Educators Aren’t Just Welcoming Change, They’re Leading It

By Cindy Long Jenna Marvin, a media specialist at Howenstine High Magnet School, doesn’t buy into the perception of some that the National Education Association (NEA) and its members resist change and reform. On the contrary, at her school in Tucson, Arizona, educators aren’t just welcoming change and reform—they’re leading it. “We’re fighting very hard to [...]

NEA Kicks Off Read Across America Tour with Mazda and ‘The Lorax’

By Teal Ruland From the Truffula Trees to the Once-ler, and the hoots of the Bar-ba-Loots, Dr. Seuss and the Lorax are loose in Miami and celebrating the joys of reading with students at Carol City Elementary School. Yesterday kicked off the NEA’s “Read Across America Tour – Driven by Mazda,” and the children were [...]

“A National Crisis”: NEA Spotlights Urgent Need for School Modernization

By Cindy Long When it rains, water pours out of the ceiling into Christopher Meyer’s classroom. He places buckets around the room, pushes student desks out of the way, and puts a tarp over his own desk. Then he has to scramble to find a dry, safe room where he can continue his lessons. “At [...]

Alternative Pay System Improves Teacher Practice

By Cindy Long Stephen Atwood teaches in Portland, Maine, the small seaside New England city most people associate with lobstermen, lighthouses and a legacy of longtime Mainers. But spend a day in Atwood’s classroom and you’ll hear kids speaking Arabic, Sudanese, Khmer, Somali, Spanish, French, Acholi, or Kinyarwanda. The Portland Public School district is the [...]

Longer School Days That Work

By Cindy Long From Chicago to Houston to Washington, D.C., districts around the country are beginning to experiment with longer school days as a way to raise academic achievement. A pioneer in this effort is Massachusetts, which launched a statewide extended school day program in 2005. Ferryway School is one of Massachusetts’s success stories. While [...]

Alabama Law Drives Children Out of Public Schools

By Alain Jehlen What happens when school personnel are ordered to ask about students’ immigration status? Alabama is carrying out that experiment right now, and the first results are in: Children don’t come to school. Wednesday, NEA President Dennis Van Roekel spoke out against the law that requires the school personnel who enroll students to [...]

New Jamie Foxx Film “Thunder Soul” Celebrates Arts Education

By Cindy Long When Gaila Mitchell gets so frustrated with the pressures of being an educator that she feels like giving up, she remembers the words of her beloved high school music teacher and band director Conrad O. Johnson:  ”You are not a quitter. Just do something different. Try something with your students that’s never [...]

Environmental Ed Shines at 2011 Solar Decathlon

By Cindy Long More than 4,000 public school children descended on the Solar Village in Washington, D.C. during “Education Days” of the 2011 Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon, a biannual competition that challenges collegiate teams to design, build, and operate solar-powered houses that are cost-effective, energy-efficient, and attractive. Vernon Myers, II, who teaches seventh grade [...]

Bullying Takes Toll on Minority Student Achievement

By Cindy Long Victims of bullying can face a lifetime of psychological scars, but they also suffer academically, particularly Black and Latino students, according to new research. Educators know that bullied students are more likely to miss school, fall behind, and eventually drop out, but the new study, The Impact of School Bullying on Racial/Ethnic [...]

Boosting Parent Involvement in Schools

By Cindy Long Few teachers would deny that successful partnerships with parents are critical to student achievement and are key in transforming public schools into true communities. But engaging parents can be a formidable challenge, especially for newer educators. Anne T. Henderson is a Senior Consultant with the Annenberg Institute for School Reform and based [...]

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