USDOE Satellite Town Meeting: Education News Parents Can Use

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2009/10 Program Schedule

115. No Child Left Behind: Tools and Information Parents Can Use

117. Science and Mathematics: Gateway to the Future

An overview of the critical importance of science and math education includes an interview with Bill Nye ("The Science Guy"), statements from President George W. Bush and U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige, examples of quality math and science instruction, and a look at how provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act will affect teacher training in these areas.

118. No Child Left Behind Anniversary

119. Helping Your Child Become a Good Citizen

123. No Child Left Behind: Helping Your Child Succeed in School

124. Keeping Your Child Safe at Home and in School: Crisis Planning and Emergency

125. Education Beyond High School: Preparing Academically and Financially

126. America's Achievement Gap: The 2nd Anniversary of No Child Left Behind

127. Options for Families: Charters and Choice

128. Math and Science: Preparing for the Future

129. Reforming High Schools and Career and Technical Education

132. Back to School: Ready To Read, Ready To Succeed

Discussion and classroom segments explore how schools and families can help children develop literacy skills, review the critical role of the teacher in improving reading and closing achievement gaps, and update the effects of the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act.

133. Supplemental Services: Helping All Students Achieve

Visits to schools around the country illustrate successful projects aimed at helping all students achieve academic success, regardless of economic, racial, or ethnic differences.

134. Dropout Prevention and Recovery: Catching Students Before It's Too Late

Susan Sclafani, counselor to the U.S. secretary of education, leads a discussion on how to identify students at risk of dropping out and then help them stay in school.

135. No Child Left Behind 3rd Anniversary Show: Stories of Success

136. Drug and Alcohol Prevention: Keeping Kids on the Right Track

Explores how parents, schools, and community leaders can work together to give students the knowledge and tools they need to make wise, informed choices about drug and alcohol use.

137. Arts Education: Improving Students' Academic Performance

Why the arts are an essential part of every child's education, how schools can integrate the arts into the school day, the latest brain research on how the arts can stimulate a child's mind, how the arts can help close achievement gaps between groups of students and help at-risk students, and resources to help schools and communities establish effective arts programs.

138. Early Childhood Development: What Parents Need To Know

Explores the latest research on brain development and early learning. Topics include effective preschool and early literacy programs, activities that help parents lay the foundation for a lifelong love of reading, and resources to help prepare young children for success in school.

141. High Schools: Expanding the Promise of No Child Left Behind

Education Secretary Margaret Spellings and 2005 National Teacher of the Year Jason Kamras offer back-to-school advice. Educators, policymakers, and business and community leaders explore key issues facing high schools.

142. Responding to Traumatic Events: Keeping Our Children Safe and Secure

Explores the roles of local, state, and federal government agencies; teachers, principals, and other school officials; mental health professionals; and law enforcement agencies in protecting children from natural disasters as well as man-made traumas and in helping them recover afterward. Experts discuss efforts to care for children displaced by Hurricane Katrina as well as the emotional, social, and academic needs of children affected by such issues as abductions and school violence.

143. Special Education: Ensuring Excellence for All Students

Educators, policymakers, parents, and community leaders assess the state of education for children with disabilities. Topics include provisions of the No Child Left Behind act and IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act), early identification of learning disabilities, successful intervention programs, and how special education and general education professionals can work together to move beyond simply meeting minimum requirements to help special-needs students achieve true academic success.

144. Improving Access to College: Preparing for Education Beyond High School

USDOE officials introduce and explain the work of the Secretary's Commission on the Future of Higher Education, which is charged with improving postsecondary education in America as well as access to it; discuss why an advanced education is more important in today's economy than ever before; and offer advice on how parents and teachers can prepare students for college success.

145. Math and Science Education

Explores the American Competitiveness Initiative, a federal effort to improve math and science education in order to prepare American students for the high-tech workplace of the 21st century, and what parents can do to encourage science and math learning outside the classroom.

146. Helping America's Youth: Engaging At-Risk Students

Outlines the goals of the Helping America's Youth initiative, which aims to mobilize families, communities, churches, and schools in the effort to help at-risk youth avoid drugs, gangs, risky sexual behaviors, and other dangers and stay in school.

147. Inspiring Excellence: Great Teachers, Great Principals

Panel discussions and videotaped examples from award-winning schools explore the factors that make teachers effective; how schools can better recruit, train, and reward teachers; the questions parents should ask about their children's teachers and school administrators; and federal programs to improve teaching and learning.

148. New Tools for Parents: Getting Informed and Getting Involved

Educators and policymakers explain the resources parents can use to find out how well their children's schools are doing in relation to No Child Left Behind standards and the options available to families whose schools are chronically underperforming.

149. Child Health and Nutrition

Explores the links between nutrition, fitness, and success in the classroom; federal guidelines on nutrition for children; how governments and schools are working together to promote healthy habits in children; and what parents can do to make sure their kids stay active and eat right during the summer.

150. Back-to-School Special: American Competitiveness and a Changing World

Educators and policymakers discuss the critical need for more highly qualified mathematics and science teachers and what schools and parents can do to boost students' interest and success in these areas and prepare them for scientific and engineering careers.

151. Keeping Our Children Safe and Secure: Pandemic Flu and Emergency Preparedness

Outlines steps that educators, parents, and community leaders can take to lessen the impact of an influenza pandemic and what federal, state, and local agencies are doing to prepare for such an emergency.

152. Teaching Foreign Languages: Understanding the World and Helping Our Students Compete

Educators and U.S. Department of Education representatives discuss the benefits of learning a second language and explain the National Security Language Initiative, which funds school programs that help students learn foreign languages deemed critical to national security and commerce.

153. No Child Left Behind: Stories of Success

A look at the first five years of the No Child Left Behind Act spotlights high-performing schools around the country that are helping all students succeed.

154. Math and Science Education: Critical Skills for the 21st Century

Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings and guests discuss the American Competitiveness Initiative, a federal effort to improve math and science instruction in K-12 schools, as well as ways that parents, teachers, and school administrators can help lay a strong foundation for math and science education in the early grades.

155. Transforming Higher Education: Access and Affordability for All Students

College and university leaders, students, and education experts explain why a college education is more important than ever and outline some local, state, and federal efforts to make higher education more affordable and accessible. Other topics include helping minority students succeed in college and the resources available to parents and their college-bound children.

156. Charters and School Choice

Charts the rapid growth of the charter schools movement, outlines options for parents whose children are in underperforming schools, and explores the impacts of the school choice movement on academic achievement.

157. Teacher Quality: Inspiring Excellence and Strengthening Innovation

Educators and policymakers discuss how to recruit, train, and reward effective teachers; federal incentive programs designed to help fill shortages in critical subject areas such as math and science; and preparing teachers to protect students during school violence and emergencies.

159. Back-to-School Special: Empowering Parents, Empowering Students

Provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act that provide parents with choices and encourage their participation in their children's education, an introduction to charter schools and their aims, and ideas and resources for parents who want to help keep their children on track academically.

160. Reducing School Violence: Keeping Children Safe and Ready To Learn

Educators, policymakers, parents, and community leaders discuss how safe America's schools are; share successful examples from the Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative; and explore the links among disorder, violence, and student achievement.

161. Higher Education: Ensuring America's Competitive Edge

The increasing importance of postsecondary education both to individual students and to the nation's economy; the recommendations of the Commission on the Future of Higher Education on how to improve the accessibility, affordability, and accountability of higher education; and programs and resources designed to help parents and college-bound students prepare financially and academically.

162. No Child Left Behind: Student Achievement on the Rise

A report card on the first six years of school reforms under the national No Child Left Behind Act explores the measures by which the effectiveness of the law should be judged and spotlights three Blue Ribbon Schools that have raised both students' scores and teachers' skill levels.

163. Dropout Prevention: Helping All Students Get on Track for Success

Explores the reasons why nearly one million kids nationwide drop out of school each year, successful dropout prevention programs around the country, the proposed Pell Grants for Kids, and other programs that are available to help students who are at risk of dropping out.

164. Math Education: Preparing Students To Succeed in the Knowledge Economy

Examines ideas on improving mathematics education in the early grades and encouraging girls and minority students to pursue math careers, exploring the findings of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel, the objectives of the American Competitiveness Initiative, and related provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

165. Early Childhood Education: Good Start, Grow Smart

Explores both government programs and at-home ideas aimed at preparing children for success in school and laying a foundation for lifelong learning. Topics include the Early Reading First, Head Start, and Good Start/Grow Smart initiatives; how parents, grandparents, and child care providers can get involved; the latest research on how children's brains grow and develop; and how poverty and other social factors affect the acquisition of pre-reading skills.

166. High-Performing Teachers: Leading Students to Success in the 21st Century

Educators and administrators discuss the definition of effective teaching and spotlight programs designed to help schools recruit, train, and retain high-quality teachers, especially in critical areas like math and science. Government initiatives featured include the Teacher Incentive Fund, the Teacher Ambassador Fellowship Program, and the Adjunct Teacher Corps.

168. Back-to-School Special: Measuring Progress, Realizing Results

Profiles successful strategies for improving students' academic achievement and closing achievement gaps between disadvantaged and minority students and their peers. Teachers who are on leave from their classrooms to work on national education policy as Teaching Ambassador Fellows talk about how to use testing data to target instruction and achieve results.

169. Safeguarding America's Colleges: Preventing Violence and Promoting Learning

An exploration of what colleges and universities can do to safeguard students, prevent violence, and prepare to deal with emergencies. Topics include federal programs to help schools develop crisis preparedness plans, the rights of students and parents under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, warning signs that a student might become violent, and questions parents should ask about safety when considering colleges.

170. Paying for College: Think Federal Aid First

Outlines federal, state, and local government efforts to make college more affordable and accessible; public and private sources of aid; and what college-bound students and their parents should do to plan for postsecondary education.

171. Success Stories: Schools at the Leading Edge of Reform

The Teaching Ambassador Fellows — five teacher leaders who are spending a year at the Department of Education, contributing their firsthand knowledge and experience to the development of federal education policy. The five Fellows come from different regions of the country and a variety of school backgrounds, and they bring an essential perspective to the challenges and rewards of teaching in 21st Century America.

172. Charter Schools: School Reform that Works

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan discusses the president's education plan, which aims to set all Americans on a track to achieve lifelong success through education. Policymakers, educators, and parent-leaders talk about the movement to offer parents and communities greater choices in education, yet hold all stakeholders accountable for improved results.

173. American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: Keeping Teachers Teaching and Students Learning

Spotlights the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and its promise for generating urgently needed reform in schools across the country. The program features a a taped interview with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, plus live discussion with state and local education administrators and policymakers.

174. American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: Investing Innovation, Securing America's Future

Spotlights the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and its promise for generating urgently needed reform in schools across the country. Topics include key educational components, competition in the global economy, averting teacher and administrator layoffs, and others.

175. Restoring American Leadership In Higher Education

Profiles effective practices in college access and completion; provides resources for families to help plan and finance college; and features a live discussion with federal, state and foundation leaders, and local educators committed to the goal of establishing America's leadership in higher education.

176. Summer Learning Programs: Preventing the Slide, Promoting Achievement

Explore innovative strategies to academically engage and nurture low-income and disadvantaged youth during the summer; profile foundation, community, and library-based initiatives designed to encourage students to read and learn during the break; and spotlight the efforts of organizations dedicated to providing disadvantaged students with access to books and reading materials in the summer and throughout the year.