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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 5, 2002

Alabama

Mobile County Education Association
The Mobile County Education Association will establish a Professional Educators Resource Center (PERC) where Association members create materials that will enhance student achievement. PERC will be filled with a variety of equipment, materials and resources used to produce classroom activities.

Alaska

Anchorage Education Association
The Anchorage Education Association (AEA) believes that highly qualified teaching professionals promote better teaching, better learning, and better schools. This project seeks to provide sustained professional development and support for teachers seeking National Board Certification in the Anchorage School District. Through a National Board Candidate Support Network, the project will encourage high quality, intensive and classroom-focused professional development for teachers.

Arizona

Washington District Education Association
The Washington District Education Association is going to research, design, and implement a program that focuses on community awareness of school district effectiveness. A number of residents in the Washington Elementary School District community don't have school-aged children, and while parents of children are pleased with the results of the school system, the Association wants to address the needs and concerns of the greater community. The grant will help develop a program that highlights the positives aspects of the schools and the district while developing resources to show how schools and communities should work together.

California

Fremont Unified District Teachers Association
The Fremont Unified District Teachers Association will offer professional development for teachers with less than five years teaching experience. A series of workshops will be presented that focus on working effectively with students and families in an ethnically diverse community. The goals of this initiative are to provide meaningful, practical, professional development, create and maintain relationships with families and community, and to retain highly qualified teachers in the Fremont Unified School District.

Connecticut

East Hartford Education Association
The East Hartford Education Association (EHEA) will start a program focusing on supporting and retaining new teachers. This will be done through workshops, peer mentor support, and retired teacher mentor support. EHEA is a priority school district-- most of the children come from low income or at-risk families. The urban grant will help EHEA give teachers full support and help them feel that East Hartford is a great place to teach.

Florida

United Teachers of Dade
United Teachers of Dade (UTOD) is dedicated to quality instruction in the classroom. The UTOD believes that the National Board Certification initiative helps provide teachers with important skills and support needed to be successful. UTOD has developed a program that targets those eligible for certification through a wide range of recruitment efforts including support sessions, mentors, financial incentives and leadership opportunities.

Georgia

Organization of DeKalb Educators
The Organization of DeKalb Educators (ODE) wants to encourage a love of reading among students in the DeKalb County School System, where there are a large percentage of high priority schools. ODE will use a variety of community resources to encourage reading activities in a wide variety of settings from schools to local libraries to businesses. A highlight will be a program established at a priority high school that will give older students the opportunity to read to elementary school children.
(The ODE has received 5 previous awards.)

Illinois

Schaumburg Education Association/Schaumburg Educational Employees
The Schaumburg Education Association (SEA), along with the Schaumburg Educational Employees and the Bilingual Division of the Schaumburg School District 54 in conjunction with the Anti-Defamation League will continue a comprehensive three-year training program on how to handle diversity issues in the school system. The program was created last year due to tensions between students, staff members and the community. The Association will expand the program this year and require third year teachers to participate and enlist eight more schools to the list of program participants. (The SEA is a six-time grant winner.)

Iowa

Des Moines Education Association
The Des Moines Education Association would like to create a new curriculum entitled, "Teaching in an Urban Environment". The curriculum will be shared with the teacher education programs from five area universities that provide the majority of new teachers to Des Moines public schools. The materials will highlight the problems and the benefits of working in an urban environment and help develop survival strategies for teachers who are working or going to be working in those types of environments.

Kansas

Blue Valley NEA
Due to the competitive environment of America, there is a growing number of educational options to parents and community leaders. Members of the Blue Valley NEA want to help educators learn how to market themselves, their programs, and public education so that they receive the support they deserve. The Blue Valley NEA will also help teachers establish relationships with parents that will allow students to be more successful in their classrooms.

United Teachers of Wichita
The implementation of the school district's new law that all teachers teach to standards has resulted in a high amount of teacher stress. United Teachers of Wichita's project will survey teachers to identify specific workload items that can be targeted for improved efficiency or elimination. The project aims to increase student achievement by incorporating standards-based lessons into current teacher workload.

Kentucky

Fayette County Education Association
The Fayette County Education Association (FCEA) wants to retain and recruit as many members as possible, since they are losing significant numbers due to retirements and resignations. FCEA's new project, "Survive and Thrive", addresses the need to get teachers of Fayette County and surrounding areas to want to be part of their winning team, which is dedicated to providing support and assistance to all educators.

Jefferson County Teachers Association
The Jefferson County Teachers Association (JCTA) and the Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) have engaged in a collaborative endeavor to support and assist early career educators. A major focus is teachers who hold emergency certificates. The goal of this new project is to expand the support and assistance provided by JCTA and the New Teacher Mentoring Program via the Internet. Gathering information from websites has been common, and often preferred by early career educators due to demands on their personal time. The goal of this project will be to address the needs of these teachers. (The JCTA is a four-time grant winner.)

Maryland

Frederick CountyTeachers Association
The Fredrick County Teachers Association (FCTA) is working in partnership with Frederick County Public Schools to engage its teaching staff in school change. Together the two groups are conducting a series of focus groups to better understand barriers to achievement within the district's minority population. Focus group questions will explore teacher's perceptions relative to expectations for student achievement, cultural competency, resources and school climate. The project will give, from the teacher's perspective, valuable information on what teachers need to know and do in order to eliminate achievement gaps. With this valuable information FCTA and FCPS can work together to secure adequate resources and relevant training for these school communities.

Missouri

Rockwood NEA
Rockwood NEA (RNEA) wants to continue its T.A.P. (Teacher's Assisting Peers) program. T.A.P is a teacher-mentoring program, through which consulting teachers help new and struggling teachers work to improve their instructional practices by peer evaluation and performance-based teacher evaluation. The Rockwood School District will retain 10 percent more of its new teachers after four years than it did in before T.A.P. was started showing members of the RNEA its success. T.A.P. was in danger of losing all funding, and while it appears that the program will be restored, a long waiting list remains for the program. (RNEA is a two-time grant winner.)

New Jersey

Franklin Township Education Association
The Franklin Township Association wants to combat anti-social behaviors of intolerance and bullying with a new initiative called "Don't Laugh at Me" (DLAM). Unlike present individual school based programs, DLAM would be a district-wide training program for faculty and students. The program will target and help curb negative behaviors associated with bullying, student ostracism, and intolerance and work towards their elimination while emphasizing the skills, abilities, and values of a compassionate learning community.

Oregon

Eugene Education Association
Four Eugene Education Association (EEA) teachers with less than eight years of teaching experience will be mentored by current Association leadership to foster and develop the next generation of Association management. Each mentee will be tutored on EEA's nine standing committees, governance, and District/Association joint contract management, and insurance committees.

Salem Education Association/Salem-Keizer Association of Classified Employees
The Salem Education Association (SEA) wants to reach out to members of its community about school funding. The Association will organize a community forum that includes 70 community leaders including district administration, school board members and SEA representatives to talk about support for stable and adequate funding for Salem's schools.

The Salem Education Association believes in uniting community service with school curriculum efforts. The Houck Middle School Social and Environment Responsibility program strives to develop a learning framework where all students have the opportunity to not only learn but also to apply what they have learned while helping others in the community. Service learning is a unique volunteer program that promotes the application of student classroom skills and knowledge to solve real community problems. The urban grant will help students work through a planning process to generate solutions to community concerns, creating a plan of action for making a difference in their community.

Tennessee

Blount County Education Association
The Blount County Education Association wants its students and staff members to learn about their community, through the "Carpenters Middle Community Exploration Project". Students will participate in researching various aspects of the community that surround the school and present their findings via computerized slide shows, video presentations, and literary magazines. The Community Exploration Project will help the 750 sixth, seventh, and eighth graders develop critical team building skills, increase community involvement, and improve student motivation.

Utah

Salt Lake Teachers Association
The Salt Lake Teachers Association will receive an urban grant that provides opportunities for training in an Internet-based approach in negotiations, problem solving, and organizational development, consensus building, dispute resolution and conflict management. These skills will be utilized in advocating for quality education in the Salt Lake City Public School system and in the shared governance format embraced by the Salt Lake School District. (SLTA is a three-time grant winner.)

Weber Education Association
The Weber Education Association wants its teachers to have more help with classroom management skills. The grant will be used to train new teachers in the California Teachers Association training program "I Can Do It!" The Weber School District currently does not provide any classroom management training for its new teachers. By adding the extra support for teachers, teachers will be better equipped in the classroom.

Virginia

Fairfax Education Association
In 1999, Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) identified 20 low-performing schools. Fairfax County Education Association offered a new program entitled "MegaSkills" to help teachers perform better in these high priority schools. The MegaSkills program is designed to help teachers increase parental involvement, improve student achievement, and to help them get FCPS to add Character Education to the curriculum. (The FEA is a three-time grant winner.)

West Virginia

Kanawha County Education Association
The Kanawha County Education Association (KCEA) wants to ensure that all of its employees live healthy and fit lives. KCEA will coordinate the effort to offer school employees access to wellness programs that are available from various healthcare and fitness organizations. Obesity, for example, is a major problem in West Virginia. KCEA wants its employees to lead by example through healthy eating habits, exercise, and by working on weight loss through established programs that work not only for weight loss but also in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. School employees should be role models for their children.

Wisconsin

Green Bay (WI) Education Association
The Green Bay Education Association (GBEA) and the Green Bay Area Public School District (GBAPSD) with the assistance of a research firm want to find out what members of the community think about the public school system. Their grant will be used to conduct 625 interviews with residents to address the community's perceptions about the public schools, teachers, and the Association.

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