The federal government's most important statistical factbook, the Census Bureau's Statistical Abstract of the United States, is available at no charge to middle, junior and high school librarians. This free CD-ROM factbook has statistics on the social, political and economic aspects of American life, including population, life expectancy, marriage and divorce, health and nutrition, education, elections and law enforcement. Students can also use this data when writing term papers, in their math classes, or to become generally more familiar with statistics.

Two years ago, the AFT was a partner in the Census in the Schools program, which provided Census 2000-related materials to about 40,000 schools nationwide. The effort to disseminate the CD-ROM factbook extends that program.

To order a copy of the factbook, call 301/763-4636 or send an e-mail with your name, address (no post office boxes), zip code, school name and telephone number to webmaster@census.gov.

January's U.S. Supreme Court ruling, which further limits how workers are covered by the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), is not consistent with what Congress intended, says AFT counsel David Strom. The court ruled Jan. 8 that an automobile assembly plant worker's carpal tunnel syndrome did not qualify her as disabled under the ADA.

Specifically, the court found that the worker's disability did not prevent or severely restrict her from activities that were central to her daily life, such as household chores and bathing. Strom says that the court's decision establishes that future disability determinations should be reached on an "individual, case-by-case basis," a position which acknowledges that people suffering, for example, from carpal tunnel, "have a broad swath of manifestations."

Strom takes issue with the court's narrowing of the law. "If an employee is significantly limited in his or her ability to perform in the workplace, then that is a disability, and the employee should be protected under the ADA," Strom points out. "In my opinion, that is what Congress intended."

The decision, he notes, "will curtail the prospects for success for a number of ADA cases--and AFT union leaders who are making decisions about bringing cases need to be aware of that."

The Supreme Court will hear arguments in another ADA-related case this year. At issue is the extent to which an employee's request for reasonable accommodation under the ADA can trump collectively bargained seniority rights for a job.

Current efforts to reform elementary and secondary education need to go far beyond federal law, standards and accountability, according to a new study by the Educational Testing Service Policy Information Center. "Facing the Hard Facts in Education Reform" is based on a decade of research on factors that affect student achievement.

The often-overlooked obstacles to educational achievement that ETS identifies include:

• increased tardiness, absenteeism, drug use and verbal abuse of teachers by students;
• weak signals students receive from parents on the importance of doing better academically, too much emphasis on extracurricular activities and students' fear of being less popular if they work hard;
• mixed messages from prospective employers who fail to look at student transcripts when they hire, and colleges that establish low admission standards;
• failure to understand the importance of preschool development and the crucial role parents play in such areas as reading to young children and restricting TV watching; and
• viewing the test itself as the treatment, rather than using standardized tests to determine whether efforts to create content standards, performance standards, curriculum change and teacher preparation are working.

"In identifying these areas, I do not suggest that we lessen our efforts in implementing the standards-based reform agenda," says Paul Barton, the study's author. "It makes good and common sense to make instruction rigorous, set high standards, and develop quality standardized tests. However, in a full standards-based reform effort, testing is just one important component."

Copies of "Facing the Hard Facts in Education Reform" may be downloaded at www.ets.org/research/pic. Printed copies of the report can be ordered for $10.50 each from the Policy Information Center, Mailstop 04-R, Educational Testing Service, Rosedale Road, Princeton, NJ, 08541, or by calling 609/734-5694.

Secondary school teachers of social studies, history and literature who are able to implement Holocaust studies in their classrooms, have a unique opportunity to apply for a summer program in Israel, with a stop in Poland. The program will take place

July 2-24, 2002. Led by internationally acclaimed scholars, the three-week seminar on Holocaust and Jewish Resistance gives participants an intensive living and learning experience.

In Israel, teachers study at prominent Holocaust institutions, Yad Vashem Documentation and Research Center in Jerusalem and the Study Center at Ghetto Fighters House, Kihbutz Lohamei Haghetaot near Haifa. In Poland, the program includes visits to Jewish historic sites and some of the infamous concentration/death camps.

The program is sponsored by the American Federation of Teachers, the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and the Educators' Chapter of the Jewish Labor Committee. Participants pay $2,000, less than one half of the actual cost. This includes roundtrip travel from New York, hotel (two in a room), two meals a day and some trips.

For further information and an application for the 2002 Summer Seminar, write to: Holocaust Study Summer Seminar, Jewish Labor Committee, 25 East 21st Street, New York, NY 10010 or call 212/477-0707. Applications must be received by April 15, 2002.