Letters

NEA Today, Feb 2001

HIGH-STAKES TESTS

Finally, NEA is speaking out against high-stakes testing (cover story, January).

At the last Representative Assembly, delegates had the -opportunity to vote on a proposal to work to ban high-stakes testing. Instead, that item was sent to a committee.

Teachers, it is time for all of us, with NEAs help, to rise up in defiance of these tests.

We need no more committees to study them. We know the negative effects they have on our students and on pedagogy. It is time to decry the ranking and tracking of our students under the guise of accountability and education reform. It is time for all of us NEA

members to tell the emperors they are wearing no clothes!

Maggie Hagan Youngstown, Ohio

I am writing in response to November's Debate, "Should Special Needs Students Be Exempt from Graduation Tests?"

As a special educator, I believe we need to look beyond this question to recognize the entire population of students who are punished by high-stakes testing. One of the greatest assets of our educational system is that we provide an education for everyone. Our country was founded on the principle that anyone with enough willpower can succeed. Who is failing these exams? Students from disadvantaged backgrounds. This testing will only increase the ever-widening gap between rich and poor.

We need to solve this problem before we create a population of dropouts who have few prospects for the future.

Leah Wasburn-Moses Lafayette, Indiana

I want to thank the NEA Today staff and NEA leaders for their efforts to save education from the "test them and they will learn" forces.

I also want to thank Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota and Representative Robert C. Scott of Virginia Who introduced Senate and House versions of a bill "to provide for fairness and accuracy in testing" in the last Congress.

Word is that Wellstone and Scott plan to introduce these bills again in the next Congress. I hope NEA members urge Senators and Representatives to support them. Contact information can be obtained at www.senate.gov/contacting/ and www.house.gov/writerep/.

Brad MacGowan Chelmsford, Massachusetts

IRRESPONSIBLE PARENTS?

I agree with LeAnn Traylor (Letters, January) that parents don't appear to show responsibility. However, while many of us live in an age of cell phones, pagers, and E-mail, there are also many who don't.

I teach in a rural area of the Deep South. I have kept kids at school with high fevers, bleeding injuries, and crawling lice on their heads, because there was no way to reach an adult.

These parents are too poor to have phones. They don't own vehicles. It is frustrating not to be able to reach someone, but I imagine it's just as frustrating for the parents who can't be reached.

I have seen kids miss more than 25 days of school a year because their parents couldn't afford medical treatment for their child.

At my school, we aren't doormats for irresponsible parents. We are their only hope. We do things like collect money to buy lice shampoo and deliver it to their homes.

If we don't help these people, we are all losers!

Jennifer Bergeron Houma, Louisiana

PAPERWORK Why do language arts teachers feel they are the only ones who grade lengthy assignments (letter on "Taming the Tiger," January)? I will match the time needed to grade my students' science projects to any English research paper. All dedicated teachers spend hours fulfilling paperwork demands. Like special education teachers, we have great, "unpaid" demands on our time. Prep time should stop being taken up by meetings, or it should be increased so teachers can do the other half of their job.

Skyieen Willingham Okmulgee, Oklahoma

CONNECTICUT SALARIES

Competition for teaching positions among highly qualified candidates is the main reason for increased student achievement in Connecticut ("Where Teacher Quality Pays Off," November).

A law passed in 1986 brought teaching salaries in line with other professions in the state. With this increase came an influx of talented people vying for teaching positions.

But since 1986, teaching salaries have declined significantly. Also in decline is the quality of candidates seeking teaching positions.

Bring up salaries and watch students soar. Continue with the status quo and watch achievement fall. It's just a matter of time.

Beth Anderson Torrington, Connecticut

HOMOSEXUALITY

I must voice my concerns over the article about Arthur Lipkin's recent book (Innovators, November). As a public school teacher, my responsibility is to educate students that, despite differences, we must learn to treat everyone with respect and care. However, I am alarmed at the onslaught of material aimed at teachers that screams agenda.

What right do we have to destroy the belief system of many equality families who send their children to public schools?

I am a proud member of the NEA. I support many of its initiatives. But I do not support ridiculing beliefs that I and many of our students' families hold dear.

Denver Daniel North Ridgeville, Ohio

I agree that just as teachers talk about heterosexual relationships in classes, some time should be spent discussing homosexual relationships as well.