Science to Achieve Results Fellowships

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as part of its Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program, is offering Graduate Fellowships for master’s and doctoral level students in environmental fields of study. The deadline is November 5, 2010 at 4:00 PM for receipt of paper applications, and November 5, 2010 at 11:59:59 PM ET for submittal of electronic applications to Grants.gov. Subject to availability of funding, the Agency plans to award approximately 105 new fellowships by June 30, 2011. Master's level students may receive support for a maximum of two years. Doctoral students may be supported for a maximum of three years, usable over a period of five years. The fellowship program provides up to $42,000 per year of support per fellowship.

Fall 2011 EPA Science To Achieve Results (STAR) Fellowships For Graduate Environmental Study

Education Grant Program

Lowes Toolbox for Education Grant Program
The Toolbox for Education Grant Program, offered by Lowe’s Charitable and Educational Foundation, provides grants of $2,000 to $5,000 to public K-12 schools and school parent-teacher groups associated with public schools throughout the U.S. that develop projects that encourage parent involvement and build stronger community spirit. Preference is given to funding requests that have a permanent impact such as facility enhancement (both indoor and outdoor) as well as landscaping/clean up projects. This year the program is seeking ways to provide the tools that help educators and parent groups through these challenging times efficiently and with the greatest impact. Therefore, basic needs will take priority. The application deadlines for the upcoming school year are October 15, 2010 and February 18, 2011. Visit the program’s website for detailed funding guidelines.

Financial Literacy National Strategy: Request for Comments

On behalf of the Financial Literacy and Education Commission, the Department of Treasury announced it is seeking comment on the draft "National Strategy for Financial Literacy 2010."

The September 3, 2010 FEDERAL REGISTER provides full background, and instructions for obtaining a copy of the draft as well as for the submission of comments. Please note that the comment period is limited; comments must be received by September 19, 2010.

Also see:

Treasury Department Publishes Proposed Set of Financial Education "Core Competencies"; Seeks Comments by September 12

Broadening participation in engineering

To address the need to enhance diversity in its programs, the Directorate for Engineering (ENG) at the National Science Foundation is offering research initiation grants under the program name Broadening Participation Research Initiation Grants in Engineering, BRIGE. ENG offers this BRIGE funding opportunity to all beginning engineers with the intent of increasing the diversity of researchers in the engineering disciplines. The goal of the BRIGE solicitation is to increase the number of proposals to the Directorate for Engineering from individuals who can serve as role models and mentors for an increasingly diverse engineering student population who will become the workforce of the future. BRIGE aims to support innovative research and diversity plans that contribute to recruiting and retaining a broad representation of engineering researchers especially those subgroups that are underrepresented in the engineering population in programs supported by these grants. Throughout this solicitation, the term underrepresented groups will refer to and include the following: women, persons with disabilities, and ethnic groups which are in the minority in engineering such as African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, Alaska Natives, and Pacific Islanders.

Link to Full Announcement

NSF Publication 10-609

National Math and Science Initiative

[From Philanthropy News Digest] The National Math and Science Initiative has announced that its Advanced Placement Training and Incentive Program helped boost the number of students who passed the AP tests in math, English, and science by 98 percent between 2008 and 2010.

The NMSI program is designed to increase teacher effectiveness and student achievement. During the 2009-10 school year there was an 84.6 percent increase in the number of students who passed AP exams at the seventy-five first-year APTIP schools — more than eleven times the national increase of 7.5 percent, and an improvement from the 52 percent increase recorded by the first cohort of sixty-five schools in 2008-09. The results from schools that participated both years were significantly better than the national two-year increase of 13.6 percent.

In addition, there was a 107.3 percent increase in math, science and English AP exams passed by African-American and Hispanic students during 2009-10 and a 91.5 percent increase in exams passed by female students. The first cohort of schools reported a 154.6 percent increase in passing math, science, and English scores in two years among African-Americans and Hispanics, which is almost six times the national two-year increase of 27.7 percent. Among female students attending the first cohort of schools, a 116.4 percent increase in passing math and science scores in two years was reported, which is almost thirteen times the national two-year increase of 9.2 percent.

This year, APTIP will be implemented in more than two hundred and twenty public high schools across six states — Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Kentucky, Massachusetts, and Virginia — and is expected to reach three hundred and fifty schools by the fall of 2012.

$58.7 M for Philly schools

Fifty-seven struggling Pennsylvania schools - most of them in Philadelphia - will share $101 million in federal grants over three years to boost student achievement.

In the region, 33 schools will split $58.7 million.

But the money comes with strings attached.

The schools must adopt one of four reform models that trigger changes such as replacing principals or at least half of their teaching forces, bringing in outside management, or closing schools and transferring students to higher-performing ones.

Schools in the Philadelphia, William Penn, and Southeast Delco districts, plus the Philadelphia Montessori Charter School and the West Philadelphia Achievement Charter School learned Thursday that they would receive between $679,200 (Park Lane Elementary in Darby) and $4.2 million (Lincoln High in Philadelphia).

The Chester Upland School District, which applied for $6 million in grants for two schools, was not awarded any money.

Districts will still be able to apply for an additional $40 million to be awarded this year, Pennsylvania Department of Education spokesman Steven Weitzman said Thursday.

Read more: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/20100827_33_schools_in_the_Philadelphia_region_will_share__58_7_million_in_federal_grants.html#ixzz0yTF2JQIy
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Calif. wins $1.2 billion for Education Fund

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced that California will receive $1.2 billion to support education jobs.

"There is a huge sense of urgency to get these funds out the door. I commend California for being the first state to submit their application and thank our team at the Department for making funds available within a matter of days," said Duncan. "These education dollars will help California keep thousands of teachers in the classroom working with our students this school year."

The $10 billion education fund will support education jobs in the 2010-11 school year and be distributed to states by a formula based on population figures. States can distribute their funding to school districts based on their own primary funding formula or districts' relative share of federal Title I funds.

Over the last two years, the Department has been able to support 300,000 education jobs through stimulus funding provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. At this time, 7 states have drawn down 100% of previously allocated jobs funding, while 18 states total have drawn down 80% or more. A July report from the independent Center on Education Policy found that 75% of school districts that received stimulus funds expect to cut teaching positions in the upcoming school year.