NEA AND WEA TIDBITS FROM HISTORY

Summer of 1857 43 Educators Philadelphia Organized

Choice between Marriage Teaching

Eventually marriage was allowed Pregnancy was not until the 1970’s

The Call The 1857 invitation to form the National

Teachers Association: “Believing that what has been accomplished for the states by

state associations may be done for the whole country by a National Association, we, the undersigned, invite our fellow-educators throughout the United States to assemble...for the purpose of organizing a National Teachers Association...We cordially extend this invitation to all practical teachers in the North, the South, the East, and the West, who are willing to unite in a general effort to promote the general welfare of our country by concentrating the wisdom and power of numerous minds, and distributing among all the accumulated experiences of all; who are ready to devote their energies and their means to advance the dignity, respectability and usefulness of their calling; and who, in fine, believe that the time has come when the teachers of the nation should gather into one great educational brotherhood...”

Written by Thomas Valentine President of the New York Teachers Association

1857 Free people of color

Built schools

Robert Campbell National Teachers Association

Only black founding member

1891 23 Ohio Teachers

Black Teacher’s Association Salaries

$18 to $50 per month

Slave states Outlawed Education for free Blacks

1861 Civil War NTA focused on impact of war on

Education

1865 War ended NTA convention

Denounced slavery Recommended

Seceded states Provide free public schools to Blacks and Whites

“My first school consisted of three children, for each of whom I was paid fifty cents a month. I also taught three adult slaves at night, thus making my monthly income from teaching only three dollars...The next thing which arrested my attention was botany… Descriptive chemistry, natural philosophy, and descriptive astronomy followed in rapid succession... My researches in botany gave me a relish for zoology; but as I could never get hold of any work on this science I had to make books for myself. This I did by killing such insects, toads, snakes, young alligators, fishes, and young sharks as I could catch. I then cleaned and stuffed those that I could, and hung them upon the walls of my school-room.” 

Daniel Alexander Payne President of Wilberforce University in Ohio First African-American college president in the United

States Opened his own school at the age of 19

Reconstruction Taught children Children taught grandparents Emancipated slaves

Campaigned Universal State supported schools

NTA sought federal aid

1867 NTA lobbied Congress

Established Federal Department of Education

NTA Open to Minority Educators Barred Women 1866

Opened membership to “persons” Women teachers had more autonomy than

peers

1869 Emily Rice

Vice President

1870 National Education Association

National Teachers Association American Normal School Association The National Association of School

Superintendents The Central College Association

1884 Thomas W. Bicknell (president elect)

Traveled the nation to promote convention Persuaded railroad

Offer Discounted rail fares to Madison Collected NEA dues Distributed 100,000 copies of Pamphlet on NEA and

Madison

1884 Booker T. Washington

Addressed the NEA convention

1892 “The Council of Ten”

Recommend secondary instruction program

1899 Department of Indian Education

Researched Negative impact of isolation and assimilation of

American Indian Nations

1900 Salaries under $50 per month Women less than men 60 students in classes

No support

1903 Margaret Haley from Chicago

Led Demonstrations at Convention Improving the lot of teachers

NEA created Committee to improve

Salaries Tenures Pensions

1904 J.R.E. Lee

Black educator Founded the National Association of Colored

Teachers Later became the American Teachers Association

1905 NEA’s convention

Devoted to child labor

1906 Ella Flagg Young

First female president Years prior to gaining the right to vote

1907 Ella Flagg Young“If the public school system is to meet the

demands which 20th century civilization must lay upon it, the isolation...of teachers from the administration of the school must be overcome…can it be true that teachers are stronger in their work when they have no voice in planning the great issues committed to their hands?”

1907 Represented 5,044 members First 50 years

Administrators led the organization Teachers dominated the membership

Wanted a greater voice

Early 20th Century Wages remained a critical matter

Responsibilities continued to grow Expanded curriculums Increased paperwork and testing Managed multiage classrooms Hundreds of students

1909 Survey of major cities

More than half the students couldn’t speak English

Teacher shortages NEA proposed salary schedules to retain

teachers

1920 NEA became a Representative Assembly

Composed of delegates from States and locals

1920’s Focuses on improving teacher pay Establishing retirement pensions Strengthening public schools

October 20, 1929 All pushing halted Schools had no money for

Materials and supplies Teachers copied texts long hand Some schools closed altogether

1926 NEA and American Teachers Association

Joint committee Forces the Southern Association of Schools and

Colleges Evaluate and accredit Black schools

1933 Federal Advisory Committee on the

Emergency in Education NEA joins this work Assistance and federal aid to schools

1941 NEA coordinated

Rationing of sugar, oil and canned good Promoted

Defense Savings Stamps Defense Bonds “Victory gardens” Salvage scrap metal

1941 continued Lobbied congress

Special funding for schools near military bases

Military schoolchildren didn’t add to tax base when on federal installations

G.I. Bill of Rights

1950’s Racial segregation

NEA advocated for change Refused to hold RA in cities that

discriminated against delegates based on race

1954 Brown v. Board of Education

Black teachers had largely financed the case NEA’s RA urged all Americans to:

Approach integration in a spirit of good will and fair play

1957 RA in Philadelphia Focused on

Strengthening public education Improve credentialing of educations Garner more respect for the profession

700,000 members

1959 Wisconsin

Collective bargaining law for public employees

1964 17 states used Brown v. Board of Education

Dismiss hundreds of black teachers NEA established a $1 million fund

“Protect and promote the professional, civil and human rights of educators.”

Protected teachers participating in voter registration drives

Asked each member to donate $1 to the fund

1964 RA passed a resolution

Required racially segregated affiliates to merge

1966 NEA and ATA merge at RA

1966 Three months after merger

NEA sponsored conference on bilingual education

Led to Bilingual Education Act

1967 Braulio Alonso

First Hispanic president

1968 Elizabeth Duncan Koontz

First Black president Established Human and Civil Rights division

Howard Carrrol, NEA Staff reporter

"I went down to Selma because the teachers, our Black members, played such a big part in the civil rights movement. When I went into the schools and talked to the teachers, I saw the stark differences in their circumstances. It was a tragedy to think that people who were our members were denied the opportunities White educators had. A few weeks before the final march to Montgomery, many teachers had been assaulted when they tried to march across the Pettus Bridge. The march had to be halted because the marchers were overcome by tear gas.”

1965 National media Set up at Alabama EA headquarters

SHORT HISTORY OF WEA

1889 Washington State Teacher’s Association

was formed Teachers and administrators 124 members J. H. Morgan WSTA president Salary was $266.30 per month

1915 Teachers must have a four year high school

degree WEA backed legislation

1917 Class A districts

Create teacher retirement plans $480

Teacher contribution $12, $24 or $36 depending on years taught

1918 President serves a second term

Statewide meeting canceled due to flu epidemic

The WSTA and State Teachers' League merge Become WEA Affiliates with the National Education

Association School administrators active members and

remain High school graduation rate

16.8 percent of 17-year-olds.

1923 Statewide retirement act approved by

Legislature WEA pressured for this

1933 WEA urges “New Barefoot Schoolboy”

bill Establishing an income tax

Legislature investigates WEA “Usurpation of authority” No allegations substantiated

1940 Graduation rate is 29% of 17 year olds

1950 Graduation rate is 59%

1959 WEA lobbies SHB 135

Guarantees 10 sick leave day per year

1960 Graduation rate 69.5%

1963 Legislature allow districts to participate

in health insurance benefits

1965 Washington’s Professional Negotiations

Act School Boards confer and negotiate with

employee groups on adoption of key policies

1970 NEA adopts field staff program

Creates UniServ representatives High School graduation 76.9%

1967 Legislature approves

collective bargaining law for classified school employees

1968 Tacoma approves first

collective bargaining contract

1969 Seattle negotiates a

collective bargaining contract

1973 Evergreen School District close schools for

two weeks Superior Court judge issues an injunction. Teachers defy the order and refuse to return to

class Evergreen EA President Fred Ensman and Action

Committee chair Dick Johnson jailed

1973 Two days later, the judge jails EEA Interim

President John Zavodsky The EEA appoints female member as president EEA teachers march en masse to the courtroom

to surrender for jail The judge refuses to lock up a woman president

or any of the teachers Other leaders remain jailed 45 days (43 for

Zavodsky).

1974 The first fall strikes Federal Way, Tacoma, Mukilteo and

Olympic College. Federal Way schools hire strikebreakers

to keep classes in session during the tense 20-day strike.

1975 New bargaining law takes effect in 1976 Declines to make teacher strikes legal or

illegal Legislators strike down bargaining rights to

community college staff

1975 UniServ staff organize locals WEA and Northshore unsuccessfully

challenge the state's school funding Setting the stage for a successful lawsuit by

Seattle and other districts the next year Passage of federal Education for All

Handicapped Children Act.

1977 The Legislature responds to school funding

lawsuit Defines basic education Adopts a plan to fully fund it Approves a levy lid