Home ResearchReports The Road Ahead Background Papers (1997)

Projects: Road Ahead
(Obtaining Resources)

This document is a draft of one of several reports prepared for The Road Ahead (1995-1997), a program of the National Foundation for the Improvement of Education (NFIE), a nonprofit foundation of the National Education Association (NEA). The Road Ahead was funded by Bill Gates, co-founder and CEO of Microsoft Corporation, from proceeds from his book by the same name. The program involved 22 school/community partnerships in 15 states using technology-based learning activities that extend beyond the traditional classroom and school day.

This draft is subject to review and revision, and was prepared by staff of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). All statements and opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent policies or positions of the NEA, NFIE, ISTE, or Microsoft Corporation.

Obtaining Resources for Information Technology in Education: A Guide for Beginners

Our informal and formal educational systems contain built-in resources that support some change and self-renewal. These internal resources can help facilitate some of the change needed to deal with information technology. However, external resources are also needed because the pace of technological change is so rapid and the scope is so vast. This pamphlet is written for people who want to quickly learn the rudiments of obtaining additional resources for information technology in education.

Topics covered include:

• The Magnitude of the Resource Problem
• Strategic Planning and Needs Assessment
• Types and Sources of Resources
• Major Categories of Money Sources
• Important Ideas in Resource Seeking
• Concluding Remarks
• Electronic Sources of Information
• Annotated Bibliography

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The Magnitude of the Resource Problem

At the current time, the K-12 educational system in the United States is spending about two percent of its total budget for information technology such as computer hardware, software, curriculum materials, support staff, and professional development. This percentage has been slowly but steadily increasing. Several leaders in the field of technology in education have suggested that five percent of the total school budget is a good target goal for the next decade. A few schools have already achieved this goal. Effective Practices: Computer Technology in Education (Moursund, Bielefeldt, Ricketts, & Underwood, 1995) presents the case that eventually our educational system will need to spend more than 10% of its budget to support its information technology needs. This would be a five-fold increase over current spending levels.

Achieving such a large increase will require both a top-down and a bottom-up approach. Policymakers will need to set national and state policies that help schools to get educational technology at favorable prices. Budget makers will need to substantially increase line-item budgets for information technology. Increasing the budgets for professional development, curriculum development, and curriculum materials will need to occur in a way that supports information technology. A number of school districts are now experimenting with the idea of parents purchasing computers for their children.

Much of the resources for information technology will be found or obtained at the level of the individual teacher, the school, or the school district. This pamphlet focuses mainly on the resource-raising efforts that can be carried out at those levels.

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Strategic Planning and Needs Assessment

There are two good starting points for obtaining resources. One is a carefully developed long-range strategic plan. The second is a needs assessment.

Strategic Planning Strategics

planning for technology in education can be done by a school or school district. The goal is to have a strategic plan that has the broad support of the full range of stakeholders who are concerned about information technology in education. For a school district, the planning committee may include teachers, school administrators, school district administrators, school board members, parents, and business people. (Some schools and school districts include students on their strategic planning committees.) In essence, each major group of people who will be affected by the plan should be represented in the planning process. The development of a strategic plan may well require many hundreds of hours of effort. Here is a brief outline of the strategic planning process:

1. Evaluate the current situation.
2. Articulate a vision. Begin with really long term visions (perhaps 15 years or more) and work back to a closer time frame.
3. Decide on a mission statement. This should be understandable by all major groups of stakeholders.
4. Develop goals. These should be grounded in the reality of available and potential resources.
5. Develop a strategic implementation plan. This includes the creation of short- and medium-range plans.
6. Set up a mechanism for periodic assessment of the implementation efforts and the plan. This mechanism must include provisions for yearly revision of the long-range strategic plan.

A strategic plan may well contain a number of subplans. This is illustrated in Figure 1. This figure suggests that there may well be different groups of people working to achieve the goals of each subplan. Collectively, they are working to improve education.

Needs Assessment

Strategic planning identifies a number of general problems to be solved or tasks to be accomplished. More detailed information is needed when one begins to plan for the solution of these problems and to work to obtain resources.

A needs assessment includes a careful analysis of the current situation and the desired goals. A needs assessment can draw on national, regional, and local data. At the national level there are a variety of "standards" reports as well as recommendations from national commissions. For example, the report from the U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment (1995) points to the need for a substantial increase in professional development for educators. A number of professional societies such as the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and the National Science Teachers Association have developed recommendations for curriculum and for staff development. Such documents identify national problems in education and often suggest that such problems need to be addressed at a combination of national, state, and local levels.

Most states have done strategic planning for technology in education. These strategic plans provide important information for local planning and needs assessments.

A needs assessment at the local level can provide evidence of how well a school or school district is meeting needs identified at the national, regional, or local level. For example, national data may indicate the average number of students per microcomputer and the nature of their use. A local needs assessment may provide data that a particular school has less than half the national average of computer access and that most of the teachers in the building need more help learning to use computers.

Once a need has been identified, the next step in obtaining resources is to identify what types of resources are required to satisfy the need and potential sources of these resources.

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Types and Sources of Resources

Money is usually one of the resources needed. Writing grant proposals is a common way to attempt to get money. However, it is important to think of resources in a context that is much larger than just money. A school district and its community have many additional resources that can be redirected toward information technology. Here are a few examples.

• Adult volunteers. A concerted and coordinated effort can be made to recruit and train more volunteers. The volunteers need to learn more about technology in education and about working in educational settings.
  
• Students. An increasing number of schools and districts are learning how to make use of students to help run their instructional computer systems and to provide support to students and staff. Students can be network managers, do hardware maintenance and repair, and provide training to students and teachers.
  
• Hiring practices. Every school and school district is faced with the ongoing task of hiring staff. Knowledge and skills in making effective use of computer technology should be one of the criteria taken into consideration when screening applicants. For example, a school district could impose on itself a guideline that, when possible, any new hire should know more about computer than the person they are replacing.
  
• Home computers. An increasing number of students have access to computer facilities at home. With appropriate planning and coordination, many students who do not have computer access at home might be able to share with those who do. A number of school districts are now making arrangements so that parents can purchase computers for use by their school-age children at very affordable prices.
  
• Businesses. Many businesses have computer facilities that are not used at certain times of the day and week. Such facilities might become available for student use in a school-business partnership program. Library materials budget. A school or community library has an annual budget for the acquisition of materials. The acquisitions committee might be persuaded to put less of its funds into printed materials and more of its funds into CD-ROM reference materials and online reference services. This might be accomplished by an organized effort on the part of a few students, parents, and teachers.
  
• Professional development resources. Many school districts have resources designated for staff support and staff development. An increasing percentage of these resources can be allocated toward technology-oriented staff development.
  
• Curriculum development resources. Many schools and school districts have resources designated for curriculum development. A decision could be made that an increased percentage of these funds will be spent on technology-related curriculum development.
  
• Equipment repair resources. Every school district has a substantial investment in noncomputer hardware and materials. The funds and staff used to support things like the maintenance and repair of film projectors and overhead projectors can also be used to maintain and repair computers.
  
• Building repair and remodeling funds. Every school district has funds for building maintenance. Some of these resources can be reallocated to do the rewiring and remodeling needed to create part of the infrastructure for computer technology.

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Major Categories of Money Sources

There are many different sources of money for technology in education. Here are seven major types of money resources.

Competitive Situations

There are a huge number of grant situations in which a number of people are competing for a limited pool of money or other resources. This may be at a local, regional, or national level. The resources may be from a government agency or a nonprofit foundation.

It can take a lot of time and effort to develop a well-written, competitive proposal. The proposal must be well grounded in a strategic plan of improving education and in a needs assessment. It must contain a clear statement of an important problem and clear details of how the problem will be solved. In many competitive grant situations, the proposals submitted are rated by several different reviewers and only a modest percentage of the proposals are actually funded.

The electronic sources of information and references listed at the end of this pamphlet can be useful for exploring national and federal grant opportunities. Each state department of education is a potential source of information about statewide competitive grants. Large school districts and educational service districts typically have staff members whose duties include maintaining lists of up-coming grantwriting opportunities. Colleges and universities are another valuable source of grant information.

A different type of competitive situation is provided by your local PTA or PTO, service clubs, and other community-oriented organizations. These organizations can be sources of funds for special projects, such as obtaining computer equipment for a handicapped student, getting a school connected to the Internet, or acquiring CD-ROMs for a library media center. Developing a partnership with a local service organization may involve many of the same steps needed to develop a school-business partnership (described later in this section). The goal should be to develop an ongoing relationship that ensures a continual source of support for school activities.

Noncompetitive Situations

There are many noncompetitive sources of money or other resources. The number of such noncompetitive situations is nearly unlimited. Seeking resources in a noncompetitive situation may be as mundane as asking a school principal for an extra professional-leave day to attend a computer conference or asking a library media person to subscribe to some technology periodicals for use by teachers.

There are always some discretionary funds at the school and school district levels. If you want some of these funds to be directed toward a project that particularly interests you, you must first identify the funds and who controls them. Then you must make a convincing case for your project. Your case can be strengthened by having the support of a variety of stakeholders. For example, you can enlist a team of several parents, students, and business people to help you convince your school board to use some of its contingency funds on a particular project. Such a team is far more likely to succeed than a individual teacher or parent.

Partnerships

Most school districts have one or more education-business partnerships. There is a great deal known about how to develop an effective education-business partnership (Grobe, 1990). A common approach is for a school to form partnerships with businesses where the students' parents work. Some additional important ideas include:

• Top-level leadership. The development of the partnership needs to involve high-level personnel from both business and education.
  
• Grounding in community needs. Both business and education should be convinced that the partnership will help meet the community's needs. A needs assessment should explore needs of the community as well as the needs of the schools and the business.
  
• Effective public relations. One of the benefits that a business gets from a partnership with an educational institution is good public relations. Education can also benefit from good public relations. Thus, an education-business partnership should include a public relations plan that is implemented by both the business and the school or school district.
  
• Strategic planning. A partnership is one component of the "big picture." Both education and business have strategic plans that are being implemented during a long period of time. Both parties to the partnership should have a clear understanding of how the partnership fits into these strategic plans.
  
• Effective management and staffing structures. Think of the partnership as a project that will be carried out jointly by the business and the educational organization. Each of the partners wants the project to be successful. Each needs to assign appropriate staff to the project. Each needs to put into place appropriate management oversight to ensure that the project is carried out in a mutually satisfactory manner.
  
• Shared decision making/interagency ownership. The partnership is a project designed to meet the needs of the business and the educational organization. This project is jointly "owned." This means that decisions with respect to the project need to be made in a mutually agreeable manner.
  
• Formal agreements. An education-business partnership should be thought of as a formal agreement-a contract. That is one reason for involving high-level people from each organization. The participants need to be at a high enough level so that they can negotiate contracts for their organizations.

Fundraising

Many organizations raise funds to help meet their fiscal needs. The two types of fundraising discussed in this section are the fundraising event and the fundraising contribution campaign.

Many organizations make use of a fundraising event. Typical types of events include bake sales, jog-a-thons, raffles, auctions, gala festivals, dances, or other social activities. A computer event that includes students helping adults learn to use computers, displays of student computer-based projects, and the sale of digitized pictures of attendees can be very successful.

Fundraising events tend to take a great deal of time and effort, with the work being done by a combination of staff and volunteers. Generally speaking, a fundraising event takes place over a short period of time, such as during one evening.

This can be contrasted with a fundraising contribution campaign, which may extend over many months or be an ongoing activity. Although there are many professional organizations involved in fundraising campaigns, this is a field in which amateurs can compete with the professionals, as long as the "cause" is sufficiently worthy.

Here are some "tried-and-true" ideas that apply to a fundraising contribution campaign:

• Have a worthy cause or a sequence of worthy causes. In the case of a sequence of worthy causes, arrange them in a logical order. For example, a school may want to have a fully equipped multimedia lab. The first year's fundraising campaign may focus on computers, printers, and software. The second year's campaign may focus on scanners, video cameras, and digital cameras. The third year's campaign may focus on remodeling and enlarging the multimedia lab.
  
• Develop a list of potential contributors. These should be people who are interested in and supportive of the mission/work of your organization. List building is an ongoing activity, year after year. One of your goals is to cultivate the small donors over a period of years, so that they gradually move into the medium donor category. You then cultivate the medium donors so that they eventually become part of the major donor category.
  
• Be aware that in many fundraising campaigns, a lot of work tends to go on behind the scenes before the fundraising campaign "goes public." It is common to have obtained commitments of perhaps 30%-40% of the funds to be raised before going public. Typically, these commitments are from a few large donors.
  
• Fundraising campaigns require contact with potential donors. Often, the more personal the contact, the better. A television or radio request for donations is very impersonal. A mass mailing may be a little more personal. Individually addressed letters, phone calls, and one-on-one meetings with key potential contributors are even more personal.
  
• It is important to think in terms of what the contributors gain by their donations. Recognition for contributions is important. Every contribution should be acknowledged to the extent possible. Usually this is done by a letter. However, larger contributions should be acknowledged by personal contact, public recognition, and a celebration party. It is desirable to give a gift, such as a coffee mug, to every person who contributes above a certain amount.
  
• Keep your costs down. Use volunteers who are supportive of your organization and its mission. Your contributors want to be assured that most of the resources they contribute are going directly toward accomplishing a worthy cause.
  
• Reward your volunteers. For example, recognition for special achievements and pizza parties may be just the things needed to keep up the enthusiasm level of a group of volunteers.

Bonds and/or Line Items in School District Budgets

As indicated at the beginning of this pamphlet, the long-term solution to school needs for information technology will require substantial and continuing amounts of resources. Figure 2 shows two approaches that many school districts have taken or are considering. In the first approach, a school district gets voter approval to issue bonds or make a special assessment that will be used to acquire information technology, rewire buildings, and train teachers. This is usually a "one-shot" source of funds. Thus, as the equipment wears out, there may not be adequate funds in the ongoing budget to maintain and replace the equipment.

Figure 2. Sources of large amounts of funds

Thus, the second approach-significant increases to technology lines in the ongoing budget-is the critical, continuing solution. This may be done in conjunction with a bond or a special levy to jump start technology availability in a school district.

Strategic planning and a careful needs assessment are critical first steps when seeking large commitments of funds. Both of the approaches illustrated in Figure 2 require a great deal of effort by an active and committed group representing the various stakeholders. The group might include educators, parents, business people, and students. You will also want to include people who understand local and school-board politics.

As with any attempt to obtain resources for technology in education, persistence is important. Voters may turn down a bond issue or a special tax levy. Revise the proposal, do a better job of informing the voters, and try again. A school board may turn down requests for significant changes to the school budget. Keep up the pressure. Increase the number of stakeholders who are involved. Make sure that the media are informed and participating.

Other Sources

There are many other sources of resources. For example, schools have labs of computer equipment that are probably not being used in the late afternoon, evenings, and on weekends. These facilities could be used in a community program involving students, parents, and other community members. Fees paid to use the facilities might pay for acquiring additional facilities.

Many software companies are willing to donate software to organized and effective professional development programs and software preview centers. This can be thought of as a type of partnership between a school district and a national or international company. Each gains by what it contributes to the partnership.

Students and teachers may become entrepreneurs. They may set up a business that uses school facilities to provide services to other students and teachers. Such a business may also provide services to individuals and businesses in the local community. For example, the school-based business may help design and set up World Wide Web pages for local businesses. Such entrepreneurial activities can give students valuable business experience and raise significant amounts of funds.

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Important Ideas in Resource Seeking

Lots of people write proposals or carry out other activities designed to obtain resources for technology in education. Whether you are writing a grant proposal, developing a education-business partnership, or doing fundraising, there are a number of important concepts to keep in mind.

1. The starting point in obtaining resources is formulating a clear Project Mission Statement. This must succinctly summarize all of the problems you want to solve and the tasks that you want to accomplish in your proposed project. Keep in mind that to accomplish your overall project mission may take a long period of time and resources from many different sources. The March of Dimes had a mission of wiping out polio. This required carrying out many different projects and using funding from many different sources over many years.
   
2. Next, identify potential resource providers. Analyze them from the point of view of their interest or potential interest in the overall project mission that is guiding your efforts, and specific components of that project mission. You may need to combine resources from an education-business partnership, a PTO, and a school district staff development fund to accomplish your project mission. Each of these potential resource providers may be interested in and supportive of different components of your overall project. Success obtaining resources from one resource provider can be used as leverage with other potential resource providers.
   
3. For each specific potential resource provider, develop a set of goals that are supportive of your project mission and that you feel will be supported by the potential resource provider. Begin a dialogue with the potential resource provider. In formal proposal-writing situations, this dialogue might include writing a preliminary proposal. In a potential education-business partnership, the dialogue might include having people from the business visit your school or having students and teachers from your school visiting the business.
   
4. Develop a proposal that clearly specifies what you want to do, why you want to do it, what resources it will take, and how the project will be evaluated. Think of a proposal as a proposed contract. It should be clear, concise, and complete.
   
5. Effectively communicate your proposal to the potential resource provider. This might be done as a formal written proposal, as a formal or informal oral presentation, as an informal conversation, and so on. The nature of the communication process depends on the situation.
   
6. Be persistent and remember that a lot of time and effort may be needed to obtain the resources. Often there will be outright rejection of a proposal. In other situations, a long period of negotiation-give and take-is necessary. Follow the motto, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." Learn from your proposal-writing efforts. If a proposal is not funded, find out why and what it would take to produce a more competitive proposal.

Components of a Comprehensive Proposal

This section outlines the components of a comprehensive proposal. These components are required in almost every formal, competitive grantwriting situation. In such cases, a proposal is usually presented as a written document, and it may be many pages in length.

In less formal or less competitive resource-seeking situations, a proposal may be a relatively brief written document, or it may even be presented orally. Even in these situations, however, it is important to give careful consideration to all of the components listed below.

1. Abstract: A concise and easily understandable summary that states the problem to be solved, how to solve it, and the expected outcomes. This is often used when publicizing a project or briefly communicating the nature of a project to people who might be interested in funding it.
   
2. Problem Statement: A problem statement must include a needs assessment and a brief summary of what is known about solving the problem. Show that there is an important problem to be solved, that key groups of stakeholders want the problem to be solved, and that there are clearly understood methods for solving the problem.
   
3. Methodology: Include a detailed discussion of the methodology to be used to solve the problem. This description may contain a substantial analysis of the research literature. An alternative approach is to give detailed examples of how other schools and school districts have successfully solved the problem.
   
4. Plan of Operation: Give a detailed discussion of the steps to be followed when implementing the methodology.
   
5. Evaluation Plan: Give a plan for formative evaluation of ongoing work and summative evaluation of overall project.
   
6. Key Personnel: Include the names and qualifications of personnel who will be working on the project.
   
7. Adequacy of Resources: Give an analysis of the adequacy of the total resources available to the resource seeker, including both local resources and grant-provided resources.
   
8. Impact: Include an analysis of short-term and long-term residual impact of the project. Place major emphasis on the continuing effect of the project after funding ends. Discuss wide-scale dissemination of the project results.
   
9. Organizational Capability: Include a discussion of the overall capabilities and resources of the organization submitting the proposal. Indicate how these resources contribute to solving the problem.
   
10. Budget: Include detailed budget notes. The budget should show the requested resources and the resources that you are contributing-which may be both money and in-kind resources. For example, the contributed time of volunteers should be included.
    
11. Letters of Support: Include letters from representatives of the key stakeholder groups that support the project. The content of the letters should show that the stakeholders clearly understand the proposed project. Letters of support are also needed whenever there is a commitment of local resources to the project; these need to be "official" letters that make the actual commitments.

A proposal should be carefully edited to remove errors in grammar and spelling. The overall proposal document should be designed for effective communication and should have a friendly appearance. Nowadays, most proposals are desktop published using a laser or other high-quality printer. If your proposal is more than a few pages long, it should have a table of contents. The entries in the table of contents should be carefully aligned with the required components of the proposal that are given in the proposal guidelines. A reader should be able to tell at a glance that all required components of the proposal are included, and where to find each of them.

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Concluding Remarks

Our educational system is faced by the steadily increasing challenge of information technology. Each individual school and school district needs to take an innovative and proactive approach to meeting the needs of its students and personnel. The resources to meet this challenge will come from four major sources:

1. Continued allocation of resources that are currently available for technology in education.
2. Reallocation of resources that are currently available, but that are not currently being used to support technology. As suggested earlier in this pamphlet, many of these resources are not money. Many are things like policies, hiring practices, professional development practices, and so on.
3. Projects that are initiated at the school and district level-a bottom-up approach to obtaining new resources.
4. Projects that are initiated at the federal and state levels-a top-down approach to obtaining new resources.

Notice that the first three items in this list are bottom-up. That is, they depend on individual staff and volunteers, the school, the school district, and the community. All of the ideas discussed in this pamphlet can be brought to bear in this bottom-up approach.

It is also evident that the federal government is concerned about technology in education. Each year, Congress deals with a number of bills that affect the resources available for technology in education. Some federal programs have far-reaching effects. For example, the Internet exists because of many years of funding from various federal sources. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 provides for reduced telecommunications costs for schools. It has been estimated that this may save schools several billions of dollars a year and give more and more students routine access to the Internet.

A number of states also fund high-level programs designed to improve technology in education. These include statewide telecommunication networks and mandates to increase technology in schools. These are extremely valuable resources to a local school or school district. Schools and school districts are well advised to support such statewide initiatives.

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Electronic Sources of Information

Access to current information is important to grantwriters. This section contains electronic sources of information. These sources are all frequently updated.

Sources of General Information

Yahoo! provides a comprehensive hierarchical index of sites on the World Wide Web, including a search utility that lets you search for particular servers by name. Besides being a good general references, Yahoo! has extensive education listings, including K-12 school servers and a variety of education organizations.

The federally funded Educational Resources Information Centers (ERIC) are an excellent source of up-to-date education information.

The U.S. Federal Government is running more than 160 different Gopher sites that provide free information. To find a current list of U.S. Government Gophers:

Machine-Assisted Realization of the Virtual Electronic Library (MARVEL) is a U.S. Library of Congress (LC) online information retrieval system.

The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) is now providing a wide variety of its print materials in an electronic format. The Congressional Record, Federal Register and Congressional bills databases are all available electronically.

If you're looking for quick access to statistical data about U.S. income, employment, education, health, or crime, the White House's Web site features a "Social Statistics Briefing Room." The site provides one-stop hopping for data located on various government computers. For figures specific to education, see the National Center for Education Statistic's Web site.

Sources of Specific Grant-Related Information

There is a steadily increasing amount of grant information available electronically. The Resources for Grant Writers World Wide Web site listed below is an excellent source of information. One of its links is to the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA), a listing of all federal grant programs.

GrantsNet is a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services source of information about grants. It has been functioning since 1994.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) puts all of its publications, press releases, and announcements directly online. The system is menu driven, comprehensive, and easy to use.

The U.S. Department of Education funds a large number of different educational projects.

The following Web site contains links to a large number of sources of information about grants and granting agencies. This Web site is titled A Grant Seeker's Guide To The Internet: Revised And Revisited by Andrew J. Grant, PhD, and Suzy D. Sonenberg, MSW.

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Annotated Bibliography

The chronicle of philanthropy: The newspaper of the non-profit world. 1255 Twenty-Third Street NW, Washington, DC 20037.

This is a comprehensive newspaper covering the major aspects of philanthropy, such as fundraising, sources of resources, and managing nonprofit organizations. The information in this newspaper is of interest to both resource seekers and resource providers.

Directory of computer and high-technology grants.

Grant Guides, Inc., PO Box 1214, Loxahatchee, FL 33470.

This directory is intended for nonprofit organizations. It covers foundations funding computers, computer training, and software grants. More than 3,000 funding entries are listed in the directory. It includes profiles on 33 federal programs.

The foundation directory. The Foundation Center. Room 312, 312 Sutter Street, San Francisco, CA 94108; 415/397-0902 or 800/424-9836.

The Foundation Center is one of the most comprehensive sources of information on fundraising in the U.S. It operates libraries in Cleveland, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, DC, as well as maintaining collections in 170 libraries across the country. Call their 1-800 number for the location of the collections in your state.

Grantwriter's newsletter of funding resources. 617 Wright Avenue, Terrytown, LA 70056.

The Grantwriter's Newsletter of Funding Resources is an inexpensive way to find grant sources. Written and published by an educator, the monthly offers timely information on grants and contests. It costs $36 for 12 issues.

Grobe, T., & Curnan, S. P., & Melchior, A. (1990, December). Synthesis of existing knowledge and practice in the field of educational partnerships (ED 325-535). Washington, DC: The Educational Partnerships Program, U.S. Department of Education.

This report was commissioned by the Education Partnerships Program of the U.S. Department of Education. It gives a concise overview of some partnerships around the country that operate on grants from the Department of Education. It provides an excellent summary about educational partnerships.

Moursund, D. (1996). Obtaining resources for technology in education: A how-to guide for writing proposals, forming partnerships, and raising funds. Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education.

This resource is a comprehensive and up-to-date introduction to ways of obtaining resources for computer technology in education. Includes sample proposals.

Moursund, D., Bielefeldt, T., Ricketts, R., & Underwood, S. (1995). Effective practice: Computer technology in education. Eugene, OR: ISTE.

This book is a comprehensive summary and analysis of the research literature and other information on effective uses of computer technology in K-12 education.

U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment. (1995). Teachers & technology: Making the connection (OTA-EHR-616). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

This is an authoritative study of information technology in education. It is a solid source of data and research-based recommendations that are useful in a needs-assessment component of a proposal.

The USDLA funding sourcebook for distance learning and educational technology. Arlene Krebs, United States Distance Learning Association, PO Box 5129, San Ramon, CA 94583; 800/829-3400.

This is an annotated guide to foundations that tend to focus on distance learning and educational technology.

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Prepared for the National Foundation for the Improvement of Education by the International Society for Technology in Education, Subject to review and modification. Draft prepared by Dave Moursund, Talbot Bielefeldt, and Siobhan Underwood. Contact: Talbot Bielefeldt, Research Associate (talbot@iste.org).