April 15, 1996
Contact: Kelly C. Lockhart, (615) 322-2706

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A national model project designed by Jerry Bauch, Vanderbilt University professor of education and director of the Betty Phillips Center for Parenthood Education, is the recent recipient of a Golden Apple Award.

The Golden Apple Award honors inventive projects that encourage working parents to share in their children's school experience and is jointly sponsored by Working Mother Magazine, Columbia University and the U.S. Department of Education. Eleven awards were presented Friday, April 12, at a Columbia University award breakfast.

One Golden Apple Award was presented to the 21 lead companies participating in the American Business Collaboration for Quality Dependent Care, a coalition of major corporations. The collaboration won for developing and implementing the Bridge Project.

American Business Collaboration is a ground-breaking business strategy intended to increase the supply and quality of family supportive programs in communities where employees live and work. Work/Family Directions, a Boston-based company, administers funding through the collaboration and has worked closely with Bauch to develop the Bridge Project, which implements the Transparent School Model.

Bauch said he is pleased with his and the center's role in the Bridge Project and with the attention and recognition it has received.

"This project is a great example of partnership in action," Bauch said. "The schools are building partnerships with students' families, and the good corporate citizens who fund the project have become new partners with homes and schools so that education is enhanced."

The Bridge Project and its predecessor, the Transparent School Model, uses a state-of-the-art voice messaging system so teachers can leave daily messages for parents regarding homework and school activities. The system was developed by Bauch at Vanderbilt University in 1987 and has been implemented in more than 1,000 schools in 32 states.

In early fall 1995, Peabody College's Betty Phillips Center for Parenthood Education received a $90,000 grant from American Business Collaboration to coordinate all aspects of model implementation in the participating Bridge Project schools. This includes training, advising on parent orientation, technical assistance, producing supportive print materials and then reporting on parent involvement trends after the model is fully operational in the schools.

Through the collaboration's Bridge Project, 104 schools in 12 school systems across the nation have incorporated the Transparent School Model into the lives of their students' families. The schools are those with students whose parents work for one of the members of the American Business Collaboration.

The lead or Champion companies in the collaboration include Aetna, Allstate, American Express, Amoco, AT&T, Bank of America, Chevron, Citibank, Deloitte & Touche LLP, Eastman Kodak, Exxon, GE Capital Services, Hewlett- Packard, Texaco, Texas Instruments, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Mobil, NYNEX, Price Waterhouse LLP and Xerox.