Community Update

No. 68
June 1999
U.S. Department of Education

Table of Contents

• Launch Your 1999-2000 School Year with New Partners
• June Town Meeting Will Focus on Effective School Leadership
• Invite Your Students to Enter a Millennium Showcase
• Help Promote Child Literacy This Summer and Throughout the Year
• San Francisco Hosts Partnership Meeting
• Memphis Celebrates 20 Years of School and Business Partnerships
• Announcements
• Calendar
• Ideas and Resources That Can Help Keep Schools and Communities Safe
• New American High Schools: A Resource for Change
• Credits

Launch Your 1999-2000 School Year with New Partners

June 2, 1999

T he U.S. Department of Education and the Partnership for Family Involvement in Education invite families, schools, college and university students and staff, employers and employees, grandparents, community, cultural and religious organizations, and caring adults to support the America Goes Back to School initiative. This annual effort focuses attention on improving education across the country and challenges Americans everywhere to make a commitment to children's learning during the back-to-school period of August through October.

"This millennium generation is entitled to its day in the sun," U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley said. "How we educate their minds and shape their values now will go a long way to defining the destiny of this nation for decades to come."

Local partnerships between families, schools, businesses, and community and religious groups are a proven means for raising student achievement and creating safe communities. America Goes Back to School can help create or strengthen existing partnerships for learning that build public awareness of and support for education improvement efforts, while celebrating all the opportunities a new school year offers. Entire communities can continue to rally around an area of interest such as: making schools safe and drug free; recruiting and preparing quality teachers; modernizing schools; expanding after-school and summer programs; getting high standards into every classroom; or developing pathways to college and careers.

This year, thousands of families, schools, and employer and community groups across the nation will participate in the America Goes Back to School initiative. In Chattanooga, Tennessee, the Hamilton County School System, the mayor and county executive, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Chattanooga State Community College, local businesses, religious leaders and other community members are planning America Goes Back to School events for thousands of participants in August. One of the events will highlight three schools that are incorporating the Mars Millennium Project into their science curriculum. This project is a youth initiative that challenges students across the nation to imagine and plan a community on the planet Mars for the year 2030, using science, art, math and technology.

For the third year, thousands of parents will join children from 22 states and hundreds of schools to celebrate the first day of school. In Vermont, Terry Ehrich, founder of the First Day Foundation and publisher of Hemmings Motor News in Bennington, is working with employers throughout the state and the nation to help them plan ahead to enable their employees to attend their child's first day of school in 1999-2000. In Houston, the 21st Century Community Learning Centers are participating in this back-to-school event.

For a free copy of the America Goes Back to School Organizers Kit or publications designed to help families, community members and businesses get involved in education, call 1-877-4ED-PUBS. To obtain information about the Partnership for Family Involvement in Education, call 1-800-USA-LEARN or visit http://pfie.ed.gov.

June Town Meeting Will Focus on Effective School Leadership

G ood schools have good leaders. Across the nation, principals provide the leadership and support necessary to create safe learning environments that allow students to reach high standards. Traditionally, a principal has multiple roles, including administrator and disciplinarian. As classrooms become more diverse, principals must have leadership skills to respond effectively to the needs of all students.

The June Satellite Town Meeting will focus on the policies and practices that ensure that a well-qualified principal leads every school across the nation. U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley and his panel of guests will offer practical advice and innovative ideas on ways that states, school districts and communities can recruit and prepare and excellent and diverse corps of principals and address the impending shortage of school principals. Entitled "School Leadership: Principals at the Center," the hour-long town meeting will air on Tuesday, June 15, 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.

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: SBS-6, Orbital Location 74 Degrees West; Transponder 4; Vertical Polarity; Channel 4; Downlink Frequency 11798 MHZ; Audio Subcarriers 6.2 MHZ and 6.8.

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.

Invite Your Students to Enter a Millennium Showcase

T hink of the excitement when the Mars rover, "Sojourner," sent back information about the Mars landscape. As we approach the 21 ^st century, the study of space science and the planet Mars offers an exciting opportunity for students of all ages to learn more about a range of subjects and harness their creativity.

The Mars Millennium Project encourages students from classrooms and youth groups across the nation to imagine and design a community on Mars for the year 2030. Young people are invited to work in teams and weave the arts, sciences, and humanities into a project or design for a new village for 100 people. They can enter their designs online or in a local display. The result will be a "millennium showcase" of best ideas for a new community on Mars that is scientifically sound and offers a high quality of life.

For more information, including a participant's guide, resources and related materials, visit http://mars2030.net. Videotapes of the May Satellite Town Meeting "Counting the Stars: Math, Arts and Space Science" are available free of charge by calling 1-877-4ED-PUBS.

Help Promote Child Literacy This Summer and Throughout the Year

T he U.S. Department of Education's America Reads Challenge initiative asks all Americans to help keep children reading this summer and throughout the year. The following tools and materials for summer and year-round use are available free of charge:

• The new Read*Write*Now! Activity Poster, available in English and Spanish, displays a colorful illustration on the front and a set of fun activities for children grades K-6 and their families on the back.
• The new Read*Write*Now! Tip Sheet for Developing a Community Reading Program offers straightforward suggestions for developing summer or after-school reading programs.

Call toll-free 1-877-4ED-PUBS for your free materials. The Read*Write*Now! Basic Kit is available online at http://www.ed.gov/Family/RWN/Activ97/. The Spanish version is available at http://www.ed.gov/Family/RWN/Actividades97/. For more information about the America Reads Challenge , call (202) 401-8888 or visit http://www.ed.gov/inits/americareads/.

Special June 1999 Insert on Family Involvement

San Francisco Hosts Partnership Meeting

More than 5,000 Partners have signed on to the Partnership for Family Involvement in Education! Thirty years of research show that greater family involvement in children's learning is critical to achieving a high-quality education for every student. Join the Partnership in its efforts to link employers, educators, families, religious groups, and community organizations together to improve schools and raise student achievement. Visit the Partnership for Family Involvement in Education online at http://pfie.ed.gov.

Memphis Celebrates 20 Years of School and Business Partnerships

Announcements

• Two new publications are available from the U.S. Department of Education. The Corporate Imperative: A Business Guide for Implementing Strategic Education Partnerships is designed to assess a company's current education partnership activities and chart a plan to achieve goals and objectives. Investing in Partnerships for Student Success: A Basic Tool for Community Stakeholders to Guide Educational Partnership Development and Management focuses on recruiting stakeholders and creating a vision for education partnerships. Call toll free 1-877-4ED-PUBS to order a free copy while supplies last.
• The following environmental education partners have joined the Partnership for Family Involvement in Education: The National Environmental Education and Training Foundation ; The World Wildlife Fund (http://www.worldwildlife.org); The National Wildlife Federation Schoolyard Habitat Project (http://www.nwf.org); The Funders' Forum on Environmental Education; Earthforce (http://www.earthforce.org); and The North American Association for Environmental Education (http://www.naaee.org).
• The Zeum, a hands-on interactive museum for kids, has joined the Partnership for Family Involvement in Education. Students at the Zeum produce videos, create Web sites, develop interactive displays, and work with artistic and theatrical professionals. For more information, visit http://www.zeum.org.

Ideas and Resources That Can Help Keep Schools and Communities Safe

S chool safety must be a priority not only for schools, but for the entire community. Following the tragic shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, the U.S. Department of Education is expanding its resources to help schools, families and communities around the country take action against school violence.

"In this time of tragedy, and as people seek to make sense of what has occurred, let us remember what the people of Littleton, Colorado have taught us in the aftermath," U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley said at a recent visit to Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland. "Above all, we have seen the students, teachers and staff at Columbine High refuse to be broken despite this great suffering. They have been resolute in demonstrating to America that their faith in themselves and in their public school remains unshaken. They have been a shining example to us all and we need to take their example to heart and learn from it."

Secretary Riley urges all caring adults to take steps on a number of fronts to help make our schools safe. These steps include:

• Helping students to communicate and show respect for each other and, when necessary, ask adults for help.
• Preparing principals and teachers to recognize early warning signs for troubled children, help students when they need it, and take action when necessary.
• Encouraging parents to get more involved in their children's lives.

The U.S. Department of Education offers a number of resources to support local efforts that promote safer schools. School officials, community members and the general public are encouraged to:

• Visit the U.S. Department of Education's Web site at http://www.ed.gov/ for a variety of resources on school safety, including publications, fact sheets, statistics, funding opportunities, and other efforts to help Americans keep schools and communities safe.
• Call 1-800-USA-LEARN to talk to the U.S. Department of Education's information specialists about general information, resources and referrals on school safety issues and other education priorities of President Clinton and Secretary Riley.
• Submit ideas or suggestions to President Clinton and Secretary Riley for preventing violence in our nation's schools. Suggestions must be submitted in writing and a special e-mail box has been established for this purpose at safekids@ed.gov. People without e-mail access can fax their suggestions to (202) 401-0689 or write to: "Safe Kids," Information Resource Center, U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20202-0498. The Safe and Drug Free Schools program will review suggestions.
• Call the U.S. Department of Education's Publications Distribution Center, "ED PUBS," at 1-877-4ED-PUBS for a free copy of Early Warning, Timely Response: A Guide to Safe Schools , which was developed to help teachers, parents, principals and school district leaders reach out to troubled children and prevent violence in schools. Other available publications include Student Strategies to Avoid Harm at School: Statistics in Brief; Preventing Youth Hate Crime; Creating Safe Schools: A Resource Collection for Planning and Action; Creating Safe and Drug-Free Schools: An Action Guide; Conflict Resolution Education; Manual on School Uniforms; The Annual Report on School Safety; and Preventing Bullying: A Manual for Schools and Communities.

New American High Schools: A Resource for Change

"The American high school experience simply has to become more rigorous," Secretary Riley stated in his 1999 State of American Education speech. Patricia McNeil, assistant secretary for the Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE) agrees. "New American High Schools provide us with a way to accomplish Secretary Riley's vision," she said.

Reports from the National Center for Education Statistics show that students are not receiving the academic preparation needed to succeed or compete in the knowledge-based economy of the 21st century. Almost half of the students graduating from the nation's high schools do not possess enough basic skills needed today to successfully complete a college education or to move up a career ladder in an entry-level job.

Currently, there are 17 New American High Schools "showcase sites." One example is Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois. In the 1980s, residents of the largest population center of the district voted to secede rather than send their children there. In 1983, representatives of Stevenson's Board of Education, staff, administration, community, and students developed a strategic plan for school improvement. The school implemented a formal mentoring program for brand new teachers, an extensive student substance abuse prevention program, intervention strategies to ensure that students meet the school's academic standards, and student mentoring programs.

In 1997, the College Board ranked Stevenson first in the Midwest and among the top 10 schools in the world in the Advanced Placement (AP) program for producing more AP scholars than any school in the world. The U.S. Department of Education named Stevenson a Blue Ribbon School three times, and in 1998 it was recognized as a New American High Schools "showcase site."

In partnership with the National Association of Secondary School Principals, the U.S. Department of Education published the 1999 application requirements for the NAHS initiative on April 23. The initiative's goal is to recognize up to 100 schools as New American High Schools by the fall of 1999, and to double that by the year 2000. Any school in the country engaged in serious efforts to raise expectations for all students and able to demonstrate significant achievement across a variety of student outcome measures will be eligible to apply.. Applications are due by July 2, 1999.

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