Area schools receive $182,000 in state grants
The state recently doled out nearly $11 million in federal technology grants to 87 Pennsylvania school districts and charter schools. Just three local schools won these competitive Enhancing Education Through Technology grants.
The grants are given as part of the technology component of the federal No Child Left Behind Act and are designed to help schools improve student academic achievement through the use of technology.
The lone Fayette County recipient, Laurel Highlands School District, received $87,360. Belle Vernon Area School District in Westmoreland County received $64,880, while California Area School District in Washington County secured $30,000.
“There were 106 school districts eligible, and we figured not everybody was going to be funded,” said Laurel Highlands’ federal funds coordinator, Carol Bubonovich.
Bubonovich said she was shocked and happy at the news that the school district was among the recipients.
She said the funds would be used to update special computer software that tailors math and reading lessons to individual students. The R.W. Clark and John F. Kennedy elementary schools would be addressed first. She said the software is diagnostic and prescriptive and offers these individualized lessons on a student’s need level based on a pre-test. The lessons also are aligned with the state’s academic standards.
Bubonovich said she hopes the funding will continue another year to give the district the opportunity to use the software in classrooms outside the computer labs.
California’s superintendent, Dr. Marian Stephens, said she expects this to be a two-year grant, with the same amount awarded in the second year and actually doubling the listed award.
“We were very excited about this,” she said.
She said California’s money would be used in the training of teachers to use technology curriculum in assessments of students, giving them the ability more easily through the technology to give students extra help where they may fall behind in their studies.
“In the last decade, technology has become an increasingly key component of a child’s learning and educational success,” state Education Secretary Charles B. Zogby said in a prepared statement that announced the grants. “If we want our schools to meet the president’s goal of having all children reach high levels of proficiency, we need to ensure they are equipped with the tools to make that happen. Districts that have the greatest need can use these dollars to get online, purchase software or increase professional development in the area of technology. They decide what types of technology will work best for them.”
The competitive grants can be used “to provide technology-related professional development for teachers, integrate technology to enhance student achievement, increase access to technology and use technology effectively to promote parental involvement and increase communication with parents.”
The criteria for eligibility concerned a school district’s poverty levels and whether the school demonstrated a need for assistance in acquiring and using technology.