HERNDON, Va., July 26, 2001 (PRIMEZONE) -- Logicon Inc., a Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) company, has unveiled a new online program that helps schools develop or improve services to students who are learning English. Called the Nebraska Limited English Proficient KnowledgeBase, the program was developed by Logicon PRC's Education & Evaluation Services group for the Region VII Comprehensive Assistance Center/University of Oklahoma and the Nebraska Department of Education.
KnowledgeBase was designed to help school administrators operate effective programs that meet student needs and are in compliance with the Office for Civil Rights. Most of the online information in KnowledgeBase applies to every state and benefits the K-12 grade levels.
KnowledgeBase helps schools:
-- Save time by providing the information school administrators
and teachers need to develop effective programs, eliminating
the need for time-consuming searches for resources and
information;
-- Create electronic warehouses of information - forms,
communications, policies, procedures, resources, guidelines,
legal guidance, "hand-picked" Web sites-to improve services
to students;
-- Expand services to students, increase the number of schools
served and provide uniform services; and
-- Increase accountability by documenting their work.
KnowledgeBase grew out of a need for Nebraska schools and communities to work effectively with language minority families that had moved to rural areas of the state to work in new meatpacking plants. Nancy Rowch, director for Nebraska's English as a Second Language programs, was concerned about the large number of schools that needed help to support new students with limited proficiency in speaking or writing in English. Ms. Rowch said those schools needed accurate and timely information to help them comply with federal legislation, including Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and Title VII of the Improving America's Schools Act (IASA).
Rowch and Region VII staff worked together to develop KnowledgeBase online to meet the schools' immediate and pressing needs for information and assistance in meeting federal requirements. Working closely with experts familiar with IASA and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, as well as prospective system users, Logicon designed a Web-based "manual" built around each type of activity required by Title VI.
"KnowledgeBase is a very timely resource, one that can be updated immediately as new resources are identified. School officials, who recently worked with the system, said it was a very useful and valuable tool. They were pleased that some KnowledgeBase documents are available in Spanish and English so school administrators, teachers and parents have easy access to information on topics specific to their needs," Ms. Rowch said.
Dr. Belinda Briscoe leads the Region VII Comprehensive Assistance Center at the University of Oklahoma. The Center is one of 15 comprehensive regional assistance centers, which is part of a national network formed to help recipients of Elementary & Secondary Education Act funds improve teaching and learning in America's schools. The Region VII Comprehensive Center promotes the learning of all students in its region (Indiana, Kansas, Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma). It provides technical assistance to local education agencies, schools, tribes, state education agencies and community-based organizations.
Logicon Inc., a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman Corporation, is a premier provider of advanced information technology solutions, engineering and business services for government and commercial clients. Headquartered in Herndon, Logicon's expertise spans such areas as information systems integration; command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR); enterprise hardware and software solutions; training and simulation; base and range support; signals intelligence; space systems; health informatics; and specialized scientific, engineering and technical services.
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The address for KnowledgeBase, the Nebraska Limited English Proficient web site, is www2.prc.com/ees/lep
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