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shegstrom — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:49:33 CST

Grant Writing

shegstrom — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 18:12:56 CST

What is a Grant

Well according to Wise Geek: What is a Grant Proposal: a grant is an award of financial assistance from a federal agency to a recipient to carry out a public purpose of support or stimulation authorized by a law of the United States. Federal grants are not federal assistance or loans to individuals. Each year, the U.S. government along with private foundations and public corporations offer billions of dollars in funding to individuals and organizations to be used for specific projects. This funding, which is called a grant, requires no repayment as long as it is used to fund the project for which it was allocated. Grants can be given to individuals, non-profit or not-for-profit companies, charitable organizations, or educational facilities.

Components of a Grant Proposal

1a. Abstract or
1. Executive Summary

Statement of case and summary of entire proposal.

2. Statement of Need

Why is the project or equipment necessary.

3. Project Description

How the project will be implemented and evaluated.

4. Budget

Financial description of the project plus explanatory notes

5. Orgnatizational Information

History and governing of the school, it primary activies, audiences and services.

6. Conclusion
Summary of the proposal’s main points.

Some Things to Keep in Mind

Program required information	Criteria for a grant proposal	Objectives
Nature of project and how it will be conducted	Does the proposal address a well formulated problem.	Behavioral: human actions is anticipated, i.e. what will they learn?
Timetable for project	Is it a research problem or routine application of known techniques	Performance: Specific timeframe within which a behavior or learning goal will occur.
Anticipated outcome and how to best evaluate results	Is it an important problem, whose solution will have useful effects.	Process: ex. Documenting teaching methods used. How to measure the outcomes or objective.
Staffing and volunteer needs (if any).	Is special funding necessary to solve the problem. (Why can’t it be solved using normal resources)	Product: a tangible item. What is the end result. What do you expect to see happen?
	Proposal must explain idea in a sufficient technical detail.
	Proposer must know about work others have done on problem.
	Must show cost effectiveness.
	Evidence that program will succeed.

Be aware of Grant Requirements

Depending on the type of grant you are applying for, you must make sure that you follow the guidelines set forth by the grantor or foundation. For example, The National Science Foundation, (NSF) funds research and education in most fields of science and engineering. It does this through grants, and cooperative agreements to more than 2,000 colleges, universities, K-12 school systems, businesses, informal science organizations and other research organizations throughout the United States. The Foundation accounts for about one-fourth of federal support to academic institutions for basic research.

They allow for electronic submittal of grant proposals from www.fastlane.nsf.gov or grants.gov as well as an extensive grant proposal guide. Yet they do have different requirements depending on the type of proposal, a proposal for equipment would require the following information:

overall acquisition plan;
biographical sketch of the person(s) who will have overall responsibility for maintenance and operation and a brief statement of qualifications, if not obvious;
description of the physical facility, including floor plans or other appropriate information, where the equipment will be located;
statement of why the equipment is severable or non-severable from the physical facility;
annual budget for operation and maintenance of the proposed equipment, indicating source of funds, and particularly related equipment; and
brief description of other support services available and the annual budget for their operation, maintenance and administration.

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Possible Grant Sources for Technology Equipment and Professional Development

The RGK Foundation
The RGK Foundation awards grants in the broad areas of Education, Community, and Medicine/Health. The Foundation's primary interests within Education include programs that focus on formal K-12 education (particularly mathematics, science and reading), teacher development, literacy, and higher education.

National Science Foundation - Science and Technology Studies (STS)
The STS Program supports research and related activities that contribute to systematic understanding of the character and development of science and technology, including their cultural, intellectual, material,and social dimensions.

U.S. Department of Education
Enhancing Education through Technology (Ed-Tech) State Program
The primary goal of this program is to improve student achievement through the use of technology in elementary and secondary schools. Additional goals include helping all students become technologically literate by the end of the eighth grade and, through the integration of technology with both teacher training and curriculum development, establishing research-based instructional methods that can be widely implemented.
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After completing the ISTE Assessment, the following information was obtained.

Technology Profile and Action Plan for Improvement
Prepared on 1/15/2009 for:
Sherry Hegstrom
Elm St. Middle School
Middle School
SAU 42 Overall Result Summary
According to the Technology Support Index (TSI) your system is considered "Satisfactorily Efficient" requiring limited improvements. The "Satisfactory Efficiency" level of development refers to a system that is doing a very good job of support in many areas. Improvements in a number of areas will enhance the organizational capacity to effectively implement technology.
The following recommendations were made:

Domain Result Summary: According to the TSI your Professional Development (Domain 3)is considered "Moderately Efficient" requiring attention and improvement. The "Moderate Efficency" level of development refers to a system that has some areas of excellence, but typically isolated and limited in implementation. While there is some good support in place, improvement will be required to overcome technology challenges Recommendation: Organizations that use technology effectively can balance self-help provided by the end user with the additional technical support provided by the district. It is recommended that very basic troubleshooting skills are built into the professional development program decreasing the number of low-level technical support calls.
Cost: Minimal to Moderate Recommendation: Just-in-time-training provides opportunities for staff to learn exactly what they need, when they need it, in small-defined pieces. When an effective system of just in time training is in place, staff are empowered and overall support requirements of the organization are reduced. It is recommended that a just in time training program is implemented and used as part of the organizational culture.
Cost: Moderate Recommendation: Empowering the school employee to use technology effectively is a very effective strategy to address technical support issues. The staff member should not be expected to solve difficult technical problems. However, if simple problems can be solved or merely identified by the end-user, technical staff can concentrate on more complex tasks. It is recommended that an effective training program for ALL staff is put into place. This program should include appropriate incentives, accountability, and a diverse set of learning resources.
Cost: High

Domain Result Summary: According to the TSI your Enterprise Management (Domain 4)is considered "Moderately Efficient" requiring attention and improvement. The "Moderate Efficency" level of development refers to a system that has some areas of excellence, but typically isolated and limited in implementation. While there is some good support in place, improvement will be required to overcome technology challenges Recommendation: An application service provider serves a large population of users with one very large central processing resource. The ASP takes advantage of the economies of scale to provide application services at a reduced cost. With this scenario, many of the technical support issues are shifted to the ASP including backup and server performance. When appropriate infrastructure is in place, it is recommended that core applications are hosted by an Application Service Provider.
Cost: Moderate to High Recommendation: A thin-client is a computer that does not serve as a full-functioning stand alone PC. The Operating system and applications actually run on a remote server and are all centrally controlled and managed. As a result, the hardware requirements for the end-user are typically substantially less. In addition a thin-client strategy allows a small staff to ensure that users experience a consistent environment and that critical updates and software upgrades can be easily and quickly deployed. While the hardware requirements are very low for the client, they are very high for the server. Costs for hardware and software are marginally lower or neutral but support costs can be dramatically decreased. It is recommended that a thin-client computing environment should be considered for administrative applications that have little or no multi-media requirements and where end-user hardware requirements may be challenging.
Cost: Moderate to High
Resources: www.citrix.com, www.microsoft.com (Terminal Services) Recommendation: Electronic communication can profoundly impact the effectiveness of an organization. For technical support, technical solutions can be provided through e-mail, electronic bulletin boards, or the Web. With the pervasive use of electronic communication the possibilities for effective support are expanded substantially. It is highly recommended that electronic communication is in place for ALL employees and is readily used as the normal means of communication.
Cost: Minimal to Moderate Recommendation: A large percentage of technical issues that arise are often simple in nature. In most cases, with the right information and a culture that promotes minimal troubleshooting, users can help themselves for many technical problems. An easy to use and searchable knowledgebase is critical to empower users to solve the simple problems themselves. The more effective knowledgebase implementations are those that grow with the organization and are populated by staff that are solving problems. To more effectively use staff time and resources, the purchase and use of an online knowledgebase is strongly recommended.
Cost: Minimal to Moderate Recommendation: Server management can be time-consuming, complex, and resource intensive. Whenever possible, consolidation of server resources to minimize management is a great advantage. This reduces labor required for backup, redundant systems, and unnecessary overhead. To create server farms a robust network must be in place. It is strongly recommended that when appropriate network infrastructure is in place, centralization of servers is implemented.
Cost: Moderate to High

Example of Grant Success

shegstrom — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 11:31:45 CST

The Community School District in Indiana was awarded funding by The Ed Tech Competitive Grant Program funded by the Federal Government through No Child Left Behind Act, (NCLB).

A study examined the school’s attempt to use grant money to purchase and integrate specific instructional technology into their school in order to increase teacher involvement and student achievement. Two research questions were the focus of the study: (1) how does a grant-related influx of technology in a rural school affect teacher and administrator attitudes toward technology use/integration? (2) How does a grant-related influx of technology in a rural school affect the integration of technology in teacher planning and delivery of instruction?

The stated goals of the district in the approved grant application were:

The percentage of 7th and 8th graders passing the 2004 ISTEP+ English/Language Arts test will increase by 10 points over the 2003 percentage.
Teachers will employ three new teaching strategies during the 2003-2004 school year.
Average student performance on the reading portion of the Standards-Based Adaptive Measure Test will increase by at least one grade-level equivalent.

The grant allowed the Community School District to purchase fifteen laptop computers for teacher to use in planning the integration of technology into their curriculum. Another thirty laptops were included for student classroom use. Three software programs were used to support district goals. Inspiration™ was used to allow the graphic organization of student-generated ideas for writing assignments. Socratic Seminar™ was used with the expectation that student writing skills would improve across the curriculum as measured by a rubric-scored periodic writing prompt. PLATO™ an Integrated Learning System was also used to promote reading across the curriculum. Each program was chosen based on quantitative research studies, meeting the needs of the grant.
Although no quantifiable data was reported in the study to determine if the school did meet the three goals set forth in the grant, interviews did show that teachers felt that the laptops allowed them to use technology more. The portability of the laptops helped to increase their comfort level with technology. In addition to benefits stemming from district support in the form of increased time, teachers related that their collaboration efforts had increased. Teachers in the laptop program worked together to solve similar problems and ask each other for help.

Examples of how teaching practice changed were seen throughout the school. Teachers not involved in the grant benefited from shared information from their colleagues. A non-participating coach began using a spreadsheet to keep track of students’ weight training with the help of a grant teacher. Also, a social studies teacher changed his attitude about allowing his students to use technology after being given the laptop. In an interview he said, “I used to not use computers at all, as far as instruction and stuff like that. A lot of time in my research projects that my students would do, I would ask them not to use any computers.”

Also noted was an increase in communication. E mail had increased 500% in the building. Marked increase teacher collaboration was also noted. Teachers were not only sharing technology skills, they also shared integration ideas and lesson plans. When teachers were asked for general impressions of student achievement, the results were positive. While there was limited access to student information and test scores, the general findings were that students used technology more, and there was a noticeable increase in student achievement as well as collaboration among students.

References

Cullen, T., Frey, T., Hinshaw, R., & Warren, S. (October, 2004). Technology grants and rural
schools: The power to transform. Association for Educational Communications and
Technology. ERIC Database: ED 485134

Cooperation-Competition and Self-Esteem: A Case of Cultural Relativism

shegstrom — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 18:18:52 CDT

Recent and past studies have shown that among black and white children, high self esteem is associated with competitiveness.
while ther also appears to be a correlation of self esteem and cooperation in 2nd generation Mexican American children. Are these differences due to cultural norms? Do Mexican Americans value cooperation more than competition and do Anglo-Saxon Americans value competition more?

The relationship of cooperation-competition to self esteem was examined. The analysis consisted of combining the results from two former studies on generational differences for Mexican-American children in fourth, fifth, and sixth grade in predominantly Mexican-American schools to the one by Kagen and Knight. The communities involved in the studies were very stable, with similar income level. The mix of students for the Kagen and Knight investigation included "forty-one second-generation Mexican-American children, 50 third-generation Mexican-American children and forty-five Anglo-American children" (Peplau and Taylor, p. 332). The cooperation-competition measure used was a Social Behavior Scale, "which assesses total amount of rewards given to a peer as well as the frequency of altruism,/group enhancement, equality, superiority, and rivalry/superiority" (Peplau and Taylor, p. 332). Self-Esteem was measured using the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory.

The results showed that the modal response of Americans was adversary/superiority. For the 2nd generation Mexican Americans the modal response was equality followed closely by altruism/group enhancement. 3rd generation Mexican American children did not have modal response showing that 2nd generation Mexican American and Anglo Saxon American children tend to have higher self esteem than 3rd generation Mexican Americans.

To verify these results could be replicated, high low median splits were calculated and differences in cooperation-competition for the groups were analyzed. The results indicted the relationship of self esteem to cooperation-competition was indeed culturally based.

These findings show a need for previous researchers to change their theories that high self esteem students are likely to seek out competition as present results indicate the opposite, not only as being true, but culturally based. Assumptions by psychologists must also change. That is of minority groups in the U.S. as having lower self esteem then Anglo Saxon Americans. The present study shows minority students to be more cooperative, proving again that this is a culturally based definition.

To date, a wide range of methods have revealed a positive relationship in high self esteem and competitiveness in Black and White children in all communities within the United States. It is only among the recently immigrated Mexican American children that the relationship does not hold. In other words, from one generation to another for Mexican-American children, there tends to be less affiliation with the norms of their heritage and more of an affiliation with their current cultural influences.

Questions:
1. Do you feel that the results may have been different if the study involved older children? Why or Why not?
2. Do you think Mexican Americans place any merit in competition?
3. Why is it that that the competition-self esteem theory does not hold for recently immigrated Mexican American children?

CompTechTeacher Home

shegstrom — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 21:25:38 CDT

There is no abstract available for this page revision.

Negotiating Social Identity When Contexts Change

shegstrom — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 16:25:03 CDT

shegstrom
Thursday, 3:20 PM EDT
For chapter 11 of Mythology. If you have anything you would like to add to this post, please feel free to do so, we are always looking for new and fresh ideas. Txs.

Anonymous
9 minutes ago
This article discusses how cultures adjust to new environments depending on how heavily invested they are in their cultural identity. Identifying with people who share common attributes is an important part of self definition. Each human has a need for and expression of social identity which is usually determined by group membership. Yet group membership depends on the competing needs for inclusiveness and uniqueness. We all have a tendency to create social situations that support our views of ourselves.
The resulting researcher in this article was grounded by a single question: “If a group’s identification is supported by a particular context, what happens when the person leaves that context and moves into another?” (pg. 278). Does their social identity change? This is an important study because it shows how ethnic identity may falter or thrive in a new environment where one is in the minority.
Researchers chose Mexican American’s attending a primarily Anglo-Saxon college and specifically interviewed them at three different times during the school year.
Forty-five students showed up and were included in the first interview, thirty nine students were interviewed for both the first and second interview and thirty six students were in all three interviews. The median age of the students who participated was eighteen. The key concepts being measured during these interviews or the reason behind this experiment was to try to measure identity and self esteem associated with group membership and perceptions of threat. Questions concerning past and present context for ethnic identity were included at each interview.

Anonymous
9 minutes ago
When measuring identity, researchers used qualative and quantative analysis. The goal was to assess patterns of identities. Researchers asked each student to name all of the identities that were important to them. They were then asked to list the attributes that they associated with each identity to understand the meaning. They were also asked a set of 4 questions of which they had limited responses such as, “I like being Hispanic”, etc...
The results showed that perceived threats in identity were the strongest at time 2, soon after the student had returned from a holiday break. But the threat did not diminish as the school year progressed.
The vast majority of students mentioned Hispanic as one of their important identities at all three interviews. Positive feelings about the group and background characteristics were mentioned most often. Background became significantly less prominent over time. Students and friends were mentioned as an identity by 100% of the students at times 2 and 3 whereas ethnicity was still not endorsed by some students.
At the beginning of the year, the importance of the student’s ethnic identity was significantly related to family background, both in terms of degree of Hispanic influence and to the specific importance of their identity as son or daughter. In contrast in the 2nd and 3rd interviews, the link between cultural background and the strength of ethnic identification was no longer significant suggesting that ethnic identity had been detached from its previous cultural context.

Anonymous
5 minutes ago
The stronger the students cultural background, the less likely they were to perceive the new environment as threatening. The more involved the students were in their ethnic group before the transition to college, the more likely they were to become involved in ethnic activities on campus increasing the strength of their social identification.Students whose ethnic involvement before college was low, perceived the new college environment as more threatening. Perceptions of threat in turn had negative effects on their self esteem.
The results suggest that there are two quite different processes occurring as student negotiate their ethnic identity in a changed context. Those students with a strong ethnic background make choices that continue ethnic involvement and result in a strengthening of the group identification. Students with a weak ethnic background sow more signs of stress with resultant lower self esteem and negative changes in identification.
Each of the following positions are consistent with the prediction from social identity theory that salience increases group identification.
Maintaining social identity in a new context must include a process of remooring the identity to new social supports. Specifically they hypothesis that to successfully maintain an identity in a new environment a person must develop new bases for supporting that identity and in the process detach the identity from its supports in the former environment. The process of remooring would in turn strengthen identification with the new group, changing ones social identity.
The study provided unique insights on the process by which people negotiate a social identity when the context for enacting that identity has substantially changed. It shows how theories of social identity play out with natural groups in realistic environments and how existing theories about social identity can be enriched and extended.

The Study of Culture, Ethnicity

shegstrom — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 10:01:28 CDT

shegstrom
Mar 20 2008, 2:02 PM EDT

Combined summary: Click on "Easy Edit" if you would like to make changes....A toobox with edit options will appear on the top of the screen. I am very open to suggestions. and comments...Don't forget to click save when you are done.

In the article titled, “Study of Culture, Ethnicity, and Race in American Psychology,” authors Hector Betancourt and Steven Lopez go in to great detail defining exactly what culture, race and ethnicity really mean as it pertains to psychology. It is explained in the first page how these three major factors of psychology are to explain the psychological differences between certain groups. I believe that the authors used American Psychology specifically in their study because this country is so diverse that we are able to see psychological differences between different groups when they are all generally living in the same environment with the same opportunities.

It appears that it is common practice for people to think that culture, ethnicity, and race as closely related. However in this article, the authors go to great lengths to try and explain how each of these different factors in psychology are quite different. First, they take each term (culture, race, and ethnicity) and defines them the best way that they can as it relates to psychology. This task is easier said than done; after reading their explanation for each of the definitions we see that some of the words are quite ambiguous and have numerous connotations. The words culture, race and ethnicity are all used to explain differences between groups which limit our understanding of the specific factors that contribute to group differences. It also stimulates or reinforces concepts of racist concepts. (p. 6) This can cause too much generalization about a particular segment of society. They further explain, "differences between the same tribe or nation account for more variance (84%) than do racial groupings (10%)" (p. 7). Culture is a perfect example of a difficult definition. On page five, the authors say that “A number of psychologists interested in the study of culture agree that the confusion concerning its definition has been an obstacle for progress.” How can psychologists really make strides studying culture when they have a difficult time defining it? Due to the vagueness of definitions, there is not a clear understanding of the variables responsible for the differences of groups classified as race.

As educators, we need researchers to uncover the specific cultural variables that create differences in individuals. Because of changing demographics in the nation as well as in the student population, there is an important social and ethical responsibility of faculty members to promote their student understanding of gender race ethnicity culture and class issues in psychological theory research and practice. As stated on page 4:
“What is most important is that we need accurate studies in each area in order to be more effective educators.”

In order to conceptualize culture we must consider it as highly variable system of meanings which are learned and shared by people or an identifiable segment of the population. It represents designs and ways of life that are normally transmitted from one generation to another. This definition is psychologically relevant and includes elements such as roles and values which can be measured.According to this definition, culture is not necessarily a beliefs and customs of a country or specific ethnic group; rather it is traits and values that are picked up during life and passed along. A quick, fictional example of culture (not in the “classical” sense”) could be a collection of homeless people in Boston whose families have been on the streets for generations. These people, over time, have probably developed their own type of culture which has been passed along. Regardless whether this culture is seen as “normal” it is still an example of culture

The main concern in the study of culture is that mainstream investigators do not consider culture in their research and theories, while cross cultural researches who study cultural differences frequently fail to indentify the specific aspects of culture and related variables that are thought to influence that behavior. The limited specificity limits our understanding of the behavior of a group. By incorporating the conceptualization and measurement of specific cultural elements, the comparative study of national ethic or cultural groups is more likely to contribute to the understanding of the role of culture than are the typical comparative studies.

The actual definition of race is a little more solid and easier to grasp, but in terms of a psychological definition, it is somewhat incomplete. The author says on page six that race can generally be defined as “physical and characteristics, such as skin color, facial features, and hair type, which are common to an inbred, geographically isolated population.” Psychologists will argue that this definition is inaccurate because studies have shown that there more in group differences than between group differences in characteristics used to define race (Betancourt/Lopez, 7).

Lopez and Betancourt define ethnicity as a characteristic used to reference groups that are characterized in terms of a common nationality, culture, or language. The word itself stems from the Greek word ethos, which refers to the people of a nation or tribe (Betancourt/Lopez, 7-8). Though the authors claim that ethnicity and culture have two completely different meanings, they are closely related. “Ethnicity becomes a way by which culture is transmitted (Betancourt/Lopez, 8).”

Later in the article, Lopez and Betancourt examine the affects of depression on three different cultures, races, and ethnicity. The study which was presented in the article examined how likely Anglos, Afro-Americans, and Latinos were to develop depression when the socioeconomic variable was not controlled. The study found that Latinos had higher levels of depressive symptoms than the other groups. However, they authors also looked at how depression affected the three groups when the socioeconomic levels were controlled (employment, income, etc). This study showed that there was no significantly higher levels of depression in any of the three groups; suggesting that the economic status of a person affects their depression rather than the “group” they belong to.

Psychologists must measure the specific proximal variables thought to underlie a given behavioral phenomenon. Their analysis should be targeted to a specific area. By doing so, comparative study of social as a well as cultural groups will be able to better identify the specific social variables as well as cultural elements (values, beliefs) that are relevant to the behavior of interest.

Question for article 1
1. What do you think the difference is between culture, race and ethnicity?
2. Why do you think that studying the social psychology of race, culture and ethnicity is important to education?
3. How important of role do you think religion plays in differences between cultures?

Feeds - NH Teaching Jobs

shegstrom — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 08:54:13 CDT

Searching for NH Teaching Job in the Derry, NH Area. Feeds for Job Searches are Posted here. If you would like to add any content or great job searches, please feel free.

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