Kerry Visits Conte, Speaks to Berkshire Compact

Stephanie Sacco shows Sen. John Kerry her math assignment.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — U.S. Sen. John Kerry got a crash course in using cartoon characters to learn fractions on Friday from eighth-grader Stephanie Sacco.

The lanky senator sat behind a student desk next to Sacco on the second floor of Conte Middle School as she demonstrated how she worked through problems on her wireless laptop computer. Teacher Brooke Remington explained how the students were assessed and scored. Yes, she assured the senator, the students still took tests.

"Once they take the test on the computer it sends the score right to us so we know what percentage of our class understands fractions," said Remington. Downstairs, the senator listened to eighth-grader Max Quinn toot his horn along with SmartMusic, the software program being used in the music department.

Teacher Christopher Caproni explained how the interactive practice system allows students to track mistaken notes, to record and listen to their playing and play with accompaniment. It contains thousands of song titles, he said, giving students a wide range of musical genres to chose from.

"It's really a great teaching tool," an enthusiastic Caproni told the senator. "The biggest thing I've noticed about this program with the kids that use it, is they play, say 'I've got bad notes, I'll play it again.' ... When they see their score go up they really appreciate it."

"You're all very lucky. I'm jealous," Kerry told the students, recalling how learned to play the guitar using tapes. The students gathered for a group shot as Caproni told them they were lucky to have a former presidential candidate in their midst.

Dillon Carr, 12, came prepared to get Kerry's autograph on a picture of himself as baby being held by the senator.

"I've seen laptops in other schools previously. This is really a self-started issue down here with a lot creativity, obviously, and everything has progressed so enormously in software so that the possibilities are that much greater," said Kerry after his tour. "There's a lot of freedom to be creative, break new frontiers."

Kerry had wanted to see an exciting education-related initiative, said Mayor John Barrett III. What better to display than Conte's participation in the Berkshire Wireless Learning Initiative?

"There are great things happening in the North Adams School System," he said.

School officials have been pleased with the impact the more than $5 million initiative has had since it was rolled out nearly two years ago. The mayor, a former teacher, pointed to more engaged students and rising standardized test scores.

The collaboration between civic agencies and local businesses put iBooks in the hands of middle school students in North Adams and Pittsfield. The final evaluation of the three-year project is due in fall of next year.

The senator was treated to a brief and humorous computer presentation of how the laptops had changed the school then given a short tour by Conte Principal Diane Ryczek. He questioned the use of the computers and their cost, and how much traditional teaching still occurred.

"We are trying to level the playing field," Superintendent of Schools James Montepare said, noting that less than half the students had Internet access at home when the project began. And those that did were not necessarily using it for school or study. "What this did was raise the level of engagement and responsibility among students."

But when Kerry questioned whether the iBooks stayed with the kids after middle school, Montepare had to say no.

"That's the scary part," he said, explaining that cost was a huge issue.

The school system was trying to trickle down, and up, the technology, using mobile laptop labs at the elementary school and making Drury High School wireless. If eighth-graders took their iBooks to the high school, the cost per grade to replace them would be $125,000.

Kerry shook his head: "That's not a show stopper."

"It is for us," replied Montepare.

Barrett explained the difficulty in raising the funds for the initiative, about a third of which is supplied by the state, and said it was time for the state to step up. Kerry said there are a number of technology incentives in Congress gridlocked because of the Republican opposition. Several other reauthorizations, including the No Child Left Behind Act, are at the center of funding squabbles. The Democrat said the biggest complaint from educators and communities has been the lack of resources.

"It's completely unfair that some places in America, kids have computers at home, at school starting the day they go to school because their parents can afford it, but in other parts of the country they can't afford it," he said. "They're not getting an equal quality education. We want to make sure everybody has an equal playing field."

After touring Conte, which he described as "exciting and inspirational," the senator went to Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts to address a meeting of the Berkshire Compact for Higher Education. He applauded the group's efforts to create collaborations between business and education, to strengthen commitment to lifelong learning and to educate a work force for the 21st century.

"What you're doing is hard but this is the most important work in America. It really is," he said. "It's how we build communities by giving our kids that fullness of opportunity to go out there and get a job, make a living and contribute to the next generation."

He said bipartisan support had helped pass a higher education bill last month that included the biggest increase in higher education since the GI bill. "It's a very, very significant effort."

Kerry said he introduced a new tax credit for college tuition because the ceiling to qualify was $30,000 but most Berkshire residents earn about $25,000. But too many education and health initiatives have been cut or vetoed by the Bush administration, he said, with a turn toward the political battles coming up in the 2008 election year. "No Child Left Behind was a deal struck between the president and Congress in that we'll raise standards and provide resources to meet the needs," he said. "The deal was broken before the ink was dry."

The administration's "adverse" priorities means cuts to after-school programs and nearly half the funding for Carl Perkins vocational grants, the veto of the expansion of State Children's Health Insurance Program, which will affect how many children function in school, and $43 billion in tax cuts for millionaires. He noted that $10 million to $12 million is being spent monthly in Iraq.

"We are vaccinating Iraqi children but we don't have the money for American children."

The United States, which invented the Internet, is now ranked behind Lithuania in public access because investment has not been made in the infrastructure, he said. Stem-cell legislation, which has been languishing, in Congress, will get passed the Democrat vowed, when "the next president" takes office.

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