directed to allocate those funds to local educational agencies having the greatest percentages of disadvantaged students and those most in need of technology. Schools in isolated or rural areas will likely have great need for technology to link them to the greater resources available in more densely populated areas. Awards will be made only to States that have a systemic State technology plan approved by the Secretary in accordance with such criteria as the Secretary may adopt. The Committee anticipates that many States will have submitted State plans, including State technology plans, under the Goals 2000: Educate America Act, but it is not a requirement for a grant under this section that a State have a Goals plan. The Committee is aware that many schools have used funding acquired under Chapter 2 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to acquire computers and other technologies. Many such purchases, however, have not been made as part of a systematic approach to integrating technology into instruction. The Committee intends to encourage the thoughtful, long-range planning for the acquisition and deployment of technology in support of improving teaching and learning. By requiring planning and stressing the need for interoperability and support for improved teaching and learning, the Committee is seeking to ensure that the Federal investment in technology is not wasted.

LEA's may apply to their respective States for allocations of funds received under section 302, which applications must include a local long-range technology plan and other items. The Committee recognizes that some LEA's may have difficult formulating an application in accordance with the requirements of this bill. Accordingly the bill provides that States must identify those districts having the greatest percentage of children in poverty and need for technical assistance in preparing an application and offer that technical assistance to those districts desiring assistance. The Committee intends that these grants be made for the acquisition of such technology as the LEA's may identify in their long-range technology plans. It is hoped that LEA's will recognize the importance of using these funds to acquire appropriate linkages and communications connections within schools and between and among schools and other resources, such as libraries, since it is those linkages that give schools access to the benefits of the information and communications revolution which is occurring outside of the schools.

The Committee understands that a major barrier to the realization of the benefits of educational technology in many schools is that many teachers and librarians have not been trained in the uses of computers, educational software or other technologies. Not only is training lacking in teacher preparation courses, there are inadequate opportunities for practicing teachers and librarians to learn about developments in educational technology. Section 303 authorizes for appropriation $50 million for fiscal year 1995 and such sums as may be necessary for the succeeding 4 fiscal years to provide grants to consortia for professional development in the area of educational technology. The professional development grants will help provide teacher and librarian training in the uses of educational technology through workshops or through distance learning techniques. The consortia will also be required to develop

and provide technical assistance to schools and to disseminate information concerning educational technology. Consortia may consist of one or more State educational agencies, institutions of higher education or nonprofit organizations. Every State must be served by at least one consortium, and the Secretary will award grants in such a way as to accomplish that distribution of service. In making grant awards to consortia, the Secretary should provide, to the maximum extent possible, that the consortia receiving grants will, when taken altogether, serve all States within the United States. A given consortium may direct its services toward particular types of school systems, rather than toward regional coverage, so long as, in awarding the total number of grants available in any fiscal year, the Secretary considers the regional coverage that will be achieved by the totality of consortia receiving grants.

TITLE IV-EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT,

PRODUCTION, AND DISTRIBUTION

In reviewing impediments to the goal of full integration of technology into the kindergarten through high school curriculum in order to increase student learning and achievement, the Committee found three primary obstacles. First, many schools lack the resources to purchase updated equipment. Second, teachers and school administrators do not have access to quality and ongoing training programs allowing the technology to be used for its maximum benefit. Third, high quality, curriculum-specific software and other technology resources are not readily available for use in the classroom. The last obstacle is especially troubling given the fact that the video game industry generated profits in excess of $5 billion last year but spent very little on educational technology.

Title IV of this Act addresses the third concern regarding availability of high quality technology resources in the classroom by authorizing the new Educational Technology Product Development program and reauthorizing the Star Schools Program Assistance Act.

Section 402 authorizes $50 million to be appropriated in fiscal year 1995, and such sums as may be necessary for the 4 succeeding fiscal years to support the development of (1) curriculum-based learning resources using state-of-the-art technologies and (2) instructional television programming that ensures maximum access by education institutions. The Secretary, through the Office of Educational Technology, is authorized to make grants on a competitive basis to eligible consortia to develop, produce and distribute technology products specifically designed for use in the kindergarten through twelfth grade classroom. An eligible consortium for purposes of applying for a grant under this section consists of a State or local educational agency and a business, industry or telecommunications entity. Additional partners which may be added include a public or private nonprofit organization, a postsecondary institution or both.

In awarding grants under this section, the Secretary must give priority to those applications which propose to develop programs or systems that (1) may be adapted and applied nationally at a reasonable cost over a broad technology platform; (2) raise the achievement levels of all students, particularly students who are not real

izing their potential; (3) are developed in consultation with classroom teachers; (4) are developed in consultation and collaboration with education entities to ensure relevance to the voluntary national content standards, the voluntary national student performance standards and State curriculum frameworks; and (5) may be adapted for use by adults in need of literacy services, including English as a second language and preparation for a high school diploma or its equivalent.

The Secretary may require a recipient of a grant or contract to share in the cost of activities in the form of cash or in kind contributions.

Through this legislation, the Committee is striving to help provide students and teachers with tools in the classroom to enhance learning and achievement and ensure that teachers receive the training required to make the technology worthwhile. Achieving the National Education Goals and helping States reach academic content standards in core subjects figure largely in the motivation behind this legislation. The technology products and programming developed under this section are intended to help further student achievement in core subject areas and to be consistent with national content standards in these subject areas as they are developed and certified. This does not mean the products developed should be textbooks converted to software. The Committee intends for this program to support the development of creative, exciting, entertaining products that engage students in an interactive learning process.

With those criteria in mind, applicants wishing to be considered for funding under this section must provide a description of how the proposed program or system will (1) improve the achievement levels of students; (2) promote professional development of teachers and administrators, including the provision of materials designed. specifically for this purpose; (3) be tested, evaluated and distributed; (4) serve a significant number or percentage of economically disadvantaged students; (5) be disseminated to a wide audience of learners; and (6) provide closed captioning or descriptive video, where appropriate.

The Committee intends for the Secretary to disseminate information about products developed under this section as soon as reasonably possible to State and local educational agencies, and other organizations or individuals through print and electronic media that are accessible to the education community at large. Particular emphasis should be given to making this information available to classroom teachers.

Applicants for grants under this section must describe their arrangements concerning the title to the products developed, their usage and marketing rights. The Committee intends for the Secretary to review the arrangement for fairness to the educational agencies, bearing in mind the need to provide private firms the incentive to develop the products described in this section.

Sec. 403 extends the Star Schools Program Assistance Act for 5 additional years and authorizes $35 million in fiscal year 1995 and such sums as may be necessary for the 4 succeeding years to carry out provisions of this title. The Committee continues to be impressed by the work of the Star Schools consortia which provide ac

cess to top-quality instructional programming to every geographic region of the country, with a particular emphasis on those students in areas of the United States experiencing teacher shortages. Classes in subjects such as advanced mathematics, science, and foreign language continue to be of the highest quality. Through Star Schools satellite linkages students in remote rural areas as well as underserved urban areas are afforded opportunities to participate in classes taught by some of the nation's best teachers. Without the Star Schools linkup these would not be available, and many students would miss out on the opportunity to fulfill course requirements to gain admittance to post secondary education.

The Committee is encouraged by efforts of the various consortia to offer two-way interactive programming including full motion video, data transfers, and online computer networking. It has found that interactivity and exchanges among students enrich learning opportunities. The Committee encourages consortia to continue to explore and experiment with interactivity between students and

teachers.

The Committee considered the Administration's Star Schools reauthorization proposal submitted as part of the "Improving America's Schools Act of 1993" (S. 1513) and decided to make modifications in the existing Star Schools Program Assistance Act, (20 U.S.C. 4081 et seq.) rather than make the dramatic shift in focus suggested by the Administration's proposal. The Committee found the Administration's shift away from multi-state consortia to single State or community networks troublesome. The Committee believes the economies of scale and diversity offered by distance service to be the heart of the existing Star Schools program and thus rejected this change. Further, changes adopted as part of the Star Schools Amendments of 1991 broadened the target audience to include those with disabilities, limited English proficiency, and adults with literacy needs, while keeping the priority for schools serving a large number or percentage of Chapter 1 students. The Committee believes that funding constraints dictate a targeting of Federal support rather than opening the program to all students, as recommended by the Administration. However, the Committee did view favorably a few recommendations of the Administration and adopted a new section on Leadership and Evaluation Activities at their request.

Significant changes the Committee makes in the amendments of 1994 include (1) adding maintenance and operation of equipment as an allowable expense; (2) encouraging the use of live, interactive instructional programming for students in the classroom and teachers for training purposes; (3) adding the development and acquisition of preservice and inservice teacher training programs as an allowable expense; (4) changing the grant award from 2 years to 5 years, and allowing each grantee to be eligible for one additional 5-year period. Current grantees are eligible for the first and, if selected competitively, the second 5-year grant periods; (5) changing the maximum grant award from $10 million to $5 million per year; (6) encouraging closed captioning and descriptive video, as appropriate; (7) encouraging the provision of parent education programs during and after the school day which reinforce the student's course of study and actively involve parents in the learning proc

ess; and (8) a new "Leadership and Evaluation Activities" section that replaces similar sections in the current act.

The new "Leadership and Evaluation Activities" section allows the Secretary to reserve 5 percent of the total appropriation for the Star Schools Program Assistance Act to conduct evaluations of distance learning activities, including activities not assisted under this title. Leadership activities include disseminating information and other activities to enhance the quality of distance learning activities nationwide.

TITLE V-EDUCATIONAL APPLICATIONS OF ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES AND NETWORKS

For the most part, those involved in the development of advanced technologies have not considered potential applications to education of those technologies. Developers of high performance computing and telecommunications networks have not sufficiently considered the needs of elementary and secondary education. Title V provides direction and support for the inclusion of education in advanced technology development and implementation.

Section 502 of this title authorizes $20 million for fiscal year 1995 and such sums as may be necessary for each of the succeeding fiscal 4 years to support research on potential applications of advanced technologies to education. The Committee intends that more than one grant be awarded and that the Secretary give due consideration in making such grants to diversity of grantees, both in terms of the type of organizations (profit and non-profit organizations) and to their geographic location.

To address the need for inclusion of elementary and secondary school needs in the development of new high performance computing and telecommunications networks, section 503 of this title authorizes the appropriation of $7,500,000 for each of fiscal years 1995 and 1996 and $10 million for fiscal year 1997 to support the development of an electronic network for the dissemination of education information throughout the United States. Development is to be accomplished through a series of grants, first for the identification of requirements, then for the development of specifications, and finally for the development of a prototype system. Existing networks or developing networks are to be used to the extent possible. The Committee intends that the term "educational information" be read broadly to include communications between and among schools, information about educational research, information about effective technology-enhanced programs, resources and services, professional development materials and curriculum materials. In the course of the development of the prototype an overall assessment of the impact of the technology on the educational process is to be made. Among the directions to the Secretary in this section is the mandate to represent the needs and interest of elementary and secondary schools in the Federal planning and development of a national information infrastructure. The Committee regards this as a particularly important duty of the Secretary and intends that the Office of Educational Technology take an active role in discharging this duty, particularly with respect to issues such as designating rights of way for educational purposes and special rates for educational services.