Budget Blues

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More testing, less money. That seems to be the basic idea behind the Bush Administration's proposed education budget. The spotlight this year is on high schools, but what's the plan? Two more years of mandatory standardized testing—but $358 million less for high schools.

Altogether, the President's budget calls for a $530 million cut in federal school funding.

The budget would eliminate funding for 48 education programs including $1.3 billion in federal vocational and technical education and $437 million for Safe and Drug-Free Schools state grants.

What's the impact? In Fairfax County, Virginia, the federal dollars pay for virtually all of the school district's efforts to turn children away from drugs, including student anti-drug groups, parent information nights, and safe after-graduation activities, according to NEA member Clarence Jones, who runs the program. Says Jones, "When you increase anti-drug spending, drug use goes down. When you reduce the money, drug use goes up."

More budget proposals that are bad for kids:

• English Language Acquisition state grants would be frozen, even though the number of non-English-speaking immigrants is soaring.
• Title I grants that help schools hire more teachers and paraeducators to educate low-income children would see a giant shortfall—they'd be less than 60 percent of the amount Congress authorized. 
• IDEA state grants for educating children with disabilities would be only three-quarters of the currently authorized level.  

This isn't the first time the Administration has low-balled its education budget. Friends of public education in Congress—on both sides of the aisle—have restored some of the most damaging cuts in the past, and NEA will ask them to help again.

You can join in the chorus. NEA members live in every state and almost every congressional district. Go to www.nea.org/lac for more information about the budget and how to contact your federal legislators.

By the time they are 14 years old, 32 percent of young women and 52 percent of young men consume three or more softdrinks a day, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Notepad Mindful Teaching Your head is spinning as you juggle teaching the kids, planning a spectacular science lab demo, and calming an upset parent. Do the demands of educating children sometimes make you think you're losing it? A new study by researchers at University Hospitals of Cleveland and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine should ease your mind. The August issue of Neurology reported that those who have intellectually stimulating careers—like teaching—are actually less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease down the road. Researchers examined subjects with different occupational histories and used data from the U.S. Department of Labor to rate each occupation on the mental, physical, social, and fine motor skills required. About 12 percent of the study subjects were educators, says Dr. Kathleen Smyth, the lead researcher. This study did not explain why mentally challenging jobs were linked to lower incidences of Alzheimer's, says Smyth, but apparently, "It pays to keep your brain active." For more on keeping mentally sharp, see page 42. —Lisa Felipe Have a great idea? Send it by mail: NEA Today 1201 16th St., N.W. Washington, DC 20036 Send it by e-mail: neatoday@nea.org.

Learning, Millionaire-Style

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Is it a game show? Is it a class? At Don Estridge High Tech Middle School in Boca Raton, Florida, it can be both. The school may lack the dramatic music and lighting of Who Wants To Be a Millionaire, but it uses essentially the same technique for polling the audience—and that can boost learning, says sixth-grade math teacher Juanita Rodriguez.

Before class, she enters questions she plans to ask students. When that part of the lesson comes around, her students work out the answer and press a button at their desks instead of raising their hands.

In moments, the results are tabulated and the class can see who has answered and what percentage answered correctly. The equipment was donated by Texas-based eInstruction Corp.

As products of the digital age, the "clicker kids" easily adjusted to the new technology, Rodriguez reports. And it makes them more active learners.

The company says 1,000,000 of its "response pads" are in use at thousands of schools in all 50 states.

At Don Estridge, says Rodriguez, "This system has drastically improved my students' test scores. My class told me that having so much fun is what keeps them focused."

—Daniel Moise

Not Just Another Gutter Ball

Illustration: Jessica Wedvick

What's the fastest-growing sport on high school campuses? Get ready to break out your polyester shirt and tacky shoes because it's...bowling!

During the 2003–04 school year, bowling showed the greatest increase in the number of schools offering the sport, with 291 new schools, according to the National Federa-tion of State High School Associ-ations. Boys bowled on teams at 1,477 schools, while girls played at 1,467. A total of 33,848 students hit the lanes.

All told, nearly 7 million students played a high school sport last year—an all-time high. Traditional sports still dominate the field: Football remains the most popular sport among boys, with about a million participants, while basketball tops the list for female athletes, with nearly half a million girls shooting hoops. But nontraditional sports such as bowling, along with rodeo and snowboarding (which also made the survey), are giving students more ways to stay fit and have fun.

Better Schools, Smaller Prisons

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To curb spiraling prison costs, put more resources into schools. That's a message state budget-makers may soon hear more often. Two-thirds of state prison inmates lack a high school diploma, the Bureau of Justice Statistics has found. And there's hard evidence that quality education, as early as preschool, can keep people out of jail. One long-term study showed $15,000 spent on preschool yielded a $260,000 return to society, mostly because the children were much less likely to get in trouble with the law when they grew up. And the anti-crime effects of good schools are not limited to tiny tikes, research shows. 

NEA is developing a workshop to train members in using the "education, not incarceration" argument for better school funding. It will be offered at the Representative Assembly and other conferences.

Some NEA members are bringing the issue into their classrooms. Last year, Oakland ninth-grade English teacher Jennifer Dannenberg's students studied California's budget and hammered out letters to their state legislators and governor urging them to shift funds from prisons to schools, for example, through early parole for non-violent offenders.

"I'm a picky writing teacher, so they had to be perfect. We went through four drafts," says Dannenberg. The students wrote from the heart about conditions in their own school. Only a few got answers, but she says it was still a good experience and they learned a lot about how to write a persuasive business letter. To see Dannenberg's lesson plans, and for more on this issue, visit NEA Today Extra.

Safer Schools

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Violent crime against students plummeted 50 percent in the decade from 1992 to 2002, according to a report from the U.S. Education and Justice Departments. Violent crimes include physical assault, robbery, rape, and sexual assault. In 1992, 48 of every 1,000 students ages 12–18 were crime victims, but that fell to 24 per 1,000 students in 2002. Thefts fell from 95 to 40 per 1,000 students.

Also, the Centers for Disease Control report an encouraging decline in school fights. In 2003, 33 percent of students reported being in a physical fight at school, down from 42 percent 10 years earlier.

Global Takes EU eTwins The European Union is launching an effort to get 150,000 schools across the continent paired up over the Internet for joint teaching projects. Called "eTwinning," the effort is intended to spur students to serious study about each other's countries. "It is not about being pen pals," said an EU official. Schools will put information about themselves on a central Web site, and search for appropriate mates. Schools can also use the Web site to describe their international projects and learn what others are doing. The program aims to develop a sense among children that they are citizens of Europe, not just of their own country. Surf and Flunk Shanghai University and other Chinese universities are suffering an epidemic of student failures because of a new disease called "Internet Addiction Disorder" or IAD, reports the China Daily. "Once they become obsessed with the Internet, playing games, or chatting online, they stop going to class and stay in Inter-net cafes or their dormitories, day and night," said a Shanghai University official. More than 360 students, mostly computer science majors, failed enough courses last year to be kicked out, but most were given reprieves. Have a good story? Send it by mail: NEA Today 1201 16th St., N.W. Washington, DC 20036 Send it by e-mail: neatoday@nea.org.

Stories of Africa

In Africa, many teachers are forced to use learning materials dating from the colonial era, which are about Europe, not Africa, says Joanne Eide, head of NEA International Relations. So NEA, working through its international affiliate Education International, helps fund a project of the Pan African Teachers' Centre in West Africa that publishes story books written and illustrated by teachers themselves. The stories run the gamut from folktales to life in today's Africa. There's the story of the drought that almost killed the animals before the animals joined together to dig a deep well. And the one about a boy whose father sacrificed to send him to school. There are many more—and hundreds of teachers are using them.

Says Eide, "This program helps make up for the shortage of books, it's good professional development for the teachers, and the best part is the students are learning to read by reading stories about kids who look and act like them."

Teen Talk

Photos: Nathan ham

Want to get students thinking about social issues and world affairs? Hundreds of teachers are getting help from a teen-run Web site where students from around the world talk about sex, drugs, patriotism, the President, hurting people's feelings, and...just about everything.

The discussions can get high-pitched and wrenching. A recent debate over legalizing drugs elicited confessions from one former drug user who almost died. No way legalize, she said. But with legalization comes regulation, chimed in another. After all, "a dealer can give you a drug that's been laced with rat-poisoning."

The site is www.newzcrew.org, created by public television's NewsHour and a New York City organization called Global Kids. The exchanges are guided by high school students in Brooklyn, New York. These discussions are more structured than most online chats: Each has a limited number of participants, who say a little about themselves but stay anonymous. The discussion lasts four weeks but can be extended.

The Web site also offers background articles and lesson plans for teachers.

Vermont ESPs Bargain Big Raise

Photo: Chad Baker

There are no strikes, slowdowns, or swear words in this bargaining tale, just good Vermont sense and a good—no, great—settlement for a sturdy group of education support professionals (ESPs). In January, ESP members of the Orange North Education Association bargained—with help from Vermont-NEA—a contract that provides raises of 15 to 23.58 percent over three years. This concession-free pact covers secretaries, paraeducators, and custodians working in Williamstown, Orange Center, and Washington Village schools.

Need a little perspective? Over the most recent three-year period studied by NEA Research, 2001–04, the average K–12 ESP salary across the country increased by just under 10 percent.

Behind the Orange North settlement was careful preparation, a clear bargaining proposal, dogged persistence, and ESP solidarity, reports bargaining committee member Renee Pearce.

After "sucking it in" during tough economic times, these underpaid ESPs resolved a year and a half ago to negotiate a new, merged contract offering everybody in the three towns the "best of the best" of their three old, separate agreements.

To make that work, Williamstown ESPs settled for just a salary increase—a really good one, though—so their Orange Center and Washington Village colleagues could advance in pay, leave, and benefits.

In the old days, "nobody in the same category with the same credentials got paid the same" across the three-town Orange North Supervisory Union, says Pearce, a secretary at Williamstown Middle-High School. "Now we'll get everybody on the same page over three years!"

Two-Way Inspiration

A good novelist can engage and inspire students. Sometimes the students return the favor.

Searching for a book that would resonate with students who failed the Indiana state test, special education teacher Lenore Hoffman stumbled on Not as Crazy as I Seem  (Houghton Miflin, 2003). Devon Brown, the novel's main character, is a 15-year-old neat freak fixated on the number four and obsessed with germs.

"I thought this book would appeal to my kids,'' said Hoffman, a teacher at Valparaiso High School in Valparaiso, Indiana. "The dialogue is authentic, and the kids could relate to Devon's isolation because many of these kids feel like outcasts.''

Hoffman asked the author, George Harrar, to correspond with her class. Harrar, a 55-year-old writer from Massachusetts, enthusiastically agreed.

Hoffman's students, many of whom are Spanish-speaking immigrants, wrote letters describing what they liked about the book and sharing ideas for future novels. Many related to Devon's character as a loner trying to adjust to a new school in a new city.

One student suggested Harrar write a novel about Ben, one of Crazy's oddball characters. He even suggested a title: "Not as Ballistic as I Seem." Harrar loved the title, and he's just finished writing a book that uses it.

"I love hearing from readers,'' says Harrar. He had gotten student feedback for Not as Crazy as I Seem before it was published, asking a high school class to read a chapter to make sure the teens' language was accurate.

Hoffman feels the experience was wonderful for her students. "It was a strong exercise in writing and critical thinking," she says. "I would definitely do it again."

—Thomas Grillo

Two-Minute Tips Door Bell Review Here's a review idea I've used in first grade: I put dry erase contact paper on my door and write math and other problems on the paper. Next, I bought a wireless door chime. Several times a day, I ring the door bell and ask a student to "answer the door" (answer one of the questions). At the end of the day, we check answers. The door chime has a time delay so I can push the door bell, attached under my desk, and move away before it rings. My children never could figure out who was ringing the bell! —Karen Spooner Columbus, Ohio Clothes Line Hang-Up The last time I dragged tables around my room to climb up and hang student art projects from the ceiling, I remembered the pictures of old tenement buildings with clotheslines suspended across alleys. The old-timers reeled in their laundry. I realized I could do the same with yarn tied in a loop. I stand on one table, reel in the yarn, attach a paper, and pull it along. The line goes across my room. I only have to climb on one table. Should save the district on worker's comp. —Susan Hopkins Second-grade teacher Piru, California   Have a good story? Send it by mail: NEA Today 1201 16th St., N.W. Washington, DC 20036 Send it by e-mail: neatoday@nea.org.

A Score of Helping Hands

Youngstown youngers sang to seniors, with coaching by NEA student members.

NEA student members from Ohio have found a way to gain valuable experience while benefiting sixth-grade students and the Youngstown community. All it took was giving up their Saturdays for a while.

On five consecutive weekends last fall, members of the Youngstown Student Education Association (YSEA) led the sixth graders in community service projects. 

The program, Discover Youngstown through Community Experience (DYCE), engaged the children in a range of activities such as writing messages to soldiers in Iraq, singing for residents at a nursing home, and decorating cookies for a food bank. The students also toured museums, parks, and other local points of interest to better appreciate their community's assets.

DYCE is the brainchild of YSEA President Angela Speece who believes educators should stress the merits of volunteerism at an early age.

Speece is one of 60,000 students belonging to NEA's Student Program, which provides future educators with opportunities in leadership training and professional development.

—Daniel MOISE

Smile

Mr. Kalapaca?

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I was hired last minute to teach a kindergarten class that had originally been assigned to my teaching partner, Mr. Kalapaca. Mr. Kalapaca had sent a card to each family introducing himself as the teacher for their child. So, on the first day of school, in comes little Juan. He walks up to me, shakes my hand, and says in his formal voice: "Hello Mr. Kalapaca," proud that he had memorized his teacher's name, but not realizing that because I am Ms. Greene, I couldn't possibly be Mr. Kalapaca. This is my first year of teaching, and I will always remember Juan!

—Jerri Ellen Greene
Kindergarten Teacher
Rialto, California