Recent Projects

CELL secured a Comprehensive Counseling Initiative grant from the Lilly Endowment to develop and implement a successful Comprehensive Counseling Collaborative of Elkhart County (CCCEC). This multi-year collaborative created a network of counselors and provided K-12 counselors with support, coaching, and professional learning opportunities. Counselors learned research-based strategies from national experts and designed ways to put their learning into practice. This initiative included study visits to model sites, expert consultations, and communities of practice. Through this work, participating schools experienced strengthened counseling services, bolstering the resilience and capacity of school counselors. As a result, counselors were better equipped to serve students.

The goal of the Comprehensive Counseling Initiative grant was to encourage public school corporations and charter schools to explore how they help students from elementary grades through high school prepare for academic, career, and personal success.

Read the Comprehensive Counseling Collaborative press release.

CELL partnered with the Indiana Education Roundtable in the creation of the Education Workforce Innovation Network (EWIN), a statewide effort to align education offerings with regional economic opportunities. Under CELL's leadership, EWIN provided grants and technical assistance to awardees. Funding supported research into promising models of education-workforce alignment and design of implementation plans, including Early College (EC) career and technical education centers, Pathways in Technology Early College High Schools (P-TECH), academy models or other customized approaches.

Read the EWIN press release.

When schools went remote in response to the coronavirus, many districts lacked the technology and educator training to excel at remote instruction. The Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund (GEER) sought to equip schools with the resources necessary to move classrooms online. Using federal funds from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the Indiana Department of Education awarded CELL nearly $4.9 million for GEER in June 2020 through two grants. A larger grant funded devices and broadband in nine service centers and 23 school districts in rural areas across Indiana. The second grant funded professional development to improve educators’ capacity to provide engaging and effective online instruction. 

The Results

• Connectivity – GEER ensured every student from participating districts had access to the internet. Technology infrastructure investments made through local school districts helped bring better internet access to rural areas.
• One-to-One Devices – Over half of GEER funds went toward purchasing teacher and student laptops. At the conclusion of the grant, most participating districts achieved a one-to-one student-to-computer ratio thanks to nearly 5,000 laptops added through GEER.
• Preparedness – CELL helped deploy each district’s technology needs within about 90 days, allowing all participating schools to start the academic year in August 2020 equipped for virtual and hybrid instruction.
• Professional Development – Education Service Centers provided more than 200 educator and administrator trainings across the state impacting over 2,000 participants. Survey data showed teachers found the resources, new ideas and strategies, and technology tools most beneficial to their job. CELL directed a portion of GEER fund toward the Central Indiana Education Service Center (CIESC) for a comprehensive resource hub called Keep Indiana Learning, which has provided professional development to more than 16,500 educators since its launch in September 2020.
• Networking – CELL regularly brought district administrators together to share best practices, work through issues, and address concerns. Leaders discussed how they were using GEER funds and ways of tackling new pandemic-related challenges. The leadership network created a close-knit cohort for administrators to learn from and collaborate with each other.
• Coursework Access – GEER funds covered the cost of students taking a total of 1,200 advanced courses between June 2020 and August 2022. The scholarships made some classes available to rural districts for the first time, helping students expand their postsecondary aspirations.
• Partnerships – CELL’s inclusion of the ESCs accelerated GEER’s impact. The service centers provided valuable insight into the needs of their member districts and helped deploy the technology.
  

Read the GEER project recap.