************************************************************** K12NewsLetters - From Educational CyberPlayGround http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/ ************************************************************** From: "Public Education Network" <PEN@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: PEN Weekly NewsBlast <newsblast@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Thu, 26 Feb 2004 20:54:03 -0800 Subject: PEN Weekly NewsBlast for February 27, 2004 Public Education Network Weekly NewsBlast "Public Involvement. Public Education. Public Benefit." *************************************************************** MOST PARENTS RAISE MONEY, SPEND MONEY FOR SCHOOLS Poll results released today by National PTA show that parents are worried about the future of public education. Parents are seeing classrooms with wall-to-wall desks and are opening their wallets to save art and music programs. Additionally, an overwhelming 93 percent of public school parents said that education will play a major role in their decision about which candidate to support in this election year. In a national telephone poll of 800 public school parents, more than half of the respondents (55 percent) ranked school funding as a top issue facing public schools today -- eclipsing both school safety and quality. Additionally, 85 percent of parents believe the federal government should provide more funding for education. In response to tightened budgets, parents and schools are becoming more dependent on fundraisers. According to the poll, 79 percent of parents are being asked to fund items and needs that have traditionally been covered by school budgets including paper, cleaning supplies, transportation, technology, teacher salaries, educational curriculum and art or music programs. 39 percent are contributing more than $100 to their kids classrooms each year and one-in-ten (11 percent) say they're giving more than $300 a year. http://www.pta.org/aboutpta/pressroom/pr040224.asp IS THIS ANY WAY TO PAY FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION? In New Jersey, a school official is contemplating peddling the naming rights to the district's only school on eBay, reports Kristen A. Graham. "We understand what's going on in the educational marketplace," said superintendent John Kellmayer said. "In 10 years, this is going to be a fact of life. We're aggressive enough to start this now." Aggressive, creative or crazy: Take your pick. Kellmayer and Bruce Darrow, school board president and "director of corporate development," preside over a district that is banking not just on government aid but on selling naming rights, snagging sponsorships, and launching other money-generating ventures to fund its future. "We're working people," Darrow said. "But we've got to get our kids on equal footing, and we have to be innovative." To those who fight against commercialization in education, Brooklawn's current path is a sacrilege, a body blow to the last bastion of unblemished public space. Gary Ruskin, executive director of Commercial Alert, a national anti-commercialism group, says the path the school district is taking is foolish and dangerous. "There's no doubt that thousands of school districts around the country are desperately short on funds, but the answer is not to put our kids up for sale," said Ruskin, who believes that Brooklawn administrators could better spend their time lobbying to reverse federal tax cuts to fund education. http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/living/education/8009054.htm NEA CALLS FOR BUSH TO FIRE EDUCATION CHIEF The National Education Association (NEA) has asked President Bush to fire Education Secretary Rod Paige for calling the union a "terrorist organization." The White House said Paige's job was safe, reports Ben Feller. Paige, who made his comment in a recent private meeting with governors, apologized for his choice of words but maintained that the union uses "obstructionist scare tactics" in its fight over the nation's education law. Reg Weaver, president of the union of 2.7 million teachers and other school workers, said that NEA members deserve more than "unfair labels and mean-spirited apologies." "We have heard from thousands of educators who came home from their schools on Monday to hear themselves and their professional organization referred to as terrorists by the top federal education official," Weaver said. "Our members say that, once again, this national leader has insulted them, this time beyond repair, with words filled with hatred -- and merely because they raised legitimate concerns about the president's so-called No Child Left Behind law." http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/education/2001864622_nea25.html WRITE TO SECRETARY PAIGE, LET HIM KNOW YOU VALUE TEACHERS Click below to join the thousands of concerned citizens who have already sent a letter to Secretary Paige to encourage him to foster a spirit of mutual respect and cooperation with the men and women who educate our nation's children. http://www.givekidsgoodschools.com/campaign/paige ROLE OF MEDIA IN CHILDHOOD OBESITY The Kaiser Family Foundation released a new report reviewing more than 40 studies on the role of media in the nation's dramatically increasing rates of childhood obesity. The report concludes that the majority of scientific research indicates that children who spend the most time with media are more likely to be overweight. Contrary to common assumptions, however, most research reviewed for this report does not find that children's media use displaces more vigorous physical activities. Therefore, the research indicates that there may be other factors related to children's media use that are contributing to weight gain. In particular, children's exposure to billions of dollars worth of food advertising and marketing in the media may be a key mechanism through which media contributes to childhood obesity. The report cites studies that show that the typical child sees about 40,000 ads a year on TV, and that the majority of ads targeted to kids are for candy, cereal, soda and fast food. http://www.kff.org/entmedia/entmedia022404pkg.cfm ALL OF MINNESOTA LEFT BEHIND? A new report estimates that 80 percent to 100 percent of Minnesota's school districts will not meet expectations of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, according to a state official familiar with the report. The much-anticipated Legislative Auditor's report is also expected to say that by 2014, a significant number of schools will have been listed as under-performing for at least five years, reports John Welsh. That means they would face numerous penalties, ranging from changes in curriculum to possible state takeover under a proposal last month by Gov. Tim Pawlenty. In a state that ranks at or near the top on many national student-achievement measures, the report's findings that so many school districts are considered under-performing are sure to be unsettling. They also will add fuel to a smoldering rebellion at the Legislature on the No Child Left Behind Act. http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/living/education/8041554.htm HOME IS WHERE THE SCHOOL IS Before last fall, the state of Arkansas? nose was firmly out of the business of educating Meredith O'Hara's three daughters. Though a professed supporter of public schools, O'Hara and her husband had either homeschooled their children or enrolled them in private schools, paying the entire cost themselves. Enter the Arkansas Virtual School. This year, O'Hara still teaches her children at their West Little Rock home, reports Jennifer Barnett Reed. But the government both picks up the tab -- upwards of $6,000 per child (about $1,500 more than the state spends, on average, on children in "real" public schools) -- and keeps tabs on their progress. O'Hara gets a computer, books and materials and help from a certified teacher; in exchange, the teacher evaluates her daughters' work every couple of weeks, and the girls take the state's standardized tests each spring. O'Hara is thrilled with the arrangement -- not because of the financial benefit, she said, but because of the high-quality, all-in-one curriculum and the fact that she's accountable to someone for her children's progress. But as evidenced by a recent dust-up in the legislature plenty of folks don't share O'Hara's enthusiasm for virtual schooling. http://www.arktimes.com/040213coverstorya.html DEVELOPING VOCABULARY & DEEPENING READING COMPREHENSION Successful reading requires more than an ability to decode, or ''sound out,'' words writes E.D. Hirsch, Jr. It also requires adequate background knowledge, or "cultural literacy." Without background knowledge of history, literature, art, music, science and math, students will read -- but without comprehension. For years, reading scores have remained low. The achievement gap between advantaged and disadvantaged children is not only dishearteningly wide, but also grows bigger the longer students stay in school. As a consequence of the No Child Left Behind law, some localities have mandated that schools devote large chunks of time to reading in early grades. In California, for example, it's 150 minutes per day. You'd think such an intensity of effort would yield proportionately big results; yet, test scores have risen only modestly or not all, and the reading gap between groups remains large. Why? Because many students have been taught to decode, but have not been exposed coherently to important knowledge, such as the history of the Civil War. They haven't developed the broad vocabulary that comes with general knowledge. http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20040225/5954180s.htm GATES FOUNDATION EDUCATION DIRECTOR POISED TO TAKE ACTION As the education director for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Tom Vander Ark is shaping what is easily the most aggressive infusion of private money into the nation's public schools today, if not ever. In the last five years, the foundation has committed more than $1 billion for new and existing public schools, with no intentions of slowing down, giving Mr. Vander Ark, 44, one of the loudest megaphones around. He is anything but shy about using it, reports Greg Winter. Since joining the foundation in 1999, he has been unflinchingly critical of how the public schools have "failed and forgotten" poor and minority students, a consequence of what he calls a deep-seated "institutionalized racism" rife with low expectations and a rush of dropouts. His counterattack has come through investments in about 1,900 public schools, most of them high schools, with the aim of creating small institutions that do not merely hope their students will go on to college, but demand nothing less of them. Philanthropists had rarely plunged into the business of creating new high schools, and the choice gave the foundation relatively untrodden terrain on which to make a very public imprint. Mr. Gates and his wife, Melinda, give Mr. Vander Ark wide latitude, largely deferring to his judgment about where the money should go, and why. Still, they question him persistently in long, intense sessions, keenly aware that they are taking very big risks on schools that are often long-term bets, at best. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/25/nyregion/25gates.html?pagewanted=1 BEATING THE BUBBLE TEST: THE COST OF BECOMING AN NCLB SUCCESS Literacy first, canoe trips later, is the new bargain at Garfield/Franklin elementary in Muscatine, Iowa. But with increases on standardized tests come other more substantive losses, reports Amanda Ripley. Creative writing, social studies and computer work have all become occasional indulgences. Now that the standardized fill-in-the-bubble test is the foundation upon which public schools rest -- now that a federal law called No Child Left Behind mandates that kids as young as 9 meet benchmarks in reading and math or jeopardize their schools' reputation -- there is little time for anything else. Franklin is one of the new law's success stories. After landing on the dreaded Schools in Need of Improvement list two years ago, the students and staff clawed their way off it. The percentage of fourth-graders who passed the reading test rose from 58 to 74 percent; in math, proficiency went from 58 to 86 percent. Last year Franklin was removed from "the bad list," as one child calls it. Through rote drills, one-on-one test talks and rigorous analysis of students' weaknesses, Franklin has become a reluctant model for the rest of the nation. It has also become a very different place. The kids are better readers, mathematicians and test takers. But while Democratic presidential candidates have been lambasting the law's funding levels, Franklin's teachers talk of other things. They bemoan a loss of spontaneity, breadth and play -- problems money won't fix. The trade-off may be worth it, but it is important to acknowledge the costs. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0%2C9171%2C1101040301-593550%2C00.html ORGANIZATIONAL IMPROVEMENT & ACCOUNTABILITY: LESSONS FOR EDUCATION The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is a performance-based accountability system built around student test results. The accountability system comprises explicit educational goals, assessments for measuring the attainment of goals and judging success, and consequences (rewards or sanctions). But the mechanisms through which the system is intended to work are not well understood. Brian M. Stecher and Sheila Nataraj Kirby led an examination of five accountability models from non-education sectors. Although education faces unique challenges, the authors conclude that educators can learn much from these other sectors. Accountability guidelines suggest the importance of focused institutional self-assessment, understanding school and district operations as a production process, being able to develop and apply a knowledge base about effective practice, and empowering participants in the process to contribute to improvement efforts. The job training and risk-adjustment models and the legal and health care accountability models provide specific guidance on how to enhance system-wide accountability in education by broadening performance measures; making sure performance goals are fair to all students and schools; developing standards of practice in promising areas; and encouraging professional accountability. http://www.rand.org/publications/MG/MG136/ MAKING THE CASE FOR MORE PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT IN SCHOOLS Meaningful parental involvement in schools is more important than ever -- and now it means a lot more than helping with homework or working at bake sales. Making the case for a greater role for parents and practical advice on how to make it happen in every school provide the focus of a new report from the Center for Parent Leadership at the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence and KSA-Plus Communications. The Case for Parent Leadership "helps create a new definition of what parents need to be able to do when they work with schools," said Bev Raimondo, director of the Center for Parent Leadership. The report, noting the national push for academic proficiency by 2014, contends that the goal will not be reached without a major increase in parental involvement in schools. "Thirty years of research studies show that when parents are engaged in their children's learning, their children do better in school -- and the schools get better. School improvement programs must take this research into account." http://www.centerforparentleadership.org/products.htm THE EFFECTS OF SCHOOL FACILITY QUALITY ON TEACHER RETENTION The attrition of both new and experienced teachers is a great challenge for schools and school administrators throughout the United States, particularly in large urban districts. Because of the importance of this issue, there is a large empirical literature that investigates why teachers quit and how they might be better induced to stay. Authors Jack Buckley, Mark Schneider, and Yi Shang build upon this literature by suggesting another important factor: the quality of school facilities. They investigate the importance of facility quality using data from a survey of K-12 teachers in Washington, D.C. and find that facility quality is an important predictor of the decision of teachers to leave their current position. http://www.edfacilities.org/pubs/teacherretention.html NEW PRE-K BRIEFS SHOW NEED FOR HIGH-QUALITY PROGRAMS Fight Crime: Invest in Kids releases new state-by-state briefs on the need for high-quality pre-kindergarten. These briefs show that thousands of the most at-risk children are not receiving high-quality programs proven to reduce crime and save money, and that parents are unable to afford the programs that are offered. http://www.fightcrime.org/reports/stateCC.html WHO GRADUATES? WHO DOESN'T? The most extensive set of systematic empirical findings to date on public school graduation rates, this study includes detailed descriptive statistics and analytic results for the nation as a whole, by geographical region, and for each of the states. The study by Christopher Swanson and also offers a detailed perspective on high school completion by examining graduation rates for the overall student population, for specific racial and ethnic groups, and by gender, and analysis of graduation rate patterns for particular types of school districts. Barely half of all black, Hispanic and Native American students who entered U.S. high schools in 2000 will receive diplomas this year, according to a new report by the Urban Institute that challenges conventional methods of calculating graduation rates. Of all students who entered 9th grade four years ago, only 68% are expected to graduate with regular diplomas this year and the rates for minorities are considerably lower. Methods of calculating graduation rates are a perpetual subject of debate, and there are many differences in the ways states and school systems report data. http://www.urban.org/url.cfm?ID=410934 TOWARD A STRONG PROFESSION Sociologists have, of course, written many volumes about the characteristics of a profession. According to Ellen Condliffe Lagemann, strong professions have two outstanding features. First, they can certify the competence of their members to act more effectively on the problems of their guild than nonmembers can do. Second, they exercise considerable influence in the governance of the domain in which they act. How could education become a strong profession? Lagemann offers four bold steps in this Education Week feature: http://www.edweek.com/ew/ewstory.cfm?slug=24lagemann.h23 RAISE THE STATUS OF THE TEACHING PROFESSION Teachers should have various levels of expertise to attain similar to those recognized by professorial rank at a university. For example, a teacher might begin as an intern, with succeeding steps such as teacher and master teacher awarded with experience and demonstrated competence. To keep it truly professional the evaluation should be done by peers from other schools to ensure objectivity and professional integrity. According to Alfred S. Posamentier, no profession pays all its practitioners the same salary. We cannot imagine all lawyers, physicians and accountants working from the same fee schedule. Why, then, should we pay all teachers from the same salary schedule? If teaching is to be a proper profession, let's pay the most effective teachers more. And, in recognition of supply and demand, let's pay the teachers in high-need areas more. Working conditions are the most important factors in obtaining and retaining high quality teachers. To increase professionalism, the radical suggestions here might first be tried on a limited basis, and if successful they could be spread further. But if we do not try, then we are not addressing the issues that can significantly improve the school system. Merely raising teacher salaries "across the board," without any changes in the professional status of teachers, solves little. http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vppos243683966feb24,0,7110031.story?coll=ny-viewpoints-headlines DESIGN YOUR OWN PROFESSIONAL LEARNING PLAN "By Your Own Design," a self-paced tool from the Eisenhower National Clearinghouse and the National Staff Development Council, can help teachers create and implement an individual professional learning plan. "Our goal is to provide key resources about important aspects of learner-centered professional development. We hope also to inspire you to adapt strategies to meet your needs and to work with your peers to solve problems in your schools." At the project homepage, teachers find an overview of the materials, a description of four "pathways" (teacher who is just starting, teacher with learning plan in place, teacher leader or staff developer, and principal), and access to a wealth of resources. (Use the Jump Start link, one example: how to build a professional learning community in your school.) This is a huge resource -- well worth exploring! http://www.enc.org/professional/guide/index.shtm BARNSTORMING FOR NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND LAW As he campaigns for re-election, President Bush hopes to capitalize on the law, known as No Child Left Behind, as one of the pillars of his domestic agenda. But the Democratic presidential candidates have made it a frequent target of criticism and ridicule. And things are not going that well even in Utah, one of the most Republican of states. Not only the law's financing, but provisions that expand standardized testing to improve achievement and that label schools as underperforming when even small groups of students miss proficiency targets, have stirred discontent nationwide among educators and local politicians. So Ken Meyer's job -- and the job of more than 10 other federal education officials -- is to barnstorm the country, serving as part goodwill diplomat, part flak-catcher, calming emotions and clarifying misunderstandings, writes Sam Dillon. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/education/2001862877_nochild22.html U.S. STUDENTS STILL GETTING THE PADDLE The debate over whether corporal punishment has a place in American education became very personal for Ralph McLaney when the principal of Carver Middle School ordered him to paddle a sixth-grade student who had acted up in class. A decision last month by the Canadian Supreme Court to outlaw the use of the strap by teachers has left the United States and a lone state in Australia as the only parts of the industrialized world to allow corporal punishment in schools, according to anti-paddling activists. While 28 U.S. states have outlawed paddling over the past three decades, the practice remains commonplace across much of the Bible Belt, reports Michael Dobbs. In Mississippi, the nation's top paddling state, nearly 10 percent of students are paddled every year, according to statistics collected by the federal Department of Education. In poorer parts of the state, where a higher proportion of children are from minority and single-parent families, the use of corporal punishment is even more frequent. "The point is to get the students' attention, not to inflict pain," said Carver Middle School principal Earnest Ward. "Sometimes all you have to do is hold a paddle up, and it will scare a student to death. Others are not afraid of it at all." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59059-2004Feb20.html BLACK STUDENTS DISCIPLINED MORE Black students are still more likely than white students to be disciplined at school - three decades after American education documented the disparity. The difference in discipline and punishments is blamed on stereotypes, culture, poverty and behavior, writes Jennifer Mrozowski and John Byczkowski. Three-fourths of 40 Southwest Ohio school districts disciplined African-Americans at higher rates than whites last year, an analysis of school discipline data shows. In more than half of schools, blacks were twice as likely to be suspended and sent home for at least one day. Comparable data for Northern Kentucky schools is not available. However, a state report released in January said that black public school students across Kentucky accounted for 22 percent of disciplinary actions even though they made up just 10 percent of the student population. "Our response should be colorblind" when kids get into trouble at school, "but for some reason it's not," says Alton Frailey, superintendent of Cincinnati Public Schools. City schools expelled African-American students at twice the rate of whites last year, and gave blacks out-of-school suspensions at triple the rate of whites. Frailey says school districts must carefully examine reasons for the black/white disparity and then search for ways to confront it. http://www.enquirer.com/discipline/disciplineday3main.html GIFTED EDUCATION AS A WHOLE SCHOOL MODEL Joseph S. Renzulli, director of the National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented, advocates for lessons that challenge all levels of learners, including gifted students. In this interview with Education World, Renzulli argues that "the most important thing we can do to raise expectations is to broaden our concept of achievement beyond the rather simplistic notion that it is only what is measured on achievement tests. High expectations should include a broad range of higher level thinking skills and creative and practical thinking, as well as the ability to apply knowledge to real life experiences, engage in problem finding and focusing as well as problem solving, work cooperatively with others, and learn how to evaluate one's own work in order to make continuous improvements." http://www.educationworld.com/a_issues/chat/chat092.shtml A YELLOW LIGHT FOR DRIVER EDUCATION AS FUNDS DRY UP It's a rite of passage, that first turn behind the wheel in driver's education, and one that generations of students have steered through in courses taught at public high schools in Washington state. But those courses may be going the way of two-door hardtops and dollar-a-gallon gas, reports Gregory Roberts. The Legislature eliminated a long-standing state subsidy for driver's ed in 2002, and cash-strapped school districts responded by increasing the fees for the courses to cover their operating costs. Enrollment has declined, with students either unable to afford the higher costs or migrating to commercial driving schools, which offer the required instruction at comparable prices and in a shorter time period than what the state mandates for the public system. With driver's ed, teens as young as 16 can get a license; without it, they must wait until they are 18. And as fewer students sign up for the public-school courses, the cost per student rises. As a result, more and more school districts are dropping the courses altogether. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/161826_ecenter24.html |---------------GRANT AND FUNDING INFORMATION--------------| "VH1 Battle of the Bands Contest Announced" To promote music education in both schools and at home, Paramount Home Entertainment, VH1 Save The Music and the American Music Conference have banded together to develop a nationwide contest encouraging students to create and record their own original song. Celebrating the DVD release of SCHOOL OF ROCK on March 2, the "VH1/SCHOOL OF ROCK Battle of the Bands Contest" will enable middle and high school students aged from 13-19 to compete for the chance to have their original recording produced into a music video and aired by VH1. The contest will run through March 31, 2004. http://www.pnnonline.org/article.php?sid=5023 "Technology Preparation for K-12 School Leaders" The University of Minnesota School Technology Leadership Initiative is addressing the nationwide shortage of school administrators who can effectively facilitate the implementation of technology in schools and school districts. The only academic program in the country based on the National Educational Technology Standards for Administrators (NETS-A), the STLI is at the national forefront of technology preparation for K-12 school leaders and is supported by nearly 40 corporate and organizational partners. Deadline for applications is April 12, 2004. http://www.schooltechleadership.org/ "Target" Target will release applications on March 1 for grantmaking in the area of arts, early childhood reading and family violence prevention. Grants range from $1,000-3,000 and applications will be accepted through May 31, 2004. http://target.com/target_group/community_giving/index.jhtml "Department of Education Forecast of Funding" This document lists virtually all programs and competitions under which the Department of Education has invited or expects to invite applications for new awards for FY 2004 and provides actual or estimated deadline dates for the transmittal of applications under these programs. The lists are in the form of charts -- organized according to the Department's principal program offices -- and include programs and competitions we have previously announced, as well as those they plan to announce at a later date. Note: This document is advisory only and is not an official application notice of the Department of Education. They expect to provide updates to this document through July 2004. http://www.ed.gov/fund/grant/find/edlite-forecast.html "Grantionary" The Grantionary is a list of grant-related terms and their definitions. http://www.eduplace.com/grants/help/grantionary.html "GrantsAlert" GrantsAlert is a website that helps nonprofits, especially those involved in education, secure the funds they need to continue their important work. http://www.grantsalert.com/ "Grant Writing Tips" SchoolGrants has compiled an excellent set of grant writing tips for those that need help in developing grant proposals. http://www.schoolgrants.org/tips.htm "FastWEB" FastWEB is the largest online scholarship search available, with 600,000 scholarships representing over one billion in scholarship dollars. It provides students with accurate, regularly updated information on scholarships, grants, and fellowships suited to their goals and qualifications, all at no cost to the student. Students should be advised that FastWEB collects and sells student information (such as name, address, e-mail address, date of birth, gender, and country of citizenship) collected through their site. http://www.fastweb.com/ "Federal Resources for Educational Excellence (FREE)" More than 30 Federal agencies formed a working group in 1997 to make hundreds of federally supported teaching and learning resources easier to find. The result of that work is the FREE website. http://www.ed.gov/free/ "Fundsnet Online Services" A comprehensive website dedicated to providing nonprofit organizations, colleges, and Universities with information on financial resources available on the Internet. http://www.fundsnetservices.com/ "eSchool News School Funding Center" Information on up-to-the-minute grant programs, funding sources, and technology funding. http://www.eschoolnews.com/resources/funding/ "Philanthropy News Digest" Philanthropy News Digest, a weekly news service of the Foundation Center, is a compendium, in digest form, of philanthropy-related articles and features culled from print and electronic media outlets nationwide. http://fdncenter.org/pnd/ "School Grants" A collection of resources and tips to help K-12 educators apply for and obtain special grants for a variety of projects. http://www.schoolgrants.org QUOTE OF THE WEEK "Each man takes care that his neighbor shall not cheat him. But a day comes when he begins to care that he does not cheat his neighbor. Then all goes well -- he has changed his market cart into a chariot of the sun." -Ralph Waldo Emerson (author/philosopher/poet) ===========PEN NewsBlast========== The PEN Weekly NewsBlast is a free e-mail newsletter featuring school reform and school fundraising resources. The PEN NewsBlast is the property of the Public Education Network, a national association of 89 local education funds working to improve public school quality in low-income communities nationwide. There are currently 46,660 subscribers to the PEN Weekly NewsBlast. Please forward this e-mail to anyone who enjoys free updates on education news and grant alerts. Some links in the PEN Weekly NewsBlast change or expire on a daily or weekly basis. Some links may also require local website registration. Your e-mail address is safe with the NewsBlast. 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Howie Schaffer Media Director Public Education Network 601 Thirteenth Street, NW #900N Washington, DC 20005 PEN@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<> EDUCATIONAL CYBERPLAYGROUND http://www.edu-cyberpg.com VENDORS REACH THE EDUCATION MARKET FREE EDUCATION VENDOR DIRECTORY LISTING Find PREMIUM & FEATURED MERCHANT LISTING ALSO http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Directory/default.asp HOT LIST OF SCHOOLS ONLINE http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Schools/default.asp SERVICES http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/PS/Home_Products.html Net Happenings,K12 Newsletters, Network Newsletters http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Community/index.html <>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>~~~~~<>