Education Week - August 5, 2015 - 4

NEWS IN BRIEF
Schools May See Decline
In Unaccompanied Minors

College Board Revises
AP U.S. History Framework

The number of unaccompanied
school-age children from Central
America arriving at the United
States' southern border has declined significantly from this time
last year, according to a top administrator for the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services.
The decline follows a surge in 2014
during which tens of thousands of
children sought to enter the United
States, taxing the resources of many
school systems.
In fiscal 2014, the U.S. Department
of Homeland Security referred 57,496
children to the HHS, which cares for
children once they are apprehended
at the border. In contrast, fewer than
18,000 were referred during the first
eight months of fiscal 2015, said
Mark Greenberg, the agency's acting
assistant secretary for children and
families.
-COREY MITCHELL

The College Board released a revised
framework for Advanced Placement
U.S. History a year after critics attacked it as taking an overly negative
view of America's story.
The new, 155-page framework was
posted on its website on July 30. The
College Board said that public feedback
had resulted in "improvements to the
language and structure of the course."
The revised version discusses American exceptionalism, and brings more
attention to the United States' positive
contributions to world history, such as
its roles in ending the Cold War, and
the two World Wars. It offers more detail on the founding fathers, and the
"productive role" of free enterprise.
-CATHERINE GEWERTZ

Jefferson County, Colo., election
workers count petitions, collected by
parents and educators, to remove
school board members who pushed
last fall to revise an AP U.S. History
curriculum that stresses patriotism
and downplays civil unrest.

Obama Seeks to Provide
Poor Families With Internet
President Barack Obama has announced a new program aimed at
providing some 275,000 low-income
families living in public housing
with access to affordable high-speed
Internet connections.
The ConnectHome initiative strives
to bring together Internet-service
providers, public-housing agencies,
and elected officials and nonprofit
groups. The Federal Communications Commission, school technology
groups, and others are pushing to
close the "homework gap" that results
from many low-income students' inability to access reliable Internet connections outside of school.
According to a new analysis from
the President's Council of Economic
Advisors, less than half of children
from the lowest-income households
have a home Internet connection.
-BENJAMIN HEROLD

Suit Filed to Force Use
Of Test Scores in Reviews
A lawsuit has been filed in California by Students Matter, contending
that some districts have inked collective bargaining agreements prohib-

iting the use of test scores to evaluate teachers. Those pacts, the suit
charges, contravene state law, which
requires "pupil progress" on tests as
one component of evaluations.
The group behind the suit is the
same one that was victorious in Vergara v. California, which challenged
the state's teachers' tenure and due
process protections.
The 13 districts cited in the new
lawsuit educate some 250,000 students.
-STEPHEN SAWCHUK

Court Upholds Linking
Test Scores to Evaluations
A federal appeals court has upheld
a Florida law that requires teacherperformance evaluations to be based
in part on student-test scores.
The three-judge panel last month
upheld the 2011 measure that requires the state education commissioner to devise a formula to measure
individual-student-learning growth

on a state test that covers English
and mathematics. The statute provides that half of a teacher's evaluation be based on such a formula.
Several teachers and three local
teachers' unions sued the state and
three districts, arguing that the
policies arbitrarily and illogically
evaluated teachers based either on
the test scores of students or subjects they did not teach. The court
took note of the fact that Florida
has since amended the law to give
districts more flexibility in developing ways to measure student performance in subjects and grades not
covered by state tests.
-MARK WALSH

sought more than $240 million that
they said they were shortchanged
during six state budget years.
The lawsuit, brought by former
Gov. Ronnie Musgrove on behalf of
the districts, also sought an order
that would have affected the entire state by making legislators
fully fund a formula that was put
into law in 1997 but has been ignored most years. The judge said
he would not issue that order because a portion of the law, added in
2006, includes alternatives for how
the state should handle education
funding during years when money
falls short.
-ASSOCIATED PRESS

Mississippi Not Obligated
To Fully Fund Schools

North Carolina Vouchers
Ruled Constitutional

Mississippi legislators are not obligated to fully fund an education
budget formula every year, a judge
has ruled.
Collectively, 21 districts had

North Carolina's highest court has
ruled that the state's school voucher
program is constitutional, according
to local news media.
The North Carolina Association of

Educators and the North Carolina
School Boards Association filed the
original lawsuit against the program
at the end of 2013, shortly after it
was created by the legislature.
The program gives publicly
funded scholarships of up to $4,200
each to low-income students to use
at private schools.
Last year, around 1,200 students
used vouchers to attend private
schools. At least three-quarters of
the schools were affiliated with a
religion, according to the Associated Press.
-ARIANNA PROTHERO

Florida to Reward Teachers
For High SAT, ACT Scores
Florida teachers may be eligible
for bonuses of up to $10,000 if they
scored well on their SAT or ACT college-entrance exams, no matter how
many years ago they took them.
The state's new budget provides
$44 million for "highly effective"

| TRANSITIONS |
Ruth Curran Neild, the commissioner
of the National Center for Education
Evaluation and Technical Assistance,
has been named the U.S. Department
of Education's director of policy and
research, a role that includes
directing the Institute of Education
Sciences.
Ms. Neild came to the center, housed
at the IES, in 2011 as the associate
commissioner of knowledge utilization.
Previously, she was a research scientist
at the Johns Hopkins University Center
for Social Organization of Schools and
a faculty member at the University
of Pennsylvania Graduate School of
Education.

Forrest Claypool, the chief of
staff for Chicago's mayor, is the
new chief executive officer of
the Chicago public schools. He
previously served as president
of the Chicago Transit
Authority and superintendent
of the Chicago Park District.
In addition, Janice K.
Jackson has been named the
new chief education officer. She
has worked for the district for
a decade and a half.
Ken Wagner, the senior deputy
commissioner for education policy at
the New York state education

4 | EDUCATION WEEK | August 5, 2015 | www.edweek.org

department, has been chosen
commissioner of education for
Rhode Island.
He also has experience as a middle
school principal and has worked as a
school psychologist.
Laura Bay, a former
Washington state parentteacher-association
president, is the new leader
of the national organization.
She had previously been
secretary-treasurer of
the National PTA and has served on the
national board and numerous committees.
She has also worked as an educator in

the Bremerton, Wash., district where she
works as a coordinator for assessment
and instruction.
Paul Pastorek, a former
Louisiana schools chief, has
been named a co-executive
director of the Eli and
Edythe Broad Foundation's
education work.
He will serve alongside
Gregory McGinity, a
former congressional
staffer and education
policy consultant with
the California board of
education.

http://www.edweek.org

Education Week - August 5, 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Education Week - August 5, 2015