Education Week - April 17, 2019 - 4

NEWS IN BRIEF
New Analysis Details Incidents
Of Gun Mishandling in Schools

Principals From Schools Where
Shootings Occurred Form Network
Current and former principals whose schools
were the scenes of shootings have formed a network to support other school leaders in the aftermath of violence.
The Principals Recovery Network will also advocate for educational resources and policies to
help schools prevent violence. It convened this
month ahead of the 20th anniversary of the Columbine shootings.
The group, organized by the National Association of Secondary School Principals, includes 17 current and former principals from
schools in 11 states, including Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.,
the site of shootings that killed 17 last year.
Collectively, the participants have lost more
than 40 students and staff and seen scores
more wounded in shootings over the past two
decades.
-ASSOCIATED PRESS

Report Roundup

Aimee Dilger/The Times Leader via AP

More than 60 publicly reported incidents of
mishandled guns occurred in schools in the past
five years, finds a new analysis.
The firearms were carried by employees, including teachers and school police, often with
permission from schools, says the report released
this month by the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
The report comes as Florida and Tennessee
consider expanding the ability of teachers to
carry guns in schools.
The group's analysis relies on data from the
Gun Violence Archive, an online database of gun
incidents that gathers information from "over
2,500 law-enforcement, media, government, and
commercial sources."
The list of incidents includes unsecured guns
that were accessible or visible to children, including a Miami 5th grader reporting a gun left in
a restroom by a security guard; unintentional
firing of weapons; teachers and school employees
using weapons to harm themselves or threaten
others; and mishandled firearms during disciplinary incidents.
-EVIE BLAD

Music to Her Ears

Citing Class Sizes, Services, Teachers
In California's Capital City Walk Out

Using a stethoscope,
Diamond Wilson, a 3rd
grader at the Milford E.
Barnes Jr. School in
Wilkes-Barre, Pa.,
listens to Gretchen the
donkey's chest for a
heartbeat. The Lands at
Hillside Farms, an
educational farm in
Shavertown, brings
animals to the
classroom each week.

Hundreds of teachers across the Sacramento
Unified school district walked out of their classrooms and onto picket lines last week for the first
time in 30 years, staging a one-day strike alleging
unfair labor practices by the California district.
The district, which serves 42,000 students, told
parents in advance that its 75 schools would be
open and classes would be appropriately staffed.
The strike adds to the extreme pressure faced
by the district, which is under the threat of state
takeover as it attempts to close a $35 million budget gap.
The Sacramento City Teachers Association,
which was on the verge of striking 18 months ago
before a last-minute deal was brokered, voted overwhelmingly last month to strike, arguing that the

district is not honoring that 2017 agreement. The
district maintains it is working with the union to
abide by its understanding of the contract.
The teachers' union said it was forced to strike
because the district was not honoring its contract
that included reducing class sizes and improving
student services.
-TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

N.Y.C. Program Aimed at Diversifying
Elite High Schools Comes Up Short
A program meant to diversify New York City's
infamously segregated specialized high schools
failed to admit representative numbers of black
and Hispanic students this school year, figures released last week by district officials show.
The Discovery program, hyped as a desegregation tool for elite schools, mostly benefited Asian
students despite the fact that those students al-

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VULNERABLE STUDENTS

RACIAL DIVERSITY VARIES
WIDELY IN ONLINE CHARTERS
Full-time online charter schools nationally enroll
a relatively high percentage of white students,
but there are significant variations in enrollment
patterns by state. The findings, based on a 2018
study conducted on behalf of the Michigan Virtual
Learning Research Institute, were presented by
University of Alabama researcher Bryan Mann this
month at the annual conference of the American
Educational Research Association.
Percent white students in online charters
Percent white students in all other public and charter schools

Maine

91
90

Louisiana

New Hampshire

90
87

Michigan

69
67

Pennsylvania

69
68

Utah
Minnesota

All states in
dataset

49

66%

82

65

Wisconsin

71

Oregon

69
51

80
79

63

Indiana

Ohio

85

69

Kansas

South Carolina

88

75

77
76

75
71

72

45

Oklahoma

50

North Carolina

50

Arizona

39

Nevada

California
Colorado

39
24

63
59
56

34

Florida

65

54

41
36

54

SOURCE: "Racial and Economic Diversity Trends in Virtual Charter Schools: An Analysis of National Enrollment Data, 2015-16," Michigan Virtual Learning Research Institute

4 | EDUCATION WEEK | April 17, 2019 | www.edweek.org

"Equity & Excellence ESSA Report Cards"
Eight states-including three of the nation's largest, California, Florida, and Michigan-are doing a "poor" job of looking out for
vulnerable students in their plans to implement the Every Student Succeeds Act, according to an analysis by the National Urban
League, a prominent civil rights group.
The analysis considers how plans in 36
states and the District of Columbia handle
the performance of subgroups of students,
including English-learners, students in special education, racial minorities, and poor
students, and how states plan to support
struggling schools and ensure that schools
serving high-poverty populations get their
fair share of resources.
Nineteen states and the District of Columbia are doing "sufficient" work, the analysis
found. Another nine-Colorado, Illinois,
Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio, Oklahoma, New
Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island-were
rated "excellent."
-ALYSON KLEIN
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Education Week - April 17, 2019

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