NCTE's Voices Are Being Heard!
Contributors to the July 2009 SLATE Update include SLATE Update Editor
Clarissa West-White, NCTE's DC Office Director Barbara Cambridge,
and NCTE Legislative Associate Stacey Novelli
During the past several months, NCTE members' voices have rung loud and clear through legislative activity in our nation's capitol and at home. The letters you've written and the visits you've made to legislators, sharing your expertise about what happens in the classroom and what is needed to help students succeed, have led to two exciting pieces of legislation now making their way through Congress:
You've also participated in NCTE's Literacy Education Advocacy Day in Washington, DC; sent letters congratulating your continuing members of Congress; made use of NCTE's anti-censorship advice and materials; and responded to a call to action to help NCTE build relationships with policymakers.
Read on to learn more about the NCTE Legislative Platform, NCTE's DC Office, legislation at the state level, and SLATE, the Council's grassroots advocacy network.
Resolution for a National Day on Writing
This resolution recognizes October 20, 2009, as the National Day on Writing and encourages participation in the National Gallery of Writing. In the House, Congresswoman Dina Titus (D-NV) and Congressman Todd Russell Platts (R-PA) in June introduced the resolution, which currently has 28 cosponsors. Because health care reform and appropriations are current high priorities, a vote will be called for some time after the August recess. In the Senate, Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) and Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS), will cosponsor the resolution and plan to introduce it after the August recess. The DC office will then visit Senate offices to seek cosponsors for the resolution with the goal of a vote by October. You will also be asked to write your Senator for support for the resolution.
Through three letter-writing campaigns from April to June, NCTE members sent 2,592 letters to members of Congress asking for their support of the National Day on Writing resolution (now known in the House as H. Res. 524). Has a legislator from your state signed on to cosponsor the House bill? If not, now's the time to ask for your state's help!
Comprehensive Literacy Bill
The comprehensive literacy bill is currently being reviewed by House and Senate offices prior to introduction in their respective chambers. Over the past several months, NCTE's Washington, DC, office has been supplying information and clarification regarding language and concepts in the draft to the bill's potential sponsors and to the House and Senate education committee chairmen and ranking members. This bill provides funds for state literacy plans and for district initiatives to ensure that children from birth to grade 12 read and write in ways that serve them well in and outside of formal schooling.
NCTE was part of a coalition of six organizations (Alliance for Excellent Education, International Reading Association, National Association of Elementary School Principals, National Association of Secondary School Principals, National Middle School Association, and NCTE) that drafted the bill last fall. (See "Draft Literacy Bill Would Boost Funds for Older Students," Education Week, June 15, 2009.)
The Senate version of the bill will likely be introduced following the August Congressional recess. Another encouraging movement is the House Appropriations Committee's mid-July endorsement of the bill by including a line item on comprehensive literacy in the FY10 budget. Once the bills are introduced in the House and Senate, the DC office will work with the coalition and collaborating groups to seek support and cosponsors.
NCTE will be asking you to advocate for cosponsorship, consideration, and passage of these bills, so please watch for action alerts. We appreciate your support of these two legislative items in the coming months.
Literacy Education Advocacy Day
On April 23, 2009, NCTE held a very successful Advocacy Day during which the 58 attendees learned about and took NCTE-developed legislation on the National Day on Writing resolution and on the comprehensive literacy bill to their legislators on the Hill. Attendance at the Day exceeded last year's attendance by 15. Seven of the attendees represented the Florida Council of Teachers of English, which has established an advocacy commission and which sponsored commission members to attend the event.
Mark your calendars now for the next Literacy Education Advocacy Day, April 22, 2010!
Six NCTE Members from Florida Attended Advocacy Day
(left to right, above: FCTE's Clarissa West-White, April Blaze, Joan Kaywell;
Clint Cates, legislative aide to Senator Bill Nelson;
FCTE's Christiana Succar, Susan Houser, and Kathleen Blake Yancey)
Congratulating Continuing Members of Congress
In December 2008, NCTE members answered a call to action and sent 601 letters to congratulate continuing members of Congress and to offer expertise on literacy education.
NCTE's Anti-Censorship Efforts
NCTE continues to provide support for teachers and schools experiencing challenges to classroom materials. The July 2009 Censorship Challenge Report provides an overview of the activities from May to June 2009, as well as a year-end review. See the NCTE Anti-Censorship Center for more details on NCTE's anti-censorship efforts and resources.
Building Relationships with Policymakers
Earlier this year, 65 NCTE members volunteered to be liaisons to their legislators, to help NCTE build relationships with policymakers and share information with representatives on education committees. NCTE is in the process of establishing a corps of liaisons throughout the states.
What Guides NCTE's Legislative Efforts? The NCTE Legislative Platform
NCTE Executive Director Kent Williamson outlined the 2009 Platform in the March SLATE Update, saying ". . . the thrust of our platform is to encourage Congress to take a comprehensive approach to supporting literacy learning. It is grounded in the need to provide every student with the kinds of rich learning challenges that will imbue them with the critical communicative and analytic abilities referenced in our definition of 21st century literacies."
Past Legislative Platforms and their topics were:
2008: changes to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)
2007: recommendations for the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)
2006: engaging and providing long term and effective opportunities at the early learning stage, pre-K-grade 3, and K-12; teacher preparation and ongoing professional development
What Does NCTE Do for You in DC?
NCTE's Washington, DC, office, headed by Director Barbara Cambridge and Legislative Associate Stacey Novelli, opened in 2006; it represents the organization's interests and concerns related to federal legislation and initiatives. A March 2007 Voices in the Middle article about Barbara described some of the work of the office, work that she and Stacey still do today:
- The director attends hearings about educational matters and relays this information to members, makes NCTE's positions on various topics known by sharing NCTE resolutions and documents with policymakers, and answers questions that legislative liaisons may have about teachers' practices.
- The office cultivates a close working relationship with other national and discipline-specific organizations, as well as other foundations, publishers, and think tanks that are concerned about education.
- The office also arranges and runs the pre-briefing and debriefing for Advocacy Day.
What Is Your State Doing?
The May 2009 SLATE Update included links to education-related legislation passed or pending in ten states. Here are links to 20 more state legislature websites; please follow the link to conduct a thorough inquiry into the voting records of your elected state officials and the education bills they passed or vetoed.
Contact your representatives, learn the dates of upcoming special sessions or the start of next year's legislature, send your representatives a letter of introduction and request a meeting if you live in the capital city, or personally voice your praise or concern over passed legislation. But whatever you do, commit to doing something!
The included links to education-related legislation passed or pending in ten states. ; please follow the link to conduct a thorough inquiry into the voting records of your elected state officials and the education bills they passed or vetoed.Contact your representatives, learn the dates of upcoming special sessions or the start of next year's legislature, send your representatives a letter of introduction and request a meeting if you live in the capital city, or personally voice your praise or concern over passed legislation. But whatever you do, commit to doing something!
Just What Is SLATE, Anyway?
SLATE (Support for the Learning and Teaching of English) is NCTE's grassroots advocacy network that (1) seeks to influence public attitudes and policy decisions affecting the teaching of English language arts at local, state, and national levels; (2) seeks to implement and publicize the policies adopted by NCTE; and (3) serves as NCTE's intellectual freedom network.
To meet these goals, SLATE has shifted its focus over the years from being known simply as the voice of classroom teachers who were denied the freedom to teach books of their choice, to also playing a more integral role influencing policymakers in Washington, DC. The advocacy network provides starter sheets (see the call for submissions), action alerts designed to mobilize local support on legislative matters, and two NCTE/SLATE Intellectual Freedom Awards given to individuals, groups, or institutions that merit recognition for advancing the cause of intellectual freedom at the national level and at the state, regional, and local affiliate level (these awards will be announced in the November 2009 SLATE Update).
Members of the NCTE/SLATE Steering Committee on Social and Political Concerns serve three-year terms and each represents one of the eight regions:
Outgoing Chair (Nov. 2009), Fred Barton, Michigan State University, East Lansing
Incoming Chair, Sandra Whitaker, Dept. of Defense Education Activity, Arlington, VA (Region 2)
Region 1 to be appointed
Clarissa West-White (Update Editor), Florida A&M University, Tallahassee (Region 3)
Jennifer Swisher, Edwardsburg High School, MI (Region 4)
Anne MacLeod Cognard, East High School, Lincoln, NE (Region 5)
Sonja L. Andrus, Collin College, McKinney, TX (Region 6)
Sharon Mitchler, Centralia College, WA (Region 7)
Elizabeth Jaeger, University of California, Berkeley (Region 8)
Critical Policy Resources
NCTE's Action Center
NCTE's Anti-Censorship Center
NCTE Position Statements
NCTE Policy Collections
NCTE Executive Committee Strategic Governance Policies (see "Strategic Governance" at the bottom of the page)
SLATE Website
Congress.org (to find your elected representatives)
Contribute to SLATE
Your donation to SLATE will help us to implement and publicize the policies adopted by NCTE, to support NCTE's anti-censorship work, and to influence public attitudes and policy decisions affecting the teaching of English language arts at local, state, and national levels.
Donations can be made through the NCTE online store or by using the donation form (fax it to 217-278-3761 or mail it to SLATE, c/o NCTE, 1111 W. Kenyon Rd. Urbana, IL 61801-1096).
NCTE is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and all donations are tax deductible. Donations received by December 31 may be deducted from your income taxes for that year.