Learning: Inside Scoop
Do Vouchers Help Kids Learn?

Despite the hype, impartial studies show there's no evidence they do.

This year, the nine Supreme Court justices are scheduled to decide whether vouchers--public money going to private K-12 schools--violate the U.S. Constitution. Voucher supporters have for years been saying private schools can do a much better job than public schools. But the public has been skeptical, recently defeating voucher referenda in California and Michigan by overwhelming margins. Last August, the General Accounting Office (GAO) took a hard look at the evidence. Their conclusion: There's no valid evidence that vouchers help students learn.

Where are vouchers now in effect?
The program before the Supreme Court is in Cleveland, Ohio. As of June 2000, roughly 3,400 Cleveland students had vouchers. About 97 percent of them were going to religious schools. According to the GAO, "the maximum voucher amount ($2,250 for low-income students) established by the Ohio legislature at the beginning of the voucher program appears to have limited the program primarily to low-tuition religious schools." The use of tax money to support religious schools is one of the issues before the Supreme Court.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has a larger program with 7,600 children as of 2000. Florida has a small voucher program. Maine and Vermont have long-standing programs but only for students in rural districts where there is no age-appropriate public school, and the private schools must be secular.

What is the GAO?
The General Accounting Office is the investigative arm of Congress. It conducts a wide range of studies on public policy issues.

What did the GAO report say about vouchers and student learning?
The GAO reviewed studies of test scores for students from Cleveland and Milwaukee, comparing children in voucher programs with other children who were in the public schools. GAO found no evidence that children in voucher programs do better.

The researchers based their report on studies commissioned by state education departments in Ohio and Wisconsin. The GAO referred to these studies as "contracted evaluations."

The report says: "The contracted evaluations of voucher students' academic achievement in Cleveland and Milwaukee found little or no difference in voucher and public school students' performance."

What about researchers who claim that vouchers do work?
The GAO report said their studies did not meet the standards of good social science because they did not use adequate controls. To tell whether students benefit from vouchers, researchers must compare children who use vouchers with similar children in public schools. GAO found that pro-voucher researchers failed to do this.

Why are there conflicting claims about the effects of vouchers?
It is very difficult to conduct valid, objective research on "social engineering" experiments like vouchers because people can't be treated like guinea pigs--they can't be assigned randomly to one program or another, don't necessarily stay in the program once they start, and can't be forced to cooperate with researchers even if they do stay.

In Cleveland and Milwaukee, a high percentage of families did not return survey questionnaires. Were these families similar to those that did return questionnaires? Some children went to private schools on vouchers but then left. Could some of them have left because they did badly there?

Some students were offered vouchers but turned them down and stayed in the public schools. Others left the public schools when they learned they would not get vouchers. Perhaps these were children whose parents planned to put them in private schools all along.

In addition, researchers were unable to get some of the test score data they needed.

In all these situations, researchers had to make assumptions about the missing or possibly biased data. GAO concluded that the different study conclusions were due to different sets of assumptions that researchers made.

However, even the most pro-voucher researchers have limited their claims of success to certain groups of students at certain grade levels. After a much-hyped report on privately funded vouchers in three cities, one of the chief investigators took the highly unusual step of warning publicly that the person in charge of the study was going beyond the data to put a positive spin on vouchers.

What are some proven strategies for helping students learn?
There is solid evidence based on several well-controlled, long-term studies that children learn better in small classes with well-trained, experienced teachers. Small classes appear to be especially beneficial for low-income children, the same children whom voucher proponents claim to be trying to help.

What is NEA doing about vouchers?
NEA and its state affiliates are playing a leading role in opposing vouchers. At the national, state, and local levels, NEA lobbyists and members educate policy-makers and opinion leaders about the strengths of public educa-tion. And NEA General Counsel Robert Chanin will present the argument against vouchers to the Supreme Court (see "Rights Watch" box on page 18).

Most important, NEA works to build public confidence in the public schools by improving schools for all students.

--Alain Jehlen

For more: Read the General Accounting Office report at www.gao.gov/ew.items/d01914.pdf. The NEA Web site has additional information and links at www.nea.org/topics/privatization/vouchers.

News: Rights Watch
The Courts Weigh In...

...On moment of silence, seat assignments, and ESP rights.

In a decision with national implications, a divided federal appeals court has upheld a Virginia law requiring every public school in the state to establish a daily "moment of silence" to enable students to "mediate, pray, or engage in any other silent activity."

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals last July rejected arguments by a coalition of students and parents in Brown v. Gilmore that the practice violates the First Amendment's requirement of church/state separation.

The minute of silence does not "promote" prayer or any other religious activity, the two-judge majority argued. Rather, it provides each student a daily opportunity "to think, to meditate, to quiet emotions, to clear the mind, to focus on the day, to relax, to doze, or to pray."

As such, the pause at the beginning of the school day is an effective "classroom management tool" and makes for a "better school day," the majority concluded.

Warning that the "Virginia statute is, like the Trojan Horse, a hollow guise," dissenting Judge Robert B. King complained that the law is nothing more that a "thinly veiled attempt to reintroduce state-sanctioned prayer into [the public] schools."

Asserting that "the statute's true aim" is "to encourage students to pray," the judge concluded that the law is unconstitutional under the 1985 Supreme Court decision Wallace v. Jaffre, which struck down an Alabama "moment of silence" statute.

In October, the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of the Fourth Circuit's ruling.

Can a school district secretly videotape its employees in order to catch them loafing on the job? Accord-ing to an Ohio appellate court, the answer is "yes."

In the fall of 1998, officials of the Kings Local School District in Ohio installed a hidden video camera in the staff break room of Kings High School to find out if custodians who worked the graveyard shift were taking excessive breaks.

Two of the custodians who were secretly taped later sued claiming that the practice violated their Fourth Amendment right to be free from unlawful searches and seizures.

Rejecting that claim, the Ohio Court of Appeals for the Twelfth District, ruled in July that, because the break room was open for use by all school employees, the custodians had no "expectation of privacy" in that space.

The court went on to say that, even if the custodians did have an expectation of privacy in the break room, the secret taping was still permissible because the employer had a legitimate interest in determining whether the custodians were taking excessive, unauthorized work breaks.

In reaching its decision, the court relied on an earlier federal court ruling from Kansas that community college officials did not violate the Fourth Amendment by secretly videotaping the locker room of college security officers during an investigation of alleged thefts.

A federal appeals court in Chicago has ruled that a Wisconsin third grade teacher can be sued for making student seating assignments based on race.

The parents of an African-American student at John Muir Elementary School in Madison, Wisconsin, sued their third-grader's teacher, Nancy Zabel, after learning that she utilized a racially-based seating plan that paired up African-American students.

Zabel attempted to justify the practice by claiming that, "in my education training sometimes we were told that African-American students need a buddy, and sometimes it works well if they have someone else working with them because they view things in a global manner."

Last August, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals held in Billings v. Madison Metropolitan School District that this practice violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution and that Zabel--but not the school district--can be held personally liable for money damages.

Although education support professionals (ESP) are sometimes treated like second-class citizens, a federal appeals court recently reaffirmed that ESP are entitled to the full protection of the U. S. Constitution, and can't be fired because they support the "wrong" candidate in a school board election.

Harold Taylor had a spotless employment record as a custodian in the Bell County (Kentucky) School District. His principal called him "the best custodian" he had ever had.

He was also politically active. Unfortunately for him, Taylor campaigned for the losing candidate in a school board election, a candidate whose chief campaign promise was to get rid of the superintendent, Yvonne Gilliam.

Payback time. Claiming a "financial crisis," Gilliam laid off Taylor a few months after the election and replaced him with one of her own campaign workers. As an ESP, Taylor didn't have "tenure" or any other job protection.

Fortunately for Taylor, however, he belonged to the Kentucky Educational Support Personnel Association, which, along with NEA, funded a federal lawsuit on his behalf.

The trial court dismissed the case before trial. But in October the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed.

"The First Amendment of the United States Constitution," the court declared, "prohibits the discharge of a public employee for his political beliefs or affiliations."

Emphasizing Taylor's "exemplary" work record, the court concluded that there was more than enough evidence to support Taylor's claim that Gilliam retaliated against him for working in the campaign of her political enemy. The case, Taylor v. Bell County Board of Education, has been sent back to the lower court for trial.

--Michael D. Simpson
NEA Office of General Counsel

Supreme Court To Hear Voucher Case

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether public funds can be used to pay for private religious schooling.

The case involves the six-year-old Cleveland school voucher program, which provides low-income families with tuition vouchers worth up to $2,250. For the 1999-2000 school year, 3,761 Cleveland-area students received vouchers, and 96 percent of the students used the vouchers to attend pervasively religious schools.

In a lawsuit brought by NEA and several other pro-public education groups, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled last year 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," resulting in the use of public money 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...."

Although the High Court struck down a similar voucher program in 1973, the emergence of a conservative majority on the Court has voucher pro-ponents predicting success this time around.

NEA General Counsel Robert Chanin will present oral argument to the Court in February or March, and a decision is expected early next summer.

--Michael D. Simpson
NEA Office of General Counsel

Resources
America's Public Schools Under Attack

Author challenges critics who want to dismantle, not reform.

EXCERPT
"A war is being waged on America's public schools. They are under siege. Sometimes the war doesn't look like a war because it is a war waged mostly in the polite language of academic debates. Sometimes it is waged in the polite terms of new 'partnerships,' but it is a war nonetheless."

The War Against America's Public Schools--Privatizing Schools, Commercializing Education
By Gerald W. Bracey
213 pp. $24 (Allyn and Bacon) To order call 800/666-9433

There's nothing polite about Gerald Bracey's detailed description of the impact of vouchers, charters, and the profit-making education industry on our K-12 schools. The Stanford-educated research psychologist's book offers an eye-opening account of the motives, the money, and the questionable legal and ethical maneuverings behind the push to privatize and commercialize public education.

From the outset, Bracey admits public schools need reform. "Too many schools still bore too many kids," he says. But, he adds, the real agenda of many "enemies of public schools" is to dismantle, not reform the current system. "Getting the government out of schools is part of the conservative agenda," Bracey says. He chastises political and religious conservatives, big business and some in higher education for using "distorted" testing data to label public schools as "failing." It's one way, he says, to grab educational dollars for charters, vouchers, for-profit alternatives, and even academic research.

Such misinterpretation of data is rampant, says Bracey, citing scores on the SATs, the National Assess-ment of Educational Progress (NAEP), and the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) as ripe for misuse. Blasting U.S. 12th graders for a low worldwide ranking in science is absurd, Bracey says, because of the vast international differences in curriculum and student participation. Top-ranked Scandinavian students study three times as much physics as their U.S. counterparts and most countries picked the cream of their student crop for two out of three TIMSS tests. The Unoted States was only one of five countries with a representative sample for all exams. Bracey likens the TIMSS rankings to comparing "apples to aardvarks."

His chapter on charter schools, publicly funded but free of bureaucracy, tells of wasted money, little accountability, and not much innovation. Bracey cites a common scenario: "The visionary opens a charter without the practical management skills to operate it, burns out, and turns the school over to a private, for-profit school-management firm." These firms, he says, are famous for canned curriculum and low teacher salaries.

Faced with weak, short-staffed oversight agencies, school districts have granted charters while paying little attention to evaluation, says Bracey. A UCLA study found schools lost charters for financial irregularities, not for failure to meet academic goals. And, he adds, when successful practices do emerge they rarely spread to public schools, as they should in theory, because there's seldom a mechanism for sharing information.

Although most for-profit education firms have failed to emerge from the red, there's great money-making potential, says Bracey, especially with the ongoing effort to erode confidence in public schools. Since our schools impart a common idea of good citizenship, he's concerned that for-profit schools, lacking public scrutiny of curriculum and finances, might pose "a threat to democracy." And, he has no faith that the private sector will treat education any differently than manufacturing where, he says, "neglect of standards and quality in favor of profits is the order of the day."

Voucher programs have faced voter opposition, court challenges and heated debate at the federal level. Now some are steering clear of the "voucher" nametag, but, no matter what it's called, the program still drains money and students from public schools. Like charters, voucher programs have largely avoided evaluation, adds Bracey. "It is more than a bit ironic that choice advocates, claiming the public schools need to be more accountable, have thus far largely succeeded in avoiding account- ability for their own endeavors."

Dense with facts and figures about all the major players and issues in the privatizing/charter debate, Bracey's newest work is a great handbook for besieged public school educators and advocates. He doesn't pretend to offer solutions for needed reform--just a warning that public schools are in danger and much too precious to let go without a fight.

--Mary Anne Hess

New from the NEA Professional Library

Inspiring Independent Learning: Successful Classroom Strategies
The Inspired Classroom Series
151 pp. $10.95 NEA members
$12.95 nonmembers
#2954-2-00-FN

How can you teach your students to learn without turning your class into a study skills lab? Inspiring Independent Learning shows you how to foster independent learning in your classroom through easy, often subtle techniques that gently place responsibility for learning in the hands of the students. This book provides numerous strategies to use with students in grades K-12, as well as activities and record forms for classroom use.

To order, call 800/229-4200, or check the Web at www.nea.org/books.

Books by NEA Members

The Teachers' Night Before Christmas
By Steven L. Layne
This pedagogical twist on the Christmas classic will delight teachers and students everywhere. The traditional school Christmas pageant, students visiting nursing homes, crafts, etc., all end in chaos while the teachers struggle to maintain order, and after school, get their own shopping done. In a whimsical touch, Santa arrives in his flying school bus to save the day and honor the teachers for their selfless devotion to their students. $14.95 from Pelican Publishing Company. Order toll free at 800/843-1724 or 888/5-PELICAN. Or visit www.pelicanpub.com.

The Sad Night
The Story of an Aztec Victory and a Spanish Loss
By Sally Schofer Mathews
In this striking picture book, the author traces the Aztec presence in Mexico from the mythic origins of the Aztec Empire to the recent discovery of gold lost by the Spaniards on that fateful night--The Sad Night--the last battle the Aztecs won against the Spaniards. This unforgettable tale is accompanied by eloquent, detailed illustrations rendered in the style of Aztec codex art. $6.95 from Clarion Books. To order go to www.houghtonmifflin books.com/cgi-bin/SaCGI.cgi/
catalog.class?FNC=ResultDetails_ASearchResults_html_111065.

Surviving Hitler
A Boy in the Nazi Death Camps
By Andrea Warren
Award-winning author Andrea Warren powerfully evokes the experiences of a boy growing up in the Holocaust. Told from the rarely published male point of view, this is a fascinating and deeply moving true story. Surviving Hitler will change the way you see tolerance, forgiveness, and the Holocaust. Readers will learn one boy's secret to surviving both death and heartbreak. For ages 10 up. $16.95 from HarperCollins Children's Books. Order online at www.harperchildrens.com.

Teaching on the Inside
A Survival Handbook for the New Correctional Educator
By Pauline Geraci
Teaching on the Inside provides an overview of what it can be like to teach in a correctional setting. It introduces new teachers to inmate culture and its significance to correctional education. The author, a recipient of the Marvin Sull Award in both 1999 and 2001 for creative teaching that impacts inmates in the classroom and the community, depicts her true life experiences as a correctional educator. $12.95 plus $3 s&h. Write to: Greystone Educational Materials, P.O. Box 86, Scandia, MN 55073; phone 800/733-0671.

The Dolls on the Old Stairway
By Brenda Crissman Musick
The book, appropriate for children age 3 to 9 years old, teaches the importance of love, friendship, and caring for belongings. It is a tale about two dolls with life-like qualities who come to live with "Grandma Ro." The entire household is filled with love, fun, and laughter until one doll is taken away. $9.95 plus $1 s&h. To order send check payable to Brenda Musick, P.O. Box 344, Honaker, VA 24260; phone 540/873-4322.

TV Tips

Othello
PBS, January 28, 9:00 p.m., ET, check local listings.
Based on the tragedy by William Shakespeare, this ExxonMobile Masterpiece Theatre production translates the classic tale of corruption and betrayal into a modern-day setting--New Scotland Yard in the era of race riots, neo-Nazis, and political spin. This Othello dramatizing the 1993 killing of a black teenager and a botched police investigation, stars Eammon Walker as John Othello, an officer with the London Metropolitan Police, and Keeley Hawes as Dessie(Desdemona). A companion Web site can be found at www.pbs.org/masterpiece.

The Planets
A&E, December 31-January 7, 7:00 a.m., ET, check local listings.
Using data and images from the Hubble Space Telescope, computer graphics, and special effects, this eight-part series offers a comprehensive presentation of the solar system. Drawing on consultations with over a thousand astronomers, engineers, scientists, and astronauts, and featuring rare NASA archival footage, this series explores the solar system and the technology that enables us to understand it. A companion Web site can be found at www.AandE.com/class.

Senior Year
PBS, January 11, 10:00 p.m., ET, check local listings.
The lives of 15 diverse high school seniors at Fairfax High School in Los Angeles are profiled in this observational documentary. Filmmakers spent an entire year with students, documenting the year that marks the end of their lives as "kids" and their entry into the adult world. Video diaries supplement the story of the students and their interactions with parents, teachers, and friends.

American Classics
The History Channel, January 14-17, 6:00 a.m., ET, check local listings.
This four-part series from the History Channel Classroom explores American history through examination of the classic icons that define Americans as a nation and the symbols that are important today. The icons examined include the Corvette, the Good Humor Man, Uncle Sam, GI Joe, drive-in movie theaters, Woolworth's Five-and-Dime, Main Street America, Route 66, John Wayne, Marilyn Monroe, and Mohammed Ali. A companion Web site can be found at www.historychannel.com/classroom.

Dragonfly TV
PBS, January 17, ET, check local listings.
This new series features 9- to 12- year-olds investigating science and using the process of science to learn about the world around them. Each episode introduces children to new scientific factoids and features adult scientists displaying their research on similar topics. Viewers are encouraged to join in their investigations via interactive Web activities. A companion Web site can be found at www.dragonflytv.org. In addition, Dragonfly TV experiments and other material can be found in the Scientific American Explorations magazine. Study guides are available in the journals of the National Science Teachers Association.

Cyberchase
PBS, January 21, ET, check local listings.
Starring the voices of Christopher Lloyd and Gilbert Gottfried, this new animated series from PBS takes children into the world of cyberspace where classic good-versus-evil battles rage and where children use their minds, not muscle to confront obstacles and solve problems. Each episode takes viewers on an adventure driven by a different math concept--from tackling time in ancient Egyptian tombs, to cracking codes in creepy caves, or making sense of numbers in a fractured world.

The Secret Life Of the Brain
PBS, January 22, 9:00 p.m., ET, check local listings.
This five-part series explores the new map of the brain that has emerged from the past decade of neuroscience research. The presentation takes a chronological approach beginning with birth and ending with old age. Each individual program explores a specific stage of human development, from fundamental neural development and innovative medical treatments to behavioral therapies, new brain-based educational techniques, and the characteristics of the older brain that may form the basis of wisdom. Thirteen/WNET New York is making available teachers' guides free of charge. Contact guiderequest@thirteen.org.

The Blue Planet: Seas of Life
Discovery Channel, January 27, 9-11 p.m. and January 28, 9-11 p.m. ET, check local listings.
Sir David Atten-borough wrote and narrates this landmark 8-hour series about the Earth's marine environment. We know less about the oceans than we do about the surface of the moon, yet the seas cover two-thirds of our world. The Blue Planet: Seas of Life is a definitive exploration of our planet's oceans and reveals the sea and its inhabitants at their most fearsome and alluring. The other four parts of this eight-part series will air next spring.

__________________
KIDSNET, a national resource for children's media in Washington, D.C., provides these listings. For additional listings, check the web at www.kidsnet.org.

Web Winners

Slavery Fighter
At this site, the Library of Congress presents an interactive timeline and autobiographical works of Frederick Douglass, the towering nineteenth-century African-American abolitionist who escaped from slavery and then risked his own freedom by becoming an outspoken antislavery champion. Go to: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/doughtml/.

See the World
Looking for news from all over the world? The WorldNews Network is an online portal to international news. Arranged in user-friendly categories that range from geographic areas and business to entertainment and science. Another option: try the drop-down menus at the bottom of the page. Go to: www.wnnetwork.com.

All in a Name
You may be surprised to find out just how many people around the nation share your surname--and where they live. You can search dates back as far as 1850, and the results appear in a color-coded map. Go to: www.progenealogists.com/surnamestudy.htm.

Some Good News
In these troubled times, when it's easy to get tired of all the bad "news that's fit to print," it may be time to visit a site that specializes in good news it calls HeroicStories. This site, whose aim is to restore faith in humanity "one story at a time," offers an alternative. Go to: http://www.heroicstories.com.

LA Museum Art
Browse through some 10,000 images from the permanent collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Just click the Start button to enter a virtual exhibit with items ranging from Japanese art and photography to textiles and costumes. http://mweb.lacma.org.

Just the Right Words
Amaze your friends with your encyclopedic knowledge of notable quotables for just about any occasion. BrainyQuote lets you scan more than 30,000 quotes by 8,000 authors from Aristotle to Zappa. Search by topic and author name, or have a daily e-quote delivered to your inbox. Go to: www.brainyquote.com/.

If you love online puzzles then Puzzle Choice is your kind of Web site. Amuse yourself with 20 different types of printable and interactive crosswords, along with word search, trivia tests, and number challenges. Go to: www.puzzlechoice.com.

Afghan Site
Our attention is on the Afghan battlefield. Go to the CIA's World Factbook 2001 for a user-friendly backgrounder on that strife-ridden Southern Asian nation. Info on everything from geography to demographics. www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/.

Off to a Good Start
StartSquad boasts that it is the very best place to start for children, parents, librarians, and teachers seeking age-appropriate Web sites selected and organized by professionally trained librarians. Go to: www.startsquad.org.

Desirable Destination
Get ready for the holidays by getting fit, with the help of the online version of Health magazine. Includes tips on how to deal with food, weight, and beauty concerns. Go to www.health.com/cgi-bin/current/home/index.cgi.

Before you take advantage of today's low-cost travel fares, visit the world's top destinations online with the help of this multi-faceted Cities Guide. Use an interactive map or a drop-down menu. Go to: www.economist.com/cities/.

Librarians' Choice
Put your own library on your desktop: The Best Free Reference Web Sites 2001 listings--online resources that are recognized as outstanding by the nation's librarians. At www.ala.org/rusa/mars/best2001.html.

Phobias Defined
Do you suffer from sesquipedalophobia? Or maybe myrmecophobia? At last, you can now get a definition for those and other multi-syllabic fears at the aptly named Phobia List. (Admittedly not much of a help for cyberphobes.) Go to: http://phobialist.com.

Top Notch Physics
Are your students baffled by physics? This destination explains the basic laws and theories of physics in easy-to-understand language and multimedia clips. Topics covered include speed and accelerations, collisions, roller coasters, seesaws, planet rotation, friction, sound, Doppler effect, zero gravity, atoms, and more. Plus, the site's creators recently added an online quiz generator to assess students' knowledge. Go to: www.fearofphysics.com.

Money, Money
Our currency--money--tells a story about our country's history. This fascinating online exhibit starts with colonial currency from 1776 and continues through today's green backs and tomorrow's smart cards. Each bill is accompanied by a short historical note to place it into context, notes on the artists who created it, plus the meanings of the interwoven literary devices and artistic accents. www.frbsf.org/currency.

Health Talk
In the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, Kaisernetwork.org serves up special coverage of the issues and debates now shaping health policy. Includes links to online resources, Webcasts and reports. Go to: www.kaisernetwork.org/specialcoverage/9_11.cfm.

National Pasttime
Baseball lovers' labor of love: An online portfolio of hundreds of digital photos of baseball stadiums and ballparks from major to minor to independent leagues, including defunct and rare baseball stadiums and ballparks from all across North America. Go to: www.digitalballparks.com.

Black Hole Explained
NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory catches a glimpse of the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy, about 2.6 million times the mass of our Sun. Just one of the many images at this out-of-this-world photo gallery. Log on to: http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/chronological.html.

Feel the Power
The One World Journeys team offers a 10-day multimedia expedition across the coastal waters and rivers of British Columbia's Great Bear Rainforest, Salmon: Spirit of the Land and Sea, a photo-documentary focusing on the mind-blowing journey of the Pacific wild salmon. Go to www.owj.com/salmon/.

Space Photos
NASA's Galileo spacecraft adds Jupiter's moon Callisto to its gallery of breathtaking images. Described as a spiky landscape of bright ice and dark dust. Go to: www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/callisto/.

Snail Mail
Travel back to the days before e-mail with a visit to the Bath Postal Museum, which presents backgrounders and artifacts dating back to Egypt's earliest days of snail mail. A virtual hoot. Go to: http://www.bathpostalmuseum.org.

All History
The History Channel invites you to send an historical e-card, listen to a famous speech, or check out what happened "this day in history" in various fields. Go to: www.historychannel.com.

Toy Story
Take an amusing tour through the Museum of Advertising Icons' collection. Hundreds of pop culture giants are represented. Go to: www.toymuseum.com.

Foreign Language
Need a quick translation of a foreign word or passage? Babel Fisch is one place to start for translation from Chinese, French, German, Italian, or Japanese into English or vice versa. Don't look for complete technical accuracy, but the translations are readable and this free site can handle several paragraphs at once or even entire Web pages. Go to: babelfish.altavista.com/translate.dyn.

Reference Desk
Students looking for a good all-purpose reference site may want to try what many say is the best all-round site, www.refdesk.com. Here you can start your research by using the Facts Subject Index for information about grammar, plus thousands of links to other refernce sites including the Library of Congress's guide to online legal information.

Finding Your Way Around
For students in need of a good site for geographic references, try this site. It offers political and geographic maps of the world or a partiuclar country. With each map you'll find demographic, economic, and historical information. Go to: www.atlapedia.com.

Hearing and Seeing
Here's a site that offers a quick way to find information from audio and video recordings--everything from radio and TV to the Internet--and the site is searchable. There is also a fast-forward feature. Go to: www.speechbot.com.

Beware the Net
Don't believe everything you read on the Internet. This site will reinforce healthy skepticism in your students about using Internet information. Go to: www.media-awareness.ca. Plus, there's a handy list of trustworthy resources to use.

Modern-Day Merck
The Merck Manual has been around a long time, but this is the new Merck Manual for the new century. Still, this site is a lot like the print version, full of artices on various diseases, lots of animantion, illustrations, photos, and a powerful search engine to find specific information more easily. Go to: www.merckhomeedition.com.

Prescription Help
Also on the health front, a site that will explain what is in the drugs your doctor prescribes for you? There is an online index, with information on thousands of drugs and herbal suplements. Go to: www.rxlist.com.

Hearing and Seeing
Here's a site that offers a quick way to find informatin from audio and video recordings--everything from radio and TV to the Internet--and the site is searchable. There is also a fast forward feature. Go to: www.speechbot.com.

Learning: Reading
Reading and Leading By Example

In Walnut, California, an award-winning literacy program creates a chain of reading mentors.

If it's Wednesday, the students of NEA member Connie Spencer must be at Vejar Elementary School. Once a week, the high school students travel to their elementary school to read, play vocabulary games, and work with second, third, fourth, and fifth graders.

They're also there to offer MORE--More Opportunities for Reading Enrichment--and more chances for connecting, mentoring, and character building. During 45-minute sessions, two Walnut high students are paired with one second or third grader, and one fourth or fifth grader. The teams work closely together. The high schoolers read to and mentor the fourth and fifth graders, who in turn, mentor the younger students.

"We did this because our research told us students improved their reading and class work when they worked with mentors," explains Spencer, a Walnut language arts teacher. "We decided to create a chain of mentors, each link building on the next. We knew the younger students would thrive with help from older elementary students, and both groups looked up to the high schoolers."

The project started small three years ago when Spencer began working with Vejar's Dr. Diana Ketterman-Brockett, director of Character Champions, a project linking social and literacy skill development. But with a first-place award and grant from the Youth Leaders for Literacy, a joint initiative between the NEA's Read Across America and Youth Service America, the project has taken off.

"We currently have 80 students working together and others eager to get involved," says Spencer. "We never dreamed this would be so successful."

Vejar Elementary teacher and MORE co-coordinator Jim Brandenburgh agrees. "Once we worked out the logistics, everything moved smoothly. We're beginning to see the real benefits of this project. Students who had struggled with their reading were finding help from their peers. They also began to see learning as great fun.

"At the same time, the high school students have begun to take notice," says Spencer. "It isn't every day that you see the impact of your care and attention."

"These students are beginning to see what mentoring, particularly literacy mentoring is all about," Spencer adds. "You not only get the intrinsic rewards of getting involved in your community, but you also realize the importance reading plays in your life and the lives of others."

Vejar student Allison Hernandez agrees. She used her favorite book, Charlotte's Web, as a source of inspiration for her interest in literacy service. "It's about helping others," says Hernandez. "that's what all of us are trying to do."

"Another reason why the MORE project is so important is that it builds up a connection between students of all ages, particularly the young," adds Spencer. "We hope that by offering these kinds of activities and support systems, the school world will have fewer incidents like the one at Columbine High School. Reading is the gateway for a great many things, and we already know of its rich rewards."

--Anita Merina

For more information on the MORE project, E-mail Connie Spencer at conspencer@aol.com.

How To...
Create a Reader Leader

Youth Service America President Steve Culbertson has his own family tie to literacy. His grandfather was college roommates with Dr. Seuss, Theodore Geisel. These days, Culbertson coordinates National Youth Service Day, the largest service event in the world, involving 3 million young people. Under Culbertson's leadership, YSA joined NEA in creating the Youth Leaders for Literacy initiative, offering grants for reading-related activities. Here, he offers project suggestions and grant information.

• Mentor young readers. Set up a reading project like the Walnut project, offering activities, reading time, and events that link students young and old.

• Help your students conduct reading challenges. The challenges can be within a school or between schools.

• Have students coordinate bookfairs featuring local authors or their own work. Encourage them to take the lead in organizing readings and poetry slams.

• Look for additional literacy activities, such as reading books onto tape for the visually impaired.

• Don't forget to enter the Youth Leaders for Literacy contest. Twenty-five projects will receive a $200 award each and the top five will receive $200 and a book collection. Begin your literacy project March 1, 2002, and celebrate it on Youth Service Day April 26-28. To apply, go to www.nea.org/readacross. For more on YSA, go to www.ysa.org.

Learning: Problems and Solutions
'I Can Be Anything'

Smaller classes and culturally relevant curricula raise student achievement in Omaha.

Last school year, Ranisha and Denzell began second grade with reading skills in only the first or second percentile for their education level. By the end of the school year, both students' reading skills had rocketed above the 50th percentile.

"Ranisha could always be found doing her reading faithfully, to the delight of her mother, and Denzell was the kid whose hand always shot up when I asked a question in class," says Tamara Bailey, a second grade teacher at Druid Hill Academy in Omaha, Nebraska.

Druid Hill is one of 22 Academy Schools established by the Omaha Public Schools two years ago to improve student achievement in low-income neighborhoods. In communities where 75 percent or more of the students qualify for free or reduced-cost school lunches, OPS is infusing substantial new funding to hire more staff and dramatically reduce class size.

"The Academy system allows me to touch each kid," says Bailey, whose class size is 14. "When the classes had 25, some kids would hide from being called on. Now, I have kids complaining if they're not called on."

Embracing the cultures of Omaha neighborhoods is another important component of Academy Schools.

Druid Hill is one of three Afrocentric schools in the program. To motivate students while celebrating African-American culture, the school holds a weekly assembly called a harambee, the Swahili word for "let's pull together." The kids chant affirmations such as "I can be anything. I can do anything."

Phyllis Christiansen teaches kindergarten at Marrs Academy in a largely Hispanic section of south Omaha. There, the cultural element of the curriculum has been taken even further.

"Under the Academy system, we've become the first public school in the state to develop a dual-language program. It's not ESL. It's English and Spanish, and our goal is to start kids on a path in kindergarten that will lead them to be bilingual and biliterate by the end of sixth grade."

Christiansen teaches her class in English. Nearby, her colleague Irma Franco is teaching the same lessons to her own class in Spanish. But for a portion of the day, the kids switch classrooms--and languages.

"We don't teach something in English and then teach it again in Spanish," says Christiansen. "There is no repetition. Instead, there is continuity. When the kids switch classrooms, the previous lesson is so fresh in their minds that they naturally take in the new lesson in a different language."

Like Bailey, Christiansen says class size is critical. "I have 17 in my class," she says. "For the first time, I feel I'm able to address individual needs, and I have time to coordinate my work with parents. Instead of meeting all the parents at quarterly meeting, I phone two parents a night and have them all briefed on their kids progress in a little more than a week. Then I start over."

Bailey, too, says her relationship with parents has improved. "They're excited about their kids' progress. They're coming to see me more. The last time I held a parent/teacher conference, I had 14 parents show up for 14 kids. I'd never had 100 percent before."

Carolyn Grice, who coordinates community outreach for OPS, says the successes at Druid Hill and Marrs are not isolated. Test scores are up significantly at all 22 Academy Schools.

"The parents have a new outlook," says Bailey. "When we started the Academy approach, I saw the kids begin to believe they could grow up to accomplish anything. Now the parents believe it. They're saying to me: 'My son or daughter can be a success.'"

"As an African-American," says Bailey, "I feel that's the greatest contribution I've made to my brothers and sisters."

--Matt Simon

For more:
E-mail Caroline Grice at gricec@ops.org. Also, for information about NEA's Priority Schools Initiative, visit the NEA Web site at www.nea.org.

Dilemma
How do you get your students back to work after a holiday?

Try a class survey. In January, I do a survey of children's New Year's resolutions. After Halloween, you can survey the kinds of candy they received, pick the six most common kinds, and make a graph. Use the Internet to find the candy manufacturers. Graph their number of employees and company worth. For Thanksgiving, ask who went out of town, who stayed home, who visited family in town, and what they had for dinner. (Know your class to be sure of poverty issues, so as not to embarrass some.) This lets them talk about the holiday but still get back to work.

Deborah Norris
Elementary special education teacher
Richmond, Virginia

I always tried to find a light way to pick up where we left off--a "test" asking questions about what they did, where they went, what they saw and heard. Before and after some holidays, I would have them look up the history and write a two-page paper on what they learned. At Christmas, I would have them learn about similar celebrations in different cultures. Then I would try to segue into what we were studying.

Pat McNeely
Retired middle school history teacher
Dallas, Texas

After a holiday, I try to make my classes a little bit competitive! I put them randomly in teams for short competitive games. I may give them a list of latitude and longitude coordinates and ask them to locate the country. Sometimes, I have them assign tasks to each team member. Other times, I ask them to solve the problem collectively. I keep the time periods short, five minutes or less. A kitchen timer is helpful. I give "Smarties" roll candy or fruit snacks to winners.

Linda Norman
Sixth grade teacher
Ayer, Massachusetts

The two worst times of year are after the winter holiday break and after spring break.

After January 2, guest speakers can get students back in the groove. My Technology Preparatory students hear speakers from business on job expectations, the application process, and interview skills. Colleges offer classroom presentations on many subjects, such as scholarships.

The biggest challenge is between spring break and summer. Kids just give up at that point. My technology preparatory students have a job-shadowing day the week they return from spring break. For my college preparatory students, this is a good time for a college presentation on "senioritis."

Rita Jo Swingle
English teacher
Athens, Pennsylvania

After a holiday, I plan to have a day of hands-on science, history, and language arts activity that gets them out of their seats but also reviews what we were studying before the vacation.

Lauren Tanner
Elementary school intern facilitator
Payson, Utah

This is a "building block" opportunity. A close, personal relationship is invaluable in teaching teenagers. They often have no adult who regularly takes the time to talk.

After a vacation, I talk with them about their time off: the high points, the low points. I share my holiday experience. I commiserate with them about having to go back to work. After 10 or 15 minutes of "together" time I remind them of their goals. By now they are ready to work.

Bonnie Hutchens
High school Social studies teacher
Westminster, Colorado

I have a group sharing time, prompted with a question.

First time around: What was the best thing about your vacation?

Second time around: What is the best thing about being back at school. This official sharing time helps get the chattiness out of their systems. Then it's back to business!

Jenny Cooper
Fourth grade teacher
Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Got an Answer?
How do you deal with chronic absenteeism?

E-mail your answer to dilemma2@list.nea.org. Or send by regular mail, or fax to 202/822-7206. Include your name, city, state, and job title. If published, you will receive an NEA Today mug!

How I Did It

Nancye Garland
Lincoln Elementary School
Resource Instructor
Kingsport, Tennessee

A special education teacher discovers a way to hook both students and parents.

I want to share one of the most successful ideas I've had for working with special needs kids. For the last two years, instead of the usual pizza party or trip to the park at the end of the year, I took the class and their parents fishing. My colleagues thought I'd gone off the deep end.

The students were so excited they planned and planned. I didn't know whether to be excited or pray for rain.

Some kids came to the lake with tubs of worms, as if we were going to fish all evening and night. There were parents who'd never come to school who talked to me about their children. Their excitement was palpable. Parents and students and teacher fished side-by-side. This was the first time I'd seen my students outside class. I stayed until after dark with a hyperactive fourth-grader who could barely leave his line in the water.

I felt like I'd solved the world's problems as I drove home. Fishing has become the common ground for my students, a topic for conversation and written language lessons, and a successful experience that's helped the class bond.

Although I have years of teaching experience and several degrees, I've learned so much about children and teaching from the two fishing trips. In fact, the students and I have all learned:

• You don't have to be the best to enjoy the task.

• Continue to learn and develop new skills.

• Enjoy what you're doing.

• There's more to life than school.

• The simplest things bring the greatest pleasure.

• Don't be afraid to try.

• Motivation and determination are the keys.

My advice to peers: "When all else fails, take them fishing."

'Pee-Wee IB'

The International Baccalaureate's new elementary school program earns high marks in South Carolina.

Some jokingly call it "Pee-Wee IB," but there's nothing pint-sized about the impact of the International Baccalaureate Organiza-tion's Primary Years Programme (PYP) on three elementary schools in Beaufort County, South Carolina. Initiated in 1997, the latest addition to the IB curricula has generated a new passion for teaching and learning here. The three are among only 13 U.S. schools currently authorized to offer the PYP.

"Students are always asking questions," says Bliss West, reading teacher at Port Royal Elementary School. "They're on a quest to find out more and more and more, taking more risks than when they were confined to a more traditional school and methods of instruction. They are not afraid to learn."

PYP uses an inquiry-based approach with six themes:

• Who we are
• Where we are in place and time
• How we express ourselves
• How the world works
• How we organize ourselves, and
• Sharing the planet.

This approach to everything from language arts to science and physical education has changed West's teaching style. "My background as a Chapter I teacher had given me a very narrow focus, " says this 23-year teaching veteran. "Now I think more globally."

Classrooms are more hands-on, she says, and her school, with its host of networked computers, is more student-centered. "It's amazing to watch the research students do and the discussion topics they generate," says West. She sees the results across all levels of achievement. "PYP has taken the threat out of education. During my career, I've seen so many students afraid to talk, afraid their questions might seem silly. Now they speak up, take risks, ask questions. It's expected."

Claudia Scott, who has taught at the district's Broad River Elementary for 31 years, agrees. "Before PYP the emphasis was on what a child could or couldn't do, based on expectations we set. Now they're more in control of their learning and they do a better job. We give them the support they need."

This fall, her 16 first and second graders researched the question: What's the name of the group in control of Afghanistan? True to the PYP approach, Scott wasn't only interested in students getting the right answer. The process was at least as important. First, the youngsters had to investigate what resources to use--an encyclopedia, a newspaper, the Internet?

Challenges like this, ones that develop real-world skills, are commonplace in the PYP. Children also spend time doing science experiments and art projects, and writing poems, plays, and stories. All children start Spanish in kindergarten, and some teachers are following suit. "There's a lot more learning going on," says Scott. She has also seen behavior improve. "Students end up asking themselves how they can do things better," she notes.

Assessment runs the gamut--from anecdotal records to portfolios, rubrics, and traditional tests. There's lots of self-assessment with students documenting everything they do. After finishing a unit, youngsters write reflections in notebooks. Instead of letter grades, written comments fill report cards.

PYP was originally discovered by Beaufort administrators looking for a gifted program, but it is working for children of all ability levels, and in schools serving low-income as well as affluent children.

Beaufort's three high schools offer the IB Diploma Programme, although few students participate. That may change as the PYP children reach their teens. Meanwhile, Beaufort's middle schools and two more elementaries have applied for the IBO's seal of approval.

In South Carolina, students from third grade on take state tests. It's too soon to tell whether PYP will boost scores, and other school initiatives will make it hard to isolate the PYP effect. But the mention of scores makes PYP proponents cringe because many qualities their schools foster--thinking, self-confidence, curiosity, and cross-cultural understanding--can't be quantified.

West says state standards do act as a guide for teachers, but they don't teach to the test. The state's open-ended questions mesh well with the PYP's heavy writing emphasis, she adds.

Most important, says West: "Our children love coming to school!"

--Mary Anne Hess

For more: Visit www.ibo.org.

Dilemma
How do you improve the return rate of papers sent home?

I use the oldest trick in the book: positive reinforcement. They get a prize if the paper comes back the very next day. The key is knowing what your students want! I teach middle school and I use a toy or piece of candy. Younger students bring forms back for a sticker. Some will do it for an extra credit point. No matter the age, this is a sure-fire method! The few who forget the first time won't forget again when they see all the prizes distributed!

Sherri Barrett
Sixth grade science teacher
South Hampton, Pennsylvania

I collect important papers in a folder for each student. On Fridays, they put the papers into manila envelopes to take home. That way, parents can depend on getting everything at one time--no straggling papers stuffed in backpacks. At first, to get the class into the habit of returning the envelopes, I offer incentives. By October, they have it down. There is a place on the envelopes for parents to sign, a place to check off how they felt about their child's work that week, and a place to ask me to contact them.

Andrea Payne
Third grade teacher
Lewistown, Montana

I send home a weekly newsletter that tells class news as well as my expectations. Parents then know that I want their children to develop into responsible people, and that I want them to know how their children are doing. When I send something home that I need returned, I put my "Sign and Return to School" stamp on it. I make sure that I have a copy. If I do not get it back, I can mail it. But I seldom have to do this!

Sue Resop
Second grade teacher
Seymour, Wisconsin

When I want papers signed and returned by parents, I offer students chances to get a homework pass. A signed test with an A grade gets three tickets. A paper with a B gets two tickets, and a C receives one. The tickets are placed in a jar and a winner is drawn. This spurs interest, and I know the parents have seen the work.

Rosemary Ordile
Fourth grade teacher
Northfield, New Jersey

At our school, we staple papers to notices for upcoming events such as field trips and sports activities. These events require parent signatures for participation, so students take the forms home.

Timothy Warren
Middle school band director
Jacksonville, Florida

At the beginning of the year, I teach my students how to get their parents to complete paperwork that we need returned. First, I demonstrate the elbow hold. I hold a student's elbow while I explain what I need (a signature). I don't let go until I get the signature. If the paperwork is a little longer, there's the modified elbow hold, which consists of gathering the needed supplies before latching on and then offering to do chores while the paperwork is completed. If an interruption causes progress to stall, it may be necessary to reinstate the original elbow hold. I explain to my students that this may be a start and stop process until they get their parents trained.

Karen Nielsen
Elementary teacher
Beaverton, Oregon

Got an Answer?
How do you get your early morning classes awake and working?

E-mail your answer to dilemma2@list.nea.org. Or send by regular mail, or fax to 202/822-7206. Include your name, city, state, and job title. If published, you will receive an NEA Today mug!

Idea Exchange

Rule Reminders
When my students "forget" to follow rules, I give them a written assignment that is guaranteed to make them think twice next time.

They have to write reasons why they should and/or shouldn't follow the rule they broke.

The number of reasons they have to write depends on the grade level of the student.

Usually, students find that the first few reasons are easy to think of, but it gets harder and harder to think of more reasons.

Sometimes, they have to be very creative to complete the assignment.

Jacqueline Dixon
Newark, New Jersey

Counting Down A Freeze
One way I get my second grade class to switch gears is to count down a freeze. By the time I get to zero, they must be sitting up straight, feet under the desk and hands folded in front of them. I usually whisper, "freeze in 5-4-3-2-1-0." Those in a great freeze receive verbal praise. The table with the best freezes may receive group points. What's great is counting down the freeze in Spanish, or saying 32 degrees F or 0 degrees C when I get to zero. It's teaching across the curriculum in those in-between times. Every second counts!

Abigail Greenberg
Charlotte, North Carolina
Newspaper Resources

As an NEA life-time retired member who is now in a second career, I'd like to point out a valuable and cheap resource for teachers: newspapers.

Most newspapers have some sort of Newspapers in Education program.

Teachers can request newspapers for their classes. More than likely, the papers will be free or available at a very reduced price.

Curriculum support, activities, and lesson plans are usually provided.

Paul Crowner
Manager
Newspapers In Education
The Chronicle
Centralia, Washington

President's Viewpoint
Can We Connect With Today's Parents?

Yes, but we'll have to be more creative. If parents won't come to us, we must go to them.

I have heard teachers say that some parents "just don't care about their kids' education." Likewise, some parents say that teachers "don't care."

But whenever NEA's Family-School-Community Partnership brings these mutually frustrated parents and teachers together in a room to talk with one another, we discover that both parents and teachers care deeply about "our kids" and only want what's best for them.

So I don't buy the "don't care" explanation. What I do buy, however, is the stubborn fact that there are real obstacles to parent-school cooperation.

Obstacle number one is diversity.

As student diversity grows, the teaching force remains overwhelmingly white, non-Hispanic, and middle class. Today, 35 percent of our students are minorities. By 2030, half will be minority. And throughout the 1990s, the number of students of immigrant parents surged. We now have schools where more than 60 languages are spoken.

Rightly, we celebrate America's diversity. But in doing so, we must never forget that we still have to work hard at making diversity work. Language, racial, cultural, or class barriers are a fact of life. Indeed, teachers and education support professionals have told me that they feel overwhelmed and need help connecting with students and families from very different backgrounds than their own.

Common sense tells us that school districts should take school employees at their word and, through mentoring and professional development, provide staff with partnership-building tools and skills.

In addition, we need to make our schools less intimidating and more user-friendly for every parent.

Obstacle number two is time. The 2000 Census shows that many American families no longer resemble Ward and June Cleaver's family in "Leave It to Beaver." More children are growing up in households in which both parents work outside the home, or in households headed by a single, working mother.

Parents are crunched for time. A 1999 report by the President's Council of Economic Advisers found that American parents have, on average, 22 fewer hours per week at home than they had in 1969.

Again, common sense dictates that families have changed, and so must we. We must challenge employers to give employees at least two hours per month extra paid leave so that they can meet with a teacher or volunteer at a school. We also need to challenge employers to provide employees with more home time through programs such as job sharing, flextime, and telecommuting.

What's more, we need to hold parent-teacher conferences outside the school and at times that parents can make. We need to visit students' homes and, if necessary, their parents' workplaces. Moreover, we will need to bargain the additional time we need to reach out to families in these new ways. Teachers, after all, are crunched for time, too.

When schools and families work together to aid learning, student achievement soars. The evidence is beyond dispute. Test scores, attendance, homework, and report cards all improve measurably.

It is not enough that we tout family values. We must also value families by involving them in their children's education.

Comments? E-mail Bob Chase at BobChase@nea.org.

People
Students Find Teacher's 'Mr. Right'

Oregon's Clair Wiles didn't have much time for a social life, so her cupid-playing students took it upon themselves to give her one.

During one study hall, Wiles recalls, several students were using the Internet to research term papers. "I was preparing lesson plans, so I was kind of in a fog," she says. When she got to the computer to see what they were doing, the students had just pushed the "send" button, launching information about her to the personals section of America Online.

"I was horrified," says the third-year global studies teacher and Navy veteran, "but I figured it was all in fun and nothing would come out of it."

The next day, Wiles received 40 E-mail messages from potential suitors. "I told the students that they were responsible for going through them," she says. After one disastrous date, she told the students no more. Then she read an E-mail from Kevin Wiles.

"He e-mailed a picture of himself with his two dogs, said he liked country music and worked in Eugene," she says. "I figured it was worth a shot."

After eight months of dating--including time spent chaperoning dances and school events together--Kevin proposed. On May 12, they wed on the stage of the high school's auditorium, with 150 guests looking on. Her student matchmakers also performed a one-act play about the couple's courtship before they said their vows.

"There was no way we could get married without inviting the students," she says. "It was an incredibly memorable experience."

Offering Relief in New York City

When Rhode Island's Carol Anderhaggen retired in 1999 after 28 years as a library media specialist, she knew she wasn't ready to sit at home. So she took her love of technology to the Red Cross--where she's been volunteering as a disaster computer operator.

She's worked hurricanes, fires, and plane crashes, but nothing compares to her assignment that began September 12 in New York City.

"It's the largest disaster response that Red Cross has ever been involved with," says Anderhaggen, who is one of nine computer operators overseeing the computer programs that are being used by the more than 1,500 Red Cross volunteers and employees to track everything from transportation to staffing to communications.

"The days are long and it can be hard emotionally," says Anderhaggen, ``but I'm doing something valuable."

Protecting Our Retirements

Nebraska's John Jensen and Connecticut's Clare Barnett are safeguarding retirement funds for more than 13 million education and Association employees across the country. They are the first teachers and NEA members to serve as president and president-elect, respectively, of the National Council on Teacher Retirement (NCTR).

It's been over three decades since the NCTR board--which oversees pension funds worth more than $1.3 trillion--has had a president, much less two, from the teacher ranks.

"It's our goal to form a coalition this year to educate all school and Association employees about pension and retirement issues," says Jensen, a science research teacher at Omaha South High School who stepped in as the temporary NCTR president this fall.

"There are very real threats against our pension plans, which are often the largest assets we have as educators," says Barnett, a social studies coordinator at Danbury High School who was elected to begin her presidential term in 2005.

Formula for Fulfillment

Henry Brown knows what it's like to be "at-risk."

"I was an angry child who could pacify my feelings only by being disruptive in school," says Brown, a math and personal development teacher at Hallandale Adult Alternative High School in Hallandale Beach. "But my seventh grade teacher saved me. I would probably be dead or in jail if not for her."

Brown didn't set out to be a teacher. "I was getting my business degree from Albany State University in Georgia when I started a tutoring program for at-risk kids in the neighborhood," he says. "I knew then that it didn't matter what the pay was, it mattered that I was fulfilled."

For nine years, Brown has been instrumental in developing unique hands-on learning solutions at Hallandale to engage and excite his students about learning. In just one year, his students raised their standardized math test scores by 40 percent.

"My students need to equate what they are learning to the real world," says the USA Today-honored teacher. "So I bring in tires to teach them about the area of a circle, or use intensive tasks like plotting gardens and designing sheds to reinforce basic math skills."

He's also set up a mentorship program for young boys to "help them make the transition from boyhood to manhood," he says. "A lot of them don't have fathers in their lives and are dealing with personal hurt that can easily turn into rage if it's not addressed."

'Have Art, Will Travel'

Idaho's Jennifer Williams, isn't just a high school art teacher. She's on a mission to bring art into the lives of as many children as possible.

For 27 years, Williams, a 30-year veteran at Nampa's Skyview High School, has been doing "Project Van Go," a free-to-schools program she created that brings art--including mask-making, murals, weaving, pottery--to students and parents in rural communities across Idaho and Nevada.

"I go to a lot of one- and two-room schools that have fewer than ten children," she says. "Many kids are from families who have little access to art supplies or art projects."

Williams also brings some of her own students with her as assistants to "expose them to life outside of our community,'' she says. Williams makes about a dozen trips a year.

Before 1993, Williams funded all of the costs of the program, including substitute pay, herself. Since then, she's received several large grants to sustain the program, including a $27,000 Unsung Hero award from the Northern Life Insurance Company.