Education Week - September 21, 2016 - 4

NEWS IN BRIEF
IES Launches New Version
Of Research Clearinghouse

David Woo/The Dallas Morning News via AP

The Institute of Education Sciences
last week rolled out a new version of
its What Works Clearinghouse intended to help school leaders search
for more specific research on programs that might satisfy the school
improvement provision of the Every
Student Succeeds Act.
Visitors can search for studies
based on the characteristics of their
schools, such as grade span, locale,
and student demographics. The site
also lets users search for particular
practices within studies, such as summer bridge programs.
The overhaul is meant to help
meet growing demand for evidence
on programs as states and districts
grapple with ESSA. It also responds
to criticisms that the site has been
hard to use.
-SARAH D. SPARKS

Right-to-Literacy Suit
Filed Against Michigan
Lawyers representing Detroit
schoolchildren filed a lawsuit last
week against Gov. Rick Snyder and
other state officials in what they're
calling the country's first federal
case that pushes for literacy as a
right under the U.S. Constitution.
The complaint contends that
Michigan has denied Detroit students access to literacy-the most
basic building block of education-
through decades of "disinvestment
... and deliberate indifference."
It makes broad requests for remedies, such as the implementation of
evidence-based literacy programs,
universal screening for literacy
problems, and a statewide account-

REPORT ROUNDUP

ability system in which the state
"monitors conditions that deny access to literacy" and intervenes.
-TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

Ohio Gets Federal Funds
For Charters-With Strings
The U.S. Department of Education
is releasing a $71 million grant to
Ohio to help high-performing charter
schools, but with strings attached.
The federal agency last week said it
is imposing a series of restrictions on
release of the money to prevent fraud

inside Ohio's troubled charter school
system. The state will be required
to hire an independent monitor and
create a database of charter schools'
academic, operational, and financial
performance. The state education
department also must comply with a
series of new reporting requirements.
Federal regulators postponed disbursement of the money last year
amid concerns over the state education department's alleged rigging of
charter school evaluations and revelations of omissions from its grant
application.
-ASSOCIATED PRESS

Mercury Contaminates
Las Vegas School
Investigators say they're puzzled
by the significant amount of mercury found at a Las Vegas school,
days after a few dribbles of the neurotoxin were first discovered and
forced more than a thousand students into a quarantine that lasted
overnight.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said last week that more
than a quarter-cup of the element has
been cleaned up so far on campus at

Walter Johnson Junior High School.
Clark County district officials say
they believe that a student brought
in the mercury, but that there was
no malicious intent behind it.
Students were given food, water,
and access to medications and bathrooms that night. At least 50 of the
1,200 students had to be decontaminated. No illnesses have been
reported. The EPA also checked the
homes of about 60 students who were
noted for contamination. One family
has been displaced while awaiting
EPA cleanup.
-AP

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ACCESS TO HIGHER EDUCATION

FOOD INSECURITY

"State of College Admission"

"Impossible Choices," "Bringing Teens to the
Table"

As college-application season ramps up
once again, an annual survey of collegeadmissions officers reiterates an important message for high school students
who are worried about their SAT or ACT
scores: The classes you take and the
grades you earn are far more important
than your test scores.
The survey found that in the fall 2014 admissions cycle, 79.2 percent of responding
colleges and universities gave "considerable
importance" to grades in students' collegeprep classes, and 60.2 percent assigned
the same importance to the strength of the
classes that students took. Only 55.7 percent
of respondents said admission-test scores for
entering freshmen were of "considerable importance" in their admission decisions.
The report also notes that the number of applications from first-time freshmen increased
6 percent between fall 2014 and fall 2015, and
the number of applications from international
students increased by 23 percent.
Colleges accepted 65.8 percent of first-time
freshman applicants in fall 2014, up slightly
from 64.7 percent in 2013. The 2014 number
represents a stabilization after a decline: The
acceptance rate was at a low of 63.9 percent
in fall 2012.
-CATHERINE GEWERTZ

It's not news that traditional school
meal programs for students in poverty
don't work as well for busy and hyperself-conscious teenagers, but new research throws the problem into graphic
relief: Teenagers shoplifted, sold drugs, or
traded sex to get enough food for themselves and their families.
Some 6.8 million students ages 10 to 17 live
in homes without reliable access to enough
food, according to two new studies by the
Urban Institute.
While more schools are providing free meals
to all students to reduce the stigma of poverty,
researchers found teenagers are still far less
likely than younger students to know about
and participate in food-support programs either in or out of school.
Researchers drew their findings from
focus groups with nearly 200 13- to
18-year-olds in 10 communities nationwide, from Chicago, Los Angeles, and the
District of Columbia to eastern Oregon
and rural North Carolina. All the groups
included at least some students who had
experienced food insecurity in the past
year.
Although all the students said they pre-

4 | EDUCATION WEEK | September 21, 2016 | www.edweek.org

ferred to get a formal job to make ends meet,
the researchers found youth unemployment
was higher than the national average of 27
percent in eight of the communities studied,
and in most of them, child-labor laws restricted employment for students younger
than 16.
-SARAH D. SPARKS

SCHOOL FUNDING
"Heterogeneous District Response to Statewide
School Finance Reform: Did Pennsylvania's
Act 61 Increase Education Spending or
Provide Tax Relief?"

Officials often struggle to determine if
students participating in school choice
programs like vouchers and education
savings accounts are receiving the "equitable services" they are entitled to under
federal law, such as speech therapy and
reading tutors, according to a report
from the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
The report, published last week, calls on
the U.S. Department of Education to give
more guidance to states and districts on
providing equitable services in the context
of private school choice programs.
The study is based on document reviews,
interviews, and surveys of all 22 voucher or
education saving accounts programs that
were operating across the country in 2015.

A state effort to target funding to lagging school districts did not reduce disparities in student achievement and perstudent spending, a study has found.
Under the 2008 plan, which is no longer
in effect, the state sent additional money
to school districts that were spending less
than what a formula determined was adequate for a district with its number of
students and level of poverty, among other
factors. The planned six-year program
ended after three years.
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Georgia State University
concluded in a study published earlier
this month in the National Tax Journal
that the payments the state sent to these
districts did not shrink the gaps in spending or student achievement that separate
wealthy and poorer districts.
The study notes that the payments, a
relatively small component of basic education funding, came to an average of $236 per
student in the first year, and $479 per student in the third year, the researchers found.

-ANDREW UJIFUSA

-ASSOCIATED PRESS

SCHOOL CHOICE
"Private School Choice Programs Are Growing
and Can Complicate Providing Certain Federally
Funded Services to Eligible Students"

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Education Week - September 21, 2016

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