TRITEC
The Tri-City Technology Education Collaborative (TRITEC) is an innovative approach for three urban-rim school districts (Everett, Malden, and Medford) to collaborate around the issue of preparing information workers and citizens for the 21st century. Faced with the common issues of training a seasoned teaching force to use technology in the classroom to enhance student learning, the three school districts decided to pool their monetary and intellectual resources to design systemic models for effective K-12 curriculum/technology integration.
Teaching American History Grant
TRITEC has been awarded a $1.6 million grant by the US Department of Education for teaching American history. The purpose of the grant is to boost student achievement by improving teachers’ knowledge of traditional American history.
The grant will continue what has already been started by Voices Rising, a similar program created when TRITEC received a significant federal grant several years ago for teaching American history.
The $1.6 million grant will be used to train teachers, with 81 hours of professional development planned. Training will include collaborating with Suffolk University history scholars, the Boston Public Library, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the JFK Library and Museum, and nearly twenty other organizations.
The theme of the grant will be “Becoming American: The Defining Role of Immigration.”
The very competitive grant was awarded to just 123 of 470 applicants from 38 states. Medford is one of ten school districts in Massachusetts to receive the grant.
Mayor Michael McGlynn praised School Superintendent Roy Belson for pursuing and receiving grant money for additional funding in tough economic times. Supt. Belson said the schools are doing some “spectacular things” despite a tight budget. According to Supt. Belson, TRITEC has secured over $6 million in grants over the past ten years.