Education Week - March 25, 2015 - 5

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CHARTER SCHOOLS
"Urban Charter School Study: Report on 41 Regions"
| TRANSITION |
Brian Whiston, the
schools superintendent
of Michigan's
Dearborn
district, has been
selected as the
state's next chief
school officer.
He will replace Mike Flanagan,
who will retire later this
year after 10 years on the job.
Mr. Whiston has led the
19,000-student Dearborn
district since 2008. He previously
worked as a lobbyist
for the Oakland school
district in Michigan. And he
served on local school boards
and taught courses at Wayne
State University.
receiver appointed by the federal
courts or the U.S. Department of
Education's office for civil rights.
They have filed complaints with
the state education department
and the civil rights divisions of the
U.S. Departments of Justice and
Education. The parents allege that
the district has repeatedly failed
to follow state and federal laws
involving the rights of parents to
transfer their children out of failing
schools.
In addition, they accuse the district
of failing to provide adequate
services for English-language learners,
failing to address the needs
of special education students, and
failing to address the disproportionate
impact of suspensions on black
male students.
-MCT
Robot Teaches Handwriting
Via Student Role Reversal
A robot from the Swiss Federal Institute
of Technology in Lausanne
may be able to help students improve
their cursive and boost their
self-esteem-by letting them teach
it how to write.
Teaching robots aren't new, but
the CoWriter system seems to be
unique in that it acts more like a
student than a teacher. The 2-foottall
robot, which is programmed
to have poor handwriting, writes
words on a tablet using "deformed
letters," then allows the student
to correct its mistakes. Over time,
CoWriter's handwriting slowly improves
as the student teaches the
robot how to write.
While CoWriter is still only a prototype,
the researchers have already
tested the system with about 70 students
with encouraging results. -J.M.
CORRECTIONS
An article on school finance in the
March 18, 2015, issue of Education
Week misspelled the name of the
Wylie Independent School District.
A Commentary in the same issue
incorrectly identified the opening
date of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute
for the United States Senate.
It is scheduled for March 31, 2015.
Nationally, urban charter schools are significantly
outperforming their district counterparts
in both reading and mathematics,
according to a new study from the Center for
Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford
University, or credo.
The report, released last week, also shows
that, for the most part, urban charter and
district schools are serving equal numbers
of English-language learners as well as students
in poverty and special education. But
credo researchers say charter quality still remains
a patchwork across the country, with
pockets of poorly performing areas.
In total, students in urban charter schools
are achieving the equivalent of 40 additional
days of learning in mathematics and
28 more days' learning in reading compared
to their district peers, according to the study.
It is part of an extensive review of charter
school performance in 41 major urban areas,
culminating in a national analysis along
with 22 different state-specific reports.
The work was funded by the Walton Family
Foundation. (The foundation also supports
some coverage of parent empowerment
issues in Education Week.) -ARIANNA PROTHERO
SPECIAL EDUCATION
"Mandatory Provision of Coordinated Early
Intervening Services"
A little more than 2 percent of the nation's
school districts-347 in all-were
flagged by their states for overidentifying
minorities for special education.
That means those districts are required
to spend 15 percent of their federal special
education dollars to address the problem
through programs aimed primarily at students
from kindergarten to 3rd grade.
The numbers were unearthed by the Advocacy
Institute, and published earlier this
month on the idea Money Watch website.
The districts flagged span 25 states and
one-third of them-104-were in just one
state: Louisiana.
The figures, drawn from federal data,
are current as of the 2011-12 school year.
-CHRISTINA A. SAMUELS
ONLINE TESTING
"IT Leadership Survey"
Fewer than 30 percent of K-12 school
technology leaders believe their district is
ready for online assessments, according to
an annual survey by the Consortium for
School Networking.
Also high on the list of concerns expressed
by ed-tech officials: improving
wireless access and creating better mobilelearning
opportunities in the classroom.
The findings come from the Washingtonbased
cosn's third annual survey of K-12
officials who report being the highestranking
ed-tech leader in their district.
The results were released last week at
the organization's annual conference in
Atlanta.
Among other survey findings:
*Fifty-seven percent of respondents said
data-privacy concerns are more important
now than last year.
*Eighty-four percent expect instructional
materials in their districts to be at
least 50 percent digital within the next
three years; and,
*Nearly 3 of 5 respondents reported no
change in their district's technology budget.
Thirty percent reported an increase, while 10
percent reported a decrease. -BENJAMIN HEROLD
EARLY CHILDHOOD
"Longitudinal Contribution of Maternal and
Paternal Depression to Toddler Behaviors"
It's well established that a mother's postpartum
depression can have lasting effects
on her children's academic and social growth,
and a new study suggests a decline in a father's
mental health can cause similar problems
for his children.
The study, published online this month in the
journal Couple and Family Psychology: Research
and Practice, followed about 200 couples with
3- to 4-year-olds who had participated in a previous
study of postpartum depression.
The researchers found that children of fathers
who were depressed in the first year were more
likely to show negative behaviors, including hitting,
lying, anxiety, and sadness. Moreover, having a depressed
parent (either mom or dad) was a stronger
predictor of a toddler showing bad behaviors than
parent fighting was. The study is part of a growing
move to include fathers in evaluating the effects
of parental support and involvement. -SARAH D. SPARKS
AFTER-SCHOOL PROGRAMS
"The Skills to Pay the Bills"
A new report suggests that nonprofit organizations
can learn the money-management
skills they need to keep after-school programs
afloat.
A four-year study commissioned by the Wallace
Foundation tested two different fiscalmanagement
training models at 25 Chicago
nonprofits running after-school programs. Researchers
divided the organizations into two
groups-14 received more expensive and extensive
customized training and 11 were given
more modest, group-oriented professional development
in financial management.
The study found "long-lasting improvements"
at all but one of the schools, including
some using the less-expensive improvement
model.
(The Wallace Foundation also supports coverage
of expanded- and extended-learning opportunities
and other topical reporting in Education
Week.)
-KATHRYN BARON
Graduation Gaps Are Narrowing-But Persistent
"Common Core of Data: Dropout/Completer
Data Tables"
Graduation rates for historically disadvantaged
groups of students-including low-income
students, ethnic and racial minorities,
and English-language learners-have increased
by at least 3 percentage points each
over the past two years, according to data released
last week by the U.S. Department of
Education's National Center for Education
Statistics.
In fact, the rates for those student groups
are improving faster than the overall graduation
rate, which stood at 81.4 percent in 201213,
a 2.4 percent improvement over the 201011
school year. The 2012-13 school year is the
most recent with available data.
But don't pop the champagne corks yet: Although
the gap between the percentages of
black and Hispanic students and white students
graduating from high school has narrowed,
it's still persistent.
The graduation rate for black students in
the 2012-13 school year reached 70.7 percent,
a 3.7 increase since 2010-11. And the rate
for Hispanic students hit 75.2 percent, a 4.2
percent increase since 2010-11. But white
students and Asian/Pacific Islander students
are still outperforming both of those groups,
with graduation rates of 86.6 and 88.7 percent,
respectively. And while American Indian
students had the biggest two-year jump of
any minority group, going from a 65 percent
graduation rate in 2010-11 to 69.7 percent in
2012-13, they still had the lowest graduation
rate of any minority group.
What's more, although graduation rates for
English-language learners and students in
special education have improved by 4.1 and
2.9 percentage points respectively, they're still
lower than the graduation rates for white and
Asian students, as well as for black, Hispanic,
and American Indian students more generally.
Just 61.1 percent of English-learners
earned a diploma in 2012-13, compared with
61.9 percent of students with disabilities.
-ALYSON KLEIN
Growth in High School Completion Rates
n 2010-11 n 2011-12 n 2012-13
Population
American Indian
Asian/
Pacific Islander
Hispanic
Black
White
Low Income
Limited
English Proficiency
Students
With Disabilities
TOTAL
Graduation rate
20%
40%
60%
80%
4.7% increase
1.7%
4.2%
3.7%
2.6%
3.3%
4.1%
2.9%
2.4%
100%
SOURCE: National Center for Educational Statistics
EDUCATION WEEK | March 25, 2015 | www.edweek.org | 5
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Education Week - March 25, 2015

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