The U.S. Department of Education's Improving Literacy Through School Libraries (LSL) Program focuses on providing funding to public school libraries in districts with 20.00 percent or more family poverty. Funds are used to improve reading achievement through updating the library collection, expanding internet connections, purchasing new technology, providing professional development for library media specialists, and extending school library hours. Please note that individual schools may not apply for this program. This is for public local school districts or charter schools or state-administered schools that are considered local school districts by their State Educational Agency. More information about this program can be found on the program's Web site www.ed.gov/programs/lsl.
The Department announced the 2006 LSL program competition in the Federal Register on February 10th, and applications will be due on April 11th. Approximately 19 million dollars will be available for funding, and an estimated 100 grants will be awarded under this competition. You may access the full application package on the program Web site www.ed.gov/programs/lsl under "Applicant Info." The Federal Register Notice can be found at <http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2006/E6-1906.htm>.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Thursday, February 16, 2006
The State Bond Commission meeting scheduled for February 24, 2006 has been cancelled. The next State Bond Commission meeting is scheduled on March 31
This is obvioulsy not the news that we wanted to publish. Hopefully, the $5,000,000 in technology infrastructure funds will be on the March agenda.
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
EETT eliminated from '07 proposed budget
EETT Was funded at about $690 million for its first three years in Fiscal Years 2002-2004, but was reduced to $496 million in FY2005 and to $272 million in FY2006. The 2007 budget looks very much like the President's original 2006 budget, 42 programs including EETT have been eliminated. SETDA, CoSN, ISTE and ETAN will once again begin their lobbying efforts.
You can help! Write, e-mail or phone your congressional representatives. Let them know how important the EETT dollars are to your district.
You can help! Write, e-mail or phone your congressional representatives. Let them know how important the EETT dollars are to your district.
Monday, February 06, 2006
Concerns over MySpace.com
The following letter was mailed on Februrary 3, 2006:
Dear Superintendents and Technology Directors,
Media reports over the last several days have exposed serious child safety considerations related to students sharing personal information about themselves through a website called “MySpace.com”. We are writing to remind you of the Commission for Education Technology’s policy related to web filtering on the Connecticut Education Network so that you can continue to make appropriate local decisions related to these risks.
At the State level, the Commission for Educational Technology, which is the statutory policy body for the CEN has determined that the State “… is responsible for providing a content screening mechanism that can be configured to permit individual locations to limit traffic or usage based on local preference.” Therefore, the CEN provides the tools for internet filtering in each district, but does not make decisions about or implement appropriate settings for individual schools or districts. CEN has provided a centralized N2H2 web filtering system with delegated administration which ALLOWS INDIVIDUAL SCHOOL DISTRICTS TO USE A WEB SITE TO SET ITS OWN FILTERING LEVELS. In most districts, technology staff manages the account that sets filtering levels. To be clear, the CEN staff does NOT set filtering levels and is NOT directly aware of what choices districts have made in setting their own preferences. In some instances, districts informed the CEN that they would be using an entirely local filtering system and would like to bypass the State’s system.
We would STRONGLY encourage you to examine local policies, filtering settings and other technical issues that can help mitigate this and other risks to student safety through the Internet.
If you or your staff have questions about capabilities with the CEN filter or if you wish to know if your district has chosen not to use the State’s system, you can reach the CEN Helpdesk at 860-622-2300 or via email at doit.helpdesk@po.state.ct.us .
Sincerely,
Dr. Betty J. Sternberg
Commissioner of Education
Robert P. Vietzke, Program Director
Connecticut Education Network
Dear Superintendents and Technology Directors,
Media reports over the last several days have exposed serious child safety considerations related to students sharing personal information about themselves through a website called “MySpace.com”. We are writing to remind you of the Commission for Education Technology’s policy related to web filtering on the Connecticut Education Network so that you can continue to make appropriate local decisions related to these risks.
At the State level, the Commission for Educational Technology, which is the statutory policy body for the CEN has determined that the State “… is responsible for providing a content screening mechanism that can be configured to permit individual locations to limit traffic or usage based on local preference.” Therefore, the CEN provides the tools for internet filtering in each district, but does not make decisions about or implement appropriate settings for individual schools or districts. CEN has provided a centralized N2H2 web filtering system with delegated administration which ALLOWS INDIVIDUAL SCHOOL DISTRICTS TO USE A WEB SITE TO SET ITS OWN FILTERING LEVELS. In most districts, technology staff manages the account that sets filtering levels. To be clear, the CEN staff does NOT set filtering levels and is NOT directly aware of what choices districts have made in setting their own preferences. In some instances, districts informed the CEN that they would be using an entirely local filtering system and would like to bypass the State’s system.
We would STRONGLY encourage you to examine local policies, filtering settings and other technical issues that can help mitigate this and other risks to student safety through the Internet.
If you or your staff have questions about capabilities with the CEN filter or if you wish to know if your district has chosen not to use the State’s system, you can reach the CEN Helpdesk at 860-622-2300 or via email at doit.helpdesk@po.state.ct.us .
Sincerely,
Dr. Betty J. Sternberg
Commissioner of Education
Robert P. Vietzke, Program Director
Connecticut Education Network
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