| April 27, 1999 |
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Barb Brady, WEAC Press Secretary
800-362-8034, extension 239
Expand SAGE to help more kids, supporters to tell legislators
The highly successful Student Achievement Guarantee in Education (SAGE) program should be expanded so it can help all eligible children, according to supporters who are traveling to Madison this week.
About 200 people representing 72 schools participating in or eligible for SAGE will gather at the Capitol on Thursday, April 29, for “SAGE Day.”
“SAGE has been so successful because it reduces class size and more,” WEAC President Terry Craney said. “SAGE makes sure that children are ready to learn when they enter the classroom every day by providing before-school programs. Students are offered a rigorous curriculum and after-school programs. Perhaps the most important feature of SAGE is the requirement that parents take an active role in their children’s education.”
The SAGE program, modeled after Tennessee’s STAR class size reduction program, was created in 1995 as a pilot project. It is targeted to schools with high levels of children in poverty in the early grades.
The first two SAGE studies (1997/1998) found positive results in reading, math and language arts. SAGE students significantly outperformed their peers in comparison schools (schools with similar student populations but with larger class sizes).
“All children who go to schools eligible for SAGE should be given the opportunity to benefit from SAGE,” Craney said. “Because SAGE is so successful, its sunset date should be eliminated and the program expanded to all schools in Wisconsin with more than a 50% low-income student enrollment.”
On Thursday, teams of parents, administrators, and teachers will visit legislators to discuss their personal experiences with the program, or how the program would help their schools.
Before lobbying their legislators, the teams will meet with a panel of legislators that includes senators Peggy Rosenzweig of Wauwatosa and Bob Jauch of Poplar; and representatives Joan Spillner of Montello and Antonio Riley of Milwaukee. The meeting begins at 10 a.m. at the Concourse Hotel in Madison.
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Posted April 27, 1999
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