Nine school districts in Connecticut's Region 15 Public Schools are using Goals 2000 funds to exchange instructional materials and assessment strategies and to support teacher visits to other schools. This is part of an effort -- which includes several colleges, universities, and professional organizations -- to answer questions related to standards and assessments and to use those answers to improve student performance. Electronic mail is helping two districts communicate and share information, and teachers throughout the consortium are bringing samples of student work to the table. "When we have the opportunity to see what other students are producing," one teacher explains, "we see that our students' work we once considered `best' can be improved."This description comes from "Goals 2000: Increasing Student Achievement Through State and Local Initiatives," an April 1996 report to Congress on Goals 2000, which is available at http://www.ed.gov/G2K/GoalsRpt/ and at gopher.ed.gov -> Department-Wide Initiatives -> Goals 2000 Initiative.
SCHOOLS IN CALIFORNIA will finally have access to $42 million in Goals 2000 funds awarded to the state in October. In an April 19 letter to Secretary Riley, Governor Wilson sought assurances about participation in Goals 2000 as a precondition to releasing those funds to local schools. The Secretary responded last week in a letter stating that none of the Governor's requests "are in any way inconsistent with the provisions of the law and no special treatment of California is required to accommodate them."
Wisconsin is using its STW Implementation Grant to fund partnerships at the local level involving 80% of the school districts, 306 high schools, and 172,000 students. Additionally, new youth apprenticeship programs have been established involving 209 employers in the following fields: biotechnology, drafting and design, manufacturing, automotive technology, insurance, and allied health. Five hundred teacher/trainers have been prepared to work with other teachers in using applied curriculum, and the University of Wisconsin system is infusing STW concepts into teacher preparation preservice and inservice education. For more information on the 26 other STW Implementation Grant states and how they're using funds to reform schools and construct systems to better prepare all youth for college and careers, please visit the National STW Opportunities Office homepage (http://www.stw.ed.gov).
How parents, employers, and community leaders can work together to promote literacy is the topic of "Ideas for Improving Reading and Writing" -- this month's live teleconference on May 21, 8:30 p.m. Eastern Time. A panel of educators and community leaders, hosted by Secretary Riley and Deputy Secretary Kunin, will suggest ways that reading and writing can be improved in all academic subjects, how parents can encourage continued development of literacy skills, and ways libraries can help students maintain progress in their reading and writing skills during the summer. The Town Meeting will also feature the summer reading challenge, READ*WRITE*NOW!, an initiative designed to help families and communities strengthen students' basic skills, as well as their enjoyment of reading. To find out more about the Town Meeting or READ*WRITE*NOW! (which is part of the Family Involvement Partnership for Learning), call 1-800-USA-LEARN.
Maryland joined Ohio, Oregon, Kansas, Massachusetts, Texas, and Vermont last week to become the 7th "Ed-Flex" state. Under this partnership with the Department, Maryland officials now have the authority to waive federal education rules and regulations if they get in the way of community efforts to improve teaching and learning. This means Maryland schools and school districts will be able to seek waivers from requirements of the Perkins Act and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, including Title I, the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities provisions, Eisenhower Professional Development, and other programs. Civil rights requirements will not be waived; nor are waivers allowable under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The Goals 2000 Act was amended under the 1996 Omnibus Appropriations Act to double the number of states that may be designated as Ed-Flex states, from 6 to 12.To qualify for waiver authority under the Education Flexibility Partnership Demonstration Program, Maryland designed its "Schools for Success" comprehensive school improvement plan -- which is tied to rigorous academic standards -- with input from parents, educators, community members, and the private sector. The state also pledged to waive many of its own requirements of local schools.
The Office of Educational Technology has created a place on the Department's Web site for school districts, universities, non-profits, companies, and others to post information about workshops and courses designed to help teachers integrate technology into instruction. If you know an organization offering a summer workshop, institute, or other professional development opportunity on "using instructional technology," please invite that organization to fill out the online form on our Web site (at http://www.ed.gov/Technology/Summer96/). These opportunities will be organized by state and searchable by keywords, so that teachers and others will be able to locate them easily.
A guide to selecting and implementing conflict resolution programs, as well as other work done by the Departments of Justice and Education, will be featured in a national satellite teleconference on Wednesday, May 29, from 1:30-4:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Existing programs with proven results will be highlighted, and opportunities for interaction by telephone with panelists will be provided. Supplemental resource materials will be sent to each registered site. To get a registration form -- and to find out more about the teleconference -- please contact the Juvenile Justice Telecommunications Assistance Project (JJTAP) by phone (606) 622-6671, fax (606) 622-2333, or e-mail (njdadeh@aol.com). Also, please note that in order to receive broadcast coordinates, you must fill out and submit the registration form by May 17.
On May 9, Secretary Riley concluded the Department's testimony on the fiscal year 1997 budget request before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, HHS, and Education. In his remarks, the Secretary explained that the FY 97 request represents a 12.2% increase over FY 96 in discretionary spending, much of which benefits elementary and secondary education nationwide, but that mandatory spending would drop by 29% due to lower interest rates in student loan programs. The bottom line for the Department as a whole is a modest increase of 2.9%. "By making hard choices," the Secretary explained, "it is possible to protect and even increase the federal investment in education while still balancing the federal budget."Meanwhile, the House and Senate Budget Committees met May 9 to markup the FY 97 concurrent resolution on the budget which - - when passed by the full House and Senate -- will set the overall framework for the FY 97 spending (appropriations) bills. Among the recommendations put forward by the House Committee are some seen in earlier Congressional proposals: eliminating Goals 2000, bilingual education, and contributions to the Perkins college loan program. The House also assumes the elimination of direct student loans and consolidation of 25 education programs into a block grant to states. Unlike last year, the House budget resolution this year does not include a proposal to eliminate the Department. Among Budget Committee recommendations on the Senate side is a 20% cap on direct loans. Ultimately, Congress rejected most of these proposals in the recently completed FY 96 budget. The House and Senate are expected to take up the budget resolution this week.
New additions to the Online Library (http://www.ed.gov/news.html#new) include:
- The first biennial progress report required under the Goals 2000 Act -- "Goals 2000: Increasing Student Achievement Through State and Local Initiatives." This report looks at how schools and states have used Goals 2000 funds and flexibility to accelerate progress toward their own standards-based education improvements.
- The Department's redesigned strategy for assessing the effectiveness of the new Title I -- in the context of state, local, and other federal efforts -- "Mapping Out the National Assessment of Title I: The Interim Report."
- Five new titles in the National Library of Education's collection of bibliographies on education issues: "Student Financial Aid," "School-to-Work," "Collective Bargaining for Teachers," "Cognition, Assessment, and Standards," and "Private Schools and Women in Education."
- "Achieving the Goals: Goal 1," which describes more than 50 federal programs for helping all children start school ready to learn.
- 32 new ERIC Digests. More than 1,500 short reports on education issues (produced by the Educational Resources Information Center system) are now available in this full-text searchable database.
- A hypertext version of the 1995 catalogue of the National Diffusion Network's exemplary programs and practices, "Educational Programs That Work."
- Secretary Riley's call for universal access to telecommunications services for schools and libraries before the Federal Communications Commission (April 12).
- The new home page of the National Institute on Early Childhood Development and Education.
- The 1995 "Digest of Education Statistics" -- statistical information covering American education from kindergarten through graduate school.
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Last Updated -- April 19, 2002, (cdb)
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