Challenge 2000 Receives Federal Technology Challenge Grant.

EAST PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--October 10, 1995--The U.S. Department of Education today announced that the Challenge 2000 educational reform program has been awarded $550,000 as the first installment of a five-year Challenge Grant for Technology and Education. Challenge 2000 is one of two projects in California to receive a federal grant.

Challenge 2000 is a cooperative effort of Joint Venture: Silicon Valley's 21st Century Education initiative and Smart Valley, Inc.'s Smart Schools networking initiative. Challenge 2000 is fostering an educational renaissance in the greater Silicon Valley area by partnering with schools to achieve systemic change.

In the Challenge 2000 effort, technology is considered a critical tool for enhancing student learning. The grant proposal is designed to implement collaborative multimedia projects to provide students with technical skills and project-based learning experience. The grant will pay for curriculum design, technology support, teacher training and education, as well as evaluation of the project's success.

"This Challenge Grant for Technology and Education represents much more than just money to modernize Silicon Valley schools. It is national recognition of the extraordinary work that has been done to provide outstanding educational opportunities for students in our area," stated Congresswoman Anna Eshoo. "Thanks to the generosity of Silicon Valley companies and the foresight of local education officials, our students are being provided with the technology they need to learn skills that will make them - and our entire country - competitive in the 21st century. Only 19 of the 530 communities that applied for Challenge Grants for Technology and Education received them this year. I salute Secretary of Education Richard Riley for his leadership and vision, and I am proud to have helped bring this grant to our schools."

The grant will support multimedia project-based learning in four Challenge 2000 Renaissance Teams, each of which includes a high school and its feeder elementary and middle schools. Together, these four teams include 37 schools, serving over 23,000 students - 52 percent of them from low-income homes - and encompassing seven percent of all the students in the Santa Clara and San Mateo counties.

"For our country to move forward as a technology leader, it is imperative that all our children demonstrate measurable progress toward world-class standards in math, science and language arts," said Dr. Glen Toney, chairman of the 21st Century Education Initiative board of directors. "It is also important that they act ethically, function as team members in a multi-cultural environment and are able to use information and technology effectively."

Technical Expertise

Technical expertise will be provided by the Bay Area Multimedia Technology Alliance (BAMTA), a Smart Valley, Inc.-NASA initiative launched earlier this year. BAMTA is a member-driven organization addressing the development of networked multimedia. BAMTA will provide the schools with access to state-of-the-art multimedia tools and the physical and virtual collection of resources at BAMTA's Collaboratory.

"This collaborative multimedia development project will help students become self-learners - motivated to learn and interested in what they are doing. Teachers will function as team leaders and coaches, mirroring what real life is like outside the classroom," said Dr. Harry J. Saal, president and CEO of Smart Valley, Inc.

Technical Guidelines

Challenge 2000 will increase the benefits of technology use in the classroom as a means of assisting students to achieve world-class standards in the core subjects of literacy, math, science, communication and reasoning skills. To help schools achieve this goal, Smart Valley member companies have created the Smart Valley, Inc.'s Smart Schools "Technical Guidelines for Schools." These guidelines are intended to help schools determine their networking needs and provide information to help them make informed decisions about equipment acquisitions and future expansion. Each of the Grant recipients are required to follow the guidelines as they implement their networks.

The Technology Challenge Grant proposal was submitted with the technical support of three industry partners that boast national reputations for excellence in their respective fields: The Institute for Research on Learning; Customers and Technologies, Inc.; and SRI International.

Challenge 2000 Industry Support

In addition to the federal grant proposal, $17 million in cash, products and human resource contributions have been raised in the past year to support Challenge 2000 schools. Contributors of $1 million or more (to date) include: 3Com; Adobe Systems Inc.; Apple Computer Inc.; Applied Materials Inc.; Cirrus Logic Inc.; Hewlett-Packard Co.; Intel Corp.; Logitech Inc.; NetManage; Network General Corp.; The Robert Noyce Foundation; Quantum Corporation; Silicon Graphics, Inc.; Sun Microsystems, Inc.; Symantec Corporation; and Wells Fargo Bank.

Challenge 2000, a program aimed at strengthening the education system in the greater Silicon Valley, is a partnership of Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network's 21st Century Education Initiative and Smart Valley, Inc.'s Smart Schools program.

Smart Valley, Inc. is a non-profit organization committed to creating an electronic community based on an advanced information infrastructure. This mission is being lived out through collaborative infrastructure projects in areas of education, health care, local government, business and the home. Smart Valley has become the focal point for Global Information Infrastructure networking between its many member companies, as well as other entities on a regional, national and global scale. Smart Valley is affiliated with Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network, a broad-based, grassroots coalition of initiatives begun in 1992. -0-

NOTE: Secretary of Education Richard Riley will be available via conference call Tuesday, October 10 between 8:00-11:00 a.m PDT to discuss the grants. Please call [phone].

CONTACT: Cunningham Communication, Inc.

Rona Brodrick, 408/764-0740

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Smart Valley, Inc.

Kathie Blankenship, 408/562-7795

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