President's Viewpoint
Raising the Floor

In many public schools, children receive a top-notch education. Sadly, in others, student achievement is low. We intend to change that.

The new teacher on the other end of the line was in tears. Her plea to the local Association president was an urgent one: "Please get me out of here. I can't teach another day in this school." This distraught teacher taught fifth graders in the poorest neighborhood in the district, and nothing in her training had prepared her for the problems these children brought with them into the classroom. She was "on the brink of a total meltdown." The last straw had been a student threatening to have his ex-convict cousin "pay her a visit" if she kept "bugging" him about homework.

Hearing the desperation in the teacher's voice, the local president agreed to help.

After hanging up, he sighed. "I will get her transferred to a better school in the suburbs--I know how to work the system. But what about the students back in that inner-city school? They deserve better, too."

Exactly.

Let's be clear about this. Educating children of poverty and extreme social disadvantage is the toughest--and most compelling--challenge we face as educators. In the schools that serve the poor, every educational challenge is more pronounced, every solution harder to implement, and every success sweeter. In this context, "quick fix" is an oxymoron.

I believe the NEA and its members have a special responsibility to step up to this challenge--as problem-solvers, as partners, and, where necessary, as leaders.

To this end, NEA has published Making Low-Performing Schools a Priority--a step-by-step resource book to guide local educators through the school rescue process. And in the coming months, NEA will train activists to jump-start initiatives in each of their local school districts.

Yes, this will be difficult work--even heroic work--done school by school, parent by parent, and student by student. And yes, we take on this challenge knowing full well that the problems of child poverty are bigger than any school. Schools are an important part of the answer, but not the only answer. These students need better schools and better childhoods.

But there are things we can and must do as educators. And here's the good news: NEA members across the country are actively engaged in school transformations. In the Edgewood Independent School District in San Antonio, Texas, for example, the NEA affiliate has forged a strong alliance with its district, parents, and community to chart a new course. Where once there were 26 schools labeled by the state as "low-performing," now there are none.

NEA members are making a difference--from Larchmont Elementary in Takoma, Washington, to Wyandotte High in Kansas City, Kansas, to Azalea Elementary in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Of course for any school improvement plan to succeed, it must be grounded in hope. And the first condition of hope is the belief that the students can achieve. Any teacher who has lost this belief really doesn't belong in a low-performing school.

However, hope, as the old saying goes, is a good breakfast but a poor supper. To translate our hopes into concrete changes, we will also need more resources.

We owe it to the children and ourselves.

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.