This report examines the relationship between philanthropy and public schools in Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas served by the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL). While begun as a project to build understanding and to support institutional planning, this report speaks also to local school leaders, the…

Title III, the Strengthening Institutions Program, is one of the most important federal programs for rural community colleges. Created by the Higher Education Act of 1965, Title III provides institutional aid to qualified colleges and universities that serve large numbers of first-generation, low-income students and students from groups…

ExceL grants are a local funding initiative of the Austin Independent School District (Texas) designed to improve student achievement at the elementary level. Schools submit proposals for the 4-year grants, and the amount of the grant is determined based on the number of students not meeting minimum expectations on the Texas Assessment of Academic…

As part of its 1996 welfare reform bill, the U.S. Congress enacted a $50 million per year program to fund abstinence education. The welfare reform law addresses the problem of births to single adolescents by enforcing child support payments, giving states financial incentives to reduce nonmarital births, and creating the abstinence education…

The Hartford Public Schools (Connecticut) received a Comprehensive Partnerships for Minority Student Achievement (CPMSA) grant from the National Science Foundation. In the first year of the grant, four schools (two elementary, one middle, and one high school) were identified for CPMSA activities. The CPMSA goal was to develop systemic approaches…

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 directs the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to include support for advanced telecommunications--such as the Internet and computer networking--for elementary and secondary schools, public libraries, and nonprofit rural health care providers among the Universal Service Fund (USF) mandates. In its plan, the…

This report is a compilation of 1997 default rates for institutions participating in the Federal Perkins Loan Program based on the cohort of borrowers who entered repayment status in the 1995-96 reporting period. Data is presented by state and individual institution and includes: (1) number of borrowers who entered repayment status in 1995-96; (2)…

In the fall of 1996, Congress passed the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) as part of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Bill. The bill challenges librarians to become more collaborative, encourages resource sharing and cooperation among all types of libraries, and shifts the focus of federal funding to technology. This report describes…

The General Electric (GE) Early Years Initiative, a grant-funded GE Fund, GE's corporate Foundation and GE Elfun, GE's international program created by volunteer organization, has helped elementary school students improve their reading skills through the use of volunteers since 1994. This publication describes Early Years projects, provides…

This document describes programs available through the Office of Migrant Education for migratory children from preschool through grade 12 or up to age 22. The Migrant Education Program supports high-quality and comprehensive educational programs for migratory children to address disruptions in schooling. Funds, which are allocated to states on the…

Southern Illinois University developed an instructional approach for supporting collaborative, problem-based learning (PBL) in medical education. A succession of software tools were developed and refined to implement this approach, and a technology-enriched facility, the "Collaborative Learning Lab" (CLL) was designed. The paper…

The Mid-York Library System (Utica, New York) conducted a project that involved recruitment and public awareness. The project served a community of over 200,000 people, and targeted potential tutors and learners. The goal of the project was to produce and develop a sustained publicity project to promote the services of Literacy Volunteers of…

This volume describes federal student financial aid programs that are administered at the state level. Students must meet state eligibility criteria to receive assistance or benefits from these programs. The state grant programs are: (1) Leveraging Educational Assistance Partnership (LEAP) Program; (2) Special Leveraging Educational Assistance…

With the intention that Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funds provide for the continual improvement and enhancement of all library and information services in Georgia, this five-year plan addresses the LSTA law by establishing major statewide priorities and supporting goals and activities/objectives that reflect the purposes and…

Federal law now allows billions of education dollars, for a variety of programs, to go to states under a single, consolidated state plan. The goal is to develop integrated, coordinated plans for meeting the requirements of the various programs in a way that best serves children's educational needs. Achievement of that goal depends a great deal on…