We hear so much about what's wrong with our schools, like dropouts,
achievement gaps, and low test scores, that sometimes you just have to take a
break and focus on what's right. That's exactly what students from high schools
around the country are doing in homegrown videos about what makes their schools
great.

Kids from US News & World Report's "Gold Medal" high
schools have been asked to submit videos that describe what makes their schools
stand out. Using a little creativity, candor, and good old-fashioned school
spirit, they show that American public high schools are still producing confident
and competent students who are more than prepared for the "real world."

Check out what makes them the best and the brightest.

At a time when No Child Left Behind requirements have our teachers fixated on testing, several schools and programs have been recognized for promoting international education at a grassroots level. Instead of hyping strategies to pass tests, the educators involved with these efforts are preparing students to meet the demands of the global community.

This is clear evidence that despite a flawed NCLB Act, public school educators are as dedicated as ever to providing graduates with the skills they need to compete in our global society.

Spelling Discovers 1

The Secretary of Education has decided that a school that keeps missing one No Child Left Behind targets doesn't have to be treated as if it missed, say, 37 targets.

At least, not if that school is in one of 10 states participating in a pilot program Secretary Margaret Spellings announced recently. Other states must shut down or drastically change schools that persistently miss even one target, but the lucky 10 will not.

It's called "differentiated accountability."

"This is something good, something we’ve been advocating," commented NEA President Reg Weaver. But much more needs to be done, he added.

Spellings' new policy leaves intact the law's rigid reliance on test scores to measure school quality. And some observers point out that it treats urban schools with many minority and low-income children much more harshly than schools that are richer and whiter. In the Alice-in-Wonderland world of NCLB, schools that are wealthy and mostly White can pass with the same scores that would flunk an urban school.

That's because, if there are only a few English language learners, they don't have to meet the school-wide test score goal, but if there are a lot of ELLs, they do. And the same for other subgroups.

The idea of making schools accountable for the achievement of a subgroup only if the group has a certain minimum size was justified on the grounds that a small number of students might not be statistically representative, so the school shouldn't be responsible, but the achievement of a large group is more likely to represent school quality. If that were the real reason, though, the minimum group size would be the same across the country and it would be determined by a statistical test. Instead, every state was allowed to pick a different number -- clearly a political decision.

Urban schools generally have more members of many subgroups, so they have a higher hurdle to jump to reach the all-important "adequate yearly progress.

Here are some comments on the new program from NEA and from the Columbus Education Association.

--Alain Jehlen

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Two weeks ago The New York Times reported a story on a newly formed Brooklyn charter school whose founder, according to The Times, seeks to answer one simple question with his venture: will $125,000 salaries attract the best teachers?

This charter school, which will open next year to 120 students in grades 5-8, is a product of The Equity Project, the brainchild of Zeke M. Vanderhoek, a former middle school teacher turned entrepreneur who will also serve as the charter school's first principal. Vanderhoek plans to make the $125,000 salaries viable by inverting the traditional hierarchy among teachers and administrators (the principal will earn only $90,000) and by cutting back on support staff, administrators and technology. For their part, teachers will be expected to work longer hours and more months out of the year.

As I see it, there's little doubt that high salaries will attract well-trained, accomplished and effective teachers. And there are other significant questions raised by this $125K experiment. To start: if salaries are tied to student performance, how will performance be measured? If today's educational climate is any guide, it can only be one thing: tests.

Following that: If the student performance rises, what impact will the $125K experiment have on teacher pay in other localities? And on the flip side, what lessons will be learned from a failed experiment? That teacher quality, though a significant factor in student achievement, isn't the only factor? We already know that a stable home life, parental involvement, and support for ELL and special ed students are significant factors as well.

Those writing in the classroom blogosphere also have questions. There are many excellent conversations out there among teachers. Dan, a high school math teacher in California, started a great conversation among his readers on the merits of this experiment and the problems that may arise in assessing student achievement; here's my favorite response:

"I wonder if they'd accept, as an example of student achievement, work from the student with Down Syndrome who was in my class for 'socialization' a couple of years ago and who progressed from sitting in class with his hands down his pants to circling 'yes' or 'no' in answer to questions about a photo."

Edwize contends that you don't need to sacrifice support staff, administrators and technology for high teacher salaries. A history professor wonders if higher salaries for secondary teachers will break down stigmas within the profession between teachers at the high school, community college and university levels. A teacher's wife is skeptical that higher salaries could fix the discipline problems and bureaucratic oppression that plagued her husband's teaching career, while a former teacher thinks a $125K salary might have kept her in the profession. A school board member in South Dakota is looking to see if such an experiment might work in his state. Mike Antonucci, the teachers' union watch dog, is laying in the tall grass, waiting to see how NEA, AFT and others will respond.

It will be interesting, to say the least, to see how this $125K salary experiment turns out. We're all watching.

--Joe Hammond

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But can school really be marketed as a "must-have" product to disinterested teenagers and would-be dropouts, as some advertising gurus would have us believe? Los Angeles Unified School District seems to think so, recently spending millions on Web 2.0 applications to improve its graduation rates. Last fall, the district launched a Web site devoted to re-enrollment and assembled a team of mentor students to communicate with their peers via a MySpace page and You Tube videos telling their stories and encouraging their friends to re-enroll.

Naturally, skepticism abounds from those who believe that utilizing tools such as cell phones, viral marketing schemes, etc. amounts to little more than a "kitchen sink" strategy to attack an enormously complicated problem. We'll soon see how it plays out--although New York's campaign to "rebrand" school is still in its infancy, LAUSD hopes to bring 5 percent of the current 17,000 current dropouts back into school by the end of this school year.

• Children motivated in the arts develop attention skills and strategies for memory retrieval that also apply to other subject areas.
  

• There's a connection between musical training and the ability to manipulate information in both short-term and long-term memory.
  

• Music training also appears to improve kids' reading skills.
  

• Acting classes lead to better memory and better language skills.
  

• Dance learning, acquired through observation and mimicry, appears to improve cognitive skills.
  

Last week NEA celebrated the 51^st birthday of The Cat in the Hat and the birthday of Dr. Seuss with its nation-wide reading event, Read Across America. Now in its 11^th year, Read Across America was bigger and better than ever.

Parents, teachers, students and reading buffs of all ages documented their participation in the event with their blogs, pictures (and more pictures!), and videos.

My favorite blog post comes from an author who participated in a Read Across event at a local elementary school:

It was a carnival-like atmosphere. Every adult in the school was wearing a Dr. Seuss/"Cat in the Hat" hat -- even the community's policemen who came to read wearing their bullet-proof vests and holstered guns. There were three or four young adults from a semi-pro soccer team. There were retired teachers and veterans and moms and dads. It was amazing to see such a diverse group of people; but, what I loved the most was this feeling in the air that although we came from different backgrounds and professions, we were all there to do something for the greater good.

I haven't found a better summation of what makes the day so special.

Here at NEA, we have our own photo gallery, but I like the pictures below, which show the spirit of the adults and the wonder (okay, maybe just the cuteness!) of the children.

Not surprisingly, NEA state affiliates and leaders were active in the celebration. What's different this year is the video coverage: WEAC leaders visited an elementary school in Milwaukee; NEA Vice President Dennis Van Roekel participated in kick-off festivities in Austin, TX; and, North Carolina Association of Educators produced a highlight video of their activities.

Not all schools marked Dr. Seuss's birthday in a conventional way. At an elementary school in Mira Mesa, Ca., the teachers and students celebrated with lively music and dancing. Everyone seems to have enjoyed themselves, but no word if reading and books were involved. Charlie Chittick Elementary School, on the other hand, created a puppet show.

--Joe Hammond

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Congratulations! It's a toy! With Baby Pals, the game that lets you do all of the fun things real parents do, you can bring home an adorable baby to feed, bathe, play with, and love . You'll have hours of fun choosing your baby's name, gender, eye color, skin tone and much more. And if you're a really good parent, your little one will even love you back!

"Numb," is how security guard Laura Vernon described her condition after being named the 2008 NEA Education Support Professional of the Year last Friday during the annual ESP conference in Baltimore, Md.

Vernon was so overwhelmed with emotion she needed assistance walking from her table of fellow WEAC members (Wisconsin Education Association Council) to the stage where NEA President Reg Weaver presented her with two bouquets of roses and a $10,000 check that accompanies the award.

"Everyone from Wisconsin knows me, and knows I always have something to say," said Vernon, a school safety assistant at Roosevelt Middle School of the Arts in Milwaukee. "I have nothing to say right now."

The announcement was met with hoots, hollers and a standing ovation in a packed ballroom at the Marriott Waterfront Hotel. Many attendees were twirling their gold cloth napkins high over their heads as Vernon paused a few moments on stage amid  deafening applause to wipe away tears and smile at the hoard of photographers who gathered in front of the podium.

"I love children and I love this work we do," she said. "Wow, wow. Thank you so much . . .  whoever did this."

She did it herself, WEAC President Mary Bell said later.

"It comes from her heart," said Bell, who nominated Vernon for the award. "Laura cares deeply about the kids, public schools, and social justice. The work she's done on behalf of her members is unparalleled."

Vernon has worked 33 years with the Milwaukee Public School System and is a member of the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association.

"You work all these years for the kids at the kind of job I have and you don't always hear 'thank you,'" she said the next morning. "Last night made up for all that."

Education support professionals account for about 40 percent of educators working in public schools and 483,000 of NEA's 3.2 million members. More than 990 ESPs and others registered to attend the two-day conference. Vernon, a member of NEA's Board of Directors, has three children and three grandchildren.

"I called them all last night," Vernon said. "They did a phone dance (put the receiver on the floor and danced in circles around it, singing)."

Vernon was also inundated with more than 50 text messages from WEAC and school colleagues. Vernon says she will start thinking about the speech she's scheduled to present this July at the NEA Representative Assembly in Washington, D.C.

"I hope I can motivate people to action," she says. "Right now, I've got to thaw out. I'm still numb."

Yesterday, a mediator in Odessa,Texas successfully negotiated the end of a dispute over a district's Bible course that--gasp!--has all parties walking away happy. At issue was a high school elective class that teaches the King James Bible with materials produced by the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools (NCBCPS).

The American Civil Liberties Union and the People for the American Way Foundation sued the Ector County Independent school district in May 2007 on behalf of eight parents in the district, claiming the class promoted certain religious beliefs to students.

Hiram Sasser of the Liberty Legal Institute, who represented the district, is also happy. Why? Because, after the dust settles, the district will "continue to offer a Bible course, it will be a curriculum of its own choosing, it may use portions of any existing curriculum as a resource, and the Bible will be the main textbook for the course."

As an NEA Today writer, I've been thrilled to visit schools all over the country -- from Boise to Bar Harbor. But I am pretty sure this will become the WORST JOB EVER -- if my editors don't send me (immediately) to La Pointe, Wisconsin.

Check this out. It's a school bus on skis! Is that the coolest thing ever?? The New York Times reported on it last week, describing it as "mystery vehicle, with two large fans on the back." The locals know it as a windsled. "That's right: in one of the more unorthodox modes of student travel anywhere in the country, the children of La Pointe, on Madeline Island (full-time population 250, triple that in the summer), actually windsled to class several weeks out of every year."

"It's just our life," one told The Times.

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A few weeks ago at the Macworld 2008 Conference & Expo, Apple CEO Steve Jobs gave a testy reply to a question about Amazon Kindle, a new wireless, electronic book reader from Internet heavyweight Amazon.com:

"'It doesn't matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don't read anymore,' he said. "Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don't read anymore.'"

40%? We'll not exactly. Jobs was referring to statistics compiled by the Census Bureau and the National Endowment for the Arts, whose surveys have queried thousands of Americans questions about their reading habits. A recent article in The New Yorker, "Twilight of the Books," provides a summary of the results:

"In 1982, 56.9 per cent of Americans had read a work of creative literature in the previous twelve months. The proportion fell to fifty-four per cent in 1992, and to 46.7 per cent in 2002."

So, it's not as bad as Jobs made it out to be, but his point still stands: fewer people are reading, and their reading less often when they do. And that's bad news, according to Dana Gioia, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, who wrote in a preface ( PDF, 820K) to the recently released reading study, "To Read or Not to Read":

"Although there has been measurable progress in recent years in reading ability at the elementary school level, all progress appears to halt as children enter their teenage years. There is a general decline in reading among teenage and adult Americans. Most alarming, both reading ability and the habit of regular reading have greatly declined among college graduates. These negative trends have more than literary importance. As this report makes clear, the declines have demonstrable social, economic, cultural, and civic implications...

"To Read or Not To Read is not an elegy for the bygone days of print culture, but instead is a call to action -- not only for parents, teachers, librarians, writers, and publishers, but also for politicians, business leaders, economists, and social activists. The general decline in reading is not merely a cultural issue, though it has enormous consequences for literature and the other arts. It is a serious national problem. If, at the current pace, America continues to lose the habit of regular reading, the nation will suffer substantial economic, social, and civic setbacks."

Sadly, Mr. Gioia's report is long on prognosis but short on prescription. Still, Americans might find some solace for their ills in an unlikely place: Japan, where "cell phone novels" are filling up the Japan's best-seller list. Noticing this trend, an editorial at Computerworld wonders if "mobile phones are our last hope for literacy."

At NEA, we have our own prescription, and it wears a floppy, red and white striped stovepipe hat.

-- Joe Hammond

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At a time when the national consensus is to banish all guns from school, West Virginia lawmaker Billy Wayne Bailey has other ideas. He recently introduced a bill in the state legislature to incorporate gun training classes in his state's elementary schools. Children
would be instructed in everything from survival skills to gun safety. Sounds scary, right? Well, the guns used by the students would either have dummy ammunition or be disabled. Anyway, says Bailey, the classes are needed to pad the state's diminishing rolls of hunters' licenses. The drop has significantly dented the state's budget, hunting and fishing permit comprising a major source of state revenue. The earlier kids get a gun in their hand, supporters say, the more likely they will take up hunting, and -- presto! -- state coffers are replenished.  The bill is moving quickly through the West Virginia legislature.

The usually busy media center at Middle Creek Elementary School is quiet, except for Deven, a second-grade student reading a book near the back of the room. With him, sprawled out on a round, colorful rug is an attentive audience of one--Wingo, the READ dog.

Wingo, a registered therapy dog, is part of a program called "Reading Education Assistance Dogs," launched by Intermountain Therapy Animals. The program improves children's reading and communication skills by employing a powerful method: reading to a dog.

Twice a week Wingo visits the school with his owner Kristi Brown to help students improve their reading skills. He participates in various learning settings, from self-contained classrooms, to small group settings to individual one-on-one sessions. "Wingo is pretty cool," Deven said. "I've read with him twice and I like reading with him. He is really funny and a pretty good listener."

Chas Miller, the school's principal, said all of the students benefit from Wingo's visits. "He is so calm and focused and the kids tend to emulate him. He sits, watches and listens while they read. It's incredible."

Brown, whose two children attend Middle Creek, approached Miller with the idea of incorporating the READ program into the curriculum. She learned about the program during a reunion of Chesapeake Bay retrievers at the Outer Banks. "Wingo is a rescue dog and his breed can very dominant. My husband and I were concerned about him being aggressive with our young children so we immediately enrolled him in obedience training; he did very well. During this time, my son was beginning to read and whenever he read stories out loud Wingo would come and sit next to him. They really developed a bond."

After completing obedience training -- which teaches dogs how to be good citizens, walk on a lead and interact with other dogs -- Brown began pursuing the READ program. Wingo participated in workshops where he learned how to look at a book and focus during the many distractions that can take place in a school setting. Brown also received basic orientation, training and mentoring. "I thought this would be a great way to combine my love of dogs with becoming more involved in my children's school."

Miller said Brown works with the teachers to identify students' needs. "Whether it's difficulty with comprehension or with certain text, she focuses in on what works best for a student," he said. "She observes while the student reads and often asks the question, 'Can you tell Wingo about this part of the book?' Sometimes I think students become disinterested in classroom instruction and this program helps add another component to it. Instead of just learning about comprehension in a group setting, the child gets to explain the book to a dog in an environment they feel is more comfortable."

Brown added that for those students who need extra help and have to be pulled away from regular instruction time, time spent with Wingo is viewed as a positive instead of a negative. "When students read with Wingo, they feel it's their job and they are focused on doing their best. They look at the opportunity to read one-on-one with him as very special. When they return to the classroom, they share their experiences and this helps them build a better rapport with their peers."
--Linda Powell-Jones

That tragic day forced school officials across the country to evaluate student aggression and school security unlike ever before. Two years later, the events surrounding the terrorist attacks of September 11 made international terrorist trends and tactics required study by school resource officials.

School safety is also threatened by information technology. Hackers, trespassers, child predators, are both physically and virtually a threat to students.

It's a lot for schools--and their security resource personnel--to deal with, but fortunately there's help. At NEA's Health and Information Network, a school crisis guide was designed to help deter, detect and respond to threats from outside and inside the school environment.

Also, CDW Government has created a School Safety Index to help schools measure their capabilities. The index is based on data involving K-12 schools' physical and cyber safety programs.

What is clear from Columbine and other, recent high-profile campus shootings is the need for preventive, coordinated security measures involving schools, local law enforcement agencies, parents and neighbors. Threats to schools are threats to all of us.

The last time I wrote in this space, I let you know abut goofy dances teachers have been doing with students in their classrooms -- all captured, for better or worse, on YouTube. Today, I'll share with you some online videos that feature educators in a more... well, let's just say a more mature and perhaps "professional" light.

Exhibit A: TeacherTube

Check out this YouTube-inspired video sharing Web sites for teachers, where you'll find videos designed by educators, for educators. As of December 2007, the site boasted more than 9,000 videos, which have been viewed by more than 40,000 visitors (so says the New York Daily News).

Interested in phonics, spelling, and literacy? Check out the Reading Channel. Want professional development and best practices? There's that too, plus science, math, p.e. and more. Ever found yourself wondering how to make "slime" or curious about tectonic plate boundaries? Don't worry; there are videos to help.

I wasn"t able to find any Soulja Boy dance videos, but I did find an example of the Alabama Coushatta War Dance, entertaining in its own right. Other videos range from silly to boring to motivational. With that said, TeacherTube isn't exempt from the goofy. As long as there are places for teachers to share their own videos, there will be gems like this one: "Mrs. Burk Perimeter Rap."

--Joe Hammond

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• 85 percent agree the basics alone are not enough for a 21st century workforce without the skills and ability to be imaginative, creative and innovative

• 78 percent agree standardized testing does not encourage students to perform beyond the average and does not fully develop the imagination of students

• 87 percent believe science, engineering, technology and math--when integrated with the arts--provide students with a set of skills and values necessary to promote innovation.

The anti-immigration fervor in the United States notches up another victory. For more than ten years, the Georgia Project in Dalton, GA assisted school districts experiencing major influxes of Spanish-speaking students by sponsoring bilingual and bicultural teachers from Mexico to work in Georgia schools. The program also provided professional development to U.S. teachers to communicate more effectively with Spanish-speaking students. Federal and local funding began to dry up as opposition to undocumented immigrants intensified in 2006 and 2007.  Last December, founder Erwin Mitchell announced that the project was closing its doors. It's worth noting that the program was not an immigration organization and took no sides in the immigration debate--the assistance it provided schools merely reflected the reality of changing demographics. Still, Mitchell is hopeful that the Georgia Project can be recusitated when and if the federal government settles the question of what to do with the 12 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States.

The Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force are working overtime to win the attention of teachers and education support professionals in order to reach their ultimate quarry: students. The Bush Administrations announcement this winter that the Army and Marine Corps must increase their active duty ranks by 92,000 in the next five years means even more pressure on military recruiters to gain access to educators' classrooms--where theyre not always welcome.

Bullying and harassing students for being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender is common. Referred to collectively as GLBT, these students are five times more likely than the general campus population to skip school due to safety concerns. Some even drop out due to continued harassment.

According to a National School Climate Survey conducted by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, almost 38 percent of GLBT students experienced physical harassment at school on the basis of sexual orientation and 26 percent on the basis of how they express their gender. Nearly one-fifth, almost 18 percent, of students reported being physically assaulted because of their sexual orientation.

For more, see NEA's "Strengthening the Learning Environment: A School Employee's Guide to Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues." The guide was developed to help Association members and staff who may confront issues involving GLBT students or colleagues, or who may encounter bias based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
                                                                                                       --John Rosales

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