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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 29, 2001

News Release

NEA Focuses on Low-Performing Schools At Joint Conference on Concerns of Minorities and Women

Making Every Public School Great will be the focus of the 2001 Joint Conference on Concerns of Minorities and Women scheduled for June 29-30 at The Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles. The conference is held each year in connection with the Annual Meeting of the 2.6 million-member National Education Association (NEA).

"America's greatest challenge and the NEA's highest priority is to find ways to provide every child a great public school," said NEA President Bob Chase. "The Joint Conference assists NEA members in meeting that ideal by illuminating the best thinking and the latest trends and developments in this key area of public policy and classroom instruction."

One of the nation's foremost experts on multicultural education kicks off the conference with a keynote speech on "Why Multiculturalism Matters" in the 21st Century on the morning of the first day of the conference. Dr. Ronald Takaki is also an author, historian, and scholar, who serves as Professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of California at Berkeley.

The following day, California Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamente will deliver a luncheon speech and share his first-hand knowledge of how cities across the nation can advance equity in educational resources. Bustamante is the first Latino elected to statewide office in California in more than 120 years and the former speaker of the state Assembly. In that role, he used his power to reduce class sizes, extend health care coverage to 600,000 low-income children, and provide $1 billion to purchase updated textbooks for LA students.

Later that day, the Joint Conference closes with a speech from Mary Hatwood Futrell, the internationally recognized educator and former president of NEA. Futrell will offer her own considerable insights on how NEA members can intensify the Association's growing emphasis on making every public school great.

In between the major speeches, participants will choose from dozens of professional workshops and sessions covering a broad range of human and civil rights issues that arise in the classroom or in schools, such as, how the 2000 census will change schools; the latest on Praxis: the high-stakes test for teachers, which tends to screen out new minority educators - just when the nation needs them most; and strategies for defusing "hot classroom moments," when a child asks, for example, what a homosexual is or when hate and bias spill into the schools.

In keeping with this year's conference theme, a major focus of the 2001 Joint Conference will be enhancing underperforming schools, which NEA has named "High-Priority Schools. Several sessions have been designed to impart strategies and approaches that have proven successful in turning around such challenged schools - most based on the work of Belinda Williams, a national expert on closing the achievement gap. Williams is an education consultant who has authored many publications and papers for national organizations. She developed the concept of identifying student assets, rather than deficits, a shift in thinking that lays the groundwork for tailoring curricula to fit students and not the other way around. This new framework is at the core of NEA's Priority Schools Initiative.

Additionally, conference attending teachers and other school staff can benefit from the newest techniques on managing stress, enhancing concentration, and enhancing leadership skills. Or they can opt for sessions on closing the achievement gap among students of color, engaging more girls in math, science and technology studies, and the most recent research findings on educating students with mental or physical disabilities.

Copies of the complete conference agenda are available from NEA Communications.

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The National Education Association is the nation’s largest professional employee organization, representing 2.7 million elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty, education support personnel, school administrators, retired educators, and students preparing to become teachers.