| April 2, 1996 |
On Friday, March 29, the House and Senate passed a 13th "CR" to extend funding for the Department of Education and several others through April 24. The levels of funding remain the same as those in the CR which expired Friday.In the meantime, Congress has gone home for Easter break. They will return April 15, at which time House and Senate conferees will continue to meet on the larger "omnibus" appropriations bill which would finalize funding for the remainder of fiscal year 1996. Preliminary indications are that the conferees have tentatively agreed to the Senate's funding levels for most programs, which are generally higher for the Department than the House levels. For certain programs the Administration identified as priorities, however, the conferees agreed to a different amount altogether, not following either House or Senate action. Instead, the conferees provided a higher level of funding for most, but not all, of these activities. Final action will not occur until Congress returns from a two-week recess on Monday, April 15. Officials in the Department and the Administration continue to work closely with conferees to seek a restoration of funding for education programs.
In Los Angeles County (CA), the Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District is using first-year Goals 2000 funding for three efforts: to continue developing its school-to-career learning centers, which offer students counseling and materials for full-time professions and postsecondary education; to keep schools serving the entire community open beyond the traditional school day, so that students and parents may use the library and other academic resources; and to develop content standards for what all students are expected to know and be able to do.
How can parents find time to get more involved in children's learning? What other barriers stand in the way of "parent involvement," and how can schools, employers, and community and religious leaders work together to overcome them? These and related questions are the focus of a national conference on April 12-13 in New York City, where promising programs and best practices for strengthening family involvement in children's learning will be featured. Teachers and parents, school administrators and community leaders, employers and graduate students are invited to the two-day conference, which is co-sponsored by Teachers College Columbia University, the Family Involvement Partnership for Learning, "Working Mother" magazine, and the U.S. Department of Education. A conference registration brochure is available at the Department's World Wide Web site (http://www.ed.gov/Family/), and the registration form may be requested by sending a fax to (202) 678-4048.
Congressman Major Owens will be the featured speaker at a special "pre-AERA" session on Monday, April 8, 9:30-11:30 in the Rendezvous Trianon Room of the New York Hilton. The session, which OERI is hosting (prior to the American Educational Research Association annual meeting), will be chaired by Assistant Secretary Sharon Robinson. It will provide an update on the development of a National Educational Dissemination System and on a process for designating promising and exemplary programs and practices in specific topic areas. The session, "OERI Leadership Efforts in Designing Approaches to Identify and Share Promising and Exemplary Products, Programs and Practices," is open to the public and will include discussions among teachers, researchers and evaluators, developers, and technical assistance providers.
To support education reform in the Empowerment Zones (EZs), the Department recently asked its regional laboratories to help EZs refine and implement school improvement strategies. Several labs are now doing so. The Appalachian Educational Laboratory (AEL) is developing and testing a process that rural schools and districts can use to identify work-based learning opportunities. At this time, the AEL is working with the Kentucky Highlands EZ. The Laboratory for Student Success at Temple University has teamed up with the Philadelphia EZ to implement its "Learning City Program" -- a broad-based, school-family- community approach to improving student learning in urban areas.
Secretary Riley joined 41 governors, 49 corporate leaders, and 35 education resource people for the 1996 National Education Summit in Palisades (NY) last week. The governors and CEOs pledged "to help states or local school districts develop a consensus on what children should know and be able to do" and "to support educators in overcoming the barriers that impede the effective use of technology," according to a Policy Statement on the summit issued by the National Governors' Association.Specifically, the GOVERNORS committed "to the development and establishment of internationally competitive academic standards, assessments to measure academic achievement, and accountability systems in our states...within the next two years." They agreed to support the implementation of standards within their states by reallocating funds to professional development, infrastructure, and new technologies.
CORPORATE leaders pledged to support the work of the governors, communicate clearly to students and parents and schools the types and levels of skills needed in their workplaces, require job applicants to demonstrate academic achievement through school-based records (such as transcripts, diplomas, portfolios, or certificates of initial mastery), consider academic standards and student achievement as a high priority when making business location decisions, and adopt policies to support parent involvement in children's education. Business leaders also committed to "developing and helping implement compatible, inexpensive, and easy-to-use products, services, and software to support teaching."
Governors and CEOs agreed to begin work immediately on these challenges in their states through activities that might include:
"organizing town meetings to build public support and engage parents and communities in improving student performance, reaching out to other governors and other business leaders to identify and adopt effective practices to improve achievement and look for opportunities where states and businesses can work together, arranging for teaching professionals to visit businesses throughout states to help them develop a better understanding of the needs of employers, holding a state-level education summit to design a state- specific plan for developing and implementing standards and assessments, and reviewing current state efforts to report on educational performance and prepare for next year's report.""I believe that this meeting will prove historic," President Clinton told the governors and CEOs. He pledged his support for their efforts to improve standards, accountability, technology, and other issues; and he promised strong support for starting up charter schools and making all schools safe, disciplined, and drug-free. On the issue of accountability, the President suggested that "...every state...must require a test for children to move, let's say, from elementary to middle school, or from middle school to high school, or to have a...high school diploma." He also stressed the importance of recruiting, rewarding, and supporting good teachers, while developing fair, faster, and less costly processes for removing teachers who aren't competent. In addition, the President emphasized reading:
"Secretary Riley says that every child should be able to read independently by the end of the 3rd grade. If that were the standard, I think we would be more successful in getting parents to read to their children every night, which would revolutionize the whole system of education."The President's speech is available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/; choose "All White House sources combined"; then search on the word "summit" after changing the "start date" to 03/27/96.
Background papers, discussion forums, and other information on the 1996 Education Summit can be found at: http://www.summit96.ibm.com/ (site disabled)
-###-
[Past Issues of ED Initiatives] 
Last Updated -- May 30, 2002 (cdb)
ED Initiatives...