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2 Spellings Speaks on GlobalCompetitivenessAround the Country

—Michigan and Wisconsin

5CalendarQ&A

—College Accreditation

Education News ParentsCan Use6BuildingChoice.org

The

FEBRUARY 2006 VOL.5,NO.2www.ed.gov

U.S.DEPARTMENTOFEDUCATION

‘Beating the Odds’

President Sets Agenda for Education

n his State of the Union Address on Jan. 31,President George W. Bush announced anambitious strategy that highlights educationas a critical factor in strengthening the nation’sability to compete in the global economy.The president’s American CompetitivenessInitiative would commit $5.9 billion infiscal year 2007, and more than $136billion over the next 10 years, in feder-al investments to advance math andscience education, promote researchand development, and encourageinnovation.“To keep America competitive,” saidPresident Bush in his address, “one commit-ment is necessary above all: We must continue tolead the world in human talent and creativity.Our greatest advantage in the world has alwaysbeen our educated, hardworking, ambitiouspeople—and we’re going to keep that edge.”The initiative and other Department programssuch as the following seek to improve math andscience learning:

National Math Panel—based on the successof the National Reading Panel sponsored by theU.S. Department of Education, this committee of experts would create a research base to improveinstructional methods and materials formath teachers;

Math Now for elementary schoolstudents—similar to the Department’sReading First initiative, this programwould help to prepare K–7 students formore rigorous math course work inhigher grades;

Math Now for middle school students—similarto the Striving Readers initiative, this programwould provide intensive and systematic instructionto help students take and pass algebra;

Advanced Placement-International Baccalaureate(AP-IB) Incentive Program—to introduce morerigor for high school students, this effort would

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Before becoming the principal of Bolsa Grande High School, Denise Jay spent sevenyears as an assistant principal of another California public high school where, unlikeher current location, she said, many of the students came from families of doctorsand lawyers, and where the school was the epicenter of the community.“I kept thinking this is why these kids perform as well as they do,” said Jay, referring to the high level of standards, accountability and parentinvolvement at her former school. “There is no reason that kids in urbanareas can’t reach these same levels. We’re just not expecting it.”Believing that high expectations and not merelyeconomics are the common denominators in aca-demic success, Jay promised herself that if she everwas offered the top administrator position of a less privileged school, she would putinto practice all she

‘‘’’

You have tocare aboutthese kidsand ... theirsuccess.

Math,Science atCenter of CompetitivenessInitiative

INSIDE

High Expectations Help California Students Reach HigherLevels of English Fluency, Academic Proficiency

continued on page 3

train 70,000 additional teachers to lead AP-IB math and science courses as well astriple the number of students taking AP-IBtests to 1.5 million over the next five years;

Adjunct Teacher Corps—this proposalwould encourage 30,000 qualified math andscience professionals to become adjunct high

ast month, U.S. Secretary of Educa-tion Margaret Spellings (pictured atright with U.S. Secretary of StateCondoleezza Rice) spoke at the U.S. Univer-sity Presidents’ Summit on InternationalEducation in Washington, D.C. An excerptof her speech follows.

… In the last 50 years, American ingenuityhas put a man on the moon, a rover on Mars,and computers in our businesses,our homes,and even our pockets. Research atuniversities like yours launched the World Wide Web, mapped the human genome,and developed life-extending drugs andtreatment for AIDS. …Between 1958 and 1968, Americanuniversities reacted to Sputnik with anextraordinary display of ingenuity. Withina decade, our country tripled the numberof science and engineering Ph.D.s awardedevery year. More importantly, we turned thethreat of Soviet competition into proof of our ability to improve the quality of life forour citizens and countless others worldwide.Today, we have no symbol as obvious as aRussian satellite streaking through the sky toremind us of our global competitors, butthere are many smaller signs fast approachingon the horizon. The world is changing at arapid pace, and many of our studentslack the skills to succeed in the globalknowledge economy. …In this world where what youknow means much more than whereyou live, we all have a responsibilityto make sure America’s educationsystem gives students the chanceto succeed. Preparing our studentsfor the future begins long beforecollege. It starts with high stan-dards, accountability, annualmeasurement, and disaggregateddata to show which studentsneed help and whether somegroups of students are fallingbehind their peers. These prin-ciples are the pillars of ournation’s commitment to leaveno child behind.Thanks to the

No Child LeftBehind Act

, students’ scoresare rising, and more minoritystudents are catching up totheir peers than ever before,especially in the early grades.But we still have a long way to go.Less than half of high school students grad-uate ready for college-level math and science. And a recent adult literacy study showed that11 million Americans—that’s 5 percent of ouradult population—are unable to read.The president and I think that’s simplyunacceptable. So, we’re supporting high schoolreform that focuses on core subjects like read-ing, math and science to help more studentsgraduate ready for college.But we can’t do it alone. As you know,about 80 percent of the fastest-growing jobsrequire postsecondary education. … Unfortu-nately, less than a third of Americans havebachelor’s degrees—and less than 20 percentof African-Americans and Hispanics. …Half a century ago, a Russian satellitedrove American educators from all levels towork together to prepare a new generation of innovators. Every day, all of us benefit fromthat collaboration in technology, medicine,industry, and commerce, and so do billionsworldwide. …

For the full speech, visit www.ed.gov and click on“Speeches” for the Jan. 6, 2006, remarks.

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MICHIGAN—

The DaimlerChryslerCorporation Fund in partnership withThe New Detroit Science Center willaward grants totaling $87,000 to 30Michigan public school teachers andtheir respective schools for theirpromotion of academic achievement inthe fields of math, science, engineeringand technology. This May, the Closingthe Technology Gap in Education

AROUND THE COUNTRY

Spellings Speaks on Global Competitiveness

continued from page 1

school teachers by 2015; and

Academic Competitiveness grants and theSMART Grant Program—these higher educa-tion grants build on the Pell Grant program andwill benefit more than 500,000 students inneed, with financial aid going to high-achievingstudents who take rigorous high school course

An add i t i on a l $ 3 0 m i l l i on in edu c a t i on a id — on t op o f $ 2 0 0 m i l l i on a l r e ad y app r op r i a t ed b y C on g r e s s — w i l l g o t o h e lp in s t i tu t i on s o f h i g h e r edu c a t i on t h a t w e r e d i r e c t l y i mp a c t ed b y Hu r r i c an e s K a t r in a and R i t a, a s w e l l a s t h o s e c o l l e g e s and un i v e r s i t i e s a r ound t h e c oun t r y t h a t en r o l l edd i sp l a c ed s tud en t s. S e c r e t a r y Sp e l l in g s m ad e t h e ann oun c e m en t in J anu a r y a t a m e e t in g w i t h un i v e r s i t yp r e s id en t s and s tud en t s o f e i g h t m a j o r p o s t s e c ond a r y s c h o o l s in t h e N e w O r l e an s a r e a. T h e $ 3 0 m i l l i on i sun sp en t f ed e r a l f in an c i a l a id t h a t i s b e in g r ed i r e c t ed.“In s t i tu t i on s o f h i g h e r edu c a t i on a r e a v i t a l c o mp on en t in t h e r e bu i ld in g o f N e w O r l e an s, ” Sp e l l in g s s a id. “ W e kn o w t h a t mu c h w o r k r e m a in s t o b e d on e and w e s t and r e ad y t o h e lp. ” T h e $ 2 0 0 m i l l i on a v a i l a b l e t h r ou g h t h e

Hur r icaneEducation Recov er y Act

in c lud e s $1 0 m i l l i on f o r t h e 9 9p o s t s e c ond a r y in s t i tu t i on s t h a t en r o l l ed d i sp l a c ed s tud en t s, and $1 9 0 m i l l i on f o r L ou i s i an a and M i s s i s s ipp i ’ s b o a rd s o f h i g h e r edu c a t i on. F o r m o r e in f o r m a t i on a b ou t o t h e r D ep a r t m en t hu r r i c an e r e l i e f e f f o r t s, v i s i t h t tp: / / hu r r i c an e h e lp f o r s c h o o l s. g o v.

P h o t o b y P a u l W o o d

work and to college majors of math, science or acritical foreign language, respectively.

A booklet detailing the education component of the presi-dent’s American Competitiveness Initiative and other Department initiatives for math, science and foreignlanguage, entitled

Meeting the Challenge of a Changing World

, is available online at www.ed.gov.

competition will award 10 prizes each atthe elementary, middle and high schoollevels in order to develop the schools’curricula in these technical subjects. First-through third-prize winners will receive$15,000, $7,500 and $3,000, respectively,with those competitors placing fourth-through tenth-place receiving $500 grants.

WISCONSIN—

Officials of the SchoolDistrict of Waukesha are planning a scienceand technology charter school due to thesuccess of its Academy of Health Profes-sions, which opened two years ago inside Waukesha South High School with thepurpose of attracting students into themedical fields. The new school, which isexpected to open by fall 2007, will be acontinuation of the district’s Project Leadthe Way, a national instructional programgeared to increasing student interest in thefields of engineering and engineering tech-nology. District officials forecast a minimalcost for the new charter, which will bring innew students through Wisconsin’s open-enrollment program.

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learned at the affluent subur-ban high school. So when in2000 she became the principalof Bolsa Grande, a big-cityschool located 30 miles southof Los Angeles in GardenGrove, she set on a course tomake sure her students, manyof whom were Vietnameseand Hispanic immigrants,experienced the same oppor-tunities as their moreadvantaged peers.Six years later, Bolsa Grande is consid-ered one of the highest-achieving highschools in the state. Even with Californiadoubling its targets for English and mathproficiency from 2004 to 2005, the school’sEnglish language learners scored overalltwo and a half times higher than theexpected 2005 levels.Last fall, Springboard Schools, a non-profit organization based in San Francisco,recognized Bolsa Grande as one of 10exceptional high schools in the state withhigh concentrations of English languagelearners, low-income students and ethnicminorities. In a study of California schoolsthat were “beating the odds” with high-need populations, it found that BolsaGrande’s English language learners outper-formed comparable schools across thestate by 138 percent in English and by112 percent in math, according to 2004outcomes. The

California Best PracticesStudy

is sponsored by the NationalCenter for Educational Accountability,a project funded by the U.S. Depart-ment of Education.After an examination of a broad setof data—including test scores, gradua-tion rates and the number of studentscompleting rigorous course work—thestudy presents the key findings, whichrevealed that at the most successful highschools serving the most chal-lenging populations “teachersteaching the same course usethe same curriculum, give thesame tests, and work towardthe same standards.”Before Jay’s arrival, theinstructional plan at BolsaGrande was “open to interpre-tation, without focus,” shesaid. That was no surprisesince the school at the timewas marked for improvement.Expectations for learning and behavior, sheremembered, were low. “In the beginning,I just spent a lot of time resetting priori-ties,” Jay recalled of her first couple of years.She started by selecting a curriculumthat aligned withthe statestandards tomove allstudentsnot only to proficiency in English-LanguageArts but also nonnative speakers to fluencyin English. The subject is particularlycritical to Bolsa Grande, considering that42 percent of the students are not fluentin English—nearly 70 percent if includingthose students who recently progressedfrom the language-centered programto the regularcurriculumand are,therefore, nolonger classifiedas English language learners.In addition, Jay implementedmore accelerated learning courses such as Writing as a Process, and phased out class-es that were remedial, adding insteadsupplemental classes forstudents takingadvanced course workto keep them on track.Then benchmark assess-ments, which group questionsby the state standards, werescheduled quarterly for each courseas part of a districtwide effort of GardenGrove Unified Schools. But helping

Bolsa