Administrators' Digest
December 2017 (Vol. 8, No.11)
TDLS Registration is Now Open for California Adult Educators
Symposium registration is now open!
The Technology and Distance Learning Symposium is for all California adult education teachers, coordinator and administrators at WIOA-funded agencies.
This yearly event shows how to enhance technology integration in the classroom and how to start or grow your blended/distance learning programs through dynamic presentations and hands-on technology skill development.
Topics include:
- Open Educational Resources
- Digital Badges and Micro-credentialing
- Mobile Devices, iPads, Chromebooks, and More
- Online and Blended Instruction Delivery Models
- Presentation Tools in the Classroom
- Web-based Activities
- Online Resources for Adult Education
Google Commits $1B in Grants to Train U.S. Workers for High-tech Jobs
The search giant has regularly expressed a desire to help stem some of that negative impact, and now it’s putting its money where its mouth is to the tune of $1 billion. CEO Sundar Pichai announced Grow with Google at an event held in Pittsburgh, PA. Over the next five years, the initiative will commit $1 billion to nonprofits aimed at training American workers and helping build business.
The company is committing $10 million to Goodwill as part of the initiative — the largest Google.org has committed to one organization. That money will be used to help launch the Goodwill Digital Career Accelerator, aimed at preparing the American workforce for high-tech jobs. Grow with Google also will take the form of a national tour hosted by libraries and community organizations aimed at bringing training and career advice directly to local towns and cities. That’s part of the company’s goal of committing one million hours to employee volunteering over the next five years.
A Barrier Removed for Low-income Parents Seeking Education
There's a new law on the books in California that will remove a barrier for low-income parents aiming to access education. Under a bill signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown on October 12, 2017, poor parents enrolled in English as a Second Language (ESL) or high school equivalency courses will be eligible for subsidized child care. (See full text of the bill online at: https://goo.gl/baZy8r.)
(Full URL is: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180AB273 )
California has the highest share of adults with limited English proficiency and the lowest share of adults with a high school diploma, compared to other states, according to the California Budget and Policy Center . More than half of low-income children in the state – 1.6 million – have parents who have limited English proficiency and/or do not have a high school diploma.
Child care expenses can hold parents back, eating up over two-thirds of the income of the average single mother.
White House Advocates for Increased Focus on and Efforts to Expand STEM Education
The White House in September announced plans to spend $200 million a year on grants meant to boost STEM education in an effort to close a widening skills gap that, some say, has left Americans out of the running for scientific and technical jobs.
Bay Area powerhouses Facebook, Google and Salesforce have committed $50 million apiece to support these efforts–making up about half the $300 million commitment from the private sector. Other companies funding STEM education efforts include Amazon, General Motors and Lockheed Martin.
It was not immediately clear where the $200 million in federal dollars would come from, though the Trump administration emphasized that it would not be new funding, but rather existing money that would be redirected.