The NEGP WEEKLY for August 31, 2001
From: Negpweek (NEGPWEEK@WESTAT.com)
Date: Thu Aug 30 2001 - 14:07:22 PDT
*****************THE NEGP WEEKLY*****************
A weekly news update on America's Education Goals
and school improvement efforts across America from the
NATIONAL EDUCATION GOALS PANEL
Friday - August 31, 2001 -- Vol. 2 -- No. 115
*************************************************
CONTENTS
**STATE POLICY
1.) First-Year Teacher Incentives: Colorado's Plan (Goal 4)
2.) Combating Truancy: Arizona Schools (Goal 2)
**COMMUNITY AND LOCAL NEWS
3.) Making The Grade: Report Cards That Work (Goal 8)
4.) Romer To Principals: More Classroom Visits (Goal 4)
**FEDERAL POLICY NEWS
5.) Disadvantaged and Minority Students: Doed Grant To Improve College
Programs
(Goal 6)
6.) Improving America's Schools: Conferences (All Goals)
**RESEARCH AND EDUCATION PRACTICE
7.) Keeping Parents Posted: High-Tech Solution (Goal 8)
8.) Business and Community Colleges: A Growing Enterprise (Goal 6)
**FEATURE STORY
9.) Success In School = Success In Life: An Ad Campaign (Goal 3)
********************
STATE POLICY NEWS
********************
1.) ******** First-Year Teacher Incentives: Colorado's Plan
(Goal Four: Teacher Education and Professional Development)
Colorado Governor Bill Owens recently launched a new program that will give
first-year teachers in the state up to $8,000 in college loans forgiveness
if they take jobs in areas where there are critical teacher shortages
(Bingham, DENVER POST, 8/24). The subject areas targeted are: math,
science, special education and linguistically diverse education (bilingual
education, English as a second language).
To qualify, teachers must be graduates of teacher education programs that
have been approved by the Colorado Commission on Higher Education.
For more information, visit the state of Colorado at
http://www.state.co.us/gov_dir/governor_office.html. Then, select Press
Office and search for first-year teacher loan forgiveness.
2.) ******** Combating Truancy: Arizona Schools
(Goal Two: School Completion)
A "confusing mix of policies" at local schools, even schools in the same
district, has left "educators, courts and police frustrated" with trying to
curtail Arizona's truancy rate (Kossan, THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 8/17). One
problem that plagues all schools is the amount of time it takes to place a
student in a truancy program. It takes too long to get into these programs,
explained Phoenix police Officer Eddie Thompson, "So they have a month or
more to continue missing school."
According to the paper, more than 4,200 students ended up in Maricopa County
Juvenile Court in 2000 for truancy violations, which is triple the number
reported in 1995. Helen Carter, a Maricopa County juvenile-probation
officer, also noted that truants are getting younger.
One challenge is changing laws that govern truancy. The paper reports that
before 1999, students with 10 or more "unexcused absences" were considered
to be "habitually truant;" since then the number of days changed to five.
There also is no state standard for "excused" and unexcused" absences.
For more information on truancy, visit Maricopa County's Office of Juvenile
Justice and Delinquency Prevention at http://www.ojjdp.ncjrs.org. Search
for truancy.
***************************
COMMUNITY AND LOCAL NEWS
***************************
3.) ******** Making The Grade: Report Cards That Work
(Goal Eight: Parent Involvement)
Parents throughout Illinois are clamoring for a return to letter grades on
their child's report card, according to the CHICAGO TRIBUNE (Black, 8/27).
From the paper: "Letter grades may be old-fashioned, they say, but at least
the meaning is clear."
"There's too much jargon," said Carolyn Laughlin, a parent and private
tutor. "If we want parents to open the report cards and have good clear
discussions with their kids and their teachers, we have to play it
straight." Laughlin was the parent representative on a committee that
studied report cards for the Evanston/Skokie district.
While Laughlin favors the new standards-based reports that will go home with
every child beginning this year, she argues that a letter grade should
"summarize results beginning in the fourth grade, instead of the sixth grade
as decided" in the committee. Her opinion "put her at odds" with the
teachers who also served on the committee and who oppose letter grades.
4.) ******** Romer To Principals: More Classroom Visits
(Goal Four: Teacher Education and Professional Development)
In his back-to-school address, Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Roy Romer
called on school principals and administrators to make more classroom visits
to observe instruction (Ritsch, L.A. TIMES, 8/24). "We need to draw a
direct line from each of our jobs to improving instruction," said Romer.
Teachers are not the only ones who have an impact on student learning, added
Romer, who noted the impact administrators have on students.
According to the paper, principals in attendance concurred with Romer's
directive to visit classrooms, but added that it "competes with other duties
on their ever-growing to-do lists," writes the paper. "Sometimes the
day-to-day operational issues interfere with the principal's obligation to
lead instruction on the campus," said Principal James Noble of Washington
Preparatory High School.
For more information, visit the Los Angeles Unified public schools at
http://www.lausd.k12.ca.us.
**********************
FEDERAL POLICY NEWS
**********************
5.) ******** Disadvantaged and Minority Students: Doed Grant To Improve
College Programs
(Goal Six: Adult Literacy and Lifelong Learning)
U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige announced that 102 colleges and
universities that serve a significant number of disadvantaged or minority
students will receive grants from the U.S. Department of Education. The
awards will provide $27.2 million to improve academic programs, including
engineering and science studies, facilities, fiscal management and planning
and student services.
The Strengthening Institutions Program helps eligible schools increase their
self-sufficiency by attracting and retaining students through better
programs and facilities.
For more information and a list of grantees, visit the Department of
Education at http://www.ed.gov/PressReleases/08-2001/08132001.html.
6.) ******** Improving America's Schools: Conferences
(All Goals)
In a "Message from the Secretary," U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige
announced upcoming Improving America's Schools conferences, "an important
part of the ongoing partnership between the U.S. Department of Education and
the nation's educators, families and communities."
Paige underscored President Bush's commitment to education, particularly in
the area of reading, "one of the critical components of the President's
[education] plan. . . "
The conferences are scheduled for: Mobile, Alabama on October 17-19; Reno,
Nevada, November 13-15; and San Antonio, Texas, December 17-19.
For more information, visit the Department of Education at
http://www.ncbe.gwu.edu/iasconferences.
**********************************
RESEARCH AND EDUCATION PRACTICE
**********************************
7.) ******** Keeping Parents Posted: High-Tech Solution
(Goal Eight: Parent Involvement)
David Dickerson, a teacher in western Missouri, has developed a
"groundbreaking" system for providing parents with a daily update on their
child's performance in school (Pierce, ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 5/29).
Teachers use a computer form to tell parents how their child did in the
classroom that day. The teacher then uses a voice recorder hooked up to the
computer to record the daily assignment. Parents can call a telephone
number, punch in a code for their student and retrieve the computer
information, which has been converted to audio, as well as the daily
assignment, reports the paper.
"It's become a salvation for me as a working mom." said Carla Fuller. "It
made a direct connection between me and the school."
The system is working in Fair Play School District, a small district with
only 380 students. However, St. Louis school leaders are deciding whether
to try out the system in order to improve parent involvement. "The main
thing is that line between the school and the home was opened up," said
George Cotton, who manages the parent academy for the St. Louis Public
Schools. "It doesn't put a tremendous burden on the teacher either."
8.) ******** Business and Community Colleges: A Growing Enterprise
(Goal Six: Adult Literacy and Lifelong Learning)
A National Alliance of Business newsletter highlights the growing number of
partnerships between community colleges and the business sector dedicated to
improving lifelong learning opportunities for American workers (BUSINESS
COALITION NETWORK, June 2001). "Community colleges are actively engaging
communities in lifelong learning, and they are doing so in response to the
need of, and with support from, the business community," notes the
newsletter.
According to the newsletter, community colleges are an "excellent resource"
for the private sector to tap to "train and upgrade the skills of workers
quickly." Reasons given include: community colleges are "agile" in
curriculum development and capable of quickly adapting an existing program
or creating a new one; and, they can do this at much less cost than it takes
for a business to do the same thing in-house.
For more information on the National Alliance of Business, visit
http://www.nab.com.
*****************
FEATURE STORY
*****************
9.) Success In School = Success In Life: An Ad Campaign
(Goal Three: Student Achievement and Goal Eight: Parent Involvement)
The NAACP, People for the American Way Foundation, Eastman Kodak Company and
The Advertising Council have joined forces to help spur more parent
involvement in the education of their children. Backed by recent studies
revealing that parental involvement has a major impact on the success of
their child's education, the groups have launched a nationwide grassroots
and media campaign aimed at increasing parent involvement. The ad campaign
is expected to reach 25,000 media outlets nationwide.
The campaign's theme is "Success in School Equals Success In Life."
According to the NAACP, the theme "underscores the latest research, which
consistently shows that parents are one of the single most important factors
in their children's educational success."
"This campaign is not to condemn, but to remind parents that you really can
find a way to be involved in your child's life," said NACP President and CEO
Kweisi Mfume. "We want to empower even more parents by showing the
importance of parental involvement at all levels of their child's
education," he added.
"The education of our children is of paramount concern to the American
people and our research consistently indicates that the best way to improve
a child's education is through greater parental involvement," stated Peggy
Conlon, president and CEO of The Advertising Council. "With this campaign,
the Ad Council welcomes the opportunity to encourage African American and
Hispanic parents to become more involved and maximize their child's
education."
Released in time for back-to-school, the Partners for Public Education
campaign was created by volunteer ad agency UniWorld Group, Inc, and
generously underwritten by Eastman Kodak Company.
In the television public service ad entitled "Cheers," the viewer sees what
appears to be the last seconds of a junior high school basketball game. The
crowd is cheering, the clock is ticking, two parents jump out of their seats
and the camera closes in on who the audience believes is a player about to
take a shot. Then the camera pans out and we see that he is really doing a
math problem and that the crowd and his parents are cheering for him to
finish it correctly, sending the message that parents should cheer for
academic success as loudly as they would for athletic success.
In another television ad called "Mother Tongue," a student is seen
translating for his Spanish-speaking mother and English-speaking teacher.
When the mother asks how she can help her son with his homework, the teacher
answers that by coming down to the school she is already helping.
For more information on the ad campaign, visit
http://www.schoolsuccessinfo.org
************************************
The NEGP WEEKLY is a publication of:
The National Education Goals Panel
1255 22nd Street NW, Suite 502
Washington, DC 20037;
202-724-0015
NEGP Acting Executive Director: John Barth
Publisher: Barbara A. Pape
http://www.negp.gov
************************************
The NEGP/ Daily Report Card (DRC) hereby authorizes further reproduction and
distribution with proper acknowledgment.
To subscribe to (or unsubscribe from) the NEGP Weekly, respond to this email
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WHAT IS THE NATIONAL EDUCATION GOALS PANEL?
The National Education Goals Panel is a unique bipartisan body of state and
federal officials created in 1990 by President Bush and the nation's
Governors to report state and national progress and urge education
improvement efforts to reach the National Education Goals.
WHAT DOES THE GOALS PANEL DO?
The Goals Panel has been charged to:
* Report state and national progress toward the National Education Goals.
* Work to establish a system of high academic standards and assessments.
* Identify promising and effective reform strategies.
* Recommend actions for state, federal, and local governments to take.
* Build a nationwide, bipartisan consensus to achieve the Goals.
WHAT ARE THE NATIONAL EDUCATION GOALS?
There are eight National Education Goals set for the year 2000. They are:
1) All children will start school ready to learn.
2) The high school graduation rate will increase to at least 90%.
3) All students will become competent in challenging subject matter.
4) Teachers will have the knowledge and skills they need.
5) U.S. students will be first in the world in math and science achievement.
6) Every adult American will be literate.
7) Schools will be safe, disciplined, and free of drugs, guns and alcohol.
8) Schools will promote parental involvement and participation.
WHO SERVES ON THE GOALS PANEL AND HOW ARE THEY CHOSEN?
Eight governors, four state legislators, four members of the U.S. Congress,
and two members appointed by the President serve on the Goals Panel. Members
are appointed by the leadership of the National Governors' Association, the
National Conference of State Legislatures, the U.S. Senate and House, and
the President. The number of Republicans and Democrats are made even by
appointing five governors from the party that does not control the White
House.
The current Panel Members are Governors Frank O'Bannon, IN (Chair,
2001); Jim Geringer, WY (Chair-elect); John Engler, MI; Jim Hodges, SC;
Frank Keating, OK; Paul E. Patton, KY; Jeanne Shaheen, NH; Tom Vilsack,
IA;
U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman, NM; U.S. Senator Jim Jeffords, VT; U.S.
Representative George Miller, CA; Representative G. Spencer Coggs,
WI; Representative Mary Lou Cowlishaw, IL; Representative Douglas R.
Jones, ID; Senator Stephen Stoll, MO.
The annual Goals Report and other publications of the Panel are available
without charge upon request from the Goals Panel or at its web site
http://www.negp.gov. Requests can be made by mail, fax, e-mail, or Internet.
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