Editor's note: On April 17-18, U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley will host a national forum entitled "Attracting and Preparing Teachers for the 21st Century" in Washington, D.C. The forum will include 50 of the 1997 Teachers of the Year, as well as 50 university and teacher education leaders by invitation only, for a candid discussion about how we can attract, prepare and support the many new teachers who will be entering this demanding profession in the years ahead. Additional information is available by calling 1-800-USA-LEARN. Below is an excerpt from Secretary Riley's fourth annual State of American Education address pertaining to preparing America's future teachers.
I urge sustained attention to the task of preparing America's future teachers. In the next 10 years, we need to ... replace a generation of teachers who are about to retire, and to keep up with rising enrollments.
But we are not as prepared as we should be for this enormous undertaking and there are several reasons why. We do not, for example, do a very good job of recruiting people to this demanding profession, and we have really failed to do justice to the task of recruiting talented minority candidates and males.
Another reason: our colleges of education and departments of education are too often treated like forgotten stepchildren in our system of higher education. And when eager new teachers enter the classroom for the first time, we give them little, if any, help. As a result of this longstanding "sink or swim" approach, we are losing 30 percent of our new teachers in the first three years. In addition, 25 percent of our nation's current teachers are now teaching out of their field.
New teachers--like new lawyers and new doctors--should have to prove that they are qualified to meet high standards before getting a license. This would mean that prospective teachers are able to pass a rigorous, performance-based assessment of what they know and what they are able to do. And, once a new teacher is in a classroom, he or she should be linked to master teachers during the first few years of teaching.
Teaching is a demanding profession, and it will be even more demanding in the future. That is why the president and I strongly support the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and its goal of certifying over 100,000 master teachers in the next decade. I challenge every school in the nation to have at least one board-certified teacher on your faculty.
Just as we expect a great deal from our students, we have an obligation to expect a great deal of ourselves in supporting America's teachers.
Coordinates for the April Satellite Town MeetingC-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 MHZ; Audio Subcarriers 6.2 MHZ (Spanish) and 6.8 MHZ (English). 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. Call 1-800-USA-LEARN for further information or to register your participation. |
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. The program will be closed-captioned and simulcast in Spanish.
The satellite coordinates are as follows . . .
C-Band: Galaxy 4, Orbital Location 99 degrees West; Transponder 9; Horizontal Polarity; Channel 9; Downlink Frequency 3880 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 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.
The discounts would be especially beneficial to rural and urban schools that have high rates of poverty, given that the discount level will be determined by a combination of two factors: geographic location and the percentage of students who are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches.
These discounts would include Internet access (dial-up, direct access and E-mail), internal connections (internal wires, routers and network file servers), as well as installation and maintenance costs. To provide flexibility for schools and libraries, all commercially available telecommunications services would be eligible for discounts, including telephone lines, coaxial cable, fiber optics, as well as cellular and satellite communications. Funding to support this initiative will come from the Universal Service Fund that is administered by an independent fund administrator at a total of up to $2.25 billion per year.
The FCC will vote to accept, modify or reject the final rules to implement the E-rate on May 8. If the FCC approves this initiative, funding would be available for the 1997 school year. For more information pertaining to the FCC hearing on May 8, access the World Wide Web at http://www.ed.gov/MailingLists/EDInfo/0234.html.
The program was hosted by U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley, National PTA Vice President Shirley Igo, Director of the America Reads Challenge, Carol Rasco and National PTA President-elect, Lois Jean White. The program was moderated by Susan Rook of CNN's Talkback Live, and featured panels of involved parents, educators, business leaders and members of state and local PTAs.
"I've said many times that parent and community involvement are the essential ingredients, perhaps the most crucial element, of our effort to build stronger schools and increase student achievement," Secretary Riley said.
The show comprised two segments: "Getting Parents Involved" and "Improving Reading, Math and Science in Schools." Viewers learned of successful strategies for raising the level of parental involvement in schools, as well as how parents can become leaders for real change in the classroom and in their communities, and how schools can become more welcoming to family involvement. In addition, viewers heard success stories from parents and educators who have implemented high standards in reading, math and science within their respective communities and schools.
Dr. Robert Watkins, a guest panelist and superintendent of the Independence, Missouri public schools, emphasized the importance of parental involvement in children's education. "The greater chance of a student's success is directly correlated with parent involvement," Dr. Watkins said.
Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago joined Secretary Riley in the studio to discuss ways that parents can work with elected officials and civic leaders to improve the quality of education in their local schools. "The key to a successful city or a society is a better education...That requires all of us. It's not one person's responsibility, it's all of our responsibility," Mayor Daley said.
Virginia Thompson, director of the Family Math program in Berkeley, California agreed. "Parents are important. They are more important than the teachers," she said.
Calendar |
"The president's Call to Action can only support the action you take in your school community," Secretary Riley said in a recent speech to the National Association of Secondary School Principals in Orlando, Florida. At the Orlando meeting, over 100 principals pledged to go back to their school communities to work to achieve the Call to Action for better education. President Clinton's Call to Action for American Education in the 21st century comprises ten common goals:
Additional information pertaining to the president's Call to Action is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.ed.gov/updates/PresEDPlan/. A "Tool Kit" for principals who are interested in addressing the president's Call to Action is available by calling 1-800-USA-LEARN.
President Clinton is proposing a significant investment of new mandatory programs in two key areas:
Other significant initiatives to promote excellence in education include 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. In addition, under the budget proposal, savings from IRAs could be withdrawn penalty-free for payment of postsecondary education expenses.
The U.S. Department of Education's 1998 budget information and testimony is now available on the World Wide Web at http://www.ed.gov/offices/OUS/budget.html
Other research that specifically links the study of music and other art forms to necessary brain development includes that of psychologist Frances Rauscher of the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh and physicist Gordon Shaw of the University of California at Irvine. They demonstrated that preschoolers who were given keyboard lessons and did group singing scored higher on tests measuring spatial reasoning, a skill used later in math, science and engineering. Most recently, they found that the music lessons resulted in higher spatial reasoning scores than equivalent instruction in computer skills.
The Preschool Arts Enrichment Program of the Settlement Music School serves South Philadelphia children who live in a housing project across the street from the 87 year-old music school. A three year program evaluation revealed that children made gains in cognitive and language development above and beyond those evidenced in a control group of preschoolers without the arts-enriched curriculum. Working with a faculty of professional artists with training in early childhood education six to nine times a week, small groups of children visit the art studios to explore concepts that cut across the arts: pattern, change, repetition and extremes.
To reinforce preschool learning, children's parents or guardians are required to attend five hour-long parenting seminars each semester. The Settlement Music School also runs an arts in early childhood teacher training institute and an arts-focused after-school program, as well as a comprehensive community-based program.
The Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts in Vienna, Virginia, teaches preschool children basic academic and life skills through participation in performing arts activities and trains their classroom teachers, through practical applications, to use the performing arts in education. Prior to the beginning of each seven week class residency, a Wolf Trap artist meets with a teacher to design a curriculum that addresses the needs of a particular group of children and the teacher. The Wolf Trap artist goes into the classroom twice a week for 45-minute sessions and leads performing arts-based activities that are designed around an academic or social theme.
Every three years, the Wold Trap Foundation hosts a national artists conference for the artists who work in 10 regional Wolf Trap programs across the country, and sponsors professional development workshops for teachers in local communities. Nationwide, sites include public schools, Head Start preschool programs and private child development centers.
Children naturally sing, dance, draw and role-play in an effort to understand the world around them and communicate their thoughts about it. A growing body of evidence demonstrates that when their caretakers engage them in these activities early in life on a regular basis, they are helping wire the children's brains for successful learning.
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