Education Week - April 22, 2015 - 4

NEWS IN BrIEF
Glitches Plague Testing
Online in Three States
Technical woes struck three states
last week as they tried to administer
Smarter Balanced exams in English/
language arts and math.
The Montana education department
announced April 15 that schools
could choose not to administer the
exams. Superintendent of Public
Instruction Denise Juneau said the
decision is meant to take pressure off
districts, although she still expects
most schools to ultimately give them.
Similar problems also hit test-takers
in Nevada and North Dakota. Nevada
suspended testing on April 15
after experiencing problems the previous
day as well. Measured Progress,
which administered the tests in all
three states, said its servers could not
accommodate the number of students
who came online to take the exams.
-ANDREW UJIFUSA
N.J. May Order Contractors
To Undergo Criminal Checks
State contractors with access to
student information in New Jersey
may soon have to undergo a criminal-background
check.
Democratic legislators introduced
a measure last week that would
require the state education commissioner
to have contractors with
access to student data undergo the
same criminal-history records check
as public school employees.
The lawmakers say the bill is
needed in light of reports that Pearson-the
company administering
the Partnership for Assessment of
Readiness for College and Careers
tests-hired Caveon Testing Security
to monitor students' public social-media
posts. Pearson has said
the practice was needed to protect
against cheating.
-ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ohio Scuttles Mandate
On Art, Music, P.E. Teachers
Ohio's board of education last
week approved a policy change that
opponents say could gut elementary
school music, art, nursing, and counseling
offerings statewide.
The board eliminated the soHEALTHY
DEBATE
Lexi Wooledge, left, and
her twin, Ashley, attend
a Senate hearing in
Sacramento with their
mother, Vicki, about a
measure that would
require California
schoolchildren
to get vaccinated.
called "5 of 8" rule, which sets districts'
minimum number of art,
music, and physical education
teachers; counselors; librarians;
nurses; social workers; and visiting
teachers.
Board members opposed to cutting
the policy said they're concerned that
cash-strapped districts will eliminate
such positions because they might be
considered irrelevant to standardized
tests.
-AP
L.A. Demands Refund
For iPad-Based Curricula
The Los Angeles Unified School
District announced last week that
it will stop buying Apple iPads that
come loaded with Pearson digital
courses.
District officials said they will seek
to recoup the costs of licenses for the
curriculum that the school system
paid for but has been unable to use.
Thus far, the district has paid Apple
almost $73.7 million for 120,400
iPads loaded with Pearson courses.
In a statement, Pearson acknowledged
"challenges with the initial
adoption, but we stand by the quality
of our performance." Apple did
not respond.
PARCC Consortium Working
To Shorten Test Time
Officials with the Partnership for
Assessment of Readiness for College
and Careers say they are working
on ways to shorten their exams
and administer them during one
window, instead of the two periods
currently required.
That news came in testimony
last week before a committee of
the Ohio legislature, which is considering
whether to keep the exam
or dump it. The tests can take nine
to 11 hours, though many students
finish earlier.
The consortium is working with
Pearson, a key player in designing
the test, to combine the perfor-MICHELE
MOLNAR
mance tasks with the end-of-year
portion of the test, parcc officials
said.
-CATHERINE GEWERTZ
All-Girls STEM School
Approved by L.A. Board
The Los Angeles school board last
week approved the creation of an allgirls
school focused on science, technology,
engineering, and math in an
attempt to narrow the gap between
boys and girls in those subjects.
If the state grants the district approval
to operate a single-gender
school, the Girls Academic Leadership
Academy would open in 2016
with an initial group of 200 students
in grades 6-9. Enrollment would be
increased to 700 through all high
school grades by the 2019-20 school
year.
Los Angeles Unified data show
girls perform as well or better in
math and science in elementary
schools, but their scores decline as
they continue through middle and
High Testing Opt-Out Rates Could Cost N.Y. Federal Funds
Federal officials are hinting that public schools in
New York state with high opt-out rates during last
week's standardized tests could face financial penalties.
But
the state's top education official dismissed the
possible loss of any funding as imprudent.
"I would say to everyone who wants to punish the
school districts: Hold them to standards, set high
expectations, hold them accountable, but punishing
them? Really, are you kidding me?" said board of
regents Chancellor Merryl H. Tisch.
Tens of thousands of parents across New York
kept their children from participating in English/
language arts standardized tests in grades 3-8.
For now, the threats coming from Washington are
vague, at least publicly. But one thing is certain:
| TRANSITIONS |
Tony Smith, a former superintendent of the OakWashington
and Albany were clearly caught off
guard by the high levels of students not taking the
tests-70 percent or more in some districts.
In New Jersey, meanwhile, high school juniors
opted out of the Partnership for Assessment of
Readiness for College and Careers exams at a rate
nearly three times that of their counterparts in elementary
and middle school, according to a preliminary
report from the state education department.
A department memo said the combined parentalrefusal
rate was 14.5 percent of juniors. The refusal
rate for students in grades 3-6 was 3.8 percent and
a total of 4.6 percent for grades 3-8.
One news outlet reported that 38 percent of students
in New Jersey's Montclair district, for example,
didn't take the test.
-McCLATCHY-TRIBUNE & ANDREW UJIFUSA
land, Calif., district, has been selected as the next state
schools chief in Illinois.
Mr. Smith currently serves as the director of the W.
Clement Stone and Jessie V. Stone Foundation in Oak
Park, Ill., which focuses on early-childhood development
and other endeavors.
He replaces Chris Koch, who has held the post since 2006.
Luis Valentino, the associate superintendent and
chief academic officer of the San Francisco school district,
has been named the superintendent of the Albuquerque,
N.M., school system.
Mr. Valentino previously worked as the director of
school services for the Los Angeles Unified School District
and has been a principal, university and elementary
school teacher, and an adult school counselor.
4 | EDUCATION WEEK | April 22, 2015 | www.edweek.org
Rich Pedroncelli/AP
http://www.edweek.org
Education Week - April 22, 2015

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