Inside Scoop
The Wealth Factor

A sociologist says racial differences in family assets, not culture, explain achievement gaps in school performance.

Over recent years, magazines and newspapers have run a variety of articles that explore why middle-class Black children don't do as well in school as white children from families with similar socio-economic backgrounds. These "achievement gap" articles are based on studies that relate achievement to family incomes. But the findings from these studies, argues one researcher, are highly misleading--because they simply fail to factor in what may be the key determinant to socio-economic status: family wealth.

If Black and white students enjoy the same family income, doesn't that mean they have the same socio-economic status?
No, says Dalton Conley, a sociologist at New York University who formerly taught at Yale. In his 1999 book, Being Black, Living In the Red (University of California), Conley draws a distinction between income--the money parents earn--and wealth.

A family's wealth includes everything the family owns: a home, other property, stocks, savings, and the like. Wealth provides deeper economic security than income. Young adults from families with assets, for instance, can borrow from their parents for a down payment on a house.

Parents with wealth have a cushion against hard times. Consider the hypothetical case of two families whose chief breadwinners are laid off from identical jobs. The family with assets can weather the storm and pay the mortgage, continuing to build equity.

The family without assets, meanwhile, is devastated. Unable to meet the mortgage, the family might end up in an apartment in a much poorer neighborhood, with poorer schools.

So how does wealth affect student achievement?
Parents who own their home or other forms of wealth are imbued with a sense that "their kind" of people can make it in America. They have a stake in society.

An everyday example: Streets populated by homeowners are better taken care of than streets populated by renters, even if incomes are the same.

Families with assets also know they have resources to tap to buy crucial advantages for their children--like a college education.

Children soak up this feeling at the dinner table and in a thousand other little interactions that have more impact than any amount of preaching.

"Wealth is both the pot at the end of the rainbow and the means for getting there," as Conley puts it.

Do current wealth holdings vary significantly by race?
In 1998, the latest year with decent data, the median net worth for minority families was $16,400--less than one-fifth the median net worth for white families.

Black people in America tend to have a lot less wealth than white people, even when their incomes are equal.

Among families with incomes between $35,000 and $50,000 a year, the median wealth for whites is $81,000, Conley notes. For Blacks, the figure is $40,000.

Why the big difference? One big factor is the historic discrimination Black families have faced. The "redlining" of Black neighborhoods by banks, for instance, has made it almost impossible for many Black families to secure credit for starting businesses or buying homes.

Discriminatory policies like redlining help explain why Black families actually save slightly more of their incomes than whites, yet they own less.

The bottom line: When Black and white children come from families with similar incomes, they may seem to be at the same socio-economic level, but they're not--because their family wealth levels are usually so different.

When wealth and other factors are equal, do Black students do as well as white students?
Generally, yes. Conley, mining data from a large, ongoing study of American families, says that when you take wealth into account, white and Black children are more alike than different. The much-vaunted "achievement gap" largely disappears when you take family wealth into account.

Add to wealth the level of parental education and you have the factors that can predict much of school success.

For example, Black students are much more likely to be expelled from school than white students. But that difference evaporates if you look at students from families with similar wealth and parental education.

Black students are also much less likely to graduate from college than white students, but, again, the driving forces seem to be family wealth and parental education, not race.

In fact, when family wealth levels are similar, Black students are more likely to graduate than whites.

What about reports that attribute achievement gaps to Black student peer pressure against 'acting white'?
"What kids tell you about their motivations is the last, window-dressing link in a long causal chain," says Conley. "I worry little about attitudes that kids espouse to reporters.

"All kids are anti-intellectual," Conley adds. "Nobody wants to be the class nerd. But motivation and achievement would be different if the fruits of the American Dream were equally accessible."

-- Alain Jehlen

For more:

• For a high school curriculum that explores issues around economic inequality, check Teaching Economics As If People Mattered, by Virginia teacher Tamara Sober Giecek. Contact United for a Fair Economy, 37 Temple Pl., Second Floor, Boston, MA 02111. Fax: 617/423-0191. E-mail: info@ufenet.org.

• For more on economic inequality, visit the Web at www.ufenet.org.

News: Rights Watch
Latest Supreme Court Rulings Raise Questions for Schools

Church-state and gay rights decisions will impact local districts.

In three closely watched cases decided last June, the Supreme Court struck down student-led prayer at high school football games, upheld the Boy Scouts' right to discriminate against gays, and okayed some forms of state aid to private and religious schools.

• n In the prayer case, several parents had challenged a policy of the Santa Fe school district in Texas that allowed elected student speakers to deliver "invocations" over the public address system before home football games.

  In a 6-3 decision authored by Justice John Paul Stevens, the Court ruled that the policy runs afoul of the First Amendment. The pregame prayer, the Court said, is "prayer sponsored by the school" that will be perceived by students "as stamped with the school's seal of approval."

  The prayer, the Court added, "has the improper effect of coercing those present to participate in an act of religious worship."

  The majority opinion also stressed that students still are free to pray on their own "at any time before, during or after the school day." They just don't have the right to pray over the PA system at a school event.

  In a strong dissent, Chief Justice Rehnquist complained that the majority opinion "bristles with hostility to all things religious in public life."

  A week after the ruling in the Santa Fe case, the Court overturned an appeals court decision from Alabama that allowed student-led prayer at school assemblies, graduation, sporting events, and other school-related events. The High Court told the appeals court to reconsider its decision in light of the football prayer case.

• In a 5-4 ruling in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale, the Supreme Court upheld the right of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) to deny membership to gay youth and leaders.

  Decorated Eagle Scout James Dale had challenged BSA's decision to oust him as scoutmaster of a New Jersey troop after learning that he was gay. The New Jersey Supreme Court unanimously ruled that BSA violated a state law banning discrimination in places of public accommodation.

  The U.S. Supreme Court reversed, declaring that the state can't require the Scouts to accept Dale as a scoutmaster because that would violate BSA's First Amendment right "to oppose or disfavor homosexual conduct."

  Dale's attorney, Evan Wolfson, called the Court's ruling a "Pyrrhic victory for the BSA leadership. They have won for themselves the dubious right to be bigoted and exclusionary."

  According to David Buckel, an attorney with the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Dale decision could have a significant impact on public school districts, which are one of the largest sponsors of Boy Scout troops.

  Buckel warns that districts now may have to withdraw official sponsorship of Boy Scout troops because of their anti-gay policy. Because schools are public institutions, he argues, their official sponsorship of discriminatory organizations is "probably unconstitutional."

  In response to the Dale decision, delegates to this summer's NEA Representative Assembly adopted a New Business Item calling on NEA to "urge state and local affiliates to work with school boards to establish policies requiring that all private organizations using school facilities have nondiscriminatory membership policies."

• In the third case, Mitchell v. Helms, the Court ruled that public funds can be used to provide library and instructional materials--including computer software and hardware--to private and sectarian schools.

  In a splintered 4-2-3 decision, a majority of the justices held that the federal program does not violate the First Amendment's requirement of church-state separation.

  Voucher proponents claim that this decision signals the Court's willingness to uphold private school vouchers. Public school supporters, including U.S. Department of Education Secretary Richard Riley, disagree.

  "The Court's decision today is not about vouchers. Under the [federal program] no funds go to any private school," notes Riley.

  Both sides agree that, since the next President likely will appoint several new justices, the constitutionality of vouchers will be decided by the November election.

-- Michael D. Simpson
NEA Office of General Counsel

On the Docket

Before the Supreme Court recessed for the summer, the Justices agreed to review two cases of interest to NEA members when the Court reconvenes on the first Monday in October.

• In University of Alabama v. Garrett, the Court will decide whether public colleges and universities can be sued for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act. That's the federal law banning employment discrimination against persons with disabilities.

  The High Court ruled last January that state workers-- including employees of public colleges and universities --can't sue their employers for violating the federal law against age discrimination. That's because the 11th Amendment shields state entities from suit in federal court.

  There's a real chance the Court will use the same reasoning to strip disabled state employees of federal protection from employment discrimination.

• In Bartnicki v. Vopper, the Court will decide whether two NEA members can sue the president of an anti-union group and a radio station for disclosing the contents of their private telephone conversation, which had been illegally recorded.

  In May of 1993, an unknown person tape-recorded a cell phone conversation between two teacher union officials from Wyoming, Pennsylvania, discussing stalled contract negotiations. During the conversation, the local president joked that they might have to "blow off" the "front porches" of school board members' homes to get their attention.

  The head of the local anti-tax group obtained a copy of the recording and turned it over to a radio station, which broadcast the conversation. The union officials then sued both parties for civil damages as authorized by federal and state anti-wiretapping laws.

  A federal appeals court threw out the lawsuit, ruling that the public's right to obtain information about newsworthy events outweighed the plaintiffs' right to privacy.

  -- M.D.S

Departments: Resources
Death to Busy Work

Our educational system is firmly rooted in homework, but what if homework is actually doing more harm than good?

The End of Homework
How Homework Disrupts Families, Overburdens Children, and Limits Learning

By Etta Kralovec and John Buell, $20, Beacon Press, 128 pages, www.beacon.org

In this brief but fresh look at the practice of homework, educators Etta Kralovec and John Buell make a compelling argument against this age-old practice, offering evidence that homework does little to boost academic achievement or even personal responsibility--and much to widen the educational gap between the nation's "haves" and "have-nots."

Homework, Kralovec and Buell argue, forces parents to don the role of teacher, a task many parents are simply ill-equipped, or too exhausted at the end of the day, to take on.

The result? Homework, the authors contend, often sets parent against child and cuts into quality family time, which is already in short supply in two-income homes.

What's arresting about this well-written, well-documented book is that, perhaps for the first time, the practice of homework is linked to school reform, with its merits and demerits debated both historically and educationally.

Buell and Kralovec explain how the practice of homework has been integrally tied to America's national economic priorities. But the authors say politicians and other policy makers have missed the mark, focusing on getting students to do more homework instead of helping to improve public schooling.

Abolishing homework, Buell and Kralovec are quick to note, would be no easy task. Homework is deeply entrenched in both school systems and social values.

Class instruction, for instance, is typically structured around homework, a practice that ensures completion of the curriculum without extending school hours.

Teachers, the authors note, have plenty of reasons to embrace the homework ethic--they had to endure homework themselves and, these days especially, they're often pressured to show their support of high academic standards by assigning heavy amounts of homework.

But many educators are starting to question the practice. Few inner-city children, these critics point out, have quiet, well-lit places to study or well-educated parents to help them with their homework.

Many of these students return home after school to challenging environments where they have to cook dinner, care for younger siblings, or rush off to work.

Homework just doesn't fit into the schedules of these youngsters, and they pay the consequences. To teachers who don't understand their special challenges, the failure to do homework comes across as a character flaw--and perpetuates social inequity.

Peppered with anecdotes of students compelled to forego school activities and outside interests to do homework, The End of Homework questions America's ability to raise whole children when homework assignments leave little time to do anything other than school work.

The authors even suggest that homework pressure may be damaging children's emotional well-being. They point to psychologists who assert that "the adolescent's first priority is developing a social self," a difficult process in a world squeezed by voluminous homework.

Ending homework, Buell and Kralovec argue, would foster the emotional development of students, preserve family time, and give teaching back to teachers without overburdening them with having to give and grade "meaningless homework."

Just how realistic is that claim. To judge for yourself, you'll have to, well, do your homework and read this most provocative book.

"We believe that reform in homework practices is central to a politics of family and personal liberation. Taking back our home lives will allow us to begin enriching our community life.

"Drawing a clearer line between the school and the home may enable families to reconstitute themselves as families, and help parents pass on to their children something other than the exhaustion of endless work."

Excerpt:
"We believe that reform in homework practices is central to a politics of family and personal liberation. Taking back our home lives will allow us to begin enriching our community life.

"Drawing a clearer line between the school and the home may enable families to reconstitute themselves as families, and help parents pass on to their children something other than the exhaustion of endless work."

Reading
'Oh, The Places You'll Go!'

That's the theme for the 2001 Read Across America campaign, the NEA project that's stirring up year-round interest in reading.

More than 23 million children and adults celebrated the joy of reading and Dr. Seuss's birthday last March 2 as part of NEA's 2000 Read Across America celebration.

Now NEA members nationwide are gearing up for 2001. The theme: Oh, The Places You'll Go!

In this classic book, Dr. Seuss urges readers to fly high to reach goals, even if they're facing the dreaded "Hakken-Kraks."

"Besides its wonderful, positive message, Oh, The Places You'll Go! offers an apt analogy for books themselves," says NEA staffer Barby Halstead-Worrell. "The places we can go through books are endless and exciting."

Oh, The Places You'll Go! also offers NEA members a wonderful theme to build upon for Read Across America celebrations next March 2. Using the travel theme, send students packing on virtual trips. Challenge your students to go the distance by reading a set number of books or pages.

This past March, educators came up with a wide array of projects that got kids diving into books. For example, creative NEA members urged students to read enough pages to cover the distance across their state, or even the country. Some students read books about real towns with intriguing names or from regions totally unlike their own.

Other popular projects last year involved having guest readers in the classroom. Some schools held Drop Everything and Read (DEAR) drills or had students dress up as favorite Dr. Seuss characters. And always popular are activities that have kids eating "green eggs and ham."

Students nationwide especially enjoyed meeting a reading challenge.

Typically, school staff would challenge kids to read some unprecedented number of books. The students' reward? School staff would do something wacky, everything from dying their hair purple to diving into root beer floats, frozen lakes, bathtubs of gelatin, or big vats of pudding.

Educators are tapping into the enthusiasm generated by Read Across America events like these to promote reading as a year-round activity, both at school and at home.

At the Read Across America Web site, you'll find lots more stories about how NEA members are motivating students to read. You'll also find plenty of inspiration that can help you create your own celebration for March 2.

As Dr. Seuss puts it:
And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.)

The Read Across America site also links to Reading Matters, NEA's new Web area that offers research, classroom activities, and lots more for educators helping kids learn to read.

For more: Visit the Web at www.nea.org/readacross.

How To ...
line Up Author Visits

Inviting "real-live authors" to visit your school or classroom can add an exciting chapter to a young reader's life. With enough advance notice, most authors are willing to tailor their presentations to meet your needs.

Here's how to make an author visit a rousing success.

• Plan to book authors several months in advance, especially for busy times such as National Children's Book Week in Novem-ber, National Poetry Month in April, and Black History Month in February.

  For info on lining up a specific author, check www.childrens bookguild.org/SpeakersBureau.html. Contact Children's Book Council authors and illustrators through www.cbcbooks.org/navigation/teaindex.htm.

• Specify all details in writing so there are no unpleasant surprises for either party. Cover transportation, accommodations, fees, ages and sizes of groups, length and number of presentations, and note which books will be featured. Involve the publisher or author's agent, and set clear expectations for autographing and book sales.

• Engage students, staff, and parents. Read the author's work. Post a photo and bio. Assign a related project before the visit. Prepare students for a Q&A session. Ensure the school and local library have the author's books.

• Make sure staff are present and actively involved at all times. Don't expect your guest to monitor classroom behavior.

--Michelle Y. Green
NEA Today (author of the Willie Pearl
historical fiction series)

Learning:
New Teachers Find a Friend

Kentucky educators can turn to a full-time professional development staffer--funded by the district, selected by the local Association.

The concept of teachers taking charge of their profession has hit some lofty new heights in Jefferson County, Kentucky. For starters, a teacher--Judy Brown, a 27-year veteran--now runs the district's New Teacher Mentoring Program.

What's more, the program was developed by the 4,800-member Jefferson County Teachers Association, working in conjunction with the Jefferson County Public Schools.

And last year, in filling the position that eventually went to Judy Brown, the district gave this NEA local affiliate a majority say in the hiring process. Brown now works out of the JCTA office.

The original idea for Jefferson County's mentoring program came out of brainstormings that involved local activists like JCTA Treasurer Sandy Hoover. The activists worked with UniServ Director Paula Cramer to create a mentoring program that could help newcomers grow--and stick with the profession.

The New Teacher Mentoring Program was the right idea at the right time. Jefferson County has more than 5,000 teachers, nearly 2,000 of whom have been hired within the past four years. In some district schools, the certified staff has almost completely turned over.

Faced with the need to hire hundreds of new teachers for the 150-school Jefferson County district, the school superintendent had supporting new teachers high on his priority list.

So did the local school board, which has fully funded the JCTA-inspired New Teacher Mentoring Program.

In Kentucky, new teachers are assigned a resource teacher for one year through the state-mandated Kentucky Teacher Internship Program. But that's not enogh support for new teachers.

"What's been really an eye-opener for us has been the number of teachers who resign during their second year," says Judy Brown. "Our focus now is teachers in the second through fourth year of teaching."

In the New Teacher Mentoring Program, veteran teachers facilitate small support and study groups, serve on workshop panels, and become one-on-one advisers via an online mentoring network arranged by grade level and content area.

The program offers monthly content-specific workshops on topics like understanding the school system, classroom management techniques, achievement test preparation, stress management, and financial planning.

Informal sessions and dinners add to these lessons and cover everything from where to go with questions on recertification to how to read a pay stub.

New teachers in the Jefferson County mentoring program pair with teachers who have at least five years' experience and, if possible, teach the same grade or content area. To help emergency credentialed teachers get up to speed, the program also targets recent retirees.

The mentoring program, Brown points out, is changing how veteran teachers perceive newcomers.

"It was an awakening," notes Brown, "for mentors to see there's such a diverse group coming into the profession--retired military, teachers from other districts, people from business, as well as fresh-out-of-college types."

Brown is currently negotiating with the University of Louisville to offer professional development credit to mentors, and mentors can fulfill some state and local performance criteria by participating in the program.

In its first year, the Jefferson County mentoring program attracted 29 mentors and 38 new teachers, including a group under emergency certification.

"I work with union and non-union people to develop the program," says Brown. "My hope is that others will see the benefits of Association membership and get involved."

--Michelle Y. Green

For more:
E-mail Judy Brown at jbrown@jcta.org or visit www.jcta.org/mentoring.html.

How I Did It

June Karr
Preschool special needs teacher
Fairview, West Virginia

I love to cook and bake, so I started "Patti Cake Bakers" to encourage learning and raise self-esteem in my developmentally delayed preschool students at Watson Elementary.

We now start each unit by reading a children's book and end with a cooking activity related to the story.

We've made "chicken feed" (trail mix) for Chicken Little and baked chocolate chip cookies for If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.

The process of cooking teaches the students several key lessons. They learn how to follow directions. They can see what happens when they mix things together and the importance of counting how much they put in.

This process is also a great way to get students excited about simpler tasks, such as describing the shape of a pancake or the colors in a salad. And, for them, the best part is having an edible finished product!

Before the final cooking project, we go through a series of other activities that tie each story to several subjects. We make cookies out of paper plates, and the students have to color each cookie and count out paper chocolate chips to put on them. We also cut turkey-shaped paper and glue on different colored feathers.

The students learn to work together and retell stories by using role playing, puppets, or story event cards.

Some children read the names on recipes, and others help count to make sure we have enough of everything.

At the end of the year, I give each student a recipe book of all our activities to use at home.

This type of teaching lends itself to hands-on activities that address many areas of development. It's not so much that it's different from other ways of teaching--it just does a great job of tying everything together.

Learning doesn't occur only by sitting down and making a child do a worksheet.

I hope to expand this project to include more parental involvement. My goal is to help parents realize that something they do every day--cooking--can become a learning activity.

If parents realize early on that learning can occur outside of a classroom, then their child will have a better chance at success.

Dilemma
How Do You Make Life Easier for a New Teacher?

When I mentored a fifth grade teacher, I helped her by continually anticipating anything that could catch her off guard during the day. I made a list of these potential pitfalls and gave it to her at the beginning of each day.

I also copied my file folder of tests, quizzes, and worksheets before she started each unit. She knew it was there to use as she needed, with no pressure.

Mike Buleza
Fourth grade teacher
Fawn Grove, Pennsylvania

When I was new, my mentor said to ask if I needed anything. But I was so overwhelmed that I didn't even know what to ask her. I think it's most beneficial to offer help to new teachers before they need to ask.

Before the first day of school, let them plan with you so they can see what you'll be doing. Talk to them about attendance, lunch, and other procedures.

Let new teachers know when things are coming up that they should be preparing for--report cards, conferences, principal evaluations. If the mentor teachers mention both curriculum items and management items as they begin to prepare for them, the new teachers will be able to prepare in a timely manner as well.

It's good practice to help new teachers, even if you aren't their assigned mentor. When we help the new additions to our profession, we become better as a whole team.

Laura Eliason
Fifth grade teacher
Woods Cross, Utah

When you make worksheets or plans for yourself, copy an extra set for the new teachers. They tell me this is great, especially when they get things from sources they might not have.

Samantha Garrity
Sixth grade teacher
Tracy, California

Tell new teachers about procedures, procedures, procedures! I can't stress that enough, especially being a new teacher myself. At the start of last year, I created a list of 40 classroom procedures that were important to the success of my class--sharpening pencils, coming in tardy, going to the restroom. The first two weeks consisted of modeling, practice, review, and testing these procedures. Little did I know the positive impact it would later have on students' school performance and self-esteem.

Genevieve Peters
Middle school teacher
Long Beach, California

We hold a special meeting (with food!) for new teachers during fall in-service. At this time, Association leaders and our UniServ representative welcome them, provide handouts and other useful items, and answer questions.

Marjorie Rios
High school Spanish teacher
Livingston, Tennessee

Last year, our fourth grade team decided to meet regularly to plan curriculum units. Our goal was to help our new teacher pace the content she needed to teach and organize the materials she would need. The extra benefit was that the two established teachers (one with eight years, the other with 30) also got well organized and only had to transfer lessons to daily lesson plans.

Susan Simons
Fourth grade teacher
Vernon, Connecticut

Never isolate a new teacher from other teachers. Set up a newsletter system where experienced teachers can share their ideas about methodologies and techniques that have made their classroom successful.

Invite a new teacher to lunch or dinner after work, and exchange phone numbers.

Debora Davis
Fifth grade teacher
Bridgeport, Connecticut

Got an Answer?
How do you build a greater sense of respect in students?
Send your answer by regular mail, by fax to 202/822-7206, or by E-mail to dilemma2@neatoday.nea.org.

Please include your name, city, state, job title, and grade level, if applicable.

All published respondents will receive a new NEA Today mug.

Learning:
What Makes a Quality School?

The staff and students of Maryland's Walkersville Middle School know, and they have the KEYS to make it happen.

Four years ago, Walkersville Middle School in Maryland's Frederick County received low ratings-from its own staff. On a survey, educators indicated that they lacked a unified vision. They also didn't feel empowered. And ESP staff felt they were treated unequally.

Located in one of the fastest growing counties in Maryland, Walkersville was ranking lower than average on achievement tests, and many teachers were requesting transfers.

That survey, though, proved to be a turning point-the "KEYS" to the school's current success.

Walkersville eighth grade teacher JoAnne Wilson discovered the Keys to Excellence for Your Schools (KEYS) program at a summer leadership training retreat run by the Maryland State Teachers Association.

"The more questions I asked," Wilson recalls, "the more I realized that this sounded like the vehicle to get us going as a community of learners."

KEYS, an NEA program that helps analyze a school's organizational health, is based on a simple fact: Successful schools consistently display the same 35 characteristics.

These characteristics include everything from a shared commitment to basic goals to open communication and collaborative problem solving.

At Walkersville, communication was not the staff's strong suit. So Wilson and Kim Lewis, then the Frederick County NEA local affiliate president, went to work with principal Paul Dunford to introduce KEYS as a new common language. All five feeder schools into Walkersville were convinced to buy into the plan as well.

Staff, students, and parents all took the KEYS survey, which identifies 35 definable factors essential to developing and maintaining a quality education program in a school.

In the survey, participants rank 125 statements (one example: "My school has explicit goals for student learning."). The answers help indicate the level of quality present in the school.

The school improvement team used data from all the groups surveyed to identify those specific areas where staff, students, and parents needed to work together to create change over time.

That change has already started. Walkersville now has six master schedules, and teachers have full autonomy within these blocks. Staff work two shifts, and, by staggering teacher time, there's more planning time.

Teachers have also found a way to build in group study time before the Maryland statewide high-stakes assessment exam, an idea that came from eighth graders who took the survey.

The KEYS survey data also revealed that ESP staff weren't treated as equal partners in the school. Per diem pay for ESP on the school improvement team, for one, was less than for teachers.

Now ESP receive comp time according to a negotiated agreement, and two ESP members of the team have taken on leadership roles.

Student achievement at Walkersville has shown sustained progress. Each year, the number of students who pass the Maryland functional math, reading, and writing test has risen. Last year's scores saw the highest increase of any school in the county.

"We jumped up in every area," says Principal Dunford, "hitting scores near state standards in three areas and going over in one. We weren't predicted to do that until the year 2060."

Elsewhere in the nation, other low-performing schools are also using the NEA KEYS program to help spark significant increases in achievement.

The KEYS support package, available in English and Spanish, includes a start-up manual for schools, a resource and training guide, technical assistance, research updates, and case studies of how schools and Associations apply KEYS.

"KEYS gives you basic, common sense information on common sense issues," says Lewis. "Then, it's up to the school community to run with it. That's the key to KEYS."

-- Michelle Y. Green

For more:
Contact your local Association; or visit www.nea.org/schools/keys.html.

Idea Exchange

Social Studies Hoops
My students really enjoy reviewing for a social studies test by playing this game.

Place a basket against the wall and stick pieces of tape on the floor, starting close to the basket and then going further back. Each piece has a point value-10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 100.

Divide the class into two teams. Ask a member of one team a review question. If the student answers correctly, that person gets to shoot the ball. If the ball goes in, the scorekeeper records the points.

Alternate sides until all students have had a chance to answer a question. The side with the highest score wins, but I give both sides a reward.

Students love this game-not only are they reviewing for a test, they're having fun.

Gary Deurlein Perry, Ohio

Flip Chart Trick
Turn any old notebook inside out, make a base out of cardboard, and attach it with duct tape. You have a flip chart!

I use mine to tell whose turn it is at the computer, who gets to sit on the couch, whose turn it is for show and tell. I also use flip charts to keep a running list of story starters for those who can't think of anything to write.

In catalogs, I discovered flip charts selling for $25 that were only notebooks turned inside out with a base on them. Teachers are too smart for that!

Janis Highley Battle Ground, Washington

Tempera Paint Secret
Here's a secret I found useful when using tempera paint on anything other than paper.

When we make animals from waxy milk cartons, tempera paint often flakes off after they've been painted. Now I mix white glue in the paint so that about one-eighth of the mixture is glue. When the paint dries, it doesn't flake off.

This mixture also helps paint stick to glass bottles, jars, or plastic containers.

Vera Crisafulli Glendive, Montana

Have a great idea? You can pass along your tips to NEA Today's more than 2.4 million readers in one of five ways:

• By mail: NEA Today, 1201 16th St., N.W., Washington, DC 20036

• By phone: 202/822-7201

• By fax: 202/822-7206

• By E-mail: Ideas@neatoday.nea.org

Dilemma
What Do You Do When You Think a Parent Has Done a Student's Assignment?

I interview the student. I always tell the student that I don't mind. In fact, I encourage parents to assist with the homework. I ask the student what was learned, how the research was done, what were some other results of trial-and-error experiments. I also ask what their parents learned, because they often do learn and express that to their children.

I usually ask the students to assess the work and give themselves a grade. They are surprisingly honest, and sometimes they are too hard on themselves.

It takes more time to do it this way, but a lot of students don't have the self-confidence to start or complete some assignments on their own.

I have also found that some students let parents "do" the assignment just to have the opportunity to spend more time with them. This is sad.

Phyllis Wright
Ninth grade health teacher
Front Royal, Virginia

Last year was my first year teaching, and I was shocked each time a child brought in homework that was completed by the parents. When this happened, I asked the children whether they did their homework by themselves or with help. Every time, the child admitted that mom or dad did the homework.

I explained to them that there is no reason for their parents to do their work. I had the child redo the homework in school, to ensure that they understood the skills and to reinforce that there are consequences for bad choices.

Kelly Curtin
First grade teacher
Jersey City, New Jersey

Parents feel that they need to help their child, but they don't realize the mixed messages that the child is given.

When I can prove that the parent has done the work, I give the work back to the parent with a grade and a message. The grade is what the parent earned, and the message is that I still expect the child to turn in the work.

I ask for a conference, at which I let the parent go first. The main reasons they offer usually are: The child was busy with other activities, they didn't want the child to fall behind, or the child didn't understand the work.

I try to explain to parents that while I understand the importance of extracurricular activities, the message to the child is clear: School work is not important, unlike ballet, gymnastics, or basketball.

And I ask the parent, "How long will you be doing the work-until high school?" Most parents then realize what they've started, which is a crutch for their child.

Andrea Heitzman
Elementary teacher
Beaufort, South Carolina

When I read assignments that appear to have been written by someone other than the student, I make no marks on the paper other than a comment at the end: "How does it happen that this paper is so much better than any you have written in class?" Or, in the case of a routine assignment prepared outside the classroom: "Why isn't your classwork of this caliber?"

As for grading the assignment, I put a symbol in my grade book indicating it was invalid. When I average the grades, I simply omit it.

Mary Alice Dick
Retired English teacher
Fort Wayne, Indiana

Got an Answer?
What's the best way to bring a transfer student up to speed?
Send your answer by regular mail, by fax to 202/822-7206, or by E-mail to dilemma2@neatoday.nea.org.

Please include your name, city, state, job title, and grade level, if applicable.

All published respondents will receive a new NEA Today mug. ]]>http://www.nea.org/neatoday/0009/presview.htmlhttp://www.nea.org/neatoday/0009/presview.htmlTue, 07 Dec 2004 05:00:00 GMT

President's Viewpoint
The Real Choice

When it comes to making a choice, America's parents, in overwhelming numbers, choose public schools.

As the political campaigns heat up in the weeks ahead, expect "school choice" to become a big issue from coast to coast.

We know what some politicians mean by "choice." They mean taxpayer-funded tuition vouchers for private and religious schools. But in Florida-- the first state to enact a statewide voucher system--parents are learning the hard way that this "choice" is a fraud. Nearly 93 percent of private and parochial schools in Florida have refused to accept any voucher students. Some choice!

May I state the obvious? The "choice" that parents really want is the choice to send their children to high-quality public schools in their local community. Tellingly, nearly 85 percent of the most affluent families (the highest-earning fifth of families nationwide) choose to send their children to public schools. These are folks who have the financial resources to send their children to the best possible schools, whether private, parochial, or public. In this competitive marketplace, the public schools win, hands down.

But let's be frank. Yes, the majority of public schools in the United States offer a rigorous academic program and are staffed by highly qualified teachers (studies show that public school teachers, overall, are more experienced and better educated than their nonpublic peers).

But it's also true that many public schools--especially in poor, inner-city and rural communities--are struggling badly. Teachers in these high-poverty schools often lack certification. The school buildings are crumbling. Student achievement is low.

How do we lift up these schools and the children they serve? Once again, the voucher advocates just don't get it. Quality education has nothing to do with whether a school is private or public. What counts are high-quality teachers, modern facilities, rigorous academic standards, rich parent involvement, plus the resources to offer individualized assistance to kids who need help. What counts is the political will to create high-quality schools in low-income communities.

Connecticut has the right idea, beginning with its uncompromising quest for quality teachers. Says the Washington Post: "Connecticut and its local school boards provide some of the highest teacher salaries in the country, mentors for every new teacher, exhaustive checks of classroom competence, extra help for the lowest-performing schools, early intervention with poor readers, and a rare patience and consistency." The result: Connecticut leads the nation in reading, writing, and math scores.

Families in disadvantaged neighborhoods don't want the false "choice" of vouchers. They want the real choice to send their children to quality public schools in their local community. Most middle-class and high-income families already have the choice to send their kids to high-quality local public schools. It is time to make this choice available to every American family.

To that end, let me say how deeply I appreciate your commitment to quality public education and to enriching the lives of young people. Yes, you can expect that some politicians will try to score points by bashing public schools and impugning your professionalism. But I urge you to keep your eyes on the prize. Never forget how incredibly important your work is. As educators, you have the power to touch the future in extraordinary ways. And you do! Have a great year!

Comments? You can E-mail Bob Chase at BobChase@nea.org. If you would like a response, please be sure to include your name and NEA local affiliate.

People
The Nation's Top Teacher

The Fiftieth National Teacher of the Year is a veteran of 35 years in the classroom. Her 145 AP English students know not to expect the ordinary from this imaginative teacher.

Marilyn Whirry's passion for teaching and willingness to try new ideas extends to even the way she sets up her classroom. Her Advanced Placement senior students at Mira Costa High in California's Manhattan Beach sit on beanbag chairs, facing each other, to facilitate conversation.

"One year I taught the traditional way, but I knew it didn't work, so I went to the beanbag chairs," Whirry explains. "The unorthodox setup helps the students realize that the class is going to be different. As my classroom was transformed, so was my teaching.''

An English teacher with a master's degree in contemporary literature, Whirry makes it a priority to relate the contemporary to the classics.

"I think it's important for a teacher to keep a totally open mind," Whirry says. "And to always ask, 'Are my students learning the most they possibly can, are they reaching their potential, or do I have to change my teaching style?'"

Whirry believes strongly that an innovative teacher has the power to reach any student. But new teachers, she notes, "despite their high energy and boundless enthusiasm, don't always have the skills or knowledge to develop that energy."

After leading more than 350 professional development seminars, Whirry is convinced that a consistent, long-term program for staff development is essential to creating and maintaining good teachers.

"What I see in these workshops is teachers changing," she says. "If you can change teachers, then you can change kids, because the teachers are going back into their classrooms and doing things differently. It's so important to have teachers who are passionate about their work and their kids."

During her year-long tour as the National Teacher of the Year, Whirry says she'll advocate the importance of teaching teachers.

"We serve a purpose that no other person in society serves,'' notes Whirry. "We aren't parents, but while we're teaching children, we're also helping them help themselves."

President Clinton presented Whirry with the National Teacher of the Year crystal apple at White House ceremonies last May. In July, this life-long NEA member spoke to delegates attending the NEA Representative Assembly in Chicago.

Economics isn't the dismal science to Kali Kurdy's students at Borah High in Boise, Idaho, thanks to an award-winning curriculum unit she's put together. Kurdy's "Economic Summit," an economic trade simulation, recently earned the National Association of Security Dealers National Teaching Award and was also honored with a $20,000 check from the National Council on Economic Education.

Kurdy developed the simulation as a way to teach her students about trade in and among the Commonwealth of Independent States. But her classes enjoyed enacting the trade sessions so much that she expanded the program's focus to all international trade. Kurdy then included other schools in the district, encouraging students to work together. Today, the Economic Summit is a statewide affair, impacting more than 3,000 students from 30 schools each year.

Students work together to research the social, political, and economic situation of an assigned country, evaluate its strengths and weaknesses, and then develop specific goals to improve the standard of living for its people.

Acting as economic advisors, the student teams negotiate with each other to work out beneficial trade agreements, all the while competing for scarce global resources.

"The students learn a wealth of economic information,"says Kurdy. "But it also allows them to learn to articulate their position and to bargain. The compromise and cooperation are worth as much as the economics."

NEA's National ESP of the Year

As most students are scrambling to get to their homeroom class at the tone of the tardy bell, Union City (N.J.) attendance officer Richard Malizia is on the streets looking for kids who should be in school, but aren't.

Recently named NEA's educational support person of the year, Malizia is the lifeline between teachers and those students who would otherwise rarely see the inside of a classroom.

"Poor attendance is one indicator of a problem," says Malizia, who has served on the NEA Board of Directors. "If we can get to that problem early and solve it, we can enhance student achievement."

An example: Malizia found that one student chronically absent only had two pairs of pants--and one pair had a hole.

"When he had to wear that pair, he didn't come to school because he was too embarrassed," says Malizia. "So we bought him a new pair of pants: problem solved!"

"I'm in the unique position of being able to go into homes and bring information back to the schools," Malizia said. "Most attendance officers live in the communities we work in, so we know the kids and their families."

Malizia has remained dedicated to public education for 25 years, as an attendance officer, a janitor, and a teacher's advocate. He's helped form an alliance between Union City teachers and school support personnel.

"Once teachers see how ESP can help them, they appreciate our roles,'' Malizia says. "ESP care deeply for the children we serve."

On a Mission To Build Character

Barbara Lewis is a teacher--and an author--on a mission. She's determined, through her writing, to bombard students with positive role models.

"Youngsters are inundated with hundreds of thousands of negative influences from the media, politicians, sports figures, and elsewhere," says this Utah teacher, who coordinates her Park City school district's program for high-achieving students. "We have to counteract that."

The action-oriented Lewis, who thrives on conducting community problem-solving classes with youngsters, says whenever she feels the need for new material to use with students, she ends up writing a book.

"As soon as I finish one," she laughs, "I come up with another."

Her seventh and latest, Being Your Best: Character Building for Kids 7-10, is chock full of real-life role models for character and community service.

The examples include a Utah boy who gave a homeless man his brand-new basketball shoes and a Mexican girl who bravely told her mother the truth about squandering the family's tortilla money on candy.

The book also suggests very concrete steps kids can take at home, at school, and in their communities to become honest, caring, and responsible citizens.

"Character development begins when a child is born," says Lewis, the grandmother of three. "We need to teach kids that we all have control over what we become and that we're responsible for what we do."

For more information, call 1/800-735-7323.

Teacher Guides Students to Follow Their Conscience

Letter writing is a powerful but underutilized cornerstone of democracy, Ron Adams believes.

Adams helps his seventh grade language arts students at Broad Meadows Middle School in Quincy, Massachusetts, realize the power of a well-written letter through "Writing Wrongs," a teaching unit he's been using for the past 10 years.

In the unit, students are asked to identify an injustice and write a formal letter to someone they believe can help end it.

The assignment has led students to such varied projects as creating a textbook about World War II's female shipyard workers and opening a floating museum celebrating Quincy's history.

Efforts by students in Adams classes have also freed four Yugoslavian students imprisoned because they asked for bilingual education and built three schools for underprivileged children abroad.

The letters Adams's students have written span the issue spectrum, from local topics like traffic to international concerns over child labor.

"If I forced the students to write about something," he says, "they would stop caring once I closed the grade book."

The kids who learn with Adams care even after they leave his class. Students as old as high school seniors convene every Friday afternoon to continue their projects.

The letter unit began as a way to reach Quincy's increasing immigrant population. Reading and writing about things that "aren't fair," Adams hoped, would help teach the district's diverse students how they should treat each other.

"We used to be known as the school for the housing project kids, and that was deeply insulting," Adams says. "Now Broad Meadows kids have a reputation as historians and activists. It's the change of attitude that has kept me motivated."

News
Earning Respect Through Numbers

With grassroots lobbying, Kentucky ESP win new supporters--and passage of eight key bills.

Educational support personnel in Daviess County, Kentucky, were awestruck. There on a video--made by their NEA state affiliate-- was state Representative Larry Clark openly clashing with lobbyists for Kentucky's school boards and administrators.

The setting: a winter legislative hearing on an Association-backed bill to give ESP the same 12-month retirement credit enjoyed by Kentucky teachers.

The video showed one of the lobbyists grumbling that the retirement bill's 16-year, $29 million price tag was a "sizeable, immediate, unexpected, and unprepared-for cost to school districts."

"We heard two years ago you didn't have the money, and we heard it two years before that," shot back Representative Clark.

"If you needed big raises for superintendents, you'd be here to find the money somehow," the Louisville legislator snapped. "We have discriminated against classified employees long enough. Well, you're going to have to find the money this time!"

After viewing this and other video clips of Kentucky lawmakers speaking out for ESP earlier this year, a roomful of Daviess County support staffers "started cheering," reports school bus driver and local affiliate President Martha Hall.

"Those legislators were talking about how important we are and how, without us, the schools wouldn't run--we never hear that," Hall says. "Recogni-tion is sometimes worth as much as other things."

But you can't feed a family on recognition alone. That's why the 4,000-member Kentucky ESP Association teamed up with lawmakers earlier this year to pass eight bills that build on the momentum KESPA started in 1998--when it won 10-month retirement credit for classified employees and an ESP job security law that has since produced a 90 percent decline in terminations.

This year, KESPA closed the ESP benefit gap with teachers on using and banking sick leave. The NEA affiliate also won on retirement eligibility, gaining 12 months of service credit for ESP and ending the unjust requirement that classified employees must work 27 years to receive 20 years of credit and retirement medical benefits.

Grassroots KESPA lobbyists also won legislation that promotes student transportation safety, salary equity at Family Resource and Youth Service Centers, and tuition-free college education for ESP employees in "secondary area technology centers."

Finally, KESPA persuaded state lawmakers to create an Interim Joint Committee to study "inadequate and non-competitive" ESP salaries and report back during the next state legislative session in 2002.

"We'll testify before this committee," says KESPA President Nancy Toombs, "and bring along stubs of 13-cent and $6 paychecks that were eaten up by health care premiums, to show that our members--many of whom are single parents--can't survive on full-time salaries of $8,000 to $11,000.

"Our goal," adds Toombs, head custodian at South Heights Elementary in Henderson, "is to get the legislature to earmark money for adequate ESP raises, the same as it does for teachers."

KESPA has registered big progress legislatively in 2000 despite a daunting challenge: For the first time in 100 years, Kentucky's House and Senate are controlled by different parties.

"There was tremendous infighting and many bills were dying daily," notes KESPA Executive Director Dick Dickerson.

How, then, did a union of underpaid, under-recognized school support staffers successfully move eight bills?

Some clues:

• KESPA ran a bipartisan lobbying campaign. In both houses of the divided legislature, this NEA affiliate solicited bipartisan support.

  "For quite a while, we've been cultivating pro-education people in both parties," says Dickerson. "We attend every Republican and Democratic event to which we're invited, and we've made it clear that we will meet and work with people in both parties--even if they're anti-collective bargaining. KESPA is not a single-issue organization."

• KESPA grassroots lobbyists won the respect of legislators. "Legislators responded to the down-to-earth approach of our folks and our message that classified employees are underpaid, overworked, and frequently treated unfairly," Dickerson stresses.

  "Lawmakers were quite impressed by the statistics we were able to garner to back up our need for legislation," adds KESPA lobbyist Betty Watson. "Some legislators came on board when they realized that pressing ESP needs existed right in their own districts."

• KESPA knew how to turn on the heat. Through a finely tuned communications network--including bill monitoring via the Internet, phone trees, and a daily hotline--KESPA members knew exactly when to apply pressure in Frankfort, the state capital.

  Once alerted by staff monitoring the legislature, KESPA local affiliates in the Frankfort area dispatched volunteer lobbyists to committee hearings and even the Capitol cafeteria.

  Locals in outlying regions, meanwhile, deluged legislators with phone calls and E-mail messages.

  Even the 80 members of Daviess County KESPA made themselves heard.

  "We called Frankfort every day and night and some drivers E-mailed with their computers," says local President Martha Hall. "We had the switchboard glowing!"

  Better yet, Daviess County KESPA members "got non-members, friends, and relatives to inundate Frankfort with phone calls saying that we needed and deserved a 12-month retirement bill," Hall notes. "Many non-members who were active as lobbyists are now joining as full-fledged members!"

• KESPA knew the power of numbers. Martha Hall contends that something besides a sense of justice prompted legislators to respond to the needs of ESP, who comprise 60 percent of Kentucky's school employees.

  "When a politician talks to me, he sees five votes, and thinks 'Five votes for each phone call can make or break me,'" she points out.

  "It's amazing," concludes KESPA's Betty Watson. "Now that politicians are recognizing the contributions of ESP, this attitude is filtering down to administrators. They're finally saying, 'Maybe we haven't been treating these people as they should be treated.'"

  For more info on the Kentucky ESP Association, see www.kea.org/supportPersonnel/ or call 888/226-3500.

Kudos To ...
ESP Grievance Rights Saved in Idaho

. . . The Louisiana Association of Educators led a broad coalition--including the Associated Grocers, Inc.--in "shutting down" a bill authorizing school boards to use state dollars to contract out food services. "We did so much damage," says LAE President Mary Washington, "that the Senate vote to table the bill was overwhelming!"

. . . The Connecticut Education Association and its partners in the statewide Citizens Alliance for Public Education have derailed Governor John Rowland's proposal for a $500 tuition tax credit, which would have funneled state support to private schools and high- income families. Rowland's tax plan died this year thanks to CAPE's lobbying and media campaign. But it'll be back in 2001.

. . . Through intensive lobbying, cooperation with other unions, and a mass rally, the NEA-affiliated Hawaii State Teachers Association and University of Hawaii Professional Assembly have helped defeat legislation that would have gutted public sector bargaining.

. . . Lobbying by the Colorado Education Association and its allies has killed a provision in the state's new "education reform" law to abolish due process for newly hired teachers. Elimination of teacher due process is a top priority of Governor Bill Owens. He has pledged to pursue this goal in the 2001 session.

News
My Story Is This: Utah Students Deserve More

By going public, Utah NEA members win one of the largest school funding increases in a decade.

At first glance, professional life couldn't be better for Utah first grade teacher Tom Little and his teaching team colleagues Linda Page, Joani Richard-son, Sandra Siiten, and Jodi White.

Once a week, the five plan together. They talk every day, sharing great ideas for reaching students--and they enjoy the support of a principal who keeps up school morale and hunts for grants.

But take a harder look at Altara Elementary, in the Salt Lake City suburb of Sandy, and you'll find each of these five teachers struggling to provide students with books, pencils, ditto paper, and glue on a supply allowance of approximately $225 a year.

To fill the gap, Altara teachers each spend $500 to $1,000 out of pocket a year for basic supplies and special project needs.

Yet, for all their sacrifice, the school still doesn't have a decent library. Or textbooks each student can take home. Or sufficient books for Tom Little's guided reading exercises.

You'll find similar money problems in schools across Utah. Kids face everything from tattered textbooks held together with tape to the nation's highest class sizes--in spite of a booming state economy.

Fed up with per-pupil spending that has slid to 61 percent of the national average, Beehive State NEA members swarmed into their communities and legislature during the last school year to push for more classroom dollars.

Their hard-hitting communications and lobbying campaign yielded Utah's biggest annual school funding boost in almost 10 years, 7.2 percent or $113.4 million. The increase kicked in July 1.

Even now, as the new money starts to filter through school districts, the Utah Education Association is setting its sights on a bigger target: Reach the national per-pupil average in 10 years.

If any organization can reach this goal, it's the UEA. With precision and discipline, this 18,000-member NEA affiliate has focused an entire state's attention on pressing school needs and turned hundreds of NEA members in Utah into "citizen lobbyists."

In the last legislative session, UEA worked with NEA staff to boil down public polling data into a crisp lobbying message that dramatized Utah's needs for individualized instruction and up-to date textbooks for every student, safe learning environments, and a quality teacher in every classroom.

NEA technicians then produced six unscripted TV spots featuring panels of Utah teachers, students, and citizens talking about school and teacher needs.

UEA Communications Director Mark Mickelsen credits this NEA field assistance for "keeping UEA 'on message,' from our president down to the classroom teacher, and helping us save money for other needs."

Some of that freed-up money went for radio spots, billboards in the Salt Lake Valley, T-shirts, car window stickers, lapel pins, and 15,000 yard signs--all with the winning message, "Utah Students Deserve More."

But no amount of NEA expertise could substitute for the involvement and energy of Utah teachers, who suppressed a very real urge to strike in favor of simply telling their story.

Among the venues where UEA members spoke about the needs of schools:

• In the streets of Salt Lake City. UEA members rallied twice in front of the state Capitol with their distinctive red-and-black "Utah Students Deserve More" signs. Last October, some 2,500 of them captured the whole state's attention by marching--arms linked with parents, students, and other representatives of the education community--from Capitol Hill through downtown streets to the site of the UEA annual convention.

• In the community. Backed by data from UEA headquarters--and supported by school principals and district superintendents--teachers engaged both parents and leaders of community groups in dialogues on school and professional needs. "If I saw parents in the hallway of my building, I talked to them using information from UEA," says Sandy teacher Tom Little. "I never feared not knowing what I was talking about."

• In the state legislature. Little, an area rep for the Jordan Education Association, used "off-track" days from his year-round school to monitor legislative committee meetings and call in grassroots UEA lobbyists as needed.

  "Teachers are very knowledgeable about the issues, so I reminded them that legislators are no different than us and need to know the facts," Little recalls. "So high school teachers, for instance, would talk to lawmakers about class sizes of 30 to 40 and ask, 'How do you give individual attention to these students?'"

• In both political parties. "Hundreds of our members took personal days to lobby, and many of them came back to UEA saying things like, 'You wouldn't believe what this guy said to me,'" reports UEA President Phyllis Sorensen.

  "Members found that some of the people that they had voted for didn't stand up for children," adds Sorensen. "As a result, hundreds of UEA members later got themselves elected as precinct chairs, vice chairs, and convention delegates in both the Republican and Democratic parties. Their goal: get more teacher-friendly candidates elected."

  The lesson from the Utah lobbying victory?

  "Teachers have to be politically involved and let people know what's going on," says Tom Little. "Each teacher has to get out and say, 'I am a professional and we deserve the best for our kids.' People respect what teachers think and say!"

  For more info, check the Utah Education Association at www.utea.org.

Basics for Beginners
Four Steps for Fuller Funding

How can NEA activists win needed resources for public schools? Some free advice from the Utah Education Association:

1. Don't "plan from your guts."
   "Use public polling and constant data gathering to shape an effective message," advises UEA President Phyllis Sorensen. "You need to know if you're on the right track or if you need to tweak your message."

2. Make your message personal.
   "Teachers are too used to picking up the burden for supply shortages and other needs," adds Sorensen. "They need to start telling their own stories to parents, policymakers, and the public. They're really very good at it!"

3. Keep the information flowing.
   Throughout its successful campaign to boost state education funding, UEA kept local leaders and members up to speed--and "on message"--through constant communications to building representatives and a 23,000-member school employee listserv.

4. Show your best side.
   UEA sent a cadre of 10 former Teachers of the Year across Utah to talk about the needs of schools.

"These high-profile, credible people were specially taught about our message," reports Sorensen. "They were recognized by policymakers and the public as teachers from their area, perhaps someone who had influenced or coached their kids."

Ninety-Five Percent of Utahans Can't Be Wrong

Some 95 percent of Utah citizens say it's "important" that their state representative support funding for public schools. And 83 percent say they would be less likely to support a candidate for state representative if he or she did not support public education.

(Source: 1999 poll commissioned by the Utah Education Association)

News
It's Time to Uncork the Bottle

This Congress has bottled up legislation vital to children and public education, like common-sense gun control. We need to elect new people.

If you need just one reason to put pro-education people in Congress and the White House this November, listen to Colorado art teacher Patti Nielson, one of 30 people shot at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999.

Nielson spoke this past spring on Mother's Day before 750,000 participants in the Million Mom March in Washington, D.C.

"I am outraged," she said, "that in the year since the Columbine tragedy, Congress has done nothing to protect our kids from gun violence. Nothing!"

Nielson was just one of many NEA members at the march, proudly wearing "Moms+NEA=Keeping Kids Safe" buttons in a demonstration that offered front-line educators their second opportunity in a week to push Congress for common-sense gun control legislation.

Just five days earlier, on National Teachers Day, NEA members Andy Pope and Arlene Thomas spoke at a Capitol Hill press conference on experiences that convinced them of the need for curbs on child handgun possession.

Pope, a world history and geography teacher at Chadron High School in Nebraska, told reporters about what it was like to be shot in the chest in 1995 by a 13-year-old student in his class.

"My oldest son, Mitch, was in the classroom across the hall when I was shot," he shuddered. "A 13-year-old should not have access to a handgun."

Thomas, a school law enforcement officer at Camden High School in New Jersey, agrees.

"Sometimes at my school we use a hand-held metal detector, but kids have many ways to go around detectors," she noted at last spring's news conference. "We need to stop the guns from getting in their hands in the first place."

Added Thomas: "We need roadblocks against those who buy 50 guns at a time and sell them on our streets, and we need child safety locks to prevent a child from accidentally firing a loaded handgun at another child."

Many of these concerns are addressed in S. 254, the Senate bill now stalled in conference committee.

This legislation, if enacted, would require background checks at gun shows and pawn shops, outlaw juvenile possession of semiautomatic weapons, require child safety locks and devices on new handguns, and ban imports of high-capacity ammunition magazines.

Joining Pope and Thomas last spring were NEA President Bob Chase and pro-public education lawmakers from both parties, including Representative Michael Castle, a Republican from Delaware.

"Gun safety and school safety are not partisan issues," Castle said. "We need to send a message to our congressional leadership that we want to work the will of the American people and enact these safety measures as soon as possible."

NEA's Chase was blunter yet: "No more delays, no more excuses. The time has come for every lawmaker to put kids and their safety first."

But delays and excuses are gumming the machinery of Capitol Hill, where common-sense gun control--along with reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, federal aid for school modernization, and money for emergency school repairs in high-needs districts--have been deliberately stalled by congressional leaders.

"Broad educational policy changes are unlikely to happen this year," says NEA lobbyist Joel Packer. "The failure of Congress to address the needs of kids and schools is proof that we need to elect more pro-public education lawmakers this November."

A reminder of all that's at stake in November 2000:

• The offices. Up for grabs this year are the Presidency, the entire U.S. House of Representatives, one-third of the Senate, 11 gubernatorial seats, and control of several state legislatures.

• The issues. Whoever's in charge at the federal and state levels will set the tone for public education in areas ranging from special education funding to teacher recruitment and retention.

• Your future. This year, you'll hear lots of debate on proposals that affect you--from vouchers to Social Security privatization. Stay tuned.

For more information on important education legislation now stalled in Congress, go to www.nea.org/lac/.

In The States
'We'll Be One, With One Voice'

In Florida and Montana, state affiliates of NEA and the American Federation of Teachers have moved closer together over the past decade, overcoming rivalry to battle against never-ending attacks on public education.

Step by step, the organizations found new ways to collaborate. They drafted common legislative programs, worked together to elect the same pro-education candidates, and even shared professional development activities.

The final step came this past spring. The NEA and AFT affiliates in both Florida and Montana joined to create new "dual" NEA-AFT affiliates, with newly elected officers and merged staffs. These unique organizations follow the precedent set by Education Minnesota, a dual NEA-AFT state affiliate formed in 1998.

A progress report from Florida and Montana:

• In Florida, the newly unified NEA and AFT state affiliate, the Florida Education Association, is the largest union and professional association in the state, with almost 120,000 members, including K-12 teachers, support staff, and higher education faculty.

  "This merger comes at a time when our members and our public schools are under heightened political assault," the organization's new president, Maureen Dinnen, told the Florida Education Association's founding convention.

  "Right-wing groups in Florida have launched vicious and well-orchestrated campaigns to dismantle public schools and dismantle our unions," Dinnen added. "The new FEA will be a bigger, stronger, and more effective voice for quality public schools and public education employees."

  The new Florida NEA-AFT affiliate faces two immediate challenges: the nation's first statewide voucher law and a right-to-work environment coupled with a weak bargaining law.

  But the new Florida Education Association is fighting back. It's mobilizing members for the November elections and pursuing an anti-voucher lawsuit, recently upheld by a Florida Circuit Court judge.

  "We're working hard to recruit and maintain members and train them to be active members and local leaders," says FEA staffer David Clark.

• In Montana, the new dual affiliate, MEA-MFT, has already become a key force in state politics, with 16,000 members organized across the public sector.

  Montana's largest union by far, MEA-MFT's membership ranges from K-12 school employees and higher ed faculty to Head Start and health care employees.

  The new union, which speaks for employees in job titles from custodian to wildlife biologist, includes "almost one out of every 30 voting Montanans," stresses MEA-MFT Vice President Jim McGarvey.

  MEA-MFT will be counting on those numbers this November, when every statewide elected office will be up for grabs.

  "In Montana, we're seeing hard economic times and a retrograde political environment," reports MEA-MFT President Eric Feaver. "There's a significant anti-government bias and a movement toward privatization. It's been tough on public teachers and other public employees."

  This environment, he adds, demands greater cohesiveness among the players "because legislators like to divide us."

  Concludes Feaver: "You can't have a strong union in one place without a strong union in the other. When we stand before the legislature, the governor, and the Board of Regents, we'll be one, with one voice. Our interest is good government and quality public schools."

The Power of Us
The 2000 NEA Representative Assembly

At NEA's annual convention, held this year in Chicago, delegates pledge to protect kids and public schools.

William Wagner won't be competing in the Olympics this September. But for a week this past July, as a delegate to the annual NEA Representative Assembly, this high school biology teacher from Forty Fort, Pennsylvania, felt just like an Olympian.

At an NEA RA, Wagner smiles, "you start out running, swim through a sea of people, and rely on the endurance of an Olympic athlete to make it to the end."

Wagner and nearly 10,000 other NEA members displayed that endurance this July in Chicago, this year's RA site, through four full days of discussion and debate that typically started at 7 a.m., in state caucus meetings, and didn't end until 6 p.m., the close of each day's convention business sessions.

Over the course of those long days, Wagner and his fellow delegates--all elected to represent their colleagues back home--took on just about every tough issue facing NEA members, everything from compensation and high-stakes testing to vouchers and the upcoming November elections.

This year's RA debates were often stormy, particularly on alternate approaches to compensation, but delegates left Chicago united and committed to protecting all children's right to a quality public education.

To back up that commitment, delegates voted, by a two-to-one margin, to raise dues by $5 to counter attacks on public education--and better promote the good things happening in today's public schools.

Sixty percent of the funds raised by this increase will go to help NEA state affiliates fight back against proposals to enact private school tuition vouchers and other attacks on public schools.

The rest of the funding will finance new media campaigns to help create a better image for public education and the men and women who work in America's public schools.

NEA state affiliates, Oregon Education Association President James Sager told delegates, desperately need this support.

"Next year, 26 states will fight vouchers at the ballot box and in the legislature," noted Sager, adding that, in Oregon alone, NEA members will confront 11 hostile inititatives, including measures that would cut school funding up to 30 percent and tie teacher salaries to student test scores.

Salaries and compensation proved to be the RA's hottest debate topic. Delegates spoke out repeatedly about the need to increase pay for teachers and other school staff. And they reiterated NEA's commitment to a single salary schedule that rewards experience and knowledge--proven factors that help boost student achievement.

But delegates didn't agree over the value of alternate approaches to compensation that go beyond the single salary schedule, such as pay plans that award group bonuses to staff at schools that meet certain achievement goals. After two hours of debate, delegates rejected a proposal that would have established NEA criteria for alternative compensation programs.

Considerably less contentious were the elections for NEA officers. Delegates re-elected NEA Secretary-Treasurer Dennis Van Roekel, a high school math teacher from Arizona, and NEA Executive Committee members Iona Holloway, a classroom aide from Louisiana, and Dan Sakota, a junior high school math teacher from Idaho.

By a nine-to-one margin, in secret-ballot voting, delegates also voted to recommend the Presidential candidacy of Al Gore. On the RA's last morning, Vice President Gore came to Chicago's McCormick Place Convention Center to thank delegates for that resounding show of support.

"I will never, ever support private school vouchers," Gore told the Assembly.

Added the Vice President: "Are you ready to fight--and win--for public education?"

The delegates answered with cheers.

Also cheered heartily, with a long standing ovation, was NEA Executive Director Don Cameron, the former junior high teacher from Birmingham, Michigan, who's held NEA's top staff slot since 1983. Cameron will be retiring later this year, and, in his last RA address as executive director, he asked delegates to help "launch education into the 21st century."

"Job number one for NEA," said Cameron, "is to improve student achievement and to secure for our members the skills, knowledge, and resources they need to accomplish this task."

Where We Stand

The delegates to the 2000 NEA RA debated and adopted NEA policy on a host of issues that impact education.

Each year, the NEA members elected as delegates to the NEA Representative Assembly adopt Resolutions that spell out exactly where our Association stands on the many different issues that impact education and educators.

The complete text of this year's Resolutions appears on the Internet at www.nea.org/resolutions.

At this Web site, you can search the Resolutions by keywords to easily locate the specific Resolutions on the topics that most interest you.

If you don't have Web access and would like to have a printed copy of the Resolutions, please mail your request to NEA Today. A printed copy will be mailed to you.

The Resolutions are organized around 10 basic goals set out in the Preamble to the NEA Constitution. Working within these categories, delegates to the 2000 Representative Assembly revised a number of NEA Resolutions and added several others.

You'll find, starting below, the complete text of all the Resolutions that have been either been added or significantly revised since last year.

My Turn
Subbing: A Most Wonderful Time

A Pennsylvanian finds subbing so rewarding, she's decided to teach full time.

By Gail Dawson-White

February 1999. I quit my job as a vice president in community development banking. For the previous 25 years I had worked in social services and banking, but the changing face of banking, the constant turmoil of merger after merger, had made each day a struggle. I quit without a plan for my future.

Then I read a local newspaper story about the desperate need for substitute teachers in area school districts. The schools were calling for people interested in becoming "guest professional teachers"--individuals paid at a daily rate to substitute at a specific academic level.

Back in 1964, as a college student, I had planned to become a teacher. But I changed majors in my sophomore year. Now I thought about teaching again. I submitted my resum� to the Reading school district, and, six months later, I was called in for a three-day training session.

I chose to teach in local inner-city schools for several reasons. I'm committed to diversity in education, I'm bilingual, and I had actually worked with this particular inner-city school system as a community banking officer.

At the beginning, I was able to shadow elementary teachers in one of our premier city schools, my first opportunity to learn about classroom management and everything else from the school system's specialized reading program to the library system and curriculum.

With my certificate as a substitute finally in hand, I was called in to teach K through fifth grades. I worked four to five days every week until the last full day of school.

In every city school I worked, the welcome was sincere--and often overwhelming. Each school had unmet daily needs for substitutes.

The school principals made a point of meeting me and stopping in each day. Teachers on each side of my classroom helped by "inviting" especially disruptive students to spend time in their rooms, and they filled me in on any scheduling or special changes.

I found the classroom lesson plans that teachers left to be consistently excellent. They reflected considerable effort by teachers to provide a quality day for their students while they were gone.

The school district provided me, for each of my assignments, a substitute information packet. This was completed by each classroom teacher, and in it was all sorts of useful information on the room and building protocol: how to use the phones, the fire drill procedures, which child would be a reliable helper, the daily schedule.

I always found myself spending lunchtime in my classroom, trying to get ahead in planning the afternoon's lessons and writing up the morning for the teacher. I guess I was just too excited, at the start, to eat! In many of my elementary classes, the children assumed that I must be either the mother or sister of their permanent teacher--or why else would I be there to care for them!

The kids also consistently told me that I looked like their permanent teacher. I would always glance at the regular teacher's photo. I would see that, of course, I really didn't resemble her at all.

I especially enjoyed the bilingual elementary classes. On April Fools' Day, I spent a little time explaining this custom, which doesn't exist in Puerto Rico or Mexico, and gave some examples of jokes.

By 10 a.m., students were telling me that I had a spider on my shoulder or that they heard we had early dismissal that day--all because they understood the holiday and its pleasures. The students appreciated that I spoke another language.

At one point, I also taught junior high school students in our alternative discipline center. We read poetry by Emily Dickinson and Langston Hughes. They loved The Ballad of the Landlord. They understood the injustice of discrimination.

The Latino boys were especially taken with Emily Dickinson's life of isolation. She must have been very shy, they felt.

What especially excited my fourth and fifth graders was my experience with organ donation. I had given a kidney to my husband, and I value the opportunity to talk to any group about the power of donation. In one school, I'm now called "the Kidney Lady."

My greatest regret, as a day-to- day substitute, was what I would miss with the children the next day, when I'm not there--all the extras I thought I could bring to the lessons we began.

The year of substituting was such a wonderfully positive experience that I'm now at Alvernia College in Reading, Pennsylvania, working on my elementary school certification.

My coursework will take me 18 months to complete, and I'll then be back in the schools full time. I currently have a 4.0, and I'm the only grandmother in all of my classes.

Life experience has given me such a powerful edge, and the experience of working as a guest professional has made my classes here at Alvernia College much more alive and understandable. I have lived what the teachers are discussing.

Wish me luck in my new career!

You can reach Gail Dawson-White at wyowhite@gateway.net.

Editor's Note

Welcome to a brand new school year! As you page through this first issue of the year, you'll find just a few major changes in the organization and design of NEA Today.

You'll notice, for starters, that we've expanded our health coverage, from one page devoted exclusively to student health issues to two pages of student and adult health and fitness tips and features. Obviously, your health and fitness are just as important as the health of your students. This change acknowledges that fact.

Our two-page Bits & Bytes spread is now a single-page Tips for the Wired Classroom. But, rest assured, you won't see any diminution of technology-related coverage.

We simply concluded that consigning classroom technology stories to one two-page section was artificial and unnecessary. So look for stories on technology applications throughout each NEA Today issue.

We hope these changes make NEA Today more valuable to you, and we'd love to know your opinion of them.

Like to share your com-ments? You can reach us at NEAToday@nea.org. Please let us know what you think!

Looking ahead, we've planned what we think will be a provocative and practical array of cover story features for the coming year.

Next month, for instance, we'll be zeroing in on the November elections and what's at stake for children and public education.

In the months after that, we'll be tackling issues like paperwork and high stakes testing. We'll help you prepare for next year's Read Across America celebration, and we'll highlight efforts to help older students who have difficulty reading.

We'll also be examining the coming impact of wireless technology in education, the emerging new roles of school support staff, and the importance of minority teacher recruitment.

We're excited about the new year--and hope you are, too!

—Bill Fischer

Departments: Money
Investor Dilemma: Try the New Or Stick With Tried and True

Q: I'm a beginning investor. Should I be investing in the old economy or the new economy?

A: Excellent question. These terms have come into vogue this year as investors try to explain the split in the performance of different sectors of the economy. The Dow Jones Average of 30 Industrial Stocks is often considered an investment in the old economy, with its stocks like Coca-Cola, General Motors, Procter & Gamble. The Nasdaq 100 Trust, which invests in the 100 largest stocks on the over-the-counter market like Microsoft, Intel, Cisco, Sun Microsystems, is a technology-heavy investment in the new economy of computers, cell phones, and E-mail.

All investors must make their own decisions on what are the right investments for them. But I think most investors should include both old and new economy stocks. I often tell newbies to consider a very broad stock market index fund like the Vanguard Total Stock Market, which represents the entire market of all stocks that are traded, both old and new economy.

Q: All my daughter wants to do is shop. How can I teach her that money doesn't grow on trees?

A: I have a teenage daughter, too, and I decided last spring to teach her some lessons about money. What I'd really like to teach Krista is how to pick a stock or a mutual fund. But she'd be asleep in three minutes. So I decided a lesson on shopping was more likely to hit home.

What we need to teach our kids is how to incorporate values into money decisions: how to share and how to save, how to work hard, and how to enjoy what they buy. But you must tailor your lessons to your kids.

I decided to give Krista a budget for her spring wardrobe. I told her she needed to get out all her clothes from last year, make a list of what she could wear and a second list of what she needed, and estimate how much each item might cost.

Next, she'd have to make a presentation to my husband and me, arguing for the money she'd need. It turned out that she couldn't wear anything from last year, when she was a size 9. She'd shot up about four inches and now wore a size 6.

She figured she'd need two pairs of shoes, six shorts, two pants, six shirts, one dress, one skirt, one sweater, two swimsuits, and underwear. She made reasonable estimates of what these items might cost at The Gap or Express, where she shops, added it up, and was then too timid to mouth the words. Six hundred bucks. She couldn't believe it.

When I took her shopping, she walked straight out of the first store, Urban Outfitters, because it was out of her price range. She bought four items that day, refused to go over what she'd allotted for each, saved the receipts, and vowed to wait for the Gap Capri pants to go on sale.

When she went to the mall with a friend, she said: "I'm not going to use any of my budget money because I might want to get silly stuff. I'll use my babysitting money for that." By early summer, she'd spent $300 of her budget.

There's a money lesson that's right for every child. My 10-year-old son wouldn't give a hoot about shopping money, but he might want to know about the stock market.

Q: What is an exchange-traded fund (ETF)?

A: The simplest answer is that this is a fund that trades on a stock exchange. A mutual fund, of course, is a pool of securities, sliced into pieces and sold to investors.

Traditional funds are bought and sold by the fund companies.

Exchange traded funds trade on the stock exchange and you buy them as if they were shares of stock. They are priced throughout the day. ETFs have been getting a lot of attention because lots of new ones are being introduced.

For example, you can invest in an exchange-traded fund that invests in the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index, or in many different Dow Jones indexes like technology or Internet or financial stocks as well as the largest stocks on the Nasdaq exchange.

The ETFs are typically cheaper than traditional funds. The average traditional stock mutual fund costs 1-1/2 percent a year in expenses. In May, Barclay's Global Investors introduced an index fund to invest in the S&P 500 stock index that costs less than 1/10th of one percent.

The American Stock Exchange, which is where the ETFs trade, has information at its Web site at www.amex.com.

Barclay's, which introduced 15 new funds at the end of May with another 25 on the way, also set up a Web site at www.ishares.com.

--Mary Rowland

Rowland is an author and contributor to financial planning magazines.

Thrifty Educator

This month's tips come from Marilyn LaPorte, a computer literacy and earth science teacher at Merrill Middle School in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and from Valerie L. Townsend, a fifth grade teacher at Flint Lake Elementary School in Valparaiso, Indiana:

LaPorte: "Instead of purchasing expensive racks to hold students' papers while they type, I use the wire book stands that are sold for school libraries. They can hold paper fine and are about one-third of the cost."

Townsend: "I provide a two-disk case for each student to store disks in for the year. This prevents some of those dirty fingers getting all over the disk and causing problems. One disk is kept for word processing and the other for projects that require a lot of memory like Hyperstudio stacks. I number the disks and assign each student a number. That way the disks can be used year after year with minimal replacements. All my disk cases are placed in a basket in the room for easy access."

Have a favorite money-saving tip that you apply in your workplace? How about sharing your idea with colleagues? Just send your tip along to neatoday@nea.org.

Heads Up from NEA Member Benefits

NEA members 21 years and older can rent a vehicle, with up to 25 percent off retail daily and weekly rates at all Alamo U.S. domestic locations for economy through full-size vehicles. No other association enjoys up to 25 percent off.

A daily surcharge applies for persons age 21-24.

The NEA program will be honored at over 100 Alamo locations in the United States. You can make reservations online at neamb.com.

When booking online, the NEA ID number is 613575. The rate code, "BY," will be automatically filled in in the appropriate areas.

Good news for NEA members seeking National Board Certification!

NEA Member Benefits will be extending the low-interest rate loan to members seeking National Certification for the 2000-2001 season. These loans continue to be available through MBNA America Bank, N.A.

The loans cover the $2,300 assessment fee for National Board Certification and feature an APR of 7.9 percent, no annual fee, a 90-day deferred payment option (payments continue to accrue), and no prepayment penalty.

Members can take up to 3 years to repay.

To qualify for this special rate, you must be an NEA member and you must use these funds for the cost of National Board Certification. For more information, call 1/800-603-3953.

NEA Today Masthead

NEA Today (ISSN 0734-7219) is published monthly eight times a year, in September, October, November, January, February, March, April, and May, by the National Education Association, 1201 16th St., N.W., Washington, DC 20036-3290.

The National Education Association is America's oldest and largest organization committed to advancing the cause of public education. Founded in 1857 in Philadelphia and now headquartered in Washington, D.C., NEA proudly claims more than 2.4 million members who work at every level of education, from pre-school to university graduate programs. NEA has affiliates in every state as well as in over 13,000 local communities across the United States.

Staff Roster

Publisher

Sam Pizzigatti

Editor

Bill Fischer

Assistant Editor

Stefanie Weiss

Production Coordinator

Ann Marie Bohan

Section Editors

Dave Winans, News

Leona Hiraoka, Learning

Staff Writers

Bonnie Gardner, Karen Gutloff, Anita Merina

Advertising Coordinator

Sherida McGhee

Publishing Center Manager

Lorraine Buckland Wilson

Production

Marsha Blackburn, Henry Brinkley, Catherine Rawson, Danilo Lunaria

Editorial Interns

Julie Leupold, Peggy Liao, Marina Michalski

Art Direction

Wickham & Associates

NEA Today Online

Bonnie Gardner

Henry Brinkley

Ray Daly

NEA Today Local Editor Advisory Board

Ann Banks, Garland Education Association (TX); Harry Brennan, Old Bridge Education Association (NJ); Suzanne H. Emery, San Diego TA (CA); Bill Harshbarger, Mattoon EA (IL); Kim Hill, Manchester Education Association (CT); Don Mack, Albany County EA (WY); Bryan Massengale, Rhea-Dayton Education Association (TN); Barbara Morris, chair, Colonial Paraprofessional Association (DE).