CPB and NCME team up to help teachers share their stories. Deadline February 29. Details HERE and below.

Purpose & Background:

In response to the nation's dropout crisis, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) recently launched American Graduate: Let's Make It Happen to advance the national conversation around the dropout crisis, its impact on children, communities and the country, and ways to address it. This multi-year, multi-million dollar effort is led by local public media stations, currently targeting 20 communities that are among those with the most significant dropout problem in the nation and, through the National Center for Media Engagement (NCME), an additional 37 communities with demonstrated need.

Research and common sense both highlight the role of teachers in students' success in school and in life. Because of this, engaging educators in honest conversation and raising teacher voices to a national stage have been important parts of the American Graduate: Let's Make It Happen initiative. The National Center for Media Engagement, in conjunction with The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), is pleased to announce a unique opportunity for public media stations to amplify teacher voices in their local communities. With a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to CPB, NCME will make small grants available to up to 50 public media stations to produce brief interviews with educators in their local communities to contribute to the nationalTeacher Wall and distribute locally. By leveraging public media's unique combination of production and community engagement skills, stations have the opportunity to collect, listen to, and amplify local teacher voices, and use those voices to inform their local American Graduate: Let's Make It Happen work.

Grant Goals and Implementation:

The Teacher Wall project is a new avenue to extend public media's local and national American Graduate: Let's Make It Happen initiative. The Teacher Wall (www.teacherwall.org) enables teachers to share their ideas and add their voices to the national education conversation. A joint project of Scholastic, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Donors Choose, the Teacher Wall launched online in fall 2011, and now features over 8,000 videos uploaded by more than 3,000 educators nationwide.

Stations will structure teacher interviews around questions designed by the Teacher Wall, such as:

• What was one of your greatest moments as a teacher?

• What, or who, has most inspired you as a teacher?

• What was one of the greatest moments or highlights of your teaching career?
• Where do you go to get feedback on your performance as a teacher and why?

In addition, station will pose questions designed to inform American Graduate, which could include:

• What do you think is the single most important reason local students drop out of school?
• How can teachers help students who are at risk of dropping out stay in school?
• What resources or assistance do educators need from the community to help students graduate, on time, ready for college and careers?
• In the quest to improve graduation rates, who is your great ally and who is preventing progress?

Overall, this grant offers public media stations an opportunity to facilitate educator interviews and help communicate the personal experience of teachers, their commitment to their profession and the complexities of education, especially in high-need, underserved communities.

In collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and CPB, NCME will administer and support up to 50 public media stations with a $2,200 grant to interview at least five different teachers. These interviews are to be divided into clips no longer than 90 seconds (one question per clip) and added to the Teacher Wall site.

Goals for this grant include:

• Build on public media's current work on advancing the conversation around the dropout crisis to amplify the conversation among teachers and their local communities
• Foster a deeper understanding of the educational issues faced by underserved and underrepresented populations.
• Connect and share teachers' personal experience, insights and commitment to their profession with their local and national community.
• Use public media's on-air and online distribution channels to create broader awareness of educators' dedication, commitment and needs.

Stations will have the option to air or stream their local spots as part of the American Graduateinitiative and will submit their spots to the national Teacher Wall site. Interviews need not be overly produced and can be created using low budget mini camcorders or higher end HD video cameras.

Stations should focus their interviews on teachers who work with low-income and minority youth primarily at Title I schools. In addition, stations should propose a theme for their teacher interviews, such as, but not limited to: rural teachers, minority teachers, special education teachers, pre-service teacher candidates, career changers who have become teachers and/or other locally relevant themes. In choosing a theme stations demonstrate their ability to authentically reflect the diverse opinions, issues and perspectives of their community and add those voices to the Teacher Wall. Stations may conduct interviews in conjunction with other educator engagement activities they may already be involved in, including events for teacher recognition, professional development orAmerican Graduate Teacher Town Halls.

Grant Amounts and Term:

NCME will provide up to 50 public media stations with a $2,200 Teacher Wall Grant to capture a minimum of five teacher interviews, each of which will be divided, by the station, into clips no longer than 90 seconds (one question per clip) and submitted to NCME to be added to the Teacher Wall site.

The grant term will be March 19, 2012 through September 14, 2012.
Final reports will be due by September 28, 2012.

Eligibility:

Any public radio or television station or joint licensee that receives a CPB Community Service Grant is eligible to apply. Stations that can demonstrate they are already addressing the dropout crisis or have an American Graduate: Let's Make It Happen grant from CPB or NCME will be favored.

Application Review Process:

Applications will be reviewed by NCME and external reviewers. Grants will be awarded by NCME and CPB, based on the likelihood that proposed projects will meet the goals for the grant program.

Submission Instructions and Deadlines:

Applications must be submitted using the online form. Please review Terms and Conditions before applying. We anticipate a rapid contracting process.

The application deadline is February 29, 2012

Grant program and technical questions should be directed to Jamie Holzhuter at NCME.

Award Notifications:

Grant notifications will be made mid-March.

Grant Administration:

The Station Grant Agreements will be made between Stations and the National Center for Media Engagement. The grant award will be disbursed to Grantees once signed Grant Agreement is received by NCME. Grant deliverables will be reviewed by NCME.