Study, talk, text. Study, talk, text. Repeat.

With schools desperate to escape the draconian penalties of "No Child Left Behind," stories are cropping up across the country of officials offering cold cash and other immediate, tangible rewards for high scores. But count on New York City to do it with style.

According to a New York TImes report, 2,500 students at seven schools were given cell phones this week with 130 pre-paid minutes. If you go to school, do your homework, pass your tests, and don't cause trouble, you get more minutes. Screw up and you don't. Plus, it's set up so your teachers can text you a reminder of upcoming tests or anything else they want to nag you about.

Of course, you're not allowed to use your phone in school. But they can nag you at home.

Is it crass to offer tangible rewards for doing the right thing in school? "This is not about preaching, this is about reality," says Schools Chancellor Joel Klein.

Actually, "reality"--in the form of scientific, controlled experiments--shows that when you offer kids tangible rewards for learning, they show less motivation after the prize goes away than if you don't try to bribe them. (Read John Perricone's NEA Today essay on that, or Alfie Kohn's book, Punished by Rewards.) So this program is not "evidence-based" as people like to say these days.

But maybe this program will change teen culture in a way the careful experiments couldn't. Whatever works, right? Let's hope it does.

--Alain Jehlen

The Decline of Reading (Are Cell Phones the Cure?)

A few weeks ago at the Macworld 2008 Conference & Expo, Apple CEO Steve Jobs gave a testy reply to a question about Amazon Kindle, a new wireless, electronic book reader from Internet heavyweight Amazon.com:

"'It doesn't matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don't read anymore,' he said. "Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don't read anymore.'"

40%? We'll not exactly. Jobs was referring to statistics compiled by the Census Bureau and the National Endowment for the Arts, whose surveys have queried thousands of Americans questions about their reading habits. A recent article in The New Yorker, "Twilight of the Books," provides a summary of the results:

"In 1982, 56.9 per cent of Americans had read a work of creative literature in the previous twelve months. The proportion fell to fifty-four per cent in 1992, and to 46.7 per cent in 2002."

So, it's not as bad as Jobs made it out to be, but his point still stands: fewer people are reading, and their reading less often when they do. And that's bad news, according to Dana Gioia, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, who wrote in a preface ( PDF, 820K) to the recently released reading study, "To Read or Not to Read":

"Although there has been measurable progress in recent years in reading ability at the elementary school level, all progress appears to halt as children enter their teenage years. There is a general decline in reading among teenage and adult Americans. Most alarming, both reading ability and the habit of regular reading have greatly declined among college graduates. These negative trends have more than literary importance. As this report makes clear, the declines have demonstrable social, economic, cultural, and civic implications...

"To Read or Not To Read is not an elegy for the bygone days of print culture, but instead is a call to action -- not only for parents, teachers, librarians, writers, and publishers, but also for politicians, business leaders, economists, and social activists. The general decline in reading is not merely a cultural issue, though it has enormous consequences for literature and the other arts. It is a serious national problem. If, at the current pace, America continues to lose the habit of regular reading, the nation will suffer substantial economic, social, and civic setbacks."

Sadly, Mr. Gioia's report is long on prognosis but short on prescription. Still, Americans might find some solace for their ills in an unlikely place: Japan, where "cell phone novels" are filling up Japan's best-seller list. Noticing this trend, an editorial at Computerworld wonders if "mobile phones are our last hope for literacy."

At NEA, we have our own prescription, and it wears a floppy, red and white striped stovepipe hat.

A Note From North Carolina

One of the best parts of being a writer for NEA Today is the opportunity to travel around the country to meet with educators and other Association staffers and talk about what's happening in their states. A recent such trip found me in North Carolina interviewing teachers for a piece in the March issue about how early girls are being sexualized now. (Look for it here at neatoday.org in at the end of the month.)

I also got to meet with the communications team at the North Carolina Association of Educators in Raleigh, who filled me in on the issues that are facing their members, and they also gave me a head's up on some great story ideas they're working on for their publications. Last week, Assistant Editor Linda Powell-Jones dropped me a line with one such story, about how a school in Apex, North Carolina, has a unique, four-legged reading coach. It'll appear in the March issue of their state publication, but if you can't make it down to North Carolina, we thought we'd give you a peak here.

The usually busy media center at Middle Creek Elementary School is quiet, except for Deven, a second-grade student reading a book near the back of the room. With him, sprawled out on a round, colorful rug is an attentive audience of one--Wingo, the READ dog.

Wingo, a registered therapy dog, is part of a program called "Reading Education Assistance Dogs," launched by Intermountain Therapy Animals. The program improves children's reading and communication skills by employing a powerful method: reading to a dog.

Twice a week Wingo visits the school with his owner Kristi Brown to help students improve their reading skills. He participates in various learning settings, from self-contained classrooms, to small group settings to individual one-on-one sessions. "Wingo is pretty cool," Deven said. "I've read with him twice and I like reading with him. He is really funny and a pretty good listener."

Chas Miller, the school's principal, said all of the students benefit from Wingo's visits. "He is so calm and focused and the kids tend to emulate him. He sits, watches and listens while they read. It's incredible."

Brown, whose two children attend Middle Creek, approached Miller with the idea of incorporating the READ program into the curriculum. She learned about the program during a reunion of Chesapeake Bay retrievers at the Outer Banks. "Wingo is a rescue dog and his breed can very dominant. My husband and I were concerned about him being aggressive with our young children so we immediately enrolled him in obedience training; he did very well. During this time, my son was beginning to read and whenever he read stories out loud Wingo would come and sit next to him. They really developed a bond."

After completing obedience training -- which teaches dogs how to be good citizens, walk on a lead and interact with other dogs -- Brown began pursuing the READ program. Wingo participated in workshops where he learned how to look at a book and focus during the many distractions that can take place in a school setting. Brown also received basic orientation, training and mentoring. "I thought this would be a great way to combine my love of dogs with becoming more involved in my children's school."

Miller said Brown works with the teachers to identify students' needs. "Whether it's difficulty with comprehension or with certain text, she focuses in on what works best for a student," he said. "She observes while the student reads and often asks the question, 'Can you tell Wingo about this part of the book?' Sometimes I think students become disinterested in classroom instruction and this program helps add another component to it. Instead of just learning about comprehension in a group setting, the child gets to explain the book to a dog in an environment they feel is more comfortable."

Brown added that for those students who need extra help and have to be pulled away from regular instruction time, time spent with Wingo is viewed as a positive instead of a negative. "When students read with Wingo, they feel it's their job and they are focused on doing their best. They look at the opportunity to read one-on-one with him as very special. When they return to the classroom, they share their experiences and this helps them build a better rapport with their peers."
--Linda Powell-Jones

--Cynthia Kopkowski