[NLA] Equipped for the Future Center Moves to Tennessee

[Jean J. Stephens]

The Center for Literacy Studies is pleased to be taking over the management 
of the
  Equipped for the Future Center as explained in the following memo from
Sondra Stein, EFF National Director.   Three positions are being filled for 
the EFF work
in Knoxville.  Information can be found at 
http://cls.coe.utk.edu/position_announcements.htm.
         Jean Stephens

"Dear Friends and Colleagues:
I am writing to share with you some important changes we are making in
the organization of Equipped for the Future training and technical
assistance.

Starting October 1, 2002 all EFF training and technical assistance will
be coordinated through the Center for Literacy Studies (CLS) at the
University of Tennessee-Knoxville.

Jean Stephens, Director of CLS, and Brenda Bell, Associate Director of
CLS and a long time member of the EFF Management Team, have been
working this summer with Lisa Levinson, Dawn Norris, and staff at the
University of Maine - Orono to assure that the transition goes smoothly
with minimal disruption to existing training and technical assistance
services.

We have decided to make these changes for a number of reasons. Over
the past year EFF staff and trainers have been meeting to integrate
findings from work on the EFF Assessment Framework into all EFF
training and materials. We have put together several teams that
include staff from both the EFF Assessment Consortium (SRI
International and CLS) and the EFF National Center (University of
Maine-Orono and World Education) to work on products that will be
available this fall.

This joint work has been exciting and demanding. We realized that to
better meet the needs of all EFF users we needed to find ways to
integrate out work even more. When Lisa Levinson decided earlier this
year that she planned to step down from her position as Director of the
National Center effective June 30th, it provided a natural opportunity
for us to take the next step and merge all training and technical
assistance functions in one central location.

The expanded EFF Center at the Center for Literacy Studies will manage
and coordinate all training, technical assistance and product
development for EFF with some support functions continuing at
University of Maine- Orono and World Education. Assessment-related
research and development will continue at SRI International, in
partnership with CLS.

This summer will be a time of transition for us. All National Center
staff will continue to work from their current locations over the
summer. Jean and Brenda will take over Lisa's role in working with
states and other partners to develop and implement training plans. Day
to day operations of the Center will continue to be managed from the
Orono office by Dawn Norris. By October 1, 2002 the center of
operations will move to Knoxville, with key staff positions located at
CLS.

Lisa has been part of the EFF development process for many years and we
will miss her leadership. She has definitely earned some time off! We
look forward to her rejoining us to work on Special Projects when her
leave is ended.

We are very excited about the changes ahead. Please feel free to call or 
email me
(sstein at nifl.gov or 202-233-2041) or Jean (jjstephe at utk.edu or 
865-974-6610) or
Brenda (bsbell at utk.edu or 865-974-6654) -- if you have any questions or 
ideas to share.
We look forward to continuing our work with you as we work to better
equip ourselves for the future.

Sincerely,
Sondra Stein
EFF National Director
Senior Research Associate, NIFL "




Jean J. Stephens, Director
Center for Literacy Studies
600 Henley St., Suite 312
Knoxville, TN 37996-4135
865-974-6610
865-974-3857 Fax
jjstephe at utk.edu

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