Project MEET:
Massachusetts Empowering Educators with Technology

Project MEET (Massachusetts Empowering Educators with Technology) is a Massachusetts initiative and one of 20 projects nationwide that has been funded through the federal Technology Innovation Challenge Grant for five years (1998 - 2003). The Project comprises a statewide collaborative of nationally recognized organizations - the Massachusetts Department of Education, TERC, the WGBH Teacher Center, Mass Networks Education Partnership, Institute for Community Inclusion, CAST and five Research and Development districts - to create a sustained focus on technology professional development in multiple districts across the state.

To achieve these goals, Project MEET focuses on Effective Models of Teaching with Technology. These models are created, implemented, sustained and scaled up through Project MEET's three-tiered systemic approach of teaching, support, and policy:

Teaching: Training teams of teachers in the use of technology as a tool to strengthen their curriculum and raise the achievement of ALL students;

Support: Developing the leadership, curriculum integration and planning skills of technology professional development (TPD) specialists, who will support teachers;

Policy: Identifying policy issues raised by technology and recommending and advocating for proposed solutions.

Project MEET especially emphasizes the importance of standards-based education, grounding all instruction in the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks. The technology focus of the Project is online technology, clearly framed as an effective tool for interdisciplinary project-based learning. In order to be responsive to the needs of diverse learners, particular attention is given to issues of universal design and assistive technology.

Research and evaluation are an essential part of the Project. The purpose of the research component is to assess the progress of the Project, then report back to stakeholders so that they may make adjustments to render the Project more effective. Progress is quantified and qualified in five research and developmental sites.

The success of Project MEET is essential to reaching the state's goals of technology professional development. At the end of five years, Massachusetts has committed itself to providing technology professional development to 85% of Massachusetts educators and enabling 50% of those educators to become proficient in using technology as a tool to improve student learning consistent with the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks. Project MEET is a fundamental part of that commitment.

For more information about the whole project, please contact:

Connie Louie
Project MEET Project Director
Tel: 781-338-6865

For more information about the Policy Strand, please contact:

Erica Levy
Professional Development Specialist, Project MEET elevy@massnetworks.org
617-783-9988 x110

Project MEET is funded by the U.S. Department of Education.