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Last month, President Clinton & Secretary Riley unveiled "The Educational Excellence for All Children Act of 1999" -- the Administration's proposal for reauthorizing the Elementary & Secondary Education Act (ESEA). ESEA, established in 1965 as part of President Johnson's War on Poverty, is the federal government's single largest investment in elementary & secondary education.
High academic standards, top-quality teachers in smaller classes, safe schools, & strengthened accountability are the guiding principles of the proposal. Among its key provisions:
- A focus on high academic standards for all children, targeting federal resources on the neediest children to narrow the achievement gap, turning around failing schools, & holding districts accountable for student performance measured against state standards -- including helping the lowest-performing students continually improve.
- A major investment in improving teacher quality by ensuring that students in the highest poverty schools are taught by certified teachers, ending the practices of assigning "out of field" teachers to teach subjects they do not know & allowing paraprofessionals to act as teachers, supporting new teachers through their first 3 years in the classroom, a new effort to recruit teachers & create rigorous alternative pathways for mid-career professionals, creating a national job bank for teachers, & finding ways to increase portability for teacher credentials. The bill would also help school districts reduce class size in early grades to 18 students per teacher by extending the Class-Size Reduction initiative for 6 years.
- Support for safe, healthy, disciplined & drug-free learning environments for all students by emphasizing the use of research-based drug & violence prevention programs, concentrating Safe & Drug Free Schools funds on districts with the greatest need, & authorizing a School Emergency Response to Violence program to provide rapid response to districts that experience traumas disruptive to the learning environment.
- Updating schools for the 21st century by making after-school & summer programs more available, encouraging greater parental involvement, putting useful technology into classrooms, making schools smaller, more personalized & community oriented, increasing opportunities to learn foreign languages, providing parents more choice in public schools, & reforming high schools to stress academic & personal development.
Title XI of the proposal requires each state to establish a rigorous accountability system for all schools, end social promotion & traditional retention practices & put comprehensive supports in place for students to meet high standards, phase out the use of emergency-certified teachers & the practice of assigning teachers "out-of field," adopt sound discipline policies, & keep parents informed about school progress through annual report cards for schools, districts, & states.
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Last month, Congressman Rangel (NY) proposed legislation that would make nearly $25 billion in bonds available to states & school districts over the next 2 years to build & modernize up to 6,000 public schools. The bill (H.R. 1660), which is based on the Administration's proposal, would make school construction cheaper for states & school districts by providing federal tax credits to pay the interest on School Modernization Bonds. By using these bonds, states & districts that normally rely on regular tax-exempt bonds to pay for school construction could save millions of dollars in interest costs. One third of America's schools, about 25,000 schools, are in need of at least one major repair, according to the General Accounting Office.
Information on the Rangel bill, the Administration's School Modernization proposal, the need for school construction, recent Congressional action, Qualified Zone Academy Bonds, School Planning & Design, & other resources & initiatives can be found on the redesigned School Modernization website:
http://www.ed.gov/inits/construction/
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An effective principal can create a powerful learning community for students, teachers, & families. But what does it take today to be an effective principal? How can potential school leaders be prepared to take on the challenges & rewards of leading a school community? What can principals do to support & encourage teachers & teacher leadership?
Secretary Riley & guests will take on these questions in this month's Satellite Town Meeting on June 15 from 8:00 - 9:00 p.m. ET. They will also discuss ways principals can support teacher leadership, spend time in classrooms effectively, monitor student learning, build support for standards, & connect with after-school & summer programs, & more. For details & to register, please see:
http://www.ed.gov/inits/stm/stm62.html
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On May 27, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to fully fund the E-Rate in year two. This increase of $900,000 over the first year means that all 32,000 applicants (totaling over $2.4 billion in requested discounts) will receive telecommunications & Internet discounts & that applicants from the poorest districts will receive discounts for internal connections also. In year two, (July 1, 1999, through June 30, 2000), the E-Rate will help connect 528,000 more classrooms to the Internet, in addition to the 640,000 classrooms it helped connect in year one. For more information, please see:
http://www.sl.universalservice.org/
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If you are thinking about attending a specific college or a particular *kind* of college, or if you're exploring & comparing colleges, College Opportunities Online (COOL) can help. This new website links to more than 9,000 colleges & universities across the U.S. -- large universities, small liberal arts colleges, specialized colleges, community colleges, career & technical colleges, & trade schools. You can search COOL by location, program, & degree offerings (alone or in combination). COOL is sponsored by the Department's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). It was authorized by Congress in 1998 to help college students, future students, & parents understand the differences between colleges & how much it costs to attend college.
http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/cool/
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The loan counseling that borrowers must participate in to ensure that they understand their obligations is now available online through the Direct Loan Entrance Counseling website. Designed with suggestions from Direct Loan schools & borrowers, the site provides facts about Direct Subsidized & Unsubsidized Loans. It explains what it means to borrow, encourages budgeting, discourages borrowing more than is needed, recommends alternatives to borrowing, summarizes borrowers rights & responsibilities, & emphasizes the requirement to repay student loans & the consequences of default. After reviewing the site, the borrower completes a short quiz & must score 100% to advance to the final phase of the counseling session. If the borrower does not pass the quiz, a list of questions missed & the correct answers appear when the submit button is clicked. The borrower has the choice of repeating the quiz immediately or reviewing the site first.
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The number of charter schools grew by more than 50% in 1998, according to a new report of the National Study of Charter Schools. As of September 1998, there were about 1,100 charter schools, serving about 160,000 students. Seven in 10 charter schools reported having a waiting list. At the time of the study, 33 states (now 36), D.C. & Puerto Rico had adopted legislation to allow chartering of eligible schools. For the most part, charter schools are small (averaging about 132 students) & serve diverse students.
Secretary Riley said that charter schools "offer parents & students more choice in the kinds of public education available to them, with public accountability & oversight." Noting that more than half of charter schools reported difficulty getting sufficient funding, he pointed to the importance of the President's fiscal year 2000 budget, which requests $130 million for start-up & development of charter schools.
The report also looks at differences among states in charter school laws & compares charter schools with other public schools in terms of student composition, implementation, accountability, & enrollment. The study is the third year in a 4-year research program designed to document & analyze the charter school movement. The full study is available online:
http://www.uscharterschools.org/
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Last month Secretary Riley announced that 9 states have received a total of $2.3 million in grants to work with school districts & communities to assure that students learn values & ethics. States receiving these Partnership in Education Pilot Project grants are Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, & Pennsylvania.
Each grantee will work with one or more school districts to establish character education programs that focus on civic virtue & citizenship, justice & fairness, caring & respect, responsibility, & trustworthiness. Parents, students, & other community members, including private & non-profit organizations, may participate in the design & administration of programs. The partnerships will help states work with school districts to develop materials, provide teacher training, gauge & build community consensus on common values, involve parents in character education, & integrate character education into the curriculum. For more information, see:
http://www.ed.gov/PressReleases/05-1999/cegrants.html
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Last month, Secretary Riley announced the selection of 266 public & private elementary schools as the 1998-99 Blue Ribbon Schools. Since its inception in 1982, the Blue Ribbons Schools Program has honored 3,800 of America's most successful schools. Elementary & secondary schools participate in alternate years with middle schools participating in the program with secondary schools. For the list of schools & additional information -- including the nomination package & scoring guidelines for middle/secondary schools in 1999-2000 (& examples of winning middle/secondary nomination packages from 1997-1998) -- please see:
http://www.ed.gov/offices/OERI/BlueRibbonSchools/
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"The Condition of Education" describes the current status & recent progress of education in the U.S. It features 60 indicators in 5 areas of education. (PDF only)
http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=1999022
The latest version of the "Guidebook of Federal Resources for K-12 Mathematics & Science" is now online. This 300-page directory of federal offices, programs, & facilities supporting K-12 mathematics & science programs is searchable by federal agency, by state, & by the Eisenhower consortium serving your region. It was produced by the Eisenhower National Clearinghouse for Mathematics & Science Education (ENC) in collaboration with 16 federal agencies.
http://www.enc.org/guidebook/
"The Compact for Reading Guide" (February 1999) walks your family-school compact team through the steps of building & implementing a Compact for Reading. It provides information, strategies, examples, & checklists to help parents, educators, & community members develop effective, workable compacts that can improve your school, increase family involvement, & increase student skills & achievement in reading.
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/CompactforReading/
The Regional Educational Laboratories Network unveiled last month a new website where you can learn more about the 10 Department-supported labs, identify the one that serves your region, locate lab publications & services, find which lab has special expertise on challenges you face, locate contact information, & more.
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/edlabs/
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ED Initiatives...