Partners in Learning resources
The Partners in Learning program is designed to provide technology and training for educational institutions around the world. To this end, Microsoft has supported the following initiatives that directly address digital inclusion issues:
1. Leadership development
2. Holistic learning reform
3. Teacher skills training
4. Scalable education solutions
Microsoft is interested in learning what it takes to successfully scale outstanding education programs throughout the nation and potentially throughout the world. Microsoft professionals have witnessed countless effective education programs often lacking the essential mechanisms to spread to other entities battling similar challenges. The goal of the Mid-Tier grants is to identify pockets of innovation, scale those innovations by leveraging available relationships and resources, examine technology in the scaling process, and learn about the scaling process by studying the Mid-Tier projects' evolution and outcomes.
Currently there are nine grants that make up the Mid-Tier Projects. Members of the U.S. Partners in Learning team and the National Advisory Council invited a targeted, national group of education programs, school districts, and associations to write a "letter of interest" for a Mid-Tier Project grant. Using a qualitative and quantitative approach, 11 grantees were selected and announced on June 28, 2005. The grants available currently total more than $5 million US and grant durations began after July 1, 2005, and end before June 30, 2009. Below is a list of the current Mid-Tier grantees.
Learn about findings from the U.S. Partners in Learning initiative related to scalability in education in the Spring 2007 issue of Cable in the Classroom's Threshold.
For more information, see the Mid-Tier Scaling Framework page or view the Scaling Education Programs tutorial.
On This Page
Alabama Best Practices Center
The Powerful Conversations Project integrates the skills and tools used in 21st Century Learning to deepen a school's understanding of results-driven professional development and its use in addressing the specific learning needs of every student in the school. The project is supported by 10 Alabama educators who have been selected and trained to be ABPC's "21st Century Teacher Fellows." This two year project plans to scale to teachers throughout the state of Alabama.
Council of Independent Colleges
The Teachers for 21st Century Program aims to integrate 21st Century Learning Skills into courses offered by Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) member institutions and into field experiences and practicums that take place in partnering K-12 schools. Through face-to-face workshops, online webinars, and dissemination of exemplary instructional materials, CIC will enable faculty members in 120 private colleges and universities to strengthen curricula and pedagogical approaches in pre-service teacher education programs.
Global Kids
Playing 4 Keeps is Global Kid’s youth media project that supports an innovative curriculum for engaging minority youth in the design, development and dissemination of online games about important social issues. This four-year grant will produce one game each year, and when distributed through a major commercial gaming portal these games have the potential to educate millions of youth and tens of thousands of educators. This year the students chose "poverty as an obstacle to education" as their social issue and developed the game: Ayiti: The Cost of Life. This game can be accessed at www.costoflife.org
James Madison University
The JMU Partnership for 21st Century Skills is a multi-year statewide program to enhance Virginia teachers' use of technology in teaching and learning in the K-12 environment. The program has two main components. The first is a performance certification program relative to the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS●T) published by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). The second is an initiative in support of the framework for 21st century learning as set forth by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills.
Lemon Grove School District
LemonLink is a research based 1:1 tablet program focused on transforming the teaching and learning environment through 1:1 computing to evaluate outcomes, document best practices and provide a blueprint based on Microsoft solutions for others to use in developing more sustainable 1:1 computing models.
National Commission on Teaching and America's Future
The TLINC Project (Teachers Learning in Networked Communities) directly addresses the issue of teacher retention, particularly novice teacher retention. Many teachers begin their careers with minimal support from colleagues and limited ties to professional communities resulting in one of seven teachers leaving the classroom after one or two years. NCTAF created TLINC to promote the use of communication technology by establishing professional learning communities composed of novice and experienced teachers. Through US PiL funding, three district/university partner sites are experimenting with TLINC: Seattle, Washington; Memphis, Tennessee; and Denver/Jefferson County, Colorado, each with access to thousands of teachers.
Northwest Educational Service District 189
The Teacher Leadership Project (TLP) was developed in 1997, and has trained over 3500 teachers in Washington and Mississippi in using technology as a tool to enhance instruction. Through the US Partners in Learning Grant TLP was able to take their time intensive 14 day face to face training model and condense it to a four day face to face training followed by online follow-up training. This new model allows TLP to create a sustainable program that will be able to spread to teachers across the nation.
SERVE Center at UNCG
SPICE (Studying Practices to Improve Capacity for Education) is a study of the scalability of a suite of education innovations collectively called Capacity for Applying Formative Evaluation (CAPE), designed to help schools develop the capacity to plan and conduct evaluations of their school initiatives and projects for the purpose of improving implementation and impact. CAPE focuses on collecting and analyzing data specifically to help site-level administrators make decisions about their work, with an eye toward improving project implementation—ultimately for the good of students.
TakingITGlobal
TakingITGlobal engages youth in local and global issues through an interactive online platform. Since the original launch in 2000, teachers have been intrigued with the potential of TakingITGlobal's online community to bring innovative new learning techniques and tools into their classrooms. The US Partners in Learning grant provides the opportunity to fully develop the tools for students and educators, conduct outreach to teachers in all US states and move beyond TIG's existing grassroots community. TIGed US presents a distinct potential to expose students to world issues and cultures, engage students through collaborative project-based learning, and develop their geography, language, and critical reasoning skills, from late elementary to senior high school.
1. Leadership
4. Scalability
