Education Week - February 12, 2020 - 4

BRIEFLY STATED

Substantial Class Time
Lost to Dilapidated
Schools in Baltimore

Latest Social Media Craze Has School Leaders Fuming
Just when school leaders have put out one more fire, here comes
another that, in fact, could literally spark a blaze.
Three students at Woodbury Middle School in Salem, N.H.,
late last month decided to try their hand at the latest social-media
craze: the so-called "outlet challenge" popularized on TikTok, a
video platform.
The gist: Users are encouraged to take a short video of
themselves placing a phone charger near an electrical outlet, then
dropping a penny between the outlet and the charger prongs. The
result is a share-worthy spark.
The problem, of course, is that doing so can also damage the
outlets, cause children to electrocute themselves, or start a fire.
Fortunately for Woodbury Middle, none of that happened.
The students succeeded only in short-circuiting the outlet-and

Baltimore students collectively have missed
nearly 1.5 million hours of class time over the past
five years-equal to about 221,000 school days-
when schools close because their buildings are
too cold or hot, a pipe has broken, or an electrical
problem has developed, says a team of Johns
Hopkins University researchers.
Most closings occurred in the past couple of
years, after the school system put in more stringent
policies to ensure that students were not learning in
buildings that were too cool or too warm.
The Hopkins researchers said the project was an
attempt to quantify the effect of poor facilities on
students. "We think that this is a core issue of equity
in the city. Kids should be able to go to school in a
healthy environment," said Dr. Josh Sharfstein, a
professor at Johns Hopkins and one of the authors.
The report, released last week, used data from
the city schools and state sources to paint a detailed
portrait of the issues at each school.
The state rates only 17 percent of the city's
schools as in good or excellent condition, compared
with more than 60 percent in Baltimore County.
Money is insufficient, so only the most pressing
problems are addressed annually, said Alison
Perkins-Cohen, the district's chief of staff.
A review of maintenance requests found 29
schools have HVAC systems with parts more than
20 years past their replacement date.
To bring just one high school complex up to date,
Perkins-Cohen said, would cost $75 million, more
than double the amount of money the district
receives from the state in one year.
A bill in the Maryland legislature would provide
an extra $2.2 billion over five years for construction.

getting disciplined by school leaders for their actions.
Other schools have also been hit by the challenge: damaged
outlets in three classrooms at Dalhart High School in Texas, two
burned outlets at Plymouth North High School in Massachusetts,
and eight damaged ones at Whitman-Hanson Regional High
School in Massachusetts.
The widespread nature of the incidents isn't a big surprise.
TikTok has more than 1 billion downloads worldwide. It's so
popular with teenagers that some schools are beginning to use it
as a teaching tool.
While many of the challenges on the social media platform
involve copying dances-sometimes with provocative moves-it's
also inspired users to create videos of themselves doing all sorts of
ill-advised things, including eating cereal out of a friend's mouth.

Test Vendor Blames Boston for Misusing Elite School Exam
The longtime vendor behind the entrance tests for Boston's
three prestigious exam schools has "put Boston Public Schools
on notice" that it will no longer provide the exam, citing eight
years of failed attempts to work with the district on equity
issues.
The previously undisclosed April 2019 email leaves Boston in
the last year of its contract with the Education Research Bureau,
which provides the Independent School Entrance Exam, and it
forces the district to find a new test provider after 25 years.
ERB President Thomas Rochon said the misapplication
of test scores from its exams was "perpetuating admissions
outcomes that disproportionately affect students belonging to
underrepresented groups."
The letter said ERB "attempted several times over the last
eight years" to work with the district on the issues but was
"always rebuffed."
Iván Espinoza-Madrigal, the director of Lawyers for Civil
Rights, said in a statement, "It is, literally, a smoking gun

demonstrating that BPS has deliberately and intentionally
refused to consider less discriminatory alternatives to help
support students of color who are striving to attend ... elite exam
schools."
Superintendent Brenda Cassellius said in a statement that the
district is "actively working to expand equitable access" at exam
schools and blamed the exam for creating the inequities the
Education Research Bureau said it is trying to address.
Students of color are vastly underrepresented at Boston Latin
School and Boston Latin Academy, where white students make
up 45 percent and 30 percent of their respective student bodies.
That's double and triple the number of white students in the
district as a whole.
Boston City Councilor Andrea Campbell, the vice
chairwoman of the education committee, said in a statement,
"Today's revelations are very concerning-if true, there have
been decisions made against the advice of experts and hidden
from Boston's families and students."

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Education Week - February 12, 2020

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