In this Issue: NOTES FROM THE DIRECTOR A Wealth of Resources The RTECs: A Wealth of Resources Promising and Exemplary Programs: Models You Can Use Computer-Based Study Strategies: An Update

The school year is nearly over. Time to kick back, relax, and . . . start planning for the next school year.

One way to get the juices flowing is to see what others have done with technology. But where to look? To help answer this question, the Department of Education's Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) set up an Expert Panel in Educational Technology in 1998 to identify promising and exemplary programs where the use of technology has helped improve the quality of teaching and learning-programs others can look to for ideas and information that they can apply to their own situations.

Educational organizations--individual schools and districts, public and private, K-12 and higher, for--and not-for-profit-had until September 1, 1999, to submit their programs for consideration.

According to Cheryl Gannett, Director of OERI's Learning Technologies Division, programs selected from the 134 submitted will be publicized on OERI's Web site starting this summer. (No specific date has been set yet, but start checking their Web site around mid June.)

Gannett says that organizations whose programs are selected agree to host visiting educators and to provide advice and demonstrations to help schools and related sites shape and support the work of effective teaching and learning.

OERI's Learning Technologies Division Web address is http://www.ed.gov/offices/OERI/ORAD/ltdmis.html

Selection Criteria

What makes a program promising or exemplary? Guidelines say it must be "beyond fine-tuning, automating, or moderately enhancing conventional educational methods." In addition, the program must "demonstrate the capacity to effect substantial improvements in Pre-K-12 education and to understand the conditions necessary to their success. These improvements can be achieved through programs focused directly on student learning, or through the significant ancillary activities of teacher professional training, increasing equity, and/or organizational reform."

In other words, the program must be suitable to be a model that others can use to help build or improve their own programs. The criteria the expert panel used in making their selections are shown below:

Criterion 1. The program addresses an important educational issue or issues and articulates its goals and design clearly.

Criterion 2. The program develops complex learning and thinking skills for its target audience.

Criterion 3. The program contributes to educational excellence for all.

Criterion 4. The program promotes coherent organizational change.

Criterion 5. The program has rigorous, measurable evidence for its achievements for at least one criterion among Criteria 2, 3, and 4.

Criterion 6. The program is adaptable for use in multiple contexts.

To learn more about the Expert Panel and the selection criteria, go to www.ed.gov/offices/OERI/ORAD/LTD/panel.html