Cycle Six: The following eight projects were funded in cycle six (FY 1997-2002):

• Los Angeles County Office of Education. Project IMPACT will design and implement a distributed learning system that improves instruction in the nation's classrooms and educates students, teachers, and parents. This model facilitates learning through powerful instructional technologies and allows participants to access information from a variety of sources via satellite, multimedia, and the Internet. This project will transform traditional classrooms into technology-rich centers of learning to help students achieve high academic standards. Project IMPACT currently involves a national consortium which reaches approximately 140,000 students and 4,000 teachers, and builds on the effective model of TEAMS (Telecommunications for Educational Advancement in Math and Science) Distance Learning, a four-time Star Schools grant recipient. The project will serve multiple states, counties and districts across the country.

• Massachusetts Corporation for Educational Telecommunications (MCET ) - Transitions Through Telecommunications. Transitions will use multiple technologies to provide a collaborative lifelong learning project with hands-on learning, reading, writing, and professional development programs to develop the skills, self-esteem, and confidence of the teens, adults, parents, and non-native speakers in the states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, and the District of Columbia. During the five-year project, MCET and its partners will develop and link learners through four reading and writing developmental skill clusters that form a continuum of tools for lifelong learning.

• Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL)- Pacific Islands Distance Learning Program. PREL will deliver direct distance learning programming to the students and teachers. Specially, PREL will provide an array of challenging courses which were otherwise not available but which build on the rich culture of the region. Examples include an engaging science curriculum for grades five and six which focuses on oceanography, fragile environments, and volcanoes; a fourth grade live, interactive environmental program focusing on the natural and cultural history of the Hawaiian Islands; and a high school credit course on problem solving. Professional development programming includes contexts from the region as well as global issues associated with teaching and learning. The overall objective is to increase the capacity for effective use of distance learning through a Pacific-wide telecommunications infrastructure.

• College of Central Wyoming - Mountain Plains Distance Learning Partnership will focus on the needs of the Native American population in this vast intermountain region. This partnership of four states will develop an electronic, virtual campus employing a host of technologies, a two-way audio and visual interactive fully scalable high speed digital ATM microwave technology; electronic transmission and receiving classrooms; and computer-assisted instructional programming centers. Teachers will be empowered to design and deliver interactive multimedia curricula to remote communities for K-14 students and adults. The project includes a comprehensive training model and multimedia curriculum strategies to help teachers develop the skills they need to teach via the system.

• Juvenile Justice Distance Learning Consortium (JDLC) - Florida, New York and Texas have joined together to form the Justice Distance Learning Consortium (JDLC). Through SafetyNet, juvenile offenders as well as teachers and staff in 52 facilities located in these three states will receive computer and video-based educational programs and courses via satellite, computer and DBS (direct broadcast satellite technologies) in Year One. Additional facilities and states will be encouraged to join the Consortium in years to come. JDLC will work with existing Star Schools projects and other video-based program producers to re-package existing materials into products and services appropriate for the juvenile offender population base. A primary objective of SafetyNet is to stimulate learning so that students can move from the correctional facilities back into schools without missing out on needed curriculum.. Another objective is to create the types of computer-assisted learning materials that will engage learners and encourage them to take responsibility for their educational achievements. A final objective is to provide staff development opportunities for teachers and administrators at all facilities. Three specific curriculum areas will be the focus: math, literacy, and life/work skills. Phoebus Communications Inc., in Maryland, will manage the project on behalf of the Consortium; Information Systems of Florida and Illuminactive Inc. are key technology partners in the project.

• Satellite Educational Resources Consortium (SERC), Next Generation. The Next Generation project from SERC represents a plethora of technologies. The most exciting is the creation of curriculum-based multiple media materials in science and mathematics which will be made available on demand by digitizing extensive video archives within the existing public television inventory. This new technology will allow teachers to have immediate access to resources from a host of exemplary programs such as the CPB/Anneberg Math and Science Project. SERC will also develop new distance learning courses for middle school students in French and reading across the curriculum, offering them first by traditional technologies and then through the digital, on-demand service. Finally, to enrich its technological offerings, SERC will develop an Internet-based course in Calculus/AP Calculus for students.

• Educational Service District (ESD) 101 - The Pacific Star Schools Partnership is a consortium representing education organizations in six states and U.S. Pacific affiliated territories. The project will benefit the region by making available courses and enrichment modules for elementary and high school instruction. Technological system enhancements will also be added to the existing infrastructure to offer the most cost effective access to quality instruction than has been available through distance learning in the past.

• StarNet, United Star Distance Learning Consortium - The program will focus on an Engaged Learning model emphasizing the areas of early reading; middle school math proficiency; literacy for the deaf; adult literacy; technology training for teachers; and online, asynchronous staff development via the Internet for teachers of middle school algebra, elementary reading, adult literacy, and those in alternative schools, etc. The project will use a mix of converging technologies including satellite, CD-ROM, and Web-based tools to connect students and teachers across the country.

Dissemination Project:

• The WestEd Distance Learning Resource Network (DLRN) will create service to the growing number of schools, colleges, and universities that use distance learning to reach rural and metropolitan learners. These will include information and research on the topics of computer conferencing, standards-based curriculum and assessment, instructional methods and strategies, and emerging technologies. DLRN will provide training and educator networking opportunities through online, text-based forums. They will also provide audio conferencing, electronically publish the Star Schools DLRN Journal, produce video applications, and create the DLRN Distance Learning Resource Guide, along with the DLRN Distance Learning Kit.

Special Local Network

• Southeastern Pennsylvania Consortium For Higher Education (SEPCHE). A collaborative project which proposes to establish local and wide area computer networks and interactive video capabilities to enhance the quality and efficiency of academic programming, student access, operations, teacher training and community outreach, at the eight SEPCHE member colleges through inter-institutional cooperation and technological linkages.

  Member colleges of the Consortium include: Beaver College, Cabrini College, Chestnut Hill College, Gwynedd-Mercy College, Holy Family College, Immaculata College, Neumann College and Rosemont College.