Officials Say Ed Tech Grants Could Make a Comeback

Federal education officials are optimistic that funding will be restored for the Enhancing Education Through Technology program. The Obama administration requested $200 million in fiscal 2016 to revive the program -- better known as Ed Tech grants -- which hasn't been funded since 2010.

"The time is right to do something, and this is the best support for education technology we’ve had in years,” said Richard Culatta, director of the Office of Educational Technology (OET), during a Feb. 10 webcast to discuss the proposed reauthorization of funding for the Ed Tech grant program. “It’s a much different landscape today than it was when this program was funded previously. Today we have more resources, a better technology infrastructure and an updated E-Rate program."

The grant program, part of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, provides money for technology and teacher training. According to OET, the administration believes that key reforms to the program will also position it to support the president’s broader ConnectED initiative.

Ed Tech funds would help educators leverage technology and data to personalize learning and improve college- and career-ready instruction, ensuring that as schools increase access to broadband Internet through the ConnectED Initiative, teachers and leaders are prepared to use these resources effectively, the OET said. The OET pointed to a recent survey in which almost one-third of teachers said that the greatest obstacle to using technology in their classroom was their need for professional development.

Based on previous experience with Ed Tech grants, the OET said the administration will seek new appropriations language to make important improvements in the program. In particular, the new appropriations language would:

1. require state education agencies to award 100 percent of subgrant funds competitively;
2. target subgrant awards to applicants with existing technology capacity, including connectivity and devices;
3. promote evidence-based practices;
4. limit local spending on hardware; and
5. ensure that all states are able to reserve sufficient funds to support meaningful state-level activities.

Under the revived grant program states would also scale effective local practices to other districts in the state and hire dedicated educational technology leaders with both knowledge of the fast-evolving resources in this area and an understanding of how best to put them into use in schools.

“We have to be future-ready for these kids,” said Becky Fisher, director of Educational Technology and Professional Development for Albemarle, Va., County Public Schools, who added that less than one-quarter of one percent of her total district budget is currently dedicated to developmental projects. “Our ability to help teachers become more future ready without these funds is severely limited.”

President Obama’s ConnectED initiative will provide high-speed Internet to every school in America, and will help to make affordable computers, tablets, software and other digital resources widely available. Yet these capacities offer their greatest benefits to students only when teachers and principals have the skills and supports to leverage them. EETT will help educators grow those skills, said the OET.