Duncan Stresses Need For “Extraordinary” Teachers.
The AP (10/12) reports, “U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan appealed Friday for a new generation of extraordinary teachers, calling education the civil rights cause of our time.” He noted specifically that there is a great need “for black men in the nation’s classroom.” In his comments, Duncan stressed that “strong education is needed to reduce dropout rates among African-American, Latino and low-income students,” and pointed out “that the demand for teachers is greatest among ‘high-poverty, high-needs’ and rural schools, as well as in subjects such as math and science.”

African-American Male Teachers Seen As Key To Reducing Achievement Gaps, Dropout Rates. In a separate story, the AP (10/10, Matheson) reported, “Only about two percent of teachers nationwide are African-American men. But experts say that needs to change if educators expect to reduce minority achievement gaps and dropout rates.” Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that the majority of “American teachers are…white (87 percent) and female (77 percent), despite minority student populations of about 44 percent.” But Greg Johnson, a policy analyst for the National Education Association, said that having “minority teachers is important because of ‘the role model factor.’ … ‘These students need to see successful adults of color in front of them,’” Johnson added. To that end, Cheyney University sophomores Lenny Macklin and Gregory Georges founded the Call Me MISTER (Mentors Instructing Students Toward Effective Role Models) teaching program, which “offers scholarships in exchange for teaching in public schools.

New Study Finds Narrowing Of Achievement Gap.
The Christian Science Monitor (10/2, Paulson) reports that a new national Center on Education Policy study examining student performance since NCLB took effect in 2002 finds that student achievement “is going up, and the gaps in test scores between subgroups — such as between African-Americans and whites — are closing across all grade levels and subjects.” However, the “news isn’t all positive. In 23 percent of the cases the report analyzed,” the achievement gap grew. And “in a few cases, the gap narrowed, but only because the achievement of higher-performing subgroups went down.”

The AP (10/2, Armario) reports, “Florida students have made progress in narrowing the achievement gap…but significant disparities remain.” The study “found that in math and reading, students across race and income levels made gains,” but “some of the most significant improvements were seen in elementary black and Latino students.” Still, “the gap between white, black and Latino students remains significant” at nearly 30 points between whites and blacks and nearly 20 points between whites and Latinos in the fourth grade. “That gap tends to widen as students enter middle and high school.”

Leslie Postal argues in a blog at the Orlando Sentinel (10/2) that the gap “”has narrowed in Florida, though not a lot,” while “in many other states, the gap is also shrinking, but also very slowly.”

TO: APEA Membership

FROM: John Napolitani, President
Sean Hamilton, Vice President

DATE: September 30, 2009

The Negotiations Team met with our PERC appointed mediator last Thursday evening at the Board Office. Our team met before our negotiations session to discuss strategy and points that the Board wanted to discuss at the table. The meeting started promptly at 6:00pm and lasted past 11:30pm. At this meeting, all items on the agenda were discussed which included our main points and the Board’s main points.
As we discussed in prior correspondence, our team narrowed our proposal down to six main issues. The Board managed to do the same but had several sub-sections. Their proposal was significantly reduced from the last session, which was a major stumbling block for all our prior meetings.

Things are continuing to move slowly. We agreed to try one more session, which will be scheduled some time in October, to attempt to bring some items to closure. As with most districts in the state that are at this point in negotiations, a major area that we are not agreeing on is the section that has to do with our benefits. A discussion on a salary increase can not even be discussed until the next session because the Board was late producing the scatter grams to the Association. Now that we are in possession of these scatter grams, we can have NJEA analyze it and see what the true cost of people moving through the guide is going to cost the Board over three years.

NEA To Encourage Best Teachers To Teach At High-Need Schools.
USA Today (10/1, Toppo) reports that the National Education Association “will encourage local chapters to ignore contract provisions that in the past have kept school districts’ best teachers out of schools that serve mostly poor and minority students.” In testimony before the House education committee on Tuesday, NEA President Dennis Van Roekel said the move “is part of the union’s ‘Priority Schools’ campaign that will also encourage ‘the most accomplished teachers-members’ to start their teaching careers in high-needs schools, remain there or transfer there.” The NEA “has come under fire from critics for supporting contracts that allow experienced teachers with more seniority to transfer to schools that serve more middle-class children.”

Jay Mathews wrote in a “Class Struggle” blog for the Washington Post (9/30), “Data show that schools in poor neighborhoods tend to have a disproportionate number of unqualified, inexperienced or out-of-field teachers. That compounds the schools’ many academic challenges.” Thus, NEA President Dennis Van Roekel “said in prepared testimony that the union would ask ‘every local NEA affiliate to enter into a compact or memorandum of understanding with its local school district to waive any contract language that prohibits staffing high-needs schools with great teachers.’”