Education Week - April 22, 2015 - 5

REPORT ROUNDUP www.edweek.org/go/rr
high school. Fewer female students
also take Advanced Placement
courses in math and science.
-AP
Federal Authorities Probing
Chicago Over Contract
The fbi is reportedly investigating
a $20.5 million no-bid contract that
the Chicago school district awarded
to a company that trains principals
and once employed the district's ceo,
Barbara Byrd-Bennett, local news
media say.
Citing unnamed sources, The Chicago
Sun-Times said the fbi and the
U.S. attorney's office in Chicago had
been looking into the contract for
about a year and investigating the
role that Ms. Byrd-Bennett might
have played in it. The Chicago Tribune
story stressed that she has not
been accused of any wrongdoing.
Ms. Byrd-Bennett worked at the
company, supes Academy, before she
was tapped as an adviser to the district's
former ceo. She was picked
by Mayor Rahm Emanuel in 2012
to head the school system.
-DENISA R. SUPERVILLE
Nebraska Bill Would Lower
Minimum Wage for Students
Some Nebraska teenagers could
receive a lower minimum wage
next year under a proposed measure
that would create a new class
defined as "young student workers"-high
schoolers younger than
18 who would continue to earn $8
an hour in 2016 when the standard
minimum increases to $9.
The bill, backed by the Nebraska
Grocery Industry Association, has
been touted as a way for small-town
grocery stores to provide part-time
jobs for local students without going
out of business.
But the bill's opponents say the
measure is bad policy for communities
where high school jobs are essential
for students living below the
poverty level and could lead to more
students dropping out of school. -AP
Bennett Could Play Role
In Ind. Charter Venture
Former Indiana schools chief Tony
Bennett is contributing to a former top
aide's efforts to start an Indianapolis
charter school.
Documents say he is on the ace
Preparatory Academy's professionaladvisory
council. His focus is listed as
including "state accountability," "strategic
planning," and "fundraising." Mr.
Bennett said that his role was limited
to a letter of recommendation for the
school's leader.
He resigned from his job as Florida's
schools chief after the Associated Press
published emails showing he changed
the school-grading system in Indiana
to help a top Republican donor's
charter school. An Indiana inspector
general's report said that his staff and
state-issued vehicle were used extensively
for political work.
The ig's investigator said Mr. Bennett
could face federal wire-fraud charges
as well as state ghost-employment
charges. But he hasn't been charged
and has denied any wrongdoing.
-AP
READING INSTRUCTION
"Assessing the Cognitive Demands of a Century of
Reading Curricula: An Analysis of Reading Text
and Comprehension Tasks From 1910 to 2000"
Contrary to popular belief, primary reading
texts have not been "dumbed down" in recent
years, a new analysis in the American Educational
Research Journal finds.
Researchers from Pennsylvania State University,
Northern Illinois University, and the
Agnes Irwin School in Rosemont, Pa., analyzed
the text complexity and the comprehension required
in reading assignments in 187 reading
textbooks for 3rd grade and 71 such textbooks
for 6th grade published between 1905 and 2004.
While basal readers became simpler through
the first half of the 20th century, starting in
1970 they included more sophisticated vocabulary
and made more cognitive demands of students.
For example, textbooks asked on average
16 comprehension questions per story in the
1920s, but 48 questions per story in the 2000s.
-SARAH D. SPARKS
BLENDED LEARNING
"Middle School Students' Writing and Feedback
in a Cloud-Based Classroom Environment"
Using online editing sessions does not affect
student scores on standardized writing
and reading exams, according to a forthcoming
study in the journal Technology, Knowledge, and
Learning.
Binbin Zheng, an assistant education professor
at Michigan State University, and her coauthors
examined more than 18,000 editing sessions
of 3,537 writing samples. They were taken
from 257 6th graders at a single middle school
in suburban Colorado that used Google Docs for
students to write papers and exchange feedback
with their teachers and with one another during
the 2011-12 academic year.
Researchers also compared students' results
on the 2010-11 Colorado Student Assessment
Program reading and writing tests with their
results in 2011-12. The researchers found no
effects on student test scores from either the
extent of feedback or revisions by the students
and their teachers.
-BENJAMIN HEROLD
EARLY-CHILDHOOD EDUCATION
"WWC Intervention Report: Shared Book Reading"
GAUGING REFORMS
While parent-child reading sessions are at
the core of innumerable city and state literacy
programs, a report by the federal What Works
Clearinghouse finds common approaches show
mixed results.
During shared book reading, an adult generally
attempts to engage a child or children by
pointing to illustrations, discussing word meanings
or the sequence of events, and other approaches.
In
an analysis of six studies, covering 791
children ages 3 to 6 in 10 locations, federal researchers
found mixed effects of shared book
reading on comprehension and language development
for preschool children. No effects were
found for alphabet recognition or general reading
achievement.
-S.D.S.
COLLEGE COMPLETION
"The Economy Goes to College"
College-educated workers in America now
make 80 percent more on average than workers
without a college degree, a study shows.
That wage advantage is twice as much as it
was 50 years ago, when workers with a high
school diploma could make a competitive salary
in manufacturing work.
The report, released last week by the
Georgetown University Center on Education
and the Workforce, documents the shift to a
high-skills economy in which more collegeeducated
workers are in demand, but not
enough are graduating. The underproduction
of college talent is causing employers to bid
up the salaries of those with a degree, widening
the income gap, authors Anthony P. Carnevale
and Stephen J. Rose found.
-CARALEE J. ADAMS
Districts credit the federal
Race to the Top program with
bolstering their efforts to
redesign policy. As the initiative
winds down, however, they're
concerned about sustainability.
ENGLISH-LANGUAGE LEARNERS
"Differing Cognitive Trajectories of Mexican
American Toddlers: The Role of Class, Nativity,
and Maternal Practices"
A significant percentage of Mexican-American
children who matched their white counterparts
in cognitive growth at 9 months old had fallen
behind by the time they reached age 2, according
to a study from the University of California,
Berkeley.
For the study, published in the May issue of
the Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences,
lead author Bruce Fuller, a professor of education
and public policy, tracked the development
of about 950 Mexican-American children and
3,600 children of native-born white mothers.
About half of white toddlers showed strong
cognitive growth by age 2, compared with 22
percent of Mexican-American toddlers. A quarter
of Mexican-American and white youngsters
had poor cognitive growth. Other research has
found that based on such measures as social and
emotional growth and physical health, young
Mexican-American children are similar to white
children.
-CHRISTINA A. SAMUELS
EDUCATION WEEK | April 22, 2015 | www.edweek.org | 5
GAO: More Help Needed for RTT Winners
"Race to the Top: Education Could Better Support Grantees
and Help Them Address Capacity Challenges"
The Race to the Top grant initiative is unlikely to be included in the next federal K-12
education law, but a study by the Government Accountability Office suggests the U.S.
Department of Education should give states more support in implementing any future
competitive-grant programs.
Race to the Top, which winds down in September after six years, offered $4 billion in
grants to states that were willing to embrace education priorities such as school turnarounds,
teacher evaluation through student outcomes, rigorous standards and assessments,
and comprehensive state data systems.
The gao found that the Education Department did not provide enough technical assistance,
particularly to rural districts, which have had a difficult time sustaining changes
under the grants. Both rural and urban districts reported financial stability as one of
the most challenging parts of continuing changes in assessment and student data. But
rural district leaders were more than twice as likely as urban leaders to say they faced
significant challenges in organization and human capital in working to improve standards
and assessments.
The gao calls for the department to provide more individualized help to states,
allow more collaboration among grantees, provide professional development to state
officials throughout the grant process, and help grantees find good contractors.
-ALYSON KLEIN
Don't know 4%
12%
No effect on
reform plans
15%
Accelerated
reform plans
already underway
24%
Allowed for the
development of new
reform plans not
previously established
42%
Both accelerated
reform plans already
underway and allowed
for development of
new reform plans
NOTE: This figure
includes data
from all districts
participating in
RTT, including
those that
were initially
participating but
later withdrew.
Estimates have 95
percent confidence
intervals of within
+/-6 percentage
points of the
estimate itself.
3%
A negative effect
on reform plans
SOURCE: Government Accountability Office

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Education Week - April 22, 2015

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