Welcome to New School Year!

September 14, 2016

What’s new for the 2016-17 school year? IPEI Board Member Joyce Putnam highlights three exciting things that are new!

IPEI’s grant application deadlines and reporting procedures have been adjusted in its continuing effort to be most effective and efficient for the educators and others who seek are seeking funding during 2016-17 school year.

Teacher Grants will be awarded twice with deadlines on November 2 and January 18; and Red and Gold Grants applications will be received on three deadlines: November 2, January 18 and March 29. Statements of Interest for Connecting Classrooms Grants will also be due November 2, January 18 and March 29.

Applications and grant report forms have also been changed with more emphasis on how the projects funded relate to the curriculum while making a difference for student learning and achievement as well as student engagement.

According to Connie Patterson, chair of the IPEI Grants Committee, “We want to gather additional evidence that IPEI funding makes a difference in classrooms. Since teachers are trying to find better ways to deliver the curriculum and improve student skills, those areas became the focus of the new application and grant impact report questions.”

“Efforts were made to improve the forms so teachers can spell this out in the application – stating goals in their own words. We are trying to focus on what would teachers and other applicants like to accomplish and what will students be able to do after this project,” said Patterson. Expected project outcomes will then become part of the summary report in a more individualized way while still allowing IPEI to gather data on the effectiveness of its grant funding.

A retired teacher has made a gift to IPEI designated for “Grants” to facilitate creative integration of music into elementary curricula. In 2016-17, IPEI can fund one Teacher Grant and two Red and Gold Grants for projects that do this. Examples include students composing songs related to subject matter, use of instruments, creating instruments from found objects, and writing poetry to music.

A local financial institution has made a similar commitment to funding that encourages grants to encourage secondary school teachers to use Teacher Grants and/or Red and Gold Grants to integrate financial skills education into the curricula. Examples include developing innovative ways to increase student awareness of personal finance, of finance and economics as careers, and of entrepreneurship.

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