WEA Website:

http://wyoea.org/

NEA Website:  http://www.nea.org

Wyoming Education Portal:

http://www.k12.wy.us

Wyoming Legislature:

http://legisweb.state.wy.us/

School Finance Information:

http://legisweb.state.wy.us/2005/

interim/schoolfinance/schoolfinance.htm

Inside this issue:

• Next JEC Meeting about Recalibration Set
• Gear Up!  Legislature Begins Feb. 13
• “The Trouble With Boys”
• What Are Your Professional Development Needs? The APA Wants to Know
• Foreign Language Initiative Proposed by Feds
• Nominate an Innovative Teacher

Next JEC Meeting about Recalibration Set

The Joint Education Committee will be meeting next week, at which time we expect the Committee to take some action to correct errors in the proposed funding model.

Joint Education Committee

February 2 and 3

8:30 a.m.

State Capitol Building, Room 302

The recalibrated model is available on the Internet at: http://legisweb.state.wy.us and then click on “School Finance Information” on the left side of the page.

We strongly advise local associations to meet with their administrations to determine whether there are areas of the funding model that will not work in your school or district, and to bring those concerns to the meeting on Feb. 2 and 3.

Gear Up!  Legislature Begins Feb. 13

Wyoming’s Legislature will convene for the biennial budget session on Mon., Feb. 13^th.  This will be a very important session for education issues, including the recalibration of the funding model, employee salaries, proposed early start for the Hathaway Scholarship, and several higher ed. issues, among others.  How can you get more involved?

Ö        To receive daily electronic updates throughout the session, please send your name and e-mail address (home e-mail, not school, is preferred, due to some districts’ constraints on receiving political e-mails) to kscheurman@nea.org.

Ö        To receive training and become a member of a Legislative Contact Team, contact your local Association president.

Ö        WEA and the Education Coalition have facts sheets with talking points about the various education issues, which are available for your use on the WEA Website at: http://www.wyoea.org/legislature/2006LegislativeSession/Fact%20Sheets%20Master%

202006%20Coalition%20Meeting%20Version%201-18-06.pdf.  These can be especially helpful when writing or speaking with your legislators.  Be sure to check back often throughout the session to ensure that you are using the most up-to-date version, as the pages will be updated as warranted.

If you have any questions about the legislative process or any of the issues, please contact WEA Government Relations Director Jason Mincer at jmincer@nea.org.

“The Trouble With Boys”

The Jan. 30, 2006 issue of Newsweek reports on the increasing problem of boys’ performance in school and on standardized tests.

“By almost every benchmark, boys across the nation and in every demographic group are falling behind. In elementary school, boys are two times more likely than girls to be diagnosed with learning disabilities and twice as likely to be placed in special-education classes. High-school boys are losing ground to girls on standardized writing tests. The number of boys who said they didn't like school rose 71 percent between 1980 and 2001, according to a University of Michigan study. Nowhere is the shift more evident than on college campuses. Thirty years ago men represented 58 percent of the undergraduate student body. Now they're a minority at 44 percent. This widening achievement gap, says Margaret Spellings, U.S. secretary of Education, ‘has profound implications for the economy, society, families and democracy.’ With millions of parents wringing their hands, educators are searching for new tools to help tackle the problem of boys.”  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/

What Are Your Professional Development Needs? The APA Wants to Know

The American Psychological Association “Teachers' Needs Survey” is gathering information about teachers' perceptions of professional development in several areas, including classroom management, instructional practices, classroom diversity, family and community outreach, and other teaching skills and knowledge informed by psychological science.  The survey will help inform public policy as well as the creation of APA professional development courses for teachers based on the needs teachers identify. 

APA is seeking a national representative sample of 1000 teachers from urban, suburban and rural schools by June 2006.  To help APA achieve this goal, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers have posted the following survey link on their websites: 

SURVEY LINK:             http://surveys.apa.org/ed/teacherneeds2/ 
NEA ANNOUNCEMENT:        http://nea.org/takenote/apa05survey.html

Foreign Language Initiative Proposed by Feds

President Bush has proposed a new $114 million national initiative on the teaching of critical foreign languages.  The initiative, which would be administered jointly by the Departments of Education, State, and Defense and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, has three broad goals:

·         increase the number of Americans mastering critical need languages and start at a younger age;

·         increase the number of advanced-level speakers of foreign languages, with an emphasis on critical needs languages; and

·         increase the number of foreign language teachers and the resources for them.

Education's FY07 budget proposal will include $57 million for the following areas of the initiative: revised Foreign Language Assistant Program (FLAP); new college-based language partnerships with 24 school districts; program to recruit 1,000 foreign language teachers by 2010 (Language Teacher Corps); expanded Teacher-to-Teacher seminars to reach thousands of foreign language teachers; and a new e-learning language clearinghouse.

According to the Center for Applied Linguistics, only 31% of American elementary schools (24% of public elementary schools) report teaching foreign languages, and 79% focus on giving introductory exposure to a language, rather than achieving overall proficiency.  And, only 44% of American high school students are enrolled in foreign language classes – 69% in Spanish and 18% in French.  http://exchanges.state.gov/universitysummit/. 

Nominate an Innovative Teacher

The U.S. Dept. of Education is accepting nominations for its 2006 American Stars of Teaching awards, which recognize teachers who are improving student achievement—using innovative strategies—and making a difference in the lives of their students. Anyone can nominate an American Star.  After the Department receives a nomination, a verification form is sent to the teacher's principal.  The deadline is April 15.  For more information, please go to http://www.teacherquality.us/TeacherToTeacher/AmericanStars.asp.