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Show Sb I ee Sto UTAH STATE OFFICE OF EDUCATION 250 EAST FIFTH SOUTH SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH 84111 REVEREND JAMES ABRAMS NEW ZION BAPTIST CHURCH 2935 LINCOLN AVE OGDEN UT 84401 UTAH STATE OFFICE OF EDUCATION 250 East 500 South/P.O. Box 144200 Salt Lake City, Utah 84114-4200 Steven O. Laing, Ed.D. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Voice: (801) 538-7500 «Fax: (801) 538-7521 TDD: (801) 538-7876 September 5, 2003 Reverend James Abrams New Zion Baptist Church 2935 Lincoln Avenue Ogden, Utah 84401 Dear Reverend Abrams: | want to solicit your participation with the current state wide discussion on the proposed changes to the Utah State Office of Education’s, USOE, approaches to educating in our children/grandchildren. You may or may not be aware of the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), Senate Bill 154, and Utah Performance Assessment System for Students (U-PASS) and how the implementation of them will affect all k-12 students in the State of Utah. Initial stages of the plan will be implemented beginning next year, contingent upon acceptance of our plan by the U.S. Department of Education. However, prior to submission of the plan, the USOE and the State Board of Education have scheduled meetings all across the state seeking input.from citizens in every Utah School District. By the way, every state in the nation and all U.S. territories have the same mandate. | implore you to take part in the discussions scheduled for your area. Ask questions and make suggestion that you deem are pertinent to and necessary in the proper education of our children/grandchildren. If you would motivate your friends, neighbors and members of your church to participate, | would be most appreciative. . Enclosed is a copy of the plan entitled “Performance Plus, Tuning Up Utah’s Great Education Engine. me if you want additional copies. Furthermore, the plan can be found on our website: http://Awww.usoe.k12.ut.us along with a schedule of the meetings for our districts. Contact For confirmation of the grave necessity and importance of our participation in this process, whether or not we have school-aged children, search statistics on our website: http://www.usoe.k12.ut.us/data/files.htm . Graduation and test taking statistics are not very encouraging for African American students on the whole. Much work must be done for our students to reach goals set by the U.S. Department of Education. On the following page | have included information on the meetings scheduled for Davis, Ogden and Weber School Districts. UTAH STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION Kim R. Burningham, Chair e Janet A. Cannon, Vice Chair e Dixie Allen « R. Michael Anderson e Pamela J. Atkinson e Linnea S. Barney e Tim Beagley e Laurel Brown Edward A. Dalton e Greg W. Haws e Denis R. Morrill e David L. Moss e John C. Pingree e Joyce W. Richards e Debra G. Roberts e Sara V. Sinclair e Teresa L. Theurer Public Performance Plus Meeting Davis, Ogden and Weber School Districts. Davis: Sept. 17 | 7:00 p.m. Sept 18 Woods Cross High School 600 W 2200S Woods Cross Kim Burningham 7:00 p.m. Layton High School 440 Lancer Lane Layton Kim Burningham Ogden: Sept 23 7:00 p.m. Ben Lomond High School 800 Jackson Avenue Ogden Greg Haws Sept 25 7:00 p.m. Ogden High School 2828 Harrison Boulevard Ogden Greg Haws. Weber: sept 23 7:00 p.m. Weber High School 3650 N 500 W Pleasant View TBD Sept 25 7:00 p.m. Roy High School 2150 W 4800 S Roy TBD | know that you do care what happens to our African American students. Remember it really does take a village to raise a child. So, please join me in this project. As the minority education specialist at the Utah State Office of Education | am committed to do all within my power to help students achieve and become the best they can be. With warm regards, /) Cte fee’ Freddie Cooper, Education Specialist Minority Education FC:brp Enclosures CL ee Cc |
