Community Update

No. 62, November/December 1998
U.S. Department of Education

Community Partnerships Can Help Create Safe and Drug Free Schools
November 13, 1998

More and more communities are taking the responsibility to insure that students attend schools that have a positive, healthy and supportive learning environment. When culture and climate are positive and supportive, teachers are more motivated to teach and children are more enthusiastic to learn.

Research shows that schools that are safe and drug free generally adhere to four main principles of effectiveness. First, these schools conduct a needs assessment of the issues and concerns relating to drugs and violence. Second, they set measurable goals and objectives that involve community representatives. Third, they implement their effective research-based programs, and fourth, the they evaluate the programs to determine their effectiveness.

No matter how hard a school and community work to promote a safe and orderly school environment, no school can be exempt from random acts of violence. On October 15, at the White House Conference on School Safety, President Clinton proclaimed "National School Safety Day" and highlighted some of his administration's school safety initiatives, including school uniforms, the use of tough truancy laws, community-based curfews, and zero tolerance for guns in school. The U.S. Department of Education is working hard to further President Clinton's education agenda which includes: modernizing schools, reducing class size in the early grades and investing in after-school programs to help keep kids safe and well educated.

"All Americans can have a role in ensuring that schools are safe places where children can learn and teachers can teach," Assistant Secretary of Elementary and Secondary Education Gerald N. Tirozzi said. "If the community has an environment that is safe, orderly, and drug free, it enhances the potential for a positive school climate."

The U.S. Department of Education's publication Early Warning, Timely Response: A Guide to Safe Schools was recently released to provide school communities with reliable and practical information about what they can do to be prepared for and to reduce the likelihood of violence. To obtain a copy of this publication, call 1-877-4ED-PUBS or visit the U.S. Department of Education's Web site at http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSERS/OSEP/earlywrn.html.

For information about the Safe and Drug Free Schools Program, call 1-800-USA-LEARN or visit http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSDFS/.

November Town Meeting Will Highlight Ways to Prepare Financially for College

The November Satellite Town Meeting will highlight the latest information on student financial aid and other forms of assistance. U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley will present a panel of guests who will provide an overview of the major student financial assistance programs that are available to students at most schools. Entitled "Going to College: Financial Aid Night," the hour-long program will air on Tuesday, November 17 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 and The Procter & Gamble 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: Telstar 5, Orbital Location 97 degrees West; Transponder 24; Horizontal Polarity; Channel 24; Downlink Frequency 4180 MHZ; Audio Subcarriers 6.2 MHZ (Spanish) and 6.8 MHZ (English).

Ku-Band: SBS6, Orbital Location 74 Degrees West; Transponder 4; Vertical Polarity; Channel 4; Downlink Frequency 11798 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. For additional information or to register your participation, call 1-800-USA-LEARN, visit the U.S. Department of Education's Web site at http://www.ed.gov/inits/stm/, or e-mail Satellite.Town.Meeting@ed.gov.

Secretary Riley to Host Arts Education Teleconference in December

On December 1, the national teleconference "Arts Literacy for a Changing America" will be broadcast from the Newseum in Arlington, Virginia, from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. Eastern time. Hosted by U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley and moderated by CNN's Bill Press, the teleconference will focus on the importance of arts literacy and highlight the results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in the arts.

"The process of studying and creating art in all of its distinct forms defines those qualities that are at the heart of education reform to prepare for the 21st century -- creativity, perseverance, a sense of standards, and above all, a striving for excellence," U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley said.

Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education and the Arts Education Partnership, the national teleconference will involve parent, community, business and school leaders who will discuss how the knowledge and skills developed in learning the arts constitute an important form of "literacy" that students will need to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Panelists will address ways that school leaders, parents, and community, cultural and business groups can:

• create new partnerships between schools, artists and social service organizations and work with school systems to advance arts education;

• identify community resources that teachers can draw upon to help them achieve learning objectives in the arts; and

• explore strategies and programs that other school systems, arts groups and communities are using to advance arts education.

Satellite coordinates for the teleconference will be available in early November. To obtain more information about the teleconference, call 1-800-USA-LEARN or visit http://aep-arts.org.

Religious Organizations and Faith Communities Support Public Education

This verse from Proverbs begins the Statement of Common Purpose Among Religious Communities Supporting Family Involvement in Education, a document written in 1994 by leaders from 30 religious organizations and representing approximately three-fourths of religiously-affiliated Americans. These religious leaders have joined U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley in affirming their strong belief in family involvement in learning. Together they have pledged to actively support this belief through activities of the Partnership for Family Involvement in Education.

Based on the commitments made through the Statement of Common Purpose, religious organizations and faith communities have been working with their own membership, members of other denominations, community-based organizations and their local schools to make a difference in how children in their communities are educated. The Partnership for Family Involvement in Education provides a framework for these activities as well as materials to support local projects. The following are examples of religious communities that are working together on education and learning:

• In Jackson, Tennessee, 23 churches have designed a tutoring program in cooperation with the local school system to serve children residing in public housing. Three nights a week, church buses provide transportation to church facilities where 250 volunteers work with 350 children, providing assistance in reading and math.

• The Interfaith Community Partnership in Chicago, Illinois, is working with the school system and the community to address school safety concerns by providing crisis intervention and follow-up teams to schools as requested, offering crisis prevention programs and training, arranging for classroom and student mentors, and assisting students through after-school homework centers.

• The Jewish Coalition for Literacy has pledged 100,000 reading tutors over a period of five years. In some communities, these volunteers are getting involved in existing programs to support ongoing efforts. In other communities, the coalition may be the organizing group to get a new partnership started. They are currently working with programs in Boston and Baltimore, with more cities being added each year.
• The Baltimore-Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church began a summer reading program through a church in downtown Washington, D.C. The program recruited children from the public schools in the neighborhood. Both students and tutors received so much from the program that they worked to continue it throughout the school year. Additionally, Baltimore area members joined an existing literacy program to extend the services offered.

One particular activity through the Partnership for Family Involvement in Education--the Religion and Education Summit--illustrates the continuing positive effects that partnerships can have on a community. The most recent Religion and Education Summit was held in St. Petersburg, Florida, and the actions of the new partnership formed at the summit have resulted in mentoring programs, tutoring efforts, after-school programs and local business involvement in tutoring programs. The next summit will take place in Louisville, Kentucky, on December 11, 1998.

For more information about the Partnership for Family Involvement in Education, call 1-800-USA-LEARN or visit their Web site at http://www.ed.gov/PFIE/.

This article is based on a piece in HORIZONS magazine, published by Presbyterian women for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

Announcements

• The National Community Education Association (NCEA) has announced that the 17^th annual "National Community Education Day" will be observed on Tuesday, November 17. This year, the commemorative day will focus on meeting the needs -- educational, health, social services, cultural, and recreational -- of all members of the education community, and providing a safe place for children and others to learn, play, and gather before school, after school, on weekends, and during the summer. For more information, contact NCEA at 703-359-8973 or write to the National Community Education Association, 3929 Old Lee Highway, Suite 91-A, Fairfax, Virginia 22030-2401.

• Recent publications issued by the Partnership for Family Involvement in Education support local efforts to get families engaged with schools. Questions Parents Ask About Schools is a research-based pamphlet available in English and Spanish. Topics covered include school-work, safety, preparing for a career and more. Employers, schools, and community groups that want to learn more about business-education collaboration can request The Corporate Imperative: Results and Benefits of Business Involvement in Education. On a related topic, the publication Using Technology to Strengthen Employee and Family Involvement in Education provides examples of businesses that are using technology to help employees who are parents link with their children's schools. To order these publications while supplies last, call 1-877-4ED-PUBS or visit http://www.ed.gov/about/ordering.jsp.

• A special low interest rate, currently 7.46%, is available for a limited time to eligible borrowers who consolidate their outstanding student loans through the Direct Loan program if their application is received no later than January 31, 1999. This interest rate may also be available through some government-guaranteed lenders, although they are not required to offer the low rate. For more information, call 1-800-557-7392 or visit http://www.ed.gov/DirectLoan/.

Reading Summit Launches Crusade for Child Literacy

U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley called for a comprehensive national crusade for child literacy based on the best practices from new brain and reading research. In particular, the summit focused on the National Research Council's (NRC) 1998 landmark report, Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children, which stated that 40 percent of American fourth graders failed to read at a basic level in a 1994 national assessment.

"From cradles to classrooms to colleges, we can help more children succeed in reading," Secretary Riley said.

Secretary Riley issued five challenges to accelerate the movement toward full child literacy. First, top educators and policy makers in each state should join forces to retool their approach to teaching children to read, beginning at birth. "We must unite to get out the message: if every parent reads for 30 minutes a day to their child, it will revolutionize education in this country," Secretary Riley stated.

Second, educators must stop feuding over teaching techniques. "We should integrate the best elements of methods like phonics and whole language, and keep our focus on the needs of the individual child," he said.

Third, cooperation between all pre-kindergarten care givers could instill greater pre-literacy skills in toddlers. "Make it a priority to build stronger ties between child care and preschool agencies and organizations in your states and communities," he urged.

Fourth, we must support children with special challenges, including disabled students, children with limited English proficiency, and low-income students. Studies show that almost every child can learn to read with appropriate help.

Fifth, state teacher certification boards and colleges of education should require that every prospective K-3 teacher have rigorous training to teach reading. With 2.2 million new teachers expected to enter public schools in the next decade, Secretary Riley said, we must act now to rectify this glaring deficit in teacher preparation. "Many veteran teachers also need strong re-training," he added.

Teams from each state at the summit pledged to take action during the next six months. Activities to be explored include: hosting state reading summits; reforming teacher certification requirements; raising graduation standards at teacher colleges; using the NRC study to train current teachers and principals; offering pre-literacy training to child care providers; reviewing reading benchmarks for preschool; seeking early intervention in kindergarten; and conducting public awareness campaigns to promote literacy, including a video on developing early literacy skills, and using stores and restaurants, like McDonald's tray liners, to promote family literacy.

A new Reading Summit Web site contains more information, including the NRC report and state activities, at http://www.ed.gov/inits/readingsummit/. You can also order the report by calling 1-800-624-6242. For free publications and videos on child literacy, call 1-877-4ED-PUBS. Two free videos are available on one tape to show at meetings or training sessions: "Breaking Through" (11 minutes) illustrates success stories of struggling readers with teacher and family support and "Reading Partners" (15 minutes) focuses on innovative ways to develop pre-literacy skills in early childhood. For further information on child literacy, visit http://www.ed.gov/inits/americareads/.

FY 1999 Budget Provides Education Improvements

• A major down payment to lower class size by helping to pay for and train teachers to give more personalized attention to students in grades 1 through 3;

• providing 100,000 disadvantaged middle schoolers with the "Gear Up for College" initiative to help them prepare academically and financially for college;

• expanding after-school and summer programs to over a quarter of a million students; and

• providing new resources to help more children read well and independently by the end of the third grade through a child literacy bill inspired by the America Reads Challenge, with significant increases in Title I and IDEA.

The FY 1999 budget will also help about 36,000 youngsters get a better start in life through Head Start, continue the effort to raise standards through help from Goals 2000, and provide teachers with the help they need to use technology effectively in the nation's classrooms. The budget will also provide the largest maximum award ever for Pell Grants -- $3,125 a year per eligible student -- for lower income students to attend college. Congress did not approve President Clinton's request to create education opportunity zones and to build, repair or modernize over 5,000 schools nationwide. For more information, call 1-800-USA-LEARN.

U.S. Schools Face Third Consecutive Year of Record Enrollment

Bayer/NSF Awards Encourage Science and Community Service

-###-

[Table of Contents]