Community Partnerships

EEC’s YouthLearn Initiative has been awarded this sub-task of designing training materials for the IES-led dot-EDU—DRC—Improving Basic Education for Girls. This work has included revising existing training materials around student-centered learning and contributing to the design of a train-the-trainer professional development strategy.

In the 1990s, EDC’s Center for Educational Resources and Outreach (ERO) developed an interdisciplinary curriculum for elementary and middle school students, for the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). The curriculum activities are a key part of SAE’s A World In Motion® (AWIM) curriculum that joins together teachers, students, and industry volunteers in an exploration of physical science while addressing essential mathematic and scientific concepts and skills.

CC&F is working with early childhood education leaders from across the state of New Hampshire, supporting them in devising and implementing a statewide plan. The plan will promote the use of newly published New Hampshire Early Learning Guidelines with child care, Head Start, and public school programs for young children birth through entrance into kindergarten, as well as with parents and local and state policymakers and decision-makers.

At the request of Mote Marine Laboratory’s Center for Distance Learning, CCT is evaluating Digital Docents—a new program designed to help educators teach ocean science to visitors at museums and libraries across the nation. Digital Docents, funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, combines traveling exhibits with live, interactive videoconference programs created at Mote and shown at participating institutions (a partnership of libraries, science centers, aquariums, and a zoo extending from Alaska to Florida).

CCT is conducting an evaluation of the ISS EarthKAM project’s impact on middle school and undergraduate students in Earth Science research. ISS EarthKAM (Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students) is a NASA education program that enables students, teachers, and the public to learn about Earth from the unique perspective of space. At the core of the program is a spectacular collection of digital images of Earth. ISS EarthKAM images are unique because middle school students take them.

In this project, CSE draws on its own and other resources at EDC to provide technical assistance to the management of the Presidential Award program. Every year, that program honors exceptional science and mathematics teachers from every state. CSE facilitates the program’s work in several ways. Staff connects the project with national science and mathematics leaders who take a role in the awards process.

The PALMS project seeks to increase the number of Latino students who pursue education beyond high school. Through high-quality materials, such as Tools for Latino Family Outreach: Supporting Student Success in the Middle Grades and Beyond, the project equips school and community leaders to work effectively with Latino families and students. In September 2006, PALMS began working with Helen Tyson Middle School (Springdale, Arkansas) and Hommocks Middle School (Larchmont, NY) to document how leaders at these schools use the tools to develop replicable parental outreach models.

ATLAS Communities is now an independent organization based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Visit the ATLAS Communities Web site for current contact information.