May 30, 2018
Education Week, Vol. 37, Issue 33
School Climate & Safety
Shootings Spark Debate Over School Design
When a Texas official called for making schools safer by limiting entrances to buildings, gun control advocates panned him. But architects say doing so is a common part of comprehensive safety plans for schools.
School Climate & Safety
Teens Are Cyberbullying Themselves. Why?
Digital self-harm is a newer form of teenage expression of self-hatred and depression that is just beginning to capture the attention of school officials.
Federal
State Restrictions on School Choice Earn Betsy DeVos' Ire
In a strongly worded speech to a Roman Catholic organization, the education secretary says so-called "Blaine" amendments should be consigned to the "ash heap of history."
Equity & Diversity
DeVos Deflects Criticism at Capitol Hill Hearing
House Democrats and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos sparred over civil rights and ESSA, but largely avoided controversial questions about school safety in the aftermath of the Texas high school shooting last week.
Teaching Profession
Survey of K-3 Teachers Finds Affinity With Preschool Colleagues
Findings from the national survey include significant support for a unified and aligned system of early-childhood education from birth to age 8.
Student Well-Being & Movement
From Our Research Center
A Third of Students Need Eye Exams, Study Finds
Nearsightedness is on the rise among schoolchildren, but many students have not had the vision screening needed to detect the problem.
School & District Management
Opinion
Why Don't We Challenge the Narrow Vision of Ed. Leadership?
When you reject "the way we’ve always done things," you may find your leadership challenged, note Carolyn R. Hodges and Olga M. Welch.
Mathematics
Opinion
We Should Teach Math Like It's a Language
Solving the nation's math problem requires a new approach, writes Jeannine Diddle Uzzi of the University of Southern Maine.
Ed-Tech Policy
Opinion
Is Silicon Valley Standardizing 'Personalized' Learning?
Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan’s charitable investments to promote student learning through personalized learning could backfire, warns one researcher.
School Climate & Safety
Opinion
7 Suggestions for Better School Discipline
Whether or not the Trump administration rescinds Obama-era discipline guidance, Michael J. Petrilli has suggestions for what should come next.
Education
Letter to the Editor
A Reductive View of Single Parenthood
To The Editor:
In a recent Commentary ("What NAEP Scores Aren't Telling Us," April 25, 2018), Ian Rowe wrote that single parenthood among young mothers creates a much greater risk of fragile families. This fragility correlates with child poverty and chronic student absenteeism and negatively affects long-term academic achievement. Researchers from the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive-rights research organization, agree that unintended pregnancies result in poorer outcomes for those children. What Rowe fails to mention is a solution.
In a recent Commentary ("What NAEP Scores Aren't Telling Us," April 25, 2018), Ian Rowe wrote that single parenthood among young mothers creates a much greater risk of fragile families. This fragility correlates with child poverty and chronic student absenteeism and negatively affects long-term academic achievement. Researchers from the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive-rights research organization, agree that unintended pregnancies result in poorer outcomes for those children. What Rowe fails to mention is a solution.
Education
Letter to the Editor
Teachers Deserve Advocacy Channels
To The Editor:
As someone who has worked closely with many teachers over three decades with the Illinois National Education Association affiliate, I believe the vast majority of teachers hate striking. They use the move as a last resort to what they see as completely unworkable situations. The current wave of strikes and walkouts in a handful of states ("Teacher Strikes Show Power in Numbers," May 9, 2018) has produced some success, with lawmakers meeting demands for teacher raises and more education funding. But we can't ignore the fact that teachers' demands stem from states' systematic cuts to public schools, which makes teaching and learning for teachers and students increasingly untenable.
As someone who has worked closely with many teachers over three decades with the Illinois National Education Association affiliate, I believe the vast majority of teachers hate striking. They use the move as a last resort to what they see as completely unworkable situations. The current wave of strikes and walkouts in a handful of states ("Teacher Strikes Show Power in Numbers," May 9, 2018) has produced some success, with lawmakers meeting demands for teacher raises and more education funding. But we can't ignore the fact that teachers' demands stem from states' systematic cuts to public schools, which makes teaching and learning for teachers and students increasingly untenable.
School & District Management
Report Roundup
Summer Slide
The average student loses one to three months of learning over summer, and a National Center for Education Statistics report suggests one reason for the "summer slide:" Students from lower-income homes engage in different activities than their better-off peers.
Mathematics
Report Roundup
Math Education
In the 2016–17 school year, more than half of the schools that served grades 6-8 provided math intervention classes all three years, finds a survey by the nonprofit Education Development Center.
School & District Management
Report Roundup
School Closings
Achievement declines and uncertainty among students and staff were among the byproducts of a dramatic downsizing in the number of public schools operating in Chicago, according to a new report.
Education Funding
Report Roundup
Class Resources
Nine in 10 teachers spend their own money—often hundreds of dollars—on classroom supplies, finds a new analysis of federal data.
Teaching Profession
News in Brief
Teacher in Ky. Bounces Foe
Weeks after the teacher walkouts in Kentucky, educators scored a surprising victory: High school math teacher Travis Brenda defeated Jonathan Shell, the House majority floor leader, in the state primary election.
Education
News in Brief
Transitions
Desmond Blackburn, the superintendent of the Brevard County, Fla., school district, has been chosen as the next CEO of the New Teacher Center, a nonprofit that mentors incoming educators across the country.
Special Education
News in Brief
Illinois School Board Takes Control of Special Education in Chicago
Illinois' state board of education has taken on sweeping authority to supervise special education in the Chicago school district, voting to appoint an outside monitor who for at least three years will have to approve any changes to the district's policies and procedures in that area.
School & District Management
News in Brief
Virginia Governor Names New State Schools Chief
A former Virginia superintendent of the year was named state superintendent of public instruction Thursday by Gov. Ralph Northam.
Law & Courts
News in Brief
Federal Judge in Gavin Grimm Case Backs Transgender-Student Rights
A federal district judge ruled last week that Title IX and the 14th Amendment's equal-protection clause protect transgender students from discrimination and that the lawsuit by transgender student Gavin Grimm may proceed against his former Virginia school district.
Teaching Profession
News in Brief
Teachers Fill N.C. Streets, Close Schools to Demand More School Funding
Thousands of teachers filled the streets of North Carolina's capital May 16 demanding better pay and more funding for public schools, continuing the trend of educators around the country rising up to pressure lawmakers for change.
Federal
News in Brief
Federal Transportation Agency Urges Seat Belts on New Large School Buses
A federal transportation panel last week recommended to states that all new large school buses be equipped with both lap and shoulder seat belts.
College & Workforce Readiness
News in Brief
Trump Apprenticeship Task Force Sheds No New Light on High School Experience
President Donald Trump's task force on apprenticeship has issued its final report, but it makes no mention of how apprenticeship opportunities would be made available in every high school, even though the president said that's what he wanted.
Education Funding
News in Brief
$10 Billion Campaign Launched to Educate Every Child by 2030
A campaign to raise $10 billion to ensure that every child around the world gets a secondary school education by 2030 has received support from the United Nations chief, global and regional banks, and 11.5 million young people who are calling for the biggest education investment in history.
School Climate & Safety
A Deadly School Year: 35 People Killed in School Shootings
The 2017-18 school year has the highest death toll from school shootings in recent decades, outnumbering the years of the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre and the Columbine shootings.
Families & the Community
Heated Rhetoric Muddies Policy Debate in Wake of School Shootings
Educators seek to focus on the practical as politicians, polarized advocates, and even entertainers weigh in on the issue of school violence.
School & District Management
Gamers Are the New High School Athletes: The Rise of Esports
Already popular at the college and professional levels, esports are now gaining a foothold in K-12 schools despite concerns about bad behavior and equity problems associated with competitive game playing.
School Climate & Safety
Trump Panel Slammed on Slow Pace of School Safety Work
The cabinet-level commission chaired by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has met once since it was created after the February shooting that killed 17 at a high school in Parkland, Fla.