MARYLAND BUSINESS ROUNDTABLE FOR EDUCATION

MBRT's Annual Meeting
August 2000

   

On-Line NOW!
Parents Count

CONTACT:

Ray Weiss or
Chris Goldrick

Stanton Communications

(410) 727-6855

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MBRT and local business organizations are recruiting more than 500 business representatives between the ages of 22 and 35 to implement the student outreach component of its nationally recognized Achievement Counts program. During the coming school year, these volunteers will enter classrooms in the target jurisdictions to speak with some 25,000 ninth-grade students about the importance of working hard while in school and how the success they experience now will translate into broader opportunities in their personal and professional lives.

MBRT will support the effort with a major radio campaign targeted to high school students and a "Parents Count" component that will deliver regular messages to parents in their places of work. The parent messages will focus on ways in which parents can help their children to build an impressive record of achievement while in school.

Unveiling the initiatives at MBRT’s Annual Meeting, held today in Baltimore, the organization’s Executive Director, June Streckfus, stated, "It is incumbent on all of us – parents, teachers, and the business community – to send students a positive, caring, and consistent message about the importance of a strong work ethic, personal responsibility, and the connection between achievement in school and success in the workplace."

Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley applauded the effort, telling the audience of more than 300 Annual Meeting attendees, "The Achievement Counts program delivers a strong message to our students that ‘just getting by’ in high school is no longer good enough." State Superintendent of Schools Nancy S. Grasmick praised MBRT’s plans to use the high school presentations as an opportunity to listen to the students’ concerns.

She noted, "While we want to deliver a message to students about working hard and building a strong high school transcript, it is equally important for us to listen to what our students have to say as they move through school and into the workforce or on to college."

MBRT, a coalition of major Maryland businesses committed to improving student achievement in the state, initiated Achievement Counts’ student outreach effort as a pilot program in Baltimore County and Harford County schools last school year.

The positive reaction to the pilot, combined with MBRT’s successful statewide campaign urging Maryland businesses to ask for high school transcripts as part of the standard hiring process, convinced the organization to significantly broaden Achievement Counts’ student outreach effort.

For the coming school year, the outreach effort targets ninth grade students in nine Baltimore City zoned high schools, as well as high schools in Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Cecil, Harford, Kent, Montgomery. St. Mary’s, and Washington counties.

MBRT recruited business representatives for the program from more than 100 area companies, including such prominent corporations as Procter & Gamble, BGE, and Verizon.

Business volunteers currently are being trained by MBRT to facilitate the class presentations. The messages they deliver to students will be based on results from a series of focus groups MBRT conducted with ninth graders last

year. Those focus groups helped the organization to learn not only to what messages students would listen, but also to whom they would listen.

The focus groups also convinced MBRT that it should employ radio to reach students. "U.S. teens listen to radio for more than 10 hours a week on average, so it became clear that if we were going to reach out to large numbers of students, we should take our message to the airwaves," explained Ms. Streckfus.

To that end, MBRT is partnering with Infinity Broadcasting to run a major promotional campaign on one of its top Baltimore area stations, B102.7, urging teens to work hard in school.

Underwritten in part by Kaiser Permanente, Legg Mason, Infinity Broadcasting, State Farm Insurance, and Open Door of Baltimore, the campaign features commercial spots, promotional mentions, and live appearances by Priestly, the station’s popular evening disc jockey. Priestly also will urge students to take the "Priestly Pledge," to work hard in school and keep both attendance and grades up.

Recognizing the importance of parent involvement to student success in school, MBRT also developed "Parents Count," a series of parent messages on topics ranging from the basics – reading, math, and science – to assessing technology in their children’s schools. Thousands of employees throughout Maryland will receive the parent messages from their employers. In addition, MBRT will post the messages on the Internet at www.mbrt.org/parents/index.html.

"The bottom line is that our children deserve our best effort," said MBRT Chairman Raymond A. "Chip" Mason. Urging the businesses present at the Annual Meeting to participate in Achievement Counts, Mr. Mason asserted, "A well-educated population means more qualified workers for our companies,

more astute customers for our products and services, and more opportunity for our young people."

Plans call for MBRT to expand Achievement Counts’ student outreach effort to all 24 of Maryland’s jurisdictions by fall 2001 to coincide with the state’s effort to raise academic standards in high school. Major contributors for the student outreach effort include Maryland Commission for Celebration 2000, BGE, First Union, and Verizon.

"The Achievement Counts program will truly leave a legacy for generations of Marylanders," says Maryland 2000 Chairman and State Comptroller William Donald Schaefer.

For more information about Achievement Counts, contact the Maryland Business Roundtable for Education at 410-727-0448.

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BALTIMORE, MD (8/31/00) --- Recognizing the importance of parent involvement to student success in school, the Maryland Business Roundtable for Education (MBRT) is partnering with hundreds of Maryland employers to launch "Parents Count," a major outreach effort targeting parents of school-age children.

A component of MBRT’s nationally recognized Achievement Counts program, Parents Count will provide regular pointers to parents aimed at helping their children build an impressive record of achievement while in school. Participating businesses will deliver the messages to their employees at the workplace via company newsletters, email, corporate intranets, paycheck inserts, or other appropriate means.

"Being a parent has never been easy, and today, the balancing act most parents play between home and work makes parenting more challenging than ever," says MBRT Executive Director June Streckfus. "Parents Count represents a winning proposition for employers, parents, and students."

Research indicates employers that adopt family-friendly policies are much more likely to have workers who have high morale, stay in their jobs, and work harder.

"At the same time, employers know that the better job their employees do in helping their children succeed in school, the better prepared the workforce of the future will be," Ms. Streckfus notes. "The bottom line is that our children deserve our best effort to assure that the success they experience in school will translate into broader opportunities in their personal and professional lives."

For Parents Count, each month MBRT will provide employers with parent information on a specific topic related to success in school. These topics will range from the basics – reading, math, and science – to messages on assessing technology in our schools.

Participating employers will distribute the monthly parent messages to their employees through appropriate internal mechanisms. In addition, MBRT will post the parent messages on the Internet at

http://www.mbrt.org/parents/index.html

To date, more than 200 employers and organizations statewide have agreed to participate in the Parents Count effort, including such major companies as Bank of America, Perdue Farms, Inc. and McCormick & Co. MBRT is also partnering with numerous trade associations, chambers of commerce, and local governments throughout Maryland, all of which will distribute the parent messages to their members or employees.

In addition, several of the region’s utility companies (including Allegheny Energy and BGE) have agreed to distribute the MBRT Web address in regular customer billings.

The parent messages are a part of MBRT’s "Achievement Counts" campaign, a comprehensive effort to send strong messages to both students and parents about the vital connection between performance in school and success in the workplace and in life.

Corporate sponsors of Achievement Counts 2000 include Allegheny Energy, Constellation Energy, and First Union.

MBRT is a coalition of major Maryland businesses committed to improving student achievement in the state.

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BALTIMORE, MD (8/31/00) --- Baltimore’s popular B102.7 FM and the Maryland Business Roundtable for Education (MBRT) have launched a major campaign aimed at convincing area teens that achievement in high school will translate into broader opportunities in their personal and professional lives.

Designed to support Achievement Counts, an initiative developed by MBRT that links hard work in school to success in the workplace, the B102.7 campaign features commercial spots, promotional mentions, and live appearances by the station’s popular evening disc jockey, Priestly, who will serve as the campaign spokesperson.

"The goal of Achievement Counts is to urge students to work hard in school and to build an impressive record of achievement," explains MBRT Executive Director June Streckfus.

"Given the fact that teens in this country listen to radio for more than 10 hours a week on average, it seemed obvious that if we wanted to reach out to high school students, we should take our message to the airwaves."

According to Ms. Streckfus, B102.7 was a "natural" for the Achievement Counts effort because the station enjoys such a strong and loyal following among teens.

B102.7, part of the Infinity Broadcasting Group, began airing commercial spots featuring Priestly in mid-August. In the spots, Priestly informs his teen listeners that "school is cool" and encourages them to take the "Priestly Pledge" to work hard in school and keep their attendance and grades up. B102.7 features hit songs by today’s chart-topping recording artists such as The Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, and The Goo Goo Dolls.

"Priestly is one of the most popular DJs within Maryland’s teen market because he lives a young, hip lifestyle that many teens would like to emulate," says B102.7 General Manager Bill Hooper. "As a result, he is a natural spokesman for this campaign and a voice to whom teens will listen."

Ms. Streckfus adds, "In preparing the Achievement Counts effort, MBRT conducted focus groups with teens to help determine not only to what messages students would listen, but also to whom they would listen. Someone like Priestly represents a very strong role model with whom teens can readily identify. That is precisely why his involvement is so important to the success of this campaign."

For his part, Priestly says that he is "pleased and proud to be a part of the effort. I am confident that we can have a positive impact on kids."

To show its support for education, B102.7 is donating a bank of the on-air commercials, as well as the time Priestly will devote to the Achievement Counts effort. Other sponsors include Kaiser Permanente, Legg Mason, Open Door of Baltimore, and State Farm Insurance. The B102.7 campaign is only one part of MBRT’s Achievement Counts effort. During the coming school year, more than 500 business representatives between the ages of 22 and 35 will enter classrooms in nine Maryland counties and Baltimore City to speak to ninth-grade students about the importance of working hard while in high school.

The campaign also features a component that delivers regular messages to parents in their places of work. The parent messages focus on ways in which parents can help their children to build an impressive record of achievement while in high school.

"The bottom line is that our students deserve our best effort," says MBRT Chairman Raymond A. "Chip" Mason. "A well-educated population means more qualified workers for our companies, more astute customers for our products and services, and more opportunity for our young people."

MBRT plans to expand the Achievement Counts effort to all 24 of Maryland’s jurisdictions by next year. The organization also hopes to broaden the radio effort to other stations throughout the state.

MBRT is a coalition of major Maryland businesses committed to improving student achievement in the state.

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