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Confronting Controversy

Wire-tapping, war, and the aftermath of 9/11 are hot issues in the classroom.

By Cindy Long

Alongside posters of Gandhi and John Lennon, covers of Time magazine, and a life-size cutout of the Three Stooges dressed in caps and gowns, social studies teacher Michael Palermo’s ground rules for classroom behavior are prominently tacked on the classroom wall. The first rule: Respect People and Opinions.

Palermo teaches at Yorktown High School in Arlington, Virginia—a suburb of Washington, D.C., and a short drive from the Pentagon, where five years ago one of the hijacked jets crashed during the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Yorktown students were deeply affected by 9/11—many of their parents work at the Pentagon—and even five years later, discussions about the attacks and the aftermath occur frequently in Palermo’s social studies classes. Debating controversial topics is a favorite pastime in the Washington area, and Palermo’s classroom is no exception. A particularly heated discussion flared in his Leadership and Diversity class last May, a week after the National Security Agency’s massive phone records database was revealed.

“Our country was founded on the ideals of liberty and personal freedom!”

“If people have nothing to hide, then what are they afraid of? If an attack can be stopped by tracking just one person’s phone calls, it’s worth it!”

 “Instead of recording calls, why not focus on transportation—what about security on our trains and subways?”

Unlike many Washington politicians and pundits squabbling over the same topic a short drive away, Palermo’s students were learning a critical lesson of debate: that there is no right or wrong answer, only reasoned arguments and personal perspectives, all of which deserve consideration. “I think it’s vital to address sensitive and controversial topics in the classroom, especially when it’s an issue that hits so close to home,” Palermo says.

When asked about the impact the French Revolution has had on history, Chou En-lai, the Chinese premier from 1949 to 1976, supposedly replied, “It’s too soon to tell.” Five years later, it is likely too soon to tell what the lasting impact of 9/11 will be (see “9/11, By the Book,” page 34). But educators are leveraging the ongoing debate for a lesson in civics. Around the country, the discussion may take on different tones and tenor, but teachers everywhere are showing students how to discuss controversial issues rationally and respectfully—a responsibility of an informed citizenry.

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Teaching the Art and Science of Money Three Web sites for teachers offer business and finance resources for the classroom. Teaching Economics As If People Mattered from United for a Fair Economy (UFE) presents five learning modules for teaching economics: Defining Economics, The Ten Chairs (distribution of wealth in the United States), Savings Accounts & Stocks, Born on Third Base (acquiring wealth), and Signs of the Times (gauging economic success). Each module includes learning objectives, key concepts and terms, a downloadable lesson, an animated presentation, articles and resources, a mapping to standards, and a place to offer feedback about the lesson. To learn more, visit www.teachingeconomics.org. The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) Young Entrepreneur Foundation (YEF) developed its Entrepreneur-in-the-Classroom program to bring real-life stories of entrepreneurs to schools, enabling students to learn first-hand about the risks and rewards of operating a small business. Teachers create classroom laboratories where high school students learn about being their own boss. All three modules contain teaching notes, overheads, activities, and quizzes. Access to curriculum materials requires free registration. To learn more, visit www.nfib.com/object/IO_27244.html. JumpStart: Financial Smarts for Students offers some materials that can be downloaded for free: ”12 Principles That Every Young Person Should Know” provides short lesson plans on teaching students about money. The Clearinghouse offers materials that you can order by written request and a few that can be downloaded. Its financial curriculum materials are available for purchase only, including two “money savvy” curriculums—one for teaching personal finance to kinder-garten through fifth grade and the other for teaching early high school age students. Note: these materials are scripted. For more information, visit www.jumpstart.org. More Resources Previous | 6 of 8 | Next

Playing The Odds

Stacy Dreyfus is one of thousands of new teachers who come to this booming city each year. But too many of them go bust.

Continued from page 3

HOLD ’EM

To help prevent that sort of unintended career change, the Clark County Education Association (CCEA) has more than a few cards up its sleeve. Through one Association initiative, new teachers can move up on the salary scale by taking an urban studies course. Through another, a whole new column on the pay scale has been created for those who earn an “advanced studies certificate” at a local university—that’s a bump of $3,000 for practical work in such topics as English-language learners.

“You’re not going to return if you don’t have a good strong principal giving good support, and creating a good learning environment,” says NEA’s Eubanks. Empowerment to make decisions also was important in Clark County’s survey—more so than salary, which ranked sixth. To answer that challenge, CCEA and school administrators have collaborated on opening four “empowerment” schools this year, where teachers and principals will be free from many district regulations.

To keep promising new teachers, district officials, NEA, and its affiliates will have to consider ideas like Clark County’s, Eubanks says. And they’ll have to rethink some long-held traditions, like the idea that the most senior teachers should go to the “best” schools, often leaving the newest recruits in the toughest ones. “It’s the culture of teaching that dictates you’re not ever going to get financial rewards, so you measure your success by getting ‘good’ schools or AP classes,” he says. “We need to change the culture to make those challenging schools more meaningful, and find more effective career ladder programs.”

Which brings us back to Dreyfus. At the end of her first year, where does she see herself on that ladder? Stepping off, perhaps?

Looking back, here’s what happened last year in Miss Dreyfus’ class. Julissa learned to speak English, and so did Luis. John learned to walk in a line, Bobby to put on his jacket. All the kids learned their ABCs, how to write a sentence, and how to listen carefully when Miss Dreyfus reads aloud.

And yes, Miss Dreyfus learned to be a teacher.

This year, when she comes back, she’ll just be a little less soft and a little more “scary,” she hopes.

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Photos: Kevin Cannon and Isaac brekken

Playing The Odds

Stacy Dreyfus is one of thousands of new teachers who come to this booming city each year. But too many of them go bust.

Continued from page 2

A LITTLE HELP FROM FRIENDS

Unlike many first-year teachers, Dreyfus has a formal mentor—the aptly named Grace Angel, who also is the school’s grade-level chair for kindergarten. During those first few weeks last August, when Dreyfus just couldn’t get home before dark and a day’s worth of lesson plans took a whopping eight hours to write, Angel stayed and helped. They talk about behavior plans and theories of learning, but also the basics: how to hand in a lunch card, line up for a fire drill, or host a parent night. (Although many of her parents speak no English, they’ve still managed to let Dreyfus know that she’s too thin with gifts of baked chicken.)

“Find your style,” Angel counseled her.

Dreyfus also has support from all the other kindergarten teachers, who have become a close-knit team (they gather for monthly dinners, no less). Vicki Courtney still remembers her first year—27 years ago—when she inadvertently stole the veteran music teacher’s classroom. Even back then, there was a shortage of classroom space in Clark County. It didn’t make her feel welcome. And she knows that’s important.

“Without them, honestly, I probably would have quit,” Dreyfus says.

Based on their models, Dreyfus set up the best part of her day—the hour when her kindergartners rotate independently between centers. The housekeeping wing is pure play—Maya ties a baby to her chest with a long scarf, while Luis grabs a uniformed jacket. At another table, Frida carefully writes an illustrated story. (It begins dramatically: “First they dig a hole.”) And, at another, the kids turn yellow Play-Doh into cones and cubes.

Still, this isn’t what mentoring should be. Ideally, Angel would have received formal training. She would get compensated for her good deeds, and she also would have a lighter teaching schedule so that she could actually visit Dreyfus’ classroom, model lessons, and meet more frequently. “There needs to be time for reflection,” Angel says. “Teaching should be reflective.”

Too often, mentor relationships represent nothing more than monthly coffee and reheated platitudes—“Hang in there, kid,” says Segun Eubanks, director of NEA Teacher Quality. And most induction programs aren’t much better. Just about 1 percent of new teachers get comprehensive induction, according to the Alliance for Excellent Education. The problem is money—doing it right costs about $4,000 per teacher. (But the alternative is worse. The revolving door of recruitment and replacement costs up to $2.6 billion annually, the Alliance says.)

Money is a problem for teachers, too. In Clark County, new teachers earn about $30,000 a year—less than the national average, which was $31,704 in 2004, and well below the $40,000 minimum NEA believes every teacher should make. With Vegas’ stratospheric housing prices, Dreyfus has no hope of buying a house here. Ever. (The day she needs three bedrooms, she says, is the day she moves back to Wisconsin.) To make ends meet, Dreyfus shares a garden apartment on the western fringe of the city with two others, including Krista Holter, a first-year teacher from Minnesota. They spend a lot of time talking school.

“Was John good today?” Holter asks at dinner.

Her share of the rent is $365. But don’t forget car payments and insurance bills, plus the cost of new teacher supplies. Setting up her classroom with big puzzles and fat pencils, beanbag chairs, and books like Click, Clack, Moo, Cows that Type cost about $1,000. Taking a Praxis test that the district decided in February that new teachers must pass in April cost another $200.

“We could make more as cocktail waitresses,” Dreyfus says grimly.

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Playing The Odds

Stacy Dreyfus is one of thousands of new teachers who come to this booming city each year. But too many of them go bust.

Continued from page 1

THE FIRST DAYS

At 7 a.m. on a cloudless May morning, as the sun glints off the Egyptian pyramid on the Las Vegas Strip nine miles away, Dreyfus gathers her kindergartners on the blacktop playground for the 135th day of school. It promises to go a lot better than the first, the 50th, or even the 100th.

John will not run away on the playground. If he gets antsy, Dreyfus knows what to do—simply gather the others, line them up, and walk into the building. He’ll follow. Nobody will embarrass her in line, poking and yelling as they walk by more experienced teachers. (And Adam will not crack his head open—but if he did, she definitely could handle it. After all, it would be the third time this year.)

“Who is going to be my estimating king or queen today?” Dreyfus asks as her kids get settled criss-cross on the classroom carpet. “If your name has five letters, please stand up!”

“If your name begins with an I, please keep standing. If the second letter begins with the same letter as strawberry, please keep standing. Sss, sss, strawberry!”

“All right, Isela!”

Dreyfus has wanted to be a teacher forever. Back in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, her hometown of 63,000, her mother has taught first grade for nearly 30 years. But small-town teaching jobs are scarce. After Dreyfus, now 27, graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a degree in early childhood education and then traveled some, she headed here. Where else could she and her boyfriend (a professional juggler) both advance their careers?

It is not what she expected.

“It’s much harder than I thought it was going to be. You don’t know if you’re doing it right, and you don’t want to fail the kids,” she says. “There were days when I was just like, I’m done. I have no control. They’re running my life.”

With little real preparation (and a soft heart), classroom management quickly became Dreyfus’ weakness. She isn’t alone—less than half of new teachers said they were “very” prepared to maintain order in the classroom, according to the most recent MetLife Survey of the American Teacher. It isn’t much experienced in student teaching assignments or covered well in orientations. And while Dreyfus’ professors may have taught her about Piaget, they never role-played what to do when a kid hides under his desk and cries, “I don’t want a whupping!”

“I could write a lesson plan, sure, but I couldn’t get them to the bathroom. I had two little boys pee their pants,” Dreyfus recalls.

Often the only advice any new teacher gets is the old saw: “Don’t smile until Christmas.” (Actually, Dreyfus and her friends did get another piece of wisdom from a retired colleague on making it through the first year: “Find your favorite cocktail and drink it every night.”) And while administrators try to be helpful, their idea of help isn’t always the same as a teacher’s. Every week, new teachers must submit their lesson plans for detailed review. Nine times last year, Dreyfus endured observations and evaluations. (Every time her door opened, she shrank a little.)

But Dreyfus’ classroom skills improved greatly over the course of the year, thanks largely to practical advice (“Stacy, he’s playing you!”) from her more experienced colleagues. This morning, when a lesson in geometric shapes devolves into a jostling match over crayons, Dreyfus moves quickly. “You’re being rude and disrespectful!” she sternly tells her chattering kindergartners. “What does that mean?”

“I don’t know!” snaps Elijahjuan.

“It means we’re making you sad,” Dulce whispers.

“I’ll wait. I’ll wait,” Dreyfus says, as their attention slowly turns to her. “Boys and girls, as long as this takes us, we may not go to recess.” (But, of course, they do. She’s still a softie at heart—and in desperate need of a midday break, too.)

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Where We Teach – Las Vegas

Playing The Odds

Stacy Dreyfus is one of thousands of new teachers who come to this booming city each year. But too many of them go bust.

By Mary Ellen Flannery

When the doors to Ollie Detwiler Elementary swing open again this fall, little Dominic won’t be there. He’ll be telling his new teachers at the creative arts magnet that he prefers to be called Zorro. And neither will Maya, who whipped her long braids and dished to all the other kindergartners about her mother’s cosmetic surgery. But John and Julissa will be back, as will Luis, Elijahjuan, Ashley, and Dulce, as sweet a girl as her name.

The bigger question is: Will Stacy Dreyfus?

After her first year on the kindergarten carpet, maybe she’d like to reclaim her name from the 5-year-olds’ Miss Dreyfus! Miss Dreyfus! Maybe she’d rather have a job that doesn’t require 13-hour days and sleepless nights. Maybe she’d prefer a profession that provides practical preparation, a professional work environment, and doesn’t assign its hardest cases to its most inexperienced practitioners. Maybe she’d rather rake in the cash selling high-rise condos to Las Vegas showgirls.

Sounds easier, anyway.

Every year, thousands of new teachers like Dreyfus leave their Midwest homes or southern campuses and follow the neon signs. And they’re not the only ones—Las Vegas is the 21st century boomtown. Each month, about 6,000 hopefuls move here. At the same time, as more of the Nevada desert disappears under artificial turf and private pools, real estate prices are exploding. Home prices, excluding condo conversions, soared from an average $161,893 in 2000 to $335,091 last year.

The region’s dying for nurses, police officers (a local department hangs recruiting billboards in the airport), casino workers, and, of course, for teachers. Clark County, the nation’s fifth- largest district, must hire about 3,000 new teachers each year. Part of the reason is growth: The district also will welcome 12,000 new students this month. But a big piece of the puzzle is turnover. These days, it seems every Clark County teacher has a colleague who is either: a) going home to Indiana, or b) getting a real estate license.

Despite doubling the number of recruiting trips to places as far-flung as the Philippines, the cry for new teachers has grown desperate. In June, district officials predicted they would start the year with more than 1,000 vacancies. The shortage may mean death to class-size cuts and new programs for at-risk students.

But the problem isn’t unique to Clark County. Even in places that haven’t seen housing booms since Reconstruction, a rapidly graying teaching force is approaching retirement and new teachers are leaving en masse. In Florida, one district has asked clergy to preach the virtues of teaching to congregants. Another in Virginia invited applicants to a dinner party, complete with disc jockey and gift bags.

Districts nationwide are going all out to recruit, and they’re often successful, but they haven’t quite mastered the other side of the coin—they still can’t keep their new teachers. And that’s the bigger problem, says Richard Ingersoll, a University of Pennsylvania associate professor known as the “dean of retention studies.”

This is a gambling town, and the odds on Dreyfus’ return, after a tumultuous but rewarding first year in the classroom, are so-so. If you’re a betting person, you might look at previous results and shake your head. About 20 percent of new teachers quit after their first year, and some 50 percent, in urban schools especially, will quit teaching within their first five. In Clark County, a recent survey showed that about a third planned to leave as soon as possible.

“I do love it. The kids are great,” Dreyfus says brightly. But, she pauses, “It’s all the other things that make it difficult.”

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Teacher Of the Year

Maryland teacher motivates students and earns White House praise.

Her daycare teacher and summers spent working at a children’s camp inspired Kimberly Oliver to become an educator. She converted that early inspiration into a career so noteworthy that the 28-year-old earned the 2006 National Teacher of the Year title. President George W. Bush honored Oliver at a White House ceremony this past spring.

Oliver says she entered teaching to “motivate and inspire the neediest students, whom many have written off just because of the circumstances they were born into.” Focusing on individualized education, instilling a love of reading, and tailoring lessons and projects for individual students helped the kindergarten teacher better her school and community.

In her six years at Maryland’s Broad Acres Elementary School, Oliver helped build consistency in curriculum, instruction, and assessment. The once-struggling school met or exceeded No Child Left Behind requirements for the last three years.

To promote literacy, Oliver helps sponsor “Books and Supper Night,” a family event held in the library four times a year. Working with colleagues, she wrote and received grants for electronic learning systems, tape players, and books in English and Spanish. She even taught one student’s parents English.

ESP of the Year

In one Kentucky school, a custodial supervisor goes above and beyond (and up the walls).

“We Succeed, No Exceptions and No Excuses.” No one embodies the motto of South Heights Elementary School in Henderson, Kentucky, more than Nancy Toombs. Named NEA’s 2006 Education Support Professional of the Year, Toombs is a tireless worker in the school and community.

Whether it’s scarecrows or snowmen, staff and students know the painted murals that brighten South Heights come courtesy of Toombs. Her imagination is evident also at the Hard Work Café, a biweekly reward for successful students. She coordinates a tempting Café menu and activities, while transforming the gym into a jungle, the circus, or the sea floor.

Active and respected, Toombs is a commanding force at school board meetings, enhancing the ESP image with an educated voice on issues such as health care and school funding. She is also a volunteer firefighter and member of Habitat for Humanity, for which she organized a fundraiser for Hurricane Katrina evacuees. Yet Toombs remains humble about her new title. “It shocked me at first because there’s so many good [ESPs] out there,” she says.

—CAITLIN HICKEY

Photo Credits: Ron Sachs/Consolidated; Scott Eklund; Mike Lawrence; Bob Riha Jr.

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Secure Retirement Secured

Colorado The Colorado Education Association (CEA) played a leadership role in preserving the state pension plan that covers teachers and other public employees. As part of the Colorado Coalition for Retirement Security, an alliance of 10 employee groups and unions, CEA members rallied against the governor, state treasurer, and legislators to fight a proposed referendum that would have kept new state employees out of the existing defined-benefit plan, which guarantees a set retirement income based on years of service and salary. Anti-pension advocates were proposing a new defined-contribution plan, in which the state only would put money into an employee’s retirement account, but that account would not guarantee a set retirement income.

NEA has joined other national public employee organizations and pro-retirement security groups to defend retirement security. Along with the Association, coalition members include the Council of Institutional Investors, the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems, the National Council on Teacher Retirement, the National Association of State Retirement Administrators, and other labor organizations, such as the AFL-CIO, AFSCME, AFT, IAFF, and SEIU. The group aims to give state organizations the information they need to fight their battles. In Colorado, coalition members coordinated research, training, and advertisements.

Despite victories in Colorado and elsewhere, anti-pension advocates are becoming increasingly active, and attacks in other states are likely. To defend defined-benefit plans, NEA has built a Retirement Security Toolkit to help members understand the issues.

Starting Pay Upped

Pennsylvania After almost two years of negotiations, the York County Vocational-Technical Education Association (YCVTEA) has won a starting teacher salary increase of nearly $10,000. “We are in a declining teacher market,” says Clinton Gibbs, the UniServ representative and bargaining team leader. “To attract qualified teachers, board members recognized the need to advance salaries.” Over five years, new teacher salaries will rise from their 2004–05 level of $32,000 to approximately $42,000—60 percent of the school’s highest career rate, which will be $70,044 in 2010.

Three Down, Two To Go

Kentucky After more than a year’s work in five counties, the Kentucky Eastern Region Living Wage Campaign is reaping rewards. A new contract in Lawrence County awards education support professionals a 4 percent salary increase—double the state pay hike—in the first year, as well as an additional $5 for extra duty bus runs, reimbursement for meals while traveling on school business, and two additional days in sick leave benefits for all classified employees. Lawrence ESP (LESP) President Johnny Boggs was assisted by Kentucky Education Association (KEA) staff in conducting a petition drive and appointing a bargaining team to negotiate with the district superintendent and board members. “Our goal was to recognize the dedication and commitment of our hardworking ESPs,” Boggs says. In addition to Lawrence, Johnson and Magoffin counties signed similar contracts, while Floyd and Martin counties remain in a holding pattern.

Fast Lane

Minnesota A restrictive “lane change” provision was eliminated from a new contract recently won by the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers and Educational Support Professionals, Local 59 (MFT&ESP 59), which represents 1,400 members. Employees who increase their education level will now be reclassified to the top lane for each job classification and placed at a salary rate above their current wage. “This enhances career opportunities for our members and puts the best employee in a job opening,” says union President Rick Norby.

Faculty, ESPs Unionized

Oregon Full-time faculty at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg recently voted overwhelmingly in favor of union representation by the Oregon Education Association (OEA). The vote tally was 48 to 6 in a full-time unit of 64. In a separate election, the college’s 139-member classified bargaining unit also voted, 97 to 15, in favor of collective bargaining with OEA. 

Pocketbook Policymaking

Washington Delegates to the 2006 Washington Education Association (WEA) Representative Assembly voted to increase dues by $1 per month for one year to create a fund for addressing health and safety issues at schools. In particular, they want to assess indoor air quality in the workplace. About $800,000 is expected to be raised, says Jerry Painter, WEA general counsel

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