctm.org/met.aspx.

The Iris Carl Fund was established in 2004 in honor of Iris Carl, a past president of NCTM who championed mathematics literacy for all. She was also a well-respected public voice in support of mathematics education through testimony before Congress and in the news media. Carl served as NCTM president from 1990 to 1992. In 1997, she received the Mathematics Education Trust Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her lifelong commitment to mathematics education. Carl died in 2004. For over 30 years, the Mathematics Education Trust has been supporting the improvement of mathematics teaching and learning at the classroom level through the funding of grants, awards, honors, and other projects by channeling the generosity of contributors into classroom-based efforts that benefit all students. MET provides funds to support classroom teachers in improving classroom practices and increasing teachers’ mathematical knowledge. Triangle Coalition member, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, is a public voice of mathematics education, providing vision, leadership, and professional development to support teachers in ensuring mathematics learning of the highest quality for all students. The Equity in Mathematics Grant application packet must be postmarked by November 14, 2008. For more information, visit www.nctm.org.

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NASA ANNOUNCES COMPETITIVE GRANT PROGRAMS
NASA's Office of Education has announced three new extramural funding opportunities that could result in the award of grants or cooperative agreements. One of the three funding opportunities is the K-12 Competitive Grants Opportunity, a competitive education grant program targeting secondary school level teaching and learning, with grants being awarded to U.S. public schools and non-profit organizations. The goal of the opportunity is to seek out and support new, innovative, and replicable approaches to improving science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning and instruction. This will leverage NASA's unique contributions to STEM fields.

The second area is the Global Climate Change Education Opportunity. The goal of this competitive project is to improve the quality of global climate change and Earth system science education at the elementary, secondary, and undergraduate levels. Each funded proposal is expected to take advantage of NASA's unique contributions in climate science to enhance students' academic experiences and improve educators' abilities to engage and stimulate their students. In the third area of opportunity, NASA is making available funding for a competitive program for science museums, science-technology centers and planetariums to enhance programs related to space exploration, aeronautics, space science, Earth science or microgravity. The Office of Education has contracted the external peer reviewer proposal evaluation process to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Authority for final award selections rests with NASA Headquarters. For more detailed information about the 2008 Competitive Grant Programs, click here.   

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MOBILE LEARNING TO TEACH MATH & SCIENCE
AT MINOR LEAGUE BASEBALL GAMES

The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and Hot Lava Software, Inc. are changing the way Minor and Independent league baseball interacts with its fans. The Sports Bytes Competition motivates baseball fans to experience mobile learning (mLearning) as they learn the science behind the sport via their mobile phones. Fans attending the game have the opportunity to not only see a homerun hit, but learn how friction and drag affect the path of a baseball traveled. Although many learning institutions have attempted to teach science through the use of sports delivered by traditional methods, Kauffman and Hot Lava are taking mLearning inside the stadiums to deliver accessible and captivating on-demand Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education via mobile devices.

Throughout the summer of 2008, select stadiums around the country are running run in-game promotions. A stadium announcer costumed as a quirky looking professor wearing a white lab coat, chemistry goggles, and mad scientist hair will leap up on the dugout and encourage fans to take out their cell phones and interact with a Sports Bytes module that explains the science behind baseball. Getting started is as easy as sending a text message to "83960" with the word "onpoint" in the text message body. Hot Lava responds with an auto response text message to the fan's mobile phone. A nightly prize pack is awarded to one fan who answers one question correctly. Prize packs can include free tickets, signed baseballs, a first pitch certificate, mobile phones, and team merchandise. The Sports Bytes Competition is live in July and August 2008 at the Kansas City T-Bones, Frederick Keys, Aberdeen Ironbirds, Bowie Baysox, Wilmington Blue Rocks, and Delmarva Shorebirds baseball games; as well as the D.C. United Soccer Team. Those not attending a game can access the Sports Bytes content via http://www.hdwap.com/s from a mobile web browser.   

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