Spotlight 4 Success

Federal Funding in Education

• American Book Company • Season 1

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Ever wondered who ensures federal education dollars make it to classrooms where they can truly impact student learning? Faith Goshay, an Education Specialist with the Alabama State Department of Education, pulls back the curtain on this critical process during our interview at the Alabama Federal Programs Conference.

Spotlight 4 Success: Spotlight 4 Success

Speaker 1:

Welcome to Spotlight for Success by American Book Company. I am Devin Pintosi, your host. We are here at the Alabama Federal Programs Conference with Faith Gaucher. Hello, she is an education specialist with the Alabama State Department of Education. Welcome, faith.

Speaker 2:

Thank you. Thank you, how are you today?

Speaker 1:

Wonderful Faith. Tell us a little bit about what you do and your role with the State Department, and what kind of things brought you here to this conference.

Speaker 2:

Okay, I am an education specialist, as Devin said, with the Federal Programs Department for the State Department of Education, and so what we do, my main role is I will work with a region in the state of Alabama and we work on processing and approving their consolidated application for their federal funding.

Speaker 1:

That sounds very important. It is. It is kind of important Absolutely. Without the funding the dreams can't happen, Absolutely.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely Faith. Can you tell? Dreams can't happen, Absolutely.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely Faith. Can you tell us a bit about your journey? What got you into this role and what did you do previous that inspired you forward?

Speaker 2:

Okay, I started out as an elementary school teacher. I moved here I guess I can't quite figure out how many years it's been, it's been somewhere between 18 and 20 years. I started out as a teacher, classroom teacher. I was also a technology coordinator, ib coordinator, then assistant principal and then, most recently, before coming to the department, I served as a principal for 10 years, and then it was just time for a change, and so this position became available and the opportunity presented itself. So here I am.

Speaker 1:

At American Book Company in Woodstock, Georgia, we are committed to your students' success. As you can see behind me, we have our workbooks and we have online testing and e-books that go on fancy iPads over here, for instance. We have online testing and e-books that go on fancy iPads over here, for instance. They're all designed to help your students succeed and have higher test scores on their high-stakes assessments. Give us a call 888-264-5877, or find us on the web, abck12.com, and you can receive a free trial or a free preview book of your choice. Hope to hear from you soon. Bye-bye, that's great. That's great. I understand you are also a member here at the conference on the conference committee. Is that right?

Speaker 2:

Yes, part of. We plan several different conferences and one of them that we plan every year is the spring conference, and so, being a newbie on the staff, we got to work on the planning committee and so we've just been working for the last several months on, just, you know, making sure that everybody got registered, making sure everything all the vendors got here, and just making sure that everything was put together and goes off without a hitch.

Speaker 1:

Well, we appreciate it. This conference has been incredible, thanks to the work of her faith and her committee. That's wonderful. Do you have some ideas about what's going to be perhaps the theming or some new things that are going to happen for next year?

Speaker 2:

I know one of the big things that everybody is wondering, like what's happening with federal dollars?

Speaker 2:

And I think we find out, you know, the same time everybody else finds out, and so, just you know, the advice that we have been given and that we share with LEAs is just continue to do what you're doing and as things happen, as things change, we will let you all know. But, you know, just continuing to use those federal dollars to make sure that students are learning and they're being successful. That's, you know, that's what we have done and that's what we will continue to do.

Speaker 1:

Oh, that is just wonderful. Thank you so much, faith Cochet, with the Alabama State Department of Education. Thank you so much for being with us today.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, and thank you all for being a vendor and for helping us make this conference happen.