Elementary School Survives Virginia Tornado

By now you’ve probably read news reports about — and seen photos of — the barrage of tornados that ripped through southeast Virginia last Monday, injuring 200 people, flattening 145 homes, and causing an estimated $21 million in damages. But you might not have heard about Elephant's Fork Elementary School in Suffolk, Virginia. Sitting just an hour outside of Virginia Beach and less than 20 miles north of the North Carolina border, the school was struck by one of the tornados late in the afternoon, after school had let out and most of the children had gone home (thankfully).

But Virginia Education Association member Sidney Neighbours, the Assistant Principal at Elephant’s Fork, was still in the school building, along with a handful of other staff members and roughly 45 students who were participating in after-school programs, when the tornado struck. Mr. Neighbours describes the harrowing moments during which the storm shattered windows and shook the building, while teachers and students scrambled for refuge in the gymnasium:

I heard my principal scream and I ran out of the office to the gym -- just moments before the glass blew out in the window right behind my desk. If I’d been sitting there, this e-mail would be very different. I ended up running into the gym and crouching on the floor, holding a student who was in the hallway (she was returning to class from the restroom, I grabbed her as I was running into the gym). It was all over in just a few seconds, which seemed like hours… I didn't even have to get a band-aid out of the nurse’s office... It is nothing short of a miracle. We have 3 mobile units blown off the foundations, and every car in the parking lot sustained damage, including one that was flipped over and thrown about 3 car lengths away from where it was parked… but there's no way we could replace any of the precious lives in that building -- so "stuff" doesn't matter. Thank God, no one was injured...

Below is a picture of the same tornado (taken by Marsha Mears on April 28, 2008) as it touched down near Elephant’s Fork Elementary School.

Amazingly the twister battered Elephant’s Fork Elementary (and nearby Driver Elementary) but caused only minor damages: a few downed trees and smashed windows. Suffolk Public schools were closed the day after the tornados, but Elephant’s Fork reopened to staff at noon the following day… and Mr. Neighbours was there to greet them.

Several relief organizations in southeast Virginia are accepting donations. NEA has resources that may help teachers address the fears and anxieties of students who may be troubled by media coverage of natural disasters like the tornados that struck southeast Virginia.

Why Our Nation Is "At Risk"

A quarter of a century ago this month, America was informed that our economy was "at risk" because of "a rising tide of mediocrity" in our schools.

"If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre performance that exists today, we might well have considered it an act of war," said the famous report, commissioned by the Reagan administration.

At the time, the United States was much less exam-oriented than other countries. We had state tests, but they didn't dominate the school experience. An excellent education, we knew, can't be reduced to a standardized test score.

And we proved it. Since the report, those supposedly "mediocre" American students have led the creative burst of innovation that gave us the computer revolution and continues to transform the world.

Our kids do have the right stuff.

But somehow, America's educators get no credit, at least not at home. Instead of building on our strengths to solve our problems, we've adopted the foreign focus on tests, amplified it, and made it our own.

Is that going to cost us our edge? Will the next fantastic technical upheaval erupt from somewhere else?

You know, if an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the stifling test-score obsession that exists today, we might well have considered it an act of war.

--Alain Jehlen

El Día de los Niños

On April 30, in conjunction with El Día de los Niños (Children’s Day), teachers across the country will organize classroom activities that reflect cultural diversity through storytelling, and highlight writing and language skills. Libraries, museums, parents’ groups and other community organizations will sponsor similar events that will also feature wood carving, pottery-making and poster design.

Though many of us will not be able to attend these events, the National Education Association's Minority Community Outreach in partnership with the National Latino Children’s Institute will post online photos of activities celebrating El Día de los Niños.

In case you're wondering about the Spanish name, it was inspired by Mexico's Día del Niño (Day of the Child), which began there in 1925 after the first World Conference for the Well-being of Children. In 1996, Texas native Pat Mora, a poet and author of children’s books, began working with Latino faculty at the University of Arizona to develop a similar celebration in the U.S.

Mora and others wanted to promote literacy and multi-cultural learning. The annual event is also referred to as El Día de los Niños/El Día de los Libros (Children’s Day/Book Day) and is celebrated throughout Latin America and other parts of the world.

Since 1998, the U.S. Senate has passed resolutions marking April 30 as El Día de los Niños.

Take Our Kids Out of School Day?

Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day is a day better spent in the classroom. So say many NEA member-educators. I’ve heard from some of them. “Though the concept is positive,” concedes Carolyn Melius of Indian Head, MD, she, like other members are concerned about the counterproductive effect on many students who can ill afford to miss a day of school. “Why couldn't this be held during school breaks?” Melius asks.

The event’s organizers see the day as an opportunity for parents, businesses, and the community to support educators in the difficult work of teaching kids. Carolyn McKecuen, president of the Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Foundation, told me that ideally, students are taught lessons about the workplace on Wednesday, experience the workplace on Thursday, and come back to class on Friday to share the experience with their classmates. “If this was done in the summer, you’d be teaching one child, not bringing that knowledge back to the classroom,” said McKecuen, herself a former teacher.

Research the foundation commissioned six years ago suggests that what was then Take Our Daughters to Work Day “increased girls' interest in education, influenced their decision to go to college or professional school, and broadened girls' thinking about their goals and aspirations with reference to work opportunities.”

But do girls and boys have to miss a day of classes to reap these benefits? I must say—and not just because I work for them—that our members have a point. Why not have kids go to work with their parents in the summer when it won’t disrupt school? While we by no means support all the high- stakes testing done as a result of the No Child Left Behind law, testing remains a reality. Kids have their own work to do. And at this time of year, a lost day of class work can impact students’ preparedness and confidence.

I’ve no doubt educators appreciate the efforts to support their work. Can we find ways to do it that don’t shorten learning time in class?

Happy Earth Day!

Well, I sent my 3-year-old off to school today with her first Earth Day project: A collage of "What Cows Give Us." (And boy, do they give us a lot of our favorite things... cheese, ice cream, whipped cream...)

Many of you have similar, probably much more sophisticated activities planned for the day. For example, a Michigan middle school just sent me news of their new solar panels, installed today as part of the district's switch to sustainable energy. Others are cleaning creeks, planting trees, and... wait a second! Talk about planting trees... One Florida school district is planning to plant 10,450 trees between 11 and noon!

Some of you also may be tracking news of the $100 million "No Child Left Inside Act", which has taken federal legislators on a field trip to a national wildlife visitors center in Maryland today. That legislation would aim to strengthen environmental education through teacher training, program grants, and state-adopted environmental science standards -- and it has the support of NEA. For more information, go here.

Of course environmental education isn't just a one-day affair. Or shouldn't be, anyway. The NEA also is partnering with polar explorer Will Steger to bring global warming to classrooms. (Not literally!) For more information, including lesson plans and video from Steger's ongoing Arctic expedition, go here.

And a few more tidbits that I've collected...

This site has grants for environmental education. Free money!

And this site is looking for nominations for outstanding environmental educators.

Give Them All an 'A'

As an advocacy organization we tend to write from the point of view of our 3.2 million educator-members when we write about parent-teacher relationships. Typically, our members’ point of view revolves around a pair of concerns: 1) the need to enlist parents in the effort to educate their children, and 2) the need to manage their relationships with parents, which can sometimes be difficult if not occasionally confrontational or hostile. The titles of some recent NEA Today stories -- “A Field Guide to Parents” and “How can you deal with angry parents?” -- underscore educators’ need to understand parents and to manage their relationships with them effectively. The Field Guide is intended to introduce new teachers to various types of parents they might encounter, while Angry Parents is full of advice from our readers, seasoned teachers, and other experts.

A few months ago Bill Ferriter, a writer for Teacher Magazine, wrote about the complex relationship between teachers and parents in a piece he titled, “Parents Are From Mars, Teachers Are From Venus” (this link is pass-word protected; paid subscription required). Playing off the classic book “Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus,” Ferriter attempts to elucidate the dynamic between two groups who need each other but have only a rudimentary understanding of how to communicate and work together in a productive way. It’s a more even-handed approach (a luxury of the unaffiliated!) that examines the relationship from both points of view and seeks to build common ground with lists of pointers for both parents and teachers.

With that said, I want to introduce you to Bluebird’s Classroom, the blog of a middle school teacher who earlier this week wrote about an incident involving one of her students and the girl’s mother. Says Bluebird, “Give That Mom an A!” There are no misunderstandings, no confrontations, and no one needs a bunch of fancy-pants wonks or writers to tell them what to do or how to act. All you’ll find are teachers, administrators and parents who work remarkably well together and have enough common sense to get the job done. Everyone looks good, and (best of all) they do right by the child.

Calling all NEA Republicans: Want to Go to Minneapolis This Summer?

Florida teacher Sandra Ross (at left in picture) left NEA's Republican Leaders Conference last summer energized and ready to make a difference for public education. After the conference, she attended debates, did a television interview, and chatted with GOP candidates in local, state, and national elections, telling them "there are many Republican educators out there for their votes and that they needed to remember that when forming their educational stances."

Now NEA members around the country have the opportunity to follow in Ross's footsteps, by attending the second Republican Leaders Conference, Aug. 27-30 at the Millennium Hotel in Minneapolis. That's immediately before the Republican National Convention. Four participants from each state can attend at NEA expense, which includes meals, hotels, and the lowest airfare determined by the Association's travel agency.

This year’s conference will feature workshops and panels of NEA members, activists, and political consultants involved in the Republican Party at all levels. (They're not hard to find. An estimated 1 million of NEA's 3.2 million members are Republicans, which can translate to significant influence on Republican candidates when it comes to education policy and funding that bolsters public education.) Topics will include online activism, grassroots organizing, volunteer strategy, press relations, communications, and messaging. After the conference, participants will be asked to help recruit fellow NEA Republicans, and encourage them to become active in the party and take leadership roles such as joining committees and running for office. 

Also invited: elected and party officials in town for the Republican National Convention, which starts Sept. 1. If they're going to be there, shouldn't you? If you're interested, call your state affiliate office. All participants must be approved by the president of a state affiliate.

Students Built Hybrid Sports Car

Talk about audacity. Talk about saving gas with style. Not even Porsche can match what a group of Philadelphia high school students created: an environmentally-friendly car that does zero to 60 in less than five seconds and gets 50 miles per gallon. It even looks James Bond-worthy.

The students worked with teacher Simon Hauger while attending West Philadelphia High School's Academy of Applied Automotive and Mechanical Science. They are credited with creating the world's first high-performance hybrid car. Against all odds, these inner-city students from disadvantaged households dared to enter the Tour de Sol, a national green car competition. In storybook fashion, they won top honors.

But this isn’t just a car story. It’s about teaching and learning.

In interviews, Hauger talks with equal enthusiasm about sports cars as he does about programs that meld vocational and academic learning. You can listen to a 14-minute interview with Hauger here.

Research shows that career and technical education programs can improve students' academic performance and help keep at-risk students from dropping out. Career and workforce readiness programs are a key point in NEA’s Dropout Prevention Plan.

Keeping Hauger's students in school has certainly benefitted the auto industry. As Earth Day (4/22) and $4-a-gallon approach, Detroit automakers could profit by following the example set by our young auto innovators from West Philly.

A Goodness Gap?

Every Saturday, National Public Radio broadcasts a quiz show called "Wait, wait! Don't Tell Me!" In one feature on the show, contestants are given three absurd news stories that supposedly took place the week before, and are asked to pick the one that actually happened.

I have a story to nominate:

The Fairfax, Virginia school district decided to rate its children according to their moral character, and then analyzed the numbers to find out how ethnic and other subgroups of the student body compare in goodness.

That really happened!

They have a goodness gap, apparently, and guess which groups are not as good?
This was a bad idea in all sorts of ways, not least of which is that morality is not easy to measure. The ingredients that went into the pot to cook up these ratings included teachers' reports of such characteristics as "complies with established rules" and "listens to and follows directions."

Those might be appealing traits in a kid--as a parent, I know they are--but what do they have to do with morality?

And what did Fairfax County measure--Kid behavior? Teacher perception? Undoubtedly some unknowable mix of both. But we already knew that African-American boys are disciplined at far higher rates than other categories of students. That's been the subject of a raging national debate for many years. Is it because of peer culture? Teacher perception of that culture? Parenting? Fairfax County sheds no light. Their hot news is--Oh, here, too.

So why did they do it? Because two years ago, the school board adopted as an educational goal that students would learn how to "lead responsible, fulfilling and respectful lives." Which sounds reasonable enough.

But officials, in the era of NCLB-style accountability, looked for ways to measure the unmeasurable and then report it out by subgroup.

Actually, what they did was not that much stranger than the NCLB approach to judging school "performance" through test scores.

The Dangerous Lives of Teachers

The arrest of three third-graders in Waycross, Georgia for plotting to attack their teacher is yet another reminder - although a particularly bizarre one - that teachers are often targets of school violence. The plot in question, which involved nine students overall, was surprisingly elaborate, but some experts have questioned whether students that age are actually equipped to carry out such a threat. Still, as Dr. Dewey Cornell of the University of Virginia explains in a recent NEA Today article, all threats against educators have to be taken seriously.

Most assaults on school staff, on the other hand, tend to spontaneous – a result of a standoff in the classroom or an intervention in a school fight. Jolita Barry, an arts teacher in Baltimore, was attacked by one of her students as another stood by and recorded the incident on a cell phone. Student assaults against teachers are a huge problem in Baltimore but the district, according to Barry, has usually ducked the issue.

The video is obviously disturbing, but the city’s educators hope that the national attention it has received will jolt the administration into taking strong action - not only to protect staff, but also devote resources to properly train them how to defuse classroom confrontations. Either way, Barry says, “it’s time to stop blaming the teacher.”

Separation of Fact and Fiction

Looks like high school student Matthew LaClair of Kearny, N.J, has a promising future with the American Civil Liberties Union.

He grabbed headlines last year for recording his history teacher promoting Christian religious beliefs and telling students that there was no scientific evidence for evolution or the Big Bang theory.

This year he called out a textbook for spreading misinformation. The book, American Government, published by Houghton Mifflin in 2005 and used in AP classes across the country, states that "science doesn't know whether we are experiencing a dangerous level of global warming or how bad the greenhouse effect is, if it exists at all."

Turns out the publishers decided to rethink that statement. The latest edition says "science doesn't know how bad the greenhouse effect is."

In a section about prayer in school, the 2005 text states that the Supreme Court ruled as "unconstitutional every effort to have any form of prayer in public schools, even if it is nonsectarian, voluntary or limited to reading a passage of the Bible."

The fact is, prayer at school can’t be state sponsored or led by a teacher, but students can pray privately or in groups as long as they aren’t disruptive and don’t interfere with the rights of others.

"I just realized from my own knowledge that some of this stuff in the book is just plain wrong," LaClair told the Associated Press.

Unfortunately, not every student has the same knowledge, and many will accept as fact most if not all of what their textbooks tell them.

How does this stuff get into our schools’ text books? Who gets to write and edit them and who decides which ones to use? Next fall, NEA Today will take an insider look at the text book process, but James Loewen, author of Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your High School History Textbook Got Wrong, says that textbook editors try to focus on what has been agreed upon as the “right answer” instead of letting students consider all possibilities.

In American Government’s case, the “right answer” came from the right, but textbooks are also criticized for coming from the left. In an nea.org discussion, educators talk about textbooks, whether or not they use them, and what they think of them in general. Join the debate.

"It smelled good. They told me that's wrong."

The education blogosphere — better known to some as simply the "edusphere" — can be a prickly sort of place. Consider how a recent school news story was picked up, chewed and swallowed (or spit out, depending upon your point of view) by bloggers.

One: A School Makes News

Last week, as reported by 9News.com out of Denver, Co., an 8-year-old was suspended for sniffing a marker:

Eight-year-old Eathan Harris was originally suspended from Harris Park Elementary School for three days… Harris used a black Sharpie marker to color a small area on the sleeve of his sweatshirt. A teacher sent him to the principal when she noticed him smelling the marker and his clothing.

"It smelled good," Harris said. "They told me that's wrong."

Next, the boy's parents complained. Then an expert toxicologist provided an opinion ("non-toxic markers like Sharpies, while pungent-smelling, cannot be used to get high"). The principal reversed his decision, reducing the suspension to one day.

Two: Bloggers Lambaste Principal, Public Schools

One blogger, a husband and father of two, sums up public reaction with this mean-spirited tautology: "Kid uses sharpie. Kid likes smell. Kid gets suspended to send a message that drug use is bad. Principle is a dumb @$$."

Another blogger covers the issue in a one-sentence reference of the original news story. Readers respond with 52 comments, including these gems:

• "It took me about two minutes to find the principal's email address and send him an email with a link to the story and an explanation of what an idiot he is. I encourage everyone to do the same."
• "The reason that kids aren't learning is that they are being taught by people like this."

Three: Teachers Enter the Fray

The teachers how picked up this story had more varied responses. One blogger, Mike, who writes "Education in Texas," wonders if there is more to the story, "like the kid is a chronic behavior problem, or at the least, he had taken a Sharpie from the teacher's desk… if the fumes had been toxic… the school would be sued." And he has his own reply to parents and others who question the suspension: The Rule of 500:

I would say, "What do you think this school would be like if all 500 kids were taking Sharpies from the teachers' desks, coloring their clothing and then sniffing the fumes? How much learning do you think would go on? If we let your child get away with it we have to let every child do it."

Other teachers were less forgiving -- after all the "edusphere" is nothing if not home to dissenters and rabble-rousers. Teachers responded to this story as did other ornery bloggers. Consider the opening sentence of a related entry on Betsy's Page: "Here's another story in a long line of stupid school administrators." I could provide an extended quote, but that sentence pretty much sets the tone.

Four: Repeat Steps 1-3 at First Opportunity

As long as schools are making news and bloggers are blogging, I expect the “edusphere” to maintain this orbit.

 

Alienated Approach to Teaching?

For one school in Buffalo, New York, students have assigned seating in the cafeteria and face a daily threat of silent lunch. It’s the result of a new, borderline-militant approach to teaching. Reported in The New York Times, officials at Cheektowaga Central Middle School intend to instill responsibility among their students as part of a program known as “positive behavioral interventions and supports.”

“Students are required to keep to the right of the dotted yellow line down the middle of hallways,” writes New York Times reporter Winnie Hu. “They are assigned seats in the cafeteria and must wait for a teacher to call them up to get food. If enough students act up or even litter, they all risk a declaration of ‘silent lunch’ in the cafeteria.”

Students with low grades face even more penalties – unless they can demonstrate signs of weekly improvement, they’re barred from participating in all school activities, including athletic contests, clubs, dances, and plays.

A few teachers and parents are proponents of this style of disciplinary teaching, but so far there has been no overall improvement in classroom grades. Yes, it may motivate students to hand in their homework on time, or even work harder, but are they being motivated for the right reasons? Where is the zealousness for good teaching as a way to encourage student learning? Walking against a dotted line, having assigned seats during lunch time, being served lunch last on line because you forgot your student ID card – all of this is generating alienation within the school system. This presents a grave disservice to our students, creating a negative outlook on school.

For a completely counter-approach to this style, check out: http://www.nea.org/teachexperience/tsklk040621.html

--By Ranee Patel, NEA Today Intern

Take heart! The kids aren't all bad!

As the school year approaches its end (oh, wait -- not yet?? Whaaa!? TWO MORE MONTHS in some places??!), I stumbled across this recent survey that should give you some refreshing new hope about the children that you serve (and serve. and serve.)

They would rather go to college than win American Idol!
They would rather be smart than pretty!
And, in a final fit of maturity and self-awareness, they say that "making lots of money" isn't nearly as important as "the way you feel about yourself."

The "Teen Topix" survey, produced by the research firm OTX and released publicly last week, surveyed 750 teenagers -- with the idea that their answers could be used by marketers. (For example, 55 percent of teens use whitening toothpaste every day...) But I found their completely non-scientific (at least in my humble, English-major opinion) "either/or" questions to be the most fascinating.

Ninety percent of teens said they'd rather earn a B.A. than win American Idol. Fifty-five percent say they'd rather be the "smartest kid in school" than the best-looking one. (Well, that one was actually uncomfortably close, wasn't it...) But 69 percent say they'd rather feel good than look good. And overall, a whopping majority (81 percent) say they're at least somewhat happy -- and what makes them happiest are their friends, talents, abilities and school performance.

So much for the sulking teen!

Putting Teeth in Anti-Bullying Policies

Many school policies addressing bullying amount to little more than “Bullying is bad. Don’t do it.” But state legislatures in North Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, Nebraska, Florida, and Michigan have been debating ways to strengthen anti-bullying measures. Usually a high-profile incident in a school pushes the issue into the news and lawmakers jump on the bandwagon. These incidents often involve the persecution of a gay or lesbian student, a problem most recently spotlighted by the shocking murder of a junior high student in California. Still, many states seem reluctant to insert language in the bills that specifically calls out GLBT students for protection. The Michigan legislature is struggling over such a provision, which, according to one local newspaper editorial, would be “playing favorites.” A bill moving through the Florida legislature requires all districts to develop anti-bullying policies and allow schools to discipline students for, among other offenses, so-called cyber-bullying that takes place off-campus. Although the bill specifically bans sexual, racial and religious harassment, advocates want to add protection based on sexual orientation, arguing that a more specific list of prohibitions would give teachers and administrators stronger tools to fight the problem. All bullying is a problem and these efforts to look seriously at the issue are to be applauded, but exclusion of the types of bullying that account for the highest incidence and the most violence seems a little counterproductive.

Soviet-Style Education

The latest on No Child Left Behind:
Yesterday's Education Daily says some Senate education staffers have put together a proposal to replace the current NCLB accountability system with a Yearly Growth Index calculated as follows:

"States' indices would base AYP on a combination of student results on standardized reading and math tests, additional content-area tests, performance- based tests, and 'additional indicators' that are not test based. States could assign different weights to the components in the index, subject to certain caps. Reading and math test results would each make up no less than 35 percent of the index weight in grades 3-8 and 25 percent of the index in high school, for instance. States could give additional credit to students who move from the 'below basic' to the 'basic' proficiency level on these tests. To calculate AYP, states would set a total proficiency objective and calculate a separate baseline index score for each school and each subgroup within the school."

Got that?

Good, 'cause there's more:

"Each year, a school would make AYP if the schoolwide index score and each subgroup's index score met or exceeded the state proficiency objective.

"Schools and subgroups whose index score fell below the state proficiency objective would still make AYP if both the schoolwide index score and each subgroup's index score increased at least 5 percent of the difference between their respective baseline scores and the state proficiency objective."

(Sigh.)

Yes, NCLB flunks some great schools and passes some that are not so great. But that doesn't mean we need even more complex rules, which won't work, either. It means rigid central planning for complicated enterprises is the wrong way to go.

The Soviet Union failed, remember?

Gold Medal Videos

We hear so much about what's wrong with our schools, like dropouts, achievement gaps, and low test scores, that sometimes you just have to take a break and focus on what's right. That's exactly what students from high schools around the country are doing in homegrown videos about what makes their schools great.

Kids from US News & World Report's "Gold Medal" high schools have been asked to submit videos that describe what makes their schools stand out. Using a little creativity, candor, and good old-fashioned school spirit, they show that American public high schools are still producing confident and competent students more than prepared for the "real world."

Check out what makes them the best and the brightest.