Education Week - July 10, 2013 - 4

4 EDUCATION WEEK
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JULY 10, 2013 www.edweek.org
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NEWS IN BRIEF
More Students Caught
With Guns at School
The number of students caught
with guns at school has gone up,
new U.S. Department of Education
figures show.
According to the latest report
on the Gun-Free Schools Act,
a 10 percent increase occurred
in the number of guns found on
students from the 2008-09 to the
2010-11 school year. The federal
law requires students who bring
firearms to school to be expelled
for at least a year.
The number of guns on campus
had been dropping since the
2005-06 school year. The Education
Department hasn’t released
data about guns in school for
more than 2½ years and quietly
posted the latest figures on
its website in April. The report
doesn’t offer any explanations for
the rising rates.
During the 2010-11 school year,
2,761 students were caught with
guns at school.
—NIRVI SHAH
1st Black Male Parent
To Head National PTA
Otha Thornton, the newly installed
president of the National
PTA, wants to lead a more inclusive
PTA, an organization sometimes stereotyped
as catering to suburban
moms.
Mr. Thornton, 45, became the
first African-American man to
head the National PTA last month.
In an interview last month, he
said that the organization’s membership
must become more diverse
as it advocates on behalf of the nation’s
children.
During the recent selection process
for members at the national
level, Mr. Thornton emphasized that
the organization’s leaders needed to
reflect the country’s ethnic and racial
diversity. Last year, he noted
that of the 1,087 state PTA board
members, only 47 were Hispanic.
A retired U.S. Army lieutenant col-
onel, Mr. Thornton plans to provide
members with a clear vision and a
disciplined message as they advocate
for their children’s education.
—KARLA SCOON REID
Coalition Demands
Support-Based Reform
A group of 46 educators and policy
advocates who are pushing what
they call a more-progressive education
agenda ramped up their call for
“supports-based reform” by issuing
a declaration to “rebuild America.”
They decried the current state
of the standards-based movement,
particularly the emphasis on highstakes
testing, and said “this approach—along
with years of dras-
tic financial cutbacks—are turning
public schools into uncreative, joyless
institutions.”
The effort is a continuation of a
campaign launched in April.
Prominent signatories to the
declaration include education historian
Diane Ravitch, Stanford
education professor Linda DarlingHammond,
and the presidents of
both national teachers’ unions. The
group also includes parents, city
leaders, researchers, and educators.
—MICHELE McNEIL
NEA Membership
Declines by 234,000
Since 2010-11, the National
Education Association has lost
about 234,000 members, of which
201,000 are classroom teachers,
according to a strategic plan and
budget presented last week at the
National Education Association’s
2013 Representative Assembly in
Atlanta. The decline leaves the
NEA with about 3 million members
overall.
“The NEA, its members, and its
affiliates have had a very tough
four years,” NEA Secretary-Treasurer
Becky Pringle said in her
presentation on the union’s modified
2013-14 budget. She attributed
the decline to a perfect storm
of “political forces, economic forces,
and education reform forces.”
In all, NEA’s revenues amount to
$345 million, higher than the $339
million projected. The union still
came up about $3 million short in
its budget, but was able to close
that gap by slimming programming
and incurring fewer legal costs
than anticipated. —STEPHEN SAWCHUK
Conn. Judge Orders
Prominent Leader Out
Music teacher Eric Jones, left, plays in a farewell concert with former students and colleagues
whose jobs are slated for cuts, at the Philadelphia school district’s headquarters last month.
Phila. to Get State Aid to Ease ‘Doomsday’ Budget
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett said last week
that he had completed negotiations with state
lawmakers on a rescue package for Philadelphia
public schools as the district tries to reverse
a $304 million deficit and avoid laying
off 20 percent of its workforce and eliminating
programs from art to athletics, says the Philadelphia
Inquirer.
In an online report from the Inquirer late last
month, the Republican governor said portions
of the aid package will have strings attached,
including contract concessions from unionized
employees in the state’s largest district.
He also said that an earlier proposal from city
and school officials to allow a cigarette tax increase
in Philadelphia worth $45 million a year lacked
support in the GOP-controlled state legislature. Instead,
the Philadelphia schools will be given the
power by the state to collect taxes more aggressively,
changes that are worth an estimated $30
million a year, the Inquirer reported.
The district will also get $45 million in one-time
cash from a now-forgiven debt that Pennsylvania
owed to the federal government. In the proposed
state budget for the fiscal year that began July 1,
the schools will get nearly $16 million extra in aid,
according to information from the state senate.
After Republicans who control state government
suggested that the district might not get
the relief it sought for what had been dubbed a
“doomsday” budget, a group of Philadelphia parents
and school employees began a hunger strike
in mid-June in an effort to press for additional
money.
The school district has already sent layoff notices
to 20 percent of its employees, leaving little more
than teachers and principals in schools, as a result
of both a $304 million deficit in the operating budget
and more than $134 million in federal grant
reductions. Without financial help, Philadelphia
school officials also say they need to eliminate all
art, music, and athletics programs. —ASSOCIATED PRESS
A Connecticut state judge ruled
late last month that Paul Vallas,
the superintendent of the Bridgeport
school district, must step
down because he did not complete
a state-mandated leadership
program, the Connecticut Post
reports. The school board of the
21,000-student district has said it
will appeal the decision.
State law requires superintendents
to have a certification that
Mr. Vallas, who was appointed by
state education Commissioner Stefan
Pryor, had not obtained.
An independent-study program,
at the University of Connecticut,
was created for Mr. Vallas to meet
the requirements. He has previously
headed up the Recovery
School District in Louisiana and
the Chicago and Philadelphia districts.
The Post reports that the
course was described to the judge
as requiring between a week and
10 days of work. Mr. Vallas got
an A. The judge ruled that the
course was not sufficient to meet
the state requirement. Other superintendents
in the state were required
to take a 13-month course.
—JACLYN ZUBRZYCKI
Charter Network
Wins Broad Prize
The charter school network Uncommon
Schools last week received
a boost to its name recognition—as
well as an infusion of cash.
The 32-school charter network
based in Massachusetts, New Jersey,
and New York was named the
2013 winner of the Broad Prize for
Public Charter Schools. Uncommon
Schools will also receive $250,000,
which must be devoted to collegereadiness
initiatives, such as
speaker series, scholarships, and
campus visits.
The annual prize, now in its second
year, recognizes the urban charter-management
organization that
“demonstrated the most outstanding
overall student performance and
improvement in the nation in recent
years while reducing achievement
gaps for low-income and students
of color,” according to a statement
from the Los Angeles-based Broad
Foundation.
Uncommon Schools was recognized
for closing the achievement
gap for low-income students and
African-American students at four
times the rate as the average charter
network eligible for the award.
—KEVIN CONNORS
Ed-Tech Commission
Issues 5-Point Plan
A commission of prominent education
leaders released a five-point
plan last month to help facilitate
the growth of digital learning
across the country.
The Leading Education by Advancing
Digital, or LEAD, commission
is co-chaired by Lee Bollinger,
the president of Columbia University;
Jim Coulter, the co-founder of
TPG Capital; Margaret Spellings, a
former U.S. secretary of education;
and Jim Steyer, the chief executive
officer of Common Sense Media.
The commission recommended
updating the wiring of schools to
support high-speed Internet; giving
digital devices to all students by
2020; accelerating the adoption of
digital curricula; investing in technology-rich
schools of innovation
to serve as models; and providing
teachers with training and support
to implement technology effectively.
—KATIE ASH
Judge Backs Student
Who Didn’t ‘Accept Gays’
A federal district judge has ruled
that a high school teacher violated
the free speech rights of a Michigan
student by removing him from
class for expressing views that he
didn’t “accept gays” because of his
Roman Catholic faith.
The court awarded nominal damages
of $1 to Daniel Glowacki, who
was a junior at Howell High School
in 2010 when the events occurred.
The judge further held that the
Howell school district was not lia-
Matt Slocum/AP

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Education Week - July 10, 2013

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