Taking Classroom Stories to Capitol Hill

English Teachers Shared What Works, What Doesn’t
During NCTE Advocacy Day

(The Council Chronicle, May 6, 2005)

Educators and NCTE leaders who took English language arts issues to Washington, D.C., during the Council’s second annual Advocacy Day on April 14, found common ground, expressed their views, and left energized to continue their advocacy work back home.

Sandra Hayes, who is representative-at-large for NCTE’s Middle Level Section and a teacher at Becker Middle School in Becker, Minnesota, met with legislative aides for Minnesota Senators Mark Dayton and Norm Coleman.

“I think these kinds of meetings give face, voice, and context to the issues,” she explains. “We know that narrative is a powerful way to learn and these meetings are another kind of learning situation.”

Hayes found an empathetic audience in Senator Coleman’s aide, whose mother is a retiring choir teacher and “certainly understood the issue of how testing is narrowing the curriculum.”

In her meetings, Hayes discussed what she says is “the misleading label of ‘highly qualified teacher,’” the excessive testing of students (including federal, state, and local testing, she says her eighth graders took eight tests in reading and math this year), the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), lack of funding for federal mandates, and funding for the National Writing Project (NWP).

She praised the attention being paid to adolescent literacy but shared her “worries about the myths of ‘scientifically based research’ and how that may get in the way of good work in this area.”

In her meeting with Senator Coleman’s aide, Hayes learned that the senator had signed a letter of support for NWP funding the day before. When she ran into Senator Coleman later in the day, Hayes took the opportunity to thank him for his support.

NCTE Voices Support

As part of the Advocacy Day event, attendees learned about English language arts legislation and effective ways of meeting with elected leaders from NCTE’s legislative consultant Ellin Nolan. They also learned ways to present their issues through telling classroom stories from NCTE President Randy Bomer; received a briefing on NCLB by Ross Wiener from The Education Trust and Patty Sullivan from the Center on Education Policy; learned about the “Striving Readers” and other literacy initiatives from Kathryn Doherty of the U.S. Department of Education; and listened to Cindy Sadler explain the Alliance for Excellent Education’s work on adolescent literacy. 

NCTE’s 2005 Talking Points stressed that the Council “strongly supports efforts by the Congress to increase the federal investment in teacher preservice education and ongoing professional development. NCTE believes that student success is dependent on the instructional skills of a highly qualified teacher.” The Council’s legislative agenda includes support for legislation that strengthens reading and writing instruction with professional development for content area teachers and literacy coaches; support for provisions in the Higher Education Act; increased funding for Title II of NCLB to support teacher professional development; and increased funding for NWP.

In addition, the Council is supporting legislation designed to expand literacy education programs and education reform efforts beyond the third grade, especially “The Graduation for All Act” and “The Pathways for All Students to Succeed Act,” which aim to provide funds to middle and high schools. 

A Feeling of Accomplishment

David Christensen, who is NCTE elementary representative-at-large and a fifth grade teacher at Lolo Middle School in Lolo, Montana, reports that he felt a little apprehensive about his meetings with Montana elected officials. But using the information from the Advocacy Day presentations, he faced his task and was pleasantly rewarded.

Christensen met with John Lewis, one of Montana Senator Max Baucus’s aides, who has worked with behaviorally challenged students at Meadow Hill School in Missoula. Christensen told his stories about classroom teaching and about the K–2 writing study group he leads for the Montana Writing Project. He voiced support for legislation that supports teachers and effective classroom practices. He also emphasized the importance of reaching out to NCTE and other national organizations to gather research for informing national education policy.

Christensen describes his Capitol Hill experience in the following excerpt from an article he wrote for the Montana Update, an NCTE affiliate publication: “I felt good to have been able to meet with someone in person and realized that I do not have to be physically present in D.C. to tell my stories. [Our stories told to elected officials] become powerful testimonies to what works and what does not work in classrooms. They want to hear those stories—especially the legislative aides who do the lion’s share of investigating issues so that they can inform their senator or congressman. I urge everyone to tell their stories and advocate for effective literacy practices.”