Jan. 8, 2014
Education Week, Vol. 33, Issue 15
Privacy & Security
InBloom Sputters Amid Concerns About Privacy of Student Data
The education nonprofit, which burst onto the scene a year ago backed by $100 million in grants, is struggling to convince states and districts to use its cloud-based, data-organization program.
School Climate & Safety
Cloud Computing in K-12 Expands, Raising Data Privacy Concerns
Many school districts have not set clear policies and practices for storing data in the cloud, according to a study by the Fordham Law School.
Standards
Inspections Piloted for Teacher-Prep Programs
The effort, now focused on New Mexico and Texas, seeks to gauge how standards for teacher preparation are playing out in lecture halls and K-12 classrooms.
Law & Courts
Colorado District Found to Violate Campaign Rules
A state judge says the Douglas County school system broke campaign laws when it commissioned a white paper supporting the school board's 'reform agenda.'
Federal
Opinion
The Yellow School Bus: A Model for Equity
It will take applying a grass-roots theory of educational change to public schools to recapture the spirit of community, equity, and shared responsibility that is symbolized by the yellow school bus, Peter W. Cookson Jr. writes.
International
Opinion
Learning From a Test
Using a miniversion of the Program for International Student Assessment can be a powerful tool in understanding the factors that have an impact on school performance, writes Jack Dale.
Equity & Diversity
News in Brief
Chicago Adds Black History to Its Core Curriculum
More than two decades after Illinois enacted a law that requires public schools to teach African-American studies, the 404,000-student Chicago district has announced a new guide for incorporating the subject into core classes.
Education
Correction
Corrections
The Dec. 11, 2013, issue of Education Week mistakenly reprinted Pages 3-5 of the preceding week's issue. A mailer with the correct pages (containing the Table of Contents, News in Brief, and Report Roundup) has been sent to print subscribers; the pages may also be viewed online.
School & District Management
News in Brief
Transition
Matthew Blomstedt was chosen as Nebraska's new education commissioner, effective Jan. 2.
School Climate & Safety
News in Brief
Fla. Court Backs Gun Search Based on Anonymous Tip
A recent state court ruling backs the ability of school administrators and security personnel to rely on anonymous tips to thwart potential school violence.
Education Funding
News in Brief
N.C. Teachers' Group Sues Over Private School Grants
Public school advocates have sued North Carolina in a bid to block a new law that would let taxpayer money be used by low-income students wishing to attend private or religious schools.
Teaching Profession
News in Brief
Most Wis. School Unions Survive Recertification
Scores of school worker unions in Wisconsin mustered enough member votes in recertification elections to go on representing employees in wage negotiations, state data show.
Teaching Profession
News in Brief
Undocumented Immigrants Sought as Recruits for TFA
Teach For America will seek out undocumented college graduates who meet its criteria to become teachers in some of the nation's most challenged public schools.
Teaching Profession
News in Brief
D.C. Discloses Mistakes in 'Value Added' Scores
Errors were made in calculating the "value added" scores of 10 percent of the District of Columbia teachers who were evaluated using that model for the 2012-13 school year.
IT Infrastructure & Management
News in Brief
Ed-Tech Revenue Grows in P-12 Market
Educational software and digital content sold in the P-12 market accounted for $7.97 billion in company revenues in 2011-12, according to survey results released by the Software and Information Industry Association's education division.
Standards
News in Brief
Kansas Drops Out of Testing Group
Kansas has decided to pull out of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium and use tests designed by its state university instead.
Professional Development
News in Brief
National-Board Certifications Continue to Drop Off
The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards has announced that 4,117 teachers received certification from the group in 2013—down 17 percent from the previous year and more than 50 percent from 2008.
Special Education
News in Brief
U.S. House Leaders Request Report on IDEA Paperwork
House education committee leaders have asked the Government Accountability Office to find out which parts of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act create the most paperwork for schools and to figure out why no state has taken advantage of paperwork-reduction pilot programs written into the law when it was reauthorized nearly 10 years ago.
Law & Courts
News in Brief
Former Atlanta Educators Plead Guilty Over Cheating
Eight former educators indicted in Atlanta's sprawling cheating case have pleaded guilty in recent weeks, many of them admitting to lesser charges in exchange for their pleas.
Federal
News in Brief
NCLB Waivers Let Many Schools Escape Penalties, Study Says
Waivers under the No Child Left Behind Act have provided an escape hatch for many schools that were facing some of the toughest penalties under the 12-year-old federal school accountability law, according to a paper by the New America Foundation, a Washington think tank.
College & Workforce Readiness
Report Roundup
College Completion
New data released by the federal Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System show that a significant proportion of students do finish college degrees and professional certificates—but in double the traditional time allotted for those programs.
Education Funding
Report Roundup
Research Report: Common Core
America's school principals overwhelmingly have put the rollout of the Common Core State Standards at the top of their agenda, but the vast majority also say they are not adequately prepared.
Federal
Report Roundup
School Meals
Many school kitchens are better suited for opening cans and boxes of prepackaged foods than for preparing made-from-scratch entrees and peeling farm-fresh produce, a study released last month says.
Teaching Profession
Report Roundup
Study Finds Educator Training Lacking
Most teacher colleges appear to spend at least some instructional time on classroom-management techniques, but it's often incomplete, not based on research, or divorced from the student-teaching experience.
States
Students' Shifting Marijuana Views Tied to Legalization Push
Some experts are blaming campaigns to legalize marijuana for rises in the numbers of teenagers who use the drug or view its regular use as harmless.
School & District Management
State Lawmakers Face Tough Choices on Common Core
Implementation of the common standards is likely to be a hot topic for legislators in a number of states as their 2014 sessions get rolling.
International
Opinion
Why the U.S. Results on PISA Matter
Don't listen to PISA critics, writes Eric A. Hanushek, who argues that the stagnation of American students' scores on the international assessment is cause for serious concern about schools and the nation's economic future.