A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

• Support performing arts, athletics, academic clubs, museum outings and other positive activities for children both in and beyond the traditional school day. Ensure that children with disabilities, limited English proficiency and other special needs can access your programs.

• Share team building, negotiation and communication strategies that deal with conflict resolution.

  
  

  ---

  John Hancock Financial Services Sponsors Kids-to-Go, Boston, Massachusetts

  What happens to children when school is closed but the workplace isn't? Since 1990, John Hancock's Kids-to-Go program has provided day-long supervised activities for employees' school-aged children (6-14) during school holidays. The daily cost per child is $20, although scholarships of $10 per day are available to employees' whose income does not exceed $30,000. Children bring their lunch. With enrollment based on a first come, first served basis, as many as 50 children can participate each day. The children's activities are staffed by child care professionals, and vary by season and by the ages of the children. Activities have included roller skating and bowling, harbor cruises, visits to local museums and zoos, Red Sox games, and movies and shows. Children who participate in the program are covered under the company's umbrella insurance policy.

"Just Open Your Eyes and See . . . Through an Ant's Eyes"
Sloan Schmidtke, Birmingham, AL

ENCOURAGE PARENT AND FAMILY INVOLVEMENT

• Sign the Employers' Promise for Learning. Small and large employers are pledging to help improve education and be family-friendly for learning. Call 1-800-USA-LEARN for more information. Businesses are offering leave and/or flex time for employees and family members to volunteer in school or participate in school activities.

• Help a school establish a parent resource center or provide information through the workplace.

• Support programs in the community that help educate parents and other caring adults on how they can participate in helping children learn. The 1996 National Education Summit policy statement crafted by CEOs and governors pledges the support of employers to "adopt policies to support parental involvement in their children's education and in improving their schools."

  ---

  Southern California Edison Helps East Los Angeles Parents

  Southern California Edison (SCE) is making an investment in its local community. SCE understands that children's first teachers are their parents. And if they reach into the family with help and support, they will help to increase student success in school. The company supports the Parent Institute for Quality Education, which has helped to train more than 7500 parents from the East Los Angeles community to participate actively in their children's education.

  ---

  Parents, Industry, Educators Cooperating for Educational Success in Catawba County, North Carolina

  Helping parents meet their children's education needs has been the business of Project PIECES "Parents, Industry, Educators Cooperating for Educational Success" since 1987. This innovative program takes school counselors to the worksite where parents can review report cards, teachers' comments, and learn about financial planning for college and tech prep.

  Albert Gaither, president of Ridgeview, Inc. which runs the project, observed that the program is good business for his company: "Happier parents make better employees." One counselor observed, "Fathers love it! Participation among fathers has soared! For divorced fathers who don't have custody, these counseling visits might be the first time the father has seen a child's report card." Another result of the parent/counselor relationships is the disappearance of truancy among those students whose parents participate.

  Ridgeview, Inc., and Neuville Industries won the 1996 Working Mothers Magazine Golden Apple Award for employer practices that enhance family involvement in children's learning.

"I support the United States Department of Education's efforts, America Goes Back to School. I encourage all parents to get involved with their children's education."
Cal Ripkin, Jr., 1995
Baltimore Orioles
American League

HELP AMERICA BECOME A READING, LITERATE SOCIETY

• Encourage your employees to read and write with their children and grandchildren every night or volunteer to be a tutor. Provide copies of READ*WRITE*NOW! kits for employees, by obtaining them from the U.S. Department of Education at 1-800-USA-LEARN or co-publishing them with your business's logo on them. The READ*WRITE*NOW! program enhances children's basic skills as well as their enjoyment of reading by encouraging children to read daily and providing activities that can be completed with an older reading partner.

• Identify schools and community organizations that can provide extra help before and after school in reading for employees' children and grandchildren, and for adults to learn to read and write better. Help promote adult and family literacy.

  ---

  READ*WRITE*NOW! in Fox Cities, Wisconsin

  Children read all summer long and beyond thanks to the Fox Cities Alliance for Education, an initiative of the Fox Cities Chamber of Commerce and Industry located in Appleton, Wisconsin. Local employers rallied around local schools to promote READ*WRITE*NOW!, a reading and writing program of the Partnership for Family Involvement in Education. Fox Cities employers and employees developed a plan for partners to read to students during the summer and to extend the program into the school year. Employers also donated paper and supplies and reproduced the printed materials for the program at no cost. More than 1500 reading kits were distributed to students in the Fox Cities area last summer. Fox Cities is participating in READ*WRITE*NOW! again in summer 1996. This year they plan to undertake an evaluation of the effects of the program on children's reading.

REACH FOR NEW LEVELS OF EXCELLENCE: ACHIEVE HIGH STANDARDS AND REAL ACCOUNTABILITY

• Assist in school improvement efforts. Provide apprenticeship and internship opportunities for students geared to high academic and occupational standards.

• Encourage part-time student employees to attend school every day and to study hard. Ask to see transcripts and diplomas when high school graduates apply for jobs, and call teachers or principals to get job references. This will send students the message that achievement in school counts in the working world.

• Work with other employers and local schools and parents to help define what skills, knowledge, and work habits are needed and help schools and parents make the needed changes in their schools to keep up to date with changing education and workforce demands.

  ---

  OMAHA 2000, Nebraska

  OMAHA 2000 is a local voluntary organization established in 1991 whose mission is to serve as a catalyst to facilitate the changes necessary to meet the national education goals in a planned and purposeful way with measured results. Each December, OMAHA 2000 issues a Community Progress Report. Each of the goal areas is evaluated and assigned a grade based on the progress or lack of progress in that area. The entire report is printed in a full page ad in the Omaha World-Herald and distributed to over 225,000 households. According to John Gottschalk, chairman of OMAHA 2000 and publisher of the Omaha World-Herald, "the Progress Report...gives the community the opportunity to reflect on the progress and on the work yet to be done."

"Sharing a Book"
Jamie King, Meridian, MS

MAKE TECHNOLOGY AVAILABLE SO ALL CHILDREN WILL SUCCEED IN THE 21st CENTURY

• Establish computer donation and computer upgrading programs for schools and families. Assist schools directly by supplying used, no-cost, or low-cost computers and software, modems, and training and support to help teachers use technology in the classroom.

• Act as an on-line mentor to students, parents, teachers, and community members who are exploring the best ways to use new technology for learning. If you use the Internet, help teachers learn how they and their students can also use it. Contact the National Tech Corps for volunteers in your community who are working with schools.

• Assist your school in becoming wired for the 21st century.

  ---

  Launching into Cyberspace: NetDay96

  Everybody from construction workers to President Clinton and Vice President Gore drilled holes and pulled cables to launch California schools into cyberspace. Over 17,000 volunteers turned out for NetDay96, a grass-roots technology effort to link a minimum of five classrooms to the Internet. Juan Herrera, an engineer at San Diego-based Qualcomm Incorporated, found out about NetDay through an e-mail. Herrera focused his company's efforts on National City Middle School, an inner city school in San Diego County. Many of the parents of the children who attend the school cannot afford computers at home, and the students depend on schools to learn the new technology that will give their futures a boost. Herrera was able to convince Qualcomm management that they should wire not 5 classrooms but 50 classrooms, effectively wiring the entire school. Qualcomm supplied fiber optic cable, engineers and technical know-how in the preparation of wiring schematics. President Clinton described NetDay "a modern version of an old-fashioned barn raising" because of the event's many volunteers. "All of us are here today because we know, purely and simply, that every single child must have access to a computer, must understand it, must have access to good software and good teachers and, yes, to the Internet," Clinton told a cheering crowd of students, teachers and NetDay volunteers in Northern California.

  ---

  The Department of Defense Helps Give Schools a Free Ride on the Information Highway

  Department of Defense agencies may donate excess computer hardware and software to state-accredited public and private elementary and secondary schools. These kinds of gifts make principals very happy. "We're very excited about it because our goal is to make our students computer literate," exclaimed Principal Brenda Bowden of Fort Belvoir's Cheney Elementary School. A donation of more than a dozen used computers from the Virginia-based Defense Mapping School and Defense System Management College helped put at least one computer in every classroom at Cheney.

  The U.S. Army Center for Public Works, a partner with Mount Vernon High School in Alexandria, Virginia, also transferred almost 25 pallets of computer equipment, including printers. "This equipment allows us to work toward meeting our goal of giving students daily access to technology," noted Robert Sanders, technology coordinator at Mount Vernon.

  Schools interested in finding out what equipment is available should start with the Property Book Officer (PBO) of a military installation in the same state as the school.

"Now, more than ever, is the time for companies to make investments supporting the development of an educated workforce. Finances alone will not get the job done. We need to work side by side with local community organizations to provide hands-on tutoring and mentoring, which are key to a child's learning process ."
Kent C. "Oz" Nelson
UPS Chairman and CEO

PREPARE YOUNG PEOPLE FOR CAREERS: A STRONG TRANSITION FROM SCHOOL TO WORK

• Share with the school and community the skills that are needed for today's and tomorrow's jobs, and work with schools to help students learn those skills. Offer work-study opportunities for students and summer internship opportunities for teachers.

• Contact the high schools in your area to see if there is a school-to-work or tech prep program available. If a program exists, offer to participate by providing work-based learning experiences, apprenticeships, internships, work study, training and mentoring for students. If no program exists, start one by working with other employers, high schools, and community colleges.

• Encourage your employees to volunteer at school to demonstrate what they do. Set up a program where students can shadow employees to learn about their jobs. Employees can help teachers through guest lectures and interesting classroom activities.

MAKE COLLEGE MORE ACCESSIBLE: KEEP THE PROMISE OF THE AMERICAN DREAM

• Volunteer to visit a school and talk to students about the importance of life-long learning. Discuss the connection between the skills and knowledge you gained in high school and college, and the skills and knowledge that you use each day at work. Sponsor shadowing programs, internships, and apprenticeships in your businesses for middle school, high school, and college students so they can learn about careers firsthand.

• If you have expertise in financial planning and are familiar with the ways that families can save money for coll ege, volunteer to talk about various savings strategies to students and parents at an elementary school or middle school in your area. Businesses can help sponsor scholarships for those most in need.

  ---

  GTE Corporation Helps Families Plan for College

  Communications giant GTE Corporation admits to keeping its workers busy. That is why the company held a teleconference recently to teach employees and their children the ABCs of college planning. The college planning seminar gives working parents the information they might not have the time or resources to research on their own. Asking everything from how to pay for college to where to send applications, 1400 employees and their children attended the college planning seminar. GTE originated the interactive teleconference from four major plants and broadcast it live to 18 of the company's buildings across the country. The day-long seminar featured panels and experts who answered questions and gave presentations on college admissions, financial aid, and student life. Selecting a college will be easier for many families because the seminar walked them step-by-step through the process.

Better Education Is Everybody's Business