May 13, 2015
Education Week, Vol. 34, Issue 30
English-Language Learners
Interactive
Las estadísticas de los estudiantes ELL
Vea dónde viven los estudiantes de inglés como segundo idioma y qué lenguas nativas hablan.
English-Language Learners
Interactive
English-Language-Learner Statistics
See where English-language learners live and which home languages they speak.
Education
Beating the Legislative Odds
Getting a bill passed in Congress can be a major feat. Can you do better than the politicians?
Classroom Technology
Grassroots 'EduColor' Group Spotlights Racial Inequities
A collective of teachers, advocates, and scholars is leveraging social media to elevate the perspectives of people of color in education policy discussions.
Standards
Common-Core Testing Drives 'Tech Prep' Priorities
As most states shift their required tests to computers, teachers are discovering that their students are missing key technical skills to show what they know.
Law & Courts
Washington State Lawmakers Clash on K-12 Funding
A special session over how to pay for basic education bares partisan divides over tax policy and questions about the fallout for districts and unions.
Law & Courts
Minn. Lawsuit Raises Questions About Teacher-Licensure Portability
A group of 10 educators claims the state erects arbitrary barriers to make it difficult for out-of-state teachers to obtain certification in the state.
Federal
Cabinet Officials Offer Aid Assurances After Baltimore Unrest
The heads of the Education and Labor Departments discussed ways the federal government could support the Baltimore community in the aftermath of last month's rioting.
Student Well-Being
Unions Back Scrapping Tax on High-Cost Health-Care Plans
The two national teachers' unions put muscle behind passage of the Affordable Care Act, but now support legislation to repeal a tax that stands to affect their members.
Standards
School Librarians Push for More 'Maker Spaces'
Librarians are showing growing interest in the "maker movement" as their roles shift from collectors of information to facilitators of project-based learning.
School Climate & Safety
Opinion
Gifted Education Is About the Whole Child
Schools need to meet the social, emotional, and educational needs of their gifted students, argues Celi Trépanier.
English-Language Learners
Opinion
Bilingual Students Need Support in Their Native Language
The ESEA language policy does not reflect the critical role a student's first language plays in cognitive development, writes Joe Levitan.
Teaching Profession
Letter to the Editor
Are Early-Childhood Educators 'Real' Teachers? You Bet They Are.
To the Editor:
At the end of the early-childhood-education classes I teach, we discuss issues related to professionalism. Recently, this conversation with one of my students took an unexpected turn when she asked me if she was a "real" teacher.
At the end of the early-childhood-education classes I teach, we discuss issues related to professionalism. Recently, this conversation with one of my students took an unexpected turn when she asked me if she was a "real" teacher.
Equity & Diversity
Letter to the Editor
Economic Hardships Need Not Mean 'Huge Deficits' in School
To the Editor:
In "Teachers' Ethnicity Matters" (Walt Gardner's Reality Check blog, www.edweek.org, April 15, 2015), Walt Gardner argues that we should work to diversify our teacher workforce, but cautions that this goal comes with a challenge—students and families who face economic hardships and bring "huge deficits in socialization, motivation, and intellectual development to class through no fault of their own."
In "Teachers' Ethnicity Matters" (Walt Gardner's Reality Check blog, www.edweek.org, April 15, 2015), Walt Gardner argues that we should work to diversify our teacher workforce, but cautions that this goal comes with a challenge—students and families who face economic hardships and bring "huge deficits in socialization, motivation, and intellectual development to class through no fault of their own."
Reading & Literacy
Letter to the Editor
Reading for Pleasure Can Close 'Vocabulary Gap' at Any Age
To the Editor:
Children of poverty clearly have slower vocabulary development, and this appears to be related not only to the quantity but also the quality of their interaction with parents ("Research on Quality of Conversation Holds Deeper Clues Into Word Gap," April 22, 2015).
Children of poverty clearly have slower vocabulary development, and this appears to be related not only to the quantity but also the quality of their interaction with parents ("Research on Quality of Conversation Holds Deeper Clues Into Word Gap," April 22, 2015).
Education
Correction
Corrections
Baker Kurrus, a lawyer, will be the new superintendent of the 25,000-student Little Rock district in Arkansas.
Education
News in Brief
Transitions
William J. Bushaw, a former teacher and a veteran of the worlds of research and state education policy, has been selected as the new executive director of the National Assessment Governing Board.
School Choice & Charters
Efforts to Regulate Home Schooling Rekindle Controversies
As state policymakers push for more oversight of home schooling families, advocates for education at home are split over how much regulation is necessary.
Assessment
News in Brief
Officials in Ariz. Seek Probe of Suspected Cheating
The state education department invalidated a number of 2014 tests at the schools because of answers being changed.
Student Well-Being
News in Brief
Ariz. Students Vulnerable to Spread of Measles
Many kindergarten classrooms in Arizona are vulnerable to the spread of measles because so few children have been vaccinated.
Student Well-Being
News in Brief
Calif. on Path to Banning Schools' Use of 'Redskins'
The California Assembly approved a bill last week that would prohibit public schools from using "Redskins" as a school or team name, mascot, or nickname.
School & District Management
News in Brief
Texas Moves to Eliminate High School Steroids Testing
The Texas Senate has voted to scrap the state's high school steroids-testing program after more than 60,000 tests caught just a handful of cheaters since 2007.
Ed-Tech Policy
News in Brief
Privacy Ratings Underway for Ed-Tech Products
More than 20 districts are working with Common Sense Media to establish a system that will rate the privacy policies on ed-tech products used by schools.
School Climate & Safety
News in Brief
Families Sue Calif. District for Teacher's Alleged Abuses
Six families are suing a Northern California school district where a special education teacher has been charged with child abuse and battery for allegedly mistreating children in her classroom.
Assessment
Report Roundup
States Are Extending Mandates For Compulsory Education
As states look to prepare students for 21st century jobs, many have extended the upper and lower limits of their compulsory education requirements.
School & District Management
Report Roundup
Students With Disabilities
A small percentage of children who had been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder as toddlers no longer showed symptoms of the disorder four years later, but most continued to have emotional or learning disorders, according to a study.
Law & Courts
News in Brief
Student's Facebook Rant Ruled Free Speech
A federal judge has ruled that an Oregon 8th grader's rant to a friend on Facebook about his health teacher was protected free speech.
Science
Report Roundup
Science Education
A recent survey found that 80 percent of respondents were familiar with the Next Generation Science Standards, and of those, 60 percent held a favorable view of them.