Advocate
On
August 11, 2006, Operation Respect convened its first meeting of the United
Voices for Education (UVE) at the National Association of Elementary School
Principals headquarters in Virgina. A UVE Interim Steering Committee (ISC)
was elected by attendees and
has subsequently met to develop the mission, vision and goals of UVE.
UVE’s first outreach is a jointly endorsed statement of recommendations
to the Commission on No Child Left Behind. The statement will be posted
on our website when it is finalized.
Who We Are
UVE is a coalition of representatives
from 42 educational stakeholder organizations that are dedicated
to excellence in education for all children.
What We Believe
UVE believes that we cannot successfully reach the goal of having all children
graduate from high school prepared for success in further education, work,
college, and citizenship unless we focus on educating the whole child.
Educating the “whole child” refers to meeting the academic
as well as the social and emotional needs of students.
UVE believes that successful whole child education is made possible only
when students are assured a safe, respectful, bully-free and violence-free
school environment that is conducive to and free of crucial impediments
to their full and healthy academic, social, and emotional growth and
development.
UVE believes that such a positive school climate can be assured only
if schools’ efforts to improve their school climate are encouraged and,
over time, acknowledged through accountability practices that incorporate
expectations for Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) such as those used to gage
schools’ improvement in students’ academic work.
UVE believes that for AYP in school climate improvement to take place,
such improvement needs to be viewed and prioritized by schools as being
of equal importance to their efforts to meet accountability standards
in students’ academic improvement.
UVE believes that for the academic success of students to improve, conditions
for learning in schools must improve as well, which can only occur when
impediments to children’s education and growth are reduced or eliminated
through the establishment of a safe, caring, respectful school climate
that boasts a strong community spirit, rich programs in music and the arts,
service learning, social emotional learning, physical education and other
programs that help to educate students as whole human beings, providing
them with the inspiration and skills they need to reach their full potential.
UVE believes that effective and proven interventions, strategies and
programs that are supportive of educating the whole child will, if responsibly
implemented,
develop students’ social skills, community awareness and civic responsibility
that will in turn lead to improvement in academic efforts.
UVE believes that schools should be offered the opportunity, but not
be compelled to implement, any single strategy or program; rather they
should
be given access to an array of effective strategies and programs that
promote the creation of a civil, caring school climate embodying conditions
that
contribute to the development of the whole child.
UVE believes that schools should only implement those strategies and
programs that they believe fit the needs of their students as implementation
of
such efforts without a school’s willingness and belief in their potential
success are certain to fail.
