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More than two-thirds of Colorado's communities have benefited from Goals 2000 during the past 3 years. Many of those projects are described at the Colorado Department of Education web site, including the following (from the state's 41 funded 1995-96 projects):
- Gunnison schools & Western State College (WSC) have used Goals 2000 to provide lab investigations & onsite field work centered around a dinosaur fossil discovered in 1971 by WSC students. Workshops for teachers & a summer field camp for students & families are among the many activities that ar e helping spread enthusiasm for this project & earth sciences across the school district & community.
- In Las Animas School District, students & teachers -- and more than 15 parent volunteers -- are collaborating to maintain a wide-area network (complete with servers, workstations, & Internet connections) installed with help from Goals 2000. The library has been transformed into a multimedia learning cen ter, and student learning is becoming more self-directed. Most important, students are motivated to go the extra mile with their work. Las Animas' composite test scores rose 48 points over 1995 for grade 9 and 23 points for grade 11.
- Jefferson County public schools used Goals 2000 to help support 113 pilot projects to align content standards with instruction and assessment, integrate technology into instruction, and develop interventions to help students meet the standards. These projects produced a bank of standards-based instructional s trategies & assessments, which will be offered to teachers on interactive CD-ROM and linked to the district's standards (in English, history, geography, math & science) & to related instructional strategies & assessments. The Jefferson Co unty content standards are now available on the district's home page: http://jeffco.k12.co.us
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On July 17, the President announced a $350 million initiative to attract talented people of all backgrounds into teaching at low-income schools across the nation, and to dramatically improve the quality of training & preparation given to our future te achers. The initiative will be part of the President's proposal for reauthorizing the Higher Education Act, to be sent to Congress next month. It includes competitive grants...
- to colleges & universities with high-quality teacher preparation, in partnership with local schools & others, to offer scholarships & other support to prepare prospective teachers who commit to teach in under-served urban or rural schools for least 3 years.
- to 10-15 national "lighthouse" models of excellence -- institutions of higher education operating the highest quality teacher education programs -- to work with other colleges & universities that want to improve their teacher preparation programs.
For more information, please see: http://www.ed.gov/MailingLists/EDInfo/0270.html
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On July 16th, the President & Vice President announced a strategy designed to offer parents & teachers tools to prevent children from getting inappropriate material on the Internet & to guide them toward high-quality education resources. What federal agencies, industry & non-profit organizations are doing & will do to help make the Internet family friendly are described in the strategy, as is a web site for parents who want to make sure their children have safe, educational experience s on the Internet (http://www.netparents.org -- created by the Center for Democracy & Technology & the Voter Telecommunications Watch).
Links to state technology offices & coordinators -- as well as state technology plans, state applications under the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund (TLCF) & state "requests for proposals" (for use by school district applicants) under the TLCF p rogram -- are provided, where available, at: http://www.ed.gov/Technology/sta_tech.html
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How are the Internet, television & other technologies affecting families & how we raise & teach our children? To help parents, educators & others answer that question, the ERIC system & the National Parent Information Network (NPIN) a re offering the "Families, Technology & Education Conference" October 30 - November 1 at Wyndham Hotel in Northwest Chicago. Family support personnel, corporate executives, media specialists, librarians, health care specialists, publishers, informati on systems developers, members of parent organizations & others, as well as parents & educators, are invited. Questions may be addressed to Anne Robertson at: arobrtsn@uiuc.edu
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On July 8, the Vice President released a state-by-state analysis showing that 12.6 million students would benefit from the Clinton/Gore Administration Hope Scholarship & Tuition Tax Credit. The press release, a state-by-state comparison of the Presid ent's proposal to House-passed & Senate-passed proposals, and more are at: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OPE/PPI/HOPE/
State-by-state press releases will be available soon at: http://www.ed.gov/news.html#pr
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Three days of learning, networking & action-planning are being offered at the Department's Regional Conferences on Improving America's Schools (IAS). The "Call to Action: Working Together for Equity & Excellence" conferences are designed for...
- technical assistance providers (at all levels)
- grantees, administrators & managers of programs administered by offices of the Department of Education
- officials of state & local education agencies
- school-based instructional leaders
- teacher leaders & principals
- officials of national & community-based educational organizations.
Teams of state & local individuals are encouraged to attend the conferences, which will be held October 16-18 in San Diego, November 16-18 in Dallas & December 14-16 in Washington, D.C. For information on conference goals, highlights, registration & more, please see: http://www.ncbe.gwu.edu/iasconferences/
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On July 8, the President's proposal to amend the Adult Education Act was introduced in the Senate as S.994 by Senators Kennedy & Dodd and in the House by Representatives Clay & Kildee as H.R. 1562. The bills aim to help states & communities i mprove adult education & literacy programs so that all adults who need such services may...
- become literate & gain the knowledge & skills to compete in a global economy & exercise the rights & responsibilities of citizenship.
- complete a high school education.
- become their child's first teacher & remain actively involved in their children's education.
Also on July 8, the President's proposal to amend the Carl D. Perkins Vocation & Applied Technology Act was introduced in the Senate by Senators Kennedy & Dodd as S.993 and in the House by Representative Clay & Martinez as H.R. 1803. These bi lls provide a framework to help states & schools (secondary & postsecondary) develop, implement & improve career preparation education so that every student has an opportunity to...
- acquire academic & technical knowledge & skills needed for postsecondary education.
- pursue further learning & a wide range of opportunities in high-skill, high-wage careers.
These & other bills can be found at the Library of Congress's Thomas web site: http://thomas.loc.gov/home/c105query.html (Search on "Bill Number" & type the bill you wish to view.)
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Goals, objectives & performance indicators for the Department (for 1998-2002) are set forth in our new draft strategic plan. This draft, which is the Department's *second* strategic plan, responds to the Government Performance & Results Act. It' s available on our web site (http://www.ed.gov/pubs/StratPln/). A paper copy is available from Geneise Cooke at (202) 401- 3132. We're interested in your opinions, suggestions & comments on the draft.
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Recent additions include...
- A chart showing how much money each state will receive from more than 30 federal education programs -- (NOTE: Item no longer on-line)
- Keeping Schools Open as Community Learning Centers: Extending Learning in a Safe, Drug Free Environment Before and After School -- http://www.ed.gov/pubs/LearnCenters/
- Title IX: 25 Years of Progress -- http://www.ed.gov/pubs/TitleIX/
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ED Initiatives...