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

Table of Contents State of American Education Address 2000 Budget Helping All Children Read Well... "Teaching Reading"... Closing the Skills Gap Teacher Quality Application Packages... GEAR UP For College: Application & Workshops E-Rate Mars Millennium Project New Online Credits

STATE OF AMERICAN EDUCATION ADDRESS "Recruiting, preparing, & supporting quality teachers" is a focus of Secretary Riley's sixth annual State of American Education Address on February 16. The speech is scheduled for 11:00 to noon PT (2:00-3:00 ET) at California State University at Long Beach. It will be broadcast by satellite to sites around the country & over the Internet (http://www.connectlive.com/events/deptedu/). Issues the Secretary will address include... At a time when student enrollments are growing & teacher retirements are expected to increase, how can we recruit enough quality teachers? With one quarter of new teachers leaving the classroom in their first 3 years of teaching, how can we do a better job of screening potential teachers & supporting them during those early years? How can we provide teachers the kinds of support other professionals receive -- better incentives, flexible employment arrangements, & good staff development? Please register to ensure you'll be notified of any satellite coordinate changes by calling 1-800-USA-LEARN, by e-mail at Satellite.Town.Meeting@ed.gov, or by visiting: http://www.ed.gov/inits/stm/stated99.html

2000 BUDGET When the President unveiled his fiscal year 2000 budget on February 1, Secretary Riley said that, if approved by Congress, the budget "would help end social promotion, reduce class size, modernize schools, raise the quality of teaching, expand after-school activities, improve literacy, help immigrants learn English, & provide new pathways to college for disadvantaged students." The President's budget request includes... $1.4 billion for 38,000 new teachers for grades 1-3 in the second year of the Class Size Reduction program, $12.2 billion in bonds as part of a 2-year $25 billion proposal to help build & renovate 6,000 schools, $461 million for Goals 2000 state grants to help some 5,000 school districts continue their efforts to raise standards, $450 million for the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund, $600 million (triple last year's request) to help approximately 2,000 additional school districts create or expand after-school & summer programs, $200 million (under Title I) to help turn around failing schools, $175 million for the Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration program, $130 million for Charter Schools, $8 billion for Title I grants & $286 million for the second year of the new Reading Excellence program, $50 million for the Special Education Primary Education Intervention program, $335 million for Eisenhower Professional Development State Grants, $115 million for the Teacher Quality Enhancement Grants, a $25 million increase for Bilingual Education Professional Development, $10 million for the new American Indian Teacher Corps program, $439 million for Safe & Drug-Free Schools, an increase in the maximum Pell Grant to $3,250 ($125 over the 1999 level), $240 million for the new GEAR UP program to help disadvantaged students prepare for college beginning in middle school, a $30 million increase for TRIO, 3 initiatives to close America's "skills gap" (see below), & more. The Secretary's statement, a detailed summary of the budget, & more can be found at: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OUS/Budget00/

HELPING ALL CHILDREN READ WELL BY THE END OF 3RD GRADE The President's 2000 budget requests an additional $128 million to help children learn to read well, the Vice President announced last month. The additional funds include... A $26 million increase in the Reading Excellence Act to help an additional 50,000 children learn to read through expanded teacher training, family literacy programs, tutoring, & other efforts. An $10 million increase for the Even Start Family Literacy Program to support projects that help parents learn literacy & parenting skills while providing early childhood education for young children. $50 million for a new school-based primary education intervention program to identify & address reading problems for children aged 5-9. A $7 million increase for improving writing & reading skills, including an expansion of the National Writing Project & the creation of a new competitive grant program to develop & evaluate models of effective writing instruction. $35 million for new research on early childhood & early elementary reading, professional development for reading instruction, English language acquisition for limited English proficient children, & improvements in literacy for older children. http://www.ed.gov/PressReleases/01-1999/wh-0124.html

"TEACHING READING" THE FOCUS OF TOWN MEETING How schools, communities, & families can make the teaching of reading a priority is the focus of the Satellite Town Meeting on Tuesday, February 16, 5:00-6:00 p.m. PT (8:00-9:00 p.m. ET). The meeting, "Teaching Reading: Success Stories from School & Home," will be broadcast live from Los Angeles. Among the topics to be discussed by Secretary Riley & guests... What works in reading instruction for diverse learning styles in the same classroom? How can teachers use best practices & research-based methods of teaching in their classrooms? What types of professional development & support do teachers need from principals, colleges, & the community? What roles can parents play in teaching reading at home? How can communities encourage reading? For more information, please see: http://www.ed.gov/inits/stm/stm58.html

CLOSING THE SKILLS GAP Last week, the President announced, as part of his 2000 budget, 3 initiatives to close America's "skills gap." 1. The Adult Literacy Initiative would... Increase adult education state grant funding 28% & help the nation achieve 4 goals by the year 2005: Increasing the number of full-time teachers by 20% Doubling instructional hours per student Tripling the number of computer stations available at adult education centers More than doubling the child care & counseling services offered by adult education programs. Expand immigrants' access to quality English language instruction, linked to practical instruction in civics & life skills. Support states in working with private-sector partners to incorporate technology into adult instruction. Mobilize states & communities to develop strategies & measure progress towards improving literacy & lifelong learning, including assessing whether or not individuals have the literacy skills needed for jobs available in that community. Create a new 10% Workplace Education Tax Credit for employers who provide certain workplace literacy, English language instruction, & basic education programs. 2. The Universal Re-Employment Initiative aims to make sure that, within 5 years, all displaced workers will receive the job training they want & need, all people who lose their jobs due to no fault of their own will get the re-employment services they need, & all Americans will have access to One-Stop Career Centers. 3. The Initiatives for Disadvantaged Youth would increase funding for JobCorps & Youth Opportunity Areas & would also... Expand YouthBuild, which provides disadvantaged young adults with education & employment skills by rehabilitating & building housing for low-income & homeless people. Support community-wide approaches to help economically disadvantaged & limited-English proficient youth excel in school & go on to postsecondary education. Double funding for GEAR-UP, support a new Regional Empowerment Zone Program, & increase funding for TRIO programs, which help disadvantaged students prepare for academic success in college.

TEACHER QUALITY APPLICATION PACKAGES AVAILABLE SOON, WORKSHOPS SCHEDULED Application packages for the new Teacher Quality Enhancement Grant Programs will be available by February 11. These competitive grant programs are designed to improve teacher recruitment, preparation, licensing, & support. States are eligible to apply, as are partnerships among higher education institutions, high-need school districts, & other entities. Applications for State & Teacher Recruitment Programs must be submitted by April 16, 1999; pre-applications for the Partnership Program must be submitted by April 2. Regional technical assistance workshops for prospective applicants are scheduled for February 17 in Washington, D.C., February 19 in San Diego, February 22 in Seattle, February 25 in St. Louis, February 26 in Dallas, & March 2 in Atlanta. The registration form & other information can be found at: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OPE/heatqp/index.html

GEAR UP FOR COLLEGE: APPLICATION & WORKSHOPS Applications are due on April 30 for GEAR UP, a new program that supports early college preparation & awareness at both the state & local level through Partnership grants & State grants, in an effort to encourage more young people to have high expectations, stay in school, study hard, & take the right courses to go to college. A draft of the application is now available on the GEAR UP website; the final application will be released soon. In March, 11 technical assistance workshops will be sponsored by the Ford Foundation to help prospective applicants develop partnership & state applications for GEAR UP. Department staff, with assistance from the National Center for Urban Partnerships (NCUP), will provide... Information about how to plan, establish & develop effective college-school partnerships Guidance about where to obtain additional information about educational partnerships, best practices, research studies, & program evaluations Tips for preparing GEAR UP applications Budget information for GEAR UP projects. For more information, please see: http://www.ed.gov/gearup/ http://www.thenationalcenter.org/

E-RATE On February 1, the Schools & Libraries Division (SLD) mailed 1,500 funding commitment decision letters totaling $140 million in E-rate funds. This brings the total of awards from the first 7 "waves" of letters to 18,500 applicants and $760 million. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has indicated that all funding commitments will be distributed by early March. The SLD has announced that the application window for Year 2 E-Rate discounts, which opened December 1, has been extended to April 6, 1999. For the latest E-Rate details, please see: http://www.sl.universalservice.org/

MARS MILLENNIUM PROJECT First Lady Hillary Clinton announced last month the Mars Millennium Project, a national interdisciplinary initiative that challenges students, teachers, & community groups to imagine & create the first community for 100 earthlings on Mars in the year 2030. The project is sponsored by the White House Millennium Council, U.S. Department of Education, National Endowment for the Arts, Jet Propulsion Lab of NASA, & the J. Paul Getty Trust, & has the support of community organizations & corporations. Every public & private school in the country plus science, art & humanities teachers will receive a poster telling how to receive grade-level specific activity guides for the classroom for school year 1999-2000. Partnership for Family Involvement in Education members will also receive a poster with information for ordering a community guide. For details, please call (310) 274-8787, ext. 150, or visit: http://www.mars2030.net

NEW ONLINE "FY 1999 Discretionary Grant Application Packages" lists currently open Department discretionary grant competitions & provides links to downloadable application packages, forms, Federal Register notices, & applicable regulations. http://www.ed.gov/GrantApps/ "The Quality of Vocational Education: Background Papers from the 1994 National Assessment of Vocational Education" (June 1998) offers policy-oriented research papers on the quality of vocational education. http://www.ed.gov/pubs/VoEd/ "Funding Your Education 1999-2000" describes the Department's federal student financial aid programs. It is designed for high school students & others considering entering a postsecondary school for the first time. http://www.ed.gov/prog_info/SFA/FYE/ The Department's Debt Collection Service has updated & enhanced the Guide to Defaulted Student Loans website. http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSFAP/DCS/

Have a comment or suggestion on ED Initiatives? Please send it to Kirk Winters in the Office of the Under Secretary at kirk.winters@ed.gov.

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