Inside Scoop
Channel One Still Raises Hackles

Corporations are paying top dollar for teenage eyeballs

In 1989, Christopher Whittle launched Channel One, a for-profit TV news program beamed directly into America's secondary schools, despite a storm of protests over the commercials accompanying the news. More than a decade later, Channel One is still in operation--and still controversial.

Who owns Channel One now?
Channel One was sold for $250 million in 1994 to Primedia, a company that publishes Seventeen and about 250 other magazines.

What does Channel One offer?
A participating school gets satellite dishes, wiring, two VCRs, and television monitors for every classroom, plus a daily news program designed for teenagers. A sampling of news reports aired last spring:

Israel withdraws from Lebanon.

South Carolina takes the Confederate flag off its state house.

Children whose parents are on drugs tell their stories.

What does Channel One get in exchange?
Teenage eyeballs, a valuable prize for advertisers. Among the ads:

A spike-haired duck plugs Bubble Yum gum.

A velociraptor beats Vince Carter of the Toronto Raptors at basketball, and Carter decides he needs more Gatorade.

Two teens on a date try to kiss while wearing paper bags over their heads to hide acne, which they wouldn't have to do if they used pHisoderm.

The ads are often expensively produced and get more student attention than the news. According to the Washington Post, a 30-second ad on Channel One can go for $200,000.

The Channel One contract with schools stipulates that a participating school must show the program when students are in class. Most schools show Channel One during homeroom, to avoid intruding on teaching time.

Who are the big supporters and detractors?
Opponents span the ideological spectrum, ranging from traditional corporate watchdogs like the Consumers' Union, to the Southern Baptist Convention and Phyllis Schlafly of the Eagle Forum. They're united on one theme: It's wrong to subject a captive audience of school children to commercial advertisement.

Promoters argue that so long as the messages are not offensive, and the news reporting is good, Channel One can be a resource for cash-starved school districts.

How is Channel One actually used in schools?
In a variety of ways. At Darnall High School in Geneseo, Illinois, teacher Tom Steele uses Channel One to start discussions on current events. The students have all watched the same program, he explains, and they have a common set of facts.

Steele, Channel One's "Teacher of the News" last year, is concerned about the ads, but thinks they're less offensive than they used to be.

At Charleston High School in Charleston, Illinois, the daily Channel One program is broadcast during a "tutorial" period when students are encouraged to get extra help from teachers. That means many students don't watch, although the TV is on.

Charleston social studies teacher Rick Everett does watch the program, to see whether there's a segment he wants to use. If so, he has the school staff replay it for his classes. During the repeat, Everett can sometimes avoid the ads.

"If I turn it off right after the first segment, I can say 'No, thank you' to Snickers,'" he points out.

At the Washington Middle School in Seattle, the Channel One contract has expired, but teachers can still get the programs if they want to. No one does.

"Kids watch way too much television to begin with," says teacher Richard Katz. "Plus, I'm not thrilled about ads targeted to kids."

Instead of television news, Katz uses newspapers from around the world to teach current events.

Washington Middle School sixth-grade teacher Marcy Shadow has created a "Jeopardy"-style current events game that has her students reading newspapers at home, even when they're not assigned.

"I really can't afford to take time away from instruction for Channel One," she says.

The television monitor is still on her classroom wall, but "I hang a colorful Chinese scarf in front of it so it doesn't show."

Is commercialization of public schools, spearheaded by Channel One, a threat to education?
The more than 9,000 delegates to the 1993 NEA Representative Assembly thought so--and voted that the Association should try to stop it.

Channel One's commercialization has helped clear the way for commercial-laden posters, book covers (distributed by another Primedia division), school Web sites, and lesson plans. Campbell's Soup, for instance, has developed and promoted a science experiment to prove that its spaghetti sauce is thicker than a rival's.

A 1997 Business Week article--"This Lesson Is Brought To You By..."--offered this vignette of the rising tide of commercialism in schools: "In Broward County, Florida, 10-year-old Travis Licata recently learned how to design a McDonald's..., how a McDonald's works, and how to apply and interview for a job at McDonald's, thanks to a seven-week company-sponsored class intended to teach kids about the work world.

"[The school] let McDonald's in be-cause the fast-food giant arrived with a curriculum... that would cost the school nothing. Was it worthwhile? Here's Travis's assessment: 'If you want to work in a McDonald's when you grow up, you already know what to do.'"

--Alain Jehlen

For more info: Contact the Center for Commercial-Free Public Education in Oakland, CA, 510/268-1100, www.commercialfree.org.

News: Rights Watch
Vouchers on Trial

One court rules they're unconstitutional in Cleveland, while a Florida court gives the OK for now.

In one of the most important voucher rulings to date, a federal appeals court has declared that the Cleveland voucher program violates the U.S. Constitution. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled on December 11 that the use of taxpayer money to fund religious education breaches the wall of separation between church and state.

"This scheme," the court said, "involves the grant of state aid directly and predominantly to the coffers of private religious schools."

"We certainly hope everyone will get the message," says Robert Chanin, NEA general counsel and the attorney who argued the case in court. "And the message is 'Let's focus on improving the public schools and stop playing around with vouchers as a panacea.'"

Cleveland-area vouchers are worth up to $2,250, depending on family income. For the 1999-2000 school year, 3,761 students received vouchers. Those students have been allowed to continue in the program during the appeal.

On paper, the voucher students were free to attend either public or private schools. But in fact, fully 96 percent of the students used the vouchers to attend pervasively sectarian schools.

And the court was deeply concerned that public money was being spent to subsidize religious indoctrination.

As an example, the court cited one voucher school that requires its students to "pledge allegiance to the Christian flag and to the Savior for whose Kingdom it stands...."

In declaring the program unconstitutional, the Sixth Circuit relied on a 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision known as Nyquist that struck down a similar voucher plan from New York.

The court's 2-1 decision provoked a particularly vociferous dissent from Judge James Ryan. The Reagan appointee accused the two judges in the majority of "nativist bigotry" and claimed that their "antireligious" ruling will result in "sentencing nearly 4,000 poverty-level, mostly minority, children to return to the indisputably failed Cleveland public schools."

The two judges in the majority dismissed the dissent's allegations as nothing more than "gratuitous insults" that "should not be taken seriously."

Ohio state officials recently asked the entire appeals court to rehear the case, but a decision is not expected for several months. Lawyers on both sides agree that the case likely will wind up before the U.S. Supreme Court, where the outcome is anyone's guess.

Meanwhile, a Florida appeals court last October upheld that state's voucher program, although the court sidestepped the question whether the program violates the federal Constitution's prohibition of public funding for religious education.

The lower court had ruled that the state can't "pay for private education" because the state constitution requires the state to maintain a "high quality system of free public schools." The appeals court reversed the decision.

Under the Florida plan, students who attend public schools designated by the state as "failing schools" twice in a four-year period are eligible for vouchers.

But only 52 students are currently participating in the program. No new students were added this year because none of the public schools that previously received failing grades got an "F" again this year.

An appeal in the case is now pending before the Florida Supreme Court.

Between the defeat of voucher ballot initiatives in California and Michigan last November and the Sixth Circuit's important ruling, voucher proponents have taken it on the chin of late.

Undaunted, they apparently have now taken aim at the federal treasury.

President George W. Bush has already vowed to push for legislation that lets parents use "their share of federal funding" to pay for private schooling.

Watch this space for an update.

--Michael D. Simpson
NEA Office of General Counsel

The Ohio decision is posted at http://pacer.ca6.uscourts.gov/cgi-
bin/getopn.pl?OPINION=00a0411p.06. The Florida decision is posted at http://www.1dca.org/opinion/10-03-2000/00-1121.htm.

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Courts uphold affirmative action in student admissions

Efforts to promote student diversity through affirmative action got a big boost last December when two federal courts ruled that the practice is lawful.

Significantly, both decisions relied on the U.S. Supreme Court's 1978 ruling Regents of the Univ. of California v. Bakke in holding that an applicant's race can be one factor--among others--considered by institutions of higher education in making admissions decisions.

Affirmative action opponents had argued that Bakke has been overturned, but these courts disagreed.

• In Washington, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld the University of Washington Law School's affirmative action program, declaring that "the attainment of a diverse student body is a constitutionally permissible goal for an institution of higher education." (The university abandoned the challenged policy, however, after Washington voters passed a ballot initiative banning racial preferences in public education.)

• In Michigan, federal judge Patrick Duggan declared that the University of Michigan's affirmative action admissions policy is legal under Bakke, citing "solid evidence regarding the educational benefits that flow from a racially and ethnically diverse student body." Lawyers for the plaintiffs have already announced that they will appeal.

• But in Georgia, a federal district court last year struck down the University of Georgia's affirmative action program. That decision has been appealed to a federal appeals court, setting up a possible showdown before the U.S. Supreme Court over whether Bakke is still the law of the land.

New From the Professional Library
Books by NEA Members
TV Tips | Web Winners

Departments: Resources
Beyond 'Good Enough'

Are "good enough" schools really "good"? A veteran education journalist probes the issues affecting schools today, and offers ideas for going beyond the status quo.



Choosing Excellence
By John Merrow
Scarecrow Press, ($15.95 book only; $29.95 book and tape) call 800/462-6420

In the movie Jerry Maguire, the famed sports agent played by Tom Cruise stays up all night to write a "mission statement" based on his experiences in the business. Likewise, education reporter John Merrow--on the occasion of his 25-year anniversary as an award-winning education reporter--cranked out what he calls a "whimsical memo" of his own arguments and strategies for improving public education.

Eventually, the memo grew into a television program called "School Sleuth," which aired last November on PBS. And his musings also resulted in this new book, Choosing Excellence.

In both, Merrow--known best for his work on PBS's MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour and The Merrow Report--examines why too many schools in America are just "good enough," a term he uses to describe schools that are neither excellent nor bad, but the ones that we accept even though we know that our children deserve better.

Using keen observation skills honed from more than two decades in the field, Merrow succinctly captures a wide range of issues affecting the social and academic climate of schools today, including high-stakes testing, technology, school safety, charter schools, zero-tolerance policies, the growing and alarming number of children diagnosed with attention deficit disorder, and more.

Always spirited and sometimes edgy, his points are fueled by stirring and sometimes heartbreaking stories of real teachers and children he's met over the years. Add to that expert testimony from education leaders and meticulous, current research that's anything but boring and the result is a thought-provoking call for change.

At times, the book reads like a fast-moving education debate that Merrow is moderating on television. When he presents two views on the merits of alternative certification, for example, he effectively juxtaposes quotes from Stanford University's Linda Darling-Hammond and Chester Finn, an assistant secretary of education under Ronald Reagan.

In fact, his use of quotes throughout the book from noted educators--including Lisa Delpit, author of Other People's Children; E.D. Hirsch, Jr., the founder of the Core Knowledge school reform program; and Deborah Meier, vice-chair of the Coalition of Essential Schools--transports the reader into a seemingly real roundtable discussion among some of this country's most respected education experts.

Merrow also uses powerful yet simple metaphors to drive his themes home, comparing current efforts to "fix" the teacher shortage to fixing a leaking swimming pool, and contrasting charter school choice to select-ing a restaurant. This refreshing style makes Merrow's points easy to understand, even for the education jargon-impaired.

Perhaps the most unique and useful aspect of the book is the list of thought-provoking questions posed at the end of each chapter to help concerned educators and parents explore current behaviors and strategies at their schools.

If asked and answered honestly, these questions will help readers uncover the real policies and practices in place at their local school or district.

The book provides a brutally honest portrayal of education today. It's almost a comprehensive guide on how to think about schools: a unique combination of up-to-date facts, researched opinion, practical tips, and critical evaluation questions that will prove useful to parents, educators, and others determined to push and pull the system beyond "good enough."

Excerpt:
"We desperately need to get beyond all the talk about education that claims to be 'standards-based, brain-based, child-centered, site-centered, teacher-tested, results-oriented, business-backed, community-based, teacher-proof, gender neutral, Web-based, and family friendly.' My eyes glaze over when I hear any of those expressions ... hackneyed expressions create a fog around the enterprise and keep us from having honest discussions about the goals of schooling."

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New from the NEA Professional Library

The Best of Works4Me: Winning Tips from Classroom Teachers

56 pp., $4.50, #2161-4-00-FN

Now, for the first time, a collection of the best tips from Works4Me, the popular weekly NEA E-mail newsletter! You'll be inspired by the more than 85 practical tips in this newest addition to the NEA Professional Library's Checklist series, with ideas on everything from helping absent students catch up to reinforcing writing skills. Written by the experts--classroom teachers--The Best of Works4Me is organized around six essential topics: teaching techniques, content, getting organized, managing your classroom, relationships, and using technology. Whether you teach kindergarten or 12th grade, you'll find great ideas here that you can put into practice immediately!

To order, call 1-800/299-4200, or check the Web at www.nea.org/books.

Excerpt:
Newspaper Test
Several times a year, I buy enough newspapers for my entire class. I draft a test that requires them to use the table of contents in the front of the paper to find the answers quickly. I include questions for everyone: where movies are showing, used cars for sale, exchange rates, the weather, etc. This exercise helps students become familiar with the paper and demonstrate its usefulness.

D. Bruce Denney, social
studies teache
Seymour High School
Seymour, Missouri

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Books by NEA Members

A Concise Review for AP U.S. History Students
By Scott Davis

Focused and to the point, this guide offers students a rundown on many of the key facts tested on the AP U.S. History exam. Covering the Colonies to modern court cases, A Concise Review sums up themes, names, and dates that will help students tackle the test. $3.50 (minimum order of 10 copies) plus $3.00 s&h from Scott Davis, 1504 Alamo Ave., Colorado Springs, CO 80907, 719/473-9474.

Memorize in Minutes: The Times Tables
By Alan Walker

Using pictures, rhymes, stories, and other activities, Walker harnesses the power of mnemonic devices to help students memorize the multiplication tables. Full lesson plans and teaching tips are provided, along with flashcards, quizzes, and worksheets. $19.99 plus $3.50 s&h from Krimsten Publishing, P.O. Box 48, Prosser, WA 99350. On the Web at www.multiplication.com.

Curtains Up!
Theatre Games and Storytelling
By Robert Rubenstein

Rubenstein, a middle school teacher from Eugene, Oregon, loves storytelling so much that he founded the Multicultural Storytelling Festival held annually in Eugene. This book will help students, teachers, and parents develop their abilities in storytelling, improvisation, and public speaking. $17.95 from Fulcrum Publishing, 16100 Table Mountain Pkwy., Suite 300, Golden, CO, 800/992-2908.

Gorillas
By Paul Fleisher

A detailed, 110-page look at one of humanity's closest primate relatives. Gorillas includes chapters on the gorilla's evolution, anatomy, life cycle, and intelligence, and the threats to its continued survival as a species. It also features numerous color photographs showing the animals in their native habitat. $19.95 through Marshall Cavendish, 99 White Plains Rd., Tarrytown, NY 10591, 800/821-9881. On the Web at www.marshallcavendish.com.

Girl of the Shining Mountains: Sacagawea's Story
By Peter and Connie Roop

Experience a different perspective on the Lewis and Clark expedition through the eyes of their guide, Sacagawea. Written in narrative form, this book recounts the life of the young woman, from her kidnapping to her journey with the famous explorers. $14.99 from Hyperion Books for Children, 77 West 66th, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10023, 212/456-0159.

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TV Tips

Haven
CBS
February 2001, check local listings.

This four-hour mini-series tells the story of Ruth Gruber's efforts to bring Jewish refugees to America during World War II. Although dismayed that only 1,000 were granted asylum, Gruber tirelessly worked to break down barriers of prejudice: first, among the soldiers who resented the refugees for taking the place of wounded veterans on the ship, then, among the townspeople in New York, where the refugees were isolated at an army base in Oswego. As friendships began to form between the emigrants and the community, Gruber tried to persuade the government to admit more refugees, but bigotry and the politics of war hampered her efforts. KIDSNET has produced an online study guide for middle and high school teachers with original photos, news articles, and government documents from the time. An electronic bulletin board will also be available, and a live web chat with Ms. Gruber, who is now 89 years-old, will take place after Haven airs. For more information, visit www.cbs.com or www.kidsnet.org.

Boycott
HBO
February 2001, check local listings.

When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white bus rider in Montgomery, Alabama on December 1, 1955, her arrest acted as the catalyst for the Montgomery bus boycott. The boycott and subsequent court battle eventually led the Supreme Court to find the city's bus segregation laws unconstitutional. This film dramatizes the behind-the-scenes crisis management of the 382-day boycott and the rise of one of its organizers, a young minister named Martin Luther King, Jr.

From Swastika to Jim Crow
PBS
February 1, 10:00-11:00 p.m. ET, check local listings.

While America may have welcomed Albert Einstein, other German intellectuals fleeing Hitler in the 1930s found themselves in a nation reeling from the Depression and steeped in anti-Semitic and anti-German attitudes. However, Jewish professors were often welcomed into historically all-Black colleges in the South. These professors and their students discovered a profound connection existed between them - a common history of oppression and the knowledge of what it means to be despised and persecuted because of ethnicity. A study guide for high school students, information on Jewish immigration and Black colleges, and a virtual experience of German-Jewish immigration are available on the program's Web site at www.pbs.org or www.itvs.org.

Scientific American Frontier: Wild Places
PBS
February 6, 8:00-9:00 p.m. ET, check local listings.

Host Alan Alda witnesses the critical link between healthy habitats and species survival as he travels around the world to investigate animals facing extinction. Scientists discuss the negative effects of declining biodiversity, and the show profiles efforts to save Atlantic salmon, the white stork, Mediterranean monk seals, and the animals and habitat of the American prairie.

Roots
Odyssey
February 2001, check local listings.

Odyssey features a slate of programming in honor of Black History Month, including Alex Haley's 1977 groundbreaking mini-series, Roots and the 1993 three-part series, Queen. Odyssey supports the timeless educational value of these programs with a new poster/study guide for middle and high school social studies teachers. For more information, visit the KIDSNET web site.

Marcus Garvey: Look for Me in the Whirlwind
PBS
February 12, 9:00-10:30 p.m. ET, check local listings.

With the aim of promoting racial pride and Black empowerment, Marcus Garvey launched the Universal Negro Improvement Association in 1914 in his native Jamaica. Two years later, he traveled to America with the message of self-reliance and nationalism and forever changed the tenor of race relations. His "Africa for Africans" movement and disdain for integration created hostility among other Black leaders and brought him to the attention of the Justice Department. Jailed for mail fraud in 1925, Garvey was pardoned by President Coolidge two years later and immediately deported. He died in London in 1940, a broken and largely forgotten man, but his ideas about Black pride found new life during later struggles for African American equality.

73 Worlds and Counting
Discovery Channel
February 26, 9:00-10:00 p.m. ET, check local listings.

This program explores the ecosystems of our solar system's moons, some of which are bigger than Mercury, while others are smaller than Manhattan. Many scientists consider moons the most likely place in our solar system to harbor life, and some lunar volcanoes produce the heat necessary for life's creation. Through actual and computer-generated visuals, the program provides a tour of some of our planets' moons, including Lo, Europa, and Triton, moons of Jupiter and Neptune.

CNN NEWSROOM
CNN
February, 4:30-5:00 a.m. ET, check local listings.

CNN NEWSROOM profiles Black Entertainment Television founder Robert Johnson and IHRA race car driver Harold Martin in this presentation honoring Black History Month. Also featured are Harlem's Apollo Theater and the Freedman's Bureau, formally known as The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands, which was established in 1865 and supervised relief and educational activities for freedmen and refugees of the Civil War.

Freedom Song
TNT
February 27, 8:00-10:30 p.m. ET, check local listings.

Based on true stories from the Civil Rights movement, this film recounts the struggle for equality in a Mississippi town through the eyes of an African-American teenager whose relationship with his father is strained by their different reactions to the upheaval around them. The film pays tribute to the grass-roots organizers who risked their lives during this period, particularly members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, who registered African-Americans to vote. Airing with one-year taping rights for educators, a teaching guide is available at www.turnerlearning.com.

Bojangles
Showtime
February 4, 8:00 p.m. ET, check local listings.

Born at the end of the Reconstruction Era, Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson rose from dancing on the streets for pennies to become the most highly paid Black entertainer of his time. Through interviews with Robinson's longtime manager, his wives, and his brother Percy, this program chronicles the life of an artist whose success was tempered by prejudice, racial stereotypes, and challenges in his personal life. Starring Gregory Hines, this dramatized biography chronicles the life of an artist whose success was tempered by prejudice, racial stereotypes, and challenges in his personal life.

American Masters - Bob Marley: Rebel Music
PBS
February 14, 9:00 p.m. ET, check local listings.

At a time when Jamaican radio was limited to British and American imports, Bob Marley and The Wailers took their music directly to the people and found a devoted audience. Interviews and concert footage chronicle Marley's life and show how he and his music were influenced by Rastafarai, a Black consciousness movement that replaces armed struggle with a spiritual one, and the struggles of oppressed people in Jamaica and abroad.

Crossing the Bridge
The History Channel
February 24, 8:00 p.m. ET, check local listings.

In 1965, the eyes of the nation watched when police beat and tear-gassed civil rights marchers as they attempted to cross the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Alabama. This program features interviews with those who played key roles in the protest and reveals the behind-the-scenes battle between members of President Johnson's administration who believed Martin Luther King, Jr. was a dangerous subversive and those who demanded the president take a lead in demanding equality for all Americans.

The Ballad of Lucy Whipple
CBS
February 18, 9:00-11:00 p.m. ET, check local listings.

This film version of the Newbery Medal-winning book by Karen Cushman features Glenn Close as Arvella Whipple, a recently widowed mother who moves her family west during the Gold Rush. Her daughter resents the move from their civilized Massachusetts home and changes her name from California to Lucy as she rebels against their new lifestyle.

KIDSNET, a national resource for children's media in Washington, D. C., provides these listings. For more information, go to www.kidsnet.org.

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Web Winners

Liberal Arts Resources
The University of Virginia's Center for liberal arts Web site offers a central location for teachers of Liberal Arts to update and enhance their skills in this broad area. Sections include a calendar of events, background information on the center, a listing of programs by discipline, and a resources section.

Travel the World with Hemingway
Michael Palin and PBS team up again to offer another world adventure--this time on the Web--which focuses on Ernest Hemingway, his life, and his travels. The Web site combines the general info on PBS resources and links to related sites with suggestions for integrating Hemingway's life into classroom lessons.

Immigration Issues
Another PBS site, the New Americans, explores the history of immigration in America. The New Americans tells individual stories, examines immigration past and present, and includes a teacher guide with lesson plan.

African Americans in 1800s America
This Web site is an excellent resource for information on African Americans in 19th century America. Search by topic or key words to find images on all aspects of life in this eventful period of American history.

Poets Pages
Poets.org is a multimedia source for everything you want to know about Ameri-can poets. Read, listen to, and discuss poems; attend an event; and find poetry journals, organizations, and awards--it's all here.

The Bard's Bus
This Web site, sporting a bright orange school bus, introduces you to the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, D.C.'s huge library and research center on English literature's most famous poet. The site includes information on the library and the National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as lesson plans for teaching Shakespeare to kindergarten through 12th grades, festivals and workshops, and links to more Shakespearean resources.

Sea Studies
This whimsical Web site uses resources such as books, games and puzzles, writing activities, ocean art activities, lesson plans, and other sea links to teach elementary schoolchildren about the ocean and marine life.

Women of the West
Experience what it was like to be a woman in the West with this Web site from the Women of the West Museum. Read nine narratives of women in the Story Quilt section, find out about museum programs, and experience the time period through images in the Gallery.

Reading
Reading for Remembrance

A Holocaust awareness project teaches students that reading can set you free.

Media Specialist Katherine Bassett's project honors Holocaust victims.





Anne Frank's poignant diary puts a human face to the horrors of the Holocaust. A very special Read Across America project in New Jersey has deepened students' understanding of that reality by connecting to those tragic events one person at a time.

"When you tell children that 6 million people perished in the Holocaust, they have no concept of what that number means," says Katherine Bassett, a library media specialist who helped create the "Reading Sets You Free" project at Ocean City Intermediate School.

So, a few years ago, Bassett logged on and contacted Yad Vashem, an organization in Israel committed to preserving memories of the Holocaust and bringing the lessons of the Holocaust home. Within two days, Bassett was supplied with a listing of more than 600 names, ages, places of birth and death, and other information about Holocaust victims and survivors.

Using the names, students made business-sized cards adorned with butterflies, an international symbol of Holocaust remembrance. Fourth and fifth graders were given cards representing Holocaust survivors, while sixth through eighth graders were given names of victims as well.

"On Read Across America Day 1999, we began reading our way around the building in honor of the person named on our card," says Bassett. "Every time we read a book, we filled out a paper butterfly with the title read, our name, and the name of the person we read in honor of."

The reading project caught the imagination of the entire school, continuing until National Library Day in mid-April. Art and science teachers helped students make huge wooden butterflies painted with scientific accuracy. Language arts teachers focused on Holocaust-based novels, such as Forging Freedom by Hudson Talbott while social studies teachers taught on that era. Math teachers helped students compute price comparisons between the 1940s and today.

In the end, participants had read more than 1,600 books, and students were graced with a visit from Hannah Pick, childhood friend of Anne Frank and a survivor whose name had appeared on a card.

"She spoke for over an hour, and you could have heard a feather fall on the floor," recalls Bassett. "Students were enthralled. It was a wonderful history lesson for all."

For more: E-mail Katherine Bassett at read12me@aol.com or visit www.Yadvashem.org.

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How To ...
Increase Reading Skills Through Recorded Books

"Of all the things I did in my classroom, audiobooks made the single biggest difference in increasing reading ability in my students," says Janet Allen, author of Yellow Brick Roads: Shared and Guided Paths to Independent Reading 4-12 (Stenhouse). Audiobooks, says Allen, bridge the gap between adolescent reading vocabulary and listening vocabulary, which is actually higher for struggling readers.

How can you increase reading comprehension with recorded books? Just listen:

• Let students use audiobooks during sustained reading time. Allow them to read along with the written text at their interest level.

• Content teachers can use recorded books to help struggling readers with research. Even works of fiction can give students background knowledge. For example, an audiotape of Christopher Paul Curtis's The Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963 can teach about the Alabama bombings and civil rights.

• Stock your media center with audiobooks that reflect core literature, so students can listen and follow along. Just hearing helps understanding more than reading silently, because there's another layer of meaning that comes from the voice. Even advanced placement students can benefit.

• Many recorded books are available at two speeds. The slower speed is perfect for students just learning English. Such tapes let students absorb the language without being monotonous.

• Make audiobooks and their companion texts a part of your in-school suspension program. Students can read an entire novel each day they spend there.

  "Audio-books replicate that shared reading experience that younger students get from read-aloud time," says Allen. "They can take older students back to the early stages of reading engagement, which many did not have."

For more: E-mail Janet Allen at jallen3219@aol.com or visit www.stenhouse.com.

Learning:
Been There, Recently

Young Kentucky teachers train their first-year colleagues.


The new faces of professional development (left to right): Gigi Miller, Gala Catron, and Stephanie Urlage, yound NEA members who know what it's like to be a first-year teacher.

The beginning of the first year of teaching is rough for almost everybody. But few new teachers have ever started out as roughly as Stephanie Urlage. At the start of her teaching career, Urlage couldn't even stand up in front of her Richmond, Kentucky classroom. Urlage had been in a construction accident and couldn't walk. To get around White Hall Elementary, she had to use a wheelchair. She also had to miss a lot of her first school days, to see doctors about blood clots in her leg.

But things weren't totally bleak. The school's principal got a special chair to help Urlage maneuver between student desks, and the children vied for the honor of wheeling "Ms. Urlage" around.

"I had days when I thought I'd never dig myself out of my hole," recalls Urlage, the former president of the Kentucky Education Association Student Program. "But I had the greatest kids. They were part of my recovery."

It wasn't until March of her first year that Urlage realized that, despite her recovery, she could have failed to get her teaching certificate.

Under Kentucky law, a teacher's first year is an internship, and first-year teachers must meet a long list of requirements. Urlage was at risk for failing to teach a minimum number of days. She met the requirement, but she realized, then and there, just how easy it is for new teachers to lose track of all the rules.

Now in her third year, Urlage has joined forces with two other young teachers, Gigi Miller of Lexington and Gala Catron of Frankfort, to help today's first-year teachers avoid the same problems she faced.

Urlage and her colleagues have designed a three-hour Kentucky Education Association workshop that aims to help interns master the tricks of the trade that so many teacher education programs leave out.

The program's title: "So you want to be a teacher. Is that your final answer?"

Almost all the trainers in the program are young, notes Urlage.

"They can say, 'This is a headache I had. I don't want you to have it,'" she points out.

Last fall, more than 700 interns and resource teachers took the training. The first hour covers both the detailed requirements of the internship regulations and the intricacies of special education law.

Trainers also offer neophytes an array of useful tips covering everything from grant writing to relating to parents at conferences.

For example, Urlage tells new teachers that at conferences, they should sit with the parents and not have a table in between. She suggests that they keep a box of tissues handy because at least one parent is likely to cry.

Urlage also likes to tell new teachers that "you must have a life outside of school or you'll go nuts."

Workshop leaders distribute a host of materials to help interns cope. Among the most useful, says Urlage, are three books from the NEA Professional Library: The Best of Works4Me, Pitfalls and Potholes, and The Best of Teacher-to-Teacher.

--Alain Jehlen

For more: E-mail Urlage at Surlage@madison.k12.ky.us, or call Judith Gambill, president of the Kentucky Education Association, at 800/231-4532. For info on the NEA Professional Library, check www.nea.org/books.

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Dilemma
What do you do when parents show no interest in things like IEP meetings?

I live in a rural town where the majority of parents work in agriculture and are monolingual Spanish speakers. Yet, last year, I had all but two parents attend their child's IEP meetings. I accomplished this in several ways.

First, I had the parents set the meeting times. This meant I had meetings from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Parents want to be involved in their child's education, but sometimes they risk losing their job if they miss work.

Second, I worked on learning some Spanish. Each meeting has a translator who speaks much better than I do. But I always add something in Spanish on my own, because I want to show the parents that I value their culture and language.

Third, I get to know the parents outside of school. This is a small town, and I often run into my students and their parents. I stop and at least say hi, and I relate how their child is doing, in my limited Spanish.

I don't do this all on my own. I work in an exceptional elementary school where everyone works to help the students achieve.

Brian Berghout
K-2 special education teacher
Mattawa, Washington

After 14 years as a special education teacher, I've heard almost every excuse for why a parent can't attend a meeting. I'm prepared for most of them.

If the parents say they have no babysitter, I tell them to bring the children along, and I make sure there are games and a snack. If transportation is an issue, the school social worker is sometimes able to provide that. I may schedule an IEP meeting the hour before back-to-school night or the winter concert, so that only one trip needs to be made to school.

If a new baby is the excuse, a conference call can be set up in the principal's office. I've even been known to meet parents in the school parking lot as they pick up their children.

Susan Kreiner
K-5 special education teacher
Perkasie, Pennsylvania

Coming to school to talk about a child's disability is an emotional issue for parents. IEP teams are often large, and parents feel outnumbered and overwhelmed. Or parents may appear disinterested if not asked to actively participate in the meeting.

To make this experience more parent-friendly, I've developed a method for conducting IEP meetings.

I print an agenda. The first item, after introductions, is "Questions/comments from [parent's name]." Next, we highlight the child's strengths, with the parents first noting progress they've seen. Then we provide samples of student work. Finally, we list the child's progress since the last IEP.

Parents leave the meeting with a folder of student work, a list of "positives," and, most importantly, a feeling that they have been an integral part of the IEP process.

Mary Michaels
Special education teacher
Woodbury, Minnesota

Be sure to offer meeting times that are convenient to you and the parent. Stay open to any form of communication the parent is comfortable with--phone, face-to-face, E-mail.

IEPs and the like can be a very intimidating process for parents. They're hearing lots of terms for the first time--things that we deal with every day. I talk with the parent ahead of time and explain what an "IEP" is and why we are meeting. I walk them through the process.

On the day of the meeting, I have the parent come to my room first, and we go to the meeting together, if possible. I sit next to the parent, to be sure they understand and are comfortable with the process.

Barbara O'Brien
Fourth grade teacher
Wood River, Illinois

Got an Answer?

How do you raise morale at work?

E-mail your answer to dilemma2@neatoday.nea.org. You can also fax to 202/822-7206 or use regular mail. Please include your name, city, state, job title, and grade level, if applicable.

Published respondents will receive a new NEA Today mug!

---

How I Did It

Beth Broder Epstein
Lawrence Middle School language arts/reading specialist
Lawrenceville, New Jersey

A new twist on multiple choice answer sheets teaches while testing, giving students immediate feedback on whether they've gotten the answer right.

Students who use traditional multiple-choice test forms, Scantrons especially, leave the test without knowing the correct answers. What's more, psychologists know that the last answer a test-taker gives is most likely to be repeated--even if it's wrong. That means students exit tests remembering incorrect information, answers they gave without corrective feedback.

With my husband, a psychology professor at Rider Univer-sity, I've developed a new multiple-choice testing technique that teaches students even as they're taking their exam. It's called "Immediate Feedback Assessment Tech-nique," or IF AT--a reminder of "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again."

This method uses a form in which the four multiple-choice options are covered, much as a lottery ticket is. If the right answer has been selected, the student will uncover a star beneath the opaque covering.

The student who uncovers the star knows that he's correct and earns full credit. The student who uncovers a blank is instructed to try again by re-reading the question and the remaining options. If he is correct on his second try, he earns partial credit for his "proximate knowledge."

So often, a test taker eliminates all but two options and guesses at the correct response. With traditional multiple-choice forms, that student would guess randomly--and sometimes correctly, though he wouldn't really know.

With the immediate feedback forms, students can work through their top two choices--they learn while taking the test.

Students like the game quality of these test forms, and they like leaving the test with correct information and their scores. They also tend to read the question and options more carefully than when using traditional forms.

For more information on the Immediate Feedback Assessment Technique form, contact Beth Broder Epstein at 609/895-5424 or E-mail epstein@rider.edu.

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Longer Days, More Learning

Teachers make an extended-day school a success--and are compensated for it.

What will the school of the future be like? The Intensive Learning Center in Lakewood, California, just south of Los Angeles, offers an enticing possibility.

In this K-6 public school, the district agreed to pay teachers so that the 850 students can attend classes from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. for 200 days a year.

What good is all that extra time?

In December, kindergarten teacher Linda Little asked her students to write letters to Santa.

"I taught first grade for 18 years," she says, "and I would have been pleased to get the quality of letters that my kindergartners wrote today.

In extended-day schools, Little adds, educators get to spend plenty of time with students.

"We spend more time together than they spend with their families," Little says. "I know their learning styles, and we understand each other in ways other classes don't have time to develop."

DeLois Hoover, a kindergarten teacher, notes that the extra times gives educators time to nurture students.

"When I started out 14 years ago, if students could tell you the names of shapes and identify some letters, that was enough," says Hoover. "Now they have to count to 50 and practically be reading by the time they leave."

To meet these more demanding academic goals, Hoover points out, teachers have had to shortchange emotional developmental work. With the long day, there's room again for both academics and emotional development.

Second grade teacher Jim Wamboldt says the extended-day students don't get tired because they have so much variety.

"They're not just sitting there, looking at another book," he says. "They're moving constantly, making maps, going to the science teacher, doing art."

Specialists make it possible for classroom teachers to have a 50-minute prep period each day. Teachers in the same grade share the same prep time.

"It used to be, you would close your door and that was your little domain," Wamboldt says. "Here, everybody's constantly exchanging ideas."

State test scores now confirm teacher reports that student achievement has blossomed.

The Lakewood Intensive Learning Center was created after a 1997 proposal from Edison Schools to take over a district school and run it for profit. The Edison proposal included a longer day and year.

To help evaluate the proposal, the school board decided to visit selected Edison schools. Representatives from the NEA local affiliate, the Bellflower Education Association, and the local support staff union joined the board on the site visits.

Linda Little, then chair of the teacher local bargaining committee, went on several of the visits. She found that the Edison schools had good materials, but the staff had no input.

"They told you what to teach, how to teach it, and when to teach it," she says.

One school Little visited had recently eliminated naps for kindergartners--without consulting the teachers.

Little and her colleagues persuaded the school board that, with a significant investment, the district could create a truly superior, extended-day school on its own. The board agreed, and the Intensive Learning Center was born.

In the school's first year, teachers were paid for the extra 20 days they worked, but not for the extra 90 minutes in the school day.

"Some people said we were ideological fools for working all that extra time," Little recalls.

But the board agreed that, over the next three years, they would phase in full compensation for the 90 minutes.

Next year, under this schedule, teacher pay will range from $47,000 to more than $90,000.

The board has also hired specialists to teach computers, physical education, art, and Spanish.

The Intensive Learning Center differs from other schools in more ways than just scheduling, and some of these differences make teaching easier.

There's no special ed program, so students with disabilities can attend only if their parents waive special services, which some do. There's a strict discipline code and uniforms.

The students tend to come from families that are economically a little above average, although Principal Linda Gresik stresses that the school has students at all levels of academic ability.

There is one downside to the long days, however: "The kids bounce out of here at the end of the day, but the teachers are exhausted," says Little.

"You give so much energy," says Wamboldt. "It's not like an office job where you can go into your cubicle and take a breath."

"But what keeps us going," says Hoover, "is the excitement of how far they're going, and how much we can do."

--Alain Jehlen

For more: Contact the Intensive Learning Center, 562/633-2096.

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How do you improve student attendance?

My students use a timeclock to track their attendance. I still take attendance in my own record book, but students enjoy clocking in and out of class as though it were a job. Timecards are totaled every two weeks, and, based on their attendance, students can earn up to 50 points toward their grade.

I use the clock to monitor hall pass use, too.

If you're wondering how I could afford a timeclock, I couldn't. I wrote about 25 companies that sell them and asked for a donation. Two companies thought my idea was great and sent me one. I gave the extra to another teacher, and now we both use them.

Briana Johnson
High school biology teacher
Columbus, Ohio

At the end of each week, students who have not missed a day write their name on a ticket and place the ticket in a drawing box. Then I have a student pull a name.

The prize: A free homework pass, a cou-pon for a free day or extra credit points, school store gift certificates, pens, stickers.

Names not drawn stay in the box. This allows those students who have consistently good attendance a greater chance of winning. Every Friday, if I've forgotten to pull names, the students always remind me.

Michelle Plakosh
Marketing education coordinator
Warren, Ohio

Read to your classes. I read aloud every day from a high-interest novel. For my seventh graders, I read The Giver, Among the Hidden, and Belle Prater's Boy. To the eighth graders, I read The Light in the Forest and Snowbound. Most chapters end in suspense, and that brings the students back.

I choose books that are high interest, are not movies, and have not been read to them previously by another teacher.

Marlis Day
Seventh and eighth grade reading teacher
Petersburg, Indiana

Since I started teaching four years ago, the best solution I've found is a pizza chart.

I post a chart of an empty pizza pan. Each day that every student in class comes to school on time, the class earns one piece of pizza. Although we don't often have these perfect, on-time days, attendance has improved.

Each time the class receives a piece of pizza on the chart, the students cheer out loud and are eager to come to school on time for the rest of the week. When all eight pieces are filled, we have a pizza party. I've found a local pizza place that gives us a great deal, since we're a school.

Shannon Tousignant
Second grade teacher
Fontana, California

When students are absent, I make sure and greet them with a "missed you yesterday!" when they return. I'll detain a student after class for a brief moment to ask specifically why the student was absent. Sometimes I then call home to check on a dubious answer.

Students don't like to be checked on, parents don't like to be bothered at home or at work, yet everyone appreciates the interest I've taken in the student. It works for me!

My students usually have very low absenteeism. Of course, a low pupil/teacher ratio allows me to get involved in ways that regular classroom teachers might find impossible to do. If everyone had smaller class sizes, attendance would improve.

Marie Varela
Elementary ESOL teacher
Dalton, Georgia

Got an Answer?

How do you raise morale at work?

E-mail your answer to dilemma2@neatoday.nea.org. Or send by regular mail, or fax at 202/822-7206. Please include your name, city, state, job title, and grade level, if applicable.

Published respondents will receive a new NEA Today mug!

---

Idea Exchange

Pass the Project
My sixth grade science curriculum includes important diagrams--parts of a leaf, layers of the sun. As a review, we do an activity I call Five by Five.

The students work in groups of five. When I ring a bell, the first student begins to draw and label the diagram. After one minute, I ring the bell again, and the student passes the paper to the next student.

Students offer helpful hints, but only the designated student may work on the actual diagram during that minute.

The process continues for five minutes. The table with the best diagram gets a small prize.

It's a quick, effective, non-threatening review for students. For the teacher, it doesn't take any preparation or grading!

Susan Edge
Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Hall Pass Agendas
Each of our sixth grade students carries an agenda book that contains a hall pass. On our team, we allow students to use their agenda 10 times per semester. A teacher must sign the pass for a student to go to the bathroom, their locker, the library, office, or nurse.

If students run an errand for a teacher, the agenda is signed in red ink and the trip doesn't count against them.

Students don't get into the hall without an agenda unless it's an emergency. And if there's a disaster--say, someone pulls a fire alarm--we can account for students' whereabouts.

Bonnie McMoran
Meridian, Idaho

Class Photographer
When my students are chosen as Star of the Week, they be-come the class photographer.

This student brings in a roll of film to snap pictures of classmates during the week, using an inexpensive camera I bought. Some pictures I suggest be taken, and some the student chooses. The photographer develops the film and designs a page for our class scrapbook.

Tracie Vanhoutan
Derby, Kansas

President's Viewpoint
Truth About Seuss

There's more to Read Across America than the Cat and the Hat.

It's been said that if something good happens once, it's a fluke. If it happens twice, it's a coincidence. If it happens three times, it's a bona fide trend. Which is good news for Read Across America. Yes, it's ba-a-a-ck, replete with the Cat in the Hat, Sam-I-Am, and the rest of Dr. Seuss's fantastic creations. Friday, March 2 marks the fourth year that NEA will be celebrating the late Theodor Geisel's birthday with a campaign to read to children. With actor Morgan Freeman signed on as the event's national chair--and hundreds of celebrations being planned--what began as the dream of one teacher in New Jersey is now becoming an American tradition. Red-and-white top hats are being distributed, green eggs and ham are being readied for the griddle, and celebrities are signing up to read Hop on Pop to kindergarten children.

But amid this great hoopla, I must express some concern. This past winter, Hollywood released a quasi-blockbuster, The Grinch. And as I write this, a Dr. Seuss-inspired musical, Seussical, is being primed for Broadway. Dr. Geisel's creations are arguably more popular than ever, nearing Disney-esque stature.

Teacher that I am, I worry that in such a climate, Read Across America will be seen as a celebration of a trademark rather than as a promotion of literacy. I fear that more attention will be paid to the red-and-white top hats than to the gray matter beneath them.

As sponsors of March 2 events, let us remind the world that Dr. Seuss's books are about more than a gleefully subversive feline. They are about the joy of reading--and of teaching reading.

The truth about Seuss is that he was an ingenious and passionate pedagogue. His books were designed to teach children phonics and morals--to help them to read and to excite them about reading at the same time.

Yes, serving green eggs and ham is an inventive way to capture children's attention. But whether Read Across America truly succeeds depends upon whether adults continue to read to children after March 2--and whether children themselves develop an abiding love for books beyond Geisel's.

Thus, we need to emphasize what teachers have known for years: the amount of "laptime" children receive outside the classroom greatly impacts their learning inside the classroom.

We need to promote literacy in fun and engaging ways year-round. For inspiration, we might look to Mike Jones, an elementary school principal in Franktown, Colorado. Several evenings each week, Jones visits the homes of his students. Dressed in a Dr. Seuss bathrobe and puppy slippers, he reads children bedtime stories before returning home to read to his own kids. Doing this, he says, makes children value reading outside of school; it also models good "literacy behavior" for parents.

While it's impossible logistically for many of us to do this, we must (excuse the teacherly pun) promote the greater principle behind it--that adults can and must be the principal readers in a child's life.

So let me close with a message for this March 2:

Reading to children
helps open their eyes
to a skill and a joy
that will last all their lives.
So read every day!
Get your kids juiced,
for a lifetime of learning,
beyond Dr. Seuss!

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
Fighting for Mother Nature

A retired teacher takes up the fight to preserve Wisconsin's natural resources from becoming just another shelf of bottled waters.

After 48 years of teaching, Joan Christopherson-Schmidt retired--and immediately jumped into a battle to preserve the pristine water of Big Springs near her Wisconsin Dells family farm.

Christopherson-Schmidt, who turned 70 last July 4 while a delegate to the NEA Representative Assembly in Chicago, spent her first official day of retirement testifying before the Wisconsin State Senate.

The issue: Whether Perrier/Nestle should be allowed to mine Wisconsin's spring waters for a new brand of bottled water.

Christopherson-Schmidt inherited 160 acres of marshland from her father. He made her promise never to let anyone drain or commercialize it, saying, "that land is for the animals, plant life, and water of the state of Wisconsin. We don't really own the land, we're only renters and must leave it as good or better than we found it for our children and grandchildren."

"Ms. Chris," as her Milwaukee students liked to call her, taught art, English, drama, and debate from the preschool level all the way through college.

"As educators," Christopherson-Schmidt says, "we must help children learn to appreciate and respect their environment and its natural beauty. That way they won't destroy it. They'll help protect it for the future."

Perrier recently received a permit from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to tap Big Springs water at a rate of 500 gallons per minute without getting an environmental impact study.

Christopherson-Schmidt is part of a group called Concerned Citizens of Newport, a leading force for preserving the land. CCN is suing DNR for failing in its public trust to protect Wisconsin's waters.

"The fight is worth it to me," she explains. "Wetlands are important to the environment, and if we lose this fight, we lose the environment."

For more information and free documentary video, E-mail hirok8@aol.com or go to www.saveamericaswater.com; phone 608/253-7266 or 414/961-2200.

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Putting a Face on Kosovo Tragedy

For nearly two decades, Jill Cerqueira has studied and taught the Holocaust as a history teacher in Holmdel, New Jersey. Last summer, she did something not many would be brave enough to do. Amid the swirl of guerrilla warfare, ethnic cleansing, and NATO's peacekeeping mission, Cerqueira and a colleague visited Kosovo.

"I wanted to see first-hand the most recent genocide in European history," she says. "I wanted to bring that experience back to my students by establishing some type of cultural exchange program between my students and students in Kosovo."

Because of her efforts, Holmdel High School teenagers are now in constant contact with teenagers at two schools on the other side of the world, one Albanian and one Serbian. They exchange letters, E-mail, videos, music, and even holidays. "It's totally awakened my students to what is happening in the world," Cerqueira says. "And it's making them realize how much we all have in common."

Cerqueira's students have heard from an 18-year-old soldier who wrote about his experiences living in a combat area. Other E-mails confirm that Madonna is just as popular in Kosovo as she is in the United States.

"It's always better if teachers can teach reality, and that's what I'm doing," says Cerqueira. "Instead of reading about how destructive hate and prejudice are, they hear this from kids directly experiencing it.

"My students are able to visualize themselves in their new friends' shoes," adds Cequeira, "It's a powerful lesson to learn."

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Just Another Ride in Paradise

Believing that being a good role model is a good way to influence students, Alaska special education teacher Bob Voris embarked on a trip last June that would take him across the country. That trip, Voris hopes, will now inspire the students he coaches to pursue lifelong fitness activity.

"I should practice what I preach," says Voris, who is also the cross-country coach at Gruening Middle School in Eagle River, Alaska.

Voris took part in the Race Across America (RAAM), a 2,989-mile cycling competition that takes amateur riders from Portland, Oregon, to Gulf Breeze, Florida. Voris' four-man team, "Team Alaska," finished first in the event's over-50 age group.

"Our goal was to beat the old people from Minnesota," says Voris.

Voris, who has been an active cycler since 1970, has taken part in other long-distance races, including the 746-mile Paris-Brest-Paris race through France and the 373-mile Midnight Sun race that takes competitors from Anchorage to Fairbanks.

Next year, Voris plans to take a break from competing. He'll serve instead on the crew of one of his former teammates who's going solo in the RAAM.

And the future? Voris dreams of completing a cycling trip to just beyond the Arctic Circle in the Canadian Northwest Territories.

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More than 'Life's Pretty Parts'

As the 2000 National High School Journalism Teacher of the Year, North Carolina's Robin Sawyer will spend much of 2001 meeting important deadlines. But it's her passion for two very important and personal issues--First Amendment rights and the future of scholastic journalism--that will continue to drive her.

In the 1970s, as a high school student working on her own paper, Sawyer, now the journalism advisor at Manteo High, had a number of run-ins with the school principal about free press issues. Those experiences, as well as a deep admiration for her high school journalism teacher, Virginia NEA member Marie Harris, eventually propelled Sawyer into the teaching profession herself.

Today she's confronting free press issues from the teacher side.

"I think some administrators and faculty members would prefer that school newspapers be about nothing more than the pretty parts of life," says the inspirational teacher, who has garnered more than 250 awards for the paper in just 10 years. "But reality isn't pretty. If we are going to teach children that they have a voice, we have to be willing to present their opinions even when we don't necessarily agree with them."

Sawyer will use her new role to bring attention to the "graying" of journalism teachers.

"Journalism teachers prepare students to work as reporters, editors, or graphic artists," she says. "Often we forget that our own profession needs good teachers."

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A $24,000 History Lesson

Idaho high school history teacher Gail Chumbley doesn't give herself over to many causes, but when she heard about the World War II monument being planned in the the nation's Capital, she threw herself into the cause--and her students went with her.

Over a year's time, Chumbley and her junior history students at Eagle High School in Boise raised over $20,000 to help build the monument. In November, on Veteran's Day, Chumbley was in Washington to turn over part of the funds to former U. S. Senator Bob Dole.

"In the history books, it seems like World War II happened so long ago," says Chumbley, "Many people who were there don't really talk about it. But over the year, the war became extremely real to all of us. Veterans opened up about their experiences, and we were changed in ways I can't even express. It was far better than any civics lesson I could have taught."

News
A Member Is a Member Is a Member

By working as one, teachers and support staff in South Dakota are earning respect at the bargaining table and in the community.

UniServ rep Diane Kimmer helps NEA local leaders map out strategy.





South Dakota, the state with the nation's lowest average teacher pay, is the kind of place where teachers need every last friend they can get. Small wonder that teachers and other certified staffers in the state's largest city, Sioux Falls, have turned to the folks who know them and the kids they teach the best: educational support personnel.

Certified members of the Sioux Falls Education Association have linked arms with paraeducators and office employees in two sister NEA local affiliates to build a ground-breaking partnership based on information sharing, mutual respect, and trust.

It's an alliance that, when fully matured, will extend from mutual assistance in worksite organizing to joint lobbying in the state capital for increased education funding.

The seeds of this partnership were sown more than five years ago when NEA helped form the KEY--Kids, Education, and You--Network, a coalition of eight school district employee organizations affiliated to either NEA or unions that belong to the AFL-CIO.

In its short life, the KEY Network has successfully elected a pro-public education school board.

But the district's teacher-ESP partnership really got a jump start in 1999, when the NEA locals started meeting monthly. Local presidents Gail Swenson, Karen Fossum, and Helen Schlueter would swap information, devise common strategies for challenges like member recruitment, and plan projects to help involve every member.

"It takes a lot of time and effort to get through problems," says Schlueter, an accounts payable clerk who heads the Sioux Falls Association of Educational Secretaries. "But I see a change in attitudes between teachers and support staff because of this process."

By talking and collaborating, she adds, teachers come "to understand ESP problems as much as we understand theirs, and it's easier to get closer to what we all want."

Among the collaboration payoffs:

• Membership growth. Organized cadres from the three locals train and work together to implement an effective recruitment strategy based on repeated personal contacts with the nonmember-- even from NEA members outside that person's bargaining unit.

  "A member is a member is a member," stresses Sioux Falls Education Association President Gail Swenson.

  "We don't try to 'guilt' the nonmember into joining," she notes. "When we approach new teachers, for example, we talk about things like liability coverage, having someone to turn to for help, and the networking advantages of Associa-tion membership."

• Added respect from the superintendent and school board. It's often tempting for managers to pit one group against another, but Sioux Falls certified staffers and ESP don't make it easy. The three local presidents share grievance updates and bargaining information and debunk misinformation that could divide employees and undermine unity.

  Management is "aware that we are working together, and that makes them think," observes Swenson. "They see us sitting together and commenting to one another at school board meetings."

• Greater strength in bargaining. As a consequence of unity, ESP have closed the rights and benefits gap with teachers--and are on the way to closing another gap.

  "In our last negotiations, we finally got the same percentage offer as teachers," says Karen Fossum, president of the Sioux Falls Educational Assistants Association. "That made us feel better--it was a respect issue."

  Closing gaps creates new openings at the bargaining table. Helen Schlueter would like to see all three contracts expire on a common date, and she also predicts that her clerical members will next push for "more money and language changes" that reflect the value of their work.

• Higher visibility in the community. Sioux Falls teachers and ESP are also collaborating on American Education Week activities and the Children First campaign, an effort sponsored jointly by the South Dakota Education Association, the Sioux Falls ABC-TV affiliate, and the Dacotah Bank.

  The three Sioux Falls NEA locals work together on both statewide and local Children First projects. Locally, they plan everything from the distribution of parent and teen education materials to serving dinners to the homeless.

  "One of our past activities," reports Fossum, "was distributing books to needy kids at 'The Banquet,' a soup kitchen. Some of these kids had never had their own books. We--ESP and teachers--all worked on this together!"

• A louder voice in the state capital. Gail Swenson regularly reports back to the monthly local presidents' meeting on her involvement with the statewide Invest in Education coalition. Last year, the coalition tried and failed to get state lawmakers to maintain state school aid in the face of declining student enrollment.

  This year, the coalition will be back in force to push for an annual improvement factor in the state aid formula, set at the rate of inflation plus 2 percent.

  For South Dakota schools, the stakes have never been higher. A recent poll indicates that a certified teacher shortage--fed by retirements and resignations to work out of state--is severe, and that "money or lack of respect" are teachers' major reasons for leaving.

  "Last year, Invest in Education brought people to lobby on 'Education Tuesdays,'" reports Swenson. "We started bringing in ESP, and we want to expand their involvement this year. We need all the help we can get in the campaign for more school funding and respect for school employees."

• Mutual respect. By collaborating, Sioux Falls teachers and ESP are learning that respect begins at home.

  "We as support staff need to respect teachers," says ed assistant Fossum. "We can't do their job because we don't have their academic background and training."

  Teachers, for their part, are realizing that not everyone can do ESP work.

  "Teachers need to value ESP work," notes Fossum. "It takes a certain type of person to work with children."

  On the playground, in the lunchroom, or outside of the structured environment of the classroom, Fossum adds, support staff see children in a different light than teachers.

  "We can see who bullies whom and who needs emotional support," she points out, "and we can pass that information along to teachers."

  Sums up Fossum: "Teachers and suppport staff need to sit down and think how they would get along without each other!"

For more information, contact Gail Swenson at sfea@sdea.org, Karen Fossum at lfossum@dtgnet.com, or Helen Schlueter at shschlueter@ll.net.

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Kudos to...
Minnesotans Save College

. . . In Minnesota, members of the United Technical College Educators have successfully worked with the community, legislators, students, alumni, and other staff to prevent the closing of Anoka-Hennepin Technical Col-lege (AHTC). The college, targeted for extinction last winter because of much-needed repairs, will now get $12.5 million for renovations.

AHTC will also get a new "middle college" that offers seamless transition from the 11th and 12th grades to the first two years of postsecondary education.

. . . Members of the Plaquemines (Louisiana) Association of Educators (PAE) and community allies convinced voters last fall to pass three school millage proposals by whopping three to one margins. That means raises this school year of $4,000 for teachers and $3,000 for ESP.

"This raise will help cover our insurance premium increases," says PAE President Jean Kelly, "and also make a difference in our retirement checks when that time rolls around."

. . . ESP in Gorham, Maine have a new contract that gives drivers and maintenance personnel raises of 10 to 30 percent over three years--and health insurance that remains at 100 percent of the previous year's rate. A revamped ESP salary scale has 15 two-percent steps, with a process for new and existing employees to obtain credit for up to five years' prior experience.

. . . In Washington State, the United Faculty of Central has won $6,000 in back pay for a tenured Central Washington University English professor--and published poet--who was overlooked while the school hired new assistant professors in his department at salaries far above his. The settlement amount will be added to the professor's salary base, and he will continue to receive the additional $6,000 annually until he retires.

. . . In bargaining, the Mercer County (New Jersey) Community College Faculty Association (MCCEA) has defeated a Board of Trustees attempt to force staff to pay part of their prescription drug benefits--payments that would have escalated dramatically over the term of the contract--and to give college deans unilateral authority over course scheduling. MCCEA's new three-year contract gives faculty raises of 3.6 percent, 4 percent, and 3.8 percent.

News
Your Work Shouldn't Hurt You

Many NEA members--from bus drivers to teachers--will be affected by new federal ergonomics standards. Take a long look at your own job.

The old way of opening a school bus door (left) can cause a driver injury. An air-opened door opener (right) can prevent it. Ergonomic solutions are that simple.





John Farley was a model employee during his seven years as a bus driver in a Pennsylvania school district. This NEA member loved kids, enjoyed driving, and never, ever called in sick. Moreover, Farley was a state-certified driver trainer and highly active in a student bus safety program that was recognized across the Keystone State.

But, over those seven years, this driver's unflagging devotion was matched by an unflagging workload, which tripled from 38 to 114 bus stops a day and tripled the repetitive stress on every part of his body.

"I added up a whole day of motions," he recalls, "and found that I made 700 motions per day with my right arm alone, manually opening and closing the bus door."

Bit by bit, Farley--whose name has been changed to protect his privacy--developed the signs and symptoms of musculoskeletal disorders. He was diagnosed with nerve damage in both of his wrists and elbows, and a bulging disk in his neck eventually herniated.

This damaged driver no longer belonged on the road. But he was forced to wage a demoralizing battle to convince his employer and its insurance carrier that his problems were directly related to his work.

After a long, bitter struggle, Farley failed to win either recognition or compensation, then left the district for good.

Today, three years after he quit in agony, Farley can't drive an automobile very far--"my nerves have a memory"--and his back problems are getting worse.

"I'll be haunted by these injuries for the rest of my life," he laments.

"Your body's safety mechanism is pain," Farley reminds the school employees he left behind. "If you're starting to hurt because of your job, stop what you're doing and go find an objective medical opinion. If you don't, you'll pay for it for the rest of your life."

"I knew something was wrong while I drove that bus," he continues, "but nobody gave me information on how to avoid these injuries. I should have been taken off that bus run and put on something less physical."

Farley comes close to describing part of the new ergonomic standards just released by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

These rules define musculoskeletal disorders--like carpal tunnel syndrome, tendinitis, and back injuries--as workplace hazards and require employers to take corrective measures when workers report "MSD" symptoms.

Barring a last-minute blocking action by the new President or Congress, the new OSHA standards were scheduled to go into effect January 16.

The new rules apply to all "general industry" employers, including public school employers in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and the 23 states that administer their own federally subsidized OSHA programs.

The 23 states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming.

The product of a dogged, 10-year lobbying campaign by the AFL-CIO and its affiliated unions, the OSHA ergonomic standards reflect standards already in place in Japan, Britain, and Canada.

The rules require the covered employer to inform workers about common musculoskeletal disorders, MSD signs and symptoms, and the importance of early reporting. The employer must maintain a log of reports, signs, and symptoms of MSDs--and management responses--on an OSHA form that's available to workers and their unions.

The standards provide a basic MSD "screening tool," or checklist, that includes risk factors. Only when employees report an MSD sign or symptom and their job matches one or more of these risk factors is an employer required to take further action.

If the problem is an isolated incident, the employer can use a "quick fix" to manage the worker's exposure to the risk. But if a group of employees in the same job category meet a risk factor, the employer must set up a full ergonomic program, with elements like job hazard analysis and reduction, medical management and work restrictions, and ergonomic training.

These new standards could benefit you, whether you work in a boiler room, an office, or a classroom.

"Schools are a complex industry with all kinds of jobs, many of which have ergonomic hazards," points out Darryl Alexander, health and safety coordinator for the American Federation of Teachers. "I've heard from librarians with carpal tunnel syndrome, and even from teachers who sustained injuries while moving classrooms, including books and furniture."

During hearings last year on the standard, AFT members shocked OSHA staffers with graphic descriptions of the ergonomic hazards of school work.

Ursula Stafford, a 24-year-old paraeducator from New York City, spoke about how she ruptured three disks in her back after less than two weeks of hoisting and shifting a 250-pound paraplegic student in a wheelchair. The para had received just 15 minutes of informal training from the child's mother.

And New York school secretary Diane Moriarty described how an improperly designed computer work station had given her a frozen shoulder, crushed vertebrae, and repetitive stress injury of the hands.

School employees "have taken ergonomic hazards and risks as part of the job, and this should not be," says Alexander. "These new standards are incredible, with the potential to make schools safer for staff and students."

But the new rules will be useless unless they're enforced. Here's a checklist to follow:

• 1) Find out if the new OSHA standards apply to your state. Even if your state isn't in the initial list of 23, "many states automatically adopt OSHA standards for public employees," notes Alexander. "Check with your state Department of Labor to see what's being planned."

• 2) If you're covered by the standards, ensure compliance. "We have to hold administrators accountable," stresses Alexander. "Expect them to start giving information and education on ergonomic hazards, repetitive stress injuries, and the concept of these standards, and encourage your colleagues to report the signs and symptoms of RSIs."

  "Listen to what co-workers are saying about those aches and pains," adds 16-year bus driver Denise Hacker, an ESP officer-at-large for the Pennsylvania State Education Association. "Take them seriously and don't pass judgment. Be supportive and steer them in the right direction to get the help they need."

• 3) Analyze jobs with the help of OSHA's "screening tool." "The labor movement got these 'caution standards' into the rules, and now they must be used," stresses Alexander. "Rely on them to evaluate your own job and others. And work with your district to come up with solutions that can save lots of money on absenteeism, health insurance costs, and the other hidden stuff connected to pain and injury."

  "In New York City," Alexander notes, "we have started to train paraeducators to use this checklist to assess the hazardous activities they engage in all day. This could revolutionize how special education students are handled in the future."

• 4) Don't be swayed by poverty pleas. Sure, your district may have budget problems, but it need not spend big dollars to enforce the OSHA ergonomics standards.

  Employees can often identify "simple changes" that would reduce risk, notes an OSHA factsheet. "Employers and employees working together can implement changes that reduce or eliminate risk factors without involving an expert."

• 5) Help keep these standards on the books. President George W. Bush and the new Congress will be under extreme pressure from business lobbyists to scrap these allegedly "costly" standards.

  "Urge your members of Congress not to vote to stop implementation of these rules," says Alexander. "Tell them how these standards can protect you and members of your family."

For more on the OSHA ergonomics standards, go to www.osha.gov. For an in-depth NEA study on bus drivers and repetitive stress, go to www.nea.org/esp/resource/repstres.htm.

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OSHA's 'Screening Tool' For Ergonomic Hazards

Risk Factor	Description
1) Repetition	Repeating the same motions every few seconds for two hours at a time, or using a keyboard, mouse, or other device steadily for more than four hours daily.
2) Force	Lifting more than 75 pounds at any one time, pushing/pulling with more than 20 pounds of initial force--such as pushing a 65-pound box across the floor--for more than two hours per day.
3) Awkward Postures	Working with the hands above the head for more than two hours per day, or working with the back, neck, or wrists bent for more than two hours a day.
4) Contact Stress	Using the hand as a hammer more than 10 times an hour for more than two hours total per day.
5) Vibration	Using tools or equipment with high vibration levels for more than 30 minutes per day or tools with moderate vibration for more than two hours per day.

News
Double-Digit Raises From Coast to Coast?

NEA state affiliates are teaching politicians that quality education and educator pay go hand in hand.

New Jersey NEA members, like these teachers in Southhampton Township, are boosting educator pay through tough bargaining.





In contract talks last summer, teacher members of the Absecon (New Jersey) Education Association refused to settle early on some "nice numbers" until the district first met the needs of educational support personnel.

That teacher-ESP solidarity yielded a new agreement that reinstates dependent health coverage for non-tenured teachers and provides double-digit pay increases for everybody over three years, including 19.5 percent for teachers, 19.18 percent for custodians, and 35.24 percent for teacher aides.

A continent away, many members of the California Teachers Association began the new school year with double-digit raises for just 2000-01 alone--including 11.9 percent in Huntington Beach, 12.9 percent in San Leandro, and 13.95 percent in Oakland.

In the Alvord Unified School District, the president of the NEA local affiliate, Leigh Hawkinson, says her members' raises--from 5.5 percent for beginning teachers to 12.6 percent for veterans--will help stem the flight of staffers to other districts and dot.com companies.

"Some teachers can't afford to live here, even if they're renting," she laments.

From coast to coast, elected officials--many of whom ran vowing to help improve public education--are coming to realize that lagging salaries are making it hard to attract and keep the high-quality educators all kids deserve.

This year, elected officials have a great opportunity to address this inequity, thanks to both record budget surpluses and strong voter support for public schools.

In this new climate, NEA state affiliates are setting some ambitious compensation goals, from double-digit increases in California to a $40,000 minimum teacher salary in Massachusetts and New Jersey.

It'll take hard work in the months ahead to reach objectives like these. But reports from around the nation indicate these promising action options:

Comprehensive statewide campaigns. Through a year-long drive--involving everything from media outreach to a proposed ballot initiative to raise education spending to the national average--the California Teachers Association hammered home the point that this mega-state had slipped to 40th place in per-pupil spending. The crowning campaign moment: a 10,000-teacher rally on the state capitol steps last May.

The upshot: Governor Gray Davis has announced that an additional $1.84 billion would be sent to the local level.

These new monies are now helping districts pay for double-digit teacher raises. Moreover, California's new budget allocates another $55 million to expand the state's minimum teacher salary program and $218 million to fund a teacher tax credit.

Meanwhile, through extensive research, bipartisan political action, and the combined lobbying power of teachers and ESP, the Alabama Education Association won legislation last year that will, starting October 2001, dedicate 41 percent of the annual growth in the state's Education Trust Fund to teacher raises, until Alabama hits the national average.

This kind of success has inspired NEA members in South Carolina.

"We've been setting the stage for_two years to make a major push toward the national average," reports Mary Greene, a staffer for The South Carolina Education Association. "Our governor has finally come out in favor of the plan, as have many state House and Senate leaders."

Over in Oklahoma, the NEA state affiliate, revved up by a $3,000 teacher raise it won last year after a 30,000-person rally, is now planning a campaign to move teacher salaries to the top of the region. That'll require, says the Oklahoma Education Association, _$80 million a year over four years.

And, in Wyoming, the NEA affiliate, the Wyoming Education Association, is collaborating with school officials to address the state's teacher shortage to "significantly" increase salaries. The estimated price tag: $73 million.

Aggressive bargaining. After studying average teacher salaries and polling educators who've left the profession, the New Jersey Education Association produced "common" goals for local affiliate bargainers and distributed some 200,000 copies across the state. Among the goals: teacher raises of 5 percent or higher, with greater percentage increases for ESP, along with quick movement to top salary and a $40,000 teacher minimum.

"Our average teacher salary ranked 15th nationally in 1981, and it ranks first today, at $52,100," notes NJEA staffer Bob Willoughby. "We got there through aggressive, coordinated bargaining, and not being afraid to walk the picket line when necessary."

In nearby Maryland, the NEA state affiliate, working with Governor Parris Glendening, recently won legislation that reinforces collective bargaining.

The new law's basic approach: If a school district and its union negotiate a minimum salary increase of 4 percent a year over two years, the state will kick in another 1 percent a year.

Many districts, says the Maryland State Teachers Association, have already taken advantage of this innovative statute.

Reaching directly to the public. After a long campaign--with everything from rallies to rolling school employee walkouts--the Washington Education Association last November won passage of a ballot initiative to provide annual cost-of-living raises for school district employees, academic employees of community and technical colleges, and certain technical college support staffers.

But WEA staffer Dale Folkerts stresses that there's much more work to be done on the pay issue.

"We're now seeking an additional catch-up and an urban housing allowance," he reports.

Southampton Township Education Association members stage an overnight vigil to win a new contract.





Last November, the Arizona Education Association teamed up with Republican Governor Jane Hull, the Republican state school superintendent, and legislators from both parties to win voter approval of a 0.6 percent sales tax increase that will raise some $445 million a year for public education.

Some $157 million of that money will be allocated for teacher raises.

"Our challenge now," says AEA Presi-dent Penny Kotterman, "is to implement this program quickly and fairly."

Working behind the scenes. Six Nebraska State Education Association members recently served on a state Teacher Salary Task Force, which has produced recommendations for making teacher pay "regionally competitive."

The panel's report, now in the hands of legislators, calls for a state-funded salary supplement for every teacher, an annual stipend for National Board-certified teachers, a college loan forgiveness plan, a mentoring program for all new educators, and extended contract pay.

The North Dakota Education Association, for its part, is now backing Governor John Hoeven's proposed solutions for the state's teacher retention and recruitment problem--including an immediate $3,500 increase for every teacher over the next biennium and a loan forgiveness program for new educators who accept hard-to-fill positions.

Pushing the envelope. Other NEA affiliates are working creatively to attract and keep educators in the profession. Several Massachusetts Teachers Association locals are now negotiating contract language that would provide partial or total payment for required advanced degree work, while the Michigan Education Association has won funding to cover the cost for every teacher to attend up to four work days devoted to professional development designed at the local level.

That will mean an added 2.4 percent raise on top of normal bargained increases.

In other key states, like California and Ohio, NEA affiliates have tackled the teacher retention problem by winning dramatic pension formula improvements that make it attractive to stay put and teach for a long time.

But as long as other professions pay higher salaries--often for fewer responsibilities and less stress--more work needs to be done.

"Model schools should have strong, professional, and competitive salaries," stresses Bob Willoughby in New Jersey. "We want to see our profession grow by bringing in and keeping the best and brightest."

For more on average teacher salaries, go to www.nea.org/publiced/ edstats/salaries.html.

My Turn
'The Orlando Odyssey'

This teacher has a set of rules for parents who take their kids out of school for vacations.

By Phyllis Lewis

First-grade teacher Phyllis Lewis feels like she knows most Disney characters personally, because her students bring back so many of them from vacations.

After a 10-year hiatus from teaching, I recently returned to the classroom to discover an interesting phenomenon: parents and their children taking extended vacations during the school year.

I call this all-too-common trend the "Orlando Odyssey," or "OO" for short. And, each year, the requests for time off increase.

Today, 180 days of learning are reduced by 10 percent or more via absenteeism, field days, trips to the doctor, holiday plays, and now, "OO." It's not unusual for a child to bring in a note that reads, "Alyssa will be out the next three weeks as we travel to Orlando to see Mickey. During this time, she will partake in numerous educational activities that include discovery, geometry, literature, and history. Please have three weeks worth of homework ready for her by tomorrow."

To my dismay, but not my surprise, I've come to learn that "discovery" is euphemistic for trying to discover the shortest entrance to the "Honey I Shrunk the Audience" exhibit at Epcot, "geometry" means judging the shapes on the plate during Breakfast with Pluto, "literature" is actually reading comic books in the rental car en route to Sea World, and "history" simply refers to glancing at the date the city was founded on the sign that welcomes visitors.

When I dare to inquire what these young travelers learned during their time away from the classroom, the answer invariably boils down to, "I can't remember cause my sunburn hurt most of the time." Sure, most come back with homework