Education Week - April 15, 2015 - 4

neWs IN bRIeF
NCLB Rewrite Would Expand
Core-Subject Definition
The U.S. Senate draft of the rewritten
No Child Left Behind Act
adds writing, music, computer science,
technology, and physical education
to the list of disciplines it
defines as "core academic subjects."
That shift, buried deep in the
601-page Every Child Achieves Act,
released last week, appears to be
a response to the years-old debate
about the nclb law's curriculumnarrowing
effect.
Critics of the testing regimen that
the nclb law created will likely
argue that expanding the list of
core academic subjects is unlikely
to have a broadening effect on the
curriculum, since only English/language
arts, math, and science must
be tested.
-CATHERINE GEWERTZ
More Immigrant Children
Headed to United States
About 39,000 immigrant children
are expected to enter the United
States illegally as unaccompanied
minors this federal fiscal year, reaching
the second-highest level of that
migration since 2008, says an analysis
issued last week by the Washington-based
Migration Policy Institute.
The second wave of immigrants,
as some call it, is expected even as
localities and school systems struggle
to absorb about 53,500 children
who arrived last fiscal year.
Advocacy groups say little has
been done to help communities that
have received the children. A recent
$14 million federal grant for education
costs is a drop in the bucket,
they say, when divided among affected
schools across many states.
-McCLATCHY-TRIBUNE
Recommendations Drafted
For Seal of Biliteracy
Four national professional groups
have banded together to draft recommendations
for a seal of biliteracy-a
special recognition on high school diplomas
and transcripts for graduates
who demonstrate fluency in two or
more languages.
The American Council on the
Teaching of Foreign Languages, the
REFLECTIONS ON
AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY
Students from Rochester Junior
High School visit the Abraham
Lincoln Presidential Museum in
Springfield, Ill. They discuss a
35-star American flag that was
flown during President Lincoln's
funeral, part of an exhibit of
artifacts related to his death
150 years ago.
National Council of State Supervisors
for Languages, the National Association
for Bilingual Education, and the
tesol International Association developed
the recommendations.
Because more states are supporting
bilingualism with the special
seals, the groups sought to offer
state lawmakers and education officials
a guide for best practices to
"ensure consistency in the meaning"
of the recognition.
-COREY MITCHELL
Common Core Supported
In La. If Name Is Dropped
Louisiana residents like the idea
of multistate education standards
for public schools-just not when
they're called "common core."
Those are the findings of a poll
released this month from Louisiana
State University's Public Policy
Research Lab that shows when the
name "common core" is used to deU.S.
Education Department Issues Guide for Ed-Tech Developers
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan last week
unveiled a new guide for software developers, startups,
and entrepreneurs at the Arizona State University/Global
Silicon Valley conference in Phoenix.
The 66-page guide, developed by the Department
of Education's office of educational technology and
"crowd-sourced from knowledgeable educators, developers,
and researchers," aims to inform the ed-tech
industry about the most pressing challenges schools
face, encourage a school-centered design process, and
offer help navigating the complex regulatory and bureaucratic
landscape that developers face when trying
to get their products into schools.
The guide identifies 10 areas in which the department
suggests developers can have the greatest
impact-from improving students' mastery of basic
skills and promoting their noncognitive abilities such
as "grit," to increasing family engagement and improving
professional development for teachers.
One broad theme: Rather than simply digitizing
traditional materials, developers should innovate, in
order to make teaching and learning more meaningful.
The department's new guide for developers focuses
heavily on the software- and app-design process, emphasizing
that industry must better recognize and
understand educators' actual needs.
And it's important for developers to understand how
districts work, says the guide, which lays out the basics
of district budgets, federal and state obligations, and
the key players in most district organization charts.
It also contains information on ensuring studentdata
privacy, tips for fundraising and networking,
and a primer on software interoperability.
-BENJAMIN HEROLD
scribe those standards, 39 percent
of people supported them.
But just over two-thirds of those
surveyed, 67 percent, supported
using "standards for reading and
math that are the same across the
states" when the Common Core
State Standards label was dropped.
-ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kentucky Bars Districts
From Allowing Opt-Outs
Commissioner of Education Terry
Holliday says Kentucky districts cannot
honor requests from parents who
want to opt their children out of participating
in standardized tests.
In an email to superintendents, he
said students who don't take part in
assessments will receive a zero score,
and that will be part of their schools'
accountability calculations.
Todd Allen, the assistant general
counsel for the state education de|
TRANSITIONS |
Blanca Estela Enriquez, who has led the Region 19
Head Start program in El Paso, Texas, since 1986, is
the new national director of Head Start.
Ms. Enriquez previously served on an early-education
advisory committee to Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
She also served on a federal committee that crafted
the framework for a grant-competition process requiring
Head Start centers to recompete for federal
funds.
Ronn Nozoe, Hawaii's deputy schools superintendent,
has been named the new deputy assistant secretary
for policy and programs in the U.S. Department of
Education's office of elementary and secondary education.
During
his tenure in Hawaii, Mr. Nozoe helped implement
the state's $75 million Race to the Top grant.
partment, said in a statement that
parents can opt out of public education
completely, but they can't stay
in public schools and choose which
provisions to follow and which to
disregard.
-AP
U.S. Supreme Court Declines
To Hear Education Cases
The U.S. Supreme Court in the
past two weeks has declined to step
into three education-related cases.
In the latest, Allston v. Lower
Merion School District, the justices
refused without comment to hear
the appeal of seven students and
their parents who argued that a
Pennsylvania district systematically
funneled a disproportionate
number of black students into special
education.
In Dariano v. Morgan Hill Unified
School District, the justices
also refused to hear an appeal
4 | EDUCATION WEEK | April 15, 2015 | www.edweek.org
David Spencer/The State Journal-Register/AP
http://www.edweek.org
Education Week - April 15, 2015

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