Wired

May 2003   

Connect with High-Speed Internet

Dear Web Editor,

I'm confused about the various choices for high-speed Internet access. Which is better, cable or DSL service?

Industry experts estimate that 2 million to 4 million households access the Internet via broadband or high-speed connections. That number could reach 14 million by the end of 2005.

But deciding how to connect can be difficult.

DSL (digital subscriber lines) and cable Internet service are the most popular broadband choices available to home consumers. DSL operates over existing copper phone wires, while cable Internet operates over coaxial wires (the same lines that transmit cable television). Both support high-speed connections to the Net and provide "always on" connections, which allow you to stay logged on to the Internet indefinitely. And both require specialized modems that work with their respective technologies.

The benefits and pitfalls of each technology are not so clear. And their differences center on three issues: cost, speed, and support.

Cost--If you are going to buy a modem, cable modems are less expensive than those for DSL. It is possible to catch an installation offer from your DSL service provider that can make owning your own DSL modem cheaper than going cable. But the price of cable modems continues to fall. Most cable and DSL service providers offer lease options for modems as well.

The cost of basic cable and DSL services, on the other hand, run almost the same: between $50 and $90 per month for cable Internet service and between $40 and $70 per month for DSL. Many cable companies provide discounted Internet service to customers who subscribe to the company's television services as well. These costs can vary significantly, though, if you live in a rural or remote region of the country.

Speed--With DSL service, you receive an individual line between your home and your service provider, which means no one else can transmit data over your connection. In theory, this should speed up your connection.

With cable service, you share your connection to the service provider with all of your neighbors, which can decrease performance.

For the time being, though, cable modems maintain a slight performance advantage over DSL, since most cable networks have not achieved a significant number of subscribers to make the shared connection a critical issue.

When it comes to equipment, cable modems generally have higher bandwidth than their DSL counterparts, which means they theoretically can transmit more data faster.

The quality of DSL service also depends on the quality of your local telephone company's lines. Many DSL subscribers in older neighborhoods experience chronic service problems, which won't change until the equipment improves or phone companies upgrade their wires.

Support--As more businesses enter the DSL market, competition for customers increases and providers have more incentive to offer quality service. Cable companies generally "own" entire networks and are the only choice for cable service. If you experience performance problems with your cable company, you probably won't be able to switch to another provider.

At the same time, while many companies "sell" DSL service in an area, most companies rely on the existing phone lines already in place. They probably are reselling service available through your local phone company. So don't expect your service will improve simply by jumping to a new provider.

Instead, ask your neighbors how they connect to the Net. Find out how often they experience service interruptions and how long it takes for the provider to respond. Their experiences will provide a much better idea of what you can expect from DSL and cable service in your area.

Editor's Pick

OWL Watch
OWL.org Goes to Summer School

OWL.org can be a useful resource during the summer months as busy educators work toward recertification, brush up on classroom skills, and plan for the coming school year.

OWL.org connects educators to a number of online professional development courses and practical tutorials. You can access these opportunities through OWL's "My Profession" channel under the heading "Online Courses."

OWL.org partners Canter/OnlineLearning. net and Pearson Skylight offer discounts to Association members on a variety of professional development courses. These providers also offer resources to help visitors decide if online courses are right for them.

Visitors to OWL.org also can connect to the Center for Online Professional Development (COPD), a nonprofit corporation developed by NEA members committed to providing affordable professional development to fellow Association members. COPD offers credit and noncredit courses on topics such as using instructional technologies to transition from classroom to online instruction.

PBS TeacherLine offers facilitated, self-paced minicourses designed to help teachers bring technology into their classrooms. These courses currently are available only through participating PBS member stations. Courses cover all grade levels and include topics in math, computer science, and language arts.

The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) offers several online tutorials on education topics. These free interactive multimedia lessons include short articles, video and audio files of experts and practitioners, and resources.

In addition to links to courses and tutorials, OWL.org contains numerous features, such as the popular Works4Me tips and OWL discussion boards, that give educators practical information and tools to help them in their schools.

Rights Watch

May 2003   

High-Stakes Tests Spawn High- Stakes Lawsuits

Teachers fired, sued for revealing test questions, while a testing company agrees to pay $12 million for faulty scoring.

James Hope just wanted to warn parents that the new high-stakes test was unfair. But when this NEA member and Teacher of the Year posted six test questions on a parents' website, along with his criticisms that the test covered material that had not been taught, his school district charged him with violating the state Code of Ethics for Educators. The Georgia Professional Standards Commission (PSC) agreed and voted last year to suspend Hope's teaching license.

But with the help of the Georgia Association of Educators, Hope appealed the proposed suspension. Last December, Fulton County Judge Gail Tusan exonerated him of any wrongdoing.

The court ruled that the ethics code only prohibits teachers from helping students cheat by providing them with test questions prior to administering the test. Hope didn't do that, the court said.

After a three-year odyssey, the case ended in January, when the Georgia Court of Appeals refused to overturn the trial court's decision. Hope is still teaching fourth grade in Gwinnett County.

Some other recent challenges to flaws in the high- stakes testing process:

• Chicago teacher George Schmidt hasn't fared as well as James Hope. The Chicago Public Schools (CPS) fired and then sued him for $1.4 million for publishing parts of the Chicago Academic Standards Examinations (CASE) in 1999.
  Schmidt had criticized the CASE tests for sloppy wording and inaccurate answers.

  Last December, a federal district court ruled that Schmidt's publication violated the CPS's copyright to the tests and enjoined him from publishing any copyrighted school district materials. In February, CPS stipulated that Schmidt owed only $500 for the copyright violation. Nevertheless, Schmidt has appealed the case to the federal circuit court.

  Schmidt's termination for insubordination was upheld by a state board hearing officer, however, and his appeal to state court is still pending.

• Meanwhile, a group of Chicago teachers threatened last fall to boycott the CASE tests, calling them "flawed and invalid." CPS announced last December that it had decided that the CASE tests would not be administered in January as scheduled, but that the district would develop new tests better aligned with state standards.

• In Minnesota, a testing company agreed last November to pay up to $12 million to settle a class action lawsuit alleging that it wrongly scored thousands of the Minnesota Basic Skills Tests in 2000. The National Computer Systems falsely notified some 8,000 students that they had failed the high-stakes test.
  Under the settlement, students denied the opportunity to participate in graduation ceremonies because of the company's error can recover $16,000, while students who had to attend summer school are eligible for up to $1,000. The state of Minnesota has since switched testing companies.

• High-stakes tests are being challenged in two other states. Last February, a Florida organization filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education charging that the state's new mandatory graduation exam violates the rights of students with disabilities because they are denied adequate accommodations for taking the test.

• And in Massachusetts last September, advocates filed a class action lawsuit claiming that the state's mandatory graduation exam discriminates against Black and Hispanic students, as well as students with disabilities and limited English proficiency.

--Michael D. Simpson
NEA Office of General Counsel

New Federal Rules Support School Prayer

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) recently issued a new set of federal guidelines requiring school districts to allow students and teachers to engage in religious activities at school, including prayer.

Districts that violate the new rules--or fail to promise in writing that they will comply with the guidelines--risk the loss of federal education funds.

Development of the ED guidance, which was released on February 7, 2003, was mandated by the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), also known as the No Child Left Behind Act.

In announcing the new rules, ED Secretary Rod Paige warned that "public schools should not be hostile to the religious rights of their students and their families."

Among other things, the guidelines state that "students may read their Bibles or other scriptures, say grace before meals, and pray or study religious materials with fellow students during recess, the lunch hour or other noninstructional time..."

The guidance cautions teachers not to discriminate against students who "express their beliefs about religion in homework, artwork, and other written and oral assignments." It also advises that, in certain circumstances, schools may have to grant parental requests to "excus[e] students from class" for religious reasons.

The guidance counsels that teachers and other school employees, "when acting in their official capacities as representatives of the state," cannot encourage or participate in prayer activities with students. Before school or during lunch, however, school employees are free to meet with other employees for prayer or Bible study.

The guidelines also address student religious clubs, moments of silence, graduation prayer, and baccalaureate ceremonies.

Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, charges that ED is dispensing faulty legal advice. The new rules, Lynn claims, "are based on a biased reading of the law [and are] intended to advance inappropriate religious activities in public schools."

The guidance is posted on ED's Web site.

--M.D.S.

Resources

May 2003   

Giving--And Getting Back

A teacher uses chess to show his students they can slam-dunk their way to success--without ever picking up a ball.

I Choose to Stay: A Black Teacher Refuses to Desert the Inner City
By Salome Thomas-EL with Cecil Murphey
304 pp. $23 hardback; Kensington Publishing Corp. (www.kensington.com).

Tales about do-good educators who inspire kids to achieve are a dime a dozen. To inspire, after all, is one of the unspoken prerequisites of the profession. What's rare about Salome Thomas-EL's story is not simply that he gets to tell it himself in this impassioned memoir. (Most teachers have neither the time nor the privilege.) It's also that the author is an African-American man--in an elementary school, at that--which puts him in an ever-fading category in public schools today.

In I Choose to Stay, Thomas-EL affirms what many educators already know and believe: Underprivileged students can do great things when they have a community of adults who firmly care and believe in them. When they also have teachers who can personally identify with their struggles--racially, economically, socially--all the better. And in this case, it is all the better, for great things really did happen, and still are, under Thomas-EL's tutelage.

Remarkably, one of the magic bullets is chess. Thomas-EL tells how he uses this game of intellectual muscle to teach Philadelphia students lifelong lessons that help them break the cycle of violence, teenage pregnancy, drugs, gangs, and illiteracy. In the end they take home not just championship victories, but victories over low self-esteem and underachievement.

Thomas-EL says he had a hunch it could be done. A Philadelphia native, he was raised in the projects along with seven siblings by a single mom. Though he ended up at a school for gifted junior high students and then at a prestigious college, he says he was forever aware of the opportunities his peers would never get. And so despite numerous work experiences and teaching jobs at more affluent schools, he became determined to teach in the disadvantaged neighborhoods of his hometown.

When he finally did, students saw him almost as an oddity. "I wasn't the kind of role model they had seen," he writes, "because their eyes had been filled with dreams of becoming multimillionaire athletes." His goal, he says, "was to get them to strive for an MBA instead of the NBA."

A math teacher, Thomas-EL thought of chess--"a game of algebraic concepts"--as a way to spur excitement. And so in 1994, while teaching at Robert Vaux Middle School, he began using its concepts in class. Lessons turned into lunchtime chess, which progressed to after school, weekends, and then to summer.

But to be able to play, Thomas-EL had rules. Students had to keep up with class work. They had to behave--to learn to resolve conflicts with their minds instead of their fists. They had to develop stamina and patience. The result: School attendance improved, grades soared, and behavior turned positive. Along the way, students competed in a slew of tournaments, and won some major championships.

All was not glory, however. Between 1996 and 2000, while the chess team racked up successes, 20 of Thomas-EL's students were murdered. "I loved seeing kids achieve, but it always hurt--like a personal failure--when one of them turned in the wrong direction," he writes. He eventually chalked it up to his best efforts just not being enough.

What he did give to those who succeeded was a bounty of gifts, and in recounting the stories, Thomas-EL spares no details about his own sacrifices, which sometimes makes him sound more boastful than perhaps he intended. He opens the book, for example, recounting how he turned down an assistant principalship, a promotion with a $20,000 raise. (He eventually did become a principal.)

Despite that, the book is an inspiring read, one that would uplift and rejuvenate the most battle-worn teacher. Certainly it would propel anyone--perhaps even more Black men--to seriously mull over a teaching career in the schools that beckon for help the loudest.

--Tamara Henry

Excerpt
"My goal was to get them to strive for an MBA instead of the NBA. They had to figure it out for themselves. And the best way I knew to do that was to be myself and to show them love. I determined that no child would leave my classes without knowing he or she was loved. I wanted to be a father figure to them. Deep inside, I wanted to be for them the kind of father I never had myself."

From the NEA Professional Library

Join a Free Summer Book Club to Talk About Great Children's Books
Educators, parents, librarians, and others are invited to take part in a free, online Summer Book Club to talk about great children's books.

Sponsored by Reading Rockets, the club will include discussions on 16 children's books and how to use them to get kids ages 4-9 talking and excited about reading. The books are drawn from the forthcoming NEA Professional Library publication called Books Your Kids Will Talk About! Co-authors Maria Salvadore and Susan Hepner will moderate three online discussions about the books:

• "Yes I Can!" books on July 17
• "Getting Through Scary Times" books on July 30
• "A Different Perspective" books on August 12.

To sign-up, send an e-mail with "Book Club" in the subject line to readingrockets@weta.org. For more, go to www.readingrockets.org/summerbookclub.php.

Books by NEA Members

Reconsidering Read-Aloud
By Mary Lee Hahn
Reading aloud is a time of enjoyment and relaxation for teachers and students. This book looks at both the spontaneous and planned conversations surrounding read-aloud. Drawing from her experience as a fourth- and fifth-grade teacher, Mary Lee Hahn offers practical ways to make your read-alouds count. A study guide to help teachers explore the concepts of the book in greater depth is available at www.stenhouse.com/0351.htm (the book can be ordered here as well). 168 pp. $16 from Stenhouse Publishers.

Growing Up Abolitionist
By Harriet Hyman Alonso
This book tells the story of William Lloyd Garrison's seven children whose lives were shaped by the great 19th-century campaigns against slavery, racism, war, and the repression of women. A history professor, Alonso writes how they collectively and individually became involved in the struggles for racial justice, women's rights, anti-imperialism, and peace. 409 pp. $24.95 from the University of Massachusetts Press. To order, go to www.umass.edu/umpress/FW02/alonso.html.

The Journal of C.J. Jackson: A Dust Bowl Migrant, Oklahoma to California, 1935
By William Durbin
This journal is the tale of a young man's perseverance during the Dust Bowl in the Oklahoma panhandle. Desperate to survive the country's difficult times, C.J. and his family head to California where they hope to make a better life. The book illustrates the issues facing farmers and migrant workers during that era. 168 pp., $10.95 from Scholastic, Inc. For more, go to www.scholastic.com/titles/mynameisamerica/timeline/index.htm. To order, go amazon.com.

Under the Midnight Sun
By John Jancik, Steve Gardiner, and Javana Richardson
As members of the "2001 Return To The Top Of The World Expedition," the authors write of their exciting journey to unexplored reaches of the Arctic. The nine-member team successfully summited the highest unclimbed peak in the Roosevelt Range, the northernmost on Earth. The book includes magnificent photos by National Geographic photographer Galen Rowell. 197 pp. $29.95. from StarsEnd Creations. To order, write to StarsEnd Creations, 8547 East Arapahoe Road, #J224, Greenwood Village, CO 80112, or fax 303/694-4098.

After the Death of Anna Gonzales
By Terri Fields
Inspired by her feelings of despair over teenage suicide, author and educator Terri Fields wrote this collection of thought-provoking poems that center on the suicide of fictitious high school freshman Anna Gonzales and portrays her classmates' and teachers' reactions to the loss. When read together, these poems create a moving testimony to the effects of one girl's devastating choice. 100 pp. $16.95 from Henry Holt and Company. To order, go to www.vhpsva.com/bookseller/HBGenInfoHowTo.html.

Heads Up From NEA Member Benefits

NEA members have saved more than $650,000,000 for their retirements with the NEA Valuebuilder Program.

Concerned about retirement? School districts around the country are now offering 457 Deferred Compensation Plans, and many of them are making the NEA Valuebuilder®‚ Mutual Fund 457 Plan available to members. You may want to inquire if your school district offers this NEA-endorsed program.

As a Trust Account under Section 457 (g) of the Internal Revenue Code, a 457 plan gives you the opportunity to save and invest for retirement on a tax-deferred basis, even if you are already contributing to a 403 (b).

When you participate in a 457 program, you may contribute up to $12,000 tax-deferred in 2003. If you're age 50 or older, you have a unique opportunity to set aside even more through special "catch-up" contributions. The 2003 catch-up limit is $2,000. You may also be able to make additional catch-up contributions during the three years prior to the normal retirement age defined by your plan. All these contribution limits are on top of what you already may be contributing to a 403 (b) plan.

The NEA Valuebuilder Mutual Fund 457 offers many of the same advantages as the other NEA Valuebuilder products, including 40 different investment options from some of the country's oldest and largest money managers, flexible pricing alternatives, and personalized asset allocation and rebalancing with the assistance of experienced financial counselors.

Find out more about the advantages of the NEA Valuebuilder Mutual Fund 457 by calling 800/NEA-VALU. An NEA Valuebuilder Financial Representative will be happy to answer your questions and discuss how to start building for your retirement future.

TV Tips

TV Tips are provided by KIDSNET, a national resource for children's media in Washington, D.C., www.kidsnet.org, and from Cable in the Classroom at www.ciconline.org.

Hitler: The Rise of Evil
CBS, May 18 and May 20, 9 p.m., ET, check local listings.
This four-hour mini series explores Hitler's rise to power in the Nazi party during the years prior to World War II. Hitler, played by Robert Carlyle, takes advantage of the economic devastation following World War I to rally Germans to greatness, but on his terms. He surrounds himself with a tight band of admirers and enforcers and manipulates his enemies. The series ends in 1934, before the "Final Solution," but Hitler's menace to the Jews is clear. The show tries to address the haunting questions of history, asking not just how did this happen, but why could he not be stopped?

A KIDSNET-produced study guide for high school teachers is available. Developed in conjunction with a leading Holocaust researcher and an award-winning historical writer, the guide includes six pages of activities, extensive resources, and discussion questions available in PDF format from www.KIDSNET.org.

A Walk in Your Shoes: Teen Pregnancy
The N, May 7, 9 p.m., ET/PT.
A New Jersey cheerleader and her boyfriend exchange places with a teen couple who are the parents of a toddler. The pretend parents arrive late, can't stand to change a diaper, and don't know how to keep the toddler engaged for even one morning. The real teen parents work part-time jobs, attend a teen parenting group, and long for their former carefree lives. Produced in partnership with the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy, this half-hour episode is an excellent conversation starter for teachers, teens, and parents. A special parent discussion guide is available at http:\\discussions.the-n.com.

The Life of Mammals
Discovery Channel, May 8 and 9, 8 p.m., ET. Check local listings.
Sir David Attenborough takes viewers on a journey into the lives of the most successful animals on the planet--the mammals. In this six-hour series, he "spies" on an Australian platypus and her baby using high-tech camera equipment, and swims with manatees and encounters--at close quarters--a giant blue whale. The series tells the story of 4,000 species, which have outlived the dinosaurs and colonized every part of the globe, dry or wet, hot or cold. Their adaptations for finding food have also profoundly affected how they move, socialize, mate, and breed.

Nick News: Special Edition
NICK, May 16 and 21, 6 a.m., ET. Check local listings.
This series of specials from the Emmy, NEA, and Peabody Award-winning news magazine for kids in grades 4-6 was created and produced by Linda Ellerbee. This month's program, "The Thrill of the Chill: Kids and Stress," examines stress induced by the real world and kids' anxiety over what they see in the news. It also looks into how to deal with and relieve stress. The show can be taped and used in the classroom for 10 years.

Amazing Destinations (Assignment Discovery)
Discovery Channel, May 22, 9 a.m., ET. Check local listings.
This series tours some of the world's finest cultural centers and scenic destinations. This episode, "Peru & Brazil"visits some unique locations of cultural, geographical, and historical significance in these South American nations, including the Brazilian federal state of Bahia, where steps were taken that led to the construction of modern-day Brazil, and Machu Picchu's remains of the ancient Incan civilization. The show can be taped and used in the classroom for one year with teaching materials available at http://school.discovery.com.

Ken Burns American Stories
PBS, May 26. Check local listings.
This series features works from the Ken Burns library. Using historical photographs and newsreels, live footage, and interviews, this program "The Congress" explores the history and promise of this unique American institution, chronicling the personalities, events, and issues that have animated the first 200 years of Congress and, in turn, our country. Can be taped and used in the classroom for one year.

April 1865: The Month That Saved America
History Channel, May 26 and 27, 6 a.m. ET/PT.
The History Channel presents a fast-paced examination of the events leading up to the end of the Civil War, from Lincoln's second inauguration to his assassination. The two-hour documentary is based on the book by Jay Winik, who is featured as a commentator, along with several historians. Winik lays out his premise that engineering the peace is as vital as waging any war. "The Month That Saved America" could have been the month that ended our experiment in democracy, if Lee had not surrendered. This documentary is geared for older students, grades 8-12, or for college level courses. Extensive teacher materials are available at www.historychannel.com/classroom.

Biography
A&E, May 27, 7 a.m., ET.
This Biography episode, "William Shakespeare: A Life of Drama" uses film clips from the Royal Shakespeare Company, dramatic readings from Hamlet, and location filming in London, to portray the poet and playwright whose work is as popular now as it was during his own lifetime. Can be taped and used in the classroom for two years with teaching materials available at www.aande.com/class.

Pandemic: Facing AIDS
HBO, June 15, 22, 28, and July 6, 7 p.m., ET/PT.
These five episodes are geared for mature high school students. Each episode features a different country, Thailand, Uganda, Russia, Brazil, and India, and the many different modes of AIDS transmission. But it is the personal stories themselves that are most compelling, such as the seven-year-old Ugandan orphan who lives alone in a hut with his younger sister. Because the stories focus on countries outside the United States, students will gain a global perspective on the epidemic. Funded in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, this documentary is the centerpiece of a larger public engagement campaign, with a website, www.pandemicfacingaids.org, a traveling art and photography exhibit, a book, an education packet and a music CD.

Web Winners

The Role of Our Oceans
What role do oceans play in the lives and economics of the world's population? Find out on the United Nations' Atlas of the Oceans site. The Atlas includes four main sections: 1) about the oceans--including history, biology, maps, statistics, climatology, and ecology; 2) uses of the ocean--such as fishing, shipping, and tourism; 3) issues--such as food security and human health; and 4) geography--information categorized by geographical area. Go to www.oceansatlas.org.

We the People
Need to look up something in the Constitution? Or the Articles of Confederation? Then visit this site for the text of historical documents, and a history of the Constitution. The "Teacher Resources" section helps teachers locate materials for teaching the Constitution and other civics-related topics to students of all ages. Teachers will find lesson plans and ideas for classroom activities, as well as links to other sites. Go to www.constitutioncenter.org.

Click on Current Events
Looking for ways to teach current events? Check out the C-SPAN website, which features information on the branches of government, recent public speeches, video archives, current events lesson plans and activities, and the chance for educators and students to send questions to C-SPAN guests. Go to www.c-span.org/classroom.

The Mummy Maker
Want to be an embalmer's assistant in ancient Egypt and help prepare a body for burial? This quick, educational, interactive game takes students through the steps of preparing Egyptian mummies, aided only by their concentration and hints from the embalmer's cat. Other links on this BBC site include articles on Egypt past and present. Go to www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/mummy_maker_game.shtml.

Free or Inexpensive

Building a House on a Budget
Building Homes of Our Own is an interactive teaching tool developed for the middle school classroom environment. The Microsoft® Windows®-compatible CD-ROM game presents a macro view of the entire home building process from site selection to final sale. Players collect information, solve problems, and make choices as they build a 3D home against a budget. When complete, they review credit applications and sell to the buyer of their choice. Part of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) ongoing educational outreach initiative, in partnership with the National Housing Endowment, Freddie Mac, and the Fannie Mae Foundation, Building Homes of Our Own is free to educators. To register for a copy, go to www.homesofourown.com.

Lessons Plans from the Peace Corps
Standards-based, language arts lesson plans, and workshops based on the uniquely personal stories written by Peace Corps authors can be accessed online. The materials that comprise Voices from the Field: Reading and Writing About the World, Ourselves, and Others strengthen students' reading comprehension and writing skills, engage and inspire students to create their own personal meanings and narratives, and broaden students' perspectives of the world. For more information, or to download materials, go to www.peacecorps.gov/wws/guides/voices/stories.html.

Free Science Posters
Educators can obtain copies of up to seven science posters from the Wright Center for Science Education at Tufts University. To preview the posters, go to www.tufts.edu/as/wright_center/svl/posters/posts.html. You must submit a written request on school letterhead to Wright Center, Department W, Room 267 C, Science & Technology Center, Tufts University, 4 Colby Street, Medford, MA 02155. You can also request a pedagogical teachers guide that accompanies the posters.

Asking Good Questions
How can teachers ask their students intelligent, clear, searching questions? Questioning in the Primary School by E.C. Wragg and G. Brown give primary school teachers strategies to help them ask questions to engage students and improve interaction. Wragg and Brown discuss types of questions and how body language and the tone you use to ask a question has an impact on how students respond. 96 pp. $16.95 from RoutledgeFalmer. To order, visit www.routledgefalmer.com.

Sound and Music
What's the difference between sound and noise? In Science Experiments with Sound and Music, authors Shar Levine and Leslie Johnstone explain complex concepts like sound waves with the help of a SlinkyTM and also why if you press your ear to a glass that is pressed against a wall you can hear what's happening on the other side. Using materials you could easily find at home, young people can understand how different musical instruments work and why certain objects make certain sounds. 80 pp. $10.95 from Sterling Publishing. To order, visit www.sterlingpub.com or call 212/532-7160.

Speaking Out for Justice
When people think of women writers leading the struggle for equality, most think of Harriet Beecher Stowe. But they should also think of Lydia Maria Child. A popular author of domestic handbooks, she made the decision in 1833 to write a "scathing indictment of slavery." In Lydia Maria Child: The Quest for Racial Justice, author Lori Kenschaft tells the life story of America's first professional woman writer to speak out for Black slaves, American Indians, women, and the poor. 128 pp. $24 from Oxford University Press. To order, call 800/ 445-9714 or visit www.oup-usa.org.

Games as a Teaching Tool
As a coach and teacher, author Adrian Harrison knows that children need innovative and fun ways to learn and play. In 36 Games Kids Love to Play, Harrison provides safe, fun games whether indoors or out for K-4 children. Games include Rock, Paper, Scissors to settle disagreements, Human Alphabet, and a number of tag games that vary in difficulty. 78 pp. $12 from the Northeast Foundation for Children. To order, visit www.responsiveclassroom. org or call 800/360-6332.

Blazing a Trail
Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners has had some incredible achievements upon his arrival to American baseball from Japan. Learning the value of hard work, and balancing mind and body from his father, Suzuki became an American League All-Star, Rookie of the Year, and MVP. Suzuki raises the bar for athletic performance and helps to change the face of baseball and defy stereotypes. Author Mark Stewart adds Suzuki to the Sports' New Wave biography series in Ichiro Suzuki: Best in the West. 48 pp. $23.90 from Millbrook Press. To order, visit www.millbrookpress.com or call 800/462-4703.

A Spring Thing
Spring isn't just another season for author Linda Glaser--it's a celebration. Every page in It's Spring, is a tribute to the budding leaves, singing birds returning to build their nests, and longer days where the "sun sets after dinner." Cut-paper illustrations by Susan Swan create fun 3-D-type images that jump off the page in the book written for preK-K children. 32 pp. $21.90 from Millbrook Press. To order, visit www.millbrookpress.com or call 800/462-4703.

Our Favorite Pastime--En Español y Inglés
Looking for reading material for your young baseball fans? Have them open Latino Baseball's Hottest Hitters/Los Mejores Bateadores del Béisbol Latino, a dual-language sports book by Mark Stewart (with Mike Kennedy) with Spanish text by Manuel Kalmanovitz. This book contains photos and facts about today's shining Latino baseball stars such as Alex Rodriguez, and Sammy Sosa discusses the 150-year history of baseball and Spanish-speaking people. 64 pp. $26.90 from Millbrook Press. To order, visit www.millbrookpress.com or call 800/462-4703.

Baby on Board
While the rest of high school senior Sam Pettigrew's peers play sports and hang out with friends, he has an even more demanding extracurricular activity--his son Max. Hanging on to Max takes a rare look into the life of a young dad who decides to take an active role in his son's life. Even though author Margaret Bechard uses humor to discuss the serious topic of teenage parenthood, this book can be a way to open a dialogue with young adults about taking responsibility for their choices. 160 pp. $22.90 by Roaring Brook Press. To order, visit www.millbrookpress.com or call 800/462-4703.

Take note

Remember National School Nurse Day on May 7. The day recognizes the work of school nurses and helps communities develop a better understanding of their roles in the educational setting. For more, contact the National Association of School Nurses at 303/663-2329 or visit www.nasn.org.

President's Viewpoint

May 2003   

Great Public Schools for Every Child

NEA President Reg Weaver

As public school teachers and education support professionals, we dedicate ourselves to the care and educating of America's students. But despite your best efforts, you and many of your colleagues feel you are being set up to fail.

I hear you loud and clear. In recent months, I have talked with hundreds of NEA members in schools across the country. Almost everywhere, I hear anxiety and, yes, anger about the new federal education law. It has a catchy and misleading name--the "No Child Left Behind Act"--but it is deeply flawed. This law will leave behind millions of children, while labeling many of our best public schools and most dedicated educators "failures."

NEA has long supported the broad objectives of this legislation--to close the achievement gap, to guarantee a "highly qualified" teacher in every classroom--and we certainly strive to ensure that no child is left behind.

But there are serious problems with this law that go beyond the obvious lack of funding. The law sets unrealistic goals, and then directs us to meet these goals--or else. It is obsessed with tests, punishments, and labels.

We will not stand by while teachers, education support professionals, and America's children are hurt by the rhetoric of reform. Your Association is mobilizing at every level to make implementation of this law more reasonable, and to change provisions in the law that are clearly harmful.

We have met with Secretary of Education Rod Paige and others--hopefully our conversations will continue. I--along with our seasoned team of NEA lobbyists--will continue to meet with members of Congress to ensure that they are knowledgeable about the true impact of the law. We want to garner their support as we move to introduce, and hopefully pass, specific amendments to the law.

But I don't want you to be under any illusions. In Washington, many fiercely resist any changes. A top-down effort from NEA headquarters will not overcome this opposition. To succeed, we need a vast, grassroots effort involving millions of public educators and parents. A groundswell will not do--we need to create an earthquake! We need to channel our frustration into decisive political action.

And let us be clear about the changes we seek in the law. NEA members have identified the following top priorities:

We seek a moratorium on any testing, accountability, or educator-quality requirements that are not fully funded.

We want to require states and school districts to fully fund the costs of necessary training for paraprofessionals.

The law promises a "highly qualified teacher" in every classroom by 2006. We want our policy makers to acknowledge that we are the best persons to set the criteria for a "highly qualified teacher."

We want states to have flexibility in defining "adequate yearly progress" and in applying sanctions to schools deemed "in need of improvement."

In the months ahead, we need to keep up a relentless, tireless, full-court press to achieve these changes. I urge you to never, ever underestimate your power as an individual educator, and our power as a united Association. We are 2.7 million strong, but numbers alone, will not carry the day. We must be organized, mobilized, and energized at every level of our Association.

I call on each and every NEA member--I call on you--to become an active member. We are skilled educators and advocates. Let's use that skill to educate and activate our colleagues, families, friends, and elected officials. Let's demonstrate how an amended law can make "Great Public Schools for Every Child." I know I can count on you!

Comments? E-mail Reg Weaver at RegWeaver@nea.org.

People

May 2003   

Speed Racer

Photo by David Zalubowski

Colorado member Stacy Kuhn always sets the pace--figuratively and literally. Each day she steers the lives of energetic first graders at Clyde Miller Elementary School, then switches gears to fight for teachers' rights as vice president of the Aurora Education Association. After school, she slips behind the wheel of the pace car for CART (Championship Auto Racing Team), a rare all-female team of professional race car drivers.

As a pace car driver, Kuhn leads the racers around the track at the start of a race and during hazardous conditions, such as after an accident. Racers may not pass a pace car when it is on the track, so Kuhn provides an essential function that helps keep drivers safe during the race.

Kuhn, now 34, developed her interest in cars and racing as a child. Her stepfather, a race car driver, asked her if she wanted to try it and at 17 she started racing competitively. She quickly surpassed the skill of her stepfather, and in 1991 became the first woman to secure the title of Rookie of the Year from the Sports Car Club of America.

Then, after an impressive run as a competitor, Kuhn accepted an invitation to audition for pace car driving. She has spent the past five years driving with the team, which includes accomplished American and Canadian drivers.

Kuhn feels proud that she and her teammates have helped increase interest in racing among young women. "It's still a very male-dominated sport, the good old boy's club," she says. "But, I see a lot more women involved in motor sports, which is great."

--Lorinda Bullock

Battling the Bay

Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay once housed the toughest criminals in the nation. Today, it is the haunt of some of the toughest athletes in the nation, including George Rehmet, a special education teacher at Redwood Heights Elementary School in Oakland, California.

Rehmet is part of an elite group of swimmers who brave frigid temperatures and swift currents to swim the one-and-a-half mile stretch of water from Alcatraz to the San Francisco shore. He has made the swim not once, but 12 times.

"I was inspired by my late father," says Rehmet of his fitness hobby. "Each New Year's Day he would surf in the cold ocean water of northern California. I first thought of swimming the Bay as kind of a salute to him and because I like the idea of challenging nature."

While Rehmet, 36, enjoys the challenge, he is not reckless. Rehmet attempted the feat only after becoming a successful triathlete. When he makes the swim from Alcatraz, fellow swimmers follow him in an observation boat to warn him of hazards and monitor his physical condition.

"The water can get as cold as 52 degrees and an average swim takes 45 minutes, so hypothermia is a real threat," says Rehmet. "There are currents of eight miles an hour. You also have to know if ships are approaching. You never do something like this alone, or without formal fitness training and a doctor's OK for extreme exercise."

Rehmet's ultimate tribute to his father came this year, when he made the swim from Alcatraz on New Year's Day.

"My father would have liked it," says Rehmet. "It was tough, but not as tough as teaching. Teaching is a whole different level of toughness."

--Matt Simon

Perfect Harmony

Long after students and faculty have left the halls of Garside Junior High School in Las Vegas, Nevada, the sound of heartfelt gospel music often fills the air as night custodian Johnny Wilburn practices a tune or tinkers with the notes for the latest song he's composing.

But Wilburn's performances aren't limited to the empty halls of a junior high school. This up-and-coming contemporary Christian artist has sung with R&B artist Angela Winbush, Michael Bolton, and Grammy award-winners Take 6. He also has opened for gospel heavy hitters Daryl Coley and Commissioned. In December, Wilburn and his group One For All performed on BET's Bobby Jones Gospel show, a popular showcase of new talent and well-established gospel stars.

Bothered by today's popular music--which he believes degrades women and focuses on flashy material possessions--Wilburn set out to write and produce more uplifting tunes. "There's a lot of junk out there. It's time for us to stand up and say, 'I'm not going to do that with my gift,'" he says.

He describes his music style as "laid back." Fans can hear the influence of Coley and jazz and funk artists like Earth, Wind, and Fire in his song "Shine," featured on his online music website http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/103/johnny_wilburn.html. In the song, Wilburn croons over a smooth up-tempo beat reminiscent of his performances with a jazz group, appropriately named Smooth, at a number of Vegas night clubs.

But despite his extensive repertoire, Wilburn remains committed to his true passion, gospel music. "I've got to be a gospel artist. That's what gets me going," he says. "I've seen that kind of music change people more than any other type."

--Lorinda Bullock

Reclaiming Hope

Serving the public doesn't end when you retire. NEA-Retired members like Chloe Giampaolo and Grady Yancey are sowing seeds of hope by tackling some of the toughest issues confronting their communities.

"A man's greatest fear in prison is dying at the hands of another man--and it happens all the time," says Chloe Giampaolo, explaining what draws two dozen inmates to the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP), a series of conflict resolution workshops she facilitates at the Maryland Correctional Institute at Jessup (MCIJ).

The project, founded in 1975 by inmates and Quakers in New York state, helps participants shed destructive impulses and build positive attitudes and skills for dealing with others. Maryland member Giampaolo, who taught in public schools for 35 years, has conducted AVP workshops since 1989.

"I'm not a bleeding heart," Giampaolo says, "but I've gained a healthy respect for people who are incarcerated that society has disowned. I've always been in awe of the talent and intelligence of the men I work with."

Some of the best inmate facilitators in the program are "lifers": men who know they will never again walk freely outside prison walls. "These men see that they can make a difference to the younger men coming in," Giampaolo explains.

The program has helped Giampaolo grow as well. "It's hard to explain just how, but it's made me more of a whole person," she says. "It gives me a great feeling to work with men who want to change, and to serve as a vehicle for change. That's what keeps me going."

Whether they are sent by the courts or sign up because they have reached a dead end in their jobs, the students who come to Grady Yancey's adult literacy classes in Atlanta are assured of his commitment to their cause. If they attend class regularly and carry out the assignments, he'll do everything he can to help them read, write, and compute successfully.

"Most of the students are working toward their GED," Yancey says. "Many of the younger ones have not completed school because of poor attendance. The older ones usually come in because they're having problems finding a job, or they've been downsized and are trying to get a GED before going on to junior college and learning additional skills."

In two years of teaching adult literacy, Yancey, a retired social studies teacher, has helped about 80 students improve their literacy skills. Many have gone on to get their GED. Although the program doesn't follow up formally on all graduates, "the students who have finished say that the program has been very helpful for going on to the next step, such as vocational schools or to college," Yancey says. "Some have gotten better jobs and have improved their earnings."

Yancey enjoys the program so much he hasn't missed a day since he started. "It's extremely rewarding for me to work with people so interested in improving themselves," he says. "My greatest satisfaction comes from helping people--period."

--John O'Neil with additional reporting by Mary Kershaw

For more about these members and the NEA-Retired program, visit www.nea.org/retired.

Got a Tip?

Do you have an interesting story idea? Contact Kristen Loschert, section editor, at kloschert@nea.org.

News

May 2003   

Layoffs: Our Role Isn't To Roll Over

NEA state affiliates fight for education funding, educate taxpayers about the impact of classroom cuts, and defend members' layoff and recall rights.

Photo by Mike Myslinski/CTA

In the face of budget uncertainty, California's Alameda Unified School District has apparently decided it'll do without educators in the coming school year--and handed reduction in force (RIF) notices to all 635 of its teachers. But the California Teachers Association (CTA) isn't buying the district's poverty plea for a minute.

Alameda issued those pink slips smack in the middle of contract talks with its teachers. "There's no way on God's green earth this district could lay off every teacher!" points out CTA President Wayne Johnson. "This is just a bargaining posture, a way to win psychological advantage with teachers and the press and gain takebacks at the bargaining table."

CTA is rightfully skeptical, but it isn't blind to fiscal reality. The state of California faces a whopping $35 billion budget deficit, which has prompted cautious school districts to issue at least 18,000 RIF notices, with more on the way.

But when school districts exploit budget cutbacks--as in Alameda--or simply overreact to them, CTA and other NEA state affiliates pose extremely tough questions about the larger state budget picture, local budget priorities, and the rights front-line educators are accorded during the layoff and "bumping" process.

If you've never endured the stress generated by a RIF notice, you've probably never considered the unique role your Association plays during an economic crisis.

Fortunately, most states have found humane alternatives to educator RIFs during this, the worst round of budget deficits since World War II. But teachers or education support professionals (ESPs) in states such as Alabama, California, Kentucky, Illinois, and Oklahoma have or will soon face the reality of position cuts in their ranks.

These educators are discovering that an NEA state affiliate can assist them by:

• Advocating for adequate state and local aid. Although the California legislature has slashed $2.4 billion from public education funding, CTA--through aggressive lobbying and thousands of member e-mails and letters to lawmakers--has ensured that $2 billion of that cut will not impact school district budgets (thanks to deferred cutbacks or fund shifts).
  And in Nebraska, where school shutdowns or program cuts have long generated reductions in force, the Nebraska State Education Association (NSEA) has earned a 71 percent success rate in persuading voters to "override" state property tax levy caps and save local schools--the very heart and soul of rural communities.
• Reaching out to the community. Through statewide media spots and coalition work with other public education supporters--every group from the state PTA to ethnic organizations--CTA recently saved California's historic K-3 class size reduction law from being sliced away by scalpel-wielding legislators. In the same spirit, NSEA has "long communicated to parents how class size increases and program cuts significantly impact their kids," notes staffer Brian Mikkelsen.
  NSEA uses public RIF hearings to educate both school board members and the larger community about the human cost of proposed staff cutbacks. NSEA attorney Scott Norby insists he stands a better chance of reversing a RIF decision through "political" pressure, "like when a school board looks out over a gymnasium full of 'patrons' who don't want the elimination of a teacher or program."
• Defending members' RIF rights. In California, CTA provides free legal support for any member who receives a RIF notice, including representation before an administrative law judge. And in Nebraska, NSEA automatically represents members at public RIF hearings, where district administrators must prove, among other things, that they have objective written RIF criteria and can prove a "change in circumstances" that justifies an individual's RIF.

  "No matter where you are in the country, you should know what your rights are in a layoff. They might be found under state law or even in negotiated contract language," advises UniServ Director Marcus Albrecht, who currently handles RIF cases in Illinois. "And post-layoff factors you need to consider include continued insurance coverage, unemployment insurance paid back to the first day of your claim, and payment for unused vacation, personal, and sick days."

• Providing moral support. "If you're not an Association member, RIF hearing representation isn't cheap; you'll pay $200 per hour for an attorney in Nebraska," notes NSEA Director of Member Rights Trish Guinan. "NSEA members, however, get free representation from trained UniServ staff, plus the moral support of our local affiliates. It's not uncommon for locals to babysit for teachers during their RIF hearings, shovel their snow, or take them to dinner when they're really stressed."

--Dave Winans

Keep Your Eye On. . .

. . . changes in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). NEA has been working with Congress to ensure that teacher and ESP voices are heard during the current process to "reauthorize"--revise and improve--IDEA. NEA's message to Congress: Refocus IDEA on student achievement, not on paperwork and process.

NEA is urging federal lawmakers to act on these key Association priorities: make full IDEA funding mandatory, increase dollars for professional development, improve working conditions by reducing paperwork and caseload burdens, expand early intervention efforts, amend IDEA's discipline provisions to enhance school safety, and defeat voucher proposals.

And NEA's message to you: Don't wait until the IDEA reauthorization bill has passed to let Congress know how you feel IDEA should be improved--go to the NEA Legislative Action Center at www.nea.org/lac. To receive IDEA updates, send your e-mail address to NEA staffer Patti Ralabate at pralabate@nea.org.

. . . the 115-member Bow (New Hampshire) Education Association (BEA), which has been engaged in a long, grueling campaign to win contract language specifying that teachers shall only be disciplined for "just cause"--a right already enshrined in 74 percent of NEA-New Hampshire's (NEA-NH) local agreements.

At present, "we have almost no protection from the whim of administrators or backlash from angry parents," says BEA President Kathryn Ford. "We want it in writing that all administrators will agree to treat all bargaining unit members fairly and equally."

BEA members may only grieve issues specifically addressed in the current master agreement. That, says Ford, leaves teachers unprotected when administrators intimidate, show favoritism, insert unsubstantiated complaints in personnel files, "pressure" teachers over renewals/non-renewals, or make "inconsistent observations" of teacher work.

NEA-New Hampshire has filed two unfair labor practice charges against the Bow district school board for improperly attempting to influence the bargaining process, both among non-negotiating BEA members and local residents.

Ford says the board is bent on retaining unfettered "management rights" and fears that "just cause" language will lead to more grievances. "Our negotiators keep saying," she points out, "that this language will lead to grievances only if administrators are unfair or capricious in their dealings with the professionals who teach the children of the district."

In an escalating crisis campaign, BEA members have been reaching out to parents and the press, wearing "No Contract is No Solution" buttons, engaging in informational picketing (even in sub-zero winter weather), entering and leaving schools each day as a group, and refusing voluntary evening activities.

Bow teachers have received bargaining and communications support from NEA-NH staff and leaders, and "we have received many phone calls of encouragement from parents," reports BEA Negotiations Chair Paula Bailey. "Even better, parents have stopped to picket with us and contacted board members to express their dismay over this impasse."

The stakes for BEA members in this battle intensified at press time. The New Hampshire state legislature was about to pass a bill that abolishes binding arbitration for any grievance "resulting from non-renewal." That legislation will "make it easier to fire teachers during this time of teacher shortages--that's scary," concludes Bailey.

For more information, contact Kathryn Ford at kford@bownet.org or visit the BEA website at www.bownet.org/bea.

. . . the 22 paraeducator members of the Lamoille (Vermont) Union High School Education Association (LUHEA), who have ratified a three-year contract that includes 21 percent in "new money" in the first year, 4.5 percent raises in both the second and third years, and an "agency fee" for non-members who enjoy the fruits of union representation.

The agreement, signed in March, provides hourly raises ranging from $1 to $7 in the first year, pays tuition for one three-credit college course per year, and bumps up either the second- or the third-year raise--from 4.5 percent to 6 percent--for a para who completes a college course with at least a B average.

In bargaining last year, other Lamoille education support professionals (ESPs) set a strong precedent for the para contract. But it was new-member organizing--bringing 86 percent of the paras into the Association--and the smart work of negotiating team members Shelley Jones, Darcey Fletcher, and Rita Graves that made the ultimate difference.

Vermont-NEA (VT-NEA) UniServ Director Suzanne Dirmaier, who only sat in for the last hour of contract talks, points out that the para negotiators did their own economic research and displayed "self-reliance, assertiveness, and self-esteem" at the table.

Shelley Jones credits the team's success to skills gained at VT-NEA training sessions and regional bargaining council meetings--where negotiators compare settlements and tactics--and the full support of LUHEA teacher leaders.

Helping it all come together, Jones quickly adds, was a good working relationship with school board negotiators.

Most importantly, this ESP leader concludes, "we proved that with large numbers of Association members, a school board is willing to listen to you. Without those numbers and the support of Vermont-NEA, we would still be making the minimum wage."

When They Look At Layoffs, Look At Their Books

When a school district targets front-line educators for layoffs without first examining its priorities--or its books--it's just begging for Association scrutiny.

"Laying off teachers will increase class sizes and not provide our students with the quality education they deserve," notes California Teachers Association President Wayne Johnson. "Districts should target budget cuts away from the classroom and professionals who work directly with students."

Too many California districts, Johnson charges, are addressing budget shortfalls by protecting "administrative bureaucracies" at the expense of front-line educators. "You haven't read many news stories about mass administrative layoffs," he says.

Nationally, Johnson adds, districts are spending an ever smaller slice of the budget pie on teachers. According to a 2001 survey completed by the American Federation of Teachers, teacher salaries today account for a smaller proportion of total education spending than they did 40 years ago--down from 50.9 percent in 1960-61 to 39.5 percent in 2000-01.

Jerry Jones, a retired Nebraska State Education Association UniServ Director, who analyzes annual district financial reports for NSEA in five-year sequences, sees this trend at work in the Cornhusker State. "I discover that in most cases, not all, teacher salaries as a percentage of available funds are going down over the years, with more funds being put in reserve," he reports.

Other trends? "Most districts overestimate expenditures and underestimate receipts and the amount of money left over at the end of the year," Jones says.

So aside from the mattress, just where is that money going? In at least one Nebraska district, Jones sighs, "it's legal fees--the attorney makes more than the superintendent."

School board members aren't professional educators and rely on what administrators tell them about district expenses, Jones concludes. "Often they don't know these kinds of numbers until the Association represents members at a RIF hearing!"

Advice to school board members everywhere: Learn some accounting or be held to account.

--D.W.

News

May 2003   

Use My Story, But Not My Name

Colombian education unionists tell foreign visitors--including an NEA representative--of threats, murders, and kidnappings in their ranks.

When American teachers tell "war stories," they're likely to talk about unruly students or obnoxious administrators. When teachers in Colombia tell such stories, they speak of real bullets.

Last year, no fewer than 82 members of Colombia's largest educators' union, the Federación Colombiana de Educadoras, were assassinated. That crisis prompted the union to organize a February forum in Bogotá for visitors from NEA and Education International, the world alliance of educators' unions.

Colombian educators packed a small meeting room to tell the foreign delegation what civil war has done to them, their families, and their work. No one wanted their names or photos used, because publication could bring death.

One educator from northern Colombia said he saw right-wing gunmen kill two teachers last October. Because this teacher is a potential witness, his name is now on the death list. The list is well-known in the area--his position is number 10.

This educator was also abruptly fired after he and a priest tried to organize a community meeting against the violence.

Another speaker said her brother was murdered for union activity. Then her partner was killed in front of her eight-year-old son. As a witness, the eight-year-old was added to the death list--that's when this mother decided to leave the area.

Most of the violence is happening in rural areas, so victims seek refuge in the cities, reports Jill Christianson of the NEA Office of International Relations, who was part of the delegation.

The worst perpetrators, the guests were told, are right-wing paramilitaries connected to elements of the government. But left-wing guerrillas are also responsible for some attacks.

Schools and teachers are caught in the crossfire because both sides want to recruit students and because teachers are community leaders, Christianson says. "One older man," she reports, "talked about his three daughters. The guerrillas kidnapped his oldest daughter, and by the time they let her go, she had developed serious psychological problems.

"Then they took his second daughter," Christianson adds. "She came back brainwashed, a guerrilla herself. Finally they phoned to demand his third daughter. He fled to Bogotá."

Education International and NEA are providing immediate help to displaced workers. NEA is working with the Colombian union to advocate for government protection of threatened workers and for their safe return home.

"There are no simple answers in Colombia, but I hope we can at least alleviate some of the difficulties of these educators--after they've survived so much," says Christianson.

The trip was organized in response to a 2002 NEA Representative Assembly new business item that called for the Association to inform members about the plight of Colombian educators and work with Education International to help the victims. Also as part of this response, Wisconsin NEA members Robert Fullmer and Glenn Schmidt visited Colombia in March on a fact-finding trip organized by the AFL-CIO.

--Alain Jehlen

For more: Contact the NEA Office of International Relations, oir@nea.org.

New Mexico Educators Gain Bargaining Rights

• In March, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson signed legislation that restores and extends bargaining for 30,000 New Mexico school employees. NEA-New Mexico (NEA-NM) leaders and members worked closely with the governor, legislators, and other groups to craft this bill, which makes collective bargaining rights permanent for all public employees.
  The new law--the last bargaining statute expired in 1999--provides for binding arbitration in the event of an impasse in contract negotiations, reinstates a state labor relations board, and provides an opportunity for educators to discuss and reach agreement over instructional issues.
  "This law will benefit all of New Mexico's children by giving a greater voice to the people who work with them closely every day," says NEA President Reg Weaver. "It provides a great framework for public schools and education employees to reach agreements that will raise student achievement across the state."
  "This is the culmination of our success in electing people who believe public school employees should have an equal voice in matters that not only affect our working conditions, but students' learning conditions," adds NEA-NM President Eduardo Holguin.
• In late winter, members of the Colorado Education Association (CEA) and MEA-MFT in Montana joined with public education supporters in mass rallies for adequate state funding.

  Colorado members rallied in Denver to reaffirm support for constitutional Amendment 23, which, among other things, links per-pupil spending to the rate of inflation and designates a portion of income tax revenue to the State Education Fund. That measure has boosted the state from 45th to 41st place in school aid to schools.

  In Montana, MEA-MFT members and others gathered in nine regional rallies. Their key message: Montanans want adequate funding for preK-graduate school education, and they want legislators to raise revenues to pay for it. "To do otherwise would be to sacrifice our kids to a short-term fix," declared state Rep. Brad Newman.

Preventing Medical Errors

NEA and the AFT team up to address troubling healthcare issue.

When 17-year-old Jesica Santillan died Feb. 22 after receiving transplanted organs with the wrong blood type, her death made headlines across the country. But the same day, with little or no publicity, about 250 other people also died in U.S. hospitals as the result of medical errors--mistakes which, like the one that killed Santillan, could have been prevented.

Between 44,000 and 98,000 people die each year because of medical errors during hospitalizations, according to a 1999 report from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. Even at the low end of that range, the report noted, those numbers make medical errors the nation's eighth leading cause of death, slightly ahead of car accidents.

The report outlined some relatively simple improvements that could dramatically cut the error rate. "It would be irresponsible to expect anything less than a 50 percent reduction in errors over five years," the report noted.

That was more than three years ago. Has anything changed? "We've seen pockets of dramatic improvement," says Donald Berwick, a pediatrician and president of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and one of the report's authors. "Some of the hospitals we work with have had tenfold reductions in adverse drug events. But overall, we're a long way from the goal. We're still building the will for change, and we're working to alter some deeply ingrained behaviors and attitudes in the healthcare system."

Fighting medical errors is one of the projects of the NEAFT Partnership Joint Council. The NEA and AFT are members of the Leapfrog Group, a coalition of more than 130 public and private organizations that sponsor healthcare benefit plans. The Leapfrog Group promotes three reforms that could reduce the death toll by more than 50 percent--or over 100 lives a day:

• Get doctors to stop scribbling prescriptions on slips of paper and start using computers equipped with error prevention software that flags those which may contain mistakes.
• Refer patients who need certain complex procedures to hospitals that offer the best chance of survival.
• Staff intensive care units with doctors who have credentials in critical care medicine.

How can NEA and AFT affect hospital policies? One way is through collective bargaining. The two unions have so far trained about 400 of their negotiators on medical errors and the Leapfrog reforms. These negotiators, responsible for well over 1,000 labor agreements, can push school districts to use the Leapfrog ideas as criteria for choosing healthcare providers for employees.

In Wisconsin, WEA Trust, a nonprofit organization created by the NEA-affiliated Wisconsin Education Association Council to provide insurance and other services for school employees, joined a local Leapfrog group that has started putting hospital safety data on the Web. "That was quite controversial at first," says WEA Trust Executive Director Al Jacobs. "The hospitals were not happy." Jacobs concedes that the statistics are far from perfect as measures of hospital quality, but he says a University of Oregon study showed that hospitals whose data are published make greater efforts to improve.

"Very often the front-line healthcare professionals are blamed for these medical errors. But changing the system is what is needed to reduce the number of errors," says Candice Owley, chair of the AFT's healthcare division.

This article, the third in a series on healthcare issues and how they affect educators, is a project of the NEAFT Partner-ship. A primary aim of the partnership is to keep members of both unions informed about joint programs and activities in areas of common concern. NEA staff writer Alain Jehlen wrote this article, which also appears in the May-June issue of American Teacher.

School Nurses Stretched Thin

A public school may not be as dangerous as a hospital intensive care unit, but medical errors can happen there, too. In a survey of more than 600 school nurses conducted by University of Iowa professor Ann Marie McCarthy, half of the nurses reported medical errors at their schools during the past year. Although most errors were missed doses, there also were significant numbers of overdoses and wrong medications.

The National Association of School Nurses recommends one nurse for every 750 students, but McCarthy reported that the actual student/nurse ratio is almost twice that.

Meanwhile, "inclusion" has brought more students who need sophisticated medical support into the schools. McCarthy's survey found that more than 5 percent of students take medication, and 75 percent of medications are given to students by someone other than a school nurse.

That can be dangerous, says Carolyn Seifert, a registered nurse at Lake Silver Elementary School in Orlando, Florida, and a member of the Florida Education Association, a joint NEA-AFT state affiliate. Two years ago, she noticed something strange about a medicine tablet she was about to give a third-grader. It didn't look right--and it wasn't. The child's mother had put her husband's powerful heart medication in the boy's bottle by mistake. Giving a small child an adult dose of the heart drug could have stopped his heart, says Seifert. And someone with less training might not have noticed. According to the Iowa State survey, errors were three times more likely when someone other than a nurse administered the medication.

"Sometimes," says Seifert, "a para doesn't want to give out medication because she's fearful of making a mistake, but the principal says, 'Do it.' The principal may not like it, either, but he knows the parents want the medication to be given in school." The solution, she says, would be to hire more school nurses, but with budget cuts and new mandates to raise test scores, she doesn't see that happening soon.

My Turn

May 2003   

Thrown to the Wolves

A teacher survives an attack on his career and learns a lesson: In union, there is strength

Photo by Fernando Garcia

By John Flickinger

I am named after my father. He is my hero. One night last February, he was sitting in his little, assisted-living apartment watching the news. He saw his son on TV. The newswoman made it clear that here was a guilty man. My father's feeble hands shook and his poor old heart broke.

January 6, 2003. I was excited to get back to my students after the Christmas break, and especially happy to be starting my yearly exploration of the mind of Henry David Thoreau. We began with Civil Disobedience.

Soon, my students' hatred for Thoreau's verbose 19th century style gave way to amazement at this brilliant intellect and his wonderful ideas. By the end of the week, fine young minds were interpreting the transcendental concepts of Henry David Thoreau, showing me things I had never thought of in all my years of teaching.

Then along came A-B block scheduling. We were told that instead of seeing our students every day for 50 minutes, we would see them every other day for 90. Two teachers surveyed the faculty: 149 against, 13 for. We took the results and a stack of research showing the folly of block scheduling to the school board. Their reaction was a "so what" shrug. "We are placing you on block scheduling. End of discussion."

The next day, the teachers wore black ribbons mourning the death of site-based management. It was decisions made by people in the trenches that made Montwood a national Blue Ribbon school. And site-based management is mandated by our state education department. But A-B scheduling was a done deal.

My students asked, "What should we do?" Being a teacher, I answered their question with a question. "What does Thoreau say?"

They dug into Civil Disobedience. "It's not only our right but our responsibility to make our feelings known," they said. I was so proud of them.

Students and parents organized to express their opinions. Two meetings were called by the district and abruptly canceled. Then, I heard rumors of a student walkout. I wrote on my board, "No Walk-Out."

The next morning, 1,000 students left class and gathered in front of the school. They chanted and waved placards, peacefully expressing their dissatisfaction.

Panic stricken, the district called the police. A hundred riot gear-clad, helmet-wearing officers turned a peaceful protest into a riot. The smell of mace in the clear January air.

Afterwards, the superintendent told us this riot was "entirely the teachers' fault."

Why do politicians believe our youth are too dull-witted and morally slothful to understand a moral concept and act upon it? Perhaps they judge others by their own standards.

The next morning, I sent an e-mail praising the actions of 99.9 percent of our students. I blamed the incident on arrogant district officials.

Security showed up at my door. I was told to report to the principal's office. I smiled at my students and said, "Some things never change. The words 'report to the principal's office' still give me that 'Oh no, what did I do now?' feeling." The students laughed and I headed downstairs. I was suspended for improper use of district e-mail.

National attention was now focused on our school. A sacrifice was needed. One other teacher who stood up for our students and I were chosen.

That night, I was ambushed on my porch by a local TV station with ties to the district. I refused to speak. On the 10 o'clock news, there I was peeking out of my front door. "The teacher rumored to have incited the riot refused to speak to us." My e-mail was read, edited to sound like support for the riot and an appeal for more violence.

Then e-mails began to arrive from places like Stanford, MIT, Columbia, and Notre Dame, from my former students. "Emerson and Thoreau and their life-changing philosophy are the reason I am here today," they said.

At the next board meeting, a parent delivered a stack of letters testifying to the influence of my teaching. Parents and students held signs: "Give us back our teacher." I tried to hold back the tears. I failed.

When I am 80 years old and someone asks me what I did in life, I will remember those students holding those signs. I will straighten up and proudly say, "I was a teacher."

The powers that be threw two of us to the wolves. I was out in the cold among the hungry lupus. I survived because of my defenders. My first stop was the campus rep of the Texas State Teachers Association. A lawyer in Austin jumped on a plane and arrived in El Paso just in time to quietly take notes at the Friday night district meeting. He was noticed. At every meeting, people were there to support me. When I walked into a potential ambush by district officials, I was accompanied by two union representatives who have spent a lifetime protecting teachers. And today, I am back in the classroom teaching the lessons of the last month.

We have people running districts who only care about power. Join the union. The other teacher had no support and he is still sitting at home. Join the union and tell your peers to join. You never know who they will throw to the wolves next. It might be you. Join the union.

John Flickinger teaches English at Montwood High School in El Paso, Texas.

Editor's Note

This is the final issue of NEA Today for this school year. Now the NEA Today staff turns to gathering story ideas, casting the net widely for good material for next year's eight issues.

Many of our story ideas come from NEA members who pass along their suggestions via mail, e-mail, or phone call. (See page 3 for a list of ways to reach us.)

And the writers pick up many ideas while at school sites doing other stories. Other NEA staff are another good source of story suggestions as are state and local affiliates.

In addition to gathering story ideas, we've enlisted the help of NEA Research and a national polling firm to conduct a nationwide telephone survey of NEA members to learn members' opinions of NEA Today.

The survey, which has been done nearly every year for the past 20, will help us identify the types of stories you'd like to see covered and which are of less interest to you.

For example, one survey question asks members to rank the following types of stories in order of importance to them:

• Federal and state education policy and laws
• Negotiating salaries, benefits, and workplace issues
• Professional development
• Race and the achievement gap
• Social issues affecting students
• Strategies to boost student achievement
• Student discipline and classroom management
• Technology
• Health care policy.

Other parts of the survey will ask NEA members how often they access information from the main NEA website, www.nea.org and NEA Today online, which contains the current issue, and archived material dating back to 1997.

Hearing from our members is important to us as we plan for next year. It's your magazine and your stories.

--Bill Fischer

In the Light Lane

May 2003   

Radio Waves

On a rainy morning, I was in my classroom getting things ready for the day, listening to a local radio station. The gal on the radio mentioned a rainbow song she learned as a little girl. I decided to call the station to help her with the song. After I sang it to her, she said, "You are so cheerful. You will brighten people's days."

When my kindergarten students arrived, they asked why I had the radio on. I told them I was going to be on. Just then, the song finished and my voice came on. The children stared at the radio in astonishment.

One child said, "Mrs. Fieldson, you are famous." A curious classmate pointed to the radio and added, "How did it feel to be in there?"

Tere Fieldson
Los Alamitos, California

While rehearsing with my junior high jazz band, I was telling my saxophone players to project their sound and think about aiming their sound toward an imaginary point on the opposite wall. One of my trombone players muttered under her breath, "They're gonna miss..."

David Johnson
Auburndale, Wisconsin

Our seventh grade goes to overnight camp at the beginning of September as a bonding activity. I am in a team with another teacher, and between us we have 48 students.

Just before we left, the mother of one of the quiet, serious boys came rushing into my classroom and gave me a package, saying, "Please keep an eye on Billy. One second he'll be fine and the next minute he'll start acting funny and that's when the problems really start! He gets nuts and it's all over, you never know when it's going to hit him." Then she left.

I turned over the package to see in bold letters "Give to Billy if nuts." I was concerned that I was not informed of Billy's psychological condition! It was not until a few days later that I realized what she was trying to tell me was that her son had a nut allergy.

Maryanne Cullinan
Weare, New Hampshire

As a K-5 special education teacher I hear plenty of excuses from students not wanting to do their classwork. I decided to seize a "teachable moment" to emphasize that all of us have jobs. Their job is to be the student and learn as much as they possibly can, while my job is to be the teacher and make sure that they are learning as much as they possibly can.

Seeing their eyes rolling, I decided to share the fact that I am still going to school to become a better teacher. Hearing this, one of my spirited fourth graders' faces turned as white as a sheet, and he stammered, "You mean you don't know how to teach us yet?"

Amanda Suchodolski
Bay City, Michigan

I retired last June after working as an elementary library aide for 21 years. At the start of the new school year in September, a second-grade boy asked my replacement where I was. She explained that I had retired and wanted to spend more time with my husband.

He then asked, "Is Mrs. Pick having a baby?" If he thought at age 63 I looked young enough to have a baby, that was OK with me. It made my day!

Joan Pick
Danville, Pennsylvania

I told one of my fifth-grade students that he shouldn't pick up two chairs, adding that they would be too heavy even for me to carry. His reply? "That's because you're old."

The other students gasped, and one young lady raised her hand and corrected him. "My mom said it's rude to call someone 'old,'" she said. "You should say 'elderly'!"

Sue Cuttriss
Fillmore, California

I had just started explaining Kepler's laws when one of my students raised his hand and said, "Why would someone who knows so much about planets go into the cookie-making business?"

Caught completely off-guard, I tried to determine what I had said to cause the students to make the connection between cookies and planetary motion. All at once, I realized the connection and had to stifle my laughter: Instead of Kepler, the student had heard "Keebler." I assured my young pupil that elves and ellipses had little in common.

The next day, I brought in a cookie shaped like an ellipse to reinforce my lesson. Since then, I've discovered that the word association could help students--and after the instruction is over, the demonstration materials are tasty!

Pamela Galus
Omaha, Nebraska

Dream On

I teach a third-grade boy with ADHD who will say anything that comes into his head. One day as I worked with him, he asked me, "When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?" (Of course, this had nothing to do with the lesson at hand.)

I said I couldn't remember, but he replied, "Oh, come on, pick something." So I said that I vaguely remembered one time wanting to be a singer and dancer. "Oh Mrs. Chausse," he said, wrinkling his nose, "you don't have the voice for that."

Kris Chausse
Aledo, Illinois

Several years ago my son and daughter-in-law were married during the school year. All teachers in her school wore nametags. When Starlet returned to school, she pointed out to one of her students that she had a new nametag and asked him if he knew why. Very hesitantly he replied, "People were teasing you?"

Duane Heitz
Miltona, Minnesota

Sometimes we forget that kindergarten children haven't been around long enough to remember past technologies. I was taking out a record album from our music series to play one of the songs for the class, when a five-year-old stood up and said, "Wow, look at that big CD!"

Carol Edelblute
Neosho, Wisconsin

Being a physical education teacher in sunny Las Vegas, I wear shorts to school every day. One evening, I decided to change into dress slacks for our Science and Math Fair. I walked into the school office area, where a group of teachers and parents were socializing. One of our female teachers saw me and, in an innocent but very loud voice, said, "Mr. G, I didn't recognize you with your pants on!" Silence fell over the group, followed by side-splitting laughter!

Randy Gronert
Las Vegas, Nevada

Letters

May 2003   

Blend, Don't Add

I do information technology training and technical support for my high school faculty and I enjoyed "Are You Ready?" (cover story, April). It was one of the few articles in re-cent educational publications to say that information technology cannot be an add-on for teachers, but should blend into what they do.

One thing about the article disappointed me, however. The opening paragraph refers to technology as a tool. Technology is not a tool. It uses tools. Technology is not a thing, but rather a process that people perform. Teachers are being misled to think that adding computers is adding technology. In reality, they already perform technological processes, whether they use computers or not.

Wayne Lang
Rapid City, South Dakota

I disagree with Lynn Nolan of the International Society for Technology in Education when she says, "It's no longer about professional development on basic computing skills, but more professional development on technology integration."

We need to move away from the idea that technology is a subject area. Until we present professional development in all areas of the curriculum with a technology component, it will not become embedded in our teaching. Good teaching is good teaching. You use the tools that are most appropriate for the task at hand.

Patty Yamano
Agoura, California

Puppy Love
I find it interesting that you now are featuring articles about therapy and support dogs in the classroom (In Focus, April). I teach special education for kindergarten through third grade and have been using therapy dogs in my classroom this year. I started using the dogs to encourage my students to write about their experience.

It has been a huge success in my room. I am glad to learn it is working in other classrooms.

Pattie Gibbs
Bethalto, Illinois

High-Stakes Questions
In the March President's Viewpoint Reg Weaver stated the problem very clearly: How do we ensure that policy makers recognize high-stakes testing is not the answer?

Who are these policy makers? I do not know where or how to find them, let alone speak to them.

I am an elementary special education teacher in a small rural district, strapped for cash and space. How can the government hold us accountable via high-stakes testing when it is not accountable to its own laws?

By refusing to fully fund special education and punishing districts unable to provide programming mandated by the law, the federal government is engineering the demise, not only of special education, but of small school districts.

Adrienne Parsons
Danforth, Maine

Editor's note: One quick way to contact members of Congress is to visit NEA's Legislative Action Center at www.nea.org/lac. There you'll find information on who your elected officials in the House and Senate are, plus an easy way to send them a letter.

NEA and members can moan and groan over high-stakes testing, but the reality is that society wants it. For many years, schools graduated students who could not function in society. Now, society wants to ensure that graduates meet some minimum criteria. What's wrong with that? Many countries require entrance exams for continuing education. Students who don't pass are relegated to vocations.

For many years, our district has been giving high-stakes tests valued at 20 percent of a student's grade. I do have to eliminate some areas I would like to teach to cover the objectives on the test. But the district is paying my salary.

I agree with Reg Weaver that teachers should have input. But school should be preparation for life, and high-stakes tests are part of life.

Robert Oldfield
Mesa, Arizona

Whenever I hear about intensive and extensive testing of students, I'm reminded of a story I once heard about a farmer who raised hogs for market. He was so concerned about whether his hogs were gaining weight on his special diets that he weighed them every hour. The poor hogs spent so much time being weighed that they had no time to eat and starved to death.

Does high-stakes testing get in the way of our students' hunger for knowledge?