August 30, 2017
Education Week, Vol. 37, Issue 02
Education
Letter to the Editor
A Bridge Between Students and the Police
A blog post from earlier this summer poses interesting questions about whether students should be required to learn appropriate behavior when interacting with police.
Education
Letter to the Editor
Hire Retired Educators for Classroom Observations
In the article "Principals are Loath to Give Their Teachers Bad Ratings" Marilyn Boerke, a director of district talent development in Washington state, is quoted as saying, "If you haven't repeatedly gone into the classroom and given suggestions for improvements, it's not really fair to give a poor evaluation."
Education
Letter to the Editor
District HR Teams Need More Support
Education Week's inside look at a sampling of some states' teacher-evaluation ratings raises questions about the data and some observations about districts' capacity to properly evaluate teaching.
Education
Letter to the Editor
Strategic Support for 'Unexpected' Schools
To the Editor: Karin Chenoweth's Commentary on the systems behind "unexpected" schools' success ("What 'Unexpected' Schools Do That Other Schools Don't," July 19, 2017) is right on target.
Education
Letter to the Editor
Unions Are Barrier to Better Teachers
To the Editor: Education Week Teacher blogger Nancy Flanagan recently wrote about how some states require a higher score on state certification tests for teacher-licensing exams—which makes it "unreasonably difficult" to get into teaching—while others eliminate licensing requirements to fill classr...
College & Workforce Readiness
Opinion
Public School Officials Are Artificially Inflating Graduation Rates. I've Seen It Myself
Fraudulent graduation practices give a false sense of educational progress, charges former New York City administrator Bernard Gassaway.
College & Workforce Readiness
Opinion
Credit Recovery May Be Flawed, But It's Fixable
Eliminating credit recovery as a path to graduation would do more harm than good, writes one assistant superintendent.
Early Childhood
Delaying Child's Starting Age for School a Tough Call for Parents
New research suggesting that older kindergartners have an edge over their younger classmates complicates an already difficult decision.
Equity & Diversity
Racial Discrimination Was Behind Ethnic-Studies Courses Ban, Judge Rules
A federal judge has ruled that Arizona's ban on ethnic studies courses was motivated by racial discrimination.
School & District Management
The District Where Principals Run Their Schools—and Teach
Some educator attest to the benefits while other experts argue the double duty can't work in many schools.
School & District Management
Teachers Working in DeVos Ed. Dept. Tread a Fine Line
Teacher ambassador fellows work hard to keep teachers' voices in the federal policy mix—even if the education secretary doesn't always heed their advice.
Every Student Succeeds Act
How States Will Slice ESSA's New Block-Grant Pie
Most will distribute their share of the $400 million flexible funding grant through a formula rather than a competition, which means many districts will just get a small portion.
Every Student Succeeds Act
An Unlikely ESSA Provision: Warning on Copyright Piracy
Language in the sweeping federal law—added at the urging of the film, music, and publishing industries—advises schools to get the message out about copyright laws.
Education Funding
Report Roundup
Teacher Pay
Teachers who work at high-poverty schools and with mostly students of colorare paid less than their peers at affluent schools with mostly white students—but the disparity is worse than people think, argues a new paper from Bellwether Education Partners.
Reading & Literacy
Report Roundup
Character Education
Children are more likely to learn and apply character lessons from books that feature human characters than from stories using humanlike animals, finds a new study in the journal Developmental Science.
Families & the Community
Report Roundup
Parent Involvement
Parents' engagement in infancy and toddlerhood can predict their children's academic skills in 5th grade, concludes a new study in the journal Applied Developmental Science.
Equity & Diversity
Report Roundup
School Diversity
Educators show the same unconscious bias favoring white people as the general U.S. population and use slightly lower academic standards when evaluating black students, finds a new study in the latest issue of the British Journal of Educational Psychology.
Every Student Succeeds Act
State Ed. Chiefs Have New Duties. But Does Their Pay Match Up?
Despite new ESSA-era responsibilities, many state schools superintendents earn much less than the heads of big local districts in their states, an Education Week salary review finds.
Education Funding
State Superintendents: What's in Their Hiring Deals?
The agreements for these high-profile jobs are often chock-full of sweeteners and performance incentives, as well as hard-nosed details about duties.
Families & the Community
News in Brief
Student Protest Over Dress Code Leads to Parents' Arrest in Miss.
A protest over the dress code at a Mississippi high school has resulted in the arrest of some parents for trespassing.
School & District Management
News in Brief
Unveiling New School, Maine's Governor Labels Teachers 'A Dime a Dozen'
Maine Gov. Paul LePage criticized traditional education while unveiling a new vocational school, describing classroom teachers as "a dime a dozen."
College & Workforce Readiness
News in Brief
Beleaguered Ohio Online Charter School Wants to Take on Dropout Recovery
ECOT, Ohio's online charter giant that one study found produced more dropouts than any other school in the nation, is moving into the dropout-prevention line of business.
Special Education
News in Brief
Incorrect Special Ed. Rules Listed on Vermont Website for Four Years
Officials at the Vermont education department say incorrect rules for special education services have been posted on the state website for four years.
Law & Courts
News in Brief
Federal Appeals Court Rejects Appeal From Praying Coach
A Washington state high school football coach took advantage of his position when he prayed on the field after games and is not entitled to immediately get his job back, a federal appeals court ruled last week.
School & District Management
News in Brief
Ferguson Superintendent Charged With Improper Use of Credit Card
The superintendent of the Ferguson-Florissant school district has been arrested on charges that he used a credit card belonging to his former North Carolina district without authorization.
School Climate & Safety
News in Brief
Suicide Rates of Teenage Girls Reach Record 40-Year High
The rate of teenage girls who committed suicide is double what it was in 2007 and the highest in 40 years for that age group, according to newly released data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Law & Courts
News in Brief
LGBT Group Sues Government for Records on Transgender-Guidance-Policy Shift
A prominent LGBT legal group has sued the U.S. departments of Education and Justice for records related to the agencies' decision to withdraw federal guidance on the rights of transgender students in public schools.
Classroom Technology
News in Brief
Twenty-One Percent of Schools Offer Online-Only Courses
Twenty-one percent of U.S. schools offer courses that are entirely online, without any brick-and-mortar activities, and charter schools are much more likely than traditional schools to offer such courses.
Education Funding
News in Brief
DeVos Continued Investing in Company While It Was Under Investigation
The controversial "neurofeedback" company was being investigated by an advertising-industry group for making questionable claims about its treatments for such conditions as autism, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and memory loss.