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| Community Budget Issue Requests - Tracking Id #2725 |
| North Florida Educational Video Conferencing Program |
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| Requester: |
Dr. Susan Wilkinson |
Organization: |
Schultz Center for Teaching and Leadership |
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| Project Title: |
North Florida Educational Video Conferencing Program |
Date Submitted |
1/14/2005 3:01:38 PM |
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| Sponsors: |
Wise |
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| Statewide Interest: |
| The Schultz Center for Teaching and Leadership was funded by a 4 million dollar Florida Legislative appropriation, matched by $4.3 million from the Jacksonville business community, and received over 7 million dollars in building space, technology infrastructure and staff support from the Duval County Public School System. The Schultz Center is a non-profit professional development center for school educators in north Florida. The Schultz Center has a regional impact on training of over 13,000 teachers and principals in Duval, Clay, Baker, St. Johns and Nassau Counties. In 2002 the Florida Legislature funded an additional $1.5 million to purchase the equipment, T1 lines and startup program design and development for the distance learning programs. We currently have 13 two-way interactive video conferencing sites being used for professional development training within these five school districts. A registration system was designed using Federal funds. During the past year the registration system has been used to track participation of teachers in specific training programs and identify the FCAT teaching strategy skills included in these programs. This request meets all the outcomes identified in Chapter 216.052(1). It also addresses state mandates for Reading First, Middle School Endorsement, Reading Endorsement, ESOL and Beginning Teacher requirements. |
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| Recipient: |
Dr. Susan Wilkinson |
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Contact: |
Lynda M. Lewis |
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4019 Boulevard Center Drive |
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Contact Phone: |
(904) 348-5757 |
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Jacksonville 32207 |
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Contact email: |
lewisl2@educationcentral.org |
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| Counties: |
Duval |
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| Gov't Entity: |
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Private Organization (Profit/Not for Profit): |
Yes |
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| Project Description: |
| We currently have 13 two-way interactive video conferencing sites being used for professional development training within these five school districts. The Schultz Center's effectiveness as a true regional center relies upon its ability to effectively utilize and expand the new two-way interactive video conferencing network. The use of this connectivity reduces travel time for participants, increases the number of teachers and administrators who can be trained, eliminates duplication of programs and leverages resources among the school districts to reduce costs. In less than 7 months we offered training to over 1,200 teachers in the areas of: Reading, ESOL, FCAT, Classroom Management, and Middle School Endorsement. Our total training costs were less than traditional delivery systems and still provided high quality/best practices. Where possible all five school districts have helped pay for program costs. However, the demand for meeting all the new state certification mandates exceeds available district funds. The Schultz Center has been able to help design and deliver training programs with the coordination of all five regional professional development offices. A recent example is the state mandate that every school district submit a plan to deliver 300 hours of reading certification. The Schultz Center was able to bring all five regional school districts together to write the five training modules. Smaller school districts like Baker, Nassau and St. Johns would not have had the time and resources to write these modules. Not only has each district been able to reduce the time required on this project, but they now share these training programs via distance learning. No training is without costs. Although you can reduce costs with one trainer training hundreds of teachers, there are still additional costs associated with maintaining the equipment, T1 lines, materials and facilitators. Adding all these costs per teacher is still less than traditional delivery methods. There is a high demand for distance learning training, however, there are not enough dollars to meet the teacher demand for this training. The Schultz Center is requesting funds to help supplement the funds available in each school district. Our vision is to expand the current network to other school districts in the state of Florida. We are currently negotiating with the Broward County School District to share programs each of us have designed. |
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| Is this a project related to 2004 hurricane damage? |
No |
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| Measurable Outcome Anticipated: |
| The Schultz Center is currently working with CEPRI staff to design the first evaluation model in the state of Florida to analyze teacher professional development on FCAT student achievement. We have internally evaluated our programs with Duval County data and there is evidence that those teachers and schools with higher participation in the Schultz programs show significant increases in student achievement. |
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| Amount requested from the State for this project this year: |
$500,000 |
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| Total cost of the project: |
$400,000 |
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| Request has been made to fund: |
Operations |
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| What type of match exists for this project? |
Local |
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Cash Amount |
$ |
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In-kind Amount |
$365,000 |
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| Was this project previously funded by the state? |
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No |
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| Is future-year funding likely to be requested? |
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Yes |
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Amount: |
$500,000 |
To Fund: |
Operations |
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| Was this project included in an Agency's Budget Request? |
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No |
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| Was this project included in the Governor's Recommended Budget? |
No |
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| Is there a documented need for this project? |
Yes |
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Documentation: |
Reading Endorsement, ESOL, Middle School Endorsement, Beginning Teacher, Alternative Certification |
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| Was this project request heard before a publicly noticed meeting of a body of elected officials (municipal, county, or state)? |
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No |
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| Is this a water project as described in Section 403.885, Laws of Florida? |
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No |
