Education Week - September 4, 2019 - 6

WHAT THE

RESEARCH

Concept Words Key to
Comprehension
"How Much Knowledge Is Too Little? When a Lack of
Knowledge Becomes a Barrier to Comprehension"

Students need to reach a "knowledge threshold" to
boost reading comprehension in a new subject, and some
academic keywords are more critical than others, finds a
new study in the journal Psychological Science.
Researchers from the Educational Testing Service and
the University of Memphis gave more than 3,500 high
school students a test of ecology knowledge before a
separate reading comprehension test on an ecology topic.
Researchers correctly predicted the majority of students
who would score poorly in reading comprehension based
on their understanding of the most commonly used
subject-matter words, such as ecosystem and habitat. They
recommended teachers take a quick measure of students'
background knowledge to help distinguish knowledge from
decoding or other reading problems.
-Sarah D. Sparks

Early-Year Parent Involvement
Pays Off in Middle School
"Understanding Family-School Engagement Across and
Within Elementary and Middle-School Contexts"

Middle school students whose parents get involved early
in the school year have fewer academic and behavioral
problems later on, finds a new study in the journal School
Psychology.
University of Missouri researchers surveyed 200 teachers
and nearly 3,200 elementary and middle school students on
parent involvement. They found that parent involvement
declines as students move from elementary to middle
school grades. However, highly involved parents at the
start of the year had students who, by the end of the year,
had better social skills, stronger focus on tasks, and fewer
emotional or behavioral problems in class. That was true not
just for elementary students, but middle schoolers as well.
"Keeping in contact with multiple teachers can be more
challenging for parents with children in middle school, but
... parents and teachers should continue to make an effort
to connect," said Keith Herman, a co-author and education
professor.
-S.D.S.

States Start to Back Away
From End-of-Course Tests

Number of EOCs used for accountability

States have used end-of-course tests in core courses
for accountability since the 1990s, but the number of
these tests has declined recently in the wake of a broader
movement for less testing, according to a new analysis by
the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a Washington think tank.

n Math n Science
n English/language arts n Social studies
60
50
40
30
20
10
0

2010

2012

2014

2016

2018

2020

Graduating class

6 | EDUCATION WEEK | September 4, 2019 | www.edweek.org

Caitlin Penna for Education Week

SAYS

Adam Perry, a career counselor and bus driver at Tuscola High School in Waynesville, N.C., picks up students.

Teacher-Drivers Keep Wheels
On the Bus Going Round
By Corey Mitchell
As school systems around the country struggle to fill vacant bus driver jobs, more districts have turned to familiar
faces: their own employees.
In suburban school systems near Indianapolis and Washington, D.C., teachers are signing up to drive routes before
and after classes.
A school district in rural North Carolina has begun requiring newly hired support staff-including cafeteria
workers, classroom aides, and custodians-to complete
bus driver training.
And in western Pennsylvania, superintendents in two
districts earned their state certification and commercial licenses over the summer in case they're needed in a pinch.
More than 90 percent of school districts across the country reported bus driver shortages in a survey released this
year by the National Association for Pupil Transportation.
One-third of those districts described it as "desperate or
severe" in the recent survey, said Mike Martin, the association's executive director.
The shortages are perennial, though, and they stem from
various factors, including low pay, limited hours, and split
work shifts that make the job unappealing to potential hires.
To address the shortages, some districts have cut or combined routes or shifted school start times, changes that can
increase the number of parents and high school students
driving to school.
"The shortages are getting bad enough, in some cases,
where it's becoming a dramatic safety issue," said Michael
LaRocco, the president of the National Association of State
Directors of Pupil Transportation Services. "Anybody that
you can find [to drive buses] who is capable and qualified
works, and that includes teachers."

Extending the Classroom
This year, the Carmel Clay, Ind., school district began
paying teachers up to $18,000 per year to drive buses,
added income that could boost their pay more than 30 percent in some cases.
When Cathy Hardwick started teaching in Carmel Clay
more than three decades ago, she never envisioned driving
a bus. Two weeks into the driving job, she relishes the opportunity to connect with students outside of school.
"It's an extension of my classroom," said Hardwick, an
elementary school physical education teacher who drives
middle and elementary school bus routes. "I'm engaged
with kids more now. I guess I was made to be with children."
To recoup the lesson preparation time she misses out on at
the beginning and end of the day, Hardwick often returns to
school on the weekends or when her afternoon routes end.
"You really have to manage your time better," Hardwick
said.
Roger McMichael, the associate superintendent for
business affairs in Carmel Clay, estimates that hundreds of
teachers there already supplement their income with parttime jobs. The average annual teacher salary in Carmel

Clay is about $55,000.
Nationally, nearly 1 in 5 public school teachers have second jobs during the school year, federal data show. Hardwick worked part-time retail and landscaping jobs early in
her career and has colleagues who do similar work or wait
tables at night or on weekends to earn extra cash
"If you need extra money, it does relieve some financial
stress," Hardwick said.
The teacher hires are also qualified to handle one of the
most difficult parts of being a bus driver: managing the
behavior of dozens of children while your back is turned,
McMichael said.
About 30 miles outside of Washington, the Prince William County, Va., school system has also hired a handful of
full-time teachers to drive buses.
The driver shortage is so severe that the district has hired
a human resources employee solely to focus on bus driver
recruitment. The district-which has at least four teachers
driving buses this school year-offers full benefits to drivers, including dental, medical, and vision, said Kathy Snow,
administrative coordinator human resources and recruitment for transportation in Prince William.

Trouble Spots
The driver shortages are most acute in the Midwest and
Northeast, in part because the challenge of operating buses
during snow-filled winter months deters applicants, said
Martin of the National Association for Pupil Transportation.
In school districts in Maine and Michigan, schools shut
down for the day during the 2018-19 school year because
they didn't have enough substitutes to cover routes for drivers who called in sick.
But districts in warmer climates have also struggled to attract candidates. Mesa, Ariz., schools changed school start
and end times to reduce the number of drivers it needs.
Even so, the district has dozens of driver vacancies, nearly
a month into the school year, said Scott Thompson, the assistant superintendent of business services for Mesa.
"Anybody who has a (commercial drivers license) is driving, and that might be dispatchers, that might be supervisors, that might be the director of transportation if she has
to," Thompson said. "But I worry, you can only ask people
to keep doing those heroic things day after day for so long
and they just get tired."
After hourly wage boosts didn't attract enough candidates, the Moore County, N.C., school board passed a
policy that requires all support staff to obtain a bus driving
license and be available to drive if needed.
In western North Carolina, the Haywood County school
system seeks out full- and part-time employees who want
to drive buses on either end of their regular work shift.
Arnie Nadonley, the superintendent of the Richland
schools in Cambria County, Pa., earned his commercial
driving license this summer alongside several other district
employees at the behest of the district's busing contractor.
"We want to be proactive," Nadonley said. "You never
know when you may have to get behind the wheel."

http://www.edweek.org

Education Week - September 4, 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Education Week - September 4, 2019