NEA Helped Shape My Professional Life

Association Offered Support, Encouraged Activism

By John T. Riley, elementary school team facilitator, NEA director, Cresaptown, Maryland

Twenty-five years ago, as a special education teacher in West Virginia, I was mostly concerned about surviving that first year. But my colleagues mentored me and they encouraged me to become involved in the cause and struggle for much-needed improvements in school finance and salary reform.

One evening sitting around a fire in the West Virginia mountains, then-NEA President Mary Hatwood Futrell addressed a group of us, and I was absolutely inspired. My Association activism and advocacy for children, employee rights, and public education was launched.

NEA helped us establish and support a grassroots organizing campaign where we reached out to businesses and the community. Our efforts led to the first educator strike in West Virginia history. But they paid off. West Virginia was no longer the 50^th state on the nation's salary list.

When I came home to teach in Maryland, I rekindled my involvement in the Association. Over time, I recognized the direct connection between politics and paycheck and politics and policy, and that sparked my active involvement in NEA's political action committee (PAC), "Fund for Children and Public Education." I knew from my days in West Virginia that a PAC could make a big impact on state politics.

I took advantage of Association leadership and training opportunities -- Keys to Excellence in Your Schools, Challenge to Change, and Building Educational Success Together (BEST). These programs prepared me to serve effectively on the Professional Standards in Teacher Education Board. They also helped me when I had the privilege of serving on the senior staff of Maryland Governor Parris Glendening as an education policy advisor. 

NEA has provided me with the opportunity to enhance my skills and knowledge with programs in professional development, leadership training, and school success. For decades the NEA has had a positive impact on my profession and my professional life.

About the Author
John T. Riley is an instructional consultation team facilitator at Cresaptown Elementary School in Cresaptown, Maryland. He advises classroom teachers on behavioral and instructional strategies (often using the Instructional Consultation Teams approach). Riley also serves as a director, representing Maryland, on the NEA Board of Directors.