February Newsletter

Did You Miss Our Webinar on Early Math I.D. and Intervention? 

On January 17, 2007 the Access Center hosted a webinar titled, “Early Mathematics Identification and Intervention: Working with Students at-Risk for Mathematics Difficulties.”  If you missed this event, or if you would like to listen to it again, please go to our website and follow our easy instructions to access the webinar recording.  You will have access to the PowerPoint and audio portion of the webinar.  This is free of charge and no registration is required! 

New Access Center Modules Available for Reading and Math
The Access Center recently posted two new professional development modules in reading and math. 
Reading: Effective Interventions for Struggling Readers—Fluency was designed to help provide teachers with the knowledge and tools necessary to provide effective reading interventions for students who struggle with reading fluently.
Math: Strategies for Accessing Algebraic Concepts K–8 reviews three learning strategies, concrete-representational-abstract (CRA), mnemonics, and graphic organizers, and how these strategies can be adapted to help a wide range of students learn algebraic concepts.

Please visit our website today to find out how these modules can assist you in the classroom.

The Access Center has been invited to return to Mississippi for the PREPS 2007 Winter Conference!  The purpose of the Program of Research and Evaluation for Public Schools (PREPS), Inc., is to develop and implement educational products and services that help manage and support districts’ efforts to demonstrate improvement in their instructional programs.  PREPS is the oldest and largest educational consortium in Mississippi, serving 91 of the 152 Mississippi public school districts.  The Access Center will be presenting two sessions at the Winter Conference, to be held on February 14-16. These sessions are designed to enable participants to implement instructional strategies for including students with significant cognitive disabilities in grade level appropriate general education classrooms.

The Access Center Website Has a New Look!

The Access Center has redesigned its website to be more user-friendly.  With special attention focused on reorganizing our resources, we hope to assist you better in navigating our site.  Our resources are now listed by topic area so you can easily navigate our website to find what you need.  Our resources are available in the following formats: professional development modules, briefs, presentations, webinars, and web links.  Please visit us online at www.k8accesscenter.org.

Updated Federal Resources for Education Excellence (FREE) Website

The U.S. Department of Education is pleased to announce the newly remodeled and updated Federal Resources for Education Excellence (FREE) website. It now provides richer, more expansive resources to teachers and students alike. There are over 1500 resources to take advantage of at FREE, ranging from primary historical documents, lesson plans, science visualizations, math simulations and online challenges, paintings, photos, mapping tools, and more. This easily accessible information is provided by federal organizations and agencies such as the Library of Congress, National Archives, NEH, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian, NSF, and NASA. Check it out today at http://www.free.ed.gov!

CEC to Co-Host Congressional Briefing on Universal Design for Learning  
On February 23, 2007 CEC, in collaboration with other organizations, will host a briefing for members of Congress, their staffs and other interested parties on Universal Design for Learning (UDL), a promising strategy to assist struggling schools by improving achievement for all students, including students with disabilities, minority and economically disadvantaged students and those with limited English proficiency.  UDL has important implications for the implementation of IDEA 2004 and the upcoming NCLB reauthorization.  For more information, contact Kim Krocker-Hymes – kimk@cec.sped.org.

President Seeks Extension of NCLB
In his annual State of the Union address, President Bush called on Congress to extend the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), which is due to be reauthorized this year. The President did not go into detail about his proposal for the reauthorization in his speech, but the Education Department laid out its priorities for the reauthorization in Building on Results: A Blueprint for Strengthening the No Child Left Behind Act.

President Submits Proposal for Fiscal Year 2008 Budget
On Monday, February 5, President Bush proposed a total fiscal year 2008 (FY’08) budget of $2.9 trillion.  The President's budget plan significantly increases military spending but requests decreases in most domestic programs, including education and health-care programs. President Bush has requested an increase of $1.2 billion for Title I grants to districts, increasing funding for the main federal K-12 program from $12.7 billion in FY’06 to $13.9 billion in FY’08. The proposal targets the additional funds to serve low-income high school students, rather than spreading the funds among elementary and secondary schools. For special education programs, the level President Bush has requested would represent a decrease in funding of just under 1 percent. This would effectively reduce the federal government’s share of per-pupil funding for special education students from 17.9 percent in FY’06 to 17.2 percent in FY’08.  The FY ’08 budget isn’t completed; both the House and Senate must approve the funding levels established each year.  In fact, Congress has yet to complete its overdue funding bill for FY’07, which was supposed to be passed by last October 1.