MCLA's Improving Teacher Quality Grant Extended

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, the lead partner for the Berkshire Early Learning Lab Improving Teacher Quality program, has had its ITQ grant extended for another two years, which will allow more than 40 additional educators to participate, and an expansion of existing programming.

The grant, which began in 2013, serves Berkshire County preschool through second grade teachers by providing rich opportunities for them to learn about and implement the STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) education model.

Sites presently being served include North Adams Public Schools, Adams-Cheshire Regional School District, Northern Berkshire School Union, Head Start and Child Care of the Berkshires. With the grant extension, educators from Pittsfield Public Schools will join them.

The University of Massachusetts' Donahue Institute, which has been monitoring the ITQ grant at all of its sites throughout the Commonwealth, saw significant evidence that the teachers who participated in the Berkshire Early Learning Lab implemented and benefited from integrated STEAM learning, according to Dana A. Schildkraut, STEAM education coach for the ITQ grant program.

Cost, Access to NBCTC High Among Concerns North Berkshire Residents

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
06:15PM / Thursday, April 25, 2024

Adams Select Chair Christine Hoyt, NBCTC Executive Director David Fabiano and William Solomon, the attorney representing the four communities, talk after the session. 

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Public access channels should be supported and made more available to the public — and not be subject to a charge.

 

More than three dozen community members in-person and online attended the public hearing  Wednesday on public access and service from Spectrum/Charter Communications. The session at City Hall was held for residents in Adams, Cheshire, Clarksburg and North Adams to express their concerns to Spectrum ahead of another 10-year contract that starts in October.

 

Listening via Zoom but not speaking was Jennifer Young, director state government affairs at Charter.

 

One speaker after another conveyed how critical local access television is to the community and emphasized the need for affordable and reliable services, particularly for vulnerable populations like the elderly. 

 

"I don't know if everybody else feels the same way but they have a monopoly," said Clarksburg resident David Emery. "They control everything we do because there's nobody else to go to. You're stuck with with them."

 

Public access television, like the 30-year-old Northern Berkshire Community Television, is funded by cable television companies through franchise fees, member fees, grants and contributions.

 

Spectrum is the only cable provider in the region and while residents can shift to satellite providers or streaming, Northern Berkshire Community Television is not available on those alternatives and they may not be easy for some to navigate. For instance, the Spectrum app is available on smart televisions but it doesn't include PEG, the public, educational and governmental channels provided by NBCTC.