Government Relations Legislative Workshop participants share their expertise with lawmakers on Capitol Hill
From Alaska to New Jersey, Louisiana to Massachusetts, 65 educators and reading professionals traveled to Washington, DC, during President’s Day week to learn, network, and meet with their Congressional representatives on key federal and state education issues.
The International Reading Association 2008 Government Relations Legislative Workshop, held February 21-22, offered a peek at the machinery of state and showed how determined individuals and organizations can work to make government responsive to constituents and their needs.
After a half day of learning and discussing relevant issues and approaches on Thursday, participants were ready to carry their message to senators and representatives. On Friday morning, armed with IRA talking points, the education advocates trooped from the Hall of the States on North Capitol Street to the Cannon, Rayburn, and Longworth buildings to see House representatives or to the Dirksen, Hart, or Russell buildings to visit senators or their staffs. The participants also were urged to bring their local council or state association issues to the attention of their legislators and to stay in touch with them throughout the year.
Jesse Moore, chair of IRA’s Government Relations Committee, welcomed participants in the workshop Thursday, which drew many new reading professionals as well as returning veterans.
Richard Long, IRA’s director of government relations, presented an overview of the issues, focusing on changes to the No Child Left Behind Act, support of reading/literacy coaches within the Higher Education Act, other education funding issues including the massive cuts to Reading First, and, perhaps most importantly, the garnering of support for IRA’s new legislative initiative on professional development.
Long said it is recognized that teachers and teaching make a difference in student learning and that the professional development called for in Reading First has resulted in noticeable improvements in student achievement. IRA’s position is that the nation needs a comprehensive professional development plan that would include stricter teacher licensing and certification standards, better teacher recruiting and retention methods, and would promote effective evidence-based reading practices.
IRA is currently seeking Congressional sponsors and cosponsors for the proposal. With the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act being problematic and with it being an election year, there exists a more hospitable environment for smaller, specific, bipartisan legislation to be passed, Long said.
Long also pointed out that because education no longer is the top agenda item for Presidential and Congressional candidates, it is up to reading professionals to promote education issues to their lawmakers. He said teachers vote at higher levels than most other professions, can generate very organized campaigns, and should take advantage of their strengths to influence federal and state education policies.
Jack W. Humphrey and Nancy Clewell of IRA’s Government Relations Advisory Board Committee, and Francine Z. Stayter, advocacy director of the New York State Reading Association (NYSRA), presented the results of a comprehensive survey concerning legislative reading issues taken last year of council officers, IRA coordinators, legislative chairs, and participants in last year’s Government Relations Workshop. Humphrey reported that in 2007 the top five key issues overall were
Stayter briefly linked the top five themes to Response to Intervention initiatives in New York, which she discussed at length later, and Suzanne Clewell, legislative chair of the State of Maryland International Reading Association Council, went over various comments from states that had strong survey results in the “Big Five” themes. Concerns about funding federal initiatives, revamping No Child Left Behind, and dissatisfaction with high-stakes testing were expressed, as well as suggestions that better communication with state legislators about standards and testing is needed.
The survey results and other presentation materials are available at www.reading.org/association/meetings/legislative.html.
Stayter and Karen A. Costello, legislative chair of the Connecticut Association for Reading Research (CARR), a special interest council of the Connecticut Reading Association, reported on their associations’ involvement with Response to Intervention (RTI) initiatives.
The NYSRA found there was a need for the association itself to provide affordable, research-based professional development on RTI presented by experts to educators. NYRSA has sponsored three professional development sessions on RTI so far and continues to learn from its experiences. Stayter said NYSRA has adopted a can-do spirit: “If no one’s doing it and you believe it’s important, find a way to do it yourselves.” She said organizers learned that you have to stay in touch with teachers and members throughout the whole education spectrum—from pre-K through high school.
In Connecticut, the focus has been on involvement in statewide systemic reform from pre-K to college, Costello said. A reading summit was held in November last year that began a dialogue on how to change the educational system to eliminate large gaps in reading achievement performance between poor, ELL, and minority students and their wealthier, white counterparts. An advisory panel was appointed and has been working to design a three-tiered model of RTI to reduce the number of special education referrals.
After breakfast in the Rayburn Building and role playing by Donna Ewigleben and Suzanne Clewell about the pitfalls and possibilities of legislative contact, participants visited their representatives. Because it was President’s Day recess, most lawmakers were not on Capitol Hill–but their assistants were. Through a little light drizzle, the participants threaded their way to the representatives’ offices. Some dared to navigate the honeycomb of tunnels that connects some of the office buildings–even under the Capitol.
Participants returned afterward to the Hall of the States, most sharing their belief that their visits had made an impact. Sometimes the most important contact is the lawmaker’s aide, several participants said. Often Senators and Congressional representatives are so busy that the best way to reach them is by cultivating a good relationship with their aides and staying in touch with them throughout the year.
The second day’s session continued with Natalie Smith, past president of the New Jersey Reading Association and a member of IRA’s Government Relations Committee Advisory Board, naming the 2008 Advocacy Award winners. She also discussed criteria for the awards and urged expanded participation by all IRA member organizations.
A big change for IRA in the coming year and a half involves moving the date of the Government Relations Workshop to the summer, Long said. It likely will be held around the Fourth of July, and a major reason for the change is the inclement weather often faced by February workshop participants.
IRA also would like to interact more frequently with councils and hence is planning more PowerPoint presentations accessible on the IRA website as well as more Webinars and podcasts, he said.
In terms of issues, he said Head Start, which has a new literacy requirement, will be evolving toward becoming a literacy program; Response to Intervention will lead to changes in school/classroom management; and there will be ever increasing numbers of ELL students in regular classes. Technological change will not slow down and there will be a continuing dialogue over whether ELL students have developmental issues or learning disabilities. Also, in the next five years, he said, the impact of changing economics will lead to an expanding federal deficit, declining state revenues, and more outsourcing of jobs.
In specific education policy terms
What all of this means for IRA members, Long said, is that to push effectively for policy change we have to make our arguments sharper, our documentation stronger, and change our accountability measures to be more useful for instruction. “We will have to ride with the trends because the rate of change will only increase,” he said.
Reading pros step to the plate. (April 2008). Reading Today, 25(5), 1, 6.
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