U.S. Department of Education Awards $16.7 Million in Grants to Alaska Organizations
From Education Newsfeed:
U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings today announced the award of $16.7 million in grants to 32 Alaska organizations to help them support the unique educational needs of Alaska Native children and adults.
The three-year grants will support a wide range of innovative projects---from family literacy and home-based tutoring to dropout prevention and teacher training---designed to benefit Alaska native populations through enhanced teaching and learning opportunities.
"As we draw closer to our goal of every child reading and doing math at grade level by 2014, it is all the more important that we have highly qualified teachers and tutoring opportunities for our students.
This program is a great enhancement to our efforts to increase the educational opportunities for all of our students," Spellings said.
"Not only will these grants help develop and operate schools in rural Alaska, they also will help people prepare for meaningful employment and enhance their careers."
Awards under the Alaska Native Education Program ranged from $100,000 to about $975,000; with the average grant about $503,000.
The program received more than 80 applications from organizations throughout Alaska.
Eligible applicants included Alaska Native organizations; educational entities with experience in developing or operating Alaska Native programs or programs of instruction conducted in Alaska Native languages; cultural and community-based organizations with experience in developing or operating programs to benefit Alaska Natives; and related consortia of organizations and entities created to carry out activities to help Alaska Natives.
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