Community Update

No. 66
April 1999
U.S. Department of Education

• Teacher Quality Enhancement Initiative Can Help Improve Teacher Quality, Recruitment and Preparation
• April Town Meeting Will Focus on Improving Teacher Quality
• U.S. Department of Education Partners with Everybody Wins! Literacy Program
• Community and Religious Steering Groups Meet in Atlanta
• US WEST Technology Benefits Parents, Schools, and Teachers
• Announcements
• Calendar
• NAEP Report Shows Progress in Reading
• Smaller Class Sizes and Modern Schools Can Improve American Education
• Classroom Internet Access Nearly Doubles and the E-Rate Will Help
• Help Build a Sustainable America
• Credits

Teacher Quality Enhancement Initiative Can Help Improve Teacher Quality, Recruitment and Preparation
April 7, 1999

Over the next decade, America's schools will need to hire 2.2 million teachers, more than half of whom will be first-time teachers. As classrooms become more diverse, these teachers must be able to respond to the needs of all students.

The U.S. Department of Education's Teacher Quality Enhancement Grant initiative will provide schools, colleges, schools districts and states with new resources and tools to recruit and prepare an excellent and diverse corps of teachers for America's classrooms. This new initiative consists of three separate programs: Partnership Grants for Improving Teacher Education, State Grants, and Teacher Recruitment Grants.

Partnership Grants for Improving Teacher Education will provide funds to collaborations among teacher preparation institutions and high-need school districts. To ensure that new teachers can meet the many challenges of today's classrooms, the partners will work to strengthen teacher education through activities such as:

• Implementing reforms that hold teacher education programs accountable for preparing high-quality teachers;
• Improving prospective teachers' knowledge of academic content;
• Providing prospective teachers with strong hands-on classroom experience and strengthening links between faculties at universities and K-12 teaching staff;
• Preparing prospective teachers to use technology as a tool for teaching and learning; and
• Preparing prospective teachers to work effectively with student diversity.

Teacher Recruitment Grants will support the efforts of states and school-university partnerships to reduce shortages of qualified teachers in high-need areas. Grant recipients may offer scholarships, high-quality preparation, and support services to prospective teachers who agree to teach in high-need schools.

State Grants will encourage states to improve the quality of their teaching force through such reforms as:

• Strengthening teacher certification standards;
• Implementing reforms that hold institutions of higher education accountable for preparing teachers who have strong teaching skills and knowledge of their content areas;
• Establishing or strengthening alternative pathways into teaching for highly qualified individuals, including mid-career professionals and former military personnel; and
• Reducing shortages of qualified teachers in high-need areas.

Partnerships among institutions of higher education, schools of arts and sciences and high-need local educational agencies are eligible to apply for Partnership Grants for Improving Teacher Education. All states are eligible to apply for State Grants, and the governor or applicable state agency must apply on their behalf. Both states and the partnerships as described above are eligible to apply for Teacher Recruitment Grants. President Clinton's FY 2000 budget proposal includes $115 million for the Teacher Quality Enhancement Grant initiative.

For more information, call Louis Venuto at (202) 708-8847, fax to (202) 708-9046, e-mail to teacherquality@ed.gov or visit http://www.ed.gov/offices/OPE/heatqp/. The U.S. Department of Education's Satellite Town Meeting "Improving Teacher Quality: Shaping the Profession that Shapes America's Future" will air on Tuesday, April 20.

April Town Meeting Will Focus on Improving Teacher Quality

Every child needs and deserves dedicated, well-prepared teachers who know their subject matter, are effectively educated and can teach to high standards. Over the next decade, America's schools will need to hire 2.2 million teachers to deal with the continued growth of record-breaking student enrollments and teacher retirements. In response to this crisis, state and local leaders around the nation are taking steps to improve the recruitment, preparation, licensing, and ongoing support of teachers in America.

The April Satellite Town Meeting will focus on ways communities can respond to the critical need for high-quality teachers and ensure that new teachers can meet the many challenges of today's classrooms. U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley and his panel of guests will focus on policies and practices needed to assure that a well-qualified teacher leads every classroom. Entitled "Improving Teacher Quality: Shaping the Profession That Shapes America's Future," the hour-long program will air on Tuesday, April 20 at 8:00 p.m. (ET).

The U.S. Department of Education produces the Satellite Town Meeting series in partnership with the National Alliance of Business, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the Committee for Economic Development, 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: Galaxy 3, Orbital Location 95 degrees West; Transponder 18; Vertical Polarity; Channel 18; Downlink Frequency 4060 MHZ; Audio Subcarriers 6.2 MHZ (Spanish) and 6.8 MHZ (English).

Ku-Band: SBS 6, 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. For more information, call 1-800-USA-LEARN, visit http://www.ed.gov/inits/stm/, or e-mail Satellite.Town.Meeting@ed.gov.

U.S. Department of Education Partners with Everybody Wins! Literacy Program

An Ode to Power Lunch
One hour is not enough
For us to do all our stuff
But when it's done, we still had fun.
(written by an EW! third grader)

U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley and the U.S. Department of Education have established a partnership with Everybody Wins! (EW!) DC, the largest children's literacy and mentoring organization in Washington, D.C. Privately funded and not for profit, EW! DC promotes children's literacy and a love of learning through shared reading experiences with caring adults. During the 1998-99 school year, EW! DC plans to serve over 2,800 students in 20 schools in the Washington metropolitan area.

EW! DC offers two programs, "Power Lunch" and "StoryTime." The Power Lunch program is a unique literacy and mentoring program that partners adults with public elementary school children to stimulate their interest in reading and writing. Once a week, volunteer reading mentors go to local schools to meet with their student partners and share conversation and good books during the lunch hour. The Power Lunch program benefits children academically and socially by bringing a diverse selection of children's literature into the schools and providing students with caring adult readers who act as informal mentors and positive role models. Most of the volunteers continue to read with the same student partners for several years, turning "power lunches" into "powerful relationships."

"We are delighted to have the Department of Education as a partner in the Power Lunch program," said Joanie Chase, EW! executive director. "We're so glad we can work together to foster the love of reading and learning with our children."

The StoryTime program brings storytellers to elementary schools that otherwise receive very few special enrichment opportunities. Once a month, storytellers, local authors, and other performers visit the schools and bring the magic of storytelling to groups of children. Often the performances are interactive, calling upon children to play musical instruments, make sound effects, or dance. The stories always ends happily and each student leaves with a new book. For more information about EW! DC, call (202) 624-3957 or visit http://www.erols.com/ebodywin.

Special April 1999 Insert on Family Involvement

Community and Religious Steering Groups Meet in Atlanta

The Community and Religious Steering groups of the Partnership for Family Involvement in Education held their largest meeting of the year on February 25 in Atlanta, Georgia. Participants represented national organizations as well as key partnerships in the Atlanta area. The goal of the meeting was to draw on the expertise of the national leadership in community and religious groups and couple this with the experience of the local partnerships.

The main area of focus was after-school programs, and community networks that provide after-school learning opportunities for children were a vibrant part of the conversation. Locating the meeting in Atlanta gave participants an opportunity to learn about activities of various organizations in the southeast, including those of the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education, the Boys and Girls Club, Spalding University's Religion and Education Summit, and a 21st Century Community Learning Center grantee. To help tie together the past meetings, local networks from New York and Philadelphia joined the steering group to discuss areas of common focus and strategic links.

The work of this group has led to the drafting of Recipes for Success, a new tool kit for religious organizations and faith communities to assist them in supporting education and family involvement in their local areas. Recipes for Success was reviewed by the group, which will continue to assist in its production. The Religious and Community Steering Groups will join the Family/School and Employers Groups in San Francisco on May 6, 1999. For more information about the Partnership for Family Involvement in Education, call 1-800-USA-LEARN or e-mail partner@ed.gov.

Visit us online at http://pfie.ed.gov. The Partnership for Family Involvement in Education's new Web site features a database search engine of all the members of the Partnership, examples of successful educational programs, an outline of the U.S. Department of Education's initiatives and publications, and numerous links to other relevant sites. Thirty years of research shows that greater family involvement in children's learning is critical to achieving a high-quality education for every student. Join us in our effort to link employers, educators, families, religious groups, and community organizations together to improve schools and raise student achievement.

US WEST Technology Benefits Parents, Schools, and Teachers

Over a three-year period, the US WEST Foundation's Widening Our World (WOW) Program has dedicated $150 million to educational technology outreach and support. According to the corporation, this commitment will benefit more than 6 million students in 20,000 schools.

The US WEST Foundation has implemented a variety of programs to reach communities across the West. Their "Adopt a Classroom" program provides financial support, technological training and grant information, as well as "cyber mentors" to teachers and students in the classroom. The "Teacher Network" program creates a space in which teachers can exchange ideas and curriculum materials. In cooperation with the National Education Association and its local affiliates, local school districts, and state departments of education, US WEST also uses this network to train teachers on how to use on-line computer services. "Connecting Teachers with Technology" awards are given to teacher teams who develop and implement a technology-based project in their schools, and "Multimedia in Education" initiatives fund collaborations among university schools of education and local schools.

US West's WOW van, an interactive school on wheels, features 24 laptop computers and travels throughout the company's service territory to teach residents how to access online services and applications. US WEST also offers a "Children & Families Network," an Internet outreach site which links agencies in the 14 US WEST states that work in family services and early childhood education to regional and national information and consultation. To find out more about US WEST Foundation's technology initiatives and programs, contact the US WEST Foundation at (800) 843-3383.

Announcements

• Join us for an exciting educational event! The U.S. Department of Education and the University of Vermont are hosting a free national satellite teleconference on the America Reads Tutoring Support Program on Monday, April 26 from 1:30-3:30 p.m. ET. For more information, visit http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmreads and follow links to the telconference. For registration requests, call 1-800-639-3188 or fax to (802) 656-3891.
• PACER Center, Inc. is a parent center and the coordinating office for two nationwide efforts focusing on special education issues: the Technical Assistance Alliance for Parents program, which works with parent centers on key issues related to the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA), and the Families and Advocates Partnership for Education (FAPE) program, which works with agencies, organizations, self-advocates, and families to promote the best ways to help children with disabilities learn. FAPE also conducts outreach activities to ensure broad-based understanding of IDEA legislation. For more information or to request a free copy of the newsletter, PACESETTER, contact PACER Center, Inc. at 4826 Chicago Avenue South, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55417, call toll-free 1-888-248-0822, or e-mail pacer@pacer.org. You may also visit the following sites: http://www.pacer.org, http://www.taalliance.org/, and http://www.fape.org.
• USA TODAY's "Education Online" Web site provides education news, information and interactive activities, including the opportunity for students to ask reporters questions. For more information call 1-800-757-TEACH or visit http://www.usatoday.com/educate/home.htm.
• A new publication, Yes You Can: Establishing Mentoring Programs to Prepare Youth for College, has just been released by the Partnership for Family Involvement in Education. The publication provides suggested guidelines and examples of students on mentoring students to get on track for college. To obtain a copy of the report, call 1-877-4ED-PUBS.
• The partnership has produced materials on preparing educators to involve families, including speakers notes, overheads and the Harvard Family Research Project publication New Skills for New Schools: Preparing Teachers in Family Involvement. These materials are available at the partnerships' Web site at http://pfie.ed.gov/bpres.php3. Call 1-877-4ED-PUBS to order a hard copy of the publication (#EE 0201P).

NAEP Report Shows Progress in Reading

The National Assessment of Educational Progress' (NAEP) 1998 Reading Report Card for the Nation shows that average reading scores have increased for students in grades 4, 8, and 12 from 1994 to 1998. This is the first time there have been statistically significant increases in all three grades since the program began testing reading in 1971. Authorized by Congress and administered by the National Center for Education Statistics at the U.S. Department of Education, NAEP is the nation's only ongoing survey of the educational progress of students in these grades.

While the national average reading score increased at all three grades in 1998, increased scores were not observed for all students. At grade 4, score increases were observed only among lower performing students. Similarly, at grade 8, score increases were seen for low- and middle-performing students. At grade 12, score increases were observed among middle- and upper-performing students.

The NAEP 1998 Reading Report Card for the Nation and the States also revealed students' reading performance in those states participating in the assessment. About a fifth of participating states showed statistically significant improvements from 1994 to 1998 in fourth grade reading. No participating states lost ground between 1994 and 1998, and four states-Delaware, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Virginia-reversed declines in a previous assessment. Comparisons with previous years (1992 and 1994) are available only for the fourth grade level.

"Many states that have been struggling are starting to see the results of their hard work pay off in turning around their reading scores," U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley said.

The state of Connecticut showed the largest numerical gain, 10 points, and had the highest overall fourth grade score. The nine other jurisdictions that showed significant gains since the 1994 fourth grade reading assessment are Colorado, Delaware, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, South Carolina, Virginia, Washington and Department of Defense overseas schools. To obtain a copy of the NAEP 1998 Reading Report Card for the Nation, call 1-877-4ED-PUBS. You can also access the report on the NAEP Web site at http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=1999500.

Smaller Class Sizes and Modern Schools Can Improve American Education

President Clinton's FY 2000 balanced budget proposal focuses on improving student achievement by accelerating fundamental changes based on high standards. The budget proposal includes two important priorities: providing more resources to local schools to reduce class size, and building and modernizing schools nationwide to accommodate new technology and a growing student enrollment.

Studies show that smaller classes help teachers provide more personal attention to students and spend less time on discipline. As a result, students learn more and get a stronger foundation in the basic skills. In 1998, President Clinton proposed to help local schools hire 100,000 well prepared teachers in order to reduce class size in grades 1-3 to a national average of 18, and make sure that every child gets a solid foundation in the basics. Last year, the president signed into law the first installment of his seven-year, $12.4 billion proposal to hire 100,000 new teachers. For FY 1999, Congress approved $1.2 billion to help local communities hire 30,000 teachers. President Clinton has requested $1.4 billion for class size reduction for FY 2000.

According to the General Accounting Office, one-third of all schools are in need of extensive repair. School districts also face the cost of upgrading schools to accommodate new technology and growing enrollments. To meet these urgent needs, President Clinton has proposed, as part of his tax legislation, a tax credit to support $25 billion in interest-free bonds to finance construction or renovation of up to 6,000 elementary and secondary schools.

Two types of bonds are being proposed. The president has requested $22 billion in School Modernization Bonds to help states and local districts build and modernize public schools, with half of the bonds ($11 billion) allocated to the 100 school districts serving the largest number of low-income children and the other half ($11 billion) allocated to states. An additional $400 million of bonds would be available for schools on Indian reservations. $2.4 billion has been requested for Qualified Zone Academy Bonds to finance renovation and new school construction in Empowerment Zones and high poverty areas through innovative partnerships between public schools and businesses. For more information about class size reduction and school modernization, call 1-800-USA-LEARN.

Classroom Internet Access Nearly Doubles and the E-Rate Will Help

According to a new survey by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the nation is making progress on the national educational technology goal of connecting all classrooms to the information superhighway by the year 2000. Entitled Internet Access in Public Schools and Classrooms, the NCES survey reports that the percentage of classrooms with Internet access increased from 27 percent to 51 percent and school Internet access increased from 78 percent to 89 percent.

"We're making significant strides to get technology to the place where children learn-the classroom," said U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley.

A national study from the Center for Applied Special Technology found increased learning for students with online use. However, the "digital divide," the increasing disparity between those who have access to technology and those who do not, is still centered along socioeconomic and geographic lines. The E-Rate (Education Rate), which provides discounted access to advanced telecommunications for schools and libraries, will provide targeted help to increase connectivity in our neediest classrooms and bridge the "digital divide."

Between November 23, 1998, and February 27, 1999, ten rounds of E-Rate funding commitments were distributed, which amounted to $1.66 billion dollars being provided to 25,785 applicants. Of the applicants, 77 percent were school districts and individual schools; 18 percent were libraries; and 4 percent were consortia. Fifty-three percent of all applicants were urban, and they account for 67 percent of all funds. Rural applicants total 43 percent and account for 22 percent of all funds. The three largest recipients of E-Rate discounts are California ($206 million), New York ($164 million) and Texas ($128 million).

The Schools and Libraries Division (SLD), which administers the E-Rate, estimates that 647,000 classrooms will be connected to the Internet as a direct result of E-Rate discounts. The SLD also estimates that 82 percent of all public schools filed applications (Form 471). For the latest E-Rate information, visit http://www.slcfund.org. To obtain a copy of the NCES survey, visit http://www.nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=1999017.

Help Build a Sustainable America

The President's Council on Sustainable Development and the Global Environment and Technology Foundation are co-sponsoring a "National Town Meeting for a Sustainable America" on May 2-5, 1999, in Detroit, Michigan, and in communities across America. This national event will spotlight the work of communities, businesses and individuals that are offering new solutions to help America grow in a more sustainable way. If you are a school administrator, parent, teacher or student and would like to learn more about sustainable practices, you are encouraged to attend the event in Detroit, or host a community meeting. For more information, please call 1-888-333-6878 or visit http://www.sustainableamerica.org.