Letters

High-Stakes Tests
Finally, NEA is speaking out against high-stakes testing (Cover story, January).

At the last Representative Assembly, delegates had the opportunity to vote on a proposal to work to ban high-stakes testing. Instead, that item was sent to a committee.

Teachers, it is time for all of us, with NEA's help, to rise up in defiance of these tests.

We need no more committees to study them. We know the negative effects they have on our students and on pedagogy. It is time to decry the ranking and tracking of our students under the guise of accountability and education reform.

It is time for all of us NEA members to tell the emperors they are wearing no clothes!

Maggie Hagan
Youngstown, Ohio

I am writing in response to November's Debate, "Should Special Needs Students Be Exempt from Graduation Tests?"

As a special educator, I believe we need to look beyond this question to recognize the entire population of students who are punished by high-stakes testing.

One of the greatest assets of our educational system is that we provide an education for everyone. Our country was founded on the principle that anyone with enough will-power can succeed. Who is failing these exams? Students from disadvantaged backgrounds. This testing will only increase the ever-widening gap between rich and poor.

We need to solve this problem before we create a population of dropouts who have few prospects for the future.

Leah Wasburn-Moses
Lafayette, Indiana

I want to thank the NEA Today staff and NEA leaders for their efforts to save education from the "test them and they will learn" forces.

I also want to thank Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota and Representative Robert C. Scott of Virginia who introduced Senate and House versions of a bill "to provide for fair-ness and accuracy in testing" in the last Congress.

Word is that Wellstone and Scott plan to introduce these bills again in the next Congress. I hope NEA members urge Senators and Representatives to support them. Contact information can be obtained at www.senate.gov/contacting/ and www.house.gov/writerep/.

Brad MacGowan
Chelmsford, Massachusetts

Irresponsible Parents?
I agree with LeAnn Traylor (Letters, January) that parents don't appear to show responsibility. However, while many of us live in an age of cell phones, pagers, and E-mail, there are also many who don't.

I teach in a rural area of the Deep South. I have kept kids at school with high fevers, bleeding injuries, and crawling lice on their heads, because there was no way to reach an adult.

These parents are too poor to have phones. They don't own vehicles. It is frustrating not to be able to reach someone, but I imagine it's just as frustrating for the parents who can't be reached.

I have seen kids miss more than 25 days of school a year because their parents couldn't afford medical treatment for their child.

At my school, we aren't doormats for irresponsible parents. We are their only hope. We do things like collect money to buy lice shampoo and deliver it to their homes.

If we don't help these people, we are all losers!

Jennifer Bergeron
Houma, Louisiana

Paperwork
Why do language arts teachers feel they are the only ones who grade lengthy assignments (letter on "Taming the Tiger," January)? I will match the time needed to grade my students' science projects to any English research paper. All dedicated teachers spend hours fulfilling paperwork demands. Like special education teachers, we have great, "unpaid" demands on our time. Prep time should stop being taken up by meetings, or it should be increased so teachers can do the other half of their job.

Skyleen Willingham
Okmulgee, Oklahoma

Connecticut Salaries
Competition for teaching positions among highly qualified candidates is the main reason for increased student achievement in Connecticut ("Where Teacher Quality Pays Off," November).

A law passed in 1986 brought teaching salaries in line with other professions in the state. With this increase came an influx of talented people vying for teaching positions.

But since 1986, teaching salaries have declined significantly. Also in decline is the quality of candidates seeking teaching positions.

Bring up salaries and watch students soar. Continue with the status quo and watch achievement fall. It's just a matter of time.

Beth Anderson
Torrington, Connecticut

Homosexuality
I must voice my concerns over the article about Arthur Lipkin's recent book (Innovators, November).

As a public school teacher, my responsibility is to educate students that, despite differences, we must learn to treat everyone with respect and care. However, I am alarmed at the onslaught of material aimed at teachers that screams agenda.

What right do we have to destroy the belief system of many quality families who send their children to public schools?

I am a proud member of the NEA. I support many of its initiatives. But I do not support ridiculing beliefs that I and many of our students' families hold dear.

Denver Daniel
North Ridgeville, Ohio

I agree that just as teachers talk about heterosexual relationships in classes, some time should be spent discussing homosexual relationships as well.

Five to 10 percent of students are gay, lesbian, or bisexual, not to mention that most students have friends, relatives, or neighbors who are.

Both heterosexual and homosexual students need to know there are teachers and other school personnel able and willing to talk about issues relating to homosexuality.

Jaime Lishinski
Virginia, Minnesota

I pray that T. Moore from Alabama (Letters, January) doesn't have any students who are questioning their sexuality. With such a supportive teacher, it's no wonder that teenagers consider ending their lives.

How can this person call herself or himself a teacher and not care about the feelings that their students hear from classmates and peers?

I am proud to be an NEA member and southeast region co-chair of the NEA Gay and Lesbian Caucus. I'm not afraid to tell the nation that NEA respects gay, lesbian, and bisexual students and educators.

Bill Goldman
Nashville, Tennessee

Student Graders
Falvo v. Owasso (Rights Watch, November) was correctly decided. I still recall my ninth grade algebra class where students traded papers, marked them, then shouted out the grade their neighbor received. I would be ready to sink through the floor with embarrassment as my neighbor announced my grade.

Certain rude classmates would then make derisive remarks about other students. In addition, students would "adjust" grades of friends or enemies.

It is a conflict of interest for students to grade each other.

NEA should not defend teachers who use peer grading to save taking paperwork home.

Doesn't the teaching profession have a code of ethics covering student confidentiality? If not, NEA should take the lead in developing one.

Karen Edwards
Lorain, Ohio

Disillusioned
The other day, a special education teacher was lamenting how difficult it is to keep track of her 23 students.

I said she should try it seven periods a day with 136 students, including five life-skills, three socially-emotionally disturbed, and up to 10 learning-supports students.

And I am not alone. In my small rural school district, the industrial arts teacher, the chemistry teacher, the Spanish teacher, the French teacher, and the physics teacher all have schedules similar to mine, and we are not even going to talk about the jam-packed elementary teacher's schedule.

(My apologies to anyone I missed, but apparently I never see you so I don't know your schedule.)

After 12 years, I am jaded, disillusioned, and just plain tired.

The intrinsic rewards of teaching are being overwhelmed by the reality of leaders who pay lip service to reform, bash teachers as a campaign strategy, and consistently refuse to pay up for salaries, smaller class sizes, and equitable funding.

Susan Chandler Lemmo
Clearfield, Pennsylvania

Phonics
Although the NEA Task Force on Reading 2000 drew on the ex-pertise of the International Reading Association and the National Coun-cil of English to frame its guidelines for reading instruction, it failed to consider the research of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).

The NICHD has invested more than $80 million during the past 35 years to study reading. Researchers have studied more than 10,000 children and published more than 2,500 articles.

They found that difficulties in decoding are the core of most reading problems. Using context to figure out the pronunciation of an unknown word cannot appreciably offset a deficiency in the ability to decode words.

The NICHD recommends a phonics-intensive curriculum for all children in the primary grades.

Louis Krane
Boynton Beach, Florida

National Certification
During the last negotiations in my district, I was on the bargaining team and we negotiated a $2,500 bonus for teachers holding certification from the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards.

Unfortunately, some disciplines aren't eligible for this board certification, but some have long-established national certifications that are much more rigorous.

Oklahoma recently approved a bonus for educators holding any national board certification.

My local, state, and national union presidents frequently extol the virtues of NBPTS certification, but make no mention of other professional certifications.

If my union won't be more supportive of national certifications earned by all of its members, then it ought to prorate the $600 or so dues paid annually by its second-class members such as myself.

Mike Kluznik
(National Certified
School Psychologist)