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early grades to a nationwide average of 18. All 50 States have received fundsthrough the program. A recent report by the Department of Education on theprogram’s first year estimated that 1.7 million children are benefiting from theprogram; that 29,000 teachers have been hired; that, in schools receiving thebulk of the funding, class sizes for grades one through three were reduced by anaverage of five students; and that the program’s flexibility has allowed it tocomplement State and local efforts.Improving Teacher Quality. Research has shown that teachers do make adifference to student achievement, although the exact characteristics thatmake some teachers more effective than others remain elusive. In fiscal2000, $98 million was appropriated for Teacher Quality EnhancementGrants, which help link teacher preparation institutions and high-needschool districts, to strengthen teacher education and to provide incentivesto prospective teachers to teach in high-need schools. As part of theHispanic Education Action Plan, in the fiscal 2001 budget the Administrationhas requested $100 million for Bilingual Education ProfessionalDevelopment. This would be an increase of $28.5 million over the fiscal2000 level. The funding will provide more than 2,000 additional instructorsin bilingual education and English as a second language with thehigh-quality pre-service and in-service training they need to teach studentswith limited proficiency in English.Opportunities for Extended Learning in After-School Care and SummerSchool. The summer months can be an important time for learning outsideof the classroom. Recent evidence has shown, however, that the test scoresof poorer children are more likely to fall over the summer than those ofchildren from wealthier families. This research suggests the importance ofproviding disadvantaged children with increased opportunities to learn.The President has called for a large investment in after-school and summerschool programs to give children the extra help they need to meet higheducational standards. The fiscal 2000 budget more than doubled Federalinvestment in these programs (21st Century Community Learning Centers),to $453 million, to provide educational support to 675,000 students.The President has proposed doubling funding again for fiscal 2001, to$1.0 billion.Providing Public Education to All Students with Disabilities. The Individualswith Disabilities Act, first enacted in 1975, has helped change the lives ofmillions of people with disabilities. Before its enactment, approximately 1million children with disabilities were shut out of schools, and hundreds ofthousands more were denied appropriate services. In 1986, 26 percent ofchildren with disabilities were educated in regular classrooms. By 1996 thatproportion had risen to 45 percent. Today, people with disabilities are graduatingfrom high school and going to college in unprecedented numbers.Chapter 4 | 153