An Old Kid’s Friend Spawns Something Brand-New |
Helping Technology Answer Special Needs
A College President Aims To Bust Some Barriers
Training Teachers for Success | NEA Innovators | Trends

Learning: Innovators
An Old Kid’s Friend Spawns Something Brand-New

Weekly Reader, Newsweek hook up on new publication aimed at getting kids involved in current events.

Getting students hooked on news is a passion for Sandra Maccarone, editor in chief for the Weekly Reader Corp. in Stamford, Connecticut. So when she and her colleagues realized that there wasn’t a timely news magazine for middle schoolers, they joined with the venerable Newsweek to create Teen Newsweek.

“It’s vital for teens to stay informed and be interested in the news,” Maccarone says. “Without that knowledge, they can’t participate in the events that are shaping their lives or be part of our great society.”

Teen Newsweek, launched in September, reaches 300,000 sixth to ninth graders. Packaged to look like Newsweek, the magazine offers enough variety to draw both female and male readers, Maccarone says.

The new magazine also gives students access to sources other than TV sound bites for their news—and offers teenage girls, in particular, an alternative to the beauty magazines that target them.

“Teens, as well as adults, need multiple sources of news and multiple points of view,” Maccarone says.

With content closely tied to curricula, the magazine is primarily used in social studies classes to teach current events and civic studies. But Maccarone hopes that language arts teachers will begin adopting it.

The magazine features news stories, columns, a cartoon, a debate page, and an activities page for vocabulary, current events, and critical thinking, as well as related Web site listings.

Impact:
Maccarone has received more than 200 complimentary E-mails from teachers and students about her new magazine.

For More:
Contact Maccarone at smaccarone@weeklyreader.com.

Helping Technology Answer Special Needs

Innovator: John M. Williams

Job:
"Assistive Technology" columnist for Business Week Online and editor of Assistive Technology News.

Bright Idea:
Years ago, after taking a computer course to help control his stuttering problem, Williams wonders, "If a computer could help me control my stuttering, what could it do for someone who is severely disabled?"

Inspired by that curiosity, Williams became an expert on products for the disabled and eventually convinced Business Week Online to run his weekly cyberspace column, :assistive Technology"--which now gets more than 30,000 "hits" on the Web the first day it appears.

"The computer is the great equalizer for people who have a disability," Williams notes. "It tears down communication barriers and allows them to compete."

His column is an invaluable resource for disabled teachers and students. One teacher recently request help for a student who couldn't use a regular keyboard. Williams, who never endorses a specific product, sent her a list of companies that make large-key keyboards.

Another teacher wanted to know what technology could help a student who couldn't move any muscles from the neck up. Williams asked for more information--was the student mainstreamed, in special ed classes, or a combination?--and then quickly sent a recommendation.

Teachers also inquire about funding for assistive products.

"There are multiple sources out there," says Williams, who urges educators to seek funding information from state rehabilitation programs, Easter Seals, Medicaid, and even product manufacturers.

Impact:
Williams answered more than 2,400 requests for information last year--over 15 percent were from teachers.

"Teachers play more of a role in the life of a child with a disability than they know," he notes. "It's only through education that children can be accepted and get the opportunity to show what they can do. Teachers hold the future in their hands."

For more:
E-mail JMMAW@aol.com or call 703/404-9557. Visit www.businessweek.com/today.htm.

A College President Aims To Bust Some Barriers

How should future teachers be attracted to the profession and trained? How should public education be defended and improved? Leon Botstein, the president of Bard College in New York and the author of Jefferson’s Children: Education and the Promise of American Culture (Doubleday), is advocating some provocative new approaches.

What’s wrong with how teachers are prepared to teach?
Teaching has failed to gain respect partly because our education schools have defined their subject matter as pedagogy.

America organizes its teachers horizontally, according to the age of the pupils they teach. No other advanced industrial society trains teachers primarily in methods targeted at specific age groups.

Right now, a sixth grade English teacher works with a sixth grade math teacher more often than she does with first grade reading teachers, high school English teachers, or English professors. This method is justified by dubious precepts of age-appropriate educational science.

What’s your alternative?
We ought to educate and organize teachers according to the subject matter they teach. The high school mathematics teacher and the elementary school math teacher should be taught by mathematicians and consider other mathematicians their colleagues.

But that isn’t what’s happening. Education schools are segregated from the rest of the university and looked down upon by other departments.

How can we recruit more good people into teaching?
We need real federal incentives. Years ago, I suggested that people who commit to public school teaching for a minimum of 10 years should be exempt from paying federal income taxes.

What role do you feel unions should play in educaton?
The rank and file have got to stand up and offer to police themselves. Teachers should decide who is qualified, not the state.

NEA should be setting the tone for the national debate on how public education should look in the next century—and address issues like the quality of teachers and classroom instruction and ways to reconcile excellence and equity.

Public education cannot be defended the way it was 30 years ago. Knowledge crosses state lines. It’s part of interstate commerce. There is no federal constitutional barrier against spending America's resources on education nationally.

The unions must stand up for what they know is right. They should be striking on issues like class size, inadequate textbooks, and inadequate facilities.

For More:
Contact Bard College at 914/758-7412.

Training Teachers for Success

Innovator: Joyce Haynes

Job:
A teacher at Grolee Elementary School in Opelousas, Louisiana. Also a statewide trainer for new teachers, mentors, and assessors and a new board member of the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE)

Bright Idea:
This spring, when Haynes starts her duties on the NCATE board—the body that accredits schools of education—she’ll no doubt draw on her extensive experience with Louisiana’s “New Teacher Assistance and Assessment Program.”

In 1995, Haynes joined with fellow NEA members in Louisiana and convinced state lawmakers to implement the program, which replaced a more punitive assessment system that seemed more oriented toward penalizing teachers than helping them.

Now Haynes—who helped create the current assessment program—works to ensure that new teachers succeed. She trains both the mentors who advise first-year teachers and the assessors who evaluate them.

The key, Haynes emphasizes, is providing substantive assistance to first-year teachers, so they’ll know what assessment criteria they have to meet. Mentors are trained to observe and advise new teachers in classroom management, planning, effective teaching, and professional development.

“In this role, I’m helping both veteran and new teachers,” says Haynes, herself a veteran with 27 years experience.

Haynes especially enjoys training teachers to be mentors.

“It’s a thrill for me when a teacher says this is great professional development,” she says. “We are constantly reminding new and veteran teachers what needs to be done to enhance learning for children.”

Haynes, who also teaches in-school suspension classes, was one of 14 NEA members who trained this summer to serve as an assessor for NCATE. This independent organization is backed by a wide variety of professional associations within education, including NEA.

Teachers play a key role in NCATE deliberations. One-third of the NCATE board is named by NEA and AFT.

As a new NCATE board member, Haynes believes she’ll bring a unique perspective to the accreditation process.

“I’m able to look at how an education department works with student teachers,” she says. “I know what students need to know when they get out of college.”

In her work with NCATE, Haynes says she’ll be looking for “innovative ideas for recruiting and retaining education students.” She’ll be exploring internships for students studying to become teachers and other ideas for placing students in classrooms even before they begin student teaching.

Haynes has even broader goals in mind as well. She’s eager to do her part to help reach a major NCATE goal: persuading public school districts to hire only graduates from accredited colleges of education.

Impact:
Thanks to efforts by Joyce Haynes and her colleagues, Louisiana has become a trend-setter in progressive professional development and new teacher assistance.

“We have to see things that need changing and make the appropriate changes,” says Haynes.

For More:
Contact Haynes at 318/942-3130 or JAPHaynes@aol.com.

NEA members seeking information and resources for special needs students have a valuable resource in Association staffer Faye Northcutt.

During her eight years with NEA, Northcutt has used her extensive knowledge of technology to help NEA members integrate emerging technology into their work.

Northcutt is currently combining her technical expertise with her knowledge of federal regulations on students with disabilities to create a number of useful services.

One example: Last year, Northcutt hosted a national teleconference on the revisions to the federal IDEA law.

Northcutt has also worked with an NEA team to create a Web page explaining the changes in the IDEA.

About 2 million high school students are expected to apply to colleges this year— that’s more than ever before.

How are families coping with the increased competition, particularly at the more famous or prestigious schools? According to an ABC “World News Tonight” report that aired last fall, they’re hiring college consultants.

While wealthy families have used them for years, this is a new trend for middle- and lower-income families. They shell out thousands of dollars for such services, partly because school guidance counselors are in short supply.