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American Teacher October 2003--News & Trends
Early childhood education is key,
Feldman says Early childhood education is key, Feldman says In a national back-to-school address, AFT president Sandra Feldman took state and federal political leaders to task for a “disastrous pattern of cutbacks” in education and urged them to invest in early childhood education programs as an important step to further closing the achievement gap. Speaking at a Sept. 10 breakfast in Chicago, Feldman warned of the consequences of the severe budget cuts that students and teachers face as they return to school, which come at the same time that tough federal accountability measures go into effect. “For education, it is a landmark moment—a moment when we could be building on the progress that has been made—or a lost opportunity that will damage the foundation of public education,” the AFT president told the audience at the event, which was hosted by the Chicago Teachers Union and Leadership for Quality Education, an organization of business leaders involved in improving education in the Chicago area. The combination of state budget shortfalls, President Bush's unfulfilled promises of increased federal funding for schools and students, and the effect of the administration's massive tax cuts for the wealthy, is taking a heavy toll on public schools across the country, Feldman said. “Our schools, teachers and students are being asked to do far more, but they are being forced to do so with far less.” Feldman devoted much of her address to the essential role of early childhood programs in shrinking the achievement gap, stressing that these programs are sound investments for cash-strapped states. She encouraged states to implement Kindergarten-Plus—an AFT initiative that extends full-day kindergarten to poor children during the summer months before and after the regular kindergarten year—as an effective way to reduce the achievement gap early on. New Mexico recently became the first state to offer Kindergarten-Plus, and several states have pending legislation for their own programs. Illinois is the only other state that has passed this legislation into law. It is currently awaiting funding. “We know how to break the cruel cycle that traps so many youngsters from an early age. And we have the teachers with the skills and dedication to do it,” said Feldman. “What really is lacking is the political will necessary to provide the resources and leadership that will do it.”
Higher starting salaries making teaching careers more attractive As a 22-year-old recent college graduate, Papillon Little has no complaints about his new job as a teacher in the Atlanta Public Schools. He’s earning a respectable beginning salary of $37,000 with good benefits, and he’s entered his career of choice. “I think that’s pretty good for coming out of college,” says Little, a member of the Atlanta Federation of Teachers. Many of his fellow graduates from Morris Brown College, meanwhile, have taken jobs paying less than what he earns—if they’ve found jobs at all. Little’s relative satisfaction with his employment situation reflects a couple of trends in teacher salaries: a steady improvement, especially for beginning teachers, and a tougher overall job market as a result of the poor economy. The AFT’s most recent salary survey shows that the average beginning pay for teachers in 2002 exceeded $30,000 for the first time. These trends also have brought a more even balance to the supply-and-demand picture among public school teachers for the first time in recent years. The American Association for Employment in Education, which tracks the teaching market, found that demand for teachers is now at its lowest level since 1998. While the traditional shortage fields of special education, math, science and bilingual education remain hard to fill, the group reports that shortages have disappeared in some areas, and there are surpluses in social studies, health and elementary school teachers. Atlanta has remained an attractive place to teach by maintaining the highest salaries in its metropolitan area. And the AFT survey shows that in 2002, Atlanta had the highest starting salaries among 25 cities in the Southeast. Wade Borminy, an AFT member in Atlanta, returned to the city schools this year after teaching in the suburbs for a few years. He says he is working with teachers who have moved to the Atlanta region from nearby Alabama, which has severe financial problems, and from as far away as upstate New York. Little found his job search easier than newcomers in many other areas. He had received multiple offers from Atlanta schools, as well as from neighboring counties, before he settled on a second-grade position at Oglethorpe Elementary School. “It’s cool so far,” he says, noting that he had the expected challenges in adjusting in the first few weeks—but nothing overwhelming. The AFT is monitoring the job market because the ongoing fiscal problems in the states could threaten the progress that’s been made in raising salaries, especially at the starting level. In addition, the AFT is urging more attention to salaries for veteran teachers, whose pay has not shown as much improvement. Progress across the board can help keep enthusiastic newcomers like Little in the classroom where they belong.
NYSUT lobbying: One for the books AFT affiliates certainly could be forgiven if they suffered mixed lobbying results in 2003, a year dominated by budget woes and a lackluster economy. But no apologies are needed for the New York State United Teachers/AFT, which mobilized against a tide of bad economic news and delivered a string of stunning legislative victories this year for public schools, children and members. New York law requires most districts outside the major metropolitan areas to cast votes on school budget proposals, and the results from 2003 could hardly have been more heartening. A groundbreaking 94 percent of almost 700 school districts won voter approval for school budgets that averaged above-inflation increases of 4.1 percent, the New York Times observed. “The passage rate is one of the highest on record, stunning many school officials who had expected far greater reluctance from a public already facing higher state and local taxes.” But the victories came as less of a surprise to AFT members such as Linda Williams of the AFT affiliate in the Lake Shore School District, just outside Buffalo. She is one of thousands of NYSUT members who for years have devoted hours to get-out-the-vote efforts aimed at persuading others in their communities to support education-friendly budgets. “I live in the district, my daughter went through the school system, I went through the school system and I want my Lake Shore to be good,” Williams says. For about eight years, she has coordinated phone banking at her school, and the goal is for teachers to reach out to their colleagues, particularly those who work in other districts, and give them “just a gentle reminder” that their vote is needed. “It’s only a half-hour out of your life. And you feel that it was worth your time” when a budget supported by the union wins approval, as it did this year. Phone banking at home is only one element of a multifaceted lobbying approach that NYSUT has honed over more than a decade. As in prior years, NYSUT also ran media ads in 2003 asking voters to support strong school budgets, and several AFT affiliates sponsored billboards carrying the same message. The campaign also built on momentum generated when thousands of NYSUT members participated in a massive rally on May 3 in Albany—an event that spurred the Legislature to reject a devastating budget proposal. “The overwhelming support for school budgets across the state should send a clear, lasting message to Albany,” says NYSUT president Thomas Y. Hobart Jr., who is also an AFT vice president. “New Yorkers are willing to invest in public education—and even pay slightly higher taxes—but they expect an even greater investment from the state.”
Updated guide helps navigate NBPTS certification A Candidate’s Guide to National Board Certification 2003-04 will be available in mid-October. The guide has been expanded this year to include resources for candidates at various levels of the certification process, including renewal candidates whose certifications are about to expire. The AFT and the NEA have produced the guide for six years to help our members navigate the National Board Certification process. The 56-page guide includes practical advice and suggestions from National Board Certified Teachers, candidates and candidate support providers. National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) Certification is a voluntary, professional undertaking that requires the mastery and integration of both content and pedagogical knowledge. It also requires that teachers possess a repertoire of instructional strategies to help all students meet high standards. Board certification is achieved through a rigorous performance-based assessment that can take up to three years to complete. The observations and tips in the guide are offered to help clarify the assessment process, suggest alternative ways of looking at or thinking about the requirements, and provide time-saving ideas. The guide complements the candidate materials provided by the National Board and contains many references and links to NBPTS resources. There are approximately 24,000 National Board Certified Teachers nationwide. The AFT-NEA Candidate’s Guide can be ordered through the AFT order department (item #39-0182). The cost is $5 per copy; $3 each when ordering five or more copies. The price includes shipping and handling. Mail prepayment to: AFT Order Department, 555 New Jersey Ave. N.W., Washington, DC 20001. The guide will be posted online by the end of October and can be downloaded free of charge.
Union's ER&D training expands to regional institutes Every summer, dozens of AFT members from across the country travel to the national union’s ER&D Summer Institute near Baltimore for one or two weeks of in-depth union-sponsored professional development. This past summer, the AFT for the first time took the program—which stands for Educational Research and Dissemination—to dozens more participants at three regional sites. The training, which included teachers and paraprofessionals, took place in June in Florida, Texas and Wisconsin. Lanita Koster, the Illinois Federation of Teachers educational issues director who coordinated the Wisconsin training, called the institute there “exceptionally positive.” While the IFT has run its own summer programs, both on union leadership and on professional issues, this was a great chance to bring these two groups of people together because they don’t always cross paths frequently in their local unions. “It was an opportunity for the professional development types and the more traditional union types to mingle,” Koster says of the training, which was held in conjunction with the AFT’s Great Lakes region Union Leadership Institute in Delavan, Wis. Koster and other AFT educational issues coordinators in the region settled on three ER&D courses for the institute: foundations of effective teaching, Thinking Math (AFT’s math instruction model) and managing anti-social behavior. Although the courses were shorter and smaller than those offered in Maryland, they still provided the in-depth, practical training the program is known for. Almost 40 members from 26 different locals (many of them first-time ER&D participants) attended the Wisconsin training. The AFT is evaluating the success of the new summer institutes, and it’s likely similar regional training will be offered again next year.
Training equips NYC lab specialists to deal with spills Teachers and other school staff can’t be expected to respond to a major hazardous material incident on campus, but some of them should be trained to follow appropriate procedures before the professionals arrive on the scene. That’s the idea behind training conducted in August at the United Federation of Teachers headquarters in New York City, where about 20 lab specialists completed a four-day chemical emergency response course. This is the third year for the UFT training, a joint effort with the AFT and the International Chemical Workers Union Council (ICWUC). The New York City school system employs about 200 lab specialists, whose duties include setting up experiments, maintaining science classrooms, ordering chemicals and storing supplies. In the course of their work, they might have to deal with an incidental spill, such as mercury or formaldehyde, but the summer training equips them to deal with larger incidents. The specialists covered the hazards and health effects of different chemicals as well as proper handling, storage and disposal. The course included group exercises and demonstrations, as well as a simulated hazardous chemical release, with the participants outfitted in full chemical protective suits. In addition to the annual UFT training, the AFT and the ICWUC conduct similar training each year at the chemical workers’ facility in Cincinnati. The training is supported in part by a grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
Recalling a historic march for freedom On Aug. 23, thousands of people gathered at the Lincoln Memorial to commemorate the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. They converged on the spot where civil rights leaders addressed the nation and inspired Americans to support federal legislation aimed at ending racial discrimination and advancing the fight for economic justice. As was the case in 1963, trade unionists were prominent among those who gathered in Washington, D.C., to mark the 40th anniversary celebration. AFT leaders and members of the Baltimore Teachers Union and the Washington Teachers Union were among those gathered to hear speakers call for continuing the struggle for justice and civil rights. Prior to the late afternoon rally, community discussions, called teach-ins, were held in tents set up near the memorial. Teach-in topics included education, economic justice, civil rights and the criminal justice system. Hundreds of people took part in an education teach-in co-sponsored by the AFT and the NEA. Led by representatives from civil rights, education and community-based organizations, the AFT/NEA education teach-in featured panel discussions on the role of the community in advocating for public education and quality schools for all children, and the threat posed by private school voucher plans. Another group of panelists discussed access to higher education—addressing both the issue of adequate funding and the recent Supreme Court decision in the University of Michigan affirmative action case.
Exit exams have mixed impact If the high school students in your district don’t have to pass an exam to graduate, they probably will soon. A new report on exit exams across the country shows that 19 states, which enroll more than half the nation’s public school students, already require such exams; by 2008, the movement will expand to more than 70 percent of high school students. The report from the Washington, D.C.-based Center on Education Policy (CEP) finds that the trend toward exit exams is moving forward despite growing public opposition and high failure rates. Although several states have responded to the criticism with measures such as waivers, alternative tests, delayed consequences and lower cutoff scores, most of the changes have affected relatively small numbers of students. “The states are struggling with maintaining a balance between firmness and fairness,” says CEP director Jack Jennings. “While states want to refrain from watering down requirements, they are seeing low pass rates for minority, poor and disabled students.” On the plus side, the report notes, the exams appear to be having a positive impact on curriculum and instruction by encouraging schools to cover more of the content in state standards, better align the curriculum with the standards, and add remedial courses and other assistance for students who have failed or are at risk. A study in California, for example, found that the number of high schools reporting that they covered at least 75 percent of the state’s standards rose from about 20 percent in 1999 to more than 80 percent in 2003. Less clear is the relationship between exit exams and dropout rates. “While we cannot yet directly link exit exams to higher dropout rates, there is enough evidence to suggest a relationship between the two,” says CEP’s Keith Gaylor, who heads the exit exam project. “States must find ways of minimizing this risk and supporting students while taking advantage of the positive impacts.” (A number of recent media reports have criticized some major urban school systems, including Houston and New York City, for misleading the public about dropout figures. The New York Times has written about the practice used by some high schools, which essentially forces failing students out and into alternative programs so they won’t officially be counted as dropouts.) The CEP report also looked at the cost of exit exams. A detailed analysis of Indiana’s program shows that the direct costs of developing and administering the actual exams represent only “a small share” of the total expenses of a mandatory testing system. When “hidden” costs are included, such as remediation for students who need extra help, professional development for teachers and intervention services at earlier grades, the actual costs of Indiana’s exams is about $444 per student, or 5.5 percent of the state’s K-12 education spending. “States should stop treating exit exams as if they are low-cost or no-cost solutions to reform schools,” Jennings says. “If states expect exit exams to improve instruction and raise achievement, they should contribute more to the cost of remediation, professional development and prevention.” The full report, “State High School Exit Exams: Put to the Test,” is available online at www.cep-dc.org.
Ore. state fed takes battle to Sizemore The AFT’s state affiliate in Oregon has joined with its National Education Association counterpart to file a lawsuit against Bill Sizemore, the high-profile archconservative activist who has been a driving force behind several anti-union ballot initiatives in the state. The suit seeks to hold Sizemore personally liable for fraud and racketeering activities, which a jury last year found had been committed by two Sizemore organizations: Oregon Taxpayers United-Education Foundation (OTU-EF) and the OTU Political Action Committee (OTU-PAC). A Multnomah County jury reached its decision in a widely watched court case, and the final court judgment totaling $2.5 million against OTU-EF and OTU-PAC was entered on July 25. The latest complaint alleges that Sizemore had full knowledge of and authorized the racketeering activities of the two organizations, making him personally liable for monetary judgment. In May, a circuit court judge issued an injunction stating that Sizemore gained financially from racketeering activities. Judge Jerome LaBarre also held that Sizemore “manipulated and exploited these organizations for his own purposes—sometimes his own financial gain and sometimes to pursue his political objectives.” “This is the next logical step to enforce Oregon’s racketeering laws and to protect the citizens of this state,” said Gene Mechanic, attorney for AFT-Oregon. “We believe this action is well supported by the jury verdict and Judge Jerome LaBarre’s injunction against Sizemore and his entities.” Sizemore has denied any wrongdoing and is appealing the jury ruling.
Dyslexia: Early detection is crucial Dyslexia is a disorder that is often misunderstood and not easily recognized in the early grades, says Dr. Sally Shaywitz, author of a new book, Overcoming Dyslexia (Alfred A. Knopf). Shaywitz, professor of pediatrics at the Yale University School of Medicine, and her husband, Bennett, also a professor of pediatrics at Yale, discussed the book at an AFT QuEST conference workshop in July. The book translates their research on dyslexia into practical methods and programs that teachers and parents can use. Sally Shaywitz describes dyslexia as an unexpected difficulty learning to read despite having all the factors necessary to read—good thinking and reasoning skills and the ability to think creatively. “It’s a paradox,” she says. “It’s not that dyslexics can’t read; it just requires a greater effort.” The key to helping children and adults with the disorder is uncovering the problem as early as possible and then helping them connect letters to sounds. “Our brains are not genetically wired for reading,” she explained. “Speaking is natural, reading is acquired.” In his research, Bennett Shaywitz used functional magnetic resonance imaging to identify the brain functions of good readers and poor readers or dyslexics. He found that each type of reader used different parts of the brain to read. The findings “revolutionized” our understanding of how children read, he said. Understanding the science of reading is imperative for schools, teachers and teaching, says Sally Shaywitz. “It does matter what we teach and how we teach it.” With the research available, teachers can identify dyslexia as early as preschool if they are aware of clues, such as trouble with letter sounds or difficulty sounding out words. Teachers and parents should recognize that “all children take the same steps in learning to read; the difference is in the effort that it takes,” she said.
AFT-Africa AIDS Campaign surpasses goal The AFT has collected more than $100,000 from members and local affiliates for the AFT-Africa AIDS Campaign, a teacher-to-teacher education program. The union’s fundraising effort—which reached its first-year goal ahead of schedule—is part of the union’s effort to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa, where 30 percent of teachers in many countries are infected with the virus. “This has been a true grass-roots effort,” says AFT president Sandra Feldman. “We have reached this goal through the generosity of thousands of AFT members who have made $10 donations as a symbol of their support and solidarity with their African brothers and sisters in need.” The AFT-Africa AIDS Campaign—a multiyear, multicountry project in cooperation with teachers’ unions in Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Zimbabwe—provides African teachers with the resources and support they need to develop effective peer-education programs to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS, along with counseling and care for those who are ill. More than 75 AFT locals have contributed to the campaign. In July, 18 locals were saluted for contributing more than $1 per member to the campaign. Donations from AFT members go directly to provide resources for HIV/AIDS education, including “tool kits” for workshops to train trainers on providing effective HIV/AIDS prevention for African teachers. The AFT also has generated more than $200,000 in grants from the State Department and other U.S. government agencies for the campaign. “The HIV/AIDS situation in Africa is dire,” says AFT executive vice president Nat LaCour, who is spearheading the campaign. “We hope to build on this momentum and continue collecting donations and identifying new funding sources so we can reach the hundreds of thousands of African teachers who need accurate information on HIV/AIDS.”
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