Districts Look to E-Rate Program to Help With Common Core Tech Costs (Education Week)
Squeezed for time and short of money, school districts are turning to a familiar source, the federal E-rate program, to help them cover the potentially high costs of upgrading technology to meet the anticipated demands of new common, multistate assessments.
District officials are requesting to use those federal funds—which provide schools with discounts on the costs of improving telecommunications services and Internet access—to help them take a variety of steps necessary to administer online tests aligned with the Common Core State Standards. Those uniform academic expectations have been adopted by 46 states and the District of Columbia, and the related tests will be given for the first time during the 2014-15 academic year. Read more >
