Education Week - February 24, 2016 - 5

REPORT ROUNDUP

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SCIENCE EDUCATION

Study Finds Motivating Power
In Tales of Scientists' Struggles

"Climate Confusion Among U.S. Teachers"
the next two to three months, according to Andrew Joseph, the company's
vice president of strategic relations.
The company is looking for districts
to partner with for the testing phase.
Users of the site will be able to add
ratings and reviews and receive recommendations based on their previous selections. Educators will be able
to curate open resources, self-publish
material they have developed, and
put a school's entire digital library
that is open and freely available
online, Joseph said. Amazon Inspire
will be made available to schools for
free.
-MICHELE MOLNAR

District Goes to 4-Day Week
To Help Struggling Students
A tiny district in West Texas is reportedly going to become the first
school system in the state to offer students a four-day-week option.
Under the new schedule set to start
next school year, the approximately
60 students in the Olfen Independent
district will be required to attend
class for 25 extra minutes Monday
through Thursday. Attendance on
Fridays will be optional for students
but mandatory for teachers.
District officials say the idea for a
four-day-week option was conceived
as a way to help struggling students,
who can get tutoring on Fridays. For
students who don't need extra help
with academics, the district plans to
offer activities such as karate, wood
shop, and pottery.
-MARVA HINTON

Arizona Student Shooting
Ruled a Murder-Suicide
A shooting at a suburban Phoenix
high school that killed two 15-year-old
girls and caused panic among parents
was a murder-suicide, police say.
Police revealed that a suicide note
was found at the shooting scene at Independence High School in Glendale.
They said each girl was shot once, and
a weapon was found near the bodies.
Authorities say a male classmate
provided the handgun used in the
murder-suicide. Police say one of the
girls told the 15-year-old boy she
needed it for protection. Authorities
are reviewing his involvement in the
matter.
-AP

Student Data to Be Given
To Calif. Advocacy Groups
Districts across San Diego County
are warning that students' personal
data will soon be accessed by two
nonprofit groups as part of a federal
court case involving special education services, sparking an outcry from
parents and lawmakers over privacy
rights.
The data-including Social Security numbers, mental-health records,
and home addresses-has been
sought by the California Concerned
Parents Association and the Morgan
Hill Concerned Parents Association,
which are suing the California education department, alleging the state
is not providing a free and appropriate public education to children with
disabilities.
Parents can object to the data dump
by April 1. But an education depart-

ment spokesman said it's up to the
court to decide whether to honor parents' wishes.
-TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

Louisiana Official Drops Fight
To Pursue Common-Core Suit
Louisiana's attorney general has
ended a political feud with the state's
new governor over the Common Core
State Standards, saying he agrees it is
time to drop a lawsuit claiming that
federal authorities were trying to force
states to adopt the math and English
standards.
Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat,
had moved to dismiss the suit, filed
last year by then-Gov. Bobby Jindal,
a Republican. He had already lost at
the district-court level.
Edwards said the appeal was expensive and unnecessary, given passage
of the Every Student Succeeds Act,
which bars the federal government
from mandating standards.
Jeff Landry, a Republican, initially
said Edwards was too quick to drop the
lawsuit, leading to a war of words. -AP

Utah Schools Chief
Stepping Down
Utah's state superintendent, who
criticized the idea of spending more
money on education, stepped down
last week after about a year in office.
Superintendent Brad Smith said in
a letter that he no longer feels able to
make a positive contribution.
During last legislative session, Smith
apologized for comparing teachers to crying children after they rallied for more
school funding. He also said it's not a
bad thing that Utah ranks lowest in the
-AP
country on per-student spending.

Ill. Officials Seek Documents
On Chicago District's Finances
The Illinois state board of education
last week asked Chicago school officials
to send over a trove of financial information as part of an investigation into the
district's finances, local media reported.
The request for financial information came after Gov. Bruce Rauner ordered the state to review the district's
finances. The district has been facing a
series of financial challenges: It has a
$1 billion long-term deficit and recently
borrowed $725 million at high interest
rates to keep running until the end of
the school year.
The state requested financial projections, payroll information, major contracts, and debt schedules, according
to the Chicago Tribune. Gov. Rauner is
seeking to put the district, the thirdlargest in the country, under state
control.
-DENISA R. SUPERVILLE

CORRECTION
An article and accompanying caption in the Feb. 10, 2016, issue of
Education Week about the Citizens
Who Seek Educational Equity organization in Coatesville, Pa., incorrectly
described Superintendent Cathy Taschner as its co-founder. The independent group was founded by Rob Marshall, who later worked with Taschner
in the group's involvement with the
Coatesville school system on behalf of
parents of students with disabilities.

Most science teachers have an "insufficient
grasp of the science" behind climate change
that may hurt their teaching, finds a study
in the February issue of the journal Science.
The study authors write that more than 95
percent of climate scientists attribute global
warming to human causes, yet teachers convey mixed messages on this to students.
In a nationally representative sample of
1,500 middle and high school science teachers, three-quarters reported devoting at least
an hour of classroom discussion to global
warming. However, 30 percent of teachers
said they emphasize that global warming
"is likely due to natural causes"-in direct
contrast to the scientific consensus. Another
12 percent do not emphasize human impact,
and half of those teachers offer no explanation at all. Nearly 1 in 3 teachers sent "explicitly contradictory messages," about human
and natural climate change causes.
This may be because many teachers don't
know the scientific consensus, the study found.
The researchers, who are from Pennsylvania
State University, Wright State University in
Ohio, and the National Center for Science
Education, which advocates for accurate climate change education, found a majority of science teachers think more than 20 percent of
climate scientists disagree that human activities are the primary cause of global warming.

"Even Einstein Struggled: Effects of Learning About
Great Scientists' Struggles on High School Students'
Motivation to Learn Science"

-LIANA HEITIN

RURAL SCHOOLS
"Generating Opportunity and Prosperity: The
Promise of Rural Education Collaboratives"
Rural school districts must attempt to collaborate to mitigate rural challenges, such as high
costs and shrinking educational opportunities,
according to a recent report.
The Ohio-based nonprofit Battelle for Kids
studied rural district collaborations across the
country as well as academic studies to identify
models for collaboration and the impact those partnerships have had.
The report found that most districts with partnerships prioritize the following strategies:
* Sharing resources: Some district groups share
technology, teachers and other staff members, and
programs to ensure that all students have access to
sufficient academic opportunities.
* Advocacy: Some rural districts that have partnered publish press releases and policy briefs about
issues that impact rural schools.
* Curriculum design: Some districts share assessments, curriculum, and professional development
opportunities that help teachers roll out state standards and connect with other educators.
* Preparing students for college and career: Several rural districts have paired with foundations
or nonprofits and applied for grants to expand Advanced Placement courses, help students pay for dual
enrollment courses, and offer college and career counseling to students.
-JACKIE MADER
ENGLISH-LANGUAGE LEARNERS
"Schools to Learn From"
High schools with higher-than-average academic
outcomes for English-language learners found
that the schools share common design elements,
including intentionally hiring immigrants and
former ELLs, according to a Stanford University
Graduate School of Education study.
Staff members at six case-study schools often
speak students' home languages and have significant international traveling experience, which
helps them "understand ELLs' perspectives, communicate with them, and serve as role models for
students," the report found. The featured schools,
which have higher-than-average graduation and

Can learning about Albert Einstein's struggles
help students do better in science class?
New research from the American Psychological Association suggests that it can: High schoolers who
read about scientists' personal and academic challenges improved their grades in science class.
Researchers from Teachers College, Columbia University, asked 472 freshmen and sophomores at four
high schools in an unnamed city to read one of three
sets of short stories about Einstein, Marie Curie, and
Michael Faraday. In one set of stories, the scientists
struggled with intellectual challenges. In another,
they confronted personal challenges. The third included stories of scientists' success, with no mention
of personal or intellectual struggles.
For instance, the story about Curie's intellectual
struggles showed her revisiting failed experiments
again. The life-struggle story tells how she had to
leave her native Poland because women were not
allowed to attend school. The story that focused on
achievement omitted those struggles and instead described how Curie was fluent in five languages at a
young age and won many awards.
It turned out that students who read about either intellectual or personal struggle were likely to
improve their science grades after reading the stories-especially those whose grades were low before
the readings. Those who read about achievement did
no better after reading the stories. And, both before
and after the students read the stories, those who
believed that effort, rather than innate talent, led to
success in science tended to do better in science class.
-JACLYN ZUBRZYCKI

college-going rates for ELLs, are: Boston International High School; Newcomers Academy, also in
Boston; and the High School for Dual Language
and Asian Studies, It Takes a Village Academy,
Manhattan Bridges High School, Marble Hill
School for International Studies, and New World
High School, which are all in New York City.
The 245-page report found that the schools frequently assess students' language capacity from
entry through graduation and adjust instruction and
course offerings based on the data. Frequent communication between staff members and families in their
home languages and the availability of wraparound
services such as health, housing, food, and employment resources was also a hallmark of the schools. The
Carnegie Corporation of New York funded the report.
-COREY MITCHELL

TEACHER PREPARATION
"Supporting Teacher Professionalism: Insights from
TALIS"
While countries around the world provide support
to boost their teachers' knowledge base, they vary
significantly in how well they support educators' autonomy and professional growth, according to a new
report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development.
Analyzing the Teaching and Learning International Survey 2013, which polled more than
100,000 teachers and principals in 34 countries
and economies, the researchers found economically disadvantaged schools in many countries
provide less support for teacher professionalism,
including teacher autonomy and the ability to
build teacher peer networks.
The report recommends education leaders encourage teacher learning networks, classroom-based research projects, and expanded induction and mentoring
programs to support educators.
-SARAH D. SPARKS

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Education Week - February 24, 2016

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