Education Week - September 16, 2015 - 22

BLOGS

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Obama Assembles Panel of Experts
To Push Free Community College
| HIGH SCHOOL & BEYOND | President Barack Obama
hasn't been able to get his plan for free community college
through Congress, so he's trying another approach:
assembling a panel of experts to help him make that
vision come true on a state-by-state basis.
The president and Jill Biden-a community college
professor and the wife of Vice President Joe Biden-
unveiled their plan Sept. 9 during a visit to Macomb
County Community College in Warren, Mich.
Central to the plan is the College Promise Advisory Board,
which will call attention to programs that already offer free
community college and work to persuade more states and
cities to do so as well, according to the Associated Press. Jill
Biden will lead that 31-member board, which is made up
of leaders from the higher education, business, advocacy,
philanthropic, and legislative sectors.
Obama has been pressing for students to be able to go
to community college free of charge, a proposal he made
formally in January. The president's domestic policy
adviser, Cecilia Munoz, acknowledged to the Associated
Press that the Republican-controlled Congress doesn't
appear to have much interest in the idea. -CATHERINE GEWERTZ

Indiana Plans to Cut Length of Test
In Aftermath of Political Uproar
STATE EDWATCH | After a political maelstrom in
Indiana earlier this year about the amount of time
students would have to spend taking the state test,
officials now have a plan on the table to cut the length
of that exam by 25 percent.
The state education department told lawmakers last
week that the next version of the Indiana Statewide Testing
for Educational Progress-Plus, or ISTEP+, would take

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about nine hours, the Associated Press reported. Legislators
are expected to review that figure and other issues before
releasing their own recommendations as to how the exam
should be altered.
Last February, the department sent shock waves
throughout the state when it announced that the 2014-15
ISTEP+ would take 12 hours for students to complete. In
response to anger and confusion from various quarters,
officials scrambled to hack away portions of the test, such
as the section on social studies, in order to shorten it just for
the 2014-15 year.
It was given to about 450,000 students in grades 3-8 last
year. Before replacing the Common Core State Standards
with its own content standards in English/language arts
and math in 2014, the state had been slated to give the
Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and
Careers exam to those students.
The furor over the ISTEP+, which renewed the political
battle between state schools Superintendent Glenda Ritz,
a Democrat, and Gov. Mike Pence, a Republican, preceded
the state's decision to drop CTB/McGraw-Hill as its testing
company in favor of Pearson Education in March.
-ANDREW UJIFUSA

County in Colorado Sets Recall Vote
After AP U.S. History Controversy
| DISTRICT DOSSIER | November 3. That's the date now
set for a recall election in Jefferson County, Colo., that is
targeting three school board members who pushed last
year to revise the AP U.S. History curriculum to focus on
the positive aspects of American history and emphasize
patriotism.
That proposal met swift backlash from teachers and
students, with some students staging multiple days of
walkouts in Colorado's second-largest district.
Earlier this year, a local group, Jeffco United for Action,
gathered thousands of signatures to recall the three board

members behind the history flap: Ken Witt, John Newkirk,
and Julie Williams.
The three board members were elected in 2013 pledging
to cut spending and expand school choice programs. But
their critics countered that they have sought to foist
their conservative agenda on the district, engaged in
inappropriate spending, and operated behind closed doors.
-DENISA R. SUPERVILLE

'Tremendous Teacher Shortage'
Confronts Okla.'s First-Year Chief
STATE EDWATCH |
How bad is the teacher shortage in Oklahoma? Well, it
doesn't get much worse.
Last month, the state board of education approved
requests for 503 emergency teacher certifications on top of
the Sooner State's 1,000-person teacher shortage.
To put that in perspective, in the 2011 school year,
the state issued fewer than 40 emergency certifications,
which district officials apply for when they've exhausted
all options in trying to find a teacher with the necessary
credentials and there isn't enough time before the start of
the school year to test an individual who has agreed to fill
in as a teacher.
"We have a tremendous teacher shortage," said state
schools chief Joy Hofmeister, who sat down with Education
Week in Washington last week to chat about the first few
months of her administration. "You can have the highest
standards in the world, but if you don't have the teachers to
teach them, what good are they?"
Only Mississippi and South Dakota rank lower than
Oklahoma when it comes to teacher pay. To change that,
Hofmeister is calling for a $5,000 increase in base pay for
all teacher salaries over the next five years.
"It's certainly not something that can be solved in one
year," she said. "It takes a phase-in approach."

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Effective Integration
Of Technology in the Classroom
Technology has the power to
transform learning experiences
into 21st-century opportunities-
boosting student engagement,
connecting to the real world, and
challenging students to think
critically.
frEE wEbInar
WED., SEpT. 23, 2015
2 To 3 p.m. ET

GuEsTs
GWEn HICkS, m.Ed., independent
educational consultant
REbECCa STobauGH, ph.D.,
associate professor, Western
kentucky university
MOdEraTOr
kIm bRoDy, director of professional
development, mentoring minds

www.edweek.org/go/webinar/
TechnologyInTheClassroom

22 | EDUCATION WEEK | September 16, 2015 | www.edweek.org

-LAUREN CAMERA
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Education Week - September 16, 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Education Week - September 16, 2015
