Community Update

No. 47, May 1997
U.S. Department of Education

• Make a Difference: Start a Summer Reading Program and Help Meet the America Reads Challenge
• Coordinates for the May 20 Satellite Town Meeting
• June Town Meeting Will Focus on Preparing Young Children for School Success and Reading
• Public School Choice Is Expanding Satellite Town Meeting Audience Learns
• Telephone Pioneers of America Support Reading Across the Nation
• Announcements
• Calendar
• Partnership Update
• Attracting and Preparing Teachers for the 21st Century
• White House Conference Highlights Scientific Research on Early Childhood Development

Make a Difference: Start a Summer Reading Program and Help Meet the America Reads Challenge

U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley and more than 50 leaders of reading organizations affiliated with the 1997 Read*Write*Now! summer initiative are urging everyone to encourage children through the 6th grade to accomplish the following:

• Read 30 minutes a day.
• Find a reading partner who will read with them two or three times a week.
• Learn a new vocabulary word a day.
• Get a library card and use it weekly.

Schools, libraries, youth groups, businesses, religious centers and neighborhood groups are using a variety of approaches and training to suit their communities. Many of these groups are using the Read*Write*Now! Kit, which can be obtained through local libraries, the Partnership for Family involvement in Education home page at http://pfie.ed.gov/ from which it can be copied, or by calling 1-800-USA-LEARN.

This summer's reading effort is a part of President Clinton's America Reads Challenge, which encourages all Americans to help teachers and parents improve the reading skills of the nation's children.

"We ought to commit ourselves as a country to say by the year 2000, 8-year-olds in America will be able to pick up an appropriate book and say, 'I read this all by myself,'" President Clinton said.

The America Reads Challenge legislation is part of the Fiscal Year 1998 budget request for the U.S. Department of Education, pending approval by Congress, and highlights reading as the most basic and essential academic skill and the cornerstone of academic achievement. President Clinton is proposing a significant investment for the America Reads Challenge. This investment would help local schools and communities hire 30,000 reading specialists and tutor coordinators, including 11,000 AmeriCorps members, to mobilize an army of one million tutors in the Reading Corps.

The Reading Corps would be utilized in a way that local teachers, families, libraries and community organizations feel best to provide individualized reading assistance after school and on weekends, ensuring that children can read well and independently by the end of the 3rd-grade. Currently, 40 percent of America's 4th-graders cannot read at the basic level on challenging national reading assessments.

Information about setting up summer and year-round reading programs will be featured on the U.S. Department of Education's satellite town meetings on May 20 and June 17, which will focus on reading and preparing young children for school success. For more information on the proposed legislation for the America Reads Challenge, call 1-800-USA-LEARN.

June Town Meeting Will Focus on Preparing Young Children for School Success and Reading

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.

Public School Choice Is Expanding Satellite Town Meeting Audience Learns

The program featured Michael J. Fox, director of the Museum of Northern Arizona, Ginger Hovenic, director of the Clear View Elementary Charter School, Mary Lou McGrath, superintendent of Cambridge Public Schools, and Deborah Taliaferro, a parent and co-president of the Bradford Academy PTA. John Anderson, president of New American Schools, was also featured.

Schools and communities were encouraged to keep the following points in mind:

• Make sure schools of choice are public schools that are open to all students regardless of background or ability;
• Focus on quality teaching and learning and challenging academic standards;
• Ensure the schools are accountable to the public for academic results and for managing finances responsibly;
• Provide plenty of information to ensure that students and families are aware of the choices available to them;
• Involve the community, parents and educators in developing strategies to promote equity, including such steps as transportation and parent information centers; and
• Use public school choice to strengthen public education and improve all public schools.

To obtain more information about public school choice, call 1-800-USA-LEARN or access the World Wide Web at http://www.uscharterschools.org/

PARTNERSHIP for
FAMILY INVOLVEMENT
in EDUCATION

Telephone Pioneers of America Support Reading Across the Nation

Several Pioneer chapters distribute "Read to Me" kits which are delivered by local Pioneers to new parents in their community. The kit consists of materials such as a new Mother Goose book, a pamphlet on reading aloud to children, hot-line information on adult literacy, and information about local libraries and schools.

Other chapters distribute "Chip," a reading buddy doll that can be used by teachers and librarians as a reading incentive for young elementary school children. It can also be used as a reading achievement award. A "Teach Me" book is designed to assist children with manual dexterity and organizational skills. Another similar learning device is the "Learning Apron" which can be used by teachers and librarians to help younger children develop basic and small motor skills.

Some Telephone Pioneers do more than provide learning materials -- they also provide one-on-one mentoring and performances for classes of elementary school children. One example is the Pioneer Clown Troupe, which performs stories for children and encourages them to explore the world of books. A clown doll is left behind as a remembrance of the performance.

With corporate support from Bell South and Southwestern Bell, the Telephone Pioneers of America have also copublished the U.S. Department of Education's Read*Write*Now! materials for distribution as part of the Pioneer Library located in employee cafeterias. Other Pioneer-sponsoring telecommunications companies are considering this copublishing arrangement for the future.

Those interested in learning more about the activities of the Telephone Pioneers of America can call the Pioneers Resource Center at 1-800-976-1914, or visit their web site at http://www.telephone-pioneers.org

Announcements

• The 1997 Read*Write*Now! Kit is scheduled for release in early May. Families can request one regular kit, and community-based tutoring programs working with many children can request one camera-ready kit by calling 1-800-USA-LEARN.

• The 1997 America Goes Back to School initiative is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education and the family, education, employer, religious, and community group members of the Partnership for Family Involvement in Education. The initiative encourages parents, grandparents, community leaders, employers and employees, members of the arts community, religious leaders, and every caring adult to become more actively involved in improving education in their communities. This exciting and important annual effort focuses attention on improving education across America during the back-to-school time of August through October. For more information, call 1-800-USA-LEARN.

Partnership Update

• The Partnership's National Steering Group recently met to discuss ways of strengthening local efforts that support family involvement in education throughout the year. Participants pledged to get involved by linking their organizations with the Partnership's two lead efforts, the Read*Write*Now! summer initiative and the America Goes Back to School initiative in the fall. A third effort is being developed for the winter and spring around mentoring in math and encouraging all students to think about college beginning in the middle grades.
• The Employers for Learning Steering Group has completed plans for a national conference on business-education partnerships on May 15-16 in Boston. The conference, entitled "Better Education Is Everybody's Business" is cosponsored by the Conference Board. We wish to extend a warm welcome to those attending the conference. Special incentive rates for educators and nonprofits are available.
• The Family/School Steering Group is working on a teleconference around educator preparation for family involvement in education. The teleconference, which is scheduled for October 1997, will feature good examples of what teachers, parents, administrators, school boards, and postsecondary institutions can do to support family involvement in education.
• The Community Organizations are developing grassroots efforts and a key publication on extending learning beyond the school day.
• The Religious Groups are taking a leadership role in a nationwide effort to support mentoring around literacy through the America Reads Challenge.

For more information about the Partnership for Family Involvement in Education, call 1-800-USA-LEARN or visit the Partnership for Family Involvement in Education's web site at http://pfie.ed.gov/

Attracting and Preparing Teachers for the 21st Century

Editor's note: On April 17-18, U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley was the host of a national forum entitled "Attracting and Preparing Teachers for the 21st Century" in Washington, D.C. The forum included the 1997 Teachers of the Year, as well as university and teacher education leaders for a candid discussion about how the profession can attract, prepare and support the many new teachers who will be entering this demanding field in the years ahead. Below is an excerpt from Secretary Riley's speech. You are invited to contribute to this discussion by visiting the U.S. Department of Education's web site at http://www.ed.gov/comments/nationalforum/. The entire speech is also available online at http://www.ed.gov/Speeches/04-1997/970417.html.

I want to welcome all of you to this national forum....We have over fifty of the best teachers in America attending this forum, as well as college and university presidents and deans from 24 states.

I'm pleased that all of you are joining us -- for this really is a national dialogue of great importance to the future of our country. How we teach our children defines in many ways the future of America in this new Information Age.

The entire context of American education is changing. We need teachers skilled in using computers as a powerful teaching tool, and many more teachers well versed in teaching English as a second language. Our teachers need to teach to a higher level of achievement, and be prepared to teach all of America's children -- the gifted and talented, our many new immigrants, the college-bound achiever, and the disabled child who is learning so much more because he or she is now included.

Yet, we struggle to put the old industrial model of education behind us. The jewel of American education is our system of higher education, yet too often our colleges of education are treated like forgotten stepchildren. And for too long, public education in America and higher education have gone their separate ways, each dedicated to its own vision of excellence and learning.

I believe that this 19th century model is outdated. We need a new model appropriate for the 21st century, an ongoing dialogue at every level of education to raise expectations and achieve high standards. This is one of the chief purposes of this national forum -- to break down the disconnections -- to get good people at every level of education talking to one another.

We asked our state teachers of the year to answer eleven questions on teacher preparation with a special focus on the new teachers they have mentored or are mentoring now. The first thing they told us is that the new teachers they are mentoring know the content of their subjects. They also told us that these first-year teachers have good mechanics -- they know how to give tests, they are well prepared when it comes to planning daily lessons, to directing classroom activities and monitoring student progress. This is all very positive.

But the teachers also voiced some common concerns. They were overwhelming in their view that new teachers are unprepared to manage classroom discipline. The teachers also expressed very strong concerns that new teachers are not prepared to use technology and they have some difficulty engaging parents in the learning process.

The teachers also noted that new teachers really are not given adequate time for student teaching -- and all too often new teachers are on their own during the first two years of teaching. We haven't created a process that gives future teachers a true sense of the American classroom here in 1997 -- and then we leave them to fend for themselves.

Teaching is a demanding profession, and it will be even more demanding in the future. This is why I want to encourage every teacher in America to think about following in the footsteps of Sharon Draper -- our new National Teacher of the Year -- who chose to become board certified.

President Clinton and I strongly support that National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and its goal of certifying 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.

This is my charge to all of you -- use this dialogue not as an end, but as a beginning -- become serious and committed advocates for change. Do the hard work of upgrading teacher preparation and certification in your state.

The American people are tuned in to education. The sparks are all around us. And we have a president in the White House -- in Bill Clinton -- who cares deeply about education. If ever there was a time to come together to improve teaching it is now.

White House Conference Highlights Scientific Research on Early Childhood Development

"This unique conference is a part of our constant effort to give our children the opportunity to make the most of their God-given potential and to help their parents lead the way, and to remind everyone in America that this must always be part of the public's business because we all have a common interest in our children's future," President Clinton said in his opening remarks.

New scientific research suggests that experiences after birth, particularly in the first three years of life, have a dramatic impact on brain development. This means that nurturing, talking to, singing to and reading to our youngest children will improve their ability to learn and develop throughout their lives. Conference participants called for high-quality day care, parenting education and expanded health coverage for children.

Conference participants included: Dr. David Hamburg, president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York; Dr. Donald Cohen, Yale University; Dr. Carla Shatz, University of California at Berkeley; Dr. Patricia Kuhl, University of Washington; Dr. Ezra Davidson, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science; Dr. T. Berry Brazelton, Harvard University; Dr. Deborah Phillips, Institute of Medicine; Dr. Gloria Rodriguez, Advance Family Support Program; Harriet Meyer, Ounce of Prevention; Melvin Wearing, Chief of Police in New Haven, Connecticut; Arnold Langbo, The Kellogg Company; and Rob Reiner, CastleRock Entertainment.

In his opening remarks, President Clinton cited the importance of Head Start programs for younger children and an expanded Family and Medical Leave Act. He applauded the U.S. Department of Education's "Ready, Set, Read" tool kit, which can be helpful to day-care providers and parents in developing the early reading skills of children ages 0 to 5. He enlisted the U.S. Department of Defense, whose day care centers have been cited as models, to enter partnerships that would help improve the quality of child care centers in the private sector, and announced a new initiative from the U.S. Department of Justice entitled "Safe Start," which is designed to train law enforcement officials in child development so they will be equipped to handle situations involving young children.

The White House is planning to host a second conference devoted exclusively to child care issues this fall. The "Ready, Set, Read" tool kit will be on the internet and then can be duplicated. A limited supply of the kit is available by calling 1-800-USA-LEARN.

-###-

[Table of Contents] [ED HomePage]