Microsoft gives $1.3 million in software licenses to schools

Forty-eight middle school and high school teachers nationwide will receive more than $1.3 million in software licenses from Microsoft Corp., allowing them to teach more advanced information technology classes.

The two-year competitive Curriculum Grant Program 2000 awards, ranging from $10,380 to $41,575 per school, will be used for classes in computer science and programming, World Wide Web site development and information systems.

As part of the awards, begun in 1998 to help address the IT work force shortage, teachers must post current curricula and course materials on the Main Function Web site, so that other educators can use them.

The site provides a newsletter and resources for educators who teach IT curricula.

The Microsoft products include Visual Basic, Visual C++ and Visual J++ development systems, Office 2000 Developer Edition and Visual InterDev Web development system, as well as Windows operating systems.