Census in Schools
Program Overview
Teaching Materials
Events
Reference Materials
Highlights
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Census in Schools Highlights
![Map Man](img/mapmn2a.jpg)
In March 2000 educators across the country taught their
students about the Census. Children took home reminders to
their parents/guardians to complete their Census questionnaires
and to make sure that all of the children were counted. The
Census in Schools project was an integral part of the Census
Bureau's marketing plan to encourage everyone to participate
in Census 2000. The Census Bureau contracted with Scholastic
Inc., who helped develop the message, packaging, and
distribution system to reach educators and families. The
Census Bureau and Scholastic, Inc. developed materials for
K-12 teachers, principals, pre-school and adult ESL/Literacy
instructors, and families.
The Materials
Nearly 2 million "Making Sense of Census 2000"
teaching kits were distributed to K-12 educators in public,
private, and parochial schools in the United States, Puerto
Rico, U.S Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
45 million handouts with census-related activities were sent
home with elementary and middle school students.
Principals in every K-12 school in the U.S., Puerto Rico, and
the Island Areas received a Census 2000 kit.
200,000 kits for instructors of Adult Literacy/ESL were
distributed.
35,000 kits were sent to Head Start Centers.
Census in Schools Events
The Census Bureau promoted Teach Census Week (March 13-17) as
a prime time to teach about Census 2000. During that week,
Count von Count, from Sesame Street, appeared at a press
conference in Washington DC, promoting participation in the
Census. Many schools held Census 2000 rallies, featuring
children singing "I Count," the Census 2000 song.
In Pinson, Alabama, students from Rudd Middle School designed
a Census 2000 billboard and had it placed in their community.
The school received local and national media coverage; two
students, their principal, and social studies teacher Cheryl
Tillman were promoted as "Census Heroes" by the
Secretary of Commerce at the National Press Club in Washington,
DC.
The student newspaper staff at Choctawhatchee High School (Ft.
Walton Beach, Florida) developed and distributed a Census 2000
newspaper for elementary students. They distributed the
newspapers to the 19,000 K-6 students in Fort Walton Beach,
Florida. A local ABC TV affiliate did a news feature on the
students follow-up visits to local elementary schools.
Visit our Census in Schools
page to find out about current Census in Schools objectives,
teaching activities, events, and reference materials. |