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With
Your Help, NCTE Influenced Policy This Year
Throughout
the past year or so NCTE and its members have visited more
legislators, responded to more requests for information from
policymakers, written more letters to Congress, worked with more
educational groups, and shared more expertise about what really
happens in the classroom with more decision makers than ever before.
NCTE's Legislative
Platform serves as a guide for this work and this month's SLATE Update highlights many of those activities.
Once
you've read through what we've accomplished, please tell us what
you'd like us to do next. Better yet, tell us what you'd like to do
next and we'll do our best to give you the resources to help you
spread the word to policymakers about what educators do and need in their own
classrooms.
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Advocacy
Resources and Events
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What
Influences Undecided Legislators the Most?: Constituent Visits
by
Barbara Cambridge, Director, NCTE Washington, DC, Office
On a poll of federal
legislative aides about what influences their bosses most when they
are undecided about how to vote on a specific issue, 99% (yes, 99%)
reported that constituent visits tip the scales. Read
more.
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NCTE offers a free Web seminar,
"Advocacy
for Everyday Teachers."
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In April more than
40 NCTE members
attended Literacy
Education Advocacy Day in Washington, DC, and nearly 100
other members took part in Literacy
Education Advocacy Month activities.
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Advocacy on
Issues Related to Adolescent Literacy
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NCTE supported the Striving
Readers Act and signed a letter in support of
this bill with the International Reading Association, the Alliance
for Excellent Education, and the National Association of Secondary
School Principals. Nearly 200 NCTE members responded to an action
alert asking them to thank Senators who supported the
bill and to ask those Senators who hadn't done so to sign on to the
bill.
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Advocacy on
Issues Related to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act
(NCLB)
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More than 500 NCTE members
responded to our poll, "What Changes Should Be Made to
NCLB?" (see the results).
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The NCTE Executive Committee approved
recommendations for changes to the No Child Left Behind Act that
align with NCTE's values and the best research in the field. Nearly
800 NCTE members wrote to their Members of Congress asking them to
support the changes NCTE recommended.
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NCTE members answered an
action alert asking them to write letters to the editor or
opinion pieces for their local newspapers regarding NCLB and the
changes that NCTE recommends be made in the law during the
reauthorization process.
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NCTE joined
many other educational and civil rights organizations in
signing a letter supporting an amendment to create a
deficit-neutral reserve fund for drop-out prevention
programs in NCLB, allowing room for unspecified legislation
to create incentives for innovative new programs to improve
student achievement and retention among middle and high
school students.
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Advocacy on
Issues Related to Teacher Quality
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NCTE joined the National Council
for Geography Education, the National Council for the Social
Studies, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, and
the National Science Teachers Association in sending
a letter to the House Education and Labor Committee
requesting that revisions of Title II of NCLB clearly emphasize
the importance of professional
development for teachers.
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NCTE sent a letter to the chairs of the House and Senate Education Committees, celebrating passage of the new Higher Education Act. The letter emphasized NCTE’s support of rigorous standards for the preparation of all teachers and the importance of having highly qualified teachers in every classroom, commending the Act’s inclusion of programs to address teacher professional learning in literacy, reading, technology, and early childhood education and to provide grants to teacher education programs in certain minority-serving institutions.
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Advocacy on
Issues Related to NCTE's Positions
Personal Opinion Papers:
(POPs are articles submitted by NCTE
members on any sociopolitical issue that affects the teaching and
learning of English language arts.)
Critical
Policy Resources
NCTE's
Action Center
and the Latest Action Alerts
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 (archives of past SLATE newsletters, SLATE
Starter Sheets, and other SLATE-related resources)
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.
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