Learning: Inside Scoop
The Future of IDEA

There's a lot at stake as the federal government gets ready to revise and renew the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

Since it was first passed in 1975, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is estimated to have helped six million disabled children get a better education. But frontline educators know that some aspects of the law need to be improved. IDEA is up for revision and renewal during the next year. A presidential commission is already meeting and trial balloons are flying. The time to have an impact is now.

What are some of the changes NEA is working for?
Patti Ralabate, an NEA staffer and a former speech and language pathologist from Connecticut, has talked with members around the country to shape the organization's lobbying priorities. She says four key proposals come up over and over:

• Reduce paperwork.

• Make more and better professional development available for regular education teachers who are asked to adapt their work for students with disabilities--sometimes very severe disabilities.

• Make safety and discipline rules more consistent, so that all students--disabled and non-disabled--are held responsible for their actions and face appropriate consequences. On this last point, says Ralabate, NEA will work to ensure that if a disabled student is removed from school for a serious discipline infraction, that student will still receive appropriate education services. Otherwise, she says, "the problem isn't solved, it's just temporarily moved into the street. All kids--disabled or not--should have alternative ways to receive an education. Maintaining a stable society demands this."

  NEA's position is supported by the Fraternal Order of Police, the largest national law enforcement organization.

• Reduce class size and caseloads so every child can be treated as an individual--and that means upping the federal contribution from the current 17 percent to the 40 percent that was promised back in 1975.

What about the controversy over the large numbers of African-American boys in special education?
Many more boys are in special education than girls, regardless of ethnic group, but the proportion of African-American boys is especially high. Government figures show that about 3.1 percent of African-American boys have been placed in the mental retardation category compared with 1.3 percent of white boys. About 2.2 percent of African-American boys are in the emotional disturbance category, compared with 1.4 percent of white boys.

Ralabate notes that several explanations have been proposed--the effects of poverty, a bias among some educators and in diagnostic tests, and the extra savvy that white, middle-class parents often bring to Individual Education Plan meetings.

Ralabate says that in hundreds of IEP meetings she's attended, low-income parents often were eager for their children to get extra help, but they didn't know much about IDEA. "Middle-class parents, typically, have already seen an advocate before they come to the meeting," says Ralabate. "They know the law, and they say, �We want services for our child, but you're not going to call him mentally retarded.'"

What solutions are being proposed?
One idea is to stop trying to decide whether a student is "learning disabled" or "retarded," and simply give extra help to students with low academic achievement.

Ralabate thinks this might be a good idea, but not if it serves as an excuse to save money by depriving some children of the extra help they need.

What's the timeline for revising IDEA?
President Bush has appointed a Commission on Excellence in Special Education to look into possible changes in the law. The commission is holding hearings around the country, and NEA affiliates are taking part. The commission's report is expected by the end of June. The White House is likely to make its proposals for changing IDEA in the fall.

Meanwhile, NEA lobbyist Kim Anderson says Congress is gathering information and planning hearings. Members of Congress are contacting NEA to get the views of educators about what should be done.

The current law expires at the end of this year, but if there is no agreement by then, it could be extended temporarily.

What can educators do to help make sure IDEA becomes a better law next year?
NEA members should speak at hearings of the presidential commission and send letters, explaining what educators need from the federal government if we are to "leave no child behind.

Ralabate, who has been attending and speaking at the hearings herself, says they are very sparsely attended. "I know our members are in school working during the day," she says. "But if they can get the time, it would be great if they could go."

The commission's schedule and contact information are on its Web site at www.ed.gov/inits/commissionsboards/
whspecialeducation/index.html.

NEA members should also send letters and E-mail to their Representatives and Senators. Names and E-mail ad-dresses are on the NEA Web site: Go to www.nea.org/lac/ and click on "E-Mail Congress." Members of Congress will hold meetings with constituents during the upcoming spring recess, and educators should take part.

Anderson says the NEA's most effective lobbyists by far are NEA members.

She urges members to talk about their personal experiences--how the law is making a difference in children's lives, and also how it can be very difficult to carry out without adequate resources, training and support.

Members of Congress don't spend much time in classrooms, and educators' personal stories can help keep the legislators grounded in reality when the rhetoric starts flying.

--Alain Jehlen

For more:

• E-mail Ralabate, pralabate@nea.org, or Anderson, kianderson@nea.org.
• The National Research Council issued a thoughtful report on minorities in special and gifted education in January, available at http://books.nap.edu/books/0309074398/html. The recommendations (chapter 10) are especially useful.
• Education Week's report on reauthorization of IDEA, at www.edweek.org/ew/newstory.cfm?slug=19idea.h21, offers useful background information.

Resources
Breaking through Isolation

First year teachers retain their optimism when they can openly talk about classroom traumas.

EXCERPT
"...As the new teachers realized that they weren't the only ones having difficulty in their first year, they drew strength from the group and were able to see their issues from multiple perspectives. The groups provided these teachers with the chance to share their successes and failures, raise questions and concerns, and in the process provide each other with much-needed social and emotional support."

From isolation to conversation
By Dwight L. Rogers and Leslie M. Babinski
135 pp. $17.95 paperback (State University of New York Press)
To order, visit www.sunypress.edu.

In her first year in the classroom, Rebecca, who teaches third-grade in the rural South, said: "I never expected my first year to be like this. I never thought I'd feel so down and so incompetent ... there have been times I've felt so small that I couldn't even scrape myself off of the floor."

According to From Isolation to Conversation, Rebecca is not alone. In fact, for many new teachers, the first year of teaching is stressful, discouraging and disorienting.

Isolation and lack of community are among the biggest obstacles faced by beginning teachers, say the authors. This is why the pair set out to document the devastating effects that isolation can have on those new to the profession.

To help alleviate this isolation, the authors created "New Teacher Groups" to assist beginning teachers and better understand their problems. Led by university facilitators, 49 new teachers met biweekly in small groups for three years to discuss issues and challenges.

During the group time, new teachers presented the problems they were having in their classrooms and worked together to gain a clearer conception of the problem, and an appropriate resolution.

This book is a collection of their efforts. Its pages are filled with research about new teacher issues, as well as comments from the participating teachers that candidly narrate the challenges common to many novices.

The most important lesson the book offers: Providing regularly scheduled, thoughtfully structured opportunities for beginning teachers to talk with, listen to, and help each other work through the myriad of challenges they encounter during their first years.

The authors contend that in order for beginning teachers to develop into successful teachers who stay in the profession, there must be a "safe place" for them to "air their uncertainties and to get the kind of feedback necessary to reduce the anxiety about being a good teacher."

The absence of this "safe space," they say, contributes to feelings of isolation, which helps drive nearly 50 percent of new teachers out of the profession within their first five years.

What makes New Teacher Groups different than other beginning teacher support initiatives, they write, is the relevance it has to new teachers' daily work. Participants used their time together to focus on individual children and their families, working with other adults, school policies and politics, and classroom management.

"It is through these collaborative conversations with colleagues that these new teachers begin to ask who they are and inquire more seriously into what kind of teachers they want to become," write the authors.

Nearly two-thirds of the group members said the process provided them with the kind of support they needed.

"It's one thing to talk to your mentor about things... but the other beginning teachers [In New Teacher Groups] can relate to you so much more because they are going through the same thing," says Lucille, a participating third-grade teacher.

For anyone who is implementing a new teacher support program, this book provides valuable insights. It would also help those first-year teachers who are struggling to realize that they're not alone in their feelings.

--By Dina S. Gómez

New from the NEA Professional Library

MegaSkills: Moments for Teachers
By Dorothy Rich
204 pp. $9.95 NEA Members
$11.95 nonmembers
#2006-5-00-FN

Looking for a collection of "daily affirmations" just for educators? Dorothy Rich, the creator of MegaSkills--a program designed to build children's achievement in school and beyond--found that educators who taught MegaSkills renewed themselves as well. Now she has harnessed that renewal into this book. Through vignettes and questions, you'll learn how to easily and quickly turn everyday problem situations into opportunities for personal and professional growth. An inspiring gift for beginning and seasoned educators alike!

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

Books by NEA Members

Putting Words Into Your Mouth: A Collection of Witticisms and Inspirational Sayings
By Charles E. "Skip" Bird
This book, published on CD-ROM, contains more than 600 pages and 11,000 humorous and inspirational quotes. The author is a retired swimming coach and English teacher who started the book by filling a file folder with some quotes--similar to what teachers might have in their desks. Numerous quotes by noted personalities are also included. $19.95 plus $4 S&H. Send check to Bird Publishing, 1600 Edgewater Beach Road, Valparaiso, IN 46383-1185.

Let's Teach Smarter, Not Harder
By Wanda M. Hordyk
This is a simplified guide to help teachers ensure that all students achieve active learning and higher level thinking skills while incorporating "real-life" concepts in the daily lessons. The book includes rubrics, checklists, and various reproducible resource sheets to help teachers assess and evaluate lessons as well as teaching techniques. Here's the proof in accountability! $29.95 plus $3 S&H. To order call toll free at 877/260-5414, e-mail to 16115@go.com, or send checks to Wanda Hordyk, P.O. Box 73207, Puyallup, WA 98373-9778. (Bulk discounts available.)

Philosophy
By James E. Kasmarek
This senior high electives series presents a view of the behavioral sciences that explores relevant topics of sociology, psychology, anthropology, and philosophy in a systematic manner so that students can pursue these studies scientifically, using higher level thinking skills. The teacher edition ($37.95) contains 40 lesson plans and 64 reproducible student handouts. The student edition ($10.95) contains all of the handouts in the teacher edition. S&H charges apply. Order from The Center for Learning by calling toll free 800/767-9090.

Life's Literacy Lessons: Poems for Teachers
By Steven L. Layne
NEA member Steven Layne has gathered 40 of his favorite poems about literacy and teaching into this unique collection that will touch the heart of anyone who has ever been a classroom teacher. The poems range from serious to hilarious as Layne delightfully takes poetic license with the stuff of teachers' daily lives: beginning readers, grammar, spelling, composition instruction, adolescent literacy issues, reading aloud, and teaching standards. $9.95 through the International Reading Association. Members receive a 20% discount. Call 800/336-READ, x266 to order.

Wolves in Sheep's Clothing
By Amy C. Laundrie
NEA member Amy Laundrie has authored six children's books. Wolves in Sheep's Clothing is about Kayla who gets lost on a trail ride and stumbles on a house in the woods. An older man screams at her to leave, but before Kayla turns to go she spots an elderly woman in the window who mouths the words, Help me. Kayla decides to investigate. $7. Order from Amy Laundrie, 918 Pine Drive, Wisconsin Dells, WI 53965.

TV Tips

Egypt: The Land of the Gods
The History Channel, April 8-9, 9:00 p.m., ET, check local listings.
This two-part series explores the religion of Egypt. Emphasizing the role of the supernatural and ancient myths and truths, this program examines the transformation of religion throughout the history of Egypt. The program explores the Pyramid Power, Moses, and worship of Ra, the Sun God. Following this world premiere, Egypt: Beyond the Pyramids will re-air April 10-11 to collaborate the Egyptian theme week.

Resistance: Untold Stories of Jewish Partisans
PBS, April 4, 10:00 p.m., ET, check local listings.
In honor of Holocaust Remembrance Month, this documentary takes a look at the heroic Jewish resistance efforts against the Nazis and their collaborators during World War II, told through the accounts of 11 participants. The men and women reveal how they overcame enormous obstacles in their attempts to defeat the Nazis. They also remember the bittersweet aftermath when they, like other Holocaust survivors, were faced with the grave reality of what they had lost. For related information, including lesson plans, go to www.scetv.org/holocaustforum/contents.html.

CNN Presents: Kids Under Pressure
CNN, April 13-14, 10:00 p.m., ET, check local listings.
For today's high school seniors, getting into the right college requires a top-notch resume reflecting a life jammed with clubs, activities, sports, jobs, and good grades. Producers of this CNN Presents special spent a year with three "kids under pressure" as they navigate their crowded lives, moving from band to baseball practice to class, from homework and to friends. How much is too much? How much does it matter? This special provides interviews with the three seniors, their parents, their friends, and the admission officers who ultimately make the decision.

Antarctica: A Frozen History
The History Channel, April 15, 9:00 p.m., ET, check local listings.
In 1773, Captain James Cook crossed the Antarctic Circle and discovered a new continent--Antarctica. Since then explorers from all over the globe have set out to conquer this frozen wilderness. From Ernest Shackleton to Roald Amundsen to Robert Scott, this one-hour presentation looks at the stories of courage, human fortitude, and deception around the brave explorers who set out to conquer Antarctica.

Broken Silence
Cinemax, April 15-19, ET, check local listings
In honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day, Yom Hashoah, Cinemax is airing Broken Silence, a five-part Holocaust documentary series presented by Steven Spielberg and the Shoah Foundation. A key part in a global effort to increase awareness of the Holocaust as a means of countering the devastating impact of intolerance in the world, each foreign-language documentary in the series resonates with the language and culture of the film's director. Documentaries include: I Remember (Poland), Eyes of the Holocaust (Hungary), Some Who Lived (Argentina), Hell on Earth (Czech Republic), Children of the Abyss (Russia).

Frontier House
PBS, April 29, 9:00 p.m., ET, check local listings.
This six-hour "hands-on" history series provides a unique account of one of the most important, and often romanticized, periods in American history. Three modern-day American families are transported back in time to live in the Montana wilderness for six months as settlers from the 1880s. Viewers watch as the families set out in covered wagons with only the tools and technology of the period. They build their own houses, work the land, slaughter animals, and dress just as the pioneers before them. The months prove difficult, and the families face many challenges, including blizzards, coyotes, and hunger. However, their frustrations and their triumphs offer an extraordinary glimpse into American history.

Great Books
The Discovery Channel, April, ET, check local listings.
In conjunction with its prime-time theme week, two episodes of Assignment Discovery's literature-studies series will explore American history through Upton Sinclair's The Jungle and Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff.

The Rockies
The History Channel, April, ET, check local listings.
This four-part series from the History Channel Classroom explores the history of Colorado's Rocky Mountains through the explorers, historic events, and technological advances that helped create it. This program takes a look at the men and women who made a fortune out of its wilderness and also the people who lost that great wilderness, the native Indians who once hunted the valleys and fished the mountain streams.

Oceans: Going to Great Depths
CNN, CNN Student News, April, ET, check local listings.
This CNN Student News presentation looks at the development of underwater technology. Throughout the program, viewers will learn how robo-cams and mini-subs are used underwater to locate everything from shipwrecks to deep water organisms. A companion Web site containing additional information and resources can be found at www.CNNstudentnews.com.

Flipped
MTV, check local listings.
This half-hour series uses Hollywood's best illusionists in special effects, make-up and set design to create simulated scenarios. The series places teens in a number of settings from prisons to schools to hospitals; and enlists the help of real doctors, teachers, and police officers to enhance the authenticity of each situation. The simulated scenarios that result are so real they have the power to transform the teen's perspective forever. "Flipped" follows its subjects through their experiences to witness the epiphanies, the heightened sense of understanding, and the appreciation that results from walking in someone else's shoes. Episodes cover various subjects such as racism, homophobia, drugs, gangs, and parental relationships. Additional informational resources can be found on the MTV website at www.mtv.com.

Beyond the Border
PBS, April 2002, ET, check local listings.
This documentary traces the painful transition made by four sons who leave their family in Mexico to seek "la vida buena" (the good life) in Kentucky. By following the Ayala brothers as they relocate to the Bluegrass region, Beyond the Border presents the range of complexities surrounding the immigration experience, including the responsibility to family, community, and culture. Viewers see firsthand the results of the way the U.S.- Mexico border is policed and learn the effects of economic and racial discrimination on Mexican immigrants.

The Blue Planet: Seas of Life
Discovery Channel, May 5, 7:00-11:00 p.m. ET, check local listings.
The seas and coasts of the world come alive on the Discovery Channel's special on life below the water's surface. Amazing images accompany narration by Sir David Attenborough in the four episodes. You can see how climactic changes produce different kinds of life under the sea in Seasonal Seas, and how the coral reef is a complex ecosystem on which millions of animals survive in Coral Seas. Also, learn more about tidal changes and how certain sea life are dependent on the tides in Tidal Seas. Lastly, in Coasts, you can see the different wildlife that thrive on the coasts.

__________________
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

Students Can Be Part of NASA Mission
Two new curriculum modules that have been developed as part of the NASA Deep Impact mission (currently in development) are being offered free of charge online at http://deepimpact.umd.edu/educ/educres.html. Collaborative Decision Making is designed to engage students in grades 7-12 in activities that focus on collaboration and communication strategies. These activities will strengthen student understanding of and ability to use collaborative processes and communication practices to clarify, conceptualize, and make decisions. Excavating Cratering is designed to engage students in conducting scientific inquiries and in gaining greater understanding of scientific modeling. Launch of the Deep Impact spacecraft is scheduled for January 2004.

Photographs Vividly Capture Changes of Last Century
Old photographs are time machines. They allow us to look back in history, freeze a moment in time, and imagine ourselves as part of the past. Picturing the Century: One Hundred Years of Photography from the National Archives, offers a visual tour of the past century. Immigrants arriving at Ellis Island ... the Wright Brothers fly ... building the Empire State Building ... footprints on the Moon ... war in the Persian Gulf ... and more. This exhibition is arranged in chronological "galleries" as well as seven "portfolios" of talented photographers. Print reproductions available. Go to www.nara.gov/exhall/picturing_the_century.

The Ultimate Resource for Book Shoppers
Don't give up trying to locate that hard-to-find book. A free new Web service, www.bookfinder.com, allows readers to comparison shop for new, used, and rare books from any of 40,000 bookstores around the world. Bookfinder.com is recommended to book lovers by the New York Times and the Library of Congress and for folks who buy and sell books for a living. The site contains more than 30 million titles! Go to www.bookfinder.com.

Paycheck Deductions
This Web site will help you understand all the deductions that appear on your paycheck and that incomprehensible W-4 form. Calculate and print out the data you enter. Related links on this site include payroll and taxes, tax preparation, the IRS, and the Social Security Administration. Go to www.paycheckcity.com/W4/w4instruction.asp.

Eighty Years Later--In Its Sixth Edition
The Columbia Encyclopedia began its existence in the 1920s when Clarke Fisher Ansley and Columbia University Press recognized the need for a "first aide" for those who read. Now in its sixth edition, it continues to serve the purposes for which it was conceived. Containing nearly 51,000 entries and with more than 80,000 hypertext cross-references, the current sixth edition is among the most complete and up-to-date encyclopedia ever produced. Go to www.bartleby.com/65.

Figure This
The award-winning Figure This! Web site--www.figurethis.org-- offers intriguing mathematical challenges such as: "Can FloJo outrun a car?" and "Will women ever earn as much money as men?" New challenges are added to the Web site regularly, so if you haven't checked it out in a while, you are bound to find something new and interesting there. The Web site offers math resources for middle school students and their parents, teachers, and communities. The central feature of the Web site is the collection of math challenges, available in both Spanish and English. All online materials on the site can be downloaded for free and reprinted for distribution. Print copies of the family support materials and of Spanish language challenge booklets are also available by calling 877/GO-SOLVE or by contacting Marji Heberlee at 202/667-0901.

Test of the Endurance
In the frigid winter of 1914, two dozen explorers set sail for Antarctica aboard the Endurance, attempting to be the first ones to cross the unexplored continent. For 22 months, photographer Frank Hurley documented their ordeal and even became somewhat of an explorer himself through the journey. He climbed up the ship's treacherous mast to photograph wildlife and trekked across shaky sheets of ice to take his striking photos. An online journey at www.kodak.com takes you through the voyage, accompanied by Hurley's pictures.

Press Pass
Being a good journalist often requires a lot of hard work and often, a little bit of luck. With USA Today's Virtual Press Pass, students can get an idea of what different writers do on an everyday basis, how managing editors do their job, and general insights about the field of journalism. Many of the writers talk about their backgrounds in the field and how they envision USA Today and journalism in the next ten years. Look at what these men and women have to say at www.usatoday.com/educate/careers/uppindex.htm.

Uncovering China
A comprehensive guide to China and its rich history, this Web site provides details of the country's past starting with 1839. It also provides a list of cities in China and their importance, both today and historically. Finally, you can take a quiz to see how much you learned and participate in a poll or post your thoughts about the country on a message board. Go to http://library.thinkquest.org/26469/history.

Homonym Helper
Homonyms, or words that sound the same but have different meanings, can often be confusing when writing. With http://wsuonline.weber.edu/wrh/words.htm, though, you can figure out the differences between some of those problem words like effect and affect, lie and lay, or allusion and illusion. The site has a link to common errors in English at the bottom of the page that is also helpful. Improve you grammar and help your students learn about the subtle differences in the English language through this site.

Animals Galore
Animal lover? Well then, www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals is the site you want to check out. If you have a question about bears, monkeys, lions, elephants, or any one of the 14 categories on this site, check out the animal fact files section. You can also learn the ancestry of your pets and how best to take care of them. To top it off, you can post opinions and questions on the Animal Message Board. Learn more about your favorite animals and have fun doing it!

Connect the Dots
Let kids put the alphabet in correct order to uncover a hidden picture by combining connect-the-dots and letters of the alphabet. Kids will love finding out what the mystery drawing is and they can click on the next game link to play the same game, but with a different object. A simple game, but full of surprises for younger children who are learning the alphabet. Go to www.kidport.com/Grade1/LanguageArts/Workbook/Lang1_ConnectDots.htm.

Expanding Boundaries
Right as you enter this site, you can see how the United States has expanded from the 1650's all the way to the 20th century. It is a helpful site to see how state's borders have moved around so frequently and what the final picture of the United States looks like. Surprised at how frequently state boundaries change? Well, just click on Animation and United States counties to see how rapidly our counties become bigger or smaller. Go to www.ac.wwu.edu/~stephan/48states.html for the main site.

Developing Drawings
Get your students interested in drawing just by using basic shapes such as circles and squares to produce animals like penguins, bears, and frogs. Each animal picture comes with a drawing sheet, which takes kids through the process of creating these cute figures. The key to these drawings is their simple shape, and kids will be excited to come up with these animal pictures themselves. Visit www.billybear4kids.com/Learn2Draw/Learn2Draw.html to get your students started on drawing.

Learn and Earn
Here's a Web site that provides financial education for kids. It's about encouraging learning through inquiry and getting kids started out on the path to money smarts. It's also about showing kids that money smarts isn't just earning until you're blue in the wallet. Money smarts means working hard, saving, and investing. And giving back to the people who helped you out when you needed it. Each time your students learn about financial concepts, they'll be earning points which your school can redeem for technology-based rewards. In the FleetKids program, each child investigates an array of mathematic, financial, and social concepts, including setting goals, saving and budgeting, balancing "needs" and "wants," and learning to work with teams developing solutions. In keeping with the hands-on nature of the site, FleetKids activities reflect real-world experiences. Go to www.fleetkids.com/fleet/home.b.html.

African Americans in History
Did you know that Lewis Temple was the inventor of the whaling harpoon or that Mary Eliza Mahoney was the first African American graduate nurse in America? The Web site, www.bridgew.edu/HOBA/thumglry.htm, serves as a detailed and educational guide to leading African Americans in history, starting with Crispus Attucks in 1723. Click on one of the 30 portraits to learn more about these Americans and their achievements.

Messages for Future Generations
At the end of 2003, the satellite KEO will be launched into space. It will return to Earth 50,000 years later to offer our future generations messages that we can write to them through www.keo.org. Once in orbit, KEO will circle the planet with the millions of messages and in the distant future, while orbiting, it will create an illuminating aurora borealis that will light up the sky. Submit your message of what you want future generations to know.

Dynamic Dynos
Dinosaurs--always fascinating and mysteriour creatures, but often misunderstood. At the U.S. Geological Survey's site, http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dinosaurs/, you can get some of the myths about dinosaurs cleared up. Questions like how dinosaurs are named, what they ate, and how long they lived are answered here.

Learning: Problems and Solutions
'It Has Everything To Do With Them'

Place-based learning helps South Dakota students connect their classroom to their community.

Students in Mary Stangohr's English class at Howard High School are reading The Jungle, Upton Sinclair's exposé about the nation's meatpacking industry. Like any good English teacher, Stangohr reviews the traditional topics: content, theme, tone, symbolism. But the lesson doesn't end here. Stangohr stimulates a class discussion about the hamburger students eat for lunch and the discussion expands based on their interests.

Inevitably, the discussion leads to the question that plagues high school students everywhere: So what does this have to do with me? The answer is especially significant for Stangohr's students, most of whom come from farming families in this rural South Dakota county. Students ask questions about cattle prices and livestock feed and the reasons their families work multiple jobs to make a living wage.

"They find out very quickly it has everything to do with them," Stangohr says.

Incorporating the local community into a lesson isn't just a choice. It's a well-planned teaching strategy known as place-based learning. The approach involves students in real work that identifies and solves real community problems. Through place-based learning, students develop a sense of civic duty and an appreciation for where they live. At the same time, their work meets a local need and strengthens the connection between the school and community.

"Rural schools in rural communities function together," Stangohr says. "Without the school, the community dies. It's pretty much the heartbeat and lifeblood of the small, small communities like Howard."

The magnitude of the projects varies. Stangohr's students write biographies about local women, while science students provide water testing to a local fish farm. Meanwhile, business students initiated a campaign to increase local spending. The students' efforts yielded $15 million in new revenue.

"Students have a valuable place in the community, and I think that's what's really stressed in place-based learning," says 18-year-old Kay Schwader, a senior in Stangohr's class. "It doesn't just help the community. It helps students realize they are an important part of the community."

The flight of young people is one of the great challenges rural areas face, says Elaine Roberts, president of the South Dakota Education Association. Place-based education is one way rural educators hope to keep their best and brightest students close to home.

"You educate your kids to go some-place else to live the good life," Roberts says. "Place-based education helps young people see how they can live the good life in this rural community. The implementation and sustained effort in a program like this could help stop the out migration."

The approach also shows community members they must play a role in the lives of their young people if the community is going to survive, Roberts says.

The Rural School and Community Trust, a nonprofit education agency, works with about 700 schools in 35 states on place-based learning programs. By building up the schools, the program builds up the communities, says Dorothy Williams, director of capacity building for the Trust.

"In rural communities, many times the school is the only public facility and it holds the greatest resources," Williams says. "So we have to help the schools grow and get better and connect that growth and development to the growth of the community."

At the same time, though, place-based learning does not overlook mandated content standards, Williams says.

SDEA's Roberts admits that new federal testing mandates will strain some place-based programs, because the strategy takes a broader approach to instruction. But Stangohr at Howard High School believes the two strategies can co-exist.

"Am I concerned about content standards? Yes I am, but you can do place-based learning and still achieve your standards," Stangohr says. "We're very mindful of the testing, but we're not going to quit doing this. This is good teaching."

--Kristen Loschert

For more: Visit the Rural School and Community Trust at www.ruraledu.org.

Dilemma
How do you stop kids from teasing?

For this activity you need a tube of toothpaste and construction paper. Tell the students that the toothpaste represents hurtful words and the construction paper is the person to whom the words are directed. Ask a volunteer to squeeze the toothpaste on the construction paper. Then ask the volunteer to put the toothpaste back in the tube just as easily. They can't! The lesson is that words easily come out of our mouths, but once they come out, you cannot take them back.

Roxanne Hendricks
Fifth grade teacher
Orlando, Florida

I make sure everyone knows the consequences for teasing, and what to do if they are being teased. Several times during the year I ask test essay questions such as, "What should you do when someone teases you and hurts your feelings?" These questions allow me to evaluate each student's understanding about the rule, while also allowing me to reinforce it.

Pamela Galus
High school earth science teacher
Omaha, Nebraska

We had a large forum about bullying and also broke into teams. One team watched stories about bullying followed by discussion. Another group talked about threatening scenarios and developed positive strategies to deal with those experiences. Each child gave a summary about what he or she learned.

Carl Frels
Elementary math teacher
Scranton, Pennsylvania

In my classroom guidance sessions I teach students that teasing is caused by low self-esteem. Teasers do not like themselves and try to make themselves feel better by making others feel bad. This approach makes the students teased feel better because they learn that teasing is not about them. I also work with the teasers to emphasize that others know why they tease and to help them to see their own attributes.

Florence Woods
School counselor
Nashville, Tennessee

From day one I tell my students that my room is a "safe room," where people can express their ideas freely without fear of teasing or negative criticism.

They may laugh WITH another student but not AT another student. Because they want a place in school where they can be free to express themselves without teasing, they actually police themselves and keep each other in line and tease-free!

Arlen Kimmelman
High school language arts teacher
Seabrook, New Jersey

I teach eighth grade language arts and maintain a "zero-tolerance policy" regarding ridicule, teasing, mockery, and expressed racism. When I catch students teasing someone I ask them to stand and repeat what they said "for the whole class to enjoy." If students say they don't remember what they said, I ask them to remain standing until they do remember or to apologize to the person they teased. The method degrades no one, and functions as an effective deterrent to future offenses.

Bret H. Hart
Eighth grade language arts teacher
Eden, North Carolina

Got an Answer?
How do you get students to ask good questions?

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

Student Helpers
I was amazed to learn my students wanted to help me with more jobs in the classroom, so I created a list of 30 jobs for my students. Some jobs are as simple as plugging in lamps, answering the door, feeding the fish, and finding my clipboard when I need it. Some are more complicated like recording the sunrise and sunset or the high and low temperatures and starting or shutting down the computers. Because they keep the job for a semester they create the habit of remembering the job without any reminders and they are saving me loads of time and energy!

Marilyn Van Bael
Chesterfield, Michigan

Overhead Sentences
I use the overhead to have students arrange words into sentences and sentences into paragraphs. I type the words on the computer using a large font, print them on a transparency, and then cut up the sentences. When students are able to move the words around on the overhead and the class can see what's going on, they pay attention. Sentence strips can be used in the same manner.

To modify for younger students, you could use letters to make words or show a picture and have the students give the correct word.

Maggie Harder
Lillington, North Carolina

Weekly Behavior Report
To keep parents informed of their child's progress and behavior, I send a Weekly Behavior Report home each Monday.

The report has a box for each day in which I document both positive and negative behaviors and any grades the student has earned that week.

I also note any special assignments.

The parents must sign the report and send it back to school.

The weekly report not only informs the parents, it's also good documentation for me.

Maryellen Eaves
Louisville, Mississippi

Learning: Problems and Solutions
Why Do We Have Seasons?

Taking advantage of curiosity and misconceptions.

Students do say the darndest things and middle-school science teachers like Tawny Alvarado in Lansing, Michigan and Diane Mason in Hudson, Massachusetts have heard it all.

Pre-assessment is critical to uncovering misconceptions, says Alvarado, who uses these mixed-up notions to guide her teaching and get her sixth graders at Otto Middle School back on track. Several years ago, she and other educators in Lansing watched A Private Universe, a video produced by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astro-physics, which shows new Harvard graduates, professors, and a group of ninth graders all offering their own, almost always erroneous, explanations for questions as basic as, "Why is summer hotter than winter?" Intended as a professional development tool, the video says educators need to free students from their private theories before new knowledge can take hold.

Alvarado agrees and starts new units with "mind-stretchers" in which students write down everything they know about a question she poses. "I get a lot of blank looks at first," she says.

Discussion brings forth answers--and misunderstandings--and then Alvarado sees the direction the lesson needs to take. "You won't know what they're thinking if you don't probe," she says.

When she discovered many students thought the blood coursing through their veins was blue, Alvarado asked those who'd had blood drawn to describe its color as it flowed into the test tube. Laden with carbon dioxide, that dark red substance is certainly a different shade than the familiar bright red, oxygen-rich blood oozing from a cut. But, the class realized, it's not blue.

The strange, half-true, or humorous scientific thinking that students bring to middle school has remained fairly predictable during her time in the classroom, Alvarado says. "But the way teachers address these misconceptions has changed."

Hundreds of miles to the east at John F. Kennedy Middle School, Mason, an educator for 18 years, says she's still amazed whenever she watches the Private Universe video. "It made me aware that all kids, even the brightest, have these ideas embedded in their minds, and trying to change them is difficult." But she's hopeful that her approach will give students a better chance of answering such science questions correctly if videotaped at their college graduations.

'Gee, I wrote that?'
Like Alvarado, Mason uses writing for pre-assessment. "It helps kids sort out their thoughts and gives them a record of what they were thinking--something they can return to and say, 'Gee, I wrote that?'" Then they either revise their initial statements or take pride in how right they were from the start.

Each year her students study the moon in depth, keeping a month-long journal filled with their observations, questions, drawings and discoveries. "The moon's phases are very hard for both children and adults to understand," says Mason. It's not uncommon, she explains, to find a student believing that somehow the moon gets recreated each month. "Students need to comprehend that there's a round moon out there all the time and when you just see a piece of it, the rest isn't gone."

Hands-on activities fill both teachers' classrooms, helping students visualize the correct scientific concepts.

Minute by minute changes
Ongoing assessment through discussion, reflective writing, projects, and testing are essential, says Alvarado, who's taught for 16 years. She and her colleagues receive extensive training through their school's partnership with Michigan State University. Although sticking to her objectives, she's learned to change her direction, sometimes minute by minute.

Matthew Schneps, the astrophysicist who co-produced A Private Universe, says he's still surprised at its wide circulation. Originally intended for a target audience of 3,000 high school astronomy teachers, the video has racked up a half-million sales with untold copies floating around.

Its popularity may have spawned "lots of misconceptions about misconceptions," he says. "People think you have to stamp them out or otherwise a student's thinking is poisoned." Instead, he says, "work with them."

That advice holds true across a variety of disciplines.

"Kids come up with amazing explanations--it's a sign of human intelligence," says Schneps. A child who is curious will naturally develop misconceptions. "It's what happens when you put a logical thinker in touch with limited information."

Teachers should view it as a signal that a child is ready to get more information, he says. Then, they can bridge the gap from where a child is to the correct information.

"Children's lives are filled with fanciful activities," he says. When he's reading a picture book with his children and comes across a child perched on top of a crescent moon, he wonders, "Should I give a scientific explanation for why that's not possible or should we just read and enjoy the story?

"We just enjoy it," he laughs.

For more: Check out http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/cfa/sed/resources/privateuniv.html and follow links to the Annenberg/CPB Channel, which broadcasts the Private Universe Project workshops.

Dilemma
How do you deal with chronic absentees?

Our school uses a monthly attendance reward system. The names of perfect attendance students are put in a drawing for each grade. The prize is a ball of the student's choice.

We give a trophy to the class with the best attendance of the month. Also, classes with ten days of perfect attendance get an ice pop party. Fifty days gets them pizza and a movie, and 75 days gets them a free trip. No student wants to be responsible for the class losing out. It sounds expensive, but so are lost days when we don't receive funding.

For chronically absent students, parents are held liable and we go the legal route.

Jacqueline Pavesi
Fourth grade teacher
Los Angeles, California

I have a phone in my room and routines that the students do first thing, while I take attendance and make calls. Often, the absent student answers! The best part is, the other students hear the reminder about the importance of coming to school. It works great!

Michelle Beerbower
Alternative education teacher
Holt, Michigan

Often, the attendance clerk comes to me for information on a student who is absent a lot. As a school nurse, I may have referred the student to medical care or talked with the parent about a medical-behavior concern.

I also check the daily absent list and give the clerk information that might be helpful, keeping in mind confidentiality. When the absence goes longer than is reasonable, I phone the parent and ask if I can help. This is less intrusive than a call from the clerk. Sometimes it works, and sometimes not!

I also contact the health care provider, who often has no idea the student is still using a medical excuse. Many chronically absent students have been recovered this way.

Mary Kathryn Myers
School nurse
Kent, Washington

Many students develop a fear of school, sometimes from homesickness or being picked on. Educators need to get the parents involved. They can help figure out the problem and help the child feel more comfortable about school.

Educators also need to get that child involved in fun activities at school. This can develop friendships and give the child more self-esteem. Put the student in charge of the class pet, or help the student join the basketball team. If it is an academic problem, have a peer tutor the student, help the parents so that they can aid their child in academics, or even arrange to help the student yourself.

Jocelyn Hardy
Education student
Clarion, Pennsylvania

A student isn't chronically absent just because he or she feels like it. The myth of kids playing hooky and going down to the fishing hole is just that--a myth. There are much more serious problems when a student is out.

I had a boy who had two pairs of pants. One had a small hole in the thigh no bigger than a pea, but to him it was huge. When he had to wear those pants, he wouldn't come to school. We bought him a few pairs of pants. He was never out again except for sickness, and became a model student.

We have building-based "swat" teams: a psychologist, a social worker, a health care professional, an attendance officer, a teacher, and an administrator. When a trigger goes off (such as absenteeism), the team gets on the case immediately.

Services used to be housed all over the district and it took a long time to communicate. Meanwhile, the student was missing school and in a revolving door that included the courts. We are the most densely populated city in the country and have a very transient population. But with this approach, we are running around 95 percent attendance.

Richie Malizia
Attendance officer
Union City, New Jersey

Got an Answer?
How do you handle a student who threatens you?

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!

TestYour Knowledge

It's not just kids--most grown-ups don't know some basic things about nature because ideas they picked up as kids got in the way of what they were taught later.

1. Why is summer hotter than winter?
   1. The sun gives off more heat in the summer.
   2. The earth is closer to the sun.
   3. The sun is higher in the sky and days are longer.
2. Why does the moon have phases?
   1. As the moon orbits the earth, we see different amounts of the Moon's sunlit side.
   2. The moon passes in and out of the earth's shadow.
   3. The moon passes in and out of the sun's shadow.
3. Can a cat see in a totally dark room?
   Yes.
   No.

4. When an acorn grows into a giant oak, where does the wood come from?

   1. Mostly from the soil.
   2. Mostly from water.
   3. Mostly from air.

For More:
On summer vs. winter and phases of the moon, see www.learner.org/teacherslab/pup. The wood and seeing-in-the-dark questions are discussed in Private Universe teacher workshops two and five. See www.learner.org/channel/workshops/privuniv.

President's Viewpoint
Keep This Promise!

An appeal to President Bush from "children left behing" in poor schools

Dear Mr. President:

We are not only, as you call us, "children left behind." We also are children forgotten and out of sight. So we appreciate that you and the First Lady have focused attention on the desperate needs of our schools.

Because we are invisible, many people think that we are few in number. The truth is that there are nearly 10 million of us, born into poverty in inner cities and rural backwaters. The schools we attend are underfunded and overcrowded. We are America's neediest students, but we are least likely to have qualified teachers. In many of our schools, as many as 50 to 90 percent of the teachers are not certified.

When you signed the "No Child Left Behind Act" in January, our hopes soared. For us, the single most important reform is the law's requirement that by the year 2006 every teacher in every public school--including ours--must be fully certified and "highly qualified." Our hopes soared again when, in your State of the Union speech, you boldly stated your commitment to this "great goal for America: a qualified teacher in every classroom."

Please understand what this commitment means to us. We look across town to wonderful suburban public schools with modern facilities and teaching staffs that are 100 percent certified, many with M.A.s and Ph.Ds. Students achieve at high levels, and 90 percent or more go on to college.

But in our schools, children are being left behind in droves. In about half the high schools in America's 35 largest cities, the non-graduation rate has risen to 50 percent or higher. It is no coincidence that many schools with 50 percent non-graduation rates also have teaching staffs that are 50 percent non-certified or worse.

Today, our predicament is deepening. States are holding us to the same high academic standards as kids in those gleaming suburban schools. And we must pass the same high-stakes tests in order to get a diploma. In other words, states are raising the bar for student achievement at the same time they are lowering the bar for teacher quality in our schools. Do you understand why many of us feel we are being set up to fail? And why your commitment to a "highly qualified" teacher in every one of our classrooms is so desperately important?

Your commitment has raised our hopes. But more recent events have raised our fears. In January, the "No Child Left Behind Act" promised a modest $776 million in additional funding for teacher quality. But in February, the White House proposed a 2003 budget that cuts funding for teacher quality. The Department of Education's deputy secretary explained that it is time to "take a little bit of a pause."

We respectfully disagree. It is time for urgency. Nationwide, there are nearly 200,000 non-certified teachers, and the law allows only four years to make that zero. This is a monumental challenge.

In 1961, President Kennedy announced an equally historic challenge: to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. The day after the speech, he did not cut NASA's funding; he mobilized the full resources of the federal government to make good on his goal.

Mr. President, our lives are filled with broken promises. We are wary of politicians with empty slogans. But we trust your word. And we know from harsh experience that you are right: to leave no child behind it is necessary to leave no teacher unqualified.

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

People
Hammering Home A Victory

The nearly nine-pound ball swings on the end of a chain, making large circles in the air. With one swift, highly technical motion, the ball and chain are released and they soar through the air, ultimately landing hundreds of feet from where they started. This is hammer throwing, and Anna Norgren Mahon is, you could say, pretty good at it.

The English teacher at Amity High School in Orange, Connecticut, is ranked number one in the country and number 16 in the world in the event. She currently is training for the 2004 Summer Olympics.

After a high school career as a hurdler, Mahon began hammering in 1992 during her freshman year at the University of Vermont. She says she tried both hammer throwing and the shot put, but hammer throwing stuck.

"I love the fact that hammer throwing is super technical and it's a sport that always requires you to learn more and more to actually make yourself better," she says.

The skills Mahon acquired on the field translate naturally to her classroom. She says that hammering gives her a sense of self-discipline, focuses her, and lets her communicate with her students more directly. "It's all about getting better from week to week, which is what I tell my students," Mahon says.

As her training for 2004 picks up, Mahon often reflects on how far she has come since her freshman year in Vermont. She beat the American record holder for hammer throwing in 1998 and placed fourth at the Olympic Trials in 1999, all without a coach. Today, she trains six days a week while putting in full days at school.

"I've always told myself that I would stop doing what I do if I ever got sick of it, and that hasn't happened yet--not in hammering, and definitely not in teaching."

No-Shows for Charity Shows

To NEA-Retired member Ed Bradley, of Lincoln Park, New Jersey, an empty seat is a terrible thing to waste, especially when the seat can give a child the experience of a lifetime. That is the philosophy behind "No-Shows for Charity Shows," a program that provides unused sports and concert tickets to needy children.

Since its creation, No-Shows has provided more than 72,000 unused event tickets to needy New Jersey children. Another 25,000 have been distributed to children in Pennsylvania, New York, Tennessee, and North Carolina. The tickets come from teams, franchises, corporations, and season ticket holders who donate tickets they aren't going to use. The tickets are then handed over to organizations such as the Young Men's Club of America, Big Brothers and Big Sisters, and Catholic Charities.

For his efforts, Bradley has received countless awards and recognition by Presidents Ronald Reagan, George Bush, and Bill Clinton.

"What's most important, however, is the success of this program and our ability to reach so many deserving children," says Bradley, who's about to expand No-Shows into a nationwide program.

Tomorrow's Teachers

Clarence Romero, an associate professor of psychology at California's Riverside Community College, received a clear wake-up call a decade ago when he volunteered to become a "student for the day."

The experience gave Romero a new perspective on who his students were and where they came from. "I had many Latino students who were trying to find their way despite mediocre grades and little encouragement from their families," he says. "One setback, one bad grade was enough to dissuade them from pursuing higher education."

So Romero started Latino Educators of Tomorrow (LET) to encourage students to overcome mental and physical barriers, set personal goals, and take an active role in their education. LET also is an award-winning teacher-preparation program that has recruited hundreds of Latinos into the field of education.

Through the program, participants learn leadership skills, experience cultural activities, and work together to help others less fortunate than themselves.

"LET is built on the premise that to advance, we must help others," says Romero, a member of the California Community College Association. "My students are the ultimate professionals. Their success is a valuable lesson for all teachers. When we raise our expectations, students will rise to the challenge."

On the Front Lines

For students in Jolene Jenkins' seventh grade classroom at Mahaffey Middle School, the war in Afghanistan is very close to home: They are the sons and daughters of Army and Air Force personnel who are stationed in Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

"The events of the last five months have changed teachers' roles, especially for those of us on military posts," says Jenkins, the 2002 Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) Teacher of the Year.

Jenkins has worked at Fort Campbell since 1987, and she uses her own experience as a "military wife" to reach out and connect with her students. She started an after-school mentoring program to assist academically struggling students and a reading partnership between her students and students in pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, and first-grade classrooms.

Bringing Education to Afghan Children

Like most Americans, Catherine Larkin is troubled about the devastating effects the Taliban rule has had on Afghanistan's children.

"It seems like there are new stories everyday about what these children have had to endure," says the Bangor, Maine, school social worker. "They had to hide to be educated, if they were educated at all."

Since the country's liberation, Larkin (pictured here, center) has searched for a way to help build back Afghanistan's educational programs. UNICEF's "Schools-in-a-Box" kit was her answer. Each kit costs $300 and contains enough school supplies and books to educate 80 Afghan children. Larkin, who chairs the Maine Education Association's Human and Civil Rights Committee, used this kit during a fund-raiser at the Association's statewide professional issues conference in January. As a result, the Maine educators raised nearly $1,300 for the cause. "As people who work with children everyday, this is the most heartfelt and rewarding thing we could do," Larkin says.

News
'Dream' Jobs Turn to Nightmares

Connecticut NEA members tell lawmakers of the need for cleaner air in their schools. The goal: Pass tough indoor air quality legislation.

They work, or once worked, in the state reputed for having the nation's toughest teacher standards, and their comments to state lawmakers in February reflected pride--even enthusiasm--in their chosen careers. This was Connecticut at its best.

"I can honestly say that teaching kindergarten has been as much a hobby as it has been my job," testified Milford NEA member Katherine Anderson, while member Ellen Ginter spoke of stepping into her "dream job" last year as a counselor and department chairperson at Amity Regional Senior High School in Woodbridge.

"I was very invested in a career I would have described as dynamic, multifaceted, and very fulfilling," added retired Fairfield special ed teacher Joellen Lawson of her 23-year career as a classroom teacher, seminar leader, educational consultant, and tutor.

But the bulk of these educators' remarks, made at a joint Education Committee hearing on a proposed "Act Concerning Indoor Air Quality [IAQ] in Schools," showed Connecticut at its absolute worst.

Anderson, Ginter, Lawson, and three other teachers took turns describing wretched school building conditions--caused by factors such as air and soil contamination; mold, asbestos, or lead exposure; or poor ventilation--that have made them and students ill.

This moving testimony, coordinated by the Connecticut Education Association/NEA, generated lots of tears in the usually staid hearing chamber.

Anderson and Nancy Carter, both five-year teachers at Milford's John F. Kennedy Elementary School--built with a flat, leaky roof on the edge of a swamp--described their transition from healthy athletes to physical wrecks, at the same time a handful of students and graduates were contracting rare illnesses such as scleroderma and Crohn's disease.

Anderson, who is allergic to mold, recounted how her symptoms, from vertigo to joint and muscle aches, got "tragically worse" after a "mystery smell" invaded the JFK school in November. Her white blood cell count dipped and her immune system weakened, before allergy shots and medications helped rebuild her immunity.

Carter wasn't so lucky. "Happy and healthy" when she started teaching at JFK, she experienced chronic sinus headaches and severe bronchitis within two years. In her third year, she was diagnosed with scleroderma, a chronic autoimmune disease.

"My skin began to harden and pull all over my body," Carter told wincing lawmakers. "My esophagus was beginning to dysfunction. I saw my life being stripped away from me before my eyes."

Carter, who today is being treated by an expert in autoimmune diseases, assured the panel she is now "on the road to recovery." But the mold in her building--to which she is allergic--is still there. "Both my allergist and rheumatologist believe that my school was a factor in my body succumbing to this disease," Carter said.

Veteran Fairfield teacher Joellen Lawson, who is on disability retirement because of severe mold exposure at the now-closed McKinley School (see NEA Today, November 2001), told the committee that she wished she and her doctors had linked her illness to the mold in her work environment when she first became seriously ill in 1998.

"If I had made that link," Lawson testified, "I would never have re-entered that building and re-exposed myself to the high levels of mold that were later identified."

Calls For a Bill With Teeth
This testimony helped humanize the Connecticut Education Association's case for meaningful, enforceable indoor air quality legislation.

A comprehensive bill, drafted by CEA last year with the help of environmental and occupational health experts, died without a vote on the last day of the last legislative session. In February 2002, a new, weaker bill--drafted without CEA input--surfaced in the Education Committee.

It'll take lots of lobbying and public pressure to toughen the current bill, but CEA and its allies--including parents, the environmental community, and other unions--are up for the challenge. Association members expect to return to Hartford for more testimony, and they'll be backed by an aggressive CEA media campaign urging legislators to "make all schools healthy."

By the end of the legislative session in May, no taxpayer in Connecticut--where the elementary student asthma rate runs as high as 14 percent in some districts--will doubt that CEA has made cleaner indoor air in schools a top priority.

One TV spot, sponsored by CEA and the state PTA, shows a sunflower shrinking under an onslaught of smoke and dust. The message: "Urge your state lawmakers to support indoor air quality legislation."

And not just any IAQ legislation. The Constitution State needs a "regulatory system that focuses on prevention," CEA President Rosemary Coyle told the Education Committee.

"This focus," she said, "extends from when we first consider building a new building or renovating an older one, to how we maintain our existing buildings. Regulation, appropriate training, planning, and monitoring should be the hallmarks of any environmental quality bill for public schools."

Among CEA's specific goals:

• An environmental site assessment before the construction of any new school.

• Bonding money for any needed environmental renovations.

• A required maintenance plan for each school's heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system--plus required training for maintenance personnel, a written record of HVAC maintenance, and guidelines for performing maintenance work while a school is occupied.

• A uniform inspection and monitoring program for schools--plus systematic review of air quality-related health and maintenance data by health authorities.

• School logs of health complaints--from adults and students--that might indicate a trend or be related to potential indoor health quality issues.

• State-offered training on school environmental health issues--plus state support of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's successful Tools for Schools program.

Top Priority: Health of Kids, Teachers
Opponents of comprehensive air quality legislation will, predictably, complain about mandates and money.

But Robert Murphy, CEA's director of professional practice and government relations, stresses that "we need to get a bill that establishes the beginning of a strong regulatory framework around these issues.

"Almost every state has a budget deficit excuse du jour to not do anything about sick schools," Murphy acknowledges. "Our response is that time is not a renewable resource--there's no more important priority than the health of children and educators who teach them."

Counselor Ellen Ginter, who was on seven allergy and asthma medications per day by late last year--before staff, students, and parents forced HVAC system improvements at Amity Regional Senior High--left this thought with the Education Committee: "I ask you to remember that school is a place where we want our children to feel safe and supported. It is also a place of work for so many.

"Please think of all these individuals," Ginter concluded. "We do not want our children to fear coming to a building that will make them sick. We want them to learn, grow, and become adults to be proud of, not adults who will take an illness with them for the rest of their lives."

For a review of current state policies for improving school indoor air quality, go to the Environmental Law Institute Web site at www.eli.org. And for more on asthma and schools, go to http://asthmaandschools.org/.

Facts and Figures
A Problem Too Big To Ignore

Twenty percent of the U.S. population, nearly 55 million people, spend their days in elementary and secondary schools. Studies show that one-half of our nation's 115,000 schools have problems linked to indoor air quality.

Students are at greater risk because of the hours spent in school facilities and because children are especially susceptible to pollutants.

(Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Indoor Air Quality Tools for Schools Program--www.epa.gov/iaq/schools/)

Your Dues Did It
NEAFT September 11 Fund

Last autumn, NEA and the American Federation of Teachers created the NEAFT September 11 Fund to assist children and other affected family members of the victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks and their aftermath.

As of February 11, the fund had raised approximately $715,000 from NEA and AFT appropriations, state and local affiliates, and individual members--and paid out some $323,000 in financial aid.

Check recipients are keenly aware that this money didn't come from a cold bureaucracy, but from caring fellow union members.

AFT member Alice A. Henry, a secretary at New York's John Dewey High School, wrote NEA President Bob Chase: "My son, firefighter Joseph P. Henry, died in the World Trade Center and I know he would be so proud to know that NEA and AFT formed [this fund]. Your kindness will never be forgotten."

Nancy Brennan, a Patchogue-Medford (New York) teacher who will use her NEAFT check to start a trust fund for her deceased brother's two children, wrote, "It's wonderful to be a part of such a caring organization."

And elementary teacher Steven O'Brien, who lost his twin brother, Scott, in the World Trade Center blast, wrote in a moving thank-you letter to Chase: "I relive the events of September 11 over and over again: teaching my fourth grade class as I first heard about the attack, excusing myself to catch a glimpse of a TV, being horrified but having to go back and teach--after being directed not to share the news with my children.

"I'm [now] back at my school and it is the support of my co-workers, and especially my fourth graders who keep me busy and engaged," O'Brien concluded. "Who ever thought I'd look to my students for sanity? Thank you."

Valerie Scott, a retired AFT member in New Mexico, used the fund money she received to travel to New York for her son-in-law's memorial service, while AFT members in New York City used the cash to help replace copiers in schools damaged by the World Trade Center blast.

Much more fund money will be distributed in the months ahead as ongoing needs are realized. In order to minimize red tape, the two unions are relying on local affiliates to help identify those needs.

Thus far, fund recipients--predominantly NEA and AFT members--have been able to use the money for basic needs such as grief counseling, financial planning, rent or mortgage assistance, health care, or higher education expenses.

Life slowly returns to normal for many of these NEA and AFT members, but the needs will continue to be there. You can help by sending a check to: NEAFT September 11 Fund, Dept. 0033, Washington, DC 20041-0033.

News
Is Your School Budget Going Up in Smoke?

New study shows that "economic development" tax breaks burn up money needed for education.

As you approach (shudder) Tax Time, you're probably scrounging for every little deduction you can find. But regrettably, the shrewdest write-offs out there--through vehicles like property tax abatements, tax increment financing, and enterprise zones--won't appear in your tax preparation guide.

These gimmicks are just a handful of the creative "incentives" offered by states and cities, now totaling more than $49 billion a year in either expenditures or foregone revenues, to lure economic development--often from other states and cities.

This intergovernmental competition is starting to eat into some state education budgets, erosion that has become more evident in this time of recession and steep revenue shortfalls.

Economic development incentives make perfect business sense when a company is struggling and needs a tax break to survive, thrive, and sustain local employment.

But when these incentives are simply used to lure a business from one state or city to another, "it's a lose-lose situation for education and other public services," says Ed Hurley, an education finance expert in NEA Research.

"In an ideal world, we wouldn't allow tax abatements," Hurley adds. "In the meantime, let's focus on attracting new economic investment to our communities by offering good schools and a skilled workforce."

Ironically, many state and local economic development boosters already top their lists of "business climate" features with glowing promises of a "highly-skilled labor force" and "excellent schools and training facilities," while simultaneously granting tax breaks that can undermine educational quality.

That's just one finding in a report on how tax giveaways impact school funding, recently completed for NEA Research by the Good Jobs First project of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. This nonprofit, nonpartisan organization--which admits a bias towards "tax fairness"--researches the effects of tax systems on taxpayers at all income levels.

The Good Jobs First study also finds that costly tax giveaways rarely determine where companies locate jobs.

That's because state and local taxes are deductible from federal corporate taxes. And besides, the report notes, "state and local taxes represent only 2 percent to 3 percent of a typical business's costs, compared with basics such as transportation, energy, proximity to suppliers, proximity to customers, and access to critical inputs--especially sufficient skilled labor."

Regardless of these facts, state and local tax gimmicks just keep mushrooming.

In 2000, Ohio had 3,180 low-tax "enterprise zone" agreements in place, notes Ohio Education Association research consultant Andy Jewell.

And in Alabama, corporate tax-break legislation has been simply "endless," laments Alabama Education Association research manager Bill Hanebuth, who has seen every gimmick from employee payroll tax rebates for an auto manufacturer to a recent attempt --stopped by AEA--to grant a $400 million tax break to a power company.

The Good Jobs First/NEA Research report (not yet released to the public) focuses on tax breaks that affect the largest single source of school funding, the property tax.

In Ohio alone, the study finds, property tax abatements and tax increment financing (TIF)--an "exemption of the value of real property improvements" over a set number of years--reduced or diverted school revenue by $102 million in 1999. And Montana schools lose about $16 million a year to such subsidies, the report adds.

Some Smart Solutions
How can the education community challenge tax subsidies that harm school funding--at a time when many state and local budgets have slipped into the red?

Here, from the Good Jobs First folks and NEA researchers, are some reasonable approaches to the problem:

• Shield school revenues from corporate tax subsidies. The best way to do this is to prohibit the abatement or diversion of the school portion of property taxes. A handful of states already do this.

• Give school boards a formal say in subsidy decision making. The Good Jobs First report strongly recommends that school boards be given veto power over abatements and tax increment financing and that school boards be "provided with enough advance information about subsidies to make informed decisions."

• Improve disclosure of business tax breaks. In Ohio, notes OEA staffer Jewell, "there's no central source of information on tax abatement programs, even though the state Department of Development has some oversight. They only know what local tax authorities report to them."

  And in Alabama, charges AEA staffer Hanebuth, industrial development boards actually meet in secret and waive taxes.

  States should measure the impact of subsidies on school revenue, the Good Jobs First report stresses. "In order to do this, reliable data on property tax abatements and TIF must be collected and aggregated by school district, county, and state."

• Ask questions and be aggressive. "I tell Association members to contact their local tax authority--at the city, county, or township level--to find out if they have entered into tax abatement agreements with companies," says OEA's Jewell. "I also encourage members to talk to politicians to get a picture of abatements granted in their community."

  AEA's Hanebuth thinks it's important to be tougher yet, and for a good reason: Corporate tax breaks have helped punch a multimillion dollar hole in Alabama's $4.5 billion education budget.

  "We have full-time AEA staff--including our own staff tax attorney--tracking tax legislation all the time," Hanebuth points out. "We're usually the only group from the education community that testifies when these bills come to committee, and we read each and every bill."

• Point out that somebody has to pay for the pressures of economic growth. "If new companies don't pay their property tax for 20 years, who is paying for new public costs--like streets, sewers, and schools--generated by the population growth?" asks Good Jobs First project director Greg LeRoy. "It's just homeowners and small businesspeople, and that's not fair."

• Speak out for education as an economic development tool. Education unions also have a role to play in this debate, the Good Jobs First report emphasizes. It concludes: "As the front-line workers who see the impact of overcrowding and other effects of underfunded schools, teachers and classified employees can articulate the direct impact subsidies have on tomorrow's workforce."

  Greg LeRoy says it even better than his report: "Teachers and other public education advocates should stand up and declare that they are 'business climate crusaders,' because they are the ones who help build the skilled labor force that so many employers desire."

Greg LeRoy will be a workshop speaker at NEA's "Conference on Quality Schools and Education Funding: Merging the Agendas," to be held May 8-10 in Denver, Colorado. For info, call NEA Research at 202/822-7763 or E-mail Smanalaysay@nea.org.

In Their Own Words
Education: A Tool of Economic Development

"Investment in public education has also been one of the tools of economic development and should be recognized as such. Thus, funding public e