Education Week - May 13, 2015 - 5

district, arguing that the boy's freespeech
rights had been violated.
-MARK WALSH
Families Sue Calif. District
For Teacher's Alleged Abuses
Six families are suing a Northern
California school district where a
special education teacher has been
charged with child abuse and battery
for allegedly mistreating children
in her classroom.
The federal lawsuit alleges
that the Rocklin Unified district
and six administrators knew the
students were being abused by
Sherry Ann McDaniel and failed
to intervene.
Placer County prosecutors have
charged Ms. McDaniel with 14 misdemeanors
stemming from reports
that she allegedly hit, dragged, and
improperly restrained the students
in grades 4-6 with bungee cords and
painter's tape.
-AP
Texas Moves to Eliminate
High School Steroids Testing
The Texas Senate has voted to
scrap the state's high school steroids-testing
program after more
than 60,000 tests caught just a
handful of cheaters since 2007.
The state has spent more than
$10 million since launching the program.
But the high cost, extremely low
rate of catching steroids users, and
criticism of testing methods prompted
lawmakers to abandon an effort once
praised as a leader for the country.
The bill headed to the House last
week for consideration before the
June 1 end of the session. Lawmakers
are also looking to strip all funding
for the program.
-AP
Calif. on Path to Banning
Schools' Use of 'Redskins'
The California Assembly approved
a bill last week that would prohibit
public schools from using "Redskins"
as a school or team name, mascot, or
nickname.
According to local media, four
high schools still use the name for
their mascots.
If the commission on state mandates
determines the bill contains
state-mandated costs, California
would help reimburse schools for
making the required changes. The
bill now heads to the state Senate.
-BRYAN TOPOREK
Ariz. Students Vulnerable
To Spread of Measles
Many kindergarten classrooms
in Arizona are vulnerable to the
spread of measles because so few
children have been vaccinated.
Data released by the Arizona
health-services department show
that 2 in 5 kindergarten classrooms
in the state fell below "herd immunity"
this school year. That means
too few pupils in the group were
immunized to prevent the spread of
measles. That's about the same rate
as last year and doesn't include the
state's smallest schools.
The health department also
looked at 6th grade classrooms.
Last year, nearly 1 in 8 schools had
6th grade classrooms vulnerable to
the spread of measles. This year,
it's 1 in 6.
-AP
Officials in Ariz. Seek Probe
Of Suspected Cheating
Arizona education officials last
week asked the state attorney general's
office to investigate possible
cheating at seven schools where officials
say some students' answers
on standardized tests were erased
and changed to the correct answers
at a higher-than-normal rate.
The state education department
invalidated a number of 2014 tests
at the schools because of answers
being changed.
Schools Superintendent Diane
Douglas said in a letter to the attorney
general's office that the department
has not concluded that any particular
student, teacher, or administrator was
responsible for the changes.
-AP
Privacy Ratings Underway
For Ed-Tech Products
More than 20 districts are working
with Common Sense Media to
establish a system that will rate the
privacy policies on ed-tech products
used by schools.
In the second half of this year, up
to 1,000 products will be rated. The
results are to be released in 2016.
The outcome is likely to be a simple,
color-coded key so that schools
can readily understand companies'
compliance with privacy standards.
Large districts such as New York
City, Chicago, Houston, and Fairfax
County, Va., are among those that
have been working for the past year
to develop the rating system with
the nonprofit group.
-MICHELE MOLNAR
CORRECTIONS
An article in the May 6, 2015, issue
of Education Week about district
adoptions of the Next Generation
Science Standards misspelled the
name of David Geanette, the director
of science, technology, engineering,
and mathematics for the Neshaminy
district in Langhorne, Pa.
An article on undocumented immigrant
students in the same issue misspelled
the name of Carolyn SattinBajaj,
an assistant professor at Seton
Hall University in New Jersey.
Also in that issue, an article on
the state takeover of the Lawrence,
Mass., district misstated the name
of Education Resource Strategies.
William J. Bushaw, a former teacher and a veteran of the
worlds of research and state education policy, has been
selected as the new executive director of the National
Assessment Governing Board.
He will assume his duties July 27, succeeding
Cornelia S. Orr, who retired in March. He'll oversee
the 26-member board that sets policy for the National
Assessment of Educational Progress, or naep.
Mr. Bushaw served for a decade as the chief
executive officer of pdk International. He also managed
national and state research grants at the University
of Michigan's Merit Network Inc., was a deputy
superintendent and chief academic officer at the
Michigan education department, a high school principal,
and a teacher in elementary and middle schools.
Baker Kurrus, a lawyer, will be the new superintendent of
the 25,000-student Little Rock district in Arkansas.
He replaces former Superintendent Dexter Suggs,
who resigned last month amid allegations of plagiarism.
Mr. Kurrus served on the Little Rock school board from
1998 to 2010. He also had been working as a volunteer
chairman of the district's financial-advisory group.
| TRANSITIONS |
Fifty-eight percent of high school students, when asked what
type of device they use at school, said they rely on their own
technology, according to the Speak Up survey, released last
month by the Irvine, Calif.-based nonprofit Project Tomorrow. A
smaller proportion of students, 32 percent, said they use school
laptops, while 16 percent said they used school-issued Chromebooks,
and 14 percent said they use school tablets. Among students
in grades 6-8, the proportion using their own devices is
much smaller, 23 percent, while the largest share of students,
34 percent, said they used school laptops.
-SEAN CAVANAGH
ELL STUDENTS
"The Case for a Two-Generation Approach for Educating
English-Language Learners"
A new report from the Center for American Progress makes
the case that communities looking to improve education for
school-aged English-language learners should also offer services
to their parents.
The study finds that limited English skills for parents and
students "can create a poverty trap for families" and argues
that engaging them simultaneously improves the academic and
educational well-being of both generations.
It also found that language-learner students are more likely
to attend high-poverty schools with a lack of adequate resources,
and that the growth of immigrant communities across
the United States has led to "uneven and inadequate access to
adult English instruction."
-COREY MITCHELL
SCIENCE EDUCATION
"2015 Business Report: National Survey STEM Education"
A recent survey of 5,000 K-12 science, technology, engineering,
and math teachers and supervisors found that 80 percent
of respondents were familiar with the Next Generation Science
Standards, and of those, 60 percent held a favorable view of
them. Just 6 percent of all respondents had a negative impression
of the standards. (Others had a neutral impression.)
The survey was conducted online in November and December
2014 by Interactive Educational Systems Design Inc., along
with stem Market Impact llc and mch Strategic Data.
The survey found that among respondents whose states had
recently adopted new science standards-either the Next Generation
Science Standards or otherwise-less than 10 percent
planned to buy a new curriculum. Most said they will continue
to use their existing curriculum, with some enhancements.
-LIANA HEITIN
STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES
"When an Early Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder
Resolves, What Remains?"
A small percentage of children who had been diagnosed with
autism spectrum disorder as toddlers no longer showed symptoms
of the disorder four years later, but most continued to have
emotional or learning disorders, according to a study that was
presented at a recent meeting of the Pediatric Academic Societies
in San Diego.
The findings came from a study of 569 children living in New
York between 2003 and 2013. They had all been diagnosed
with autism spectrum disorder through an early-intervention
program around age 2½. But 38 children-about 7 percent-
showed no further signs of autism by age 6.
Those 38 children did have normal cognitive function, but
many, 68 percent, also had learning disabilities. Nearly half
had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and a quarter had
disabilities such as anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, or
selective mutism. Nearly 75 percent of the children required
academic supports.
-CHRISTINA A. SAMUELS
EDUCATION WEEK | May 13, 2015 | www.edweek.org | 5
States Are Extending Mandates
For Compulsory Education
"Free and Compulsory School Age Requirements"
As states look to prepare students for 21st century
jobs, many have extended the upper and lower limits
of their compulsory education requirements, according
to a report published last week by the Education Commission
of the States, a Denver-based education policy
think tank.
The changes have led to a patchwork of state laws.
American students are now required to attend school
for as few as nine years and as many as 13, depending
on which state they live in. At the high end of the
range, 24 states and the District of Columbia now require
students to attend school until age 18, 11 states
make schooling mandatory until age 17, and 15 set the
compulsory-attendance age at 16.
In all states, schools are required to offer free education
services for students outside the years during which
compulsory attendance is required. In most states, the
lower age limit for providing free education is 5. Only
Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Wisconsin set the
entry age lower than 5-at least 3 in Massachusetts and
4 in the other three states-according to the ecs report.
However, 41 states don't require school attendance
until children reach age 6; Pennsylvania and Washington
state don't mandate it until age 8. Many earlyeducation
advocates have pushed for mandatory kindergarten
attendance as a first step toward improving
early learning in K-12.
-LILLIAN MONGEAU
http://www.edweek.org
Education Week - May 13, 2015

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