The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) recently released a report that addresses a fundamental question about community colleges: why are so many of them unable to successfully secure federal funding for computing programs? The report, "Digitally Enhancing America's Community Colleges," offers recommendations designed to spur new grant proposals, inventive initiatives and dynamic partnerships that infuse innovation into community college computing courses and programs. For a link to the 24-page report click here. To read NSF's release about the summit, ACM, and the report click here.

To broaden its impact among two-year colleges, the National Science Foundation (NSF) asked community college educators to explain the challenges they face when applying for grants and suggest emerging issues the NSF should consider funding. The Community College Times and the American Association for Community Colleges published an article discussing NSF's aims and a recent conference that provided a venue for further discussion of the effort. For the article click here.

Revised due dates for NSF funding opportunities that fell between October 1-25, 2013 have been posted on the Resumption of Operations page on the NSF website. This includes the ATE solicitation which has been changed to November 6th, 2013. These revised dates apply whether the proposal is being submitted via the NSF FastLane system or Grants.gov.

Celebrating 20 years of NSF's Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program, the new ATE@20 blog highlights the valuable work being done by ATE projects and centers. Read the blog to learn about the history of ATE and get more information about exciting new project and center deliverables, partnerships, and best practices. We'd also love to hear from you and include your achievements, memories, and pictures in the project. Send them to us at ate20@atecentral.net. We look forward to hearing from you!

AgCareers.com and AgrowKnowledge US Enrollment and Employment Outlook Report is now available here. Through a partnership with AgrowKnowledge, AgCareers.com is releasing the US Enrollment and Employment Outlook Report which includes: enrollment data of associate and baccalaureate degrees in agriculture from the past 4 years, a look at what employment opportunities are available for those graduates, a salary outlook for internship and entry level positions in the agricultural career clusters, and results of a student perception of agricultural careers survey.

The Mid-Pacific Information and Communication Technologies Center (MPICT) and the California Community College Centers of Excellence recently released a "Phase 2 ICT Environmental Scan: Industry and Employment Outlook for the State of California" and it is available to download, free of charge, through the "Currently Featuring" section of the MPICT homepage. The study maps existing industry data and employment data to an ICT framework, and demonstrates how important the ICT industry is to the California economy. Over 600 California companies were interviewed for the study and their responses demonstrate the strong and growing strategic importance of ICT in all kinds of organizations, and they show strong ICT employment growth prospects over the next two years. Click here for MPICT's homepage and more information.

Clark State Community College's ATE grant to develop an associate degree program in cybersecurity/information assurance was recently highlighted on NSF Discoveries. In addition, a Success Stories video produced this past year by ATE Central and WGBH Boston was featured with the story. To find out more visit NSF Discoveries by clicking here.

Are you looking for materials from the 2011 ATE PI Conference? Click here to find Pre-Conference Workshop presentations and handouts, Plenary Session and Keynote Speaker presentations, and Presentations from Concurrent and Panel Sessions.