NBC News (6/26) reports on its website that Verizon has launched a campaign called “Inspire Her Mind” that is designed to make the case for women in STEM, and a commercial from the campaign has “gone viral.” The video shows how a girl’s interest in science gets overlooked by her parents and ends with a message from “Reshma Saujani, founder of Girls Who Code: ‘Isn’t it time we told her she’s pretty brilliant, too?.’” The video points out that “66 percent of fourth grade girls say they like science and math, but only 18 percent of all college engineering majors are female.”
ED Releases New Rules For State Special Education Programs
ED’s announcement of changes to its monitoring of state special education programs generated significant coverage today in major national media outlets and in lower-tier outlets focused on individual states. The New York Times (6/25, Rich, Subscription Publication) reports that under the new system in how ED “evaluates how well public schools educate students with disabilities,” over two thirds of US states and territories are out of compliance with IDEA. The Times notes that “nearly three-quarters of states and territories met the standards” under the old system, under which ED “looked at requirements such as whether school districts had filed the appropriate paperwork or met timelines” for special-needs students. Under the new system, ED “will compare the test scores of students with disabilities with those of students not designated as having special needs.” The Times adds that Education Secretary Arne Duncan “said the shift was driven by the fact that far too few students with disabilities were reaching academic proficiency benchmarks,” quoting him saying, “In too many states the outcomes for students with disabilities are simply too low. We can and we must do better.” The Times notes also that NEA President Dennis Van Roekel “said that states needed more financial support from Congress to provide sufficient services to disabled students.”
The Washington Post (6/25, Layton) reports that ED is “tightening its oversight of the way states educate special-needs students,” noting that Duncan says that under the new, “more stringent criteria,” ED will “consider outcomes: How well special-education students score on standardized tests, the gap in test scores between students with and without disabilities, the high school graduation rate for disabled students and other measures of achievement.” The Post quotes Duncan saying, “Every child, regardless of income, race, background, or disability, can succeed if provided the opportunity to learn. We know that when students with disabilities are held to high expectations and have access to the general curriculum in the regular classroom, they excel.” The Post adds that acting Assistant Secretary for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services Michael Yudin said that ED “has never withheld federal dollars to educate special-needs students,” but has “told states how to use some of their funds” over “cases of noncompliance.”
The AP (6/24, Hefling) reports that ED “called the change a ‘major shift’ in the way it assesses special education programs,” noting that ED said that the estimated 6.5 special-needs students in the US “have lower graduation rates overall and don’t do as well on average in reading and math as their peers.” The AP quotes Duncan saying, “We know that when students with disabilities are held to high expectations and have access to the general curriculum in the regular classroom, they excel. We must be honest about student performance, so that we can give all students the supports and services they need to succeed.”
In its coverage, Bloomberg News (6/25, Lorin) reports that only 15 states are in compliance with the new standards, adding that ED said that “California, Texas and the District of Columbia need intervention to provide adequate services.”
Other media outlets covering this story include the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (6/25), the Huffington Post (6/25, Resmovits), NPR (6/25, Sanchez) in its “NprEd” blog, the Tennessean (6/25), the Albuquerque (NM) Journal (6/25), Disability Scoop (6/24), and the Wall Street Journal (6/25, Porter, Subscription Publication). A handful of local TV stations, includingWVUE-TV New Orleans (6/24, 10:14 p.m. CDT) and WJHL-TV Tri-Cities (TN-VA) (6/24, 6:22 a.m. EDT), also mention Duncan’s announcement on-air.
Meanwhile, several medial outlets cover this story at the state level, focusing on whether individual states are in compliance with the new standards. Examples include the Los Angeles Times (6/25, Blume), Southern California Public Radio(6/24), the Wilmington (DE) News Journal (6/25, Albright), an AP (6/25) article out of Delaware, the Baton Rouge (LA) Business Report (6/24), Chalkbeat Colorado (6/24), US News & World Report (6/24), and the Bangor (ME) Daily News (6/24).
Teachers Work To Remove Other Incompetent Teachers
The Washington Post (6/23, Mathews) reports on movements in the Greater Washington DC area for teachers to rate and evaluate their peers. The move has been adopted by teachers unions in the area and has garnered little opposition. Other areas of the country are also reportedly adopting policies that reduce emphasis on seniority by age and focus more on teacher quality and removing poor performers from instructional areas via evaluations. According to one former union leader who remarked on how a poor teacher’s presence had hurt many students, “Why shouldn’t our union be willing to negotiate a more streamlined dismissal process or some kind of tenure review that will make it easier to dismiss this teacher without denying others’ rights?”
California Limits Football Practices For High School Students
The Los Angeles Times (6/20, Mcgreevy) reports California lawmakers sent a bill to Gov. Jerry Brown prohibiting “high school and middle school football teams from holding full-contact practices during the off-season and bar them from conducting more than two full-contact practices per week during the season.” The bill is an attempt to reduce concussions and brain injuries among student athletes.
Education Execs Urge Teachers To Become “Makers” Of Innovation
Dr. Joseph Wilson, managing director of Teach For America’s math and science initiative, and Dr. Anne Jones, senior vice president and chief programs officer of Project Lead The Way, write in an op-ed for US News & World Report (6/19) about how “the classroom is often the nucleus for innovation.” They point out that teachers and students were among those at the “first-ever Maker Faire” at the White House this week, and they say a group of education-minded organizations are urging teachers “to pledge to be Maker Teachers” who will “share ideas, resources, and opportunities” and use “tools such as the Innovation Portal, a free online platform” to “allow students to create and share design portfolios.” The groups behind the pledge request are Teach For America, the Digital Harbor Foundation, Project Lead The Way, and STEMConnector.
Authors Urge Congress To Fund School Technology
Keith Krueger CEO of Consortium for School Networking and Kristen Amundson, executive director of the National Association of State Boards of Education writes in The Hill (6/20) “Congress Blog” calling on Congress to include “targeted investments in technology” in the budget for the US Department of Education. The authors argue that the need is great for schools to receive funding, especially as more and more locations transition to online assessments. The authors continue saying that with the scale implementation of the technology-powered assessments occurring in just a few month’s time, “the sense of urgency cannot be understated.” The authors close saying that Congress and the Obama Administration have an opportunity to invest in the future of students and “we cannot let another school year pass.”
PARCC Says Field Tests Went Well
The Washington Post (6/20, Layton) reports that the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for Careers and College says that the field test of its assessment, in which over “1 million students in 14 states tested new Common Core standardized exams this spring,” was successful. The Post explains that the field tests “were meant to help fine-tune the online exams before they go live next year.”
LATimes Guest Blogger Says California Needs To Spend On Preschool Kids
Guest blogger Joel Silbermas, a writer and Web video producer, writes in an opinion for the Los Angeles Times (6/20) under the headline, “Don’t Cut Funds For Preschool Again, Gov. Brown.” Silbermas writes that Gov. Jerry Brown (D) is too prone to using the budgetary line-item veto to cut funds for early childhood education and that others who argue such programs are unproven are wrong. He writes that “the benefits of early childhood education are in fact widely known, and the results are staggering.” He lists some of those benefits and adds, “These outcomes translate plainly into dollars and cents: It costs a lot of money to house and feed a prisoner or provide treatment for a noncompliant medical patient. By contrast, a healthy, functional adult is likely to contribute to his or her local economy and help it grow.”
Teacher Lists Six Characteristics Of Great STEM Lessons.
Former Teacher of The Year Anne Jolly writes in Education Week (6/17, Jolly) on the basic components of STEM education and gives a list of “six characteristics of a great STEM lesson.” The six characteristics are: lessons focus on real-world issues and problems, lessons are guided by the engineering and design process, lessons immerse student in hands-on inquiry and open-ended exploration, lessons involve students in productive teamwork, lessons apply rigorous math and science content your students are learning.
Despite Court Ruling, California Bill Would Expand Tenure Protections
Reuters (6/19, Bernstein) reports that California Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez has introduced a bill to expand tenure protections from the state’s public school teachers to other employees. The move comes despite a court ruling by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge last week that found that found that the tenure system was unconstitutional, as it is primarily meant to protect teachers’ jobs, and harmed students’ interests. The state has not decided if it will appeal that ruling.
In an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal (6/19, Subscription Publication), New York University education professor Pedro Noguera notes the California court ruling, but argues that schools are not failing students because a few bad teachers are protected by the tenure system. He argues that tenure in fact aids many poor, urban school districts, because it allows them to retain teachers who would otherwise be unlikely to stay.
Duncan Defends Common Core
Appearing on CBS This Morning (6/17, 8:31 a.m. EDT), Education Secretary Arne Duncan discussed the origins of and controversy surrounding the Common Core Standards. Duncan addressed the difference between the standards and the curricula used to teach them, and explains the impetus for strong standards. Asked about Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s opposition to the standards, Duncan said, “Governor Jindal was a passionate supporter before he was against it, so this situation is about politics, not education. And frankly, that’s part of the problem. Republican, Democrat, ideology, we need to put that to the side. We need to help all of our children be successful.”
Duncan, Jindal Exchange Criticism Over Common Core. Coverage in Louisiana focuses on Duncan’s comments about Jindal. The New Orleans Times-Picayune (6/18) reports on Duncan’s above quote, and notes that Jindal “helped bring” the Common Core to Louisiana in 2010, but “joined a nationwide backlash” after they were implemented. Meanwhile, “the Legislature and state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education have maintained their course.” The paper notes that Duncan “called upon both sides of the aisle to take politics out of the Common Core debate,” while Jindal “now equates Common Core with Soviet central planning.”
The AP (6/17) also reports on Duncan’s appearance and his statement that “Jindal’s recent opposition to the Common Core education standards is politically-driven.” The AP notes that Jindal “has said he intends to take executive action to remove the Common Core from Louisiana classrooms,” and reports that his spokesperson “said Duncan’s comments prove the Common Core is being pushed by the Obama administration as ‘a federal takeover’ of education.”
In a subsequent article, the New Orleans Times-Picayune (6/18) reports that Jindal “fired back” at Duncan Tuesday afternoon, “again denouncing the Common Core academic standards as a federal takeover of public education.” The article quotes Jindal saying, “We will not be bullied by the federal government. The proponents of Common Core claim it is not a federal takeover, but Secretary Duncan’s comments and actions prove otherwise. He has already threatened Oklahoma with a loss of funding, and we may be next.”
Duncan Answers Alabama Teacher’s Common Core Question. Meanwhile, Alabama Live (6/18) reports that Huntsville, Alabama middle school teacher Lynette Alexander asked Duncan during his appearance on CBS This Morning via Skype how ED “would ensure that school districts’ standards-based curriculum would serve as an ‘equalizer’ to all students, particularly the disadvantaged.” The article quotes Duncan saying, “First of all, we can’t touch curriculum at our levels. Again, that is done at the local level. But encouraging states to have high standards, we think, is the right thing to do. And we know, when standards get dummied down, it’s not the elite kids, it’s not the advantaged kids, who get hit. It’s the more disadvantaged kids that always get hurt when things get reduced. And so fighting against that, driving an agenda around both equity and excellence, we think is hugely important.”
WHNT-TV Huntsville, AL (6/17) also covers Alexander’s “rare opportunity to pose a question to Education Secretary Arne Duncan.”
Duncan, Teachers Unions Spar Over California Tenure Ruling
Bloomberg BusinessWeek (6/17) reports that Education Secretary Arne Duncan “was scorned last week by teachers union leaders and their supporters for applauding a California judge’s tentative ruling that the state’s teacher tenure laws are unconstitutional.” The article notes that American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten “chastised Duncan in an open letter for failing to defend California’s tenure rules,” and reports that “education writer Diane Ratvich...went further, posting Duncan’s statement on the ruling on her website and arguing that it sounded like the words of a Republican.”
Less Fighting, More Fear In American High Schools, Survey Finds
Vox (6/16) reports that the CDC found in its 2013 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey that there are fewer fights but more fear at high schools. The number of fights between those high school students dropped 42 percent overall from 1991 to 2013, “so it seems that high-schoolers are better at solving their everyday squabbles without throwing punches.” Yet, “kids are increasingly scared to go to school.” Between 1993 and 2013, the percentage of high school students who stayed home from school because they feared for their safety rose from 4.4 percent to 7.1 percent. Vox adds, “Given the high profile mass shootings at schools, this isn’t all that surprising.”
US News & World Report (6/17, Bidwell) reports in its “Data Mine” blog that fewer high school students are carrying a weapon to school since the 1990s, with 5 percent reporting they had a weapon “at least one day in the 30 leading up to the survey,” compared to nearly 12 percent in 1993, yet in the latest survey “the percentage varied greatly from state to state.”
Article Makes The Case For Teaching Basic Coding In School
An article in TIME (6/17, Bajarin) argues that students should take a mandatory computer coding class in schools. The author argues technology is an everyday part of life, and coding “would enhance kids’ experiences with digital devices and could become much more important to them later in life.” Also, he argues, coding helps students think logically and organize thoughts as well as sharpen common sense.
Court Ruling On Teacher Tenure Continues To Spark Commentary
In an editorial this morning, USA Today (6/17) weighs in on a recent court ruling in California that “struck down state laws that make tenure far too easy to get, seniority a singular shield against layoffs and incompetent teachers almost impossible to fire.” Education Secretary Arne Duncan “wrote that the California ruling could spark years of legal warfare across the country, or it could inspire litigation-reducing changes that respect teachers and students alike. The latter path is preferable, and much faster.”
Joshua Pechthalt is president of the California Federation of Teachers, and Dean Vogel, president of the California Teachers Association, call the ruling “bizarre” in an accompanying op-ed forUSA Today (6/17), and argue that the entire case “is an anti-union attack masquerading as a civil rights effort.”
AFT’s Weingarten Criticizes Duncan Over Praise For Teacher Tenure Ruling. The Los Angeles Times (6/17, Ceasar) reports on a letter from Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers who wrote a letter to Education Secretary Arne Duncan criticizing “his praise of a ruling by a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge” which said that some California teacher tenures were unconstitutional. The Times quotes extensively from Weingarten’s letter, noting that Duncan continued to support the ruling last week. “The common goal is to increase public confidence in public education. We want great public schools we need great public schools teachers. We need families to want to go to public schools... That’s the common ground. There’s one common enemy – that’s academic failure,” Duncan told CNN.
Author Says California Court Case Should Start Conversation About Assessments And Rights In Schools. TheNational Journal (6/17, Johnson, Subscription Publication) reports on its “Education Insiders” blog, “Silicon Valley loves disruptions” and a recent lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of three teachers’ job protection under California law “certainly succeeded in that” when a judge declared the protections unconstitutional. The decision sparked responses from teacher’s unions and their critics and “kicks at a hornet’s nest of questions that would benefit from a full-fledged public conversation.” The author then asks for readers of the blog to have a discussion on the role of assessments in teacher evaluations, and the relationship between students’ rights to quality education and teachers’ rights.
NEA President Van Roekel Criticizes School Reformers
The “Answer Sheet” blog of the Washington Post (6/16, Strauss) reported this weekend on the response to the Vergara decision, highlighting a series of past headlines which claimed that teachers’ unions have been under attack for years. The article seems to imply that despite school reformers’ jubilation over the video and belief that teachers’ unions are struggling, unions are not under any more threat today than they have been in the past. The Post also focuses on a video and statement by National Education Association president Dennis Van Roekel, which criticizes school reformers for their “political attacks” on educators.
In its coverage, Politico (6/16, Simon) reported that Van Roekel referred to an ad in USA Today which called on citizens to sue teachers unions as well as a Politico article on the decline of unions. “It’s easy to get discouraged when the rhetoric of our opponents dominates the headlines and the airwaves... But I, like you, don’t look at the world through the pages of USA Today or the headlines in POLITICO,” he wrote. Referring to the reformers who filed the Vergara lawsuit, Van Roekel said, “I have a message for those people who would seek to reduce children to a test score and teaching to a technological transaction. You are mistaken if you think we will see your attacks and get discouraged, that we will read the headlines and give up.”
Duncan Comments On Teacher Tenure Ruling
Bloomberg News (6/16, Staiti) reports on comments by Education Secretary Arne Duncan regarding a California judge’s decision to end the state’s teacher tenure laws, calling it a “broken status quo” in need of reform. “The decision affirmed the fundamental duty to ensure that all students, regardless of zip code, family income or skin color, receive a quality education – starting with an effective teacher,” Duncan said in a statement. He added, “It took enormous courage for 10th-grader Beatriz Vergara and her eight co-plaintiffs to stand up and demand change to a broken status quo. It’ll take courage from all of us to come to consensus on new solutions.” According to Bloomberg, Duncan also said he advocates tenure after a “meaningful” span of time, and that performance should dictate layoffs rather than seniority.
Duncan Reflects On “Right Lessons” From California Teacher Tenure Ruling. The Washington Post (6/16, Strauss) reports in its “Answer Sheet” blog that Education Secretary Arne Duncan on Sunday issued a new statement “offering what he thinks are the ‘right lessons’” in the Vergara case, “in which a Los Angeles judge tossed out state statutes giving job protections to teachers.” Duncan put forth what he thinks are the “right lessons” from the case. In his statement on Sunday, Duncan “said that ‘tenure itself is not the issue here’ and that he ‘absolutely’ supports ‘job security for effective teachers,’ but he still praised the verdict as the right one in this case.” Duncan “said he hopes the verdict doesn’t lead to a long period in which the case is appealed by teachers unions (which will certainly happen) and for more such lawsuits to be filed in other states by those seeking to reduce union power (which will certainly happen).”
California Budget Includes Funds For Pre-K
The Los Angeles Times (6/16, Megerian, Mason) reports that the California Legislature “approved a $156.4-billion state budget on Sunday,” for the fiscal year starting July 1. Among other things, “it funds preschool for children from poor families, increases welfare grants and continues expanding public healthcare under President Obama’s federal overhaul.”
The Sacramento (CA) Bee (6/16, Siders, White) notes that the budget will start to “pay down an estimated shortfall of more than $74 billion in the teachers’ pension fund,” and “includes $264 million for new children’s programs, including 11,500 preschool slots for low-income 4-year-olds by June 2015 and another 31,500 slots in future years.”
The San Jose (CA) Mercury News (6/15, Richman) reported on a series of ballot measures which will determine how the funds are spent.
California Lawmakers Strike Compromise On Pre-K Expansion. The Washington Post (6/13, Wilson) reported in its “Govbeat” blog on a legislative compromise in California that, if approved, would give “hundreds of thousands of low-income children...access to pre-school education.” The agreement was announced Thursday and was expected to go before the full state Senate and Assembly in a full budget proposal by Sunday. Gov. Jerry Brown (D) has not said whether he will sign it or veto the overall budget, but he has line-item veto power as well. The proposal “would provide hundreds of millions of dollars to offer preschool access to 234,000 low-income four-year olds.” The Post says legislators settled on $85 million for fiscal 2014-15 while “another $85 million would go toward improving pre-school quality, including $50 million in grants to local school districts and $35 million in one-time funding for professional development for teachers.”
NYTimes Criticizes “Zero Tolerance” Policies In Schools
The New York Times (6/14, Subscription Publication) editorializes that “zero tolerance” policies have led to “millions of children each year being suspended, expelled and even arrested mainly for minor misbehavior that would once have been dealt with at the principal’s office.” The Times praises efforts to roll back these policies, noting that a new report by the Council of State Governments Justice Center shows that schools “can cut down on suspensions and unwarranted arrests at school within relatively short periods without sacrificing safety or disrupting the school environment.”
Debate Continues Over Vergara Ruling
CNN (6/13, Ford) on Friday continued coverage of the debate over “the best way to educate children,” which had been spurred by a judge’s ruling that several California laws regarding teacher tenure and dismissal were unconstitutional. According to CNN, some say the tenure provided teachers with academic freedom and stability, while others said teachers were given too much freedom at the expense of minority and low-income students, and politicians and others see the decision as an opportunity to call for an overhaul of public teaching. “At the end of the day what everyone has common interest in – the common goal – is to increase public confidence in public education. We want great public schools and we need great public school teachers... There’s one common enemy and that’s academic failure – and if we continue to fight silly fights everybody loses,” said Education Secretary Arne Duncan.
Debate Ignores Criteria For Assessing Teacher Quality. The San Francisco Chronicle (6/16, Tucker) reports that the issue of “what specifically makes a teacher terrible – or terrific” has been lost in the debate following last week’s Vergara decision in California. According to the Chronicle, a number of school administrators argue that the key to improving education is improving all teachers as well as retaining teachers new to the profession, or those who are struggling. The article also details a variety of teacher assessment methods being used in California school districts to achieve that goal.
WPost Praises Ruling On California’s Teacher Tenure Laws. The Washington Post (6/14) editorializes that Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Rolf Treu’s recent ruling on California’s laws on teacher tenure and layoffs has revealed “issues about education quality” that “cry out for new ways of thinking.” Treu struck down these laws, ruling that they “violate the state’s constitutional commitment to provide ‘a basically equal opportunity to achieve a quality education.’” While noting that the ruling will be appealed, the Post argues that it has highlighted the need for school officials and lawmakers “to bring sanity to policies that confer a guarantee of lifetime employment to teachers regardless of the job they do.”