Elkhart teachers buy billboard space, want you to know about the

Elkhart teachers buy billboard space, want you to know about the good they do
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Elkhart teachers buy billboard space, want you to know about the good they
do
by: Tom Lange
Posted: 3/14/2011 12:24:00 AM
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ELKHART -- While lawmakers in Indianapolis consider a number of ambitious, controversial bills concerning education reform, teachers in Elkhart are reminding residents
of the good Indiana educators have accomplished.
The Elkhart Teachers Association is paying for eight billboards in Elkhart and St. Joseph Counties this month. ETA officials hope the billboards serve as a voice for
teachers.
"A lot of the stuff out right now is very negative," said Steve Szyarto, vice president of the Elkhart Teachers Association, "We tried to put some things up there that are
positive."
The billboards contain summations from reports published by the National Assessment of Educational Progress and
the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study. One billboard states that the percentage of Indiana
fourth-graders who have scored at or above average in math has risen from 60 percent to more than 87 percent
since 1992 and another that Indiana students test higher in math than students in England, Germany and the U.S.
average.
A third billboard states that collective bargaining is good for teachers and students.
ETA President Alex Holtz said condensing dozens of results pages from the NAEP and TIMSS studies into billboardlength text was tricky, but added that nothing is misrepresented.
The cost for the billboards was $7,000. Most of the cash came from the ETA's reserve fund, and Penn Harris
Madison Schools contributed to help with the cost of the St. Joseph County billboards.
Holtz said that the ETA is not opposed to reform, but he would like whatever measures that are taken to
acknowledge the successes teachers have had.
"We really need to enter into it with a do-no-harm mentality," he said, "because we've got a lot of good things going
on in public education right now."
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