Keeping Classroom Creativity Alive in the NCLB Era

By Alain Jehlen January marked the dubious 10-year anniversary of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation signed into law by former President George W. Bush. NCLB changed the focus of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act from emphasizing equal access and closing achievement gaps in education to focusing on high-stakes testing, labeling, and sanctions. [...]

NEA Member Calls on Congress and Court to Protect Health Care for Children

By Robert McNeely For Wilfred Dunn, a fifth grade teacher in Little Rock, Arkansas and NEA member, a student’s heartbreaking story illustrates why all children deserve to come to school healthy and ready to learn. The student’s family could not afford the daily medication for his attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder. Without his medicine, he [...]

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 [...]

Parents Agree – Better Assessments, Less High-Stakes Testing

By Tim Walker Educators aren’t alone in being fed up with narrow, punitive student accountability measures. Parents also want well-designed, timely assessments that monitor individual student performance and progress across a range of subjects and skills. That’s one of the key findings in a new study by the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA). NWEA, a non-profit educational [...]

How Corporate Tax Loopholes Defund the American Dream

By Amanda Litvinov and Dwight Holmes As more middle class Americans than ever before wring their weary hands over whether to pay down their student loans or make their next mortgage payment, corporations are also experiencing a history-making moment. They’re sitting on record profits, and are taxed at historically low rates. Between 2001 and 2010, [...]

Judy Near From Colorado Named NEA 2012 ESP of the Year

By John Rosales The humility, drive, and dignity that Judy Near is famous for in Colorado’s Canon City School District was evident Friday night at the NEA Education Support Professionals (ESP) Conference in Memphis, Tennessee, where Near was named the National Education Association’s 2012 ESP of the Year. As Near approached the dais at the Marriott Downtown Hotel [...]

How School Arts Programs Encourage Parental Involvement

By Teal Ruland Study after study has shown that arts education is a powerful and important component of adolescent learning. Dance, drama, music, and visual arts provide outlets for creativity, instill discipline, and help us to understand and analyze the world around us. Research also shows that the academic gains students achieve with high arts [...]

New Video by Native American Students Shatters Stereotypes

By Robert McNeely Crime, poverty, and alcoholism have long been associated with “life on the rez,” but a group of Lakota students are showing that Native American culture is much more than the destructive media stereotypes would suggest. Students from Todd County High School on South Dakota’s Rosebud Sioux Reservation recently created a short film, [...]

Devastating Education Cuts Leave Trail of Consequences Across Pennsylvania

By Kevin Hart When cuts are deep enough, they can leave ugly scars. That’s the lesson being learned across Pennsylvania this year, as some of the state’s poorest districts try to cope with $860 million in funding cuts advanced by Governor Tom Corbett – cuts educators say are causing serious and permanent harm to the [...]

NEA Gives Kline ESEA Bills a Failing Grade

By Tim Walker The National Education Association spoke out on Tuesday against two amendments to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) reauthorization effort for walking away from the federal government’s commitment to ensuring equity for students in need. The two bills, the Student Success Act and the Encouraging Innovation and Effective Teachers Act, were [...]

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