U.VA. EXPANDS REACH OF CONTINUING EDUCATION PROGRAMS CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Feb. 8 -- The University of Virginia's Division of Continuing Education is launching several initiatives that extend courses and programs to students throughout the Commonwealth and the nation. Expanding Ties With Virginia Tech U.Va. and Virginia Tech are jointly occupying a new Northern Virginia center to offer a variety of undergraduate and graduate-degree programs as well as non-credit, professional development courses. The universities' first jointly owned facility, the VT/UVA Northern Virginia Center is a four-story, 105,000 square-foot building in Falls Church. Dedication of the facility will be March 15. Helping Schools Meet New State Standards A series of new programs, developed in cooperation with the Virginia Department of Education, is helping school districts meet new state-mandated Standards of Learning (SOL). The division has created five programs that are helping schools meet the new social science, math, language arts, science and technology standards. "The new standards require schools to revamp their curricula. The standards are forcing schools to rethink how and when subjects are being taught in classrooms, and student testing in the revised subjects begins this year. U.Va.'s programs are providing a systematic method for schools to follow in implementing the standards," said Dennis "Skip" Parks, acting associate dean in the continuing education division. Among the new programs are a two-day seminar in Charlottesville in March; a certificate program, with eight courses, to help teachers acquire newly mandated computer technology skills; a series of graduate courses on curriculum alignment being offered at the division's regional centers, and a series of five television programs broadcast to Virginia schools. ¥ Organized by the Lynchburg regional continuing education center, the March 19-20 conference in Charlottesville will bring together top educators who will describe the critical factors that allow elementary, middle and high schools to succeed despite financial and regulatory pressures. ¥ Six new courses to help Virginia educators implement the revised Standards of Learning (SOL) are being offered at the division's regional centers. The courses provide a framework for implementing the standards -- including an analysis of current resources, integrating the standards into current curricula, enhancing instruction that supports student mastery of the standards and designing appropriate assessments to determine if students understand the material. ¥ In response to Virginia's new learning standard that requires students to have a basic understanding of computer skills by fifth grade, with advanced skills by eighth grade -- including the ability to create and maintain their own home pages on the Web and produce camera-ready pages -- the division's instructional technology certificate program offers teachers courses that explain how to use the new technologies. Developed by the division's Roanoke Center, in cooperation with Roanoke County Schools, the program offers a systematic method for teachers to become proficient in technology. Courses range from databases for instruction to management of technology resources. The how-to-implement SOL courses and the instructional-technology courses are being offered at: the Southwest Higher Education Center in Abingdon, the Northern Virginia Center in Falls Church, the Hampton Roads Center in Virginia Beach and the Lynchburg, Richmond, Roanoke and Charlottesville centers. ¥ The division is also broadcasting to Virginia school districts a five-part series on using technology in the classroom. Programs, to be aired through April, illustrate how teachers and students can benefit from technology. The programs range from how the Internet can be used as a research tool to how computers can enhance teaching materials. The division has also launched a videoconference series to help Virginia teachers teach history. Uniting U.Va. and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation for the first time, the "Becoming Americans: Ties and Tensions" series addresses how the colonists' social, political and economic beliefs are evident in today's culture. Teachers can interact with historians and archaeologists during the live videoconferences being aired periodically through December. Helping Combat Crime U.Va. representatives, working closely with the U.S. State Department, will offer several two week Criminal Justice Executive Forums on how to deal with the threat of terrorism. Designed for high-ranking judicial and law enforcement officials, the forums give participants an understanding of changing global conditions in trade, technology and terrorism. A session for Turkish governmental officials begins May 5; other forums will start Aug. 30 and Nov. 3. (At least one participant in a 1996 forum was taken hostage in the December takeover of the Japanese embassy in Lima.) With sponsorship by the Federal Polygraph Institute and the U.S. Department of Defense, the division is creating advanced training for polygraph examiners. The program, slated to begin in the fall, will explore the sociological, psychological and medical aspects of polygraph testing. Through the division's on-site training center at the FBI Academy in Quantico, U.Va. faculty are helping the FBI expand international training opportunities to combat the illegal trafficking of drugs. U.Va. and the FBI Academy worked closely to open a new International Law Enforcement Academy in Budapest, Hungary, last year, and more such programs are being discussed. ### February 7, 1997 For more information, contact Dennis Parks at (804) 982-5397.