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

Table of Contents Drug & Safety Coordinators in Middle Schools Community Technology Centers Technology Teleconference "Engaging Fathers in Children's Learning" Teleconference Comprehensive School Reform Student Loan Default Rate Drops 7th Year in a Row New Plan & Management Team for Student Financial Assistance Community Service & Service Learning on the Rise Distinguished Principals Honored U.S. to Host 2001 International Mathematics Olympiad Budget New Online Credits

Drug & Safety Coordinators in Middle Schools Last week Secretary Riley & Barry McCaffrey, Director of the Office of National Drug Control & Policy, announced $35 million in grants that will help 97 school districts recruit, hire, & train middle school drug prevention & school safety coordinators. The 3-year grants were awarded to school districts & consortia of smaller districts that face significant drug, discipline, & violence problems in middle schools. Research suggests that the presence of a full-time coordinator can enhance prevention programs & reduce drug use, discipline problems, & violent incidents. These coordinators will... assist schools in adopting successful, research-based drug & violence prevention programs & strategies develop, conduct, & analyze assessments of school drug & crime problems work with community organizations, parents & students to ensure collaboration provide feedback to state educational agencies on successful programs & activities. Each coordinator must serve between 1 & 7 middle schools (serving students in 2 or more grades, Grades 5-9), work solely on coordination of drug prevention or school safety programs, & have a degree from an accredited 4-year institution of higher education & an academic background or equivalent work experience in a field related to youth development. For more information, please see: http://www.ed.gov/PressReleases/09-1999/coord.html

Community Technology Centers Last week Vice President Gore announced 40 grants (totalling $9.9 million) to bring the computers & Internet to community centers, public housing, & libraries. The grants, made under the Community Technology Centers program, can support a range of services, including... workforce development, employment information, & adult education preschool & family programs available at times parents can bring young children to use age-appropriate software after-school learning activities for students. The Department received 750 applications under this program. For a list of grantees & other information, please see: http://www.ed.gov/PressReleases/09-1999/ctcgrants.html http://www.ed.gov/offices/OVAE/AdultEd/CTC/

Technology Teleconference Technology -- in the hands of imaginative teachers & principals -- can not only help schools do better; it can transform what schools do. That's the focus of the this month's Satellite Town Meeting, "Transforming Schools & Communities: The Power of Technology," on Tuesday, October 19, 8:00 pm - 9:00 pm ET. Secretary Riley & guests will look at how students are using the web & email to interact with experts & conduct original research, how technology is changing the teacher's role, & how it can create new links between school & home. They will explore.... how technology is changing the way students & teachers learn -- & increasing parent & community involvement preparation & support teachers need to use technology effectively ways parents, community groups, & businesses can encourage & support the introduction of new technologies in schools. The broadcast will also feature... Mantua Elementary School, a suburban Fairfax, Virginia, school that incorporates technology into all learning activities Kayenta Unified School District, an isolated district on a Navajo Indian Reservation, where teachers & students are using the Internet to find lesson plans, do research, conduct class projects, & bring the world to their classrooms. For more information & to register, please see: http://www.ed.gov/inits/stm/1999-2000.html

"Engaging Fathers in Children's Learning" Teleconference What are the various ways fathers can be involved children's learning? What can teachers, principals, & others do to help strengthen dads' involvement? These are among the questions to be addressed in a 2-hour teleconference on Thursday, October 28, from 2:00 - 4:00 p.m. ET. "Fathers Matter! Strategies for Engaging Fathers in Children's Learning" will be hosted by Secretary Riley & Secretary Shalala (of Health & Human Services). Panel discussions, viewer call-ins, & videotaped reports on innovative programs will examine... benefits of fathers' involvement in children's learning ways for fathers to be involved, from the prenatal stage through high school & beyond challenges to fathers' involvement -- work demands, cultural barriers, & literacy needs best practices in schools, early learning environments, universities, & communities. For up-to-date technical & program information, visit: http://www.ed.gov/registerevent/ For information about fathers' involvement in children's learning, please see: http://www.nces.ed.gov/pubs98/fathers/index.html

Comprehensive School Reform This week Secretary Riley announced 16 contracts to expand technical assistance capacity & to design models for schools undertaking comprehensive reform. Nine organizations received 1-year contracts to increase the numbers of trainers & facilitators helping schools implement various models of comprehensive school reform. These organizations will also update materials & develop technology-based technical assistance, which will be particularly helpful to rural areas, where it can be difficult to send trainers & facilitators on a regular basis. Seven organizations received 5-year contracts to design & implement new research-based, comprehensive school reform models for middle & high schools. They will also assess the models' promise for raising student achievement & create resources to help more schools adopt the designs. Descriptions of these awards are at: http://www.ed.gov/PressReleases/10-1999/compproviders.html http://www.ed.gov/PressReleases/10-1999/reformdesign.html LAST WEEK, the Department announced the creation of the National Clearinghouse for Comprehensive School Reform. The new clearinghouse will provide research & evaluation on models, designs, & strategies for comprehensive reform. It will develop databases & a website, publish a monthly electronic newsletter, host a national conference, & more. The clearinghouse will be located at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., & will include as partners the Council for Basic Education & the Institute for Educational Leadership. For details, see: http://www.ed.gov/PressReleases/09-1999/newclear.html For information on comprehensive school reform, including the Department's research & development plan, please see: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OESE/compreform/ http://www.ed.gov/offices/OERI/csrrdp.html

Student Loan Default Rate Drops 7th Year in a Row The national student loan default rate fell to 8.8% for fiscal year 1997, the lowest point since the federal government started calculating the rate a decade ago, Secretary Riley announced this week. This marks the second straight year the rate has been below 10% & the seventh year in a row the default rate has declined. The rate hit its highest point, 22.4%, in 1990. "This new rate exceeds our expectations, & all our partners in the federal student loan programs -- students, schools, guaranty agencies, & lenders -- deserve credit," the Secretary said. "So, too, does the strength of the economy & the resulting low employment rate, which has made it easier for borrowers to repay their debt." The national rate reflects default rates for more than 7,000 individual schools that participated in the Family Federal Education Loan Program (FFEL) & the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program at that time. Total loan volume has more than tripled in the last decade. For more information, please see: http://www.ed.gov/PressReleases/10-1999/defaultrate.html http://www.ed.gov/PressReleases/10-1999/rileyregards.html

New Plan & Management Team for Student Financial Assistance Last week Greg Woods, chief operating officer for student financial assistance (SFA), issued a plan to reorganize SFA around students, schools, & financial partners. He also introduced a new management team to lead SFA in providing better service for customers. The reorganization & new management team represent the culmination of months of work to realign financial management & aid delivery responsibilities into 3 customer "channels": students, schools, & financial partners. SFA was made the first "performance-based organization" (PBO) by the Higher Education Amendments (HEA) of 1998. In fiscal year 1999, students received some $50 billion in federal grants & loans administered by SFA. Names of the new management team members & other information can be found at: http://www.ed.gov/PressReleases/09-1999/studentlead.html http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSFAP/

Community Service & Service Learning on the Rise Many public schools are encouraging students to perform community service, & much of it is integrated into the curriculum (a practice known as "service-learning"), according to a survey released last week. The survey found that... 32% of all schools organized service-learning as part of their curriculum, including nearly half of all high schools 64% percent of all public schools, including 83% of public high schools, had students participating in community service activities recognized by or arranged through the school 83% of schools with service-learning offered some type of support to teachers integrating service-learning into the curriculum. The survey also provides national estimates on sources of funding to support community service & service-learning, school policies making participation in service-learning voluntary or mandatory, & how schools are implementing service-learning. The full text of "Service-Learning & Community Service in K-12 Public Schools" is available (PDF) at: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=1999043

Distinguished Principals Honored Fifty-nine elementary & middle school principals from across the nation, as well as U.S. schools abroad, were named this week as 1999 National Distinguished Principals by the Department & the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP). The names & schools of these outstanding school leaders are at: http://www.ed.gov/PressReleases/10-1999/principal.html

U.S. to Host 2001 International Mathematics Olympiad For the first time in nearly 20 years, & only the second time in history, the U.S. will host the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO), Assistant Secretary Kent McGuire announced last week, with officials from the IMO, the White House Office on Science & Technology, the National Science Foundation (NSF), & the National Security Agency (NSA). The 42nd IMO will bring together 500 of the most talented high-school mathematics students from nearly 100 countries. During the competition, students work individually over a 2-day period on 6 challenging problems, presenting their solutions in essay-style proofs, similar to those of research mathematicians. http://www.ed.gov/PressReleases/09-1999/imo.html http://imo2001.usa.unl.edu/

Budget Yesterday the Senate approved a $312 billion Labor-HHS- Education appropriations bill. President Clinton said the bill "undermines the commitment we made last year to hire quality teachers & reduce class size in the early grades. It underfunds after-school programs & such important efforts as the GEAR UP mentoring program, education technology, and adult literacy. If this bill were to come to me in its current form, I would veto it." The President's complete statement will be available today at: http://www.ed.gov/PressReleases/10-1999/wh-1007.html

New Online The 1998 "Digest of Education Statistics" -- a compilation of statistical information covering American education from kindergarten through graduate school -- is now available online in HTML. The Digest, published in paper & PDF in March, presents information on various topics, including the number of schools & colleges, teachers, enrollments, & graduates, in addition to educational attainment, finances, federal funds for education, employment & income of graduates, libraries, & international education. http://nces.ed.gov/pubs99/digest98/