Education Week - June 19, 2019 - 5

From May 1 to June 2, the department says 22,760
teachers had professional-growth plans in process,
compared with just 514 plans in process during the
same time last year.
The change requires teachers who are renewing their license through a "professional-growth
plan"-the most common renewal path-to complete 15 hours of professional development related
specifically to their community's workforce needs.
That includes available jobs and skills needed by
local employers.
Teachers need 90 hours of professional development for their license renewal, which comes every
five years for most teachers.
-AP

Utah to Drop $44 Million Contract
With New Assessment Company
Utah education officials have abruptly canceled a
$44 million contract with a Minnesota-based standardized-testing company amid a flurry of technological glitches that have created uncertainty about
whether this year's test scores will be validated.
School board Chairman Mark Huntsman said that
members didn't want to risk more of the testing interruptions that schools have experienced this year.
The state has paid Questar Assessment Inc.
about $6 million so far for the 10-year contract that
it signed last year and plans to negotiate to recoup
some of that.
A board spokesman said state officials likely won't
know until August or September if this year's test
results are valid to use as part of the state's assessment of teacher and school performances.
Questar CEO Brad Baumgartner said the company "regrets the decision" but will help with a
smooth transition and continue to provide services
to the state until a new company is chosen.
The company also does testing for schools in Mississippi, Missouri, New York, South Dakota, and
Tennessee, according to its website.
-AP

School Workers in Oregon Sue Union
Over Window of Opportunity to Quit
Three Oregon school employees sued their union
in federal court last week, arguing it's unfair that
the teachers' union only lets members drop out and
stop paying dues during the month of September.
The suit was filed the same day state lawmakers
passed a bill that some believe will make it more difficult for public employees to opt out of union membership. The bill is aimed at codifying a number of
"best practices" related to filing complaints, release

results for NAEP. Students who used computers to do research for reading projects tended
to score higher on NAEP reading. But using
a computer for spelling or grammar practice
did not help much.
-ALYSON KLEIN

time for union activities, access to worksites and employee information, and dues collection, according to
union leaders.
A U.S. Supreme Court ruling issued last June
ended a 40-year mandate that public employees join
the union that represents them and their co-workers. But three members of the Oregon Education
Association say in their lawsuit that they missed
the "fine print" on the annual enrollment forms they
completed that said September is the only window
during which they can end their membership and
void their obligation to pay dues. They say limiting
their ability to drop membership to one month a
year violates their constitutional rights.
In a decision known as Janus v. AFSCME, the
Supreme Court said that the First Amendment prevents unions from compelling public employees to
pay dues without their affirmative consent.
-TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

Unable to Pass Math Test, N.C. Teachers
Running Out of Time to Keep Jobs
Hundreds of North Carolina teachers are in danger
of losing their jobs at the end of this month unless
they can pass a licensure exam or state lawmakers
take action to let them stay in the classroom.
Many teachers, especially those in elementary
and special education, have been unable to pass a
required math exam to get their teaching license. To
try to prevent the teachers from losing their jobs, the
state House last week unanimously approved a bill
that would give them more time to pass the exam
and allow districts to issue special teaching licenses
to those who've failed the tests. The bill now returns
to the Senate, which had overwhelmingly backed a
previous version.
Because of how time sensitive the issue is, the bill
also would give the state school board emergency
powers to craft rules to carry out the legislation.
Before 2014, prospective teachers had to pass their
licensing exams before they could start work. Teachers now can get an initial license and have two years
to pass their licensing exams to get a continuing license.
-TNS

CORRECTION:
A map in the June 12, 2019, issue of Education
Week on states prohibiting "lunch shaming" incorrectly displayed Minnesota and Wisconsin. It has
been corrected to show Minnesota among the states
prohibiting the practice. Wisconsin does not have
any such prohibition.

creativity, self-expression, and discipline.
Those that didn't could lead students to develop a negative view of art or their creative
abilities.
-S.D.S.

tiple funding sources provided flexibility
and allowed the state to serve more families.
But the GAO also found the various funding
sources at times conflicting rules.
-S.D.S.

EARLY-CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

SCHOOL DISCIPLINE

"Arts Education and Social-Emotional
Learning Outcomes Among K-12 Students"

"CHILD CARE AND EARLY EDUCATION: Most
States Offer Preschool Programs and Rely on
Multiple Funding Sources"

"The Striking Outlier: The Persistent, Painful
and Problematic Practice of Corporal
Punishment in Schools"

Arts education affects students' social-emotional development-for good or ill, concludes
a new report by the Consortium for Chicago
School Research and the nonprofit Ingenuity.
The groups analyzed 60 years of research
on arts education and conducted interviews
with Chicago students, parents, and arts educators.
They found arts instruction provides opportunities for strong student-teacher interactions. However, the report found arts
instruction must explicitly focus on building

A new report by the Government Accountability Office provides the first comprehensive nationwide look at state early education
programs and how they are funded.
Four states-Idaho, New Hampshire,
South Dakota, and Wyoming-reported no
state-funded early-childhood programs, but
all others had at least one preschool or earlychildhood initiative.
A majority of the 86 state programs in the
study reported using both state and federal
or other funding. The GAO noted that mul-

In schools that use corporal punishment,
students with disabilities and black students
are disproportionately more likely to be hit
than their peers, finds a new report by the
Southern Poverty Law Center.
Only 4 percent of U.S. public schools used
the practice in 2013-14. Students with disabilities had higher rates of corporal punishment across states. Black boys were twice as
likely to be hit as white boys, and black girls
three times as likely to be hit as white girls,
it found.
- S.D.S.

ARTS EDUCATION

Justice Backs
Suit to Force
Tuition Aid
The Trump administration has entered a
lawsuit in support of three families seeking
to require Maine to pay tuition for their
children to attend religious high schools.
Maine categorically excludes religious
schools from its program to pay tuition for
students in districts that do not operate
their own high schools. Of the state's 260
districts, 143 do not operate a secondary
school, and they can contract with another
district or with approved private schools.
The three families, backed by the
Arlington, Va.-based Institute for Justice,
say the exclusion of religious schools from
the tuition program violates their First
Amendment right of free exercise of religion and 14th Amendment right of equal
protection of the law.
The lawsuit relies heavily on the U.S.
Supreme Court's 2017 decision in Trinity
Lutheran Church of Columbia, Mo. v.
Comer, in which the justices said Missouri
violated the free-exercise clause when
it denied the church's participation in a
state playground-improvement program.
The Trinity Lutheran decision has been
the subject of much debate over how
much it bolsters those seeking to require
state school choice programs to include
religious schools.
In a 21-page statement of interest filed
last week in the Maine case, Carson v.
Makin, in U.S. district court in Portland,
the U.S. Department of Justice cites the
Trinity Lutheran case more than 40 times.
"By putting students to a 'choice'
between participating in the 'otherwise
available' tuition program and remaining enrolled at a religious institution, the
state has 'impose[d] a penalty on the free
exercise of religion,' " the federal government's court filing says, citing language
from the Trinity Lutheran decision.
The Justice Department took issue with
an argument Maine offered in court papers
that the exclusion of "sectarian" schools
from the tuition program is necessary to
achieve the state's interest in maintaining
"a secular public education system."
"The free exercise clause and Trinity
Lutheran would be a dead letter if, as
the state suggests, a state could exclude
'sectarian' individuals and institutions
from a public program, simply by labeling that program 'secular,' " the Justice
Department filing says. It notes that the
state approves some private religious
schools and recognizes others as meeting
the state's standards for providing secular
instruction in English, mathematics, history, social studies, and other subjects.
Maine's exclusion of religious schools
from its religion program is rooted in a
1981 state statute barring public funding
of such schools. The law has been upheld
in state and federal courts.
In a document filed before the Justice Department's statement of interest, Maine said the plaintiffs' "entire
argument hinges on a combination of a
misinterpretation of the benefit offered by
Maine's tuition program and an unreasonably broad reading of the Supreme Court's
Trinity Lutheran decision."
-MARK WALSH
Education Week - June 19, 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Education Week - June 19, 2019
