Editor's note: On October 2, U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley announced the award of 24 new grants to local partnerships among schools, businesses, and communities in 16 states to help get useful technology into the hands of teachers and students. These new Challenge Grants for Technology in Education add to the 19 Challenge Grant projects announced in October 1995.
Twenty-four innovative, community-based projects were awarded Challenge Grants for Technology in Education by the Education Department. The Challenge Grants, totaling $23 million, will fund projects for 5 years, allowing local partnerships to use powerful new technologies to transform their schools by linking them with the infinite online learning resources of the world's best libraries, universities, and museums.
Each Challenge Grant partnership between parents, schools, businesses, libraries, museums, and community organizations will match federal funds with substantial commitments for computers, software development, technical support, telecommunications services, and teacher training. The 24 Challenge Grant communities will also share their expertise with a total of 153 other school districts across the country.
In most cases, Challenge Grant recipients are integrating new technologies into state and local reform efforts to set high standards for students, which were encouraged by the Goals 2000: Educate America Act. Computers and on-line learning will contriubte to student achievement by enhancing a challenging curriculum in reading, writing, science, math, history, the arts and other subjects.
In addition to strengthening learning in the core academics, each Challenge Grant project will also help students develop technical and job-related skills necessary in the changing economy to help smooth the transition from high school to college and careers.
The 1997 education budget provides nearly $57 million for technology Challenge Grants, which assures funding for this year's projects and also allows for a third round of grantees. Secretary Riley said that the 1996 Challenge Grant projects will more than double the impact of last year's ongoing efforts, which have already offered training for thousands of teachers and enriched classroom learning for 1.2 million students. Second- year funds have been provided to 1995 grantees, allowing them to expand the reach of their projects.
In addition to funding Challenge Grants, the 1997 education budget includes $200 million for a new Technology Literacy Fund, which will enable more local school districts to implement programs that use technology to improve the quality of education.
Recipients of the 1996 Challenge Grants for Technology in Education include the Berkeley Unified School District, Berkeley, Calif.; Hawaii State Department of Education; Hudson Public Schools, Hudson, Mass.; Seward Public Schools, Seward, Neb.; and Norfolk Public Schools, Norfolk, Va.
Entitled "The New American High School: Preparing Youth for College and Careers," the hour-long Town Meeting will air on Tuesday, January 21, at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The program will be closed-captioned and will be simulcast in Spanish. (Note: The Town Meeting will not be broadcast in December.)
U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley and local educators and community leaders will explore how students can graduate from high school ready for either college or the workplace through an innovative curriculum that emphasizes solving problems, collaborating in teams, mastering new technologies, and making effective decisions.
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. Broadcast and cable Partners include Discovery Communications, the Public Broadcasting System, and Channel One.
Satellite coordinates are as follows ....C-Band: Galaxy 4, Orbital Location 99 degrees West; Transponder 11; Horizontal Polarity; Channel 11; Downlink Frequency 3920 MHz; Audio Subcarriers 6.2 MHz (Spanish) and 6.8 MHz (English).
Ku-Band: Telstar 401, Orbital Location 97 degrees West; Transponder 6; Horizontal Polarity; Channel 6; Downlink Frequency 11854 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 or Chamber of Commerce 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.
All students in grades 6-8 are eligible to enter the contest by creating a project that demonstrates the scientific process of asking questions, analyzing, and drawing conclusions.
The Bayer/NSF Award for Community Innovation will nominate a semifinalist team of four students in each of ten regions across the country. All semifinalist teams will earn a trip to Epcot Center to present their findings to a panel of judges as part of the Discover Magazine Awards for Technological Innovation.
The deadline for entering the contest is January 31, 1997. There is no registration fee. For more information, call 1-800-291- 6020.
Additional science recognition programs include the Explorer- Vision Awards Competition, sponsored by Toshiba Corporation and administered by the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA). Children in grades K-12 are eligible to enter this contest, which asks students to envision technologies that could exist 20 years in the future. For more information, call 1-800-EXPLOR-9.
The Duracell/NSTA Scholarship Competition asks students in grades 9-12 to build battery-powered devices. For more information, call 1-800-255-4242.
| Good News! -- In the October issue, we reported on a landmark upcoming decision by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regarding the rates charged to schools and libraries to have access to the vast educational resources on the Information Superhighway. A special Federal-State Joint Board of the FCC decided on November 7 to recommend to the full FCC that schools and libraries should receive deep discounts for telecommunication services, Internet access, and internal connections. Most schools will receive at least a 40 percent discount in start-up costs and ongoing charges. Half of all schools will receive a 65 percent discount, and one third of all schools will earn a discount of 80 to 90 percent, based on poverty and the high cost of service. The final FCC decision on rates charged to schools and libraries will be made by May 7, 1997. |
Editor's note: The Partnership for Family Involvement in Education, launched by Education Secretary Richard Riley in 1994, has grown to more than 2000 employers, schools, and community, parent, education and religious groups. Employer members of the Partnership have developed an active steering group and have conducted activities to recruit more businesses to get involved in learning, as well as scheduling a national conference for May 15-16, 1997, with the theme, "Better Education is Everybody's Business." The efforts of two members of the Employers for Learning Steering Group from the Boston area are profiled below.John Hancock. As part of the nationwide America Goes Back to School: Get Involved! effort, more than 100 business, university, cultural and human services leaders participated in the Principal/CEO Leadership Summit held at Boston's Madison Park Technical High School. According to Les Hemmings, General Director of John Hancock Financial Services, the program was designed to bring together all community and business leaders who have a stake in improving public schools. The Leadership Summit was sponsored by the Boston Compact, a local partnership of schools, businesses and community organizations that are working together to improve the quality of education and reach out to parents to get involved in the effort.
After completing individual site visits with principals of 70 schools in the city, the community and business leaders met for a televised panel discussion that was broadcast to every school in the city.
The Summit also celebrated the award of a $10 million Annenberg Challenge Grant that will be matched by Boston area businesses. The grant will provide the funds for education reform efforts such as strengthening professional development for teachers and administrators, and getting technology into schools.
Family Education Network (FEN). In order to help families play a more active role in their children's learning, the Family Education Network has launched an online service for parents. FEN's site is intended as a model that can be customized for local use in all 16,000 school districts across the nation.
FEN offers a combination of news, resources, information exchange, exciting projects, and online educational activities for the entire family. Tips for parents and advice from experts cover a range of practical issues such as communicating with teachers, interpreting report cards, and helping children with homework.
The Hingham, Mass., school system is the first to implement this innovative service, enabling the district to communicate directly with families about local events and school improvement activities. FEN is located at http://www.familyeducation.com. For a free brochure on the Family Education Network, call 1-800- 927-6006 and ask for customer service.
Many communities have reported their successful results, including Rocky Mount, N.C. More than 1300 children in Rocky Mount successfully completed the seven-week program. They read a total of 59,801 books, which was a 55 percent increase from the number of books read during the program in the summer of 1995.
The READ*WRITE*NOW! program pairs children of preschool age through grade 6 with a reading partner. The partner can be a parent, family member, teenager, community organization volunteer, or other caring adult who meets weekly with the participant for reading and writing activities. The child is also encouraged to read daily for 30 minutes and learn a new vocabulary word. The program challenges students to practice their reading and writing skills over the summer, a time when many students lose progress they have made during the school year.
Materials are available through the Education Department to support the READ*WRITE*NOW! program, including age-appropriate kits of learning activities and a guide for reading tutors. Limited supplies of 1996 materials are on hand. To request the materials, call 1-800-USA-LEARN or access the Education Department's home page at http://www.ed.gov/Family/RWN/Activ97/).
We hope you'll send the results of your summer reading program. Write to the Partnership for Family Involvement in Education, 600 Independence Ave., S.W., Washington, D.C., 20202-8173.
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WELCOME, NEW PARTNERS! A total of 580 Flagstar Hardee's restaurants have joined the Partnership for Family Involvement in Education. The Partnership now comprises over 2000 members who are committed to helping families fulfill their central role in learning. Located primarily in the Southeast, Flagstar Hardee's restaurants are helping local schools raise money during the 1996-97 school year for technology and other school improvement programs. "We're delighted to join this exciting venture," said Craig Bushey, president of Flagstar Hardee's. "We have a history of being good and responsible corporate neighbors, and through this effort we'll be able to continue that tradition by making a significant contribution toward improving our schools." Secretary Riley commends Flagstar Hardee's for being a corporate leader in this effort. |
Parents, educators, employers, and other citizens recognize that in order to be ready for the 21st century, America's students need schools that challenge them to high standards and emphasize the basics such as reading, math, and science; teach computer literacy and provide access to computers in the classroom; prepare youth for a variety of options for careers and postsecondary education; promote teacher excellence; and reach out to involve families and the broader community. The public also supports expanding opportunities for students from middle income, low income, and working families to attend college. Access to college will be critical to help students navigate the rapid changes of the economy in the 21st century.
The Education Department has initiated several major efforts to respond to the public's education goals. President Clinton has issued a Reading Challenge, asking all Americans to be part of a national, bipartisan effort to ensure that children can read independently by the end of the third grade. Children will need a higher level of literacy than ever before to succeed in the workplace of the 21st century and gain new skills to adapt to a changing economy.
The most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress showed that many of our students need extra support to read well: 40 percent of all 4th grade students are reading below basic level. The Reading Challenge will help parents be their children's first teachers, expand the Head Start program to one million children, recruit a million trained tutors working with a reading specialist to provide extra after-school and summer instruction, and test for results to make sure America's children are improving in reading.
To boost math and science achievement, U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley announced that the Education Department will join the Academy of Sciences and National Science Foundation to sponsor meetings across America to rally support for better teacher training and improvements in curriculum, textbooks, and testing. Although American students are performing better in science since scoring below average on an international assessment in 1991, U.S. students' achievement in math remains below the international average.
A report released last month by the Education Department, entitled Pursuing Excellence: A Study of U.S. Eighth-Grade Mathematics and Science Teaching, Learning, Curriculum and Achievement in International Context, shows that American students spend as much or more class time on math than youth in other countries. However, the math curriculum in U.S. schools focuses less than other countries on helping students to understand concepts and solve real problems.
"Every student should enter junior high school with a firm grasp of arithmetic," said Secretary Riley, "but, clearly, employers want problem solvers, people who have mastered the basics and can apply that knowledge to new situations."
In addition to new efforts to improve K-12 learning, the Education Department will expand opportunities for many students to attend college. The 1997 education budget increases funding for Pell Grants and work study options that make college more affordable for disadvantaged students. Building on that success, President Clinton's HOPE scholarships proposal would provide support for students who do not qualify for need-based grants but still find college out of reach financially. The HOPE scholarships would allow a $1500 refundable tax credit for first- year college students as well as to second-year students who earn at least a B average. This tax credit would be sufficient to cover the full cost of tuition at an average community college and would make a down payment at a more expensive four-year school. Combined with a proposed $10,000 tax deduction for college costs, the HOPE scholarships and increases in Pell Grants could open the doors wide to college for students from middle income, working, and low-income families who want to improve themselves by enrolling in America's higher education institutions.
The new baby boom is straining school facilities in school districts throughout America. In many communities, school buildings are suffering from age. With a great deal of bipartisan support from local educators, President Clinton proposed a $5 billion fund to assist local communities in paying for the interest on school bonds to help defray the cost of new construction and renovation.
The President will include these education initiatives in the balanced budget plan he will send to Congress in February. While education in America will always remain a local and state responsibility, bipartisan interest in targeted issues of nationwide concern makes it possible for all Americans to work together to move education forward.
Guest panelist Diane McCarthy, President of the Western Maricopa Coalition in Glendale, Ariz., related why her business group took the lead on the truancy problem. "These are their future employees, and if students are going to school and educated, they will have a better workforce," she said.
Mentors from the community were integral to the success of other efforts. Guest panelist Janet Ransom, Supervisor of the Truancy Intervention Project of the Fulton County Juvenile Court in Atlanta, Ga., told how volunteer lawyers from the Atlanta Bar Foundation who represent truant youth in court also serve as role models. A taped report on the Truancy Pilot Program in New Haven, Conn., showed how students' own peers mentor them and help design contracts to improve attendance.
Mayor Wellington Webb of Dever, Colo., and Mayor Nancy Graham of West Palm Beach, Fla., joined the program by telephone. Mayor Webb spoke of Denver's successful Safe Cities program, which combines visits to homes of truant students by social workers with after-school activities and a curfew.
Guest panelist Kelly Blanton, superintendent of the Kern County Schools in Bakersfield, Calif., emphasized the importance of responding to students' individual learning needs to keep them engaged in school. "We recognize that different students react to different learning styles and different courses. If they're successful, they keep coming back," he said.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution to truancy, said guest panelist Linda Harrill, President and State Director of Communities in Schools in Raleigh, N.C. "There are a lot of really good programs out there, but each community has to figure out what works for them," she said.
Assistant Secretary Gerry Tirozzi reminded the audience that federal programs such as Goals 2000 and Safe and Drug-Free Schools allow communities flexibility to fashion their own programs. "The work really gets done on the local level," said U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley. "We can be helpful with resources, but the ingenuity, the effective use of funds, and the sensitivity exemplified by our panel are really what makes a difference."
The Education Department has resources to help communities reinforce positive student behavior. The Manual to Combat Truancy offers practical advice and summaries of successful programs across the country. Creating Safe Schools: An Action Guide covers a variety of school safety issues. To request the materials, call the Safe and Drug-Free Schools Hotline at 1- 800-624-0100.
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