Education Week - March 5, 2014 - 16

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GOP Demanding Answers
On Teacher-Equity Plan
| POLITICS K-12 | Key House Republicans have
some pretty pointed questions for U.S. Secretary of
Education Arne Duncan when it comes to how his
department plans to pursue a proposed "50-state
strategy" aimed at pushing states to revamp their
"highly qualified" teacher plans.
Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., the chairman of the
House education committee, and Rep. Todd Rokita,
R-Ind., the top Republican on the subcommittee
overseeing K-12 education, sent a letter to Mr.
Duncan Feb. 25 expressing concerns over the U.S.
Department of Education's plan to have the office
for civil rights ensure that states provide kids in
poverty access to as many highly effective teachers
as their more-advantaged peers.
Reps. Kline and Rokita support the goal of
teacher quality, they explain, but they're worried
the department is going about this the wrong way.
A federal 50-state strategy, they say, could get in
the way of local efforts to bolster teacher quality.
What's more, "the department's heavy-handed
approach to federal enforcement ignores the
effects of teacher-equity efforts on state and local
teacher-transfer policies and retention efforts."
The two congressmen want some information
from Mr. Duncan-and they want to see it before the
feds release their proposal.
First off, they want the department to explain why
they think the OCR has the legal authority to enforce
rules on teacher quality.
And they're looking for specifics of just what will
be included in the 50-state strategy. They want to
know what format the proposal will come in, and
what the process for rolling it out will be, including a
timeframe for implementation.
They're interested in any feedback the
department has gotten from stakeholders
(presumably including groups representing
teachers, school board members, and state chiefs).
They want to know how the department is going
to incorporate that feedback into its final teacherequity
plan.
The letter is just the latest instance of
congressional skepticism of Mr. Duncan, who
seems to have stretched his executive muscles
more than any previous education secretary. Rep.
George Miller, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the
House education committee, recently sounded the
alarm bells on the department's waiver strategy,
saying some state plans could let schools off the
hook for improving outcomes for disadvantaged
students.
But Mr. Miller, for one, is on board with the
general idea of a 50-state teacher-equity strategy. In
a recent interview, he said he'd like the department
to "get on with it" already.
More States Seen Struggling
On Waiver Implementation
| POLITICS K-12 | The U.S. Department of Education
released waiver monitoring reports for three more
states recently that show continued struggles with
low-performing schools and new tests aligned to the
common core.
Kansas was dinged because the interventions
for its focus schools do not seem to line up with
the reasons those schools were selected for this
designation in the first place. (Focus schools are
those with the largest achievement gaps in the
state.) The state also has not shown that it is
appropriately flagging schools that aren't among
the lowest-performing, but are still not making
progress toward their academic targets. Federal
officials also noted that the state still has not
resolved its teacher-evaluation problems that
earned it a "high risk" designation, nor has the
state gotten approval from the department for a
new assessment plan since dropping out of the
Smarter Balanced common-testing consortium.
16 | EDUCATION WEEK | March 5, 2014 | www.edweek.org
South Dakota was also red-flagged for not
providing appropriate supports for other Title I
schools-besides the lowest-performing-that aren't
making progress.
Oklahoma is cited for dropping out of the
Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for
Colleges and Careers assessment consortium,
then submitting its own plan for administering
common-core-aligned assessments that so far
isn't up to federal standards. Also, its state
and local report cards don't contain all the
information that's required. (This is a common
problem across many waiver states.)
None of these states has a federally approved
teacher-evaluation system either. All of these issues
will loom large as states seek a one-year extension
of their waivers.
Hair-Length Rule Rejected
For Male Basketball Players
| THE SCHOOL LAW BLOG | A federal appeals court
has struck down an Indiana school district's policy
requiring short hair for boys on the basketball team,
ruling that the lack of a similar policy for players
on the girls' basketball team results in illegal sex
discrimination.
A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th
Circuit, in Chicago, ruled 2-1 for a boy identified as
A.H., who beginning in junior high school sought
to wear his hair longer than the short-hair policy
permitted.
Greensburg Junior High School in Greensburg,
Ind., has a code of conduct for athletes (not the
general student population) that bars hair styles
that may obstruct vision or draw attention to
the athlete, such as mohawks, dyed hair, or
having numbers or initials cut into the hair. The
hair-length policy, though, was established by
the basketball coach, and requires hair to be cut
above the "ears, eyebrows, and collar" to promote
a "clean-cut image."
A.H. is now a high school junior, and the court
worked on the assumption that Greensburg High
School had the same policy as the junior high.
The policy evokes the look and era of
"Hoosiers," the 1986 basketball movie set in
small-town Indiana in the 1950s. But basketball
great Larry Bird, who wore long hair that was
typical of his era when he played high school ball
in French Lick, Ind., in the early 1970s, would
not have been in compliance with the Greensburg
policy.
The 7th Circuit court said in its Feb. 24 decision
-ALYSON KLEIN
in Hayden v. Greensburg Community School
Corporation that based on jointly stipulated
facts, the hair-length policy violated A.H.'s 14th
Amendment right to equal protection under the law
and Title IX's prohibition against sex discrimination
in federally funded schools. That's because there
is no comparable limitation on the hair length of
female basketball players in the district, the court
said.
"The hair-length policy applies only to male
athletes, and there is no facially apparent reason
why that should be so," U.S. Circuit Judge Ilana
D. Rovner wrote for the majority. "Girls playing
interscholastic basketball have the same need
as boys do to keep their hair out of their eyes, to
subordinate individuality to team unity, and to
project a positive image."
To defeat the inference of sex discrimination,
"it was up to the school district to show that
the hair-length policy is just one component of
a comprehensive grooming code that imposes
comparable although not identical demands on
both male and female athletes," the court said.
Writing in dissent, Judge Daniel A. Manion said
he would have upheld the hair-length policy.
"On the record we have, the grooming policies for
boys and girls, as a whole, are comparable," Judge
Manion said. "Requiring men, but not women, to
keep their hair at a certain length has never been
held to be unequally burdensome."
-MICHELE McNEIL
Push to Expand Pre-K
Key Education Topic
As Governors Gather
Education secretary cites broad support
By Christina A. Samuels
Washington
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne
Duncan described expansion of
early-childhood education as an
inevitability, not merely an aspiration,
in his remarks to a receptive
group of governors gathered here
for the winter meeting of the National
Governors Association.
"This is a parade I think you all
want to be in front of, not behind,"
Mr. Duncan told the members of
the association's education and
workforce committee gathered at
the JW Marriott hotel on Pennsylvania
Avenue, close to both the
Capitol and the White House.
His talk was part of a Feb. 21-24
meeting of the NGA that included
a visit to the White House, where
President Barack Obama-who
himself has made early-childhood
education a budget and policy
priority-told the state leaders
that he "enjoyed watching some of
you with your eyes on higher office
size up the drapes-and each
other."
Mr. Duncan's presentation to
the governors comes at a time
when many states and cities already
are pushing ahead on early
education.
For example, New York City
Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat,
is pressing his state's lawmakers to
allow the city to tax high-earning
residents to pay for preschool, and
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, also
a Democrat, has released a state
STATE of the STATES www.edweek.org/go/sos
Ohio Gov. John Kasich, in his annual address to state legislators,
proposed using casino money for a plan to boost ties between
communities and schools.
OHIO
GOV. JOHN KASICH (R) * FEB. 24
Gov. Kasich asked lawmakers in his State of the State speech to
approve shifting $10 million in revenue from casino fees to support a
new plan to encourage schools, parents, community organizations, and
businesses to work together to mentor students.
The proposal, dubbed "Community Connectors," would give local
communities $3 for every $1 they contributed to the program.
"We can show [students] why learning matters," Gov. Kasich said.
"We can teach them about workplace culture. ... We can teach them
about professional etiquette. We can help them appreciate how
important values are to success and life."
The first-term Republican, who faces a re-election test next
-MARK WALSH
fall, devoted much of his speech to economic issues. He touted
improvement in the state's budget and called for tax cuts that he
argued would stimulate job growth. But he also floated a number
of education ideas, including a plan to create alternative pathways
to a high school diploma for students at risk of dropping out and a
proposal to connect students with vocational education in earlier
grades, such as in middle school.
Mr. Kasich also praised Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson for backing
a broad and controversial series of changes to his city's K-12 system,
which included giving individual schools more autonomy. Those plans
were backed by a law passed by the Ohio legislature. The governor
pledged to work with Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman to make
similar changes.
-SEAN CAVANAGH
Tony Dejak/AP
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Education Week - March 5, 2014

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