Dear Friends of Education:
I invite you to join me and others during the week of September 11 to kick off America Goes Back to School: A Place for Families and the Community. Through this effort we are encouraging all Americans to support family and community involvement in learning. I am inviting leaders and successful role models like you from all walks of life to support this initiative by going back to school and participating in an activity that demonstrates how simple, yet important, it is to be involved in improving our schools and making them safe places of learning. I see this as a first step in an effort to involve adults in schools year-round.
The Family Involvement Partnership for Learning, a coalition of more than 140 family, community, religious and education organizations dedicated to improving children's learning through the development of family-school-community partnerships, is sponsoring America Goes Back to School in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Education. The Partnership also enjoys support from many family-friendly businesses.
America Goes Back to School: A Place for Families and the Community invites individuals -- parents, grandparents, community leaders, professionals, people skilled in vocational trades, members of the arts community, religious leaders, and lay people...all Americans - - to rally around their local schools and make a commitment to support education improvement and community involvement throughout the year. This support and involvement can help our schools to further improve and sends a message to our children that we care and want them to be successful.
Studies show that family and community support for education results in students learning to higher standards and schools that are safer. America Goes Back to School encourages adults everywhere to make a commitment throughout the year to be meaningfully involved in local schools, and help prepare all children to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
A resource guide of key education issues and practical ideas on how you can be involved will be available in early September. You may order your copy by calling the U.S. Department of Education at 1- 800-USA-LEARN. I hope this guide will help facilitate your participation in America Goes Back to School.
Your support for family involvement in children's learning can make a positive difference: a win/win situation for families, schools and communities across the nation. Please contact your local media and encourage them to feature the good work being done for school improvement in your community. I welcome your support of and participation in America Goes Back to School and hope that you will get involved with this opportunity.
Richard W. Riley
More than a hundred of the nation's leading educators will share their knowledge, expertise and insight at the 1995 Goals 2000 Teacher Forum, the third annual national meeting of its kind. The Forum, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, will take place from November 12-14, 1995, and will focus on professional development. Communities across the country are placing a high priority on investing in teachers' professional development, from their pre-service training throughout their careers.
Because the Education Department wants to involve as many teachers as possible in the national Forum, major portions of the event will be broadcast live via satellite for the first time. Local educators are invited to take part in the Forum at their own meetings in downlink sites across the country. A toll-free number will be provided so that the teleconference audience can participate in all interactive sessions. Community Update will publicize more information on downlink sites and satellite coordinates closer to the event.
The 1995 GOALS 2000 Teacher Forum has two primary objectives:
The Goals 2000 Teacher Forum brings together all current state- level Teachers of the Year for discussions on ways teachers can become more actively involved in education improvement initiatives. Joining the Teachers of the Year will be teachers currently serving on state Goals 2000 planning teams or others selected by teams as delegates. Representative teachers from private, religious and Department of Defense Dependents Schools also will be attending.
"We're excited about shifting the focus from teachers as objects of reform to teachers as partners in education improvement," said Terry Dozier, the special advisor on teaching to U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley and a former national Teacher of the Year. "Secretary Riley recognizes that teachers are one of the most valuable, yet underutilized resources for improvement in American education."
Teachers who have attended the previous forums and have applied their knowledge to involve their colleagues in innovative local and state reform efforts will share their experiences with the 1995 Forum participants. Additional sessions will assist Forum participants with acquiring leadership and networking skills to help make effective improvements at the local and state levels. Special speakers at the Forum will include Education Secretary Richard W. Riley, Deputy Education Secretary Madeleine Kunin, Terry Dozier, and a representative of the AT&T Foundation, the corporate sponsor of the event.
To obtain more information about the teleconference, call 1-800-
USA-LEARN.
With a special "Back to School" program, the August Town Meeting
will air live on Tuesday, August 29, from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Eastern time. Following this program, the Satellite Town
Meeting will return to its usual broadcast schedule on the third
Tuesday of each month. Call 1-800-USA-LEARN for information on satellite coordinates.
To order the above 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.
With more than 140 national organizations committed to helping
families fulfill their central role in education, the Family
Involvement Partnership for Learning continues to grow. We are
delighted to welcome the newest members and acknowledge their
efforts in support of family involvement in children's learning:
At stake for students, families, schools and colleges is a difference in investment of approximately $76 billion over the next 7 years. Areas affected most would be the basics and core academics, safety in schools, accountability, teacher quality, access to higher education, and financial aid for college.
So that parent, community, and education leaders have a better idea of how this budget debate affects their state, below are projections of the net loss in funding between the President's plan and the plan of the Congressional leadership. The Congressional estimates are based on action taken on education only in the House Appropriations Subcommittee as this edition went to press. As the Congressional plan moves through the budget process, the figures may change. Watch this space for further updates.
FY 1996-2002
(amounts in millions)
Alabama $1060 Kentucky $980 North Dakota $240 Alaska $210 Louisiana $1390 Ohio $2520 Arizona $970 Maine $260 Oklahoma $930 Arkansas $610 Maryland $800 Oregon $670 California $6260 Massachusetts $1290 Pennsylvania $2700 Colorado $740 Michigan $2340 Rhode Island $250 Connecticut $480 Minnesota $1000 South Carolina $790 Delaware $150 Mississippi $890 South Dakota $260 Dist of Col $720 Missouri $1160 Tennessee $1110 Florida $2490 Montana $280 Texas $4280 Georgia $1380 Nebraska $370 Utah $510 Hawaii $190 Nevada $200 Vermont $180 Idaho $270 New Hampshire $220 Virginia $1130 Illinois $2530 New Jersey $1220 Washington $1020 Indiana $1200 New Mexico $500 West Virginia $510 Iowa $670 New York $5210 Wisconsin $1120 Kansas $590 North Carolina $1230 Wyoming $170
Public schools should not be hostile to religion. ... Confusion about what the Courts will and will not allow should not lead teachers or principals to violate the many established religious rights of students.
... The President is saying quite clearly that too many people have interpreted the Supreme Court decisions as precluding religious expression. He strongly disagrees and believes that the decisions do in fact allow great latitude for significant religious expression. The President feels that those who believe that religious expression and religious freedom are precluded by the decisions of the Court or the Constitution are just wrong.
Equally, the President rejects those who want organized prayer in our public schools. Public schools -- and for that matter any other level of government -- should not interfere or intrude on a family's religious beliefs. It goes against our grain to coerce people on something so important as their religious beliefs.
Public education should be respectful of religion, open to
appropriate religious expression, and teach about religion
because it is so very much a part of our nation's history. But
teachers and principals should not be put in the position of
advocating religion.
A group of 100 national organizations, representing parents, businesses, arts and general education, museums, higher education, foundations, and government agencies, are helping to make the arts a central component in state and local school improvement plans. These organizations form the GOALS 2000 Arts Partnership, which was convened by the National Endowment for the Arts with support from the U.S. Department of Education. The Partnership will now be housed at the Council of Chief State School Officers, who will administer it with the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, helping to strengthen the link between the arts and state and local education reform.
The arts are already being featured in innovative school improvement plans in communities across the country. In Nucla, Colorado, the West End Public Schools District is implementing a program, funded by a GOALS 2000 grant, to raise academic standards and help all children learn to their full potential by integrating art instruction into the teaching of other subject areas. A task force will train school staff about developing an arts-based curriculum and will also reach out to the broader community to support the program. The arts education organization, Young Audiences, will assist the task force in developing innovative teaching strategies through demonstrations and workshops in theatre, dance, and music.
The Schenectady City School District in New York is also integrating the arts into the teaching of other disciplines, focusing on math, science and technology education for grades K- 4. Assisted by a GOALS 2000 grant, the district will work in partnership with Union College to train teachers to use inquiry- based methods that emphasize active learning and the connections between subject areas. The district will collaborate with the Schenectady Museum, the Empire State Aeroscience Museum, and New York State Museum as well as with individual artists who also have specialties in math and science.
Schenectady is the world headquarters of General Electric's
Industrial and Power Systems business as well as GE's Research
and Development Center. The district has benefited from GE's
support of arts education, which has included funding, employee
mentoring, and advocacy for programs. Dr. Walter Robb, retired
director of GE's Research and Development Center, summarizes how
the arts can stimulate student achievement in other areas. "To
develop future leadership for our community and our country, we
need to encourage the development of abilities beyond technical
skills. Abilities like a dissatisfaction for the usual
approach... receptivity to continual change... to be not just
informed, but also aware. Hands-on involvement in the arts is
one of the best ways for young people to gain these abilities."
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