July 22, 2013

GOV. MALLOY ANNOUNCES $10 MILLION TECHNOLOGY GRANT FOR SCHOOLS

(Hartford, CT) - Governor Dannel P. Malloy, together with State Department of Education Commissioner Stefan Pryor, today announced the release of a $10 million competitive technology grant for Connecticut school districts to bring more computers into classrooms and to increase Internet bandwidth capacity. This grant will provide critical assistance to local districts as they prepare for the statewide rollout during the 2014-15 school year of Common Core State Standards and the computer-based Smarter Balanced Assessments.

"Investing in 21st century technology is an important part of preparing our students for college and eventually a career," said Governor Malloy. "We've committed hundreds of millions of dollars to strengthen academics, improve our infrastructure, and streamline our administrative processes, and in doing so have made a promise to our teachers and students to provide them with the resources necessary to succeed. The funding we are announcing today will help with those efforts."

"One of our most important endeavors is to graduate our students college- and career-ready so that they are positioned for success in life," said Commissioner Pryor. "To that end, local districts have been working to align classroom instruction to the Common Core State Standards and preparing for the assessments that accompany them. Every district is at a different stage in the process, but this grant will help districts achieve technological readiness in the last year before full statewide implementation."

The need for more computers in Connecticut classrooms and increased bandwidth is more acute since the adoption of the Common Core State Standards and the imminent administration of the companion assessment system, which will contain many technology-enhanced items.

Since the adoption of the Common Core standards by the State Board of Education in 2010, local districts have been transitioning classroom instruction to match this new set of research-based, globally competitive K-12 expectations. Students will take the assessments aligned to these new standards, the Smarter Balanced Assessment System, on computers or other computing devices. These assessments will replace the traditional paper-and-pencil-administered CMT/CAPT legacy tests statewide beginning in 2014-15. Districts will continue to administer the science CMT and science CAPT assessments.

Interested school districts are required to apply through the competitive request for proposals (RFP) process. Funding must be used for the purposes of purchasing new computing devices, inter-school bandwidth, or inter-district bandwidth. Awards will be dependent on an applicant's ability to meet the submission requirements and will be determined in accordance with a town wealth measure based on a 20 percent-80 percent sliding scale.

Proposals must be received by Monday, August 12, 2013. For complete details of the RFP: RFP #801 .

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For Immediate Release: July 22, 2013

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