In Focus
You've Got Mail

Imagine this: You've got 400 language arts essays to grade--and it's all on you. So you enlist the help of a local university education professor, who turns loose her very bright preservice teachers to help you guide your students through the fixing and the polishing of their literary gems.

They do this mainly through e-mail because your school's technology coordinator thinks this is a very cool thing--and besides, she gets to train the students in the peculiar ways of the "business e-mail," not to mention the legal and ethical uses of the Internet.

Pul-leeze, you say?

Trust us, it's not fantasy. This so-called e-mentoring project is happening, and the NEA members who dreamed up the idea say it's nobody's gimmick. "It's working," gloats Chris Burba, the seventh-grade language arts teacher at Farnsley Middle School in Louisville, Kentucky, "and beautifully."

It was Burba who a year ago began brainstorming with Deborah Schweitzer, the technology coordinator for the Jefferson County Public Schools, to come up with creative ways to use local university faculty in the classroom. The two also wanted to capitalize on a districtwide initiative that gave e-mail accounts to every student in grades 5-12.

So Schweitzer, who also happened to be teaching across the river at Indiana University Southeast, contacted Susan Ridout, a professor in the education school there. Ridout, who teaches language arts and reading methods, leapt at the idea of a mentoring project and eagerly assigned each of her 22 students to five Farnsley students. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Now, through regular e-mail exchanges and a handful of face-to-face meetings, mentors spend several hours each week urging their young charges to think critically about their work, gently offering suggestions, and overseeing revisions, all the while conferring with Burba on their progress.

The arrangement has been magic. The seventh graders, who must complete a state-required writing portfolio--five essays in four genres--now get more focused attention from Burba than they ever did, and many have been jolted from their writing doldrums. "Now when they send out an e-mail to their mentor," says Burba, "they want a response in five minutes! Their attitudes about writing have been totally turned around."

Schweitzer, meanwhile, has found an exciting, real-life forum for teaching rules about e-mailing and the Internet (for instance, don't give out your password, don't say "whatsup" to your mentor). And the mentors, says Ridout, get the benefit of a "powerful" and invaluable interaction with students--and seasoned teachers, too.

Schweitzer says word is now spreading to other teachers, who are establishing college relationships of their own and, not surprisingly, are tapping her for help. "The whole thing just went, 'Boom!'" she says. "It's so exciting."

--Marilyn Milloy

For more: Contact Deborah Schweitzer at dschwei1@ jefferson.k12.ky.us or Chris Burba at cburba@jefferson. k12.ky.us.

When Poverty Cripples

For years educators have known that kids from poor families start school on shakier academic ground than kids from more well-to-do families. Now, a detailed report confirms it--and the news is bleaker than even some teachers may have thought.

Called Inequality at the Starting Gate, the report by the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C. think tank, found that children in the bottom fifth economic bracket scored 60 percent lower in math and reading upon entering kindergarten than children from the highest bracket. Worse, these same poor children--most of whom are minorities--start their education at "consistently" lower-quality schools that are already stymied by a lack of resources, large classes, and inexperienced teachers.

"This reinforces the inequalities that develop even before children reach school age," the report says.

The new research, which uses government data from an ongoing national study of 16,000 children who started kindergarten in 1998, found that economic and racial disparities run deep. For example, only 20 percent of poor children entering kindergarten had computers in their homes compared with 85 percent of students at the top income scale. Poor families owned an average of just 38 books, while families at the top owned 108.

Researchers say the findings buttress long-standing arguments for more high-quality preschools--and for policies that confront head-on the inequality of resources in public schools.

--Jozen Cummings

For more: To get a copy of the report, call 800/374-4844 or go to www.epinet.org.

ESPs: All That (And More)

Quick! Who makes up the fastest-growing constituency of NEA? Time's up. It's the education support professionals (ESPs), of course. Last year alone, 12,000 new ESP members joined NEA, bringing the total to nearly 350,000--just one of many reasons a new department has been created at national headquarters. Called ESP Quality, the department was established last September.

"What this means," says Al Perez, director of the new department, "is that ESPs are part of the education family--not stepsisters or brothers, but truly part of the family."

So exactly how will this status boost affect members? For starters, says Perez, it means higher visibility, more staff resources, and more money for ESP advocacy and professional development programs. Additionally, issues of importance to ESP members--compensation, health insurance, and bargaining, for example--now automatically get integrated into discussions involving the rest of the NEA membership. And with a new ESP representative on the NEA Executive Board, Iona Holloway, those issues are bound to stay centerstage.

Cara Elmore, one of ESP Quality's organizational specialists, says the department is already in gear, putting together an ESP professional development "action guide" for staff, affiliates, and trainers. "They will be able to use it to create more effective professional development sessions for members interested in job enhancement and career movement," she says. "It will really speak to our members' diverse needs. And it'll help them learn how to apply their skills not just professionally, but in their personal lives."

Elmore says it's all quite exciting. "When you talk about establishing more public confidence in our schools, you can't do that without ESP members," she says. "The schools function because there's a maintenance person there, a bus driver, a cafeteria worker, a security guard....They are the people who jump-start the school day.

"And you know what?" Elmore adds with a smile, "They do it because they love the kids. They certainly don't do it for the money."

--M.M.

For more: To find out how ESP Quality is helping you, e-mail: espsupport@nea.org, call 202/822-7131, or go to www.nea.org/esp.

American Indian Wonders--by Web

Trying to think of fresh, new ways to capture the spirit of American Indian history and culture while you teach? Well, here's something fun.

The Smithsonian's American Art Museum has created an interactive website, called "Campfire Stories with George Catlin," designed especially for educators and students. Geared to grades 5-12, the website explores the life and works of that great experimental 19th-century artist who made his mark painting American Indian tribes, ceremonies, customs, and landscapes. Many of those paintings--now on exhibit in the Renwick Gallery of the museum--can be viewed on the site, and teachers and staff can access a host of "live" resources, including audio stories, interviews, and interactive maps that reach beyond the paintings to tell the history of a people.

"We wanted to assemble a website that exposes young people to the vigorous, living culture of Native Americans and help them link the past with the present," says Faye Powe, the museum's public program coordinator.

The website incorporates Catlin's writings and paintings into a collage of riveting tales. It features four virtual campfire discussions that allow students to listen to stories and view paintings about Catlin's explorations in the 1830s and about American Indian leaders and ancestral lands and the Western landscape.

Noted historians, experts, and prominent American Indians narrate each section. Through each campfire discussion, students get to discover American Indian history up close and personal and learn how historical events continue to impact American Indians today. Teachers, meanwhile, get access to comprehensive lesson plans and in-class activities that explore a wide range of topics, from history and geography to visual arts and science. The good news: All the subject material has been developed to meet national curricula teaching standards.

"Our goal is to insert Native American history into American schools in a very respectful way," Powe says. "We want students to see how Native Americans have overcome challenges and have thrived as a marvelous and resilient people."

--Leah Lakins

For more: Visit the Catlin website at http://CatlinClassroom.si.edu or to schedule a visit to the Catlin Exhibit, now on display until January 19, 2003, call 202/275-1693.