A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

A weekly look at progress on the Secretary's priorities

BUDGET

With less than a month before the current Continuing Resolution (CR) expires (March 15), Secretary Riley has been invited to appear before the Senate Subcommittee on Labor- HHS- Education Appropriations to discuss the impact CRs have had on Department of Education programs. Labor Secretary Reich and HHS Secretary Shalala will testify as well. The date for the hearing has not yet been set.

Congress returns from recess on Monday, February 26. Decisions on funding for the Department and several other federal agencies -- for the remaining six months of fiscal year 1996 -- will be high on the agenda.

A week after an earlier press conference on Title I funding cuts, Secretary Riley appeared again before reporters on February 9 to release state-by-state budget tables documenting sharply reduced federal funding levels for the Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program and to warn of the impact those cuts could have on communities striving to reduce violence and drug use in schools. An estimated 40 million students in 97% of the nation's school districts are served by this program. The House bill would cut Safe and Drug-Free Schools 60 percent; the Continuing Resolution would cut the program by 25 percent. Secretary Riley has called for restoration of the cuts in any year-long appropriation bill. The text of his remarks, a press release, examples of how the cuts would affect school districts, a brief funding history for the program, what the loss means to schools, and an overview of statistics on crime and violence in schools are available in the Department's Online Library at: http://www.ed.gov/news.html#budget or gopher.ed.gov -> Updates on Budget, Legislation and Activities of the Department.

GOALS 2000

WELD COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT in Windsor, Colorado, is using its $21,238 grant under Goals 2000 to develop challenging academic standards for the school district, as well as performance assessments aligned with those standards. All staff in the district had the opportunity to provide input on the standards, and 50 percent of district staff were involved in developing and writing the standards. More than 100 community members (in this town of 6,000 people) had ongoing input in the development of the standards. In addition, more than 20 percent of the district's teachers participated in assessment training and writing.

STATE OF AMERICAN EDUCATION ADDRESS

Secretary Riley will deliver his third annual State of American Education speech on Wednesday, February 28 at Maplewood-Richmond Heights High School in Maplewood, Mo., a suburb of St. Louis (at noon Central Standard Time). The speech will be aired via satellite at the following coordinates:

• KU-band, SBS-6, transponder/channel 9, orbital location 74 degrees West, downlink frequency 11921.0 MHz, horizontal polarity, audio 6.2 and 6.8;
• C-band, Galaxy 3, transponder/channel 22, orbital location 95 degrees West, downlink frequency 4140 MHz, vertical polarity, audio 6.2 and 6.8.

TECHNOLOGY

President Clinton announced a $2 billion, 5-year Technology Literacy Challenge fund on February 15 at Union City, New Jersey. The aim is to catalyze state and local efforts -- including the private sector -- so that schools provide all children with greater opportunities to learn the skills they need to thrive in the next century.

Under the President's proposal, which requires action by Congress, States would be asked to propose their own statewide strategies -- including significant private-sector participation -- for enabling every school in the state to meet four goals:

1. Provide all teachers the training and support they need to help students learn through computers and the information superhighway;
2. Develop effective and engaging software and on-line learning resources as an integral part of the school curriculum;
3. Provide access to modern computers for all teachers and students;
4. Connect every school and classroom in America to the information superhighway.

Private-sector commitments would be expected to at least match the amount of federal support (through volunteer services, cost reductions and payments for connections under the expanded Universal Service Fund provisions of the Telecommunications Act, and a range of other commitments). A state could also choose to have its local communities compete individually for a pro-rata portion of its funds. Or if a state were unable to come forward with a statewide strategy application, local communities -- or consortia -- would have the option to come forward with local plans. Even where a state does have a statewide strategy, local consortia of private companies and local communities would be eligible to compete for an innovation challenge fund, which would be supported by expanding the existing Technological Learning Challenge from $10 million a year to $50 million a year. For more information about the President's proposal, please see "America's Technology Literacy Challenge" on the White House Web site (http://www.whitehouse.gov/).

SKILL STANDARDS

The National Skill Standards Development Project (a joint project of the Electronic Industries and the Electronics Industries Foundation), has completed a set of *measurement criteria* designed to assess mastery of over 300 skill standards that define the expectations of today's electronics industry for well-prepared entry-level electronics technicians. Presented in "Characteristics of Competency: Measurement Criteria for Entry-Level Electronics Technician Skills," these criteria are based on skill standards developed by over 200 representatives from the electronics industry, vocational education, and labor (published in June 1994 in "Raising the Standard: Electronics Technician Skills for Today and Tomorrow").

Each page of "Characteristics of Competency" identifies a skill standard, describes the criteria to be successfully performed to determine that the standard has been achieved, and summarizes the achievements of the technician who meets that standard. "Raising the Standard" is available on a Web site sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Admininstration (the Training Technology Resource Center Web site -- http://www.ttrc.doleta.gov/database/research- lib/SKILLSTD/INDUSTRYSTD- SUMMARY.html). This is one of 22 occupational skill standards projects supported by the U.S. Departments of Labor and Education. (For more information on skill standards projects, please see the December 4, 1995, issue of ED Initiatives -- http://www.ed.gov/pubs/EDInitiatives/95/12-04.html).

FAMILY INVOLVEMENT

Members of the Family Involvement Partnership for Learning and the School-Family Steering Committee met to discuss a common statement encouraging the membership of steering committee members to support family involvement in children's learning in all aspects of the school day. Members of the steering committee are NASSP, NAESP, AFT, NEA, CAPE, AASA, NSBA, CCSSO, NCPIE, National PTA, and the Coalition of Title I/Chapter 1 Parents.

CLOSING DATES EXTENDED

Deadlines for U.S. Department of Education grant competitions scheduled to close between December 18 and February 15 have been extended. The reason, explains a February 13 press release, is that "many prospective applicants were unable to obtain application packages" or answers to questions during the more than 3 weeks when the Department was shut down (by failed budget negotiations followed by the blizzard). The press release is available in the Online Library at: http://www.ed.gov/news.html#pr or gopher.ed.gov --> Announcements, Bulletins, and Press Releases.

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Last Updated -- May 30, 2002 (cdb)