No. 25, June 1995 U.S. Department of Education
Special Insert on Family Involvment (see inside)
National Summer Reading Program Kicks Off
In addition to the rescissions package, the House of
Representatives passed a plan to balance the budget by the year
2002 that eliminates the Department of Education. The Senate
budget plan, which was approved by the Budget Committee but is
still being debated in the full Senate, does not propose to
eliminate the Department of Education. The Senate plan does
propose major cuts in Education Department programs, however.
Please watch this space for further updates.
Recognizing that strong reading skills are essential for success in school and in the working world, the June Satellite Town Meeting will discuss improving literacy for adults and children so they can participate fully in America's economic and civic life. Entitled "Learning to Read: Community Strategies for Creating More Literate Students and Adults," the program will look at the roles that schools, businesses, community colleges, and other local organizations have in helping all citizens to be literate.
The hour-long Town Meeting will be broadcast live on Tuesday, June 20 at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time. The program is closed- captioned and is simulcast in Spanish.
U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley and Deputy Secretary Madeleine Kunin will host a conversation with a panel of guests who have led efforts to create successful literacy programs in their schools and communities. Topics of discussion will include how local education reform efforts can encourage all students to meet high standards while reinforcing the need for basic skills, how businesses can partner with schools to ensure that every high school graduate has the skills to be literate in the workplace, and how technology can provide increased access and individualized instruction to students and adults who are learning to read.
The Department of Education produces the Satellite Town Meeting series in partnership with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Sponsors of the 1994-95 series include Bayer Corporation, The Procter and Gamble Fund, SC Johnson Wax, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Satellite coordinates are as follows ....
"My message to Americans is: Don't wish for a unilateral answer to our education dilemmas. There will never be a single solution that will be a perfect fit for our diverse society. Instead, we should work toward partnerships of families, communities, and educators who enjoy the process of problem-solving."Elaine Griffin
1995 National Teacher of the Year
Washington, D.C.
April 28, 1995
The contest was sponsored by the Coalition on Educational Initiatives whose 1995 partners include Apple Computer, Inc.; Procter and Gamble's Crest and Tide Brands; Sallie Mae; State Farm Insurance Companies; and Subaru of America, Inc. Representatives of the U.S. Department of Education serve as advisors to the program. Entries were judged on how well each program unites the community in support of education to meet an identified critical need, encourages sustained cooperation of the community, shows tangible evidence of success, demonstrates effective use of resources, and serves as a model for other communities.
Here are brief descriptions of the winners:
The Birchwood News, the town's only newspaper, is a high quality publication that is managed by students.
These after-school educational resource centers for both students and parents employ teens from the housing community as mentors and serve as models for other housing authorities.
With business and university support, this school's students, teachers, and parents now access the Internet's on-line resources instead of relying on textbooks.
Through this youth entrepreneurship training program, at-risk youth have created 67 new business enterprises, breaking the cycle of gang violence, drugs, and crime.
This rural county has established a partnership between five independent school districts, the junior college, and local businesses to help prepare graduates for the workforce or higher education.
With support from local businesses, Xenia's secondary schools have introduced a "privilege card" for students that rewards academic achievement, attendance, and behavior, granting students in-school privileges and retail discounts.
This center provides East Hartford High School students with a peer mediation and conflict resolution program, drug and alcohol counseling, and career counseling, which have contributed to a 45 percent decrease in suspensions and detentions.
Editor's note: With the goal of strengthening family involvement in children's learning, U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley formed the national Family Involvement Partnership for Learning, which has more than 130 national organizations as members. (See reverse side.) One project of the Partnership is the National Initiative on Reading and Writing, a multiyear campaign to improve students' skills, which has launched a summer reading program called "READ*WRITE*NOW!"
The members of the national Family Involvement Partnership for
Learning have identified reading, particularly during the summer,
as a key opportunity for families to participate in learning
together. The Partnership has launched the "READ*WRITE*NOW!"
summer program, which is intended to enhance children's basic
skills as well as their enjoyment of reading.
The activities in the READ*WRITE*NOW! program are meant to be completed by a child and a reading partner -- a parent, grandparent, teacher, librarian, or even another student in grade seven or above. Each reading "team" receives a READ*WRITE*NOW! kit that includes an activity book. The child and reading partner are expected to meet once or twice a week to work together on activities.
In addition to working with a reading partner, children participating in READ*WRITE*NOW! are expected to read at least 20 minutes a day throughout the summer. The READ*WRITE*NOW! kit has materials to stimulate children's interest in reading such as a certificate of participation, a bookmark, and a coupon for a free personal pan pizza at Pizza Hut, a national sponsor.
The partners for the summer reading program include the U.S.
Department of Education, Reading is Fundamental, the Center for
the Book at the Library of Congress, the American Association of
School Librarians, the National Association of Secondary School
Principals, the National Association of Elementary School
Principals, Nickelodeon, Hadassah, the International Reading Association, and Pizza Hut.
[The National Family Involvement Partnership for Learning continues to add to its membership.]
Academy for Educational Development; AFL-CIO; African Methodist Episcopal Church; Agudath Israel of America; American Alliance of Physical and Health Education, Recreation and Dance; American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education; American Association of School Administrators; American Council for the Arts; American Federation of Teachers; American Gas Association; American Youth Policy Forum; ASPIRA; Assemblies of God; Association for Supervision of Curriculum Development; Association of Christian Schools International; B'nai B'rith International; Boys and Girls Club of America; CeDAR; Center for Law and Education; Center for the Improvement of Child Caring; Center for the Study of Parent Involvement; Center on Families, Communities, Schools and Children's Learning; Chamber of Commerce; Children's Aid Society; Christian Brothers Conference; Church of God in Christ; Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints; College Board; Commission on Family Ministries; Committee for Economic Development; Council for American Private Education; Council for Exceptional Children; Council of Bishops of the United Methodist Church; Council of Chief State School Officers; Council of Jewish Federations; Council of Spouses of Bishops of the United Methodist Church; Council of the Great City Schools; Education Today; ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education; Evangelical Lutheran Church in America; Families and Work Institute; Family Resource Coalition; Family Service America; Fort Hood, Texas; General Conference of the Seventh Day Adventist Church; General Conference of the Seventh Day Adventist; General Federation of Women's Clubs; Girl Scouts of USA; Grandparents Network, American Association for Retired Persons; Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America; Hispanic Policy Development Project; Home and School Institute; Institute for Educational Leadership; Institute for Responsive Education; International Reading Association; Lancaster Area Council of Mennonite Schools; Mennonite Church; Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund; Muslim Public Affairs Council; National Alliance of Business; National Assembly of National Voluntary Health and Social Welfare Organizations; National Association for Bilingual Education; National Association for the Education of Young Children; National Association of Evangelicals; National Association of State Directors of Vocational Technical Education; National Association of Social Workers; National Association of Secondary School Principals; National Association of School Psychologists; National Association of Elementary School Principals; National Association of Partners in Education; National Association of State Boards of Education; National Baptist Convention; National Black Child Development Institute; National Catholic Education Association; National Center for Family Literacy; National Church of God; National Coalition of Title I/Chapter 1 Parents; National Community Education Association; National Conference of Christians and Jews; National Council of Churches of Christ; National Council of La Raza; National Dropout Center; National Education Association, Center for Revitalization of Urban Education; National Education Goals Panel; National Head Start Association; National Information Center for Children and Youth with Disabilities; National Institute for Literacy; National Middle Schools Association; National Parent Network on Disabilities; National PTA; National School Boards Association; National School Supply and Equipment Association; National Small Business United; National Urban League; Optimists International; Organization of Chinese Americans; Organizations Concerned About Rural Education; Parents As Teachers National Center, Inc.; Parents for Public Schools; Parents, Inc.; Partnership for Learning; Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc.; Quality Education for Minorities Network; Rabbinical Assembly; RMC Research; Scholastic, Inc.; School Improvement Council Assistance Project; Shiloh Baptist Church; Solomon Schechter Day School Association; Southern Baptist Convention; The Betty Phillips Center for Parenthood Education; The Buddy System Project; The Business Roundtable; The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod; The Parent Institute; Union of American Hebrew Congregations; Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America; United States Catholic Conference; United Synagogues of Conservative Judaism; United Way of America; Webster's International, Inc.; YMCA of USA; Youth Guidance of Chicago.
The National Family Involvement Partnership for Learning is bringing its conference booth to national and regional meetings of its Partners' organizations. To tell us about your conference, write to The National Family Involvement Partnership for Learning, 600 Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, DC 20202-8173. Where to Find Us
Led by Secretary of Education Richard Riley and Deputy Secretary Madeleine Kunin, the program looked at how diversity presents both a challenge for schools and an opportunity to energize reform efforts. Members of the studio audience shared some of the successful strategies being used in Washington, D.C. public schools to teach a diverse student population. "In a given school, you might find 30 different languages," said Elena Izquierdo, Director of the Language Minority Affairs Branch of D.C. schools. "One of the key ways to incorporate this diversity is offering a lot of support and training for all personnel and making sure that schools are responsive to the needs of the student population."
The importance of setting high standards of achievement for students from all backgrounds was a major theme of the program. "High achievement and language diversity go together," said guest panelist Bill Rojas, Superintendent of San Francisco public schools. "Our flagship high school -- Lowell -- with a predominantly minority student population is one of the top academic schools in the nation."
Huong Tran Nguyen, the 1994 Disney American Outstanding Teacher, reiterated the importance of high expectations in a live satellite uplink from Long Beach, California. Ms. Nguyen's students are from Eastern Europe, India, South America, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Islands. "I let them know that they need to be shooting for the moon, and then, if they miss, they'll still be landing among the stars."
The importance of involving families of diverse students in their children's learning was also discussed in the program. Panelist Darrell Donelson, an elementary school principal from Dearborn, Michigan, has printed the school handbook in both English and Arabic in order to reach the Arabic families of 80 percent of his students. Panelist Cheryl Chow, a member of the City Council in Seattle, Washington, has led efforts to organize a city-wide parent summit to support parents in their central role in education. Some workshops will be bilingual so the entire community can be reached.
A taped report on Balderas Elementary School in Fresno, California provided another model of a successful parent involvement strategy. In a community where 98 percent of the students belong to ethnic minorities, Balderas involves nearly 80 percent of its parents in monthly education workshops. School notices are sent home in four languages: English, Spanish, Hmong, and Khmer.
The need to help students from diverse backgrounds make a smooth transition into the working world was also addressed in the Town Meeting. Panelist Barbara Clark, manager of community development at the Liberty Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland, coordinates a program to encourage high school dropouts to continue their education so they can find good jobs. Students are paired with mentors who are recruited from local businesses and who provide job shadowing experiences.
Also on the panel was Elaine Griffin, the 1995 National Teacher of the Year, who teaches in the remote village of Chiniak, Alaska. She summed up the positive focus of the Town Meeting: "I like to think of diversity in the schools as being similar to an orchestra. The more instruments you have, the more beautiful the music is. I think we should value the diversity we have as one of our biggest strengths."
A packet of materials is available on successful strategies for
diverse student populations. Included are a booklet on reaching
out to families of students with limited English proficiency, and
an idea book about schoolwide programs that challenge all
students to learn to high standards, featuring examples of
successful schools. To request the materials, write to the GOALS
2000 Information Resource Center, U.S. Department of Education,
Room 2421, 600 Independence Ave., S.W., Washington, D.C., 20202.
In Michigan, teacher training is also a priority in school improvement efforts. The Saginaw School System and Midland County School District are using GOALS 2000 funds in a program that pairs new teachers with experienced mentors who assist in teaching techniques for standards-based curricula. In Battle Creek Public Schools, lead teachers in math and science work as mentors and subject matter experts for 14 nearby districts. In Massachusetts, GOALS 2000 funds are being used to engage the public in school improvement efforts with publicity campaigns in high visibility places from supermarkets to public transit stations. Participation from 15,000 Massachusetts residents led to the development of state education goals for public school children, known as the Common Core of Learning.
For a complete progress report on GOALS 2000, write to the GOALS
2000 Information Resource Center, U.S. Department of Education,
Room 2421, 600 Independence Ave., S.W., Washington, D.C., 20202.
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