PO Box 968 Emporia ,
KS 66801
THE NATIONAL TEACHERS
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
The following is a special three-part series detailing the mission
of the National Teachers Hall of Fame,
its unique challenges and options for staying viable.
Special report and page design by Chuck Samples/KVOE News
"The National
Teachers Hall of Fame is probably the least-known Hall of Fame in the country.
It's also the most important."
-- NTHF public relations director Glen Strickland
PART
1: HONORING A NOBLE PROFESSION
Original air date: April 22, 2008
In a few short months,
five career teachers from around the country will come to Emporia and get
inducted into the National Teachers Hall of Fame.
The latest class,
announced on Tuesday, includes:
·
Ronald Blanchard, an Earth science teacher at Ray D. Molo
Middle School, Lake Charles, La.
·
Kathleen Engle, a physical education teacher at Newcastle
Middle School, Newcastle, Wyo.
·
Dr. Penny Ferguson, an English teacher at Maryville High
School, Maryville, Tenn.
·
Dr. David Lazerson, a special education and music director of
The Quest Center, Hollywood, Fla.
·
Susanne Ransleben, a standard and pre-advanced placement
English teacher at Carroll High School, Corpus Christi, Tex.
The selected teachers
will come to Emporia on June 18-20 for a slew of induction events and ceremonies
including a special Municipal Band concert, a visit to the Emporia State
University One-Room Schoolhouse 
and several roundtable discussions.
Retired Emporia High
School teacher Carol Strickland was inducted in 2003 and said it was a surreal
experience. She thought an assembly at Emporia High was for National Merit
scholars before she heard a familiar biography: her own.
"We honored our
National Merit finalists and then (former Emporia State University President
Kay) Schallenkamp and (former Emporia High Principal) Jim Minze came out and
said, 'There's something else that we want to do today,' “ she said. “I was
clueless. I was sitting up in the bleachers with my students. When they started
talking about the National Teachers Hall of Fame and when I saw my mother and
my brother and people that normally are not there at my school, it was kind of
a tip-off."
Rich Ruffalo, a longtime
teacher in New Jersey before retiring to Virginia, got a similar thrill when he
was inducted in 1994.
"Teaching is more than a career. It's a life. And to be
inducted into the wonderful National Teachers Hall of Fame in Emporia was a
thrill for me -- not just as an egocentric way because everybody wants to do
well in his career, but to make you feel self-affirmed that your mission
statement, your career as a teacher, was noticed enough that you helped enough
people. It humbles you and makes you think, 'You know, I did the right thing.'
"
The NTHF has now
surprised 85 educators since its inception in 1992.
In addition to honoring
the teaching profession and recognizing the best of the best in the field, the
Teachers Hall of Fame is working to draw more people to education and improve
teacher quality. Over the last few years, the Hall has sponsored early teacher
workshops and future teacher academies.
The Hall’s work comes at
a time when education is facing pressures from within and without. According to
the 
latest numbers from the National Center for Education Statistics,
there are over 3.2 million public school teachers across the country as of the
2004-2005 school term, with just under 270,000 -- about 8.5 percent -- leaving
the profession.
Of those leaving, some
49,000 leave within three years and another 69,000 leave from four to nine
years of entering the field.
About 31 percent of
exiting teachers retired. In Kansas, 36 percent of all teachers will be
retirement-eligible within the next five years.
However, 30 percent of
teachers say they left either because they were unhappy with teaching as a
career or dissatisfied with their previous school or teaching assignment.
Another 25 percent left to pursue other professions.
Strickland said these
trends will pressure districts to hire unqualified teachers.
"We can't pull
somebody off the street and say, 'Go in and teach math just because you're an
accountant.' You have the skills and the content area, but you may not know how
to teach children. You may not know how to reach them,” she said.” There's a
real concern that out of a panic to get adults in the classroom, we're not
putting teachers in the classroom."
Emporia School District
Superintendent John Heim, an NTHF board member, said pay is a problem.
"Among people who
graduate with a professional degree, teachers are among the lowest paid. In
science and math, people with those backgrounds can get jobs in other places in
business and industry and get paid far more than a starting teacher."
So is the workload.
"Education has
changed,” Heim said. “There is more pressure with accountability. Teachers work
harder now than they ever worked before. If people go into teaching because
they think it's something easy to do or they think they get their summers off,
they quickly get disillusioned."
Ruffalo said there is
also a "free-agent" mentality that affects education in the same way
it does sports.
"In the old days, a
lot of teachers stuck with their school system and a career in a certain
building with a group of certain teachers and they'd stay there a long time.
People hopscotch economically but I think it's this 'me too' 
philosophy of the nowadays,” Ruffalo said. “Instead of being a
servant and being here for others and making an impact others, it's 'what's
best for me.' "
Heim said this affects
all subjects. Another, more sinister factor is the recent spate of questionable
or illegal activities by a select few teachers.
"We've evolved into
a people who believe that if a teacher does something wrong, that is a lead
story for the radio, newspaper or TV,” he said. “You read things about it all
the time. If a teacher does something wrong, that's big news. If an educator
does something right, you struggle to get that on Page 3 or on the end 
of the
newscast."
For Ruffalo, these
reasons help to marginalize education for a lot of people. He says that's
wrong.
"So many times,
teachers are afterthoughts. Without teachers, we don't have great scientists.
We don't have great doctors. We don't have great politicians. We don't have
strategists or economists. Teachers teach all of those and teach lessons for
life."
PART 2: DO THE
The National Teachers Hall of Fame museum has displays of
its inductees and their accomplishments. Photo by Chuck Samples/KVOE News.
Original
air date: April 23, 2008
One
would think large corporations or the national media would flock to the
National Teachers Hall of Fame's lofty goals.
They
don't.
Why not?
When it
comes to big companies, a major problem is people don't realize the NTHF even
exists. Carol Strickland said the Hall of Fame has to work hard just to reach
the people in power.
"If
we had the national recognition, they would say yes immediately. But we have to
do a selling on them in order to make them understand we are important and it
would be a good partnership for 
them," she said.
It isn't
for a lack of trying. Strickland's husband, NTHF public relations director Glen
Strickland, has tried to contact most major newspapers as well large-market
radio and TV stations.
"They
just don't listen to us," he said.
The
Hall's problems in gaining media attention are not unique. Wal-Mart has
suspended its Teacher of the Year program, while Disney and USA Today have
eliminated theirs altogether.
"That's
the only way we're gonna get media coverage -- is to get somebody the media is
willing to have deliver the message for us because they're not willing to let
us deliver the message."
Lane
said that's only one step.
"I
don't think that will give us sustainable financial support, so we also need to
look for corporate sponsorship at a significantly higher level than we've had
in the past," he said.
Corporate
sponsorship has dwindled over the past few years, but NTHF Director of
Induction and Recognition Jenny Harder said the Hall gets help from current
sponsors The New York Times Knowledge Network, Pearson Education and ESU.
It also gets a lot of help from Emporia-area residents. Among other
activities, five people each year pay for the inductees' flights to
An event
two years ago crystallized the Hall's concerns. Birch Telecom moved out of the
NTHF building at 1320 C of E Drive, cutting back rent revenue while forcing the
Hall to absorb other costs like utilities.
"We
were doing fine with the day-to-day operations when we had the tenant. When we
lost the tenant, the overhead in that building was just too high and the building
was too large for our needs," Harder said.
The move
also eventually led the NTHF to move to Visser Hall Room 130 at ESU and to
eliminate the Washington, D.C. half of induction ceremonies.
These
problems lead to perhaps the NTHF's biggest concern since it began in 1992. The
Hall has been struggling for years to pay for its dual role. Stats haven't been
released, but Emporia City Manager and NTHF board treasurer Matt Zimmerman said
it's now falling well short.
"We've
not been able to financially afford even the operations we've had and we've
been scaling back those operations as a result.”
Zimmerman
said that puts the NTHF in a less-than-desirable situation.
“Because
we scale back, we're even less effective in drawing in the kinds of funding
because the programs aren't there that people choose to fund."
Lane
said it costs up to $300,000 to operate the Hall with the dual mission as it
currently stands -- roughly $150,000 to $200,000 to focus on recognition. Glen
Strickland would like to see the NTHF expand its mission despite the financial
hardships, but he also acknowledged that step would cost a lot more money.
"The figure I have in my head is $500,000," he said. "We
could be in good shape at that particular point. We could build on that and
achieve an even higher level than that if possible."
One
option would be an endowment -- something discussed for at least a decade but
never finalized. Carol Strickland said the Hall could operate in its current
capacity with a $3 million endowment and could expand its offerings greatly
with an endowment of $5 million to $6 million.
Lane
said the NTHF is now looking to sell the building and could complete the sale
this summer or fall. That will help it survive over the next two years.
"Not
only will it help solve the Hall's liabilities, but it will leave approximately
half the proceeds to set the foundation for hiring the staff member we need and
continuing Harder as the staffer who's operating the day-to-day things so we
can seek the national sponsorships and move the Hall forward," he said.
PART
3: WORKING OUT A SOLUTION
Original air date: April 24, 2008
Sixteen years after its
initial inductions, the NTHF still faces a unique quandary: how to get the word
out, secure its standing and continue its mission.
Glen Strickland understands all too well the Hall of Fame needs to
find an answer soon.
"If we don't get
the national exposure, people will not know we're out there. That will retard
our effort towards outreach and encouraging teachers," Strickland said.
Birch Telecom’s decision
to move made the Hall of Fame’s drive for media attention and stable funding
much more urgent.
With that in
mind, Lane convened a task force last year to assess the situation and make
recommendations for the future.
"The one thing that
we have unanimous agreement on is the primary function of the National Teachers
Hall of Fame is needs to be to recognize and reward career teachers," he
said.
Does that mean the NTHF
will stop its work towards teacher recruitment, retention and improvement? Not
necessarily, but that effort may get de-emphasized.
"Because of funding
issues and leadership issues who did or didn't have those particular skills, we
didn't do that very effectively. The board has come to the conclusion that
we're not likely to do that effectively because it would take a larger staff
than we could afford to have," Lane said
Lane has mentioned the need for a spokesman the national media
will accept. Enter the Cases and Campaigns public relations class at ESU.
Over the past several
months, students have worked hard to help the Hall of Fame -- especially with
the new "One in a Million: Teachers Who Make A Difference" teacher
recognition program, where people can name outstanding teachers that affected
their lives for a $1 donation.
Students have contacted corporations
and charitable foundations like the Gates Foundation, Trump Foundation and Paul
Newman Foundation. Among the endorsements so far: NFL Hall of Famer Gene Mingo,
1990 Nobel Prize winner and noted economist Harry Markowitz, "Saved By The
Bell" principal Dennis Haskins 
and, perhaps the
most recognizable name nowadays, NASCAR superstar and Emporia native Clint
Bowyer.
You won't see or hear
any public service announcements -- at least through traditional means. You
will, however, see them on the Internet courtesy of YouTube.
NTHF employees and board
members hope to generate interest through the YouTube ads, spokespeople and
other means because that is critical to another concern: generating traffic.
Since the Hall of
Fame moved to the ESU campus, visitors have been minimal. Lane says
approximately 2,000 people visited the hall last year, with 1,200 coming for
induction week and another 300 to 400 visiting as part of university-guided
tours.
If traffic doesn't
improve dramatically -- and soon -- Lane said the NTHF will have to consider
moving yet again: this time out of a building altogether and instead relying
strictly on its Internet presence.
"We collect video
clips of the inductees and we collect videotapes of their supporters. That's
part of the package they submit. Our displays include many of the awards the
teachers have received in the past," Lane said. "We could create
photos or video clips of those and display those in a nice manner along with a
photo of the recipients."
Should that happen, Lane
said the NTHF still needs to raise the profile of its Web site, www.nthf.org.
Besides possibly moving to
the Internet, there could be another visible change coming. Should the sale of
1320 C of E Drive generate enough money, it could hire a president almost
entirely responsible for fostering corporate sponsorships. Zimmerman says it
could also fund a consultant to give further direction.
If the sale of the
building goes through as expected, the NTHF effectively has a two-year window
to solidify its position. And as it enters the next two years, the Hall of Fame
prepares to continue its mission of teacher recognition, recruitment and
improvement at the same time it steels itself for possibly major changes.
However, all involved
say they are confident the Hall will meet the challenges ahead. Zimmerman says
the NTHF needs to keep its Emporia ties regardless of its final form.
"I feel confident
the connection will be there. It's not only such a key part of Emporia but also
a key part of Emporia State and Kansas State Teachers College," he said.
Lane says change is
almost inevitable.
"I think it will be
different from what it is today. I think we will get out of the program
business because we've demonstrated that's not our strength or core
competency," he said. "I think we're all committed to the concept of
honoring career teachers and making sure they get the recognition they deserve
on a national basis."
Harder says despite
potential change, the NTHF will survive and grow.
"It's a worthy
program and there's a lot of support for it locally," she said.
"These are amazing people that do an amazing job given the restrictions
that 
sometimes have
been placed upon them."
Harder said educators
have more time with children than parents do, so recognizing their efforts is
important.
"Just to say, ‘Thank
you and you're doing a wonderful job,’ I think that's important to
everyone."
Carol Strickland says
the NTHF a great way to show appreciation to some truly deserving individuals
and a noble profession at large.
"(The NTHF
induction) one of those moments that teachers need to feel more often where the
elevation of the profession is there and people care about what we do in the
classroom over the years," she said.
For more information about the National Teachers Hall of Fame,
visit www.nthf.org or go to the Hall of Fame
at Visser Hall Room 130 on the