Dear Web Editor,

Our district technology coordinator told me that my classroom access to the Internet is "filtered" because of a state mandate. Is this true? And what exactly does "filtered" mean?

Filtering software blocks attempts of Internet users to access illegal or offensive webpages. Sites that contain violent content, information about crime, and/or sexually explicit or drug-related material may be considered inappropriate for general viewing and blocked by the filter. Internet filtering lets schools manage the type of Web content their students can access, and each school or district has different standards. An effective Internet filter should be flexible enough to accommodate the dynamic nature of the Web and the unique needs of each district.

At the most basic level, Internet filtering products function like traffic cops and bouncers. They match the address of a requested webpage--also called a URL--against a list of webpage addresses stored in a database. If the page's URL appears in the database, then the user will be unable to access the page. The quality of the software's database and the processes used to maintain it are the most important factors to consider when selecting a filtering provider or product.

It is inaccurate to assert that your state requires your school to use an Internet filter. In fact, your school could choose not to implement filtering measures. Most likely, your school has filtered Internet access because the district believes it is in the best interest of your students' safety.

Some federal legislation ties school technology funding to the use of Internet filters. Both the No Child Left Behind Act (Title II-D) and the E-Rate provision of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 require schools and libraries to implement the following measures before they can participate in either program:

• Adopt an Internet safety policy;
• Convene, in some cases, at least one public meeting to prepare the Internet safety policy; and
• Use a technology protection measure that blocks or filters Internet access.

Dear Web Editor,

Is there any way to determine whether a student has taken information from the Internet for an assignment and not credited the proper source? Are there any public websites that can help educators detect plagiarism?

Unfortunately, increased student access to the Internet has added a new twist to the old "art" of plagiarism. Incredibly, a large number of young students don't understand what plagiarism is. They do not realize it is wrong to take content from the Internet and submit it as original work.

The best method for detecting plagiarism, though, is not software-based, but pedagogy-based. Teachers must help students understand what plagiarism is and make sure they understand the consequences for taking credit for work that is not their own.

You can help prevent plagiarism by providing students with a structured research process that focuses on the goals of the course. Offer opportunities that allow students to reflect personally on the topic of a writing assignment and avoid putting students in a time crunch. Most importantly, know your students' writing styles.

There are many websites that offer guidance on plagiarism. Check out Coastal Carolina University's "Cheating 101: Paper Mills and You" at www.coastal.edu/library/papermil.htm. You also may want to read "Internet Plagiarism: Strategies to Deter Academic Misconduct" by Mary Hricko, library director at Kent State University, at www.mtsu.edu/~itconf/proceed98/mhricko.html.

Editor's Pick

The Learning Web The U.S. Geological Survey of the U.S. Department of the Interior has a terrific education site called The Learning Web at www.usgs.gov/education/. The site includes lessons and activities for life and earth science, geography, and geology classes. Some of the topics covered include fossils, ecosystems, rocks, volcanoes, and maps. Students and teachers will find project ideas, homework help, research tools, and resources on the site. All of the USGS teaching packets are based on national education standards.

Techno Tips

Classical Music Site
I worked with a highly skilled parent to develop a classical music website for my class. The site, www.belmont.net/belmont/laroche, includes student drawings and stories inspired by musical pieces, information pages for parents, learning activities, a photo album, and a class movie. I also collaborated with parents and an outstanding Web master to create the First Grade Friendship Rain Forest Website at www.belmont.k12.ma.us/winnbrook/rainforest. The site includes student artwork and research, learning activities, photos and stories from family trips, and Web resources.

Donna LaRoche
First-grade teacher
Belmont, Massachusetts

Excel Sign-In Sheet
I use a Microsoft® Excel® spreadsheet to create a class sign-in document. As my students enter the classroom, they record their lunch and dismissal plans for the day on this sheet. The spreadsheet includes a column for each lunch choice, and students simply type their lunch selections under the correct column next to their names.

In the last column students type their bus numbers, pick-up arrangements, or the name of their after-school programs. Once everyone signs in, I print a copy of the sheet and tape it to the wall next to my desk.

Karen Roahrig
Fifth-grade teacher
Versailles, Kentucky

U.S. History Trek
At www.ustrek.org students and teachers can follow a group of eight educators as they travel across the United States visiting historic places and history experts. Teachers can access photos, videos, and information about the trip at the website. The group has aligned the trip itinerary with a typical yearlong U.S. History curriculum. The team visits unusual locations and brings to life the often-overlooked parts of history (such as the contributions of women and minorities). The team's reports are well written and interesting for high school students. I love this site!

Sarah Jaeger
Mentor teacher
Ross, California

The prescription for closing the achievement gap is tough--and causing plenty of worry.

Few provisions of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 2001 (ESEA) are causing as much angst as the ones requiring states to bring every student to "proficiency" in 12 years. To do this, states must now establish "adequate yearly progress" (AYP) targets for schools to meet that are tougher than those under the 1994 ESEA. Missing these targets could mean stiff sanctions. The requirements have states rattled; some are still scrambling to come up with accountability plans. We sort through the confusion.

Why did Congress toughen the requirements for adequate yearly progress in the first place?
Lawmakers felt states had abused the flexibility they'd been given in setting and meeting annual targets under the old ESEA. Under that law, Title I schools only had to make progress as defined by the states, and often with no set deadlines, so the results varied wildly. Ironically, states that had set high standards now look bad. Of the nearly 9,000 schools the Department of Education this summer announced had not met their targets, some 1,500 came from Michigan--which had set tough goals--while none came from Wyoming and Arkansas, which had less rigorous goals.

So what's different now?
Starting in the 2002-03 school year, every state must give tests in reading and math at least once between grades 3-5, grades 6-9, and grades 10-12. In 2005-06, tests must be given annually for every grade between 3-8 and once between grades 10-12. These test results will be the primary measure for AYP.

Exactly how does a state set its AYP targets?
Using test data from the 2001-02 school year, states must first set a baseline, or starting point. The formula for doing this is complicated--states can use test results from the lowest-performing students, or they can use school proficiency rankings. The end result, however, will be this: A large number of students in each state--at least one-fifth--will, by law, start off in schools whose scores are below the baseline. These schools will have at most two years to raise their scores to that baseline. To ensure these students, and all others, make steady progress, a state must raise its achievement bar in equal increments for the next 12 years. The first increase must be in 2004-05 and then at least once every three years.

How does a school know it has reached its target?
For many, this is the scary part. Schools are only considered successful in making their AYP target when each of four specified subgroups in a school--not simply the student population as a whole--meets the same target. That means test results for students with disabilities, major racial and ethnic minorities, economically disadvantaged students, and students with limited English proficiency will all be broken out separately and measured against the same target as the test results for the school as a whole.

What was the thinking behind this?
Lawmakers wanted to make sure that schools did not mask the performance of lower-achieving students--or allow schools to focus on higher-achieving students and neglect the more challenged groups.

What's so bad about that?
The big fear is that if even one subgroup fails to make the target in math or reading, the whole school will be identified as needing improvement. That means thousands of schools that make their targets overall--or make them for all but one of the subgroups--could still be subjected to sanctions. State leaders have predicted that more than 60 percent of schools in this country could be subject to penalty within a few years because of this provision.

The law does carry a so-called "safe harbor" clause to help schools that miss their targets for one or two subgroups, but most experts don't believe it will offer much relief.

Is there flexibility anywhere?
The flexibility lies in an obscure, but important, provision that allows individual states to determine how many students will be in a subgroup for the results to be "statistically reliable." Depending on whether that number is, say, 10 or 50, the ramifications are huge. If a state sets the number at 50, for example, and 30 percent of the schools in the state don't have that many kids in a subgroup, then those schools don't have to break out test results and will be far less vulnerable to missing their AYP targets. This provision is sure to stir up controversy down the road. Already some states are talking about setting high numbers to help minimize failure rates. That's why NEA strongly encourages members to keep tabs on who's setting this number and how they come up with it.

What happens to a school that misses its targets?
If a school fails to make AYP for two consecutive years, it becomes classified as "needing improvement" and must develop a two-year improvement plan and get help from the district. Each student in that school will get the option of transferring to a better public school in the district. In each subsequent year of needing improvement, the penalties get progressively tougher until finally, after four years of missing AYP targets, a school is identified for restructuring.

--Marilyn Milloy

For more on AYP

• Call NEA's ESEA hotline, 866/373-ESEA (3732).
• See official guidelines at the Department of Education's website, www.nochildleftbehind.gov.
• Read "No state left behind: The challenges and opportunities of the ESEA 2001" by the Education Commission of the States at www.ecs.org.

A primer on special needs education defines--and describes--learning disabilities and how occupational therapy can help.

Learning Re-enabled
By Susan Orloff
148 pp. $24.95 paperback; Children's Special Services.
To order, visit www.amazon.com.

After a long day, you might wish for a magic wand if you're feeling overwhelmed by the number of students in your classroom who have various special needs.

You're not alone. As many as one-third or more of students in a typical general education classroom receive special education services. These youngsters are usually labeled "learning disabled."

Have you ever wondered: What really is a learning disability? What are the classroom signs of learning disabilities that I should I be looking for in my students? How do I explain it to parents?

While it's never easy to explain the complicated way that growing minds and bodies work or how things go wrong for some students, one resource, Learning Re-enabled, can help you accomplish this task with clarity and sensitivity.

The book begins with understandable descriptions of buzz words thrown around when a student has difficulty learning--learning disability, learning difference, IQ, attention deficit disorder--and explores the fine points of terms such as visual perception and sensory integration with unusual clarity.

An occupational therapist, Susan Orloff wrote this book to help parents and teachers decipher the maze of information that surfaces once a student is identified as having a learning disability.

The book's first part helps parents understand what a learning disability is. The second part outlines for teachers early (birth to age 5) developmental stages and lists classroom signs that indicate when a learning disability might exist.

One helpful section explains how occupational therapists can assist students with learning difficulties. Although many school children see occupational therapists, what they do and how their therapy affects the child's academic progress remains a mystery for most educators and parents. Orloff addresses this problem by including pictorial demonstrations of occupational therapy in action and writing samples that show dramatic changes in writing skills "after therapy."

"It's really important that teachers, parents, and other staff recognize there are others on the team who can support them" says Leslie Jackson of the American Occupational Therapy Association. "Occupational therapists can play a significant role in education programs for students who are having learning and behavioral challenges."

Learning Re-enabled is loaded with practical ideas about how toys and equipment can be used to supplement a student's therapy. Bonuses include guidelines for parents and teachers about how to have successful IEP meetings. The book also provides a succinct discussion about Section 504 in the appendix.

Orloff believes teachers and parents should interact as team members. To do that cooperatively, all team members need to speak the same language. By design, the book's coherent definitions and many ideas can help everyone on the "team" focus together on enabling students to learn--without a magic wand.

--Patti Ralabate
NEA Student Achievement

For more: Contact the American Occupational Therapy Association, 4720 Montgomery Lane, Bethesda, MD, 20814, 301/652-2682, or go to www.aota.org.

From the NEA Professional Library

Excerpt
Everyone agreed that the driving motto of the school was that every student would complete every assignment at a level sufficient to get a B. Students worked on unfinished and unsatisfactory assignments until they were complete and satisfactory, all the while keeping up with new work. A poster on the wall of one teacher's classroom defined the grading scale:

A = Above and beyond
B = The basics, you know your stuff
I = Incomplete, you need more time and support

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

Effort and Excellence in Urban Classrooms: Expecting--and Getting--Success with All Students
Copublished by NEA and Columbia Teachers College Press
Dick Corbett, Bruce Wilson, and Belinda Williams
178 pp. $21.95 NEA members
$23.95 nonmembers
# 2021-9-00-FN
This timely volume explores in detail how educators closed the performance gap for low-income students by linking expectations and results. Drawing heavily on the experiences of students, teachers, and parents, this book examines the successful journey of students who traditionally had not succeeded academically. Described as a "must read" for those serious about closing the achievement gap, Effort and Excellence reveals how these educators enabled students to be competitive academically with anyone.

Books by NEA Members

On Your Mark, Get Set, Teach!
By Lisa Funari Willever and Lisa Battinelli
A children's book author and a former Teacher of the Year share the methods, tips, and techniques used by successful teachers. This book prepares new teachers for the transition to school as a workplace and includes resource lists of websites that offer teacher "freebies," and a state-by-state directory of teachers' stores. 192 pp. $13.95 plus s&h from Franklin Mason Press. To order go to www.franklinmasonpress.com.

Tricks of the Trade: In & Out of the Classroom
By Peggy Campbell-Rush
Learn how to better organize your time, reduce interruptions in class, and involve parents in the classroom. A kindergarten teacher with more than 20 years' experience teaching primary grades wrote this collection of short, easy-to-read suggestions, which are useful for any preK-2 teacher. 96 pp. $12.95 from Crystal Springs Books. To order, call 800/321-0401 or go to www.crystalsprings.com.

Whose Coat?
By John Luksetich, illustrated by Patti Kern
Written by a 14-year veteran teacher, this book gently introduces young children to the topic of animal rights through a young girl's search for the origin of fur coats. (Here, the animals eventually get their fur coats back.) The book can be used to teach the value of caring and compassion. 32 pp. $14.95 from Imagine Nation Press. To order, call 888/483-7547 or 562/431-3032; or go to www.imaginenationpress.com.

The Dramatically Different Classroom: Multiple Intelligence Activities Across The Curriculum
By Mark Weakland and Christine Laitta
Awaken the Einsteins and Shakespeares in your class with this guide full of fresh activities, all focusing on ensemble projects, language arts, social studies, mathematics, science, health, and recess games and ideas. Each activity lists the multiple intelligences it engages. 198 pp. $25 from Kagan Publishing. To order, go to http://kaganonline.com/Catalog/ or call 800/933-2667.

A Moment of Peace and Quiet: Meditations for Teachers
By Gail G. Mesplay
Looking for a breather in a hectic day? Try opening this book to a random page and reading a short quotation and reflection on a topic such as responsibility or enthusiasm. Written and compiled by a 33-year teacher, let this collection of quotes and musings help you find a quiet moment in your day. 204 pp. $14 from Smyth and Helwys Publishing. To order, go to www.helwys.com or call 800/747-3016.

TV Tips

In the Mix
PBS, Week of November 16, check local listings for dates and times.
In the Mix, the award-winning documentary series for teens, presents "Living with Change," a program highlighting how teens have responded and coped with the effects of the ongoing events of the past year. Interviews include students who were closest to Ground Zero and have returned to their schools, a teen EMT who volunteered at the site, a boy who abused drugs but stopped after 9/11, and a teen who lost her stepfather, a firefighter. Companion study guides and a website are available at www.inthemix.org. All episodes have one-year off-air taping rights for educators.

Nick News: Special Edition
Nickelodeon, November 8 and 20, 5 a.m., ET, check local listings.
Linda Ellerbee created this series of specials from the award-winning news magazine for kids in grades 4-6. This month's program, "It's Only Television," teaches kids how to become media literate and explains how to distinguish between reality and fantasy. Jeff Sagansky, president of CBS Entertainment, and producer Gary Goldberg explain the economics of television and take viewers through the creation of a new series. The show can be taped and used in the classroom for 10 years with a lesson plan found at www.teachers.nick.com.

Home for the Holidays: The History of Thanksgiving
History Channel, November 15, 6 a.m., ET.
This History Channel Classroom documentary traces the history of the celebration that began as a Pilgrim harvest feast in the 1620s, was declared a national holiday by Abraham Lincoln in 1863, and remains the quintessential U.S. holiday. The program also looks at traditional holiday elements, such as turkey dinners and football. The show can be taped and used in the classroom for two years. A lesson plan is available at www.historychannel.com/classroom.

Ozzy & Drix
Kids!WB!, November 16, 9:30 - 10 a.m., ET.
Based on the film "Osmosis Jones" this animated adventure, developed with a Harvard medical consultant, follows the exploits of a white blood cell cop, Ozzy, and his partner, over-the-counter cold pill Drix, as they defend the City of Hector--the body of a 13-year-old boy--to investigate and combat viruses and infections. In this episode, "Where's the Smoke," Hector experiments with cigarettes and unleashes a creature known as Nick O'Teen into the City of Hector. Ozzy and Drix must stop Nick before he travels to the brain and causes Hector to smoke again.

Biography for Kids
A&E, November 18, 7 a.m., ET ("Pocohontas") and November 29, 7 a.m., ET. ("Eureka!"), check local listings.
This Emmy Award-winning series profiles political leaders, artists, and other famous figures."Pocohontas: Ambassador to the New World" explores the unknown side of this tragic heroine and describes her life as a diplomat and influential leader. "Eureka! The 20th Century's Top 15 Inventors," features interviews with authors, executives, media personalities, and the inventors themselves, as this program profiles the lives of some of the most important inventors of the 20th century. Both shows can be taped and used in the classroom for two years, and both have lesson plans at www.aande.com/class.

The Real Thomas Jefferson
Discovery Channel, November 25, 9 a.m., ET.
This program profiles one of the founding fathers of the United States, including his invention of our monetary system and his fight for religious freedom and publicly funded education. The show can be taped and used in the classroom for one year. Go to http://school.discovery.com/teachers for an accompanying lesson plan.

Destination: America, Land of Dreams
WAM!, Thursday, November 28, 7 - 7:30 p.m., ET.
Designed to provide peer modeling, this special profiles young immigrants to America as they share their successful assimilations into schools and communities from New York to Denver. Home videos and videotape created by kids are intercut with interviews, graphics, and historical perspectives about the countries these students left behind.

Friday on the Rocks
National Geographic Channel, November 29, 1 p.m. - 2 a.m. ET.
Epic battles, fabled shipwrecks, lost treasures, last voyages, and more are revealed in Friday on the Rocks. In this special, Robert Ballard, world-renowned discoverer of the Titanic and the German battleship Bismarck, presents his personal insights in the "Search for the Submarine I-52"--the Japanese submarine that sank in 1944 with two tons of gold; "Terror At Sea" on the 45th anniversary of the sinking of the Andrea Doria; "Deep Sea Hunting" for treasured relics of an ancient ship at the bottom of the Aegean Sea; and"Secrets of Titanic," which documents his expedition to locate the famous vessel.

James Cameron's Expedition: Bismarck
Discovery Channel, December 8, 8 p.m., ET, check local listings.
In 1941, the British bombed and sunk Germany's "unsinkable" DKM Bismarck. In 2002, Titanic director James Cameron conducted the first detailed survey of the sunken ship with the help of revolutionary camera and lighting equipment and remotely operated vehicles. Enhanced by interviews, commentary from historians, and archival materials, the program explores the last days of the ship and investigates the cause of its sinking.

Rocks with Wings
PBS, December 11, 9 p.m., ET, check local listings.
Follow the journey of Jerry Richardson, an African-American star college basketball player from Texas, and the Lady Chieftains, a women's high school basketball team from the Navajo community of Shiprock, New Mexico, in this two-hour documentary. With intense and at times controversial determination, Richardson molds the young women into fighters on the court. What results is an inspirational story about the meaning of winning and losing, set against a complex background of race and heritage and societal expectations--for the players, the coach, and the Navajo community.

Degrassi: The Next Generation
Noggin/The N, Saturday, December 31, 9 p.m. - 3 a.m., ET.
It's New Year's Eve and the Degrassi kids are celebrating with a lock-in at Degrassi Community School. The "Degrassi New Year's Lock-in Eve" will feature back-to-back episodes of the series chosen by the show's stars who will host the special. At 11:30 p.m., a viewer's choice episode will close out the year. Beginning November 25 through December 23 kids can log on to vote at the N website at www.the-n.com. A discussion guide for parents can be found on www.discussions.the-n.com.

A Very Muppet Christmas Movie
NBC, December, check local listings.
Whoopi Goldberg joins Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, and an all-star Muppet cast in this first-ever made- for-television holiday Muppet movie. Filled with celebrity cameo appearances, the film pays homage to all Christmas movies as Kermit struggles, on Christmas eve, to save the Muppet Theater from the stylish, yet Scroogish, bank owner Rachel Bitterman (played by Joan Cusack), who plans to demolish it. David Arquette plays Daniel, the rookie angel trying to earn his wings by helping Kermit.

Web winners

Practical Reading Tools
Educators can move from theory to practice with the new Resources for Educators section on the Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) website. Find recommended book lists, professional development articles, Internet resources, teaching tips, an Ask the Expert column, student activities, and news and events calendar at this comprehensive site from one of NEA's Read Across America partners. Go to www.rif.org.

TheAntiDrug.com Educator Resource
TeachersGuide--a drug education resource developed by the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign--provides teachers with ideas and resources for incorporating drug prevention messages into the classroom. Classroom activities were also developed by NEA's Health Information Network. While the activities are not a drug education curriculum, they offer ways to easily integrate drug prevention activities into different subject areas and can be used by almost any teacher of students age 11-14. Follow the lessons as written or tailor them to best meet the needs of your students and subject area. The site also provides additional links to educational resources and organizations that will take you to specific drug prevention and awareness information. Go to www.TeachersGuide.org.

Hotmath
Hotmath provides step-by-step solutions to homework problems in leading algebra, geometry, pre-calculus, and calculus textbooks, and also provides links to recommended math sites Just select the textbook and enter the page number and problem number to view guided solutions. Offered last year for a fee, www.hotmath.org is now free.

Art for all Ages
This site attracts children in grades K-12 with its unique educational experiences in art with the late Keith Haring's colorful, animated cartoon drawings. Children will enjoy interactive coloring books, picture puzzles, and tic-tac-toe. A new lesson plans section--organized by subject, age, and materials--offers teachers, parents, students, and fans resources for enriching, explorative lessons for all ages and fields of study. Go to www.haringkids.com.

Conflict Coverage
For nearly two years now, the Middle East has been wracked by violence between Israelis and Palestinians. As renewed bouts of violence continue to pop up, the reporters and producers at National Public Radio have followed the conflict. Their Middle East website has compiled an archive of daily reports, audio links, and transcripts from their "All Things Considered" and "Morning Edition" programs, starting with shows from the beginning of May. Go to www.npr.org/news/specials/mideast/transcripts/.

Braille Bug
The Braille Bug site teaches sighted children all about Braille and raises awareness for the issues that face America's 10 million blind or visually impaired children and adults. Created by the American Foundation for the Blind--an organization to which Helen Keller devoted more than 40 years of her life--Braille Bug also contains fun activities that help children familiarize themselves with Braille and its history. Go to www.afb.org/braillebug/.

Video Projects Guide
This website offers a comprehensive guide for teaching students how to produce a complete video project. Included is a 70-part online textbook that covers countless topics related to film--from script writing and the importance of lighting to 15 steps of production and legal and ethical issues. Students can tailor sample video projects to suit their schools' needs, look up key terms, and take interactive quizzes. Go to www.cybercollege.com/tvp_ind.htm.

New York Times Digital
For grades 3-12, the New York Times Learning Network provides interactive learning resources to match the contents of the newspaper. Students benefit from geography and vocabulary "knowledge tools" as they learn about the day's top stories. They can also take online news quizzes, complete crossword puzzles, and participate in special features such as "Ask a Reporter." The site is equipped with daily lesson plans, news snapshots, and much more. Go to www. nytimes.com/learning/.

Simple Science
Science Made Simple is exactly that--it answers science questions in a way kids can understand--questions such as "Why is the sky blue?" and "How do I breathe?" Easy science experiments include explanations of how static electricity works and why leaves change colors in the fall. Learn about the latest in science news and get your science questions answered in a clear, concise way. Go to www.sciencemadesimple.com.

Smithsonian Center
Developed for the education community, this site demonstrates leadership in education at the Smithsonian--the world's largest museum and research complex--and produces a variety of programs, services, and resources for the education community. You'll find lesson plans, media catalogs, field trips, a resource bank, an educator's tool kit, and much more. Go to http://educate.si.edu.

Health Strategies
Developed by The Rodale Institute, www.kidsregen.org helps people rediscover that the food they eat is a primary tool in achieving optimum health and avoiding illness and disease. The Kid's Re-generation Resource Network offers many useful health tips and programs, such as the launch of an exciting, year-long fitness and nutrition program that will motivate children as they work towards improving their eating and fitness habits each month.

Personal Digital Assistant
Thinking about buying a hand-held computer or other personal digital assistant (PDA)? Then visit the EduPalm website. Created by NEA member Gary Ankney, this site includes articles about what to look for when buying a PDA, as well as many links to other helpful articles and buying guides. Once you own a hand-held, return to the site for links to downloadable software and articles on how best to use and upgrade your PDA. Go to http://edupalm.org.

Pat Heck's reading and mentoring club helps students discover their love for literacy.

Fifteen years ago, veteran high school teacher Pat Heck was looking for a way to engage her reading recovery students when an activity with her advanced students sparked an idea. "I had organized a community service outing in which my advanced students read to elementary students at a nearby school," recalls Heck, who teaches at Red Mountain High in Phoenix, Arizona. There was just one problem: The session didn't turn out the way she'd expected--at all.

The students, normally confident in their interactions in class and with each other, were surprisingly hesitant to read to the small children. "I realized that the students needed training in how to read aloud and explain stories--skills that I had taken for granted as a reading teacher," says Heck.

Once Heck created a method for reading with the young children, the students quickly responded. Heck took notice. "If my advanced students responded this well," she thought, "just imagine what would happen with my struggling readers."

So Heck began to create a reading and mentoring club that connected her students to the local chapter of Reading is Fundamental (RIF), a national literacy organization. "That's how Club RIF and our Reading Buddies project was born," she says.

In Reading Buddies, Club RIF members read one-on-one to second graders at nearby Salk Elementary School. "It's been a joy to see these students work hard at teaching children that pure wonderment comes from reading," says Heck. "Both the student and young buddy often improve."

Today, Club RIF boasts 1,800 members and offers students a variety of activities, from tutoring to collecting books for homeless shelters and students in low-income neighborhoods.

"Club RIF makes coming to school enjoyable and fun," says senior Erika Ortiz. "The service we provide to the children in our community is tremendously worthwhile. I intend to be part of RIF for the rest of my life."

For Heck, the words are like music. "I'm always amazed at how impassioned many high school students become about the importance of fighting illiteracy and fostering a lifelong love of reading," she says.

But success hasn't always been easy. "For my struggling readers, there was much more at stake, and I desperately wanted them to experience success," says Heck. "Many were not read to as children. I figured if they could teach second graders the love of reading, perhaps they would learn it as well."

Heck worked closely with all of her students, helping them learn to develop questions, guide their young readers, and even create activities. The hard work paid off. Many students credit the club with their new outlook on their futures.

"So many of my club members have received scholarships and others have gone on to create tutoring projects of their own," says Heck. Even the national Reading is Fundamental program has taken note.

"There's an old saying," Heck says. "If you want to learn something, teach it. My reading students took that lesson to heart and rekindled their joy of reading by sharing it with others. That's what makes me proud."

--Anita Merina

You Can Do It, Too!

If you're interested in creating a Club RIF of your own, more power to you, says Red Mountain's Pat Heck. Here are her tips for success:

Contact the national Reading is Fundamental, Inc., one of NEA's partners in Read Across America. RIF can help you with materials, local contacts, and suggestions on how to start a Club RIF in your area. Go to www.rif.org.

Approach each RIF event like a coach. Make sure all of the details are in place before you launch your project, and make sure each player knows exactly what is expected of him or her.

Think small at first. Create a tutoring project for one class, not five. Make it manageable and build a solid foundation.

Make sure you organize. Few students are naturally adept at effective organizing, but they are very responsive to directions. Include your students in the planning and they'll be more invested in the project's success.

Make local contacts to help you with your programs. Work with local homeless shelters, Indian reservations, and other organizations for book distributions. Be creative; it makes a big difference to work with the community.

Enjoy the experience. Your students surely will--and that's the key.

There has been a lot of talk about a teacher shortage. But what's really in short supply is respect for teachers.

At the start of every school year, we read in the newspaper--hear on the radio--see on the television--stories about schools scrambling to hire teachers. The "teacher shortage" stories are as predictable as the autumn leaves. And this year, a new federal law has sparked even more discussion about the teacher supply problem. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act requires that every teacher in every classroom in every public school in the United States must be "highly qualified" by the spring of 2006.

This is a bold and noble goal--one that NEA has advocated for years and heartily supports. But school administrators, the people who must implement the goal, are already voicing doubts about achieving it. As one urban school superintendent said: "A third of our new teachers have emergency credentials. I don't know where we are going to find highly qualified teachers to fill every classroom."

Is there really a shortage of qualified teachers? I would say so. And why? Because there is a "shortage of respect."

Each year, America's colleges of education could produce enough new teachers to replace retiring teachers and meet the needs of growing student enrollments. The problem is not that too few men and women desire to come into the profession. The problem is that there are too many sacrifices that must be made to realize success in the profession. And the solution is not to develop alternative routes of entry into the profession or to increase the supply of recruits by allowing prospective teachers to skip "burdensome" education courses or student teaching. The solution is to show a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T, and show us the money.

We are short of qualified teachers because education and educators have not been given the respect that we deserve. Respect that is reflected in our work environment--modern schools, small class sizes, and adequate resources. Respect that is reflected in our compensation--educators should not have to sacrifice the desire to pursue an honorable profession in order to provide a decent standard of living for their families. Change those conditions and the teacher quality, recruitment, and retention issues will vanish.

Don't get me wrong. Teaching is a tough, tough job, and not everyone is cut out for it. However, teacher turnover on the scale that we are experiencing today is disastrous. Consider these facts:

Almost a third of America's teachers leave the profession sometime during their first three years of teaching, and almost half leave after five years.

Teacher drop-out rates are highest in the areas of special education, mathematics, and science; in these fields nearly 20 percent of the teachers leave each year.

n In urban schools, poor and minority students are three to four times more likely to have an inexperienced teacher than students in wealthier districts. (Research tells us that students of experienced teachers do significantly better than students of inexperienced teachers--those with less than two to three years of experience.)

There is no wonder that we--NEA--cannot and will not accept the status quo. Our students deserve better.

My friends, our challenge as an Association is to "teach" policymakers in 2002 and 2004. They must understand what respect means to us: professional pay, mentoring and professional development, modern facilities, and smaller class sizes--it means consulting with us, not dictating to us on education reform.

Gimmicks and cutting corners will never put a qualified teacher in every classroom. But respect will.

Comments? E-mail Reg Weaver at RegWeaver@nea.org.

When art teacher Ellen Beck pulls her Baltic blue Porsche into the parking lot of Portsmouth Middle School in New Hampshire, no one blinks an eye. That's because community members naturally associate Beck with her favorite extracurricular activity: high-speed performance race car driving.

During the last eight years, Beck has become actively involved with the Porsche Club of America as a driver and chief instructor in the Northeast region. "People from all walks of life get to participate," regardless of the status of their bank accounts, says Beck.

During weekend-long driver education events, Beck teaches novice and advanced students proper technique as they brave the winding tracks of the Porsche road courses.

"I enjoy seeing their grins when people say, 'I just had the best day,'" says Beck.

Beck serves as a role model for her young students and for her fellow Porsche owners. Her kids admire her fearlessness as she whips around the curves of the racetrack at breakneck speed.

"My kids see a woman doing something unusual, and doing it well," she says. "It opens up their eyes."

--Lauren Fischer

Liberty and Faith

After the September 11 terrorist attacks, sixth-grade teacher Steven McNew, of Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, sent two stuffed bears and a journal around the country so people could record their reactions to the attacks. He didn't think the bears would return. But this spring they did.

While the bears, named Liberty and Faith, were on the road, McNew's class received postcards, letters, and e-mails from people who received the bears. Many people who wrote assumed the bears' identities.

When the bears returned in May, they had traveled through 37 states. The journal also included some extraordinary eyewitness accounts, including a story from a man who lost two firefighter friends when the towers collapsed.

"After reading this journal, I've realized that there are wonderful people in this country," McNew says.

--Irene Arce

Perfect Attendance

Wiley Brooks Jr. hasn't missed a day of school in 12 years. And he plans to continue his perfect attendance.

"If I am able to, I will never miss a day again," says Brooks, a social studies teacher and basketball and track coach. His school, B.F. Liddell Junior High School in Macon, Mississippi, honored him this spring for his 2,000th day in a row on the job.

Brooks' dedication to school is nothing new. During his four years as a student at B.F. Liddell High School and four years studying at Jackson State University, Brooks missed only four days because of the measles.

"I never wanted to stay home when I was little," says Brooks. "I used to cry when I couldn't go to school."

While his students may not have perfect attendance, Brooks believes his record sets an example. "They are always waiting for me to miss a day," says Brooks. "Now, some students are telling me that they're going to try and break my record."

Brooks' devotion to his students goes well beyond the classroom. Throughout his teaching career, Brooks has helped 23 students go to college and is godfather to 50.

Many of Brooks' godchildren have their own families now and some are even teachers. Brooks still checks on them regularly.

"They live everywhere now," says Brooks. "Some stayed in Mississippi, others are along the East Coast. But I still have all of their numbers."

--Lian Skaff

Pop Art

Jane Smith, an art teacher in Shakopee, Minnesota, always dreamed of writing and illustrating her own children's book. But her students never could have guessed just how big her idea was.

Last fall, Smith solicited the help of her sixth-grade students at Sun Path Elementary School to create the world's largest pop-up book. Five months later the group had a six-page book that stood 8 feet tall and measured 14 feet wide when opened.

Smith, shown here inside her 300-pound storybook, wanted her students to look at books "through the eyes of illustrators," she says.

Smith also approached Guinness World Records about recognizing her efforts. Although Guinness did not award her an official world record title, the organization created a new category for pop-up books in Smith's honor.

Smith received plenty of community interest in her project as well. The book served as the backdrop for a school play and spent one month on display at the Mall of America. The Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune also featured it in an article.

Smith hopes to find a permanent location to display the pop-up book, where children can see and enjoy it. She also plans to publish a children's book some day.

Teacher's Pet

When teacher Jean Keister brought a terrier to school, many people assumed her eighth-grade students would get distracted with a dog in class. But they didn't. While Keister teaches, Riley, a West Highland white terrier, roams freely around her room at Robin Mickle Middle School in Lincoln, Nebraska. Students sometimes walk around and hold and pet Riley, but they remain focused on class discussions and assignments.

Keister first brought Riley to school two years ago. She had been teaching for almost 30 years and was looking for new and creative teaching strategies, she says. About that time, she saw a television program about the therapeutic use of dogs in nursing homes and orphanages. The show inspired her to bring a dog to class, and the innovative technique renewed her enthusiasm for teaching, she says.

Having Riley in class teaches students to respect other living things and to accept the responsibility of caring for an animal, Keister says. Riley also calms students, especially those who have attention deficit disorder, she adds. Thanks to Riley, the school has a reputation of being an imaginative place where new teaching techniques are tested.

--Irene Arce

Paraeducators in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, are making their work a profession--thanks to collective bargaining and a state law.

If you want to know the hallmarks of a quality paraeducator, just go to experts such as Lynn Bounds, Michele Carter, Michele Geers, and Allyson "Sunny" Story, all teacher associates in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. They'll advise you to look for common sense, initiative, communications and prioritization skills, ability to "read" teachers and kids, and unabashed "enthusiasm and joy" over teaching and learning.

When Carter, a special education paraeducator at the preK-1 Grant Early Childhood Center, sits in on a para hiring interview, she probes to discover if the candidate "considers what we do a profession" and exhibits "respect for the teacher's position and the whole [teaching] environment."

If Carter, a 20-year master of her craft, sounds like one tough gatekeeper, in a very real sense she is. In 2000, she belonged to a team of education providers that helped the Iowa Department of Education draft core competence criteria for a law establishing a "multilevel voluntary licensing system" for paraeducators, in every level from "generalist" to "specialist."

Now, should they choose, Iowa districts and individual support professionals can opt for para state certification, a document that proves "we know what we know," says Sunny Story, department chair of the Cedar Rapids Organization of Teacher Associates (CROTA), a unit of the Cedar Rapids Education Association (CREA).

Talk about good timing. The federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act, specifies that new paras hired after January 8, 2002, and working in a program supported with Title I funds must have completed at least two years of secondary study, or obtained an associate's (or higher) degree, or met a serious state "standard of quality" and demonstrated specific abilities through a state or local assessment.

Cedar Rapids, Iowa's second largest district, has put two laws together and added up the consequences--all newly hired paras will have to hold state certification.

That's progressive enough, but here's where it gets revolutionary: Through an eight-level salary scale negotiated with CROTA/CREA, Cedar Rapids systematically rewards its teacher associates for earning ever more credits, certificates, and degrees.

Each time a para moves from one skill level up to the next, he or she gets a 2.5 percent pay increase on his or her "individual" base salary. Those raises just keep compounding, and the para never hits the ceiling of some arbitrary "top" step or increment.

"This is called 'looping' and it's modeled after our teacher pay schedule" explains UniServ Director Kathy Krehbiel. "The potential for personal growth is enormous. You go as far as you want and you never stop. As long as you keep learning, you always get a pay increase."

As a result, these education support professionals are slowly but surely moving above fast-food pay. At press time, the lowest paid Cedar Rapids para made $8.56 an hour, the highest, $15.67.

"Our goals are to have teacher assistants earn a living wage, to make this a career choice, and to be able to attract talented people into this profession," stresses Story, a 23-year veteran and one of the first Iowans to earn state para certification.

--Dave Winans

Cedar Rapids Paras: They Make a Difference

If you want to glimpse the future of para education, go to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, an industrial Midwestern city with a very industrious public school system. Its students outperform state and national averages in every category of the ACT test, and its dropout prevention program has produced a 98 percent graduation rate.

This success couldn't happen without a quality teaching force--assisted by paraeducators committed to kids and their own professional growth. Here are some paras you should meet:

• Even before Iowa passed its para certification law in 2000, early childhood paraeducator Michele Carter collaborated with the Grant Wood Area Education Agency and the Iowa Education Network to organize and teach paraprofessional workshops. Now (and she can't believe how quickly) Carter has earned a five-year state Special Needs para certificate at Kirkwood Community College.
  In her work with preschoolers--with physical, emotional, and mental disabilities--at the Title I Grant Early Childhood Center, Carter has reached a professional high. She says her classroom partner, special ed teacher Emily Dolezal, "wants me to use what I have learned and is willing to take suggestions. That makes me comfortable and relaxed.
  "Emily does the planning--the IEPs, the behavior modification plans, the paperwork, the brainwork," this para notes. "I assist in implementing her plans.
  "My duties include small group supervision and routine maintenance," Carter adds. "Teachers have a difficult role, with added hours, and they have to take the job home with them. I can generally leave my job at the door when I leave each day."
  But thanks to her coursework, Carter shares the same vocabulary with Dolezal. "I used to say, 'no, that's not for me.' Now I know what teachers are talking about," says Carter. "And if you understand, you can have input. Now I can help adapt activities for special learning styles, so that all students are working at the skills table together."
• Lynn Bounds is a dropout assistant in the day care center of Metro High School, Cedar Rapids' alternative setting for at-risk students, where she serves as "a 'teacher,' a nursemaid, and a counselor."
  It's an important job--helping teach the preschool children of school staff and teenaged parents, while modeling parenting skills for moms and dads who are kids themselves. It's all part of the school system's philosophy that dropout prevention begins before children even hit kindergarten.
  This teacher associate loves the small scale of Metro and the caring quality of her co-workers, and bursts with pride "over the trust kids have in me to take care of them and the trust parents have in me to do this." Young parents "watch me, to see how I interact with two-year-olds," Bounds adds. "If they have questions, we sit down and talk to them."
  Bounds knows her district's growing commitment to para professional development can help make her an even stronger influence in young lives. And she's ready--like many certified teachers, Bounds maintains a professional file with course completion certificates, staff evaluations, and even a "professional growth record."
  "I enjoy training--you can never get enough tools in your belt," Bounds concludes. "I think training should be mandatory and the district should pay for it."
• Michele Geers already held two tough jobs before taking on a third. She's the mother of six public school students and a teacher associate at Hiawatha Elementary, where she does everything from work with a child with Asperger's Syndrome to perform copying, lunchroom, and clinic duties. And more recently she became an Association activist.
  Geers realizes she may be facing a fourth job, earning course credits to get state para certification, and she contemplates getting trained as a medical first responder and grief counselor. But this outspoken unionist knows that there are only so many hours in a day and that she and many of her ESP colleagues need some sort of relief to get the job training they deserve and need.
  More paid in-service time "would make a lot of people happy," Geers declares. And Central Office indicates that it hears this message--because more than one person is sending it.
  "When we all pull together and and speak with one voice, we make a huge difference," Geers concludes. "You can't beat the union; it has your back. The Association listens to what we say, gets things settled, and keeps us in constant contact with the latest district policies. You can't go without health insurance, and you shouldn't go without job insurance: your union."

--D.W.

On Your Side - CREA: A Local That Makes a Difference

Teacher associates in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, are making strides in pay and professional development because they're part of the Cedar Rapids Education Association, an inclusive NEA local affiliate that pushes the envelope.

These ESPs have an equal say with teachers in CREA governance, committee assignments, and relationships with administrators. And they're benefiting from the local's six years of collaborative work with the Cedar Rapids Community School District--in areas such as non-confrontational bargaining and problem solving, remediation for struggling educators, and, soon, professional development.

"Our work relationship with CREA is outstanding, unique, and enlightened," enthuses district Human Relations Director Ann Feldmann. "It takes both sides to give a little, and we get back so much."

And how. Not long ago, the parties sat down and amicably headed off the deficit-driven "surplusing"--layoffs--of more than 76 new teachers by negotiating "an enriched separation package" that enticed 114 veteran teachers to retire early.

The union and district then split the salary savings for needs such as budget relief, teacher and ESP salary increases, qualifications-based pay adjustments for veteran paras, and a skills-based salary schedule for teacher associates.

Paras and teachers in Cedar Rapids and across Iowa have another strong NEA affiliate "at their back": the Iowa State Education Association. "We're working behind the scenes with the Iowa Department of Education as it prepares to implement the Elementary and Secondary Education Act," reports ISEA staffer Lana Oppenheim Schlapkohl. "And we're preparing to implement programs that help our para members achieve state certification, and working with DOE to offer assistance to pass whatever tests are required under ESEA."

For more on how they do things in Cedar Rapids, contact CREA President Gary Anhalt at ganhalt@cr.k12.ia.us or CROTA Department Chair Sunny Story at astory@esc.cr.k12.ia.us. And visit this NEA local affiliate's website at www.creaonline.org.

Your school system's fiscal woes are shared by other districts across the nation. Here's the bigger economic picture.

It can be pretty tough to believe the country has an education mandate at a time when there are teacher reductions in force (RIFs) in Massachusetts, Iowa, and Connecticut; position cuts and booming class sizes in Minnesota; and a decrease in school nurses and custodial substitutes in Alaska.

Factor in the unfunded federal and state mandates--to increase student test scores, ensure individual schools' "adequate yearly progress," and improve educator quality and "accountability"--and it's a wonder there's any money left for daily classroom needs.

A beginning-of-the-school-year Christian Science Monitor article bleakly reported that school finances across the nation are the worst in 10 years, causing cutbacks in everything from bands to bus stops. School systems in 44 states "have seen their money cut or held steady," the Monitor reported, "which essentially amounts to a cut when teacher raises are factored in."

This is a coast-to-coast crisis. In an annual state survey released in late August by the bipartisan National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), 43 states reported a collective $27.3 billion budget gap in April, which shot up to $35.9 billion by June.

In Fiscal Year 2002, reports NCSL, 29 states implemented targeted or across-the-board budget cuts, while 19 tapped their rainy day funds. And in Fiscal Year 2003, now under way, 11 states have cut K-12 education spending, while another 11 have slashed revenue sharing with local governments.

Worse yet, "this bad news will last awhile, even if the recession ends," says NEA Research economist Ed Hurley. "Negative effects will stay around for at least the next two years."

Some factors behind the longevity of this fiscal pain:

• Boom-era fiscal errors. Some states compounded their shortfalls by making optimistic revenue estimates that did not track economic reality. Other states made big pre-recession tax cuts or failed to create tax systems that keep pace with growing personal incomes.
• The stock market downturn. "Personal incomes have not fallen dramatically," notes Hurley, "but in most states, revenues have been hurt by a capital gains tax loss--which one could call a capital gains collapse--and the devaluation of stock options." For California, Colorado, and New Jersey, the stock market stumble meant double-digit declines in estimated income tax payments for tax year 2001.
  Public employee pension funds, which invest heavily in corporate stocks, also took a hit from the market downturn. "This may force states to increase pension contributions at a time when they can least afford it," Hurley warns.
• Structural deficits. Recessions are temporary phenomena, and states are currently dealing with their short-term deficits by raising taxes and cutting spending. But some states will continue to face "structural deficits" year after year because they lack a tax structure that captures enough revenue from economic growth to fund services at current levels. Other states have started down that road by "cutting their income tax in good times rather than saving the money in rainy day accounts," Hurley notes.
• Skyrocketing medical costs. Health care cost increases, particularly for prescription drugs, are not only impacting school employee salaries and contracts, they're also making a huge dent in state budgets.
  According to the NCSL state survey, funding for Medicaid--the federal/state program providing medical and nursing home care for some 40 million low-income people--has "taken over the top spot for the last two years and will capture the largest percentage of new funding in FY 2003." With 40 states reporting, Medicaid is budgeted to grow 8.2 percent, outpacing K-12 education (4.8 percent), corrections (3.2 percent), and higher ed (1.8 percent).
  How do we get out of this fiscal mess? Solutions will involve everything from true health care reform to a stable, balanced, and "elastic" tax system based on an economic development policy that doesn't trade off adequate education funding for new business development (the two work together).
  Just like any smart educator's investment portfolio, says Hurley, a balanced state tax system is structured for the highs, lows, and in-betweens of the economic cycle. Such a structure could include an income tax (a big revenue source in good economic times), a property tax (stable even during recessions), and a sales tax that covers a wide variety of services.
  In the end, fair taxation and funding adequacy can make a difference in everything from class size to teacher retention and recruitment.

--Dave Winans

For updates on state fiscal health, visit the websites of the National Association of State Budget Officers (www.nasbo. org) and the National Conference of State Legislatures (www.ncsl.org). For more on tax policy and public education funding, go to www.nea.org/neatoday/0203/news18.html. And for more on school funding adequacy, go to www.nea.org/neatoday/0209/news18.html.

Louisiana ESPs Organize, Parish by Parish by Parish

Look in Louisiana's northeastern corner, between Arkansas and the Mississippi River, and you'll find an inspiring ESP organizing story. It began in East Carroll Parish back in 1996 and has since spread to parishes such as Madison and Morehouse.

With assistance from NEA and the Louisiana Association of Educators, ESPs are learning how to press their case for better pay, benefits, and conditions with district decision makers--and learning how to prevail, even without a state bargaining law.

District by district, word is traveling that you can move mountains if you attend school board meetings en masse; make one-to-one contact with superintendents, school board, and finance committee members; and thoughtfully present your case for a living wage.

In the 2001-02 school year, Madison ESPs won a $1,300 raise, added to a $500 state raise. And at the end of September 2002, Morehouse support professionals gained a $900 boost in their salary schedule, on top of the $500 state raise.

Along the way, new activists and organizational habits are emerging. In Morehouse Parish, Bonita Elementary food service technician Gertrude Johnson has become an energetic leader. Like clockwork, she and other support professionals now gather the first Thursday of each month, immediately after the school board meeting.

And thanks to NEA/LAE training, northeastern Louisiana ESPs are sharpening the skills needed in any "bargaining" situation--holding one's temper, staying focused, and concentrating on finer points such as job descriptions, evaluations, and performance.

Like the Mississippi itself, the organizing momentum just flows from one parish to the next, "one piece, one step at a time," reports LAE UniServ Director Eva Dyann Wilson.

"In the process," Wilson says, "education support professionals are coming to realize the power they have, even to meet finance committee members as equals. There's no stopping them!"

--Dave Winans

For more on how ESP organizing started in East Carroll Parish, Louisiana, go to www.nea.org/neatoday/9902/atloclvl.html.

Kudos To
Nebraska Teacher Wins RIF Settlement, Recall Rights

• The Nebraska State Education Association has won a settlement and recall rights for rural teacher Pat Sharp, laid off after teaching 26 years in the 50-year-old Bethel Public School. The school was closed last spring because of a lean budget and declining enrollment.
  Sharp, an NSEA member for most of her 33-year teaching career, requested a reduction in force hearing before her school board. "I felt I had put 26 years in there, and that was something to consider," she says.
  The board agreed to a settlement on the day the hearing was scheduled. Sharp, who was represented by NSEA UniServ and legal staff, received $10,000 and two-year recall rights should the school re-open. Sharp's teaching partner, who is not an Association member, received no assistance.
  In a note to NSEA UniServ Director Bill Nowak, Sharp wrote: "When it comes to this sort of situation, I have come to appreciate the backing of NSEA. We are really 'on an island,' and with your support, I have felt rescued."
• A couple of years back, Kansas NEA won legislation permitting school districts and community colleges to negotiate entry into the large Kansas State Employee Health Care Plan--plus an agreement with the plan's governing body that gives districts and colleges five years to "ramp up" to the plan's required employer share of premiums. At press time, some 20 of Kansas' 304 K-12 districts had succeeded in entering the state plan, with more on the way.
  Before this opportunity arose, "each district--some with only 45 or so employees--had to go on its own to buy insurance," says Craig Grant, KNEA director of legislative action. "Districts could not form a large enough purchasing pool to provide decent rates. That especially hurt education support professionals, who often spend the majority of their salary on health insurance."
• After a long fight, the South Plainfield (New Jersey) Education Association has won $721,144 in back pay and prospective step increases, effective September 1, for 22 teachers improperly placed on the salary guide. SPEA's battle--which moved from arbitration to the state appellate court and then back to arbitration--began in 1996 when it learned of six members hired without proper credit for previous teaching experience.
  Finding that South Plainfield school board budget surpluses could cover an arbitration award without negatively affecting programs or staffing levels, arbitrator Mattye Gandel ordered placement of all SPEA members on the proper step of the salary guide and back pay awards for eligible current employees and retirees.
• Last June, members of the St. Clair County (Alabama) Education Association helped elect a new county superintendent of education, Tom Sanders. SCCEA teacher, ESP, and administrator members joined forces in the 300-strong St. Clair County Political Action Committee for Education, which purchased media spots, made phone contacts, campaigned door-to-door, and spoke to various groups on Sanders' behalf.
  "I am very excited that the first candidate endorsed by SCC-PACE won," says local President Kathy Smith. "I would like to encourage other local Associations to form political action committees and become involved in the political process."

The school year opens with disputes over competitive pay, health care, and professional respect. A snapshot from a Rhode Island strike. . .

Educators in Scituate, Rhode Island, are as good as they come. Their students outscored peers in every other district in recent state tests, and all five of their schools have been designated by the state as "high performing."

Not surprisingly, the 150-member Scituate Teachers Association (STA) has state and nationally recognized practitioners in its ranks, from winners of the Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award to Rhode Island's 2002 Teacher of the Year.

But as proficient as its teachers and education support professionals are, this affluent district has been slow to recognize its richest assets.

Scituate's failure to offer a competitive teacher salary or any health care package upon retirement--standard in neighboring districts--prompted one Milken Award winner to leave. And its dismal paraeducator pay (until recently, just $6.54 per hour to start) forced a teacher assistant to quit for more money at a Barnes & Noble bookstore.

This staff neglect, compounded by the Scituate School Committee's use of a labor-unfriendly attorney to slow down contract bargaining, put this rural Rhode Island district in the news at the beginning of the school year.

STA members struck for nine days, with the full support of teacher assistants and custodial/maintenance workers in two other NEA local affiliates in Scituate.

Friction points in this standoff--including lagging pay and benefits and employer demands for a 20 percent health insurance co-pay--resembled those in other beginning-of-the-year contract disputes across the nation.

The overwhelming majority of these conflicts were settled peacefully with new, signed contracts. But NEA members in some 20 local affiliates--in Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Washington--were forced to walk off the job by press time.

"Ask educators forced out on strike what they'd rather be doing, and they'll tell you they'd rather be working with young people," stresses NEA President Reg Weaver. "But too often, teachers and ESPs are asked to do an important job, but not given pay and support to come into and stay in the profession.

"Many times, a strike brings members closer together," Weaver adds. "And in most instances, it's community support that enables them to stand firm to offer the best education to children."

Parent Support Makes a Difference
Community backing is precisely what helped Scituate teachers and ESPs reach contract settlements.

Scituate parents were keenly aware of the value of their kids' educators and angry over the snail's pace of contract bargaining. Some said at a school committee meeting that they'd even swallow a tax hike to give assistants a raise.

When teachers finally hit the bricks, "many parents extended support to us through phone calls and e-mails, and some even sent food and coffee to the picket line," says STA President Ken Abrams, an eighth-grade social studies teacher at Scituate Middle School.

When they were totally fed up, parents staged their own march from a park to the town administration building, where they merged with a column of picketing teachers and ESPs. Two parents even charged inside to pose tough questions to the superintendent.

If that weren't pressure enough, the state judge who issued a back-to-work order to teachers also ordered the school committee to bargain in person--without its legal hired gun.

Teachers negotiated a new contract by the time they returned to work, and bargaining quickly moved to ESP issues.

Among other gains, teachers won the mean state salary, with an additional $400, $500, and $650 over the next three years. While STA failed to win retirement health care, it did gain a $3,000 "retirement stipend" in each of those three years for teachers with 30 years or more in the district.

STA also headed off demands for a health premium co-pay of 20 percent--it will be capped at 7.75 percent.

In ESP bargaining, custodial/maintenance workers actually rejected a tentative agreement and improved the final offer--a rare occurrence. They won a two-year, concession-free contract with raises of 4.9 percent and 4 percent.

And, after more than 15 months of bargaining, low-paid teacher assistants negotiated one- and three-year pacts that will boost pay by 25 to 45 percent over four years and provide a 50-cent-per-hour stipend for special ed duties.

Assistants won these, their first contracts, "because of collective pressure by our three locals on the school committee, our public outreach, and the parent march," points out UniServ Director John Leidecker.

And Now the Bad News. . .
Good bargaining news, however welcome, can't mask the fact that NEA local negotiators face ever-tougher challenges at the table. Some of the big ones:

• Educator pay keeps falling further behind. The gap between the pay of teachers and other college-educated workers is at a 60-year high (see 'Facts and Figures'), forcing Association bargainers to roll up their sleeves.
  Among other gimmicks, school board negotiators "try to save money by lengthening the number of years it takes to reach the top step of the salary schedule," notes Pennsylvania State Education Association staffer Ted MacArthur. In response, he says, PSEA "tries to maintain the integrity of the schedule" by opposing addition of new steps or increments, redistributing savings from retirements of higher paid staff back through the schedule, and winning percentage increases that "give hope" to staffers with less seniority.
• Health care costs are going through the roof. NEA state affiliates in both Pennsylvania and Indiana report average health care cost increases of 20 percent-plus per year, which can make a mess of salary bargaining.
  For the first time since 1975, NEA members in deficit-wracked Indiana are bargaining average annual pay hikes of less than 3 percent. On top of that, they face growing employer demands for "benefit design" changes--through higher co-pays and deductibles, including emergency room deductibles.
  "In our state, a number of districts face premium increases by as much as 100 percent," says Indiana State Teachers' Association staffer Wally Cantrell. "That translates into a direct pay cut."
• Respect is still in short supply. The "last straw" in educator contract disputes isn't always a money issue. It can be a school board's refusal to meet face-to-face with teachers or ESPs, or a board demand that administrators be given unilateral authority to assign cafeteria duties to teachers.
  Too often, educators are "treated as kids, not adults," laments Scituate local leader Ken Abrams. "We need to seize our own professional status. It's difficult, but not impossible."

--Dave Winans

Five Steps to a Living Wage

Following a tough, 18-month campaign, the 220-member Ithaca (New York) Paraprofessionals Association has made ESP bargaining history. Last summer, IPA members ratified a three-year agreement that gives paras on the low end of the pay scale an immediate 38 percent increase, and raises starting pay by 50 percent by the end of the contract. A teacher's aide who made $6.72 an hour went to $9.36 on July 1, and will earn $10.01 in 2004.

This NEA local affiliate's successful drive for a living wage can be replicated, insists IPA President Debbie Minnick, a 17-year paraeducator. Here, Minnick says, is how other struggling education support professionals--and teachers--can start the ball rolling in their communities:

1. Do some research. "First, learn what a living wage is--it's not a federal or state minimum wage. A living wage is what it takes for you to live in your community and pay your bills, without having to sacrifice your family life to second or third jobs. Collect data from different community sources. We took an Ithaca-area living wage estimate calculated by a local credit union, and then prorated it for our 10-month work schedule."

2. Devise a bargaining strategy. "Decide how you're going to propose that your district pay a living wage. You're going to have to back up whatever you ask for. Figure out your arguments ahead of time; play it all out. Role-play an actual bargaining session. Have somebody with a good knowledge of the living wage issue play the devil's advocate--and have your answers ready."

3. Organize a living wage coalition. "You can start in your community by pulling in other employees, parents, community groups, and churches. Fortunately, we already had such a coalition in Ithaca, which we expanded when bargaining heated up. We could not have accomplished what we did without the coalition building we did with groups like the Midstate Labor Coalition, AFL-CIO; the Tompkins County Living Wage Coalition; the Labor-Religious Task Force; parents; and Cornell University students."

4. Stay united and committed. "We won because our members were committed to the cause; they would not give in. We kept communications open with them, kept them up to date, and kept them involved."

5. Get Association back-up. "You need to rely heavily on your NEA state affiliate and NEA itself for resources and materials. We had lots of assistance from NEA/New York officers and staff."

For more advice on starting a living wage campaign, contact Debbie Minnick at Debbieipa@aol.com. For background on Ithaca paras' poverty pay, go to www.nea.org/neatoday/0111/news1.html.

News -- Facts and Figures
Economic Facts of Life for Educators

NEA Research has compared the average earnings of all non-teachers with a college degree against the average earnings of all K-12 teachers with a college degree. Adjusting for inflation, the pay gap was 11.2 percent in 1940, 18.4 percent in 1950, 36 percent in 1960, 52.3 percent in 1970, 45.2 percent in 1980, 40.7 percent in 1990, and 50.6 percent in 2000--and not in teachers' favor.

And according to the 2002 Annual Employer Health Benefits Survey released by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Health Research and Educational Trust (at www.kff.org), all workers are paying more for health insurance while benefits erode. Some disturbing findings include:

• Single premiums are now, on average, $3,060 for single coverage and $7,954 for family coverage.
• For single coverage, employees now pay an average of $454 per year--a 27 percent or $95 increase from last year. The employee share of premiums for family coverage averaged $2,084 per year--a 16 percent or $283 increase from last year.
• Deductibles for preferred provider organization (PPO) in-network providers rose 37 percent to $276 in 2002, up from $201 last year.

Is education about developing brains or bestowing parchments?

President Bush's educational plan, which had overwhelming support in Congress, is a disappointment to this teacher. And in light of its popularity, it seems that many people have lost sight of the true purpose and essence of education.

Many parents believe that high test scores will turn into a college acceptance, which will then turn into employment opportunities. To many, this is the purpose of education--knowledge for money. Our school administrators and politicians respond to this attitude and are now turning our public schools into test preparation centers instead of places of genuine learning.

This is not to say that an education isn't to be used to prepare for a career, but to think of it only in those terms is damaging to society. It trivializes knowledge and eliminates the concepts of understanding and perspective. By associating knowledge only with material gain, we create a society where we only study to pass a test, or to appear on a game show where questions concerning the works of Michelangelo are of equal importance as those about "Gilligan's Island."

Worse than that, we have institutionalized this attitude. Our schools and the family itself have willingly used the "knowledge for materialism" concept to motivate our young to do their homework.

This philosophy diminishes the meaning of education and the significance of our diplomas and degrees. I am reminded of the scene in The Wizard of Oz in which the Scarecrow asks for a brain and is told by the Wizard that the world is run by people who have even less brains than he has, but they have one thing that he hasn't got. At this point the Wizard pulls a piece of parchment out of his bag and presents it to the Scarecrow as a degree in "Thinkology." As I observe the educational policies of our leaders, I suspect they have sorely missed the point.

The responsibility of a public school is not to mass-produce worker bees, nor to be a farm system for colleges. A public school is meant to construct the foundation upon which a person may build a meaningful life. For an education is not achieved by the age of 17 or 18 as test scores and diplomas might insinuate; it is a lifetime endeavor. This is why we call graduation ceremonies "commencements." They are beginnings, not ends.

The purpose of education is to empower and enrich the individual. It is to give people understanding, perspective, and dignity so that they may better deal with whatever the fates throw their way. Education makes each of us better able to appreciate the life we've been given. It allows us to listen to the people of the past and gives us the ability to speak to the future. It grants us wisdom that can be used in so many ways: to explain the difference between love and sex to our children, to see what real wealth is, to have insight into "the road less traveled" as well as the one most traveled. It helps us understand such things as courage, integrity, friendship, ethics, human nature, and truth. It will even allow us to see ourselves... if we dare.

Unfortunately, this definition of education is dismissed as na�ve, idealistic, and therefore, foolish. That is why public education seems to be failing. Without the attitude toward education that I have described, everything we teach is without its proper context, and is therefore labeled as irrelevant unless it leads to material success. We will create a society in which we rear our children to believe that success is the ability to satisfy all of their appetites, a society where "greed is good."

In his book Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman reminds us that we have been warned about such a society. Postman tells us that in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, the people came to love their oppression, and adored the technologies that crippled their capacities to think. He wrote that "Huxley feared that there would be no reason to ban a book for there would be no one who wanted to read one" and "the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance." If you are familiar with the offerings of modern television and films, then I ask you, how close are we to such a world?

It is my belief that the new program of education reform through standardized testing contributes to the Huxleyan vision. It will narrow the scope of our curriculums to only those things that are tested. It will kill the creativity of those great teachers who understand what education is all about but who are pressured to teach to the test. It will destroy the curiosity of the students by making the process of learning repetitive and tedious.

If this is what education is reduced to, then our diplomas will be nothing more than degrees in "Thinkology."

John Desmond teaches history at Billerica Memorial High School in Billerica, Massachusetts.

Editor's Note

Every so often we hear about NEA members years after their original stories have run in NEA Today.

Fifteen years ago, we told Lois Wren's story on the "You and the Law" page. Wren was fired illegally, reinstated twice, and then, because of all the stress, she resigned and sued her school district. With the help of the Wyoming Education Association and the NEA she prevailed.

Though she felt compelled to quit her position and move to California, she was grateful that the Association had come to her rescue. "The NEA helped save my teaching career, but now that I am close to retirement, I wanted to share in my continued success." She went on to describe her work teaching high school science in Sacramento.

Twenty years ago, I interviewed Michigan teacher Lynn Larson for a story about why it's important to join the Association. At the time, Larson was just beginning what turned out to be more than 20 years of Association activism. A few months ago, NEA's retired magazine, This Active Life, ran a story about Larson, now retired. After all these years, Larson had decided she still wanted the challenge of the classroom...in China. So off she went to teach there.

Seven years ago we wrote about Charlene Dindo, an elementary science teacher, from Fairhope, Alabama. She'd developed a program for science teachers to help students learn the mysteries of the Gulf's marine life. A month ago, I received a press release announcing the recipients of this year's Albert Einstein Distinguished Educators Awards. Charlene Dindo is one of the 12 Einstein fellows. She'll be in Washington, D.C., for 10 months working in a federal agency with an opportunity to share her teacher's insights at the national level.

Have you been featured in NEA Today? We'd love to hear what you're up to.

--Bill Fischer

Q: I'm a single mom who will retire in 10 to 13 years. I pay into the state retirement fund but have no other investments. My house will be paid off this fall, freeing up about $1,200 a month that I could save. I have no debt, but I'd like to trade in my car in the next few years and pay cash for the difference. Do you have any suggestions?

A: Congratulations. You are doing a wonderful job managing your money. Paying off your mortgage, getting out of debt, and contributing to the retirement fund are excellent building blocks.

I wonder how much you will have to pay in cash when you trade in your car. It might help to start with estimating that. You should definitely tuck that $1,200 away every month. But where you put it will depend on how much you need for your new car.

If you save the money for two years, that's $28,800 plus whatever interest you earn. I would start conservatively. To invest your money, you need a time horizon of at least three years (five is better). Short timers don't belong in stocks or stock mutual funds, because you need time to ride out the ups and downs.

But that doesn't give you an excuse to delay putting money away. You might choose a money market fund at one of the large no-load mutual fund companies (no-load funds come from fund groups that do not charge commissions). A money market fund keeps a stable price of $1 per share and pays interest on your principal, much like a bank account, though it is not guaranteed. However, your interest from a money market fund is a little bit higher, you can write a check on the account when you buy your new car, and you can get your feet wet as an investor.

Once you've accumulated some money in the money market fund-- say after six months--you might consider having $100 per month of that money invested in a conservative balanced fund, which invests in both stocks and bonds.

Because interest rates are low now, many people think it's foolish to save. That's silly. I think you're doing the right things to ensure your future.

Q: I recently accepted a teaching position in a lower- income community. Do I qualify to have my student loans repaid by the school or the government?

A: Teachers working full time in low-income and subject-matter shortage areas may qualify for cancellation or deferment of some or all of their federal student loan debt.

Up to $5,000 of Stafford loans and 100 percent of Perkins loans may be "forgiven." Specific provisions apply regarding loan origination dates, consecutive years of service, and teaching of specific subjects. For Stafford loan cancellation, you must have completed five consecutive years of service. For Perkins loans, you get a specific percentage break on your loan debt for each year of service. Find the details at www.ed.gov/offices/OSFAP/Students/repayment/teachers.

Q: I am a 55-year-old widower with 27 years left to pay on a $55,000 mortgage. I'll be eligible to retire at age 65. My credit union wants me to pay off my debts by taking out a second mortgage for $82,000 at 6.95 percent with a $935 monthly payment for 10 years. Is the interest on this loan tax-deductible? What should I do?

A: You need to get a little more information. It sounds like the credit union would roll your mortgage along with whatever other debts you have into one mortgage loan to be paid off in 10 years.

If that is the case, the interest would be tax-deductible, and the plan makes sense because you could be free of debt at retirement. A lot depends, though, on your spending habits. If you run up more credit card bills over the next 10 years, you will not have accomplished much. Do not charge more than you can pay off each month. Also, ask the credit union if the loan will be a mortgage qualified for tax deductibility.

Q: Should husbands and wives have separate bank accounts?

A: Many of my friends do. I suspect some do it because one spouse has prior obligations for children or parents or perhaps just because the two have separate spending and saving styles.

I'm not opposed to it if it works and the marriage is better as a result. I've never done it myself because it seemed like too much trouble.

My husband and I have never disagreed about money. I hate bookkeeping chores, and additional accounts would make them more complicated. But we do have separate charge accounts so I don't know every detail of his financial life, nor he of mine. This is a question that you must answer for yourself based on the role of money in your relationship.

Q: Our son wants to major in comparative French literature, but my wife thinks he should pick either French or English and get a teaching degree.

A: It's a complex question: How practical should we be when helping our kids plan their future?

I tutor a young Korean woman who plans to attend graduate school in the United States. In Korea, she says, students are pushed to achieve academic excellence in high school and then to attend a top college in Seoul. Majors are selected for them based on their academic record. She ranked at the top of her class, was told to major in management, and got a good job right out of college.

Now she's an au pair in New York and marveling about the differences between Korean and American edu