PRESS RELEASE

Middle Schools Awarded Technology Grant

On Thursday, April 29, 2004, the Fontana Unified School District was awarded the Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) Competitive Grant for $2,651,221. The EETT Grant will be implemented at the middle schools with a 6, 7, 8th grade Language Arts focus during the 2004-05 and 2005-06 school years.

The EETT grant is designed to enhance middle school student skills in accessing, interpreting, evaluating and reporting on informational text through regular electronic access to high-quality articles, video news stories, and websites. The grant focuses heavily on staff development to encourage routine teacher modeling of good research practices and the use of the Internet.

Each participating teacher will be provided with a wireless laptop, data projector and wireless keyboard/mouse to use in demonstrating web-based reference databases, demonstrating Holt Language Arts online information analysis tools (a component of our district and state-adopted, standards-based Language Arts program), and to model Big6 Information Literacy and Six-Traits writing process in interpreting informational text (per district curriculum guides).

An EETT Coach position will be created at each middle school by purchasing one period per day from a current Language Arts teacher. Each participating teacher will complete a minimum of 1 advanced California Technology Assistance Project Online Integration course, attend a 1-day equipment & electronic resources training, attend 3 minimum day training sessions per year, and receive ongoing coaching and support. Teachers will also be trained to develop classroom web pages to improve school-to-home communication.

Over 9000 students will be served in their regular Language Arts classes. The grants' emphasis on supporting informational text skills, through electronic research and writing, aligns with state standards and adopted texts and with district assessments showing mastery of these skills to be our student's most critical need. Student-to-multimedia computer ratios will be increased through the addition of an average of 4 computers per Language Arts classroom over the term of the grant.

Please address questions, comments, and suggestions regarding this web site to: webmaster@fusd.net