April 7, 1999
Contact: Ida Lee Wootten
(804) 924-6857

U.S. EDUCATION SECRETARY TO VISIT LOCAL SCHOOL, 
U.VA. CLASS ON APRIL 12

	U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley will gain and offer
insights into the federal government's role in public education during
visits at Johnson Elementary School and the University of Virginia on
Monday, April 12.  Reporters and photographers are invited to accompany
Riley at both locations. 
	Riley will visit Johnson School at 1645 Cherry Ave. from 1:45 to
2:30 p.m. to observe and discuss the role federal grants can play in
helping children learn to read.  At 3 p.m. at U.Va. he will address
students during an "American Politics" class in Wilson Auditorium taught
by Larry Sabato, the Universitiy's Robert Kent Gooch Professor of
Government and Foreign Affairs.
	From 1:45 to 2 p.m. at Johnson School, Riley will observe a Book
Buddies tutor working with a child in the school's Book Buddies room.
From approximately 2 to 2:30 p.m., he will meet in the school's
conference room with several educators to discuss the relationship of
federal grants in stimulating tutoring of children in reading.
	Staffing for the tutoring program at Johnson School is provided
in part by U.Va. students who receive federal work-study funds to serve
as reading tutors through the America Reads initiative. 
	Staffing is also provided from volunteer tutors in the Book
Buddies Program, a collaborative effort uniting Charlottesville City
Schools educators with faculty and students in U.Va.'s McGuffey Reading
Center.  The volunteer program was co-founded by Marcia Invernizzi and
Connie Juel, faculty in U.Va.'s Curry School of Education. Through a
Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement (CIERA) grant
and America Reads work-grant program, a Book Buddies Program has also
been established in a Bronx, N.Y. school.
	Expected at the 2 p.m. meeting are Jim Henderson, Johnson
principal; Connie Juel, a U.Va. education professor and CIERA
co-director; Marcia Invernizzi, a U.Va. associate professor of
education; and Carol Rasco, director of America Reads. 
	Following his visit at the school, Riley will address U.Va. and
high school students 
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attending Sabato's class.  The high school students are Virginia Youth
Leaders, the first class in U.Va.'s Center for Governmental Studies'
Youth Leadership Initiative.
	For more information about Riley's visit at Johnson School, call
Cecilia Minden-Cupp, program coordinator at U.Va.'s Center for the
Improvement of Early Reading Achievement, at (804) 243-8688.  
	For more information about Riley's visit to Sabato's class, call
Alex Theodoridis, program director, in the Center for Governmental
Studies at (804) 243-8468.

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	Television reporters should contact the TV News Office at (804)
924-7550.