The National Alliance of Business’ Center for Excellence in Education has published a series of brochures to encourage employees of American businesses to get more involved in their children’s education.
The series, sponsored by the Philip Morris Companies, is made up of five titles: “What Parents Can Do,’' “Outside the Classroom,’' “Supporting Teachers and Principals,’' “School to Work Transition,’' and “School Management and Accountability.’'
Philip Morris will distribute the set to its 100,000 employees, and the alliance hopes other businesses will follow suit.
For more information, call or write the N.A.B., 1201 New York Ave., N.W., Suite 700, Washington, D.C. 20005; telephone (202) 289-2888.
The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners presented its second annual Thomas P. Harwood Award for an outstanding partnership between a utility and a school to the New Orleans-based Entergy Corporation on Nov. 17.
Entergy, one of 40 firms that vied for the award, was recognized for its adult-literacy partnership with several schools, colleges, and universities in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
The six-year-old partnership operates a regional telephone hot line that residents of the three states can call to obtain information about enrolling in a literacy class or volunteering as a tutor.
It also operates seven “literacy laboratories,’' each equipped with 16 computer work stations, that students in the program can use to develop their reading skills.
Three of the laboratories are in vehicles that travel to workplaces in rural areas.
On Oct. 20, William E. Millikan, the president of Cities in Schools, a national nonprofit organization, and U.S. Secretary of the Army Michael P.W. Stone signed a “memorandum of understanding’’ that formalizes an effort to recruit men and women who have resigned from the Army to become directors of existing Cities in Schools dropout-prevention programs or to help open programs in new locations.
Information about job openings in Cities in Schools projects will be included in the Army’s computerized career data base, which retiring servicemen and women use to learn about employment opportunities.
Cities in Schools now has 433 programs in 131 cities.
The project, said Robert S. Silberman, the assistant secretary of the Army for manpower and reserve affairs, is “another example of the Army’s commitment to serving Americans at home as well as defending their interests abroad.’'--M.S.