[CPS Math]Notices Inviting Applications (October 2, 2001)
RECENT NOTICES INVITING APPLICATIONS (grant opportunities) from the U.S. Department of Education (published in the Federal Register) include those related to: * Jacob K. Javits Fellowship Program -- CFDA# 84.170A * Technological Innovation Cooperation for Foreign Information Access Program -- CFD 84.337A * Centers for International Business Education Program -- CFDA# 84.220A * Grant Applications Under Part D, Subpart 2 of IDEA -- multiple CFDA#s These other notices can be found at: http://www.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister/announcements/ FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION about Department funding opportunities, including discretionary grant application packages, please see: http://www.ed.gov/funding.html BELOW ARE the purposes, eligible applicants, availability closing dates, available funds, estimated size, number of awards for these programs. For more complete information the contact individual for each opportunity, please see the notice; however, please note that while we *try* to ensure that the version on the web the Federal Register notice are the same, the Federal Register notice is the one to consult for complete authoritative information. *** Jacob K. Javits Fellowship Program (Federal Register: September 27, 2001 [CFDA# 84.170A]) *** Purpose of Program: The purpose of the Jacob K. Javits Fellowship (JKJ) Program is to award fellowships to eligible students of superior ability, selected on the basis of demonstrated achievement, financial need, exceptional promise to undertake graduate study leading to a doctoral degree or a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) at accredited institutions of higher education in selected fields of the arts, humanities, or social sciences. The selected fields in the arts are: Creative writing, music performance, music theory, music composition, music literature, studio arts (including photography), television, film, cinematography, theater arts, playwriting, screenwriting, acting, and dance. The selected fields in the humanities are: art history (including architectural history), archeology, area studies, classics, comparative literature, English language literature, folklore, folklife, foreign languages literature, history, linguistics, philosophy, religion, speech, rhetoric, debate. The selected fields in the social sciences are: anthropology, communications media, economics, ethnic cultural studies, geography, political science, psychology but not clinical psychology, public policy public administration, sociology but not the masters or Ph.D. in social work. Eligible Applicants: Individuals who, at the time of application, have not yet completed their first full year of doctoral or MFA study; or will be entering graduate school in academic year 2002-2003 are eligible to apply for a Javits Fellowship. Applicants must also qualify to receive Federal student financial assistance pursuant to section 484 of the Higher Education Act, as amended, plan to attend an accredited U.S. institutions of higher education. Applications Available: September 28, 2001. 2002 Free Application for Federal Student Aid, January 2, 2001. Deadline for Transmittal of Applications: November 30, 2001. 2002 Free Application for Federal Student Aid, January 31, 2002. Estimated Available Funds: The Administration has requested $10,000,000 for this program for FY 2002. The actual level of funding, if any, depends on final congressional action. However, we are inviting applications to allow enough time to complete the grant process if Congress appropriates funds for this program. Estimated Average Size of Awards: $31,672. Estimated Number of Awards: 60 individual fellowships. Additional Information: Applicable regulations, other information is available in the Federal Register notice. Additional information is available online at: http://www.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister/announcements/ 2001-3/092701a.html *** Technological Innovation Cooperation for Foreign Information Access Program (Federal Register: September 28, 2001 [CFDA# 84.337A]) *** Purpose of Program: The Technological Innovation Cooperation for Foreign Information Access Program provides grants to support projects that will develop innovative techniques or programs using new electronic technologies to collect, organize, preserve, widely disseminate information on world regions countries other than the United States that address our Nation's teaching research needs in international education foreign languages. Eligible Applicants: Institutions of higher education,
Re: [CPS Math]Notices Inviting Applications (October 2, 2001)
hello, does anyone remember a message about a doctoral math program that begins on Mondays in Aug. 2002?!?!? i was sent several messages about it last month and i am very interested in pursueing however i need the information again and contact info. thanks [EMAIL PROTECTED] This is the CPS Mathematics Teacher Discussion List. To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more information: http://home.sprintmail.com/~mikelach/subscribe.html. To search the archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/science%40lists.csi.cps.k12.il.us/
[CPS Math]Japan: Less May Be More
From theWashington Post, Tuesday, October 2, 2001, p. A22. See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55926-2001Oct1.html For Japanese Students, Less May Be More Educators Seek to Promote Creativity, Reduce Truancy by Cutting Curriculum By Kathryn Tolbert [Washington Post Foreign Service] AKITA, Japan -- To improve education by teaching less is a difficult idea for any parent to accept. But Japan is in the midst of just such an about-face. While Japanese students are still near the top of international math and science rankings, surveys also show that they dislike those subjects more intensely with every grade, they have little joy of learning and they lack the ability to do research and express an opinion. Educators have concluded that part of the remedy is to reduce the amount students are taught. In a policy that has confounded and worried many parents, primary and junior high school curricula are being cut by 30 percent starting next spring, Saturday classes will end and a vaguely defined general studies class is being added to encourage creativity and independent thinking. Parents' fears have been fed by rumors that the value of pi would now be taught as around 3 instead of 3.14. A weekly magazine ran the headline, In 10 Years the Japanese Will All Be Idiots! The catchphrase for the new policy is Education with Leeway, which goes firmly against the grain here. Education Ministry officials are going around the country trying to explain the new curriculum to parent-teacher organizations, while many teachers are taking extra training to come up with ideas for general studies and schools are running test classes under the new directives. The new curriculum will be adopted in high schools in 2003. To target the curriculum to lowest-level students is rare in world history, said one critic, Masayuki Yamauchi, a professor at the University of Tokyo. But educators and officials say the counterintuitive cutting of hours devoted to Japanese, math, science and social studies is necessary to change Japan's basic approach to education. Japanese education has meant sitting in a classroom, facing the blackboard and learning from a textbook, said Satoshi Ashidate, director of the office of curriculum planning in the Education Ministry. In a sense it is very passive -- sitting and waiting to be taught. This was effective in bringing up scores for tests and to achieve a high international ranking. But we have to change that. The education system has been widely admired for giving a uniform, high-quality education to all Japanese. Everyone was taught the same material at the same pace, which was good for the broad middle range of students but left some bored and others lost. The truancy rate has been rising rapidly, with the number of junior high students missing more than 30 days of school in 1999 more than 12 times that of 1970. Under the new policy, schools are to acknowledge that students have different levels of ability and should be taught accordingly. Science high schools will be introduced next year; other schools will start to divide classes according to ability. In Japan we worry so much about equality, regardless of what the person wants, said Toshiso Miyatani of Mihara, Hiroshima prefecture, who flew to Akita in northern Japan for a national PTA symposium on the new curriculum. Until now we've been cutting off those who excel and those who lag behind, said Ashidate. We're trying to pay attention to both groups and deal with stress from this system. This is a big change. Jin Akiyama, a professor of mathematics at Tokai University in Tokyo, held the attention of the 1,200 parents at the symposium as he ran through the high scores Japanese students have achieved internationally in math and science. Is this not good enough? he said. You can say no, we've got to be at the very top, or you can say we're doing pretty well. But I think there is something else we need to worry about, something that is related to the issue of academic skills. And that is whether the children like . . . the particular subject or whether what they've been taught will be useful in the future. In this case, there is a lot to worry about. But while parents applaud the idea of making students eager to learn and teaching them to think, cutting content to foster creativity is more difficult to accept. The school sent a paper home saying first-graders will no longer be taught to tell time, said Yumi Yomura, whose daughter's primary school in Tokyo is incorporating the new curriculum. She was surprised and dismayed, but said that as long as she knows what's being cut, she can fill in the gaps at home. Other parents, she said, don't mind the reduced curriculum because it gives their children more time to do their cram-school homework. Entrance exams for universities, as well as for private
[CPS Math]School district challenges cyber school payments
** From The Mercury, Pottstown, PA, Monday, October 1, 2001, p. A1, A3. See http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=2431454BRD=1674PAG=461dept_id=18041rfi=6 [Also appeared on the Freedom to Learn Network list, Monday, October 1, 2001. ** Boyertown challenging cyber school payments By Michelle Karas BOYERTOWN -- With 42 formerly home-schooled children now enrolled in cyber charter schools, the Boyertown Area School District is facing a potential loss of more than $325,000, according to school officials. The Pennsylvania Department of Education, as of a Sept. 7 letter, is withholding approximately $23,000 monthly in state subsidies from the district as a result of alleged non-payment of students' fees for cyber charter schools, said District Solicitor Jeffrey T. Sultanik. Most of these students up to this time were home-schooled, Sultanik said. Therefore the district may have $325,000 in unanticipated tuition to spend and maybe more. Under a 1997 state law allowing charter schools, districts are required to pay a fee for every student who attends an alternative public school, including a cyber school -- a sort of Internet charter school. A handful of cyber charter schools have recently sprung up in Pennsylvania with the goal of educating students at home through the Internet. Per Sultanik's request, the school board authorized him to file a protective appeal with the commonwealth court and to file an appeal with the state department of education. As it stands right now, the Boyertown Area School District is disenfranchised, because with a cyber charter school, there is no boundary, he said. We need to preserve our rights. According to Sultanik, some cyber charter schools are kindergarten through 12th grade, some are K through 3 and some are solely high schools. The schools supply students with a computer, software and, in some cases, live on-screen lessons from teachers who could be teaching to an Internet camera from just about anywhere. The per student fee a school district must pay charter schools is calculated according to a formula outlined by the state Department of Education. For the Boyertown district, that cost is about $6,000, Sultanik said. The money follows the child, he said. The students pay nothing. The state is taking our money away. Under current state law, families who home-school children must follow a fairly rigorous set of state-mandated guidelines regarding attendance and curriculum, and none of which costs the local school district, and therefore the local taxpayer, any money. When those students enroll in a cyber charter school, suddenly, the local taxpayers are responsible for paying for much of those students' education, which is not held to as high of standards of accountability as home-schooling. One cyber school, the Pennsylvania Virtual Charter School, received its charter from the nearby Norristown Area School District. Six of the formerly home-schooled Boyertown children have enrolled in a cyber school chartered in western Pennsylvania, while the other 36 are enrolled in Einstein Academy -- a cyber charter school based in the Morrisville School District, Bucks County. Einstein Academy recruited nearly 4,000 students in the past four months, making it larger than most school districts in Pennsylvania, Sultanik said. Cyber schools are very attractive to parents of home-schooled children, who previously cost school districts nothing and have the potential to cost them a lot in unplanned for cyber student fees, he said. There are about 33,000 children home-schooled in Pennsylvania. Multiply that with about $7,000 per student fees at a cyber school, and you get $250 million in potential revenue for operators, he said. That's a lot of money not getting much public scrutiny. The Pennsylvania School Boards Association has filed a lawsuit challenging the state Department of Education's decision to withhold state subsidy money equal to the amount the districts refused to pay to cyber schools. School boards across the state, including Reading, Pottstown, Spring-Ford and Phoenixville, are supporting the legal action. The PSBA argues cyber schools fail to comply with several legal requirements of charter schools. Also, cyber schools have no physical location and there is no way to address accountability of the educational process. PSBA is urging the General Assembly to craft legislation to address the cyber school issue. A report is due in October on the impact and potential impact of cyber schools and several proposed laws are already in the pipeline. --- Michelle Karas' e-mail address is [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** -- Jerry P. Becker Curriculum Instruction Southern Illinois University Carbondale, IL 62901-4610 Phone: (618) 453-4241 [O] (618) 457-8903 [H]
