Education Week - May 31, 2023 - 2

K-12 Tech Leaders
Feel Ill-Prepared
For Cyberattacks
Cybersecurity still keeps K-12 technology leaders
up at night.
That concern ranked No. 1 for leaders for the fifth
consecutive year, based on the latest report from the
Consortium for School Networking.
The findings suggest that tech leaders are still struggling
to figure out how to solve cybersecurity problems,
which are becoming more common and complicated.
There have been 1,619 publicly disclosed
cyberattacks on schools between 2016 and 2022, according
to K12 Security Information Exchange.
Cyberattacks can cause major disruptions to
schools, and 43 percent of tech leaders reported that
their districts have been attacked, resulting in some
type of disruption, the CoSN report says. In some
cases, they've had to close schools for several days.
District technology leaders don't feel adequately
prepared to defend their networks. Less than a third
of respondents said their district has sufficient cybersecurity
resources to combat risks.
Largely, resources tend to be lacking. Twelve percent
of respondents said their district's IT budget
doesn't allocate any funding for sustaining cybersecurity
defense, while 64 percent said their districts allocate
5 percent or less of their IT budgets for it.
Because of inadequate funding, two-thirds of districts
don't have a full-time cybersecurity position, the
report found.
" It would be nice to have a dedicated cybersecurity
person, " said Keith Bockwoldt, the chief information
officer for Hinsdale High School District 86 in Hinsdale,
Ill. " But to get someone of quality, you're going
to have to pay that person [a lot] since there's so much
demand [for IT workers] right now. "
To alleviate funding concerns, many in the K-12
community have been asking the Federal Communication
Commission to update the E-rate program's
definition of " firewall " so districts could use the
money to upgrade their cybersecurity resources.
Despite the funding and staffing challenges, district
technology leaders are implementing more practices
to improve cybersecurity. For example, 76 percent of
respondents said their district conducts IT staff training,
an 11-percentage-point increase from 2022. And
61 percent of respondents require two-factor authentication
for district accounts, compared with 40 percent
last year.
Becoming a Teacher Can Be Costly. Maryland
Promises $20,000 to Subsidize Student-Teaching
Struggling to recruit teachers? Who isn't?
Maryland officials hope a just-passed law will eventually
help remove the state from that lengthy list.
The measure promises a $20,000 stipend during the requisite
teaching internship to students who attend institutions
where at least 40 percent receive federal Pell grants and, upon
graduating, commit to teach for at least two years in a grade,
content area, or school in the state designated as high needs.
The stipend is designed to address the financial burden of
teacher-training programs faced by countless students, particularly
during unpaid teaching internships.
The law also loosens entry requirements to a teaching fellowship;
provides small stipends to qualified students who
take part in classroom-based experiential learning like tutoring;
and eases eligibility criteria for a loan program.
" There are other states that have a host of initiatives, but
Maryland's $20,000 stipend for student-teachers is the most
generous, " said Lynn M. Gangone, the president and CEO of
the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.
The costs associated with the path to becoming a fullfledged
teacher can be prohibitive. A line-item budget put together
by one Maryland student showed what her expenses
would have been during a semester student-teaching. They
would have exceeded $14,000. She decided to bow out.
Costs could help explain why growing numbers of students
fail to complete teacher-preparation programs across the
country. Between 2010 to 2018, the number of students who
completed traditional programs-fell by 27 percent nationwide,
according to the U.S. Department of Education.
Of course, money alone won't solve the teacher shortage.
Well before college students encounter a teaching-internship
assignment, societal messages about the profession can impact
their decision about pursuing a teaching career.
In a survey of undergraduates by University of Maryland
researchers, 53 percent said they received encouraging messages
from people they respect about teaching, while 29 percent
reported being discouraged from entering the profession
by people they respect, such as family members.
Love, Always
Artists paint a mural
last summer in honor
of Amerie Jo Garza, one
of the students slain in
the shootings at Robb
Elementary School in
Uvalde, Texas, on May
24, 2022. It's been a
year since a gunman
killed 19 children and
two adults while
law-enforcement
officers waited 76
minutes to intercede.
Since then, some
lawmakers have called
for gun control while
others pressed for
" hardening schools "
with armed security
and other technology.
Publisher, PEN America, Authors, and Parents Sue
Fla. District That Restricted Access to 139 Books
Publishing giant Penguin Random House and advocacy group
PEN America, along with five authors of banned books and two
parents, have sued a Florida district over its removal of books
about race and LGBTQ+ identities, the latest opposition to a
policy central to Gov. Ron DeSantis' agenda as he runs for the
presidency.
The legal challenge alleges the Escambia County district is violating
the First Amendment through the removal of books from
library shelves. Since last summer, the district has restricted 139
books and removed 15, according to PEN.
" Books have the capacity to change lives for the better, and
students in particular deserve equitable access to a wide range
of perspectives. Censorship, in the form of book bans like those
enacted by Escambia County, are a direct threat to democracy
and our constitutional rights, " said Nihar Malaviya, the CEO of
Penguin Random House.
The district declined a request for an interview, citing pending
litigation, as did school board members.
The lawsuit says the removals stem from the objections of one
language arts teacher, and in each case, the school board voted
to remove the books despite recommendations from a district
review committee that deemed them educationally suitable.
The teacher's formal objections appear to draw on materials
compiled by a website that writes reports on books it deems ideologically
unsuitable for children, according to the lawsuit.
In one example it cited, the teacher admitted she had never
heard of the book The Perks of Being a Wallflower but filed an objection
form to the novel that contained specific excerpts and phrasing
from the book-ban website.
Some of the books she objected to were written by the authors
suing the district, including Ashley Hope Pérez, who wrote Out
of Darkness. The book features a teenage love story between a
Mexican-American girl and an African-American boy in 1930s
New London, Texas, leading up to the deadly New London School
explosion of 1937 that killed 300 students and teachers.
Books such as Out of Darkness and others that have been removed
are important resources for young people to learn about
their world and empathize with others, Pérez told EdWeek.
BRIEFLY STATED CONTRIBUTORS: Associated Press, Evie Blad, Elizabeth Heubeck, Alyson Klein, Lauraine Langreo, and Eesha Pendharkar. Edited by Karen Diegmueller.
2 | EDUCATION WEEK | May 31, 2023 | www.edweek.org
Eric Gay/AP

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Education Week - May 31, 2023

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