Editor's note: On February 18, U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley delivered his fourth annual State of American Education address in Atlanta, Georgia. Below are excerpts from the speech, "Putting Standards of Excellence Into Action." The entire speech is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.ed.gov/Speeches/02-1997/StateofED.html.Today, more than ever before, education is the engine that drives our economy. Education is now the great "fault line" that determines who is part of the American dream. The earnings gap between the educated and the less educated is growing, and it will continue to grow unless we educate all of our young people to high standards. An average education just isn't good enough anymore.
This is why President Clinton, in his State of the Union speech, gave us a bold vision of what American education can become. From helping our children to master the basics, to better teaching and modernizing our schools, to helping families pay for college through increased Pell Grants and Hope Scholarships, the president has made excellence in education our national mission.
The president and I are deeply committed to ensuring access to higher education for every student who works hard to make the grade. This commitment has taken many forms: the creation of a streamlined direct lending program -- the biggest increase in Pell Grants since its inception, as well as Pell Grants for more students -- and a growing college work-study program with a new emphasis on community service.
This commitment is also why the president is following Georgia's lead in proposing his own Hope Scholarship program. Georgia's Hope Scholarship pays tuition and fees for qualified Georgia high school graduates who attend a college or university in the state. This is a big idea.
Under the president's plan, working and middle-income students of all ages can receive a tax credit of up to $1,500 for the first two years of college. That amount covers tuition at the typical community college. This plan will go a long way to making the first two years of college universally available. Universal -- another big idea.
In addition, middle-income Americans have the option to deduct up to $10,000 off of their income taxes for college tuition throughout their lifetime.
We are, my friends, at the door to a new time. And, in this new era, we will not build with bricks and mortar. We will build with minds -- with the power of knowledge -- and with the talent of every well-educated American who is eager to participate in our free enterprise system and strengthen our democracy.
The year is 1997, the issue is education, the question is: will we meet the challenge? I believe we can.
One focus of the program will be charter schools, which are public schools under contract or charter from a public agency to groups of parents, teachers, school administrators or others who want to create more alternatives and choice within the public school system.
The Satellite Town Meeting will also address magnet school programs, which gives parents more choices of schools and is often employed to help the nation's effort to achieve voluntary desegregation in public schools. Entitled "Charter Schools, Magnet Schools and Other Choices in Public Education," the hour- long Town Meeting will air on Tuesday, April 15, at 8:00 p.m. Eastern time.
The U.S. 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. The program will be closed-captioned and simulcast in Spanish.
The satellite coordinates are as follows . . .
C-Band: Satellite GE1, Orbital Location 103 degrees West; Transponder 22; Vertical Polarity; Channel 22; Downlink Frequency 4140 MHZ; Audio Subcarriers 6.2 MHZ (Spanish) and 6.8 MHZ (English).Ku-Band: Satellite SBS-6, Orbital Location 74 degrees West; Transponder 15; Horizontal Polarity; Channel 15; Downlink Frequency 12068.0 MHZ; Audio Subcarriers 6.2 MHZ (Spanish) and 6.8 MHZ (English).
To participate in the Satellite Town Meeting, ask your local Public Broadcasting System (PBS) member station or Chamber of Commerce if your group can use the facility as a downlink site. Call 1-800-USA-LEARN for further information or to register your participation.
Hosted by U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley and National PTA President Joan Dykstra, the teleconference will spotlight panels of involved parents, educators, business leaders, and members of state and local PTAs as they talk about family-school partnerships and other key education issues. Parents and teachers at participating sites can join the live discussion via a special toll-free number.
"Parent and community involvement are essential ingredients -- perhaps the most crucial components -- of building stronger schools and increasing student achievement," Secretary Riley said.
Topics to be discussed include meaningful ways for parents to get involved with local schools; how parents can become leaders for making improvements in their children's classroom and in their communities; and how schools can become more welcoming to family involvement. In addition, the teleconference will address what parents can do to help children achieve in reading, math and science, and how businesses and community organizations can help students learn reading, math and science to high standards.
The satellite coordinates for the teleconference are as follows . . .
C-Band: Satellite GE1, Orbital Location 103 degrees West; Transponder 22; Vertical Polarity; Channel 22; Downlink Frequency 4140 MHZ; Audio Subcarriers 6.2 MHZ (Spanish) and 6.8 MHZ (English).The live teleconference will be available to downlink sites throughout the nation. Call 1-800-USA-LEARN for further information.Ku-Band: Satellite SBS-6, Orbital Location 74 degrees West; Transponder 15; Horizontal Polarity; Channel 15; Downlink Frequency 12068.0 MHZ; Audio Subcarriers 6.2 MHZ (Spanish) and 6.8 MHZ (English).
Editor's note: The National Community Education Association (NCEA) has been working with community schools to develop on-site programs that extend learning after school and during the summer months.In West Philadelphia, two middle school summer camps provide extended learning opportunities that support students' involvement in their schools and communities: Turner Middle School and Shaw Middle School offer enrichment and basic skills to children and adults while also serving as meeting places for community discussions and problem solving. They are the result of a comprehensive partnership among the University of Pennsylvania, the local school district, city, state, and federal agencies, and community groups. The goal of this community partnership, the West Philadelphia Improvement Corps, is to create university- assisted, staff-controlled and managed, comprehensive community schools. A year-round program involves 4,500 children, their parents, and community members in educational and cultural programs, recreation, job training, community improvement and service activities.
Turner Middle School Camp was launched in West Philadelphia this past summer. The program involved 120 students and was in operation daily from 8:45 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Each student in the camp participated in activities in one of five small, personalized learning communities (schools-within-schools): Health Promotion; Conflict Resolution; Writing for Publication; Environmental and Community Studies; and Technology. Students in each learning community worked together to complete projects that contributed to school and neighborhood improvement.
Students also participated in recreational activities: cooking, sports, arts and crafts, photography, and dance. Eleven teachers supervised the program with mentoring support provided by University of Pennsylvania undergraduates.
The second on-site program at the Shaw Middle School Summer Camp was launched with 100 students. Open Mondays through Thursdays from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., the Shaw camp created three small learning communities: Science Alliance, Leadership Institute, and Bridges to Employment. Students, parents, teachers, and undergraduates from the University of Pennsylvania collaborated on projects that contributed to the improvement of both the school and the neighborhood. Seven teachers supervised the program with assistance from Penn undergraduates.
For more information on community schools and education, please contact the National Community Education Association (NCEA), 3929 Old Lee Highway, Ste. 91-A, Fairfax, Va. 22030; 703-359-8973; FAX 703-359-0972; e-mail ncea@ids2.idsonline.com. NCEA is a member of the Partnership for Family Involvement in Education.
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Family Involvement Competition Announced -- The second annual competition of the Apple PIE (Parental Involvement in Education) Awards is cosponsored by Working Mother magazine, the Partnership for Family Involvement in Education, and Teachers College, Columbia University. These awards recognize grassroots organizations, parent groups, schools, community organizations, and businesses that have forged partnerships that support family involvement in education. For an application, write to Working Mother magazine, 135 West 50th Street, New York, N.Y. 10020, Attn.: Apple PIE Award, or fax to 212-445-6174.
"This budget supports the president's goals and gives the American people the tools they need to achieve them. It includes historically high levels of investment in every area of education from preschool to high school to college," U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley said.
Key priorities of the president's 1998 budget request for the U.S. Department of Education include:
President Clinton is also proposing a significant investment of a new mandatory program in two key areas:
The president is also proposing a combination of budget and tax initiatives that would significantly expand access to postsecondary education for low-income students while providing new assistance to middle-class families who are having difficulty paying for college.
Two other significant initiatives, while not part of the U.S. Department of Education's budget, are the America's Hope Scholarship tax credit and the Middle Class Bill of Rights tax deduction. America's Hope Scholarships would provide a $1,500 tax credit for up to two years of postsecondary education, and the tax deduction would permit a deduction of up to $10,000 from income for payment of college tuition and fees. Together, these proposals would save eligible students and their families more than $4 billion in college costs in 1998.
The U.S. Department of Education is also proposing changes to improve both the effectiveness and efficiency of the student loan programs. Loan origination fees for needy students would be cut from 4 percent to 2 percent, the costs of subsidizing lenders and guaranty agencies would be reduced and administrative funds for direct loans would be scaled back. The U.S. Department of Education's 1998 budget is now available on the World Wide Web at http://www.ed.gov/offices/OUS/Budget98/
Responding to TIMSS, as well as to the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in reading, President Clinton has issued a challenge to states and school districts to raise standards and improve teaching and learning in the basics and core academic subjects. The president has proposed voluntary national tests of reading skills at grade 4 and math skills at grade 8 that would be comparable to the widely accepted TIMSS and NAEP measures of student achievement.
Unlike TIMSS and NAEP, however, which assess a sample of students
across the country, the new voluntary national tests would be
taken by
The voluntary national tests in math and reading will be
available in 1999, but the Education Department is already
working with states and local districts to help them prepare for
the assessments. One valuable resource for improving math
education is the report from TIMSS entitled Pursuing
Excellence.
The TIMSS report outlines stark differences between what the U.S.
expects of its students and some of its major economic
competitors. The U.S. 8th-grade math curriculum compares to the
7th-grade level in top-performing countries. Virtually all
Japanese students study algebra and geometry extensively by the
end of the 8th-grade whereas only 20 percent of U.S. 8th-graders
have completed algebra by that time.
U.S. curricula and textbooks cover more topics than those of
leading countries, leaving little time for student mastery and
depth of understanding. In comparing teaching practices,
researchers discovered through videotaped classroom observation
that Japanese instructors place a greater emphasis on training
students to understand math concepts and apply knowledge to solve
real problems, along with the basics of arithmetic, than their
American counterparts who are taught instead to make
calculations.
For more information on TIMSS, including a copy of the report,
you can access http://nces.ed.gov/timss on the World Wide
Web. To purchase a copy of Pursuing Excellence, contact
the Government Printing Office at 202-512-1800 (stock number 065-
000-00959-5).
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Last Updated -- February 25, 1997, (pjk)