COVER: Why We Are #RedForED
United by the desire to protect students and public schools, NEA educators, students, parents, and community members have shaped a movement that is making a difference across the nation.
Confronting the Big Question
How teachers can help students discuss big issues like gun laws, sex, slavery, and the Civil War.
Let’s Set the Record Straight
The next time you’re on the receiving end of a wrongheaded notion about public school educators, remember these comebacks.
Are Schools Prepared to Tackle Mental Health?
With 1 in 5 students ages 13–18 addressing a mental health concern, it’s time for schools to recalibrate services so that they’re more focused on being proactive.
Education Support Professionals
No Food, Paper, or Pencils Left Behind
How two educators turned unwanted items from their schools into a generous bounty for others.
First and Foremost
Who is the Average Teacher?
A new federal survey asked U.S. teachers about their backgrounds, salaries, job satisfaction -- and how much of their own money they spend on classroom supplies.
How Many Teachers Are Highly Stressed? Maybe More Than People Think.
High levels of job-related stress affect more than 9 in 10 elementary school teachers, according to new research.
High Lead Levels: Most Schools Don’t Test Water
Three years after a public health crisis was triggered by the leaching of lead into the water supply of Flint, Mich., too many school districts are not testing their water for the toxin.
A government watchdog report released in July found that in 2017 fewer than half of all school districts tested their drinking water for lead. The General Accounting Office surveyed districts around the country and also found that among those that do test water, more than a third detected elevated levels of lead. Lead in blood can cause “learning disabilities, behavioral problems, and mental retardation,” according to the World Health Organization.
Parents’ Fears for Student Safety Rise
According to a survey by USA Today, one in three U.S. parents fears for their child’s safety while at school—the highest level of concern in two decades. The 34 percent of parents who said they fear for their children’s safety at school is a 12 percent increase from 2013.
Parents are strongly in favor of mental health screening for students (76 percent), having armed police on campus (80 percent), and metal detectors at entrances (74 percent). And 6 out of 10 parents said they wouldn’t want their child in a classroom with an armed teacher.
Issues and Impact
To support public schools, vote all the way down the ballot
Public school advocates around the country are working to elect pro-public education candidates at the state and local level. The stakes are especially high in New Jersey and Virginia, the only two states with gubernatorial elections this year.
Be Like Emilly and Frank: Follow Your Convictions
NEA sits down with Frank Burger and Emilly Osterling, the chairs of the National Education Association- Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Caucus (NEA-LGBTQ Caucus).
People and Places
Around the World with Mr. Stoda
One world-traveling educator has touched students from Kansas to Kuwait. Showing how travel makes for better teaching.
New Minnesota Teachers Get Superstar Treatment
Signing events promote the teaching profession
NEA Offers ELL Blended Learning Courses
ELLs are the fastest growing demographic in our public schools, but many educators still aren’t adequately prepared to support this population.
Teaching and Learning
The Wild and Amazing World of Augmented Reality
If your goal is to create lifelong learners inspired by knowledge, AR, in its infancy, may hold the seeds for meeting that goal.
The Engagement Chronicles
Why student engagement is really a two-way street.
A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR IN CHIEF
Seeing #RedforEd
#RedForEd has become a nationwide movement of NEA members and allies who are raising their voices to protect public schools.
LILY’S BLACKBOARD
#RedForEd Must Continue
#RedForEd is NEA members’ response to years of neglect by elected officials and their failure to support our classrooms, students, and educators.
HEALTH AND LIFESTYLE
Stress Eating in the Classroom
How one educator learns to cope with student trauma without her snack drawer.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
The ‘Janus’ Decision
I have been dismayed to find well-written arguments against the Janus decision that use students as a primary argument, such as “[the Janus verdict]...undermines educators’ ability to bargain collectively on behalf of their students.” “Supreme Court Delivers Blow,” (Summer 2018).
We do not bargain collectively on behalf of our students. We bargain collectively for the salaries and benefits we deserve as professionals in a fi eld that continues to be seen as something less than “really” professional...Students will be negatively affected—indirectly—by the court’s decision.
But the only people who will be directly affected by that decision are teachers and their families. Educators should have the confi dence to argue against being returned to the whims of town budget makers who care only about the bottom line on taxes, not about the professionals who teach their community’s children.
—JOANN HOSPOD-STANFORD
Hope and Resiliency
I am currently in the graduate program for education and licensing and I just wanted to say how much I needed to read this as a soon-to-be teacher. “Hope for the Best,” (August 2018).
I have been working toward this career for a long time so I could be this kind of teacher. And when, as I’m sure many would agree, you are being taught all the things you have to do just so you don’t break the law or lose your job, it feels so daunting to find a way to still work toward this goal. However, your article is a beautiful ray of hope itself—one that illustrates that this can be done if we just continue to try and care about our students. So, thank you.
— LAUREN R.
