Purpose

Teacher preparation and professional development are important to increase student performance. Internet and other telecommunications-based professional development can provide research-based professional development on an ongoing basis to teachers in a variety of locations to help improve teaching and learning. For example, studies of educational technology effectiveness report that teacher expertise in using technology can substantially increase the learning gains associated with using the technology. While 80 percent of public school teachers reported in 1999 that they had access to training in use of the Internet, evaluations report that much of the current professional development is too short and not well integrated with ongoing instruction.

The Ready-To-Teach program provides grants to a nonprofit telecommunications organization or a partnership of such organizations to carry out national telecommunications-based programming to improve teaching in core curriculum areas. In addition, Digital Educational Programming Grants under this subpart support the development of educational programming that includes student assessment tools to provide feedback on student academic achievement.

How It Works

The Ready-To-Teach program provides grants to eligible entities on a competitive basis. The Digital Educational Programming Grants program requires a match of not less than 100 percent of the amount of the grant for three years. In addition, these grants support development of educational programming that includes student assessment tools to provide feedback on student academic achievement, with built-in teacher-support components to ensure that teachers understand and can use the programming for student instruction. Educational programming and materials are to be created for, or adaptable to, state academic content and achievement standards.

Key Requirements

Grantees will use public broadcasting, the Internet, and school digital networks where available, to deliver video and data in an integrated way. Grantees must train teachers to use materials and learning technologies to achieve challenging state academic content and achievement standards. In addition, grantees must ensure that the project will be conducted in cooperation with appropriate state education agency (SEA), school district, and state or local nonprofit public telecommunications entities. Grantees also must ensure that a significant portion of the benefits available to schools will be available to schools in districts that have a high percentage of children eligible for Title I Grants to Local Educational Agencies.

How Performance Is Measured

Grantees will prepare and submit to the U.S. Department of Education an annual report that, at a minimum, will describe activities undertaken, including core curriculum areas, the number of teachers using the program in each core curricular area, and the states in which teachers using the program are located.