Learning: Innovators
Networking to Improve Schools for Poor Kids

This educator is building foundations that link schools and community.

In 1974, 24-year-old Wendy Puriefoy was just out of graduate school and planning to teach colonial history in college. But Boston was struggling with court-ordered school desegregation, to improve the lives of thousands of low-income black children. Puriefoy took a job helping to monitor the desegregation process.

Today, she's still focused on better schools for poor kids, but now as director of the Public Education Network, which coordinates 51 Local Education Funds nationwide and serves 5.1 million children.

These nonprofit Funds bring together administrators, educator unions, business leaders, and other community people to improve education for disadvantaged children.

"The core learning relationship is between teacher and student," says Puriefoy. "What we do is build community support to strengthen that relationship."

And raise money--more than half a billion dollars since the first Ford Foundation grant in 1983. The biggest single project to date has been a $60 million library improvement project in 19 school districts.

Impact:
The Portland (Oregon) Public Schools Foun-dation, a Local Education Fund, helped save 200 teacher jobs with a 30,000-person march and organized a successful referendum campaign to raise property taxes for schools.

For More:
Visit the Web at www.publiceducation.org to find a Local Education Fund in your area or to get help in starting one.

Treating the After-Effects of Violence

Innovator:
Robert Pynoos

Job:
Director, Trauma Psychiatry Program, University of California, Los Angeles

Bright Idea:
Pynoos estimates that 3 percent to 7 percent of middle and high school students in high-crime areas have witnessed violent events traumatic enough to merit professional attention.

To help these children, his Trauma Psychiatry Program has developed guidelines that both clinicians and educators can use.

Pynoos believes schools in high-violence areas should screen students for post-traumatic stress. For children found to be seriously affected, he has devised a 16-week group treatment program.

In a study of children who witnessed a 1984 elementary school shooting in Los Angeles, Pynoos and his co-workers discovered that 10-year-olds had become as sensitive to startling noises as untraumatized five-year-olds. One child needed two years before his startle response returned to normal. Flash-backs, depression, and other symptoms of post-traumatic stress can last even longer.

Pynoos has spent much of his career listening to children who have seen terrible things: mothers raped, classmates shot, neighborhoods destroyed by earthquakes.

"I've gained a lot of respect for the capacity and courage of these children," he says.

"Educators," adds Pynoos, "need to understand that these children will have a hard time concentrating and learning unless we help them get back on track.

Impact:
The Trauma Psychiatry Program guidelines for screening and treatment have been used in schools across the United States and in other countries, including Bosnia. One group of 17 students who went through such a program had failed a total of 38 courses before they got help. After the program, their failure rate fell significantly.

For More:
For a copy of the UCLA Trauma Psychiatry Program Guidelines for Educators Working with Traumatized Children, send an E-mail to rpynoos@mednet.ucla.edu, or write to UCLA Trauma Psychiatry Program, 300 Medical Plaza, Suite 2232, UCLA-NPI, Los Angeles, CA 90095.

Truancy KO'd in Washington

Innovators:
Joann Maynard Karen Anderson

Job:
Kindergarten teacher and library technician, respectively, Franklin Elementary School, Port Angeles, Washington

Bright Idea:
Round One started for Joann Maynard with a complaint from one of her kindergartners: "Miss Maynard, I wanted to come to school, but my mother wouldn't listen to me." This student had missed 53 days.

Maynard, a 35-year teaching veteran, knew that the boy's mother wouldn't have to listen to her either, because the state truancy law didn't apply to children younger than eight.

So Maynard got together with other school staff to work to extend the law to younger children.

Karen Anderson, who's on the Washington Education Association board of directors, rallied WEA to the cause.

The group found a sponsor--a pro-education state representative who'd been supported by WEA--and launched their campaign.

"A good analogy," May-nard testified, "would be if I gave you a 180-page report to read, which is equivalent to our school year. Then, I tore out 53 pages at random. A lot of important concepts would be lost."

The lawmakers understood. Still, the group had to maneuver through opposition from home schoolers, who felt threatened.

Finally, the bill was signed into law. Home schoolers are not affected, but parents who enroll their children in school must make sure they go.

Impact:
Attendance is up and tardiness is down.

For More:
Contact Maynard and Anderson by Fax at 360/417-2066.

Seeing 20/20 Isn't Enough

Students who see "clearly" may still have vision problems that affect learning. "Behavioral optometry," which focuses on how children see, not what they see, can help, says Dr. William Moskowitz, a leading behavioral optometrist from Bridge-water, New Jersey.

Seeing clearly isn't good enough?
A student may have 20/20 vision but not be able to track along a series of words, or use both eyes together properly. These problems may be missed in routine eye tests.

How common are these problems?
Among first graders, they're very common--probably 20 percent or so. Some grow out of it in the next couple of years. But in fourth grade the print is smaller and more challenging. Children with problems are often discovered then.

What signs should educators look for?
The student may have no problems with phonetics or word recognition, but still read slowly. The student may have poor posture--that can be a result of poor eye motor development.

When reading, the student may skip words and lose his/her place. The student goes on and doesn't know what was missed, so comprehension plummets.

The most common symptom is these kids can't concentrate. They become frustrated, upset, they battle with their parents over homework. These students are often misdiagnosed as having attention deficit disorder.

What can help?
A child can do visual training exercises or use glasses that reduce the stress induced by reading. Some 750 board-certified behavioral optometrists around the country can help. Lists can be obtained from the state Optometric Societies or the College of Optometrists in Vision Development in St. Louis.

For More:
Visit www.visionhelp.com, www.vision3d.com or www.visionhelp.com/testing.htm.

Innovator:
Tita Ferriol

Job:
NEA staffer working with the NEA Job Description and Evaluation Task Force

Bright Idea:
Ferriol has been developing a manual for education support personnel that focuses on results-oriented job descriptions, evaluation, and professional development.

"This manual will help members take the lead in fashioning job descriptions that highlight the importance of ESP in building quality public education," says Ferriol, a member of the NEA Teaching and Learning staff.

The publication, which goes to press this fall, offers solid guidance and a new approach to job description and evaluation for educational support personnel.

The manual, for example, focuses on creating results-oriented job descriptions--what a person accomplishes in the end instead of simply the checklist steps that are taken to achieve that goal.

With the information provided in the manual, NEA local affiliates can identify the results of each staffer's work, the duties needed to achieve the results, and how these results improve student achievement.

With the manual, ESP members can gain greater knowledge that will enable them to create a strong professional identity and improve communication with their supervisors.

And, at the same time, the manual offers communities a better idea of the value that ESP staff bring to the education environment.

For More:
Check on the brochure, Results-Oriented Job Descriptions for ESP, available online at www.nea.org/esp/resource/rojobdes.htm. To order a free hard copy of the brochure or the manual, go to www.nea.org/esp/resource/esppubl.htm or write to ESP Program, NEA Affiliate Capacity Building, 1201 16th St., N.W., Washington, DC 20036.