Local Schools Review Progress of $11 Million Grant; Implementation for Year Two to Begin July 1.

DOWNEY, Calif. -- The Los Angeles County Office of Education's California Technology Assistance Project (CTAP) Region 11 staff will today welcome more than 100 middle school educators and administrators completing their first year as participants in the 11 million dollar SouthEast Educational Technology Consortium (SEETC) competitive Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) grant program.

District administrators, technology and curriculum specialists, principals, and coach-mentor teams from the 33 middle schools participating in the 2004-06 EETT grant award, which is part of the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, will spend Thursday morning reviewing the grant's year one progress and reflecting upon lessons learned as educators strive to meet the goals of increased technology use and proficiency, improved student writing and enhanced technology access and home communication for 6th and 7th grade language arts students. In the afternoon, coach mentor teams and district SEETC representatives will refine plans for grant support to include 8th grade students and teachers in year two. A written report of grant performance achievement for year one and program adjustments for year two will then be compiled into an annual performance report to be submitted to the California Department of Education Sept. 30, 2005.

The SEETC EETT grant program, which provides funding for wireless laptop technology and web-based productivity tools to develop effective writing skills as well as professional development for 537 teachers and more than 60 coach mentors, serves culturally and economically diverse communities in 13 cities and 8 districts, including the school districts of ABC Unified, Compton Unified, Downey Unified, East Whittier City, El Rancho Unified, Norwalk-La Mirada Unified, South Whittier and Whittier City School Districts. Grant partners include Apple Computer, CTAP Region 11, Pepperdine University Tech Ed Services and Vantage Learning.

The SouthEast Educational Technology Consortium (SEETC) created in 1995 encompasses sixteen districts serving 230,000 students in southeastern Los Angeles County that share a common vision to transform learning and improve student achievement through effective use of technology, and to maximize resources through shared programs, personnel, maintenance, and training, in order to address varied local needs and provide curriculum and financial support to its members.

Established in 1993, Tech Ed Services, Inc. (www.techedservices.com), a California "C" corporation headquartered in Downey, Calif., whose consultants wrote and coordinated the SEETC grant effort, is a leading provider of outsourced technology support services to the education market. Recognized for its technology plan documents, successfully-funded technology grants totaling nearly $70 million dollars, on-site technical support and training for teachers, coach-mentors and parents, Tech Ed Services, Inc., currently serves thousands of K-12 educators in over 100 school districts, regional consortiums and county offices of education.