teacherken's musings on everything

just received an email from Eschool news online  .. the headline story is entitled "Schools to lose free access to ENC."   ENC = the Eisenhower National Clearing House for Mathematics and Science Education.

Let me below the fold quote a couple of paragraphs from the story, and then provide a link to read the entire thing

THE FOLD

ENC's annual $5 million in federal support comes to an end Sept. 30. After that, schools will have to pay for access to the clearinghouse's content: ENC officials are transforming the organization into a commercial entity, using subscriptions and advertising as a way to support their materials.

ENC's mission has been to identify effective curriculum resources, create high-quality professional development materials, and disseminate useful information and products to improve K-12 mathematics and science teaching and learning.

Through its web site, ENC has developed a database of more than 27,000 K-12 math and science product and web site reviews. According to Simutis, 17,000 of those reviews now have research associated with them that demonstrates their alignment to state and federal standards.

The highly acclaimed ENC monthly selection of web sites for math and science education, known as the "Digital Dozen," has been a consistently popular web resource among educators looking for math and science content online. Educators also will lose free access to ENC's month-by-month classroom calendar filled with online math and science resources that pertain to the month's events; links to lessons and activities; a guide to creating personal professional development plans; and "ENC Focus," a magazine written for and by classroom teachers and linked to online discussion forums.

Simutis, who said the ENC web site gets 175,000 unique visitors each month, said it's unfortunate that ED has chosen not to fund the project. "It's not like we've solved the achievement issues for math and science in this country," he said. "There are going to be very few resources available for [these disciplines] provided by the department."

 

After September, ENC will be available at a new internet location, www.goENC.com. As of then, ENC will be a private source of technical assistance for local governments. It will cost schools an annual subscription fee of $349 for access to the clearinghouse's extensive resources and expertise. This fee covers all educators in the subscribing institution--and subscriptions ordered before June 1 will be available for a reduced price of $299 per school. Simutis said ENC hopes to continue to offer its free print magazine to educators, too, except with advertisements.

The change will mean a substantial reduction in force for ENC as it transforms into a commercial enterprise; the organization will go from its present staff of 50 full-time employees to "no more than 8," according to Simutis.

 

What I have quoted gives a sense of the article.  You can click here if you want to read the entire thing.