Funded grants were selected based on the quality of theproposed ideas and their potential for enhancing student achievement.The NEA Foundation plans to fund about 150 of its Student Achievement Grantsand Learning & Leadership Grants over the next year Awardees will beannounced in three rounds. Deadlines for the next review periods are June 1and October 15, 2009 and Feb. 1, 2010.As of February 1, 2009, the NEA Foundation has transitioned to an onlineapplication process. "In an increasingly technologically savvy world, we want to encourageeducators to use all of the resources they have at their fingertips, many ofwhich can be found on the Internet," Sanford said.

* Firm gets all-cash, cash and shares approaches Private Capital * Also interest in minority stake in private equity firm * Apologises for position of the company-chairman * 3 companies face covenant issues, 12 ahead of plan in Q1(Adds comment from chairman, shareholders at AGM) By Simon Meads LONDON, May 13 (Reuters) - Private equity group CandoverInvestments Plc (CDI.L) said it had received approaches toacquire the company outright or to buy a minority stake as itlooks to salvage the value in its investment portfolio. "Clearly Candover is not in good shape and I and your boardapologise for that," chairman Gerry Grimstone told the group'sAGM. He said the company had received several expressions ofinterest, ranging from proposals to acquire it for cash or for amixture of cash and shares to plans for third parties to take aminority stake. Grimstone added that all the approaches were still subjectto due diligence, and there was no guarantee on any particularoutcome. Candover said in March it was no longer in a position toinvest in its own 2008 fund, throwing the future of the firminto doubt. The firm had previously pledged to put 1 billioneuros ($1.3 billion) into its planned 5 billion euro fund. "To sell out at the bottom of the market is probably amistake," said one shareholder from the floor.

"The upside seemsto me to be considerable." The view was echoed by past chairman Stephen Curran who saidcloser attention should have been paid to stress testing thecompany's covenants and could have allowed the board to launch arights issue earlier and at a higher share price. Candover shares had lost 97 percent of their value by theend of March, before staging a recovery in April They stood 2.3percent lower at 291 pence at 1509 GMT. "And this year, we areplacing special emphasis on green and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering,and Math) grants." The latest grants were awarded to educators in 28 states: Alabama, Arizona,California, Colorado, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii,Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, NewHampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon,Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. The NEA Foundation reviewed more than 500 proposals received between Februaryand April. A team of 20 educators, many of whom are former grantees, carefullyreviewed all applications and evaluated each one against a set of criteria,according to Sanford. Programs and facilities arecontinually upgraded to coincide with developments made in technology andcommunications.Madison Media Institute is accredited nationally by the AccreditingCommission of Career Schools and Colleges of Technology.

For moreinformation please visit or call 1-800-236-4997.Aimee BibaMADISON MEDIA INSTITUTE608-663-2000Email Contact 2009, Market Wire, All rights reserved.-0-. NEA Foundation Funds Reading and Math ProgramWASHINGTON, May 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Patricia Bernauer and Julie Eichmuller ofRockside School in Maple Heights, Ohio have received a $5,000 StudentAchievement Grant from the NEA Foundation to help students gain skills inreading, writing, and measurement. Through the program, Title 1 reading andmath students, with 20 gifted students as peer tutors, will use literature tolearn math measurements needed for myriad careers.Utilizing this measurementinformation, students will plan, write, and illustrate their own book ofmeasurement.Nationwide, the NEA Foundation today announced that it has awarded 28 grantstotaling $113,000 to support educators' ideas to improve teaching and learningor professional development efforts. Since 1999, the NEA Foundation has funded65 grants for Ohio educators."Over the last 40 years, the NEA Foundation has worked to improve publiceducation by strengthening the teaching profession and by investing inprograms that focus on student achievement.Through these grants, we areimproving the quality of teaching and learning for everyone," said HarrietSanford, CEO and President of the NEA Foundation. Life in Gangland" at the Orpheum theatre Saturday, May16, 2009 at 8:00PM. Rick is a Video Motion Graphics graduate of MMI,director and co-writer of "Ruthless" which was filmed on location inMadison.MMI Spring 2009 Film Fest winner "Left is West" will be shown prior to the"Ruthless" premiere.