LOWER LAKE — Konocti Unified School District is working with higher-education partners to enhance academic instruction in science, mathematics and history.
Redwood Area Academic Literacy (RAALI) teams Konocti with educators from Sonoma State University (SSU) and Humboldt State University (HSU).. Now in its second year, RAALI”s purpose is to enhance science, mathematics and history training for more than 12,000 high school students in 16 school districts throughout six northwestern California counties by giving enhanced training to their instructors.
RAALI is a four-year project that has received $994,032 in federal funds through the No Child Left Behind Act. HSU educators originally applied for the federal grant.
According to local co-director Dan Simard, a Lower Lake High School educator, one of the requirements of the grant was that it involve a lower-division educational partner. Konocti met specific requirements that included a high level of poverty.
During the first year of the partnership, Konocti hosted a RAALI Teaching Fellows” seminar. This year, seminars take place in Sonoma and Humboldt counties. Ninth- and 10th-grade educators at RAALI partnership schools were recently invited to apply.
An agreement between RAALI and Konocti for the second group of teaching fellows recently came before the school board. It includes the release of educators for time that is spent at a seminar, as well as travel costs and co-payments that are borne by member districts.
Contact Cynthia Parkhill at cparkhill@clearlakeobserver.com.
