April 2010

NCTE's Literacy Education Advocacy Day Is Thursday,
April 22

Send a Message to Your Legislator!
Take just a few minutes to write to your legislators to suggest important ways to improve student learning through the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

NCTE Advocacy Resources
·  NCTE Position Statements  
· SLATE Website
· Speaking Out to the Media and to Legislators
· Take Action

Find Your Elected Representatives
· Congress.org

Mark Your Calendar!
2011 Literacy Education Advocacy Day: April 21

Can't Make It to DC for Advocacy Day?
Show Your Support for Literacy Education
Right at Home!

Advocacy can happen from home! Legislators and their aides value the classroom experiences and literacy education expertise that NCTE members offer and you can share what you know with them right from your home computer! So if you won't be in DC for NCTE's Literacy Education Advocacy Day, send your message to DC.


No Place Like Home: Florida Holds Its First Advocacy Day!
The Florida Council of Teachers of English (FCTE) sponsored its inaugural Advocacy Day at the Capitol in Tallahassee on April 7. More than 25 college students, classroom teachers, and FCTE board members met with representatives and aides throughout the day; they also left information with members of the Education Committees and with the offices of the Governor and Lieutenant Governor. See Clarissa West-White's summary of FCTE's Advocacy Day, her tips for planning a successful local event, and her video account of the day's activities.

Above, Florida Representative Alan Williams (in center of back row, in front of window) poses for a picture during his April 7 meeting with members of the Florida Council of Teachers of English and students from Florida State University and Florida A&M University.


Other NCTE Members Are Connecting
with Policymakers at Home
Patricia Shall and Joseph Pizzo of the New Jersey Council of Teachers of English will visit their local legislative offices as an NCTE/NJCTE team.

Richard Lloyd-Jones of Iowa City, Iowa, past president of NCTE, will host a fund raiser breakfast this week for his Congressman, Dave Loesbeck, a former professor from Cornell College who, says Lloyd-Jones, "is generally sympathetic and aware of education issues from the inside."

Joe Milner of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, is having a gathering for Tom Hackelman who is running for the local School Board. Joe says, "Tom is the husband of a wonderful teacher I have worked with for ten or more years. Raleigh had a devastating School Board election recently that brought in virulent anti-busing people who threw out a fine Superintendent who has integrated and improved those schools on an SES basis so that there were no high poverty schools. I am focused here to try to prevent that happening to Winston Salem schools."

Marilyn Hollman of the Illinois Association of Teachers of English met with her State Representative in March; she also tells us that her Representative became a fan of the IATE Facebook page!

Carol Pope of North Carolina State University in Raleigh, will work with her Teachers as Leaders class on Advocacy Day on communicating with policy leaders.

Chuck Bazerman, past chair of CCCC, will meet again with his Representative, Lois Capps of California. In the past two years (with meetings in DC and a chance encounter on the plane going to DC), Chuck has developed a dialogue with Capps and her education staffer; they are "now aware of NCTE positions and concerns, and they have confirmed their commitment to most views and legislative initiatives consistent with our views." Chuck adds, "While I doubt that I changed any views, I think I have given them a stronger sense of the views of the profession, perhaps strengthening their commitments. I hope by meeting in the district I might be able to have more face time with the Representative and be able to follow up in more detail on our current issues."