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THE

ACHIEVER

THE

ACHIEVER

ED PUBSP.O. Box 1398JESSUP, MD 20794-1398

OFFICIAL BUSINESS

PENALTY FOR PRIVATE USE $300POSTAGE AND FEES PAIDU.S. DEPARTMENT OFEDUCATIONPermit NO. G-17

FIRST CLASS

NEW GU IDEBOOK !

Engaging S tuden ts in Ser vice

alling on A merica’s students to volunteer their time and talents, President Bush,in a radio address to the nation at the start of the school year, introduced a ne wguide book to help engage young people in a lif elong ha bit of ser vice and de velopthe ha bits of ci vic participation, responsi bilit y and ser vice essential to A merican demo-cratic lif e.

S t ud e nt s in S e r vic e t o Ame r ic a

of f ers research and resources f or planning ser vice acti vities and ser vice-learning programs to the adults who work with young people inschools, af ter-school programs and through communit y groups and organizations. The 31-page guide book pro vides —• Ten steps f or bringing ser vice to the classroom;•E xamples of ser vice-learning in action;• Tools f or designing and implementing ser vice programs;• A list of national organizations that of f er f unding and personnel assistance; and• A list of recognition programs that a ward students with volunteer e xperience. A s part of the initiati ve of the US A Freedom Corps —a comprehensi ve clearinghouse of volunteer ser vice opportunities —the U.S. Department of Education and the Corporation f or National and Communit y Ser vice work ed with the Points of LightFoundation to create the guide

S t ud e nt s in S e r vic e

.For an online cop y, please visit w w w.studentsinser vicetoamerica.org.

February 15, 2003 • Vol. 2, No. 3

“When it comes tothe education of ourchildren . . . failure isnot an option.”

PRESIDENTGEORGEW

BUSH

“ . . . [C]haracter educationhelped us articulate who we were, where we wanted tobe and how we wanted tosupport each other . . .” said McEvoy. As a result of the change in school culture,his school’s dropout rate hasdecreased from 15 percent to 2.4 percent.

THE

ACHIEVER

One-Year Anniversary of

NCLB

Highlights Year’s Successes

www.NoChildLeftBehind.gov • February 15, 2003 • Vol. 2, No. 3

THE

ACHIEVER

n January 8—exactly one year following the signingof the

No Child Left Behind (NCLB)

Act into law—U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige joinedPresident George W. Bush, school superintendents and prin-cipals, chief state school officers, several members of Congress and other education leaders in celebrating theanniversary of the historic legislation.“. . . [I]t’s been a good year,” said Paige.

“

Now all of ourhard work has paid off, and we’re off to a start, but only astart. The finish is when every American child has a greateducation.”President Bush and Secretary Paige marked the one-yearanniversary by highlighting eight schools from across thecountry that are making gains in student achievement andfive states whose accountability plans have been approved by the Department of Education. At the White House event, the president announced hisFY 2004 budget proposal for increasing funding for theReading First and Early Reading First programs by $75 mil-lion more than last year, bringing the total to more than$1.1 billion. Using scientifically proven methods of instruc-tion, these programs help children learn to read by the endof third grade and improve pre-reading skills in pre-school.From FY 2000 to 2002, federal funding for programs in

No Child Left Behind

increased by 49 percent, with statesand local school districts receiving more than $22 billion inthis school year alone to implement the act’s provisions.For a full script of remarks given by the president andsecretary, as well as a recap of the year’s results following theenactment of

NCLB

, please visit www.ed.gov/PressReleases/01-2003/01082003a.html.

Photography by David Kennedy

An Id eal S ol ut i onf or C hange

c onti nued on page 2

t Maple wood-R ichmond Heights (MR H )Senior High School, character education hasmade an enormous impact on the school en vi-ronment, and it continues to e vol ve. It inf luencese ver ything we do at our school and has become acommon language that inf orms our school culture. When I started as vice principal at MR H si x years ago, our school was struggling to sur vi ve. There were f e w, if an y, building procedures in place, anddiscipline was sorel y lack ing. M y f irst week s werespent tr ying to handle serious non-academic prob-lems. Students arri ved at school with no schedules,and disorder continuall y threatened to o ver whelm us. Student beha viors caused me to think that I hadcome to a place that I ne ver imagined e xisted in

B y S. Pa trick McE vo y,

S t . Loui s , Mo.

U.S. Department of Education

The Achiever

is published by the Office of Intergovernmental and Interagency Affairs,U.S. Department of Education (ED).

Secretary of Education

Rod Paige

Assistant Secretary

Laurie M. Rich

Senior Director

John McGrath

Executive Editor

Sarah Pfeifer

Editor

Nicole Ashby

Contributing Writer

S. Patrick McEvoy

Contributor

Linda McKay

Designer

Jason Salas Design

Questions and comments

EditorThe AchieverU.S. Department of Education400 Maryland Avenue, S.W.Room 5E217 Washington, DC 20202Fax: 202-205-0676NoChildLeftBehind@ed.gov

Subscriptions and addresschanges

ED PubsP.O. Box 1398 Jessup, MD 207941-877-4ED-PUBS (433-7827)edpubs@inet.ed.gov

Information on ED programs,resources and events

Information Resource CenterU.S. Department of Education400 Maryland Avenue, S.W. Washington, DC 202021-800-USA-LEARN (872-5327)usa_learn@ed.gov www.ed.gov/offices/OIIA/IRC

The Achiever

contains news and informationabout public and private organizations forthe reader’s information. Inclusion does notconstitute an endorsement by the U.S.Department of Education of any products orservices offered or views expressed.

public education. During my entirefirst year, I wondered why any of ourdedicated staff stayed and how they survived. When I started looking for a solu-tion to the myriad problems our schoolfaced, I decided to use a character edu-cation program to spearhead the cre-ation of a new school culture. I decid-ed that personalized services and rela-tionships with students would driveour character education programbeyond “word-of-the-month” postersor intercom announcements. Gradually the students took over much of theleadership and work involved. They now meet regularly to plan curriculumand activities, teach lessons, and makedecisions concerning the direction of the program. Character education hastransformed our school into one thatbears little resemblance to the school of six years ago. Although our demographicsremain the same, our school culturedoes not. Statistics indicate that wehave completely changed the climate of our high school. Ninety-seven percentof last year’s senior class reported thattheir high school is a safe and well-dis-ciplined environment. Out-of-schoolsuspension days decreased by 75 per-cent from 1998 to 2002. Attendancehas steadily increased, from 79 percentin the 1997–98 school year to 92 per-cent in 2001–02. The dropout rate hassignificantly decreased, from 15 per-cent in 1997–98 to 2.4 percent in2001–02. Our improvement clearly indicates that character can be taught,learned and nurtured. A school once plagued with gangfighting and school violence is a quietand peaceful environment, free of thesedistractions. The number of studentsattending two- or four-year colleges hasrisen steadily during the past fouryears. State-mandated testing showssigns of improvement in math, socialstudies and English. Our ACT scoreshave improved, and we have increasedthe number of students taking this testas well as those scoring at or above thenational norms.Earlier this school year we werehonored by a visit from First Lady Laura Bush. She came to MRH to hostthe White House Conference onCharacter and Community, where sheparticipated in a panel discussion oncharacter education with several of ourstudents. All of this was not possible sixyears ago, before character educationhelped us articulate who we were, where we wanted to be and how we wanted to support each other along the journey. In keeping with the principlesof

No Child Left Behind

, our highschool no longer accepts failure. Wehave shown that you can change theculture, academic environment andinstructional practices in a strugglingurban/suburban high school.

S. Patrick McEvoy is the principal of Maplewood-Richmond Heights Senior High School in the St. Louis, Mo., area.Recently, he served as a panelist for the White House Conference on Character and Community, speaking about the benefits of solid character education inhigh schools.

c onti nued f r om page 1

“Character is not a word on the board. And it doesn’t mean ‘Oh, it’sCharacter Week, so I’ll do somethingnice for somebody.’ Character is alifestyle,” said senior Nichole Tiggs.Pictured left to right are students fromMRH’s 25-member Character Plusteam: Adam Bohlmann-Kunz, StephenGriffard, Rachel Kunce and Tiggs.