Clinton Announces Focus on Tribal Colleges
President Clinton last week unveiled a White House Initiative on Tribal Colleges and Universities and named an accompanying advisory board.
The board will consist of 15 appointed members. Its staff and the staff of the White House initiative will be housed in the Department of Education.
Similar to the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, the new group will seek to promote and support American Indian colleges and universities.
The advisory board will report on federal progress in promoting Indians’ access to higher education, linking tribal colleges to elementary and secondary schools, preserving Indian languages and cultural traditions, increasing access to federal resources, and ensuring that tribal colleges are “better recognized as accredited institutions.”
The order covers 29 tribal colleges and universities nationwide that serve 25,000 students from more than 250 tribes.
New Meetings on Literacy, Testing Upcoming
Committees of the National Assessment Governing Board, the panel that oversees the National Assessment of Educational Progress, will meet Nov. 6 in Atlanta. The achievement-levels committee will discuss 1996 achievement levels for science tests in the morning. In the afternoon, the design and methodology committee will discuss the implementation of new test designs. The full board will meet in Washington on Nov. 15, with panels also meeting on Nov. 14 and 16. ... The National Institute for Literacy is seeking applications for a grant to develop content standards for the how literacy programs should prepare adults for their role as parents and family members. It will go with other standards meant to guide literacy programs as they address needs of workers and citizens. Applications are due by Dec. 20, according to a notice in the Oct. 23 Federal Register. ... Since the National Literacy Committee already had a spot in the daily regulatory update, the panel also announced an all-day meeting on Nov. 8. It will be held in Washington.