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

Table of Contents Budget National College Week Report on Class Size Program Released More Than One-Third of Schools Not Ready for Year 2000 School Violence Continues to Decline Steps to Increase Enrollment of Uninsured Children Internet Use "Online Safety for Children" Teleconference Improving America's Schools Conferences Space Shuttle Webcast and Other NASA Web Events Interagency Awards on Reading, Math, and Science Research New Online Credits

Budget On November 3, President Clinton vetoed the Labor, HHS, and Education appropriations bill, which would fund the Department and its programs for fiscal year 2000. The President vetoed the bill because it... "reneges on last year's bipartisan agreement to fund 100,000 new, highly-trained teachers to reduce class size in the early grades. And, at the same time, it opens the door for federal funds to be used for private school vouchers. We need more teachers in smaller classes in our public schools, instead. The bill fails to include my initiative to demand accountability by helping school districts to turn around failing schools or close them down." Earlier in the week, Secretary Riley said that the 1% across- the-board cut imposed by the bill "would have a very serious and direct impact on key programs like Title I, after-school, class size reduction, GEAR-UP, and special education." The Secretary's statements on this bill and on the House appropriations bill passed last week are at: http://www.ed.gov/PressReleases/ Additional information on appropriations is at: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OUS/budget.html

National College Week Hundreds of college and university presidents participated in the U.S. Department of Education's National College Week this month in a national effort to make sure many more young people are able to go to college and are academically prepared to do college level work. During National College Week, November 15-19, nearly 400 college and university presidents across the nation engaged in a series of activities to promote college awareness. As part of this national effort, they visited a middle school or high school of their choice to encourage young people to seek a college education. National College Week was sponsored by the Department in partnership with the American Council on Education, the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, the National Association for College Admission Counseling, the National Association of Secondary School Principals, the College Board, and the Council of Great City Schools.

Report on Class Size Program Released Last week President Clinton released results of a survey conducted by the Council of the Great City Schools (CGCS) to learn how the nation's largest urban public school districts are using new federal funds this school year to reduce class sizes. Among the findings for the 40 districts that responded to the survey: More than 3,500 new teachers were hired with the federal funding -- 90% of them fully certified More than 22,000 new and current teachers are participating in professional development supported with the federal funds The federal funding was flexible enough to help districts in their other school reform efforts, including ending social promotion and targeting assistance to low-performing schools. Additional findings and the full CGCS report can be found at: http://www.cgcs.org/ For information on the Class-Size Reduction Program, see: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OESE/ClassSize/

More Than One-Third of Schools Not Ready for Year 2000 More than one-third of U.S. elementary and secondary school districts and postsecondary institutions say they are not fully prepared for the Year 2000's effect on computers and other technology devices, according to survey results announced by Secretary Riley last week. "Schools continue to make progress in their Y2K efforts, but I'm concerned because many don't expect to be fully Y2K compliant until the final couple of months of 1999, leaving little room for testing or for any slippage in their schedules," he said. "Clearly, our schools need to give very serious attention to Y2K business continuity and contingency planning." If the Y2K problem is not corrected, he said, failures could occur in systems using date-sensitive information. Heating systems could fail, cafeteria freezers could malfunction, paychecks could be delayed, and student records could be corrupted. Results of these Y2K elementary/secondary and postsecondary surveys are available at: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OCIO/year/reports.html LAST MONTH the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion, in partnership with the Department, hosted 2 White House Roundtables on the readiness of schools and postsecondary institutions for the Y2K date change. The key finding of each roundtable was that a significant number of schools and postsecondary institutions are not Y2K compliant and need assistance. The Department, in conjunction with the Council of the Great City Schools and several higher education associations, has produced and distributed the "Year 2000 Guide for Elementary and Secondary Schools and School Districts" and the "Year 2000 Readiness Kit" for postsecondary institutions. These guides are available at: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OCIO/year/howto.html

School Violence Continues to Decline Despite heightened public attention following a surge in multiple homicides in schools, overall school crime rates are declining, according to a report prepared by the Departments of Education and Justice and released last month by the President. Among the highlights of the second Annual Report on School Safety (1999): Overall school crime rates declined between 1993-1997 from about 155 school-related crimes for every 1,000 students ages 12-18 to about 102 crimes in 1997. The number of multiple victim homicides at schools increased from one in 1994-95 to 5 in 1997-98. Theft declined but accounted for 61% of all crime against students in 1997. Between 1993-1997, the percentage of high school students who carried a weapon (i.e., club, knife or gun) to school during the previous 30 days decreased significantly. The report includes descriptions of... activities planned by 54 communities that received the first Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative grants this summer model research-based programs that address prevention or violence and drug, alcohol, and tobacco use schools recognized as doing an exemplary job of creating and maintaining safe environments. The report is at: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OESE/SDFS/news.html

Steps to Increase Enrollment of Uninsured Children Despite the fact that the number of children enrolled in the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) has grown by more than 1 million and is expected to more than double over the next year, more than 10 million children are still uninsured. On October 12, at a meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics, President Clinton unveiled a series of steps to help enroll the millions of uninsured children who are eligible for Medicaid and CHIP. The steps include... the first annual Interagency Report on Children's Health Insurance Outreach, which details hundreds of outreach activities by 11 federal departments and agencies directing Cabinet Secretaries to develop strategies to promote effective partnerships to integrate children's health insurance outreach into schools new administrative guidance to state health and education officials on school-based outreach a public-private partnership between HHS and The David and Lucille Packard Foundation that will fund over $9 million to identify effective children's health insurance strategies. The President also announced that more than 1,500 schools in 49 states have joined the "Insure Kids Now! Through Schools" campaign to conduct outreach for and enrollment in Medicaid and CHIP through regular school activities, including parents' nights, registration and school physicals, and in letters sent to parents about immunization. For more information about CHIP and government outreach efforts, please see: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OUS/chip/

Internet Use One in 5 Americans (57 million) used the Internet in 1997 according to a report released last month by the Census Bureau. About 8 in 10 adults who used the Internet at home used it for email or for finding government, business, health or education information. The next most common uses were looking for news, weather, and sports (50%), followed by checking schedules, buying tickets, or making reservations (25%). Children who used the Internet at home used it to find government, business, health, or education information (76%), to send and receive email (58%), to participate in chat rooms (32%), and to look for news, weather, and sports (28%). The full report is at: http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/computer.html

"Online Safety for Children" Teleconference What potential dangers can the Internet pose for children? What strategies can parents and educators use to keep children safe online? What are the policy implications? These and other questions will be discussed during a November 9 teleconference, "Online Safety for Children: A Primer for Parents and Teachers." Panelists include Ernie Allen, President, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children; Shay Bilchik, Administrator, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP); Anne Bryant, Executive Director, National School Boards Association; and others. The teleconference will be broadcast twice the evening of November 9 (including 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. ET) to accommodate different time zones. It is hosted by OJJDP with support from the National School Boards Association and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. To register for the free teleconference and for more information, please contact Becky Ritchie at (606) 622-6671 or ekujjtap@aol.com

Improving America's Schools Conferences Two 1999 Regional Conferences on Improving America's Schools remain: in Salt Lake City, UT, November 8-10, and in Chicago, IL, December 15-17. To register for the conference in your region, please call 1-800-203-5494. For more information, including descriptions of conference workshops and case studies on comprehensive reform, please see: http://www.ncbe.gwu.edu/iasconferences/index.htm

Space Shuttle Webcast and Other NASA Web Events "Space Shuttle Countdown: Landing to Launch," a webcast series offered by NASA this school year, features tours of the launch control center, vehicle assembly building, and launch platform. Throughout each webcast, students and teachers email questions to on-air experts. For the schedule of this series and other NASA webcasts, plus related resources, please visit NASA Quest: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov or email msiegel@quest.arc.nasa.gov

Interagency Awards on Reading, Math, and Science Research Last month the Department, the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) announced 14 grants to 12 institutions under the Interagency Education Research Initiative (IERI). These grants -- the first to be awarded under IERI -- will support research to identify strategies that improve the teaching and learning of reading, mathematics, and science from pre-kindergarten through grade 12. Under one grant, the University of Michigan, will develop new ways to identify the components of "comprehensive school reform" that lead to improved student performance in math and reading. Another project, at Carnegie Mellon University, will use speech understanding and synthesis technology to explore the efficacy of using an automated reading tutor with young children who are at risk of experiencing reading difficulties. This automated tutor "listens" as the student reads aloud and coaches the student, helping him or her develop skills necessary for successful reading. For more complete descriptions of projects, please see: http://www.ehr.nsf.gov/eri-ed-nsf/IERIAwards/default.html

New Online The America Reads Challenge's new website makes it easy for family members, educators, childcare providers, college students, and others to find information on how to help a child learn how to read. http://www.ed.gov/americareads/ "The Quarterly" offers an overview of all National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) products released in a given quarter. The Fall 1999 issue includes the full text of short publications, executive summaries of longer ones, descriptions of other NCES products, and notices about training and funding opportunities. http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=1999629 The Executive Summary of "Designing Effective Professional Development: Lessons from the Eisenhower Professional Development Program" describes Eisenhower activities and program operations, as well as the quality and self-reported effects of teachers' experiences in Eisenhower activities. http://www.ed.gov/inits/teachers/eisenhower/