Community Update

No. 58, June 1998
U.S. Department of Education

• Senate Budget Resolution Eliminates Needed Education Investments for America's Students
• Community Efforts Can Help Children Improve Reading Skills, Town Meeting Audience Learns
• June Town Meeting Will Focus on Effective Ways Build Schools for the 21st Century
• U.S. Department of Education and NAPE Collaborate on Conference
• America Goes Back to School Planning Tip
• Resource Highlights Proven Practices in Mathematics Professional Development
• Fifth Annual Regional Conferences on Improving America's Schools to Be Held in Fall '98
• FREE Web Site Provides New Resources for Teaching and Learning
• Summer Home Learning Recipes Are Available for Parents

Senate Budget Resolution Eliminates Needed Education Investments for America's Students
June 1, 1998

Although the House has yet to act on their budget plan, the House Budget Committee, on a party line vote, has greed to support even deeper cuts in education. The House Budget Committee agreed to $100 billion in domestic program cuts over five years, including education.

Listed below are items in President Clinton's FY 1999 education budget request versus the corresponding figures from the Senate budget resolution. For more information on the U.S. Department of Education's FY 1999 budget request, call 1-800-USA-LEARN.

Education Needs	President's FY99 Budegt Request	Senate FY99 Budget Resolution	Amount Denied
School Construction & Modernization: Bonding Authority for 2 years	$22 billion	$0	$22 billion
Reduce class size in early grades (over 7 years)	$12.7 billion	$0	$12.7 billion
Extra help in learning the basics (Title 1 local grants)	$7.767 billion	$7.375 billion	$392 million
Technology fund to bring computers to the classroom	$475 million	$425 million	$50 million
Raise standards of achievement and discipline (Goals 2000)	$501 million	$491 million	$10 million
Pell Grants to help pay for college	$7.594 billion	$7.345 billion	$249 million
College work study	$900 million	$830 million	$70 million
After-school learning programs	$200 million	$40 million	$160 million
Education Opportunity Zones	$200 million	$0	$200 million
High Hopes for College	$140 million	$0	$140 million
Safe and Drug-Free Schools coordinators	$50 million	$0	$50 million
Technology teacher training	$75 million	$0	$75 million
OERI research/NSF	$50 million	$0	$50 million
TRIO	$583 million	$530 million	$53 million
Distance learning in postsecondary education	$30 million	$0	$30 million
Bilingual professional development	$50 million	$25 million	$25 million

Community Efforts Can Help Children Improve Reading Skills, Town Meeting Audience Learns

The Satellite Town Meeting focused on ways that families, schools and community groups can encourage students to improve their reading skills and deepen their love of reading this summer and throughout the school year. The program also highlighted the National Research Council's report Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children, which defines key elements all children need in order to become good readers.

The program featured Sandra Feinberg, director of the Middle Country Public Library in Centereach, New York; Steven Hill, principal of the Benchley-Weinberger Elementary School in San Diego, California; Anthony deGuzman, site director of JUMPSTART in New Haven, Connecticut; and Kim Francisco, director of Parents as Partners in Learning in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Panelists emphasized the following advice on improving our efforts to teach children to read:

• Learning to read starts early. From infancy, the child's home, pre-school and other environments should be rich with language, songs and books.
• Partnerships are key. Schools, businesses, colleges, libraries, and families can team up in a variety of ways to encourage children's reading.
• Tutors, mentors and other reading partners can extend opportunities for learning and practice.
• Reading should be a daily activity. Parents and reading partners should read with a child for at least 30 minutes each day.
• Reading is for all children. Those with disabilities or limited English proficiency can and should read every day -- with extra help, if necessary.

The U.S. Department of Education's publications Simple Things You Can Do, Ready*Set*Read, Read*Write*Now! and Checkpoints for Progress are available by calling 1-800-USA-LEARN or by visiting the America Reads Challenge Web site at http://www.ed.gov/inits/americareads/.

June Town Meeting Will Focus on Effective Ways Build Schools for the 21st Century

Secretary Riley and his guests will discuss how a school's physical design can support new approaches to teaching and learning, as well as how new learning environments can be constructed to accommodate a growing school population. The program will also highlight how new school designs can anticipate telecommunications and technology needs, and ensure student safety and discipline. Entitled "Designs for Learning: Building Schools for the 21st Century," the hour-long Satellite Town Meeting will air on Tuesday, June 16, 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 U.S. Chamber of Commerce, with support from The Bayer Foundation, The Procter & Gamble Fund, and The SC Johnson Wax Fund. Broadcast and cable partners include Discovery Communications, the Public Broadcasting Service and Channel One. The program will be closed-captioned and simulcast in Spanish.

The coordinates are as follows:

C-Band: Galaxy 6, 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: SBS6, Orbital Location 74 Degrees West; Transponder 9; Horizontal Polarity; Channel 9; Downlink Frequency 11921 MHZ; Audio Subcarriers 6.2 MHZ (Spanish) and 6.8 (English).

To participate in the Satellite Town Meeting, ask your local Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member station or Chamber of Commerce if your group can use the facility as a downlink site, or call your local public, education, or government access channel. Call 1-800-USA-LEARN for additional information or to register your participation, or visit http://www.ed.gov/inits/stm/.

U.S. Department of Education and NAPE Collaborate on Conference

The U.S. Department of Education and the Partnership for Family Involvement in Education have helped to develop a series of workshops around the theme of involving families in children's education. Efforts around areas such as after-school learning, math, reading, early college preparation, and technology will be highlighted.

The workshops on family involvement will include:

• A presentation on the publication A Compact for Learning, providing participants with a framework based on shared responsibility for learning to manage, monitor, and evaluate family-school partnerships.

• The Young Scholars' Liberty Partnership (LPP) Program Puzzle: Student, Parent, School, College, Community session will offer examples of effective use of tutors and mentors to support students and families. Examples of partnerships involving college tutors and mentors, parents, and social services in after-school and summer learning will be highlighted.

• The TexPREP: Math/Science Mentors in Middle Schools session will show participants how to prepare students for future success by helping them to tackle challenging courses in the middle grades. TexPREP's high school graduation rate is 99.9 percent, its college attendance rate is 92 percent, and its college graduation rate is 87 percent.

• The Bridge Project: Using Voice Mail Technology to Support Family Involvement in Education will focus on implementation and evaluation strategies to improve communication between teachers and families through technology and training. Participants will also brainstorm on how this model can be integrated into other partnership projects.

• The San Francisco Volunteers Connect Families and Middle Schools workshop will share practical strategies that have successfully connected families of diverse backgrounds with their schools. The workshop will highlight parent-teacher action teams, family curriculum nights, and home-school e-mail programs that engage parents and create a family-friendly school culture.

Other symposium workshops pertaining to family involvement in children's education will include: Teacher Preparation for Family Involvement; Including Families Through Integrated, Community-Based Arts Programs; A Step Toward Independence: Preparing a Home Alone Plan; Successful Student-Led Parent Conferences: A Community Effort; Project SMART Thinking: Marketing to Diverse Family Populations; Catalyst for Change: National Standards for Parent Involvement Programs; Corporate Commitment: Bulletin Board Bullets and Other Family Involvement Options; Support Parenting for Student Success Through Training and Volunteer Assignment; Parents as Partners: Caring for the Children We Share.

Two skill-building sessions and a "think tank" in which participants will take a hands-on approach to strengthening and evaluating their own partnership efforts will also be offered at the symposium. For more information on the 1998 NAPE National Symposium, visit http://NAPEhq.org.

America Goes Back to School Planning Tip: Call 1-800-USA-LEARN for a free America Goes Back to School Partners' Activity Kit. If your event is planned for the very beginning of school, make sure before everyone leaves for the summer that you have enlisted enough students, faculty, parents and community members to help you in the fall. If you want to print anything special for your event, such as a banner or a brochure, ask community members for their help with supplies, printing, and whatever else you need to get the job done. Begin making printing arrangements now so it will be done in time!

Resource Highlights Proven Practices in Mathematics Professional Development

The Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) shows that the performance of U.S. students in mathematics is below the international average in eighth and twelfth grades. TIMSS found that top-performing nations have higher expectations for students, including algebra, geometry, and other topics in grades four to eight, and more rigorous mathematics in high school. A school seeking to raise standards and teach rigorous mathematics will need to plan for professional development: the average K-8 teacher takes three or fewer mathematics or mathematics education classes in college.

Ideas That Work: Mathematics Professional Development, published by the Eisenhower National Clearinghouse for Mathematics and Science Education, is a synopsis of Designing Professional Development for Teachers of Science and Mathematics by Susan Loucks-Horsley et al. Fifteen strategies are presented, and contact information is included to assist schools in replicating the success. Several programs highlighted recently earned a U.S. Department of Education Award for Professional Development.

The successful professional development strategies are grouped in five major categories: immersion, such as programs in which teachers experience the day-to-day work in industry, a lab, or museum; curriculum, including programs that help teachers tailor existing materials to better meet the learning needs of their students; examining practice, such as evaluating student work so that appropriate instructional strategies and materials can be identified; collaborative work, such as working one-on-one with another colleague to observe, share feedback, problem-solve, and co-plan; and vehicles and mechanisms, including using various kinds of technology to improve content and pedagogy.

To order a copy of the publication Ideas That Work: Mathematics Professional Development, call 1-800-USA-LEARN.

Fifth Annual Regional Conferences on Improving America's Schools to Be Held in Fall '98

Conference participants will gather important resource information about funding opportunities, specific programs and comprehensive school reform, and learn about practical strategies and models on how to align and integrate federal, state, and local programs and resources. Participants will also develop a better understanding of how comprehensive school reform promotes equity and excellence, discover how to better utilize the resources available from the U.S. Department of Education, and gain an understanding of the Clinton Administration's priorities and initiatives and how they relate to state and local efforts.

Check your state below to find out which conference to attend.

IAS Regional Conference in Portland, Oregon
October 19-21, 1998
Alaska, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, American Samoa, Federated States of Micronesia, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau.

IAS Regional Conference in Denver, Colorado
November 18-20, 1998
Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

IAS Conference in Nashville, Tennessee
December 15-17, 1998
Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

To obtain additional information about the conferences or to register your participation, call 1-800-203-5494, or visit http://www.ncbe.gwu.edu/iasconferences. To register your participation, call 1-800-522-0772, extension 2248.

FREE Web Site Provides New Resources for Teaching and Learning

"This new Web site...offers one-stop shopping for a treasure trove of historical documents, scientific experiments, mathematical challenges, famous paintings, and other tools for teachers and students," U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley said.

Thousands of topics can be searched on the FREE Web site: the Civil War, the Constitution, photosynthesis, condensation, immigration, Picasso, Jefferson, Henry David Thoreau, Mary Cassatt, Jackie Robinson, the Amistad Case, famous FBI cases, cartography, genealogy, the Renaissance, the solar system, and others. Resources can also be viewed in 10 subject areas.

The FREE Web site was developed in response to a directive President Clinton issued more than a year ago to expand access to Internet-based education resources for children, teachers and parents. The FREE Web site supports President Clinton's Technology Literacy Challenge, which comprises four education goals:

• All teachers will have the training and support they need to help students learn to use computers and the information superhighway;
• All teachers and students will have modern computers in their classrooms;
• Every classroom will be connected to the information superhighway; and
• Effective and engaging software and on-line learning resources will be an integral part of every school's curriculum.

The site also offers a "Looking for Partners" page to facilitate future partnerships between teachers, federal agencies and organizations. For more information about the FREE Web site, visit http://www.ed.gov/free/. The U.S. Department of Education's publication a Parents Guide to the Internet is available by visiting http://www.ed.gov/pubs/parents/internet/ or by calling 1-800-USA-LEARN.

Summer Home Learning Recipes Are Available for Parents

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