Across America teachers are joining a national team to help each
other use technology to its full potential to enrich students' learning. They call themselves 21st Century Teachers, and they hope to be 100,000 strong.
The 21st Century Teachers' Initiative is administered by 19 national organizations representing parents, teachers, administrators, librarians, school boards, community colleges, and the high-tech industry, with the support of the U.S. Department of Education. This public-private partnership recognizes the urgent need to prepare students for the Information Age and the jobs of the future.
"Today's students still need to know the three R's, the old basics. But they also need to understand how to use the three W's -- the World Wide Web, and take advantage of the unsurpassed learning opportunities available on the Internet," said U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley at an October 1 event in Washington, D.C., that was designed to recruit teachers to the effort.
The partners involved in the 21st Century Teachers Initiative understand that in order to best serve students, teachers themselves must sharpen their technology skills. 21st Century Teachers pledge to build their own expertise in using new learning technologies; share their expertise and experience with colleagues; use their expertise with students as part of the daily learning process; and work to make classroom technology available to all students and teachers.
Each 21st Century teacher volunteers to train 5 colleagues in how to use technology as a tool to enrich students' classroom experience and improve the quality of education. Parents, administrators, business partners and other sponsors of the program pledge to support teachers by providing professional development opportunities, creating awards and incentives for using educational technology, and developing educational resources and curriculum materials that integrate advanced technologies into classroom learning.
Last month's event in Washington, D.C., took place at Highway 1, a state-of-the-art demonstration site funded by leading technology companies. Teachers demonstrated first-hand the wealth of educational resources available on the Internet and the specialized resources designed for educators at the 21st Century Teachers website. .
First announced by President Clinton in May 1996, 21st Century Teachers is a local grassroots initiative, achieving results community by community and classroom by classroom. "Trained teachers using the latest technology is the key to raising student achievement and student performance -- and that, we know, is our goal," said Anne Bryant, Executive Director of the National School Boards Association, one of the sponsoring groups.
Other sponsors include the American Association of Community Colleges, American Association of School Administrators, American Association of School Librarians, American Federation of Teachers, American Library Association, Apple Computer, Inc., the Council of Chief State School Officers, ETC, IBM Corporation, the International Society for Technology in Education, National Association of Secondary School Principals, National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, National Congress of Parents and Teachers, National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, National Education Association, NetCom, Software Publishers Association, and United States Tech Corps.
Entitled "Schools as Safe Havens: Discipline, Safety, and Truancy Prevention," the hour-long Town Meeting will air on Tuesday, November 19 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The program will be closed-captioned and will be simulcast in Spanish.
U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley will welcome a panel of local education and community leaders who will share success stories and advice on involving parents in truancy prevention and school discipline, ensuring that students at risk of disciplinary problems are actively engaged in learning, enforcing consistent sanctions for truancy and disciplinary problems, and working with law enforcement and social service agencies.
The Department of Education produces the Satellite Town Meeting series in partnership with the National Alliance of Business and the Center for Workforce Preparation with support from the Bayer Foundation, the Procter and Gamble Fund, Microsoft, Inc., and SC Johnson Wax.
Satellite coordinates are as follows ....C-Band: Galaxy 9, Orbital Location 123 degrees West; Transponder 1; Vertical Polarity; Channel 1; Downlink Frequency 3720 MHz; Audio Subcarriers 6.2 MHz (Spanish) and 6.8 MHz (English).
Ku-Band: SBS-6, Orbital Location 74 degrees West; Transponder 15; Horizontal Polarity; Channel 15; Downlink Frequency 12068 MHz; Audio Subcarriers 6.2 MHz (Spanish) and 6.8 MHz (English).
To participate in the Satellite Town Meeting, contact your local Public Broadcasting System (PBS) member station, Chamber of Commerce, or Johnson Controls branch office and ask if your group can use the facility as a downlink site. Other possible sites are local schools, public libraries, community colleges, cable television stations, universities and technical schools, government offices, hospitals, businesses, hotels, or even private residences with satellite dishes. Call 1-800-USA-LEARN for further information or to register your participation.
The ERIC system is part of the U.S. Department of Education's National Library of Education, with 16 subject-specific ERIC Clearinghouses and 10 Adjunct Clearinghouses. ERIC Clearinghouses produce more than 250 special publications each year on current research, programs, and practices, including the popular ERIC Digests, 2-page summaries on topics such as reading instruction and educational technology. The clearinghouses also respond to thousands of e-mail, phone, and mail requests for information.
ERIC is keeping pace with the increasing emphasis on the role of parents in their children's education by preparing and distributing free parent materials in print and electronic formats. Parent brochures that provide answers to commonly asked questions on topics such as playground safety, school readiness, and college planning are available from ACCESS ERIC. Call 1-800- LET-ERIC to request the current set. The National Parent Information Network (http://npin.org), is a World Wide Web site providing short articles on child rearing and child development as well as electronic discussion groups.
You can search the ERIC database, which contains descriptions of nearly a million education documents and journal articles, on any education-related topic. If you have access to the Internet, you can do a free ERIC search at http://ericir.syr.edu. You may also use ERIC at more than 800 locations across the country; call 1-800-LET-ERIC for the location of a library near you.
All ERIC Clearinghouses have toll-free numbers as well as e-mail and Web addresses. If you need information and are not sure where to start, call 1-800-LET-ERIC or e-mail your question to askeric@ericir.syr.edu. You can also explore ERIC resources by starting with the systemwide Web page at http://www.eric.ed.gov/. The award-winning AskERIC Virtual Library (http://ericir.syr.edu) provides hundreds of lesson plans and InfoGuides that help users navigate the Internet.
Editor's note: Communities across the country have planned more than 1500 events as part of the America Goes Back to School: Get Involved! initiative. This effort encourages all Americans -- parents, grandparents, employers and employees, members of the arts community, religious leaders, and every caring adult -- to rally around their local schools and make a commitment to support learning throughout the year. Here's a sample of recent local events that have taken place.
Responding to Secretary Riley's summer reading challenge, 900 elementary school children strengthened their reading and writing skills by participating in a program sponsored by the Kansas City, Mo. School District's Title I program in partnership with Girl Scouts of the USA and the AMC Theaters.
The 3R's Project -- Reinforcing Reading and wRiting -- helped Title I students retain the learning gains they made during the regular school year. Students met with reading partners who read with students at least once a week for 30 minutes. Daily reading and writing activities were assigned to be completed at home with the help of a family member. Children were encouraged to read on their own at least 20 minutes a day and write 10 minutes a day.
Students received incentives to complete daily reading and writing activities, including an age-appropriate dictionary, a summer journal to encourage writing, the opportunity to earn "book bucks" that could be used to buy books for a personal library, and a McDonald's gift certificate for acquiring a library card.
The Kansas City reading partners included Title I staff, middle school students, and Girl Scouts. Sixteen community agencies throughout the city set aside space where students in the 3R's Project could meet with their reading partners. These agencies included Boys and Girls Clubs, Salvation Army day camps, neighborhood community centers, and outreach centers operated by churches.
Another sponsor, AMC Theaters, encouraged parents and other family members to become reading partners for students that participated in the program. The students and their partners earned admission to a special movie screening by completing the reading activities.
The Kansas City project was one of three models nationwide designed to demonstrate the ways that reading activities can be used to extend learning time for students who participate in Title I programs. Title I is a federally-funded program that helps students improve their basic skills.
This year National Community Education Day focuses on the role of local citizens, schools, and other institutions in strengthening their communities and making them responsive to the needs of all residents. More than 40 national organizations are sponsoring National Community Education Day, including the U.S. Department of Education, National School Supply & Equipment Association, National Coalition for Parent Involvement in Education, National Urban League, and Council of Chief State School Officers.
For more information or materials on National Community Education Day, call the NCEA at (703) 359-8973.
Copyrighted material from Parenting for High Potential, reprinted with permission from the National Association for Gifted Children.
Secretary Riley's Special Assistant on Educational Technology, Linda Roberts, alerted the audience to a key decision on the rates schools will pay to use the Internet that the Federal Communications Commission will make on November 8. Secretary Riley has urged the FCC to provide schools and libraries with free access to basic telecommunications services and discounted rates for more advanced services, a recommendation supported by Commerce Secretary Kantor, Agriculture Secretary Glickman, President Clinton, and Vice President Gore.
"What we're asking for is a long-term strategy that will allow our schools to invest in technology and teacher training, and to be sure that we will be able to afford these services and resources in this decade and the decades beyond," Roberts said.
Guest panelists represented the various groups that must work together to build successful local partnerships to link schools with technology. "Teachers can be strong advocates for wise useo f technology," said Nancy Flanagan, president of the Michigan Teacher Forum, who created a computer bulletin board where educators statewide can share good ideas to improve their schools. Panelists also discussed the important role that teachers play in training their colleagues to use educational technology, the impetus behind the 21st Century Teachers Initiative.
Parents can also play an important role in training teachers and providing other technology support to schools. In over 30 states, parents have participated in NetDays, volunteering their time to wire schools for connection to the Internet. Panelist Jose Gavarette, chair of the technology committee of the Dade County Council of PTA's in Miami, Fla., organized a successful school event in which local corporations led computer training for teachers, students, and parents, and also contributed free software.
The business community has an active interest in linking schools with technology, explained panelist Mary Moore, Regional Manager of Corporate Communications for the U.S. West Foundation in Seattle, Wash. "As employers, we're looking for students and our future workforce to be more computer literate," she said. Her company is training teachers across Washington to integrate technology into teaching and learning, and is expanding the program to Colorado, Idaho, Oregon, and Utah.
Universities also make an important contribution, as a report on an exemplary teacher training program in Chapel Hill-Carrboro, N.C., showed. In the program called Scout Camp, instructors from the University of North Carolina supervise teachers in developing their own innovative projects using online learning that they can take back to their classrooms.
At Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., more than 9000 teachers have received free training in how to use the Internet, as panelist Jim Pellegrino, Dean of the Peabody College of Education and Human Development, explained. Pellegrino summarized an underlying theme of the Town Meeting, "Technology is really a matter of the community, the schools, the teachers, the universities, and the businesses coming together and deciding that this is absolutely essential, and then getting a plan started and implemented."
The Education Department has resources to help communities use technology to its full potential. The National Technology Plan, entitled "Getting America's Students Ready for the 21st Century," provides a framework for planning a local effort. A brochure is also available describing how to connect to the wealth of resources in the Education Department's online library. To request the materials, call 1-800-USA-LEARN.
The translated "50 Consejos Utiles" was published as part of the "Keep the Promise" campaign, supported by the U.S. Department of Education, the Business Roundtable, the National Governors' Association, the American Federation of Teachers, and the National Alliance of Business. "Keep the Promise" encourages all Americans to get involved in improving education, a message that is carried as public service advertising via television, radio, and the print media.
To obtain a copy of "50 Consejos Utiles," call 1-800-USA-LEARN.
"I'm pleased to be able to share good news for America's families and children concerning our nation's investment in education," said U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley. "With bipartisan support, we have taken an important step toward preparing our children for the 21st century."
The chart below compares funding levels for major education programs in the 1996 and 1997 budgets, and also shows the increased investment for 1997.
Comparing Investment in Education
(in thousands of dollars)
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
| | | Difference:
Major Education | FY 1996 | FY 1997 | FY 1996 vs.
Programs | Appropriation | Appropriation | FY 1997
--------------------|----------------|----------------|------------------
Raising Standards | | |
of Achievement: | 350,000 | 491,000 | +141,000
Goals 2000 | | |
--------------------|----------------|----------------|------------------
Improving the | | |
Basics: Title I | 6,730,348 | 7,194,099 | +463,751
--------------------|----------------|----------------|------------------
Safe and Drug-Free | | |
Schools | 465,971 | 555,978 | +90,007
--------------------|----------------|----------------|------------------
Strengthening | | |
Teacher Skills: | 275,000 | 310,000 | +35,000
Professional | | |
Development | | |
--------------------|----------------|----------------|------------------
Special Education | 3,245,415 | 4,036,000 | +790,585
--------------------|----------------|----------------|------------------
Charter Schools | 18,000 | 51,000 | +33,000
--------------------|----------------|----------------|------------------
Bring Computers | | |
into Classrooms | 48,000 | 266,965 | +218,965
--------------------|----------------|----------------|------------------
Help Youth Move | | |
from School to | 180,000 | 200,000 (1)| +20,000
Careers | | |
--------------------|----------------|----------------|------------------
Pell Grants: College| | |
Grants for Low- | 5,737,000 | 6,413,000 | +676,000
Income Students | | |
--------------------|----------------|----------------|------------------
College Work Study | 616,508 | 830,000 | +213,492
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Note 1: An identical amount is included in the budget for the
Department of Labor, which jointly administers this program.
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