Contact Your Member of Congress Via Phone
on April 16 and 17 with a Message from NCTE
Calling your Member of Congress via telephone is easy and appropriate and a typical call will take less than five minutes!
Below you'll find messages on English language learners, well-qualified teachers, research about education, assessment, adolescent literacy, and 21st century literacy.
When you call the legislative office, a staff member will take your information and record it on a form. The following information is typically requested:
1. Name.
2. Address and telephone number.
3. Name and/or number of the legislation or the issue about which you are concerned.
4. Your stance on the issue and reasons for supporting that viewpoint.
If you don’t already know who your Representative and Senators are, go to http://www.house.gov and http://www.senate.gov and search for your Members of Congress using the zip code or state search.
Then call either the Capitol switchboard at 202-723-5246, or the operator for the House of Representatives at 202-225-3121 or for the Senate at 202-224-3121.
Please make sure to make your phone calls on April 16 and 17. Thank you!
Deliver one of the following messages:
English Language Learners
Hello, my name is ____ and my address and phone number are ________. I am calling about the No Child Left Behind Act. As a member of the National Council of Teachers of English, I ask that you support two changes for English language learners. First, ELLs need to be tested through a variety of assessments to reliably and ethically measure their learning. Second, teachers need funded professional development in order to serve the mushrooming number of ELL students in most classrooms across the United States.
Well-Qualified Teachers
Hello, my name is ____ and my address and phone number are ________. I am calling about the No Child Left Behind Act. As a member of the National Council of Teachers of English, I ask that you support federal funding for sustained professional development for teachers and for access to technology and quality instructional materials so that teachers can help students meet proficiency goals in NCLB. I believe that professional development and better working conditions for teachers will benefit high-need students who deserve our best teachers.
Research about Education
Hello, my name is ____ and my address and phone number are ________. I am calling about the No Child Left Behind Act. As a member of the National Council of Teachers of English, I ask that you support replacing the phrase scientifically based research in NCLB with the phrase scientifically valid research, as Congress did in the Head Start bill. I believe that all valid and reliable research should be brought to bear on choices about education in our schools. Scientifically valid recognizes the full range of research that can help educators and policymakers in their decision making on behalf of all students.
Assessment
Hello, my name is ____ and my address and phone number are ________. I am calling about the No Child Left Behind Act. As a member of the National Council of Teachers of English, I ask that you support the use of a variety of measures of assessment in NCLB, including combinations of such measures as writing samples, applied problem-solving projects, and portfolios. I know that one-time tests do not adequately measure a student’s academic achievement, and only the use of multiple measures over time can accurately portray a student’s progress and achievement.
Adolescent Literacy
Hello, my name is ____ and my address and phone number are ________. I am calling to ask you to support the Striving Readers bill (Senate 958 and House of Representatives 2289) and to encourage your legislative colleagues to support the bill when it comes to the floor either as a separate bill or as a part of the NCLB reauthorization. As a member of the National Council of Teachers of English, I know that adolescent literacy must be a priority to increase student success and improve graduation rates. The Striving Readers bill that extends across fourth to twelfth grades includes the kind of support that teachers need to help students develop literacies that are central first for high school graduation and then to succeed in further education and in the workplace.
21st Century Literacy
Hello, my name is ____ and my address and phone number are ________. As a member of the National Council of Teachers of English, I am calling to ask you to support Title II of NCLB that honors the essential need for professional development of teachers in 21st century literacies. Technology has increased the intensity and complexity of our lives, so a literate person in the 21st century must possess a wide range of abilities and competencies. Teachers need professional development to help them help students to develop proficiency with tools of technology, to design and share information, to manage and analyze multiple streams of simultaneous information, and to create and evaluate multimedia texts.
|
