Education Week - April 19, 2017 - 25

often confusing and ill-defined role of SROs, it can
also help parents improve how they advocate for
their children to SROs and school officials.
We encourage all parents-and all individuals
and organizations that work with parents-to
use this guide as a reference and a resource.
Communities, schools, families, and children will
all be better served by the active engagement of
parents in key decisions, policies, and practices
that affect their children's lives and determine
their futures.
Lisa H. Thurau
Founder and Executive Director
Strategies For Youth
Cambridge, Mass.

Academe Is Politically 'Out of Step'
With the Nation as a Whole
To the Editor:
"[Frederick M.] Hess is overreaching when he
argues that academe is 'unrepresentative of the
nation as a whole,' " says Ron Wolk, the founding
editor of Education Week, in a March 8 letter
to the editor ("K-12 Scholarship's Leftward Tilt
Is No Surprise and Not a Concern"). Wolk cites
liberal Hillary Clinton's popular-vote victory. "It's
more accurate to say that academe is out of step
with the ultra-conservative minority that has
moved further right as the world has changed,"
he says.
All of Secretary Clinton's 2.9 million-vote
margin in the 2016 presidential election could be
chalked up to California. Clinton won that state
by 4.3 million votes.
What does liberalism's massive victory in
California reveal? Here's how urban-affairs
commentator Joel Kotkin described California
on RealClearPolitics.com in January: The state

"suffers the greatest levels of income inequality
in the nation. ... If California remains the
technological leader, it is also becoming the
harbinger of something else-a kind of feudal
society divided by a rich elite and a larger poverty
class, while the middle class either struggles or
leaves town."
California is a state exemplar of liberalism
translated into policy. Yet even California is
not so liberal as academe. Hess mentioned
several surveys. Here's another, this one from
Perspectives on Psychological Science in
2012, which surveyed social and personality
psychologists: "Only 6 percent described
themselves as conservative. ... Conservatives fear
negative consequences of revealing their political
beliefs to their colleagues. ... They are right to do
so: In decisions ranging from paper reviews to
hiring, many social and personality psychologists
said that they would discriminate against
openly conservative colleagues. The more liberal
respondents were, the more they said they would
discriminate."
Hess has the stronger case.
Tom Shuford
Retired Teacher
Lenoir, N.C.

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In an online-only Commentary, former
superintendent Nicholas A. Fischer
urges district leaders to push
boundaries despite the potential for
controversy and political backlash.

Getty

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In the wake of a recent U.S. Supreme Court
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raise the bar for students with disabilities,
argues Richard Lee Colvin, while Brent
Betit, the head of a school for students
with learning differences, offers eight
strategies for doing just that.

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Educators must resist the temptation to
singularly focus on grit in their effort to
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-lch1, responding to the Van Schoales Commentary
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EDUCATION WEEK | April 19, 2017 | www.edweek.org | 25
Education Week - April 19, 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Education Week - April 19, 2017
