Education Week - July 18, 2018 - 5

the Sun Sentinel reported.
But the Florida commission concluded the referral
was unconnected to the gunman's access to weapons,
and even if Cruz had been arrested for vandalism, he
would have been a juvenile first-time offender, which
would not have limited his ability to buy guns. -E.B.
SOURCE: Puerto Rico
Department of Education;
Education Week

New York Court Voids Rules Allowing
Charter Schools to Certify Teachers
A New York state court has thrown out rules that
would have let some charter schools certify their own
teachers.
Only the state education commissioner and the
board of regents can set teacher-qualification standards, the court said.
The ruling last month voids an alternative-certification process approved by the State University of
New York Charter Schools Committee last October.
Charter advocates had sought the rules to help
ease staffing shortages. Opponents said they would
put unqualified individuals in charge of classrooms.

Education Week mapped the hundreds of public schools slated
for closure in Puerto Rico, as well as the schools that will
receive those students, and the distances between them.

Transitions

A federal judge in Alabama has taken the unusual
step of ordering everyone in a school desegregation
case to read a book written by an NFL tight end.
The judge was slated to hold a hearing this week to
decide if the city of Gardendale should have to pay $1.3
million to lawyers for black students who challenged its
failed legal effort to start its own school system.
But before that July 17 hearing, U.S. District Judge
Madeline Haikala late last month ordered all the
lawyers, the county and city school boards, and other
witnesses to read Under Our Skin by Benjamin Watson, and be ready to discuss it at the hearing.
Watson, a 14-year NFL veteran now with the Baltimore Ravens, wrote the book following the Ferguson,
Mo., riots in 2014 after a grand jury declined to indict
a police officer in the shooting death of an unarmed
man. In his book, Watson explores racial discrimination in his life.
-TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

School Closures
Drawing Nearer
For Puerto Rico
Hurricane Maria severely disrupted Puerto Rico's public schools
when it hit last Septemer. Now, the
island's education system is poised to
undergo a controversial transition.
In response to the storm, as well as
to falling enrollment and the government's long-term financial woes, the
Puerto Rico Department of Education plans to close nearly 25 percent
of its public schools before the 201819 school year begins. Under the
plan, 263 schools will close and 847
schools will remain open.
Across the island, 270 schools are
being tapped to take in students
from those schools that are slated to
close. The average driving distance
between the closing and receiving
schools is 2.33 miles. Most of the
driving distances between students' old and new schools would
be less than five miles, but these
new routes to school could still be
a big change for some children and
parents.

TOMMY CHANG,

KAREN LEWIS, the president

REBECCA B. DUFOUR, an

the superintendent of the
Boston school district, has
resigned.
His resignation came one day
after a civil rights lawsuit was
filed against the district
alleging that it had shared
information with lawenforcement officials that may
have played a role in a student's
deportation, which Chang
denied. Mayor Marty Walsh
indicated that the departure
was related to Chang's
management and the need for
faster gains.
Chang was an instructional
superintendent in Los Angeles
when he was tapped in
2015 to lead the nearly
57,000-student district.

of the Chicago Teachers Union,
says she is stepping down
because her battle with brain
cancer has made it impossible
to do her job "at my best."
In her eight years at the helm,
Lewis has been a fiery leader
who has been engaged with
an ongoing war-of-words with
Mayor Rahm Emanuel. In 2012,
she led a seven-day strike-the
first such work stoppage for the
union in a quarter century.

author, consultant, educator,
and administrator, died July
10. She was 57.
DuFour was an elementary
school principal before
joining her late husband,
Richard DuFour, as a writer,
consultant, and advocate
for collaborative teaching
environments. Richard DuFour
died in February.
Her school, Boones Mill
Elementary School in Franklin
County, Va., was awarded
the Governor's Award of
Excellence six years in a row
starting in 2001.

CORRECTION
A Commentary in the June 20, 2018, issue of
Education Week, "Could Altruism Curb Teen Suicide?" misstated the location of Santa Fe High School.
The school is located in Texas.

tion civics simulations, and only 11 mention
service learning.
-STEPHEN SAWCHUK
PRIVATE SCHOOLS
"Does Attendance in Private Schools Predict
Student Outcomes at Age 15? Evidence from a
Longitudinal Study"
As the debate on school-choice continues,
a study published by the American Educational Research Association finds that although children with a history of private
school enrollment perform better overall
regarding academic, social, psychological,
and attainment outcomes, when sociodemographic characteristics are weighed, there
are no advantages of a private school education. Such characteristics include family
income and background.
The longitudinal study conducted by University of Virginia researchers tracked a sample of over 1,000 children between kindergarten and 9th grade.
-SASHA JONES

JIM SHELTON, the president
of the Chan Zuckerberg
Initiative's education division,
is leaving the venturephilanthropy organization
aimed at investing in
education, science, and justice.
Shelton was hired by CZI in
May 2016. Previously, he worked
for the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation, the U.S. Department
of Education, the New Schools
Venture Fund, and ed-tech
company 2U.

edweek.org/go/puertorico-map

Obituary

-ASSOCIATED PRESS

Federal Judge Orders Parties to Lawsuit
To Read NFL Player's Book on Racial Bias

Interactive Map:

KINDERGARTEN

EDUCATION ATTAINMENT

"50-State Comparison: State Kindergarten
Through 3rd Grade Policies"

"How Much Does Education Improve
Intelligence: A Meta-Analysis"

While more early-childhood education advocates call for universal pre-K, less than a third
of all states even require full-day kindergarten, finds a study by the Education Commission of the States, a nonprofit and nonpartisan
group of researchers who track policies related
to education.
The ECS guide also lists how much class
time is required for students in kindergarten
and found striking differences throughout the
country.
For example, in New Jersey 2½ hours of
attendance per day is considered full-day
kindergarten, while in New Mexico students
must attend 5½ hours to meet the fullday kindergarten designation. New Mexico
doesn't require students to attend full-day
programs and New Jersey only requires it for
certain districts.
-MARVA HINTON

A massive new research analysis finds that
formal education, in general, remains "the
most consistent, robust, and durable method
yet to be identified for raising intelligence."
Children who have a higher early IQ are
more likely to stay in school longer, finds a
meta-analysis in the journal Psychological
Science. But more importantly for teachers,
for every year of education, students also gain
on average one to five IQ points, with gains
that continue into old age.
To put that in perspective, about two-thirds
of adults have an IQ between 85 and 115, and
only about 2.5 percent of adults have an IQ
above 130.
Researchers looked at nearly 30 studies
involving some 600,000 people but did not
analyze potential effects of early education.
-SARAH D. SPARKS

Critics Fear Disruption
Government leaders say
consolidating schools is a necessary
step to reorganize and improve the
U.S. territory's K-12 system, but
critics-including the leaders of the
island's teachers' unions-say the
closures will drive away families
and teachers, as well as upend
communities.
Younger students could be hit
particularly hard: Among the schools
scheduled for closure, at least 85
percent include the K-5 grades. These
closures are subject to a legal battle
currently taking place in the island's
courts.
Puerto Rico Secretary of Education
Julia Keleher said many schools educate far fewer students than they have
room for-nearly 500 schools had a
utilization rate of less than 60 percent,
she pointed out.
Consolidating schools will help Puerto
Rico "guarantee access to books and
teachers and resources in a positive,
inviting learning environment," Keleher
said.
Enrollment on the island has been
dropping for some time; last summer,
the island shut down roughly 180 public
schools. -ANDREW UJIFUSA & MAYA RISER-KOSITSKY

http://www.edweek.org/go/puertorico-map

Education Week - July 18, 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Education Week - July 18, 2018