Education Week - October 8, 2014 - 16

Inconsistent Definitions of Bullying Concern Researchers
WHAT IS BULLYING?
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
based interventions, which are
based on narrower definitions used
in research, fall short of expectations
in schools because they aren't
designed to address the problems
administrators expect them to fix,
he said.
Getting on the Same Page
Even the two largest federal surveys
on bullying-by the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention
and the U.S. Department of Education-use
very different language to
ask students if they've been a victim
of bullying. While the cdc provides a
short definition, the Education Department's
method asks about a list
of behaviors.
The cdc has sought to bring consistency
by convening a panel of experts
and federal officials to write a uniform
research definition.
That work, which originated at a
2010 federal summit on bullyingprevention
efforts, follows similar endeavors
to craft uniform definitions to
aid in the research of other social and
behavioral issues, including intimatepartner
violence, child maltreatment,
and elder maltreatment.
"Definitions don't agree, even
within those [federal] branches, between
state laws, between research
studies, the definition really varies,"
said Deborah Temkin, a research
scientist at the Bethesda, Md.-based
Child Trends who led the Education
Department's anti-bullying efforts at
the time of the summit. "This is really
problematic because we need to have
a common understanding of what
we're talking about."
The cdc's new uniform definition,
which it describes as a "starting point
to guide public-health surveillance of
bullying," is derived largely from the
work of Daniel Olweus, a psychologist
at the University of Bergen in
Norway, who has studied bullying for
more than 30 years.
The uniform definition describes
bullying as "any unwanted aggressive
behavior(s) by another youth or
group of youths who are not siblings
or current dating partners that involves
an observed or perceived
power imbalance and is repeated
multiple times or is highly likely to
be repeated."
It adds: "Bullying may inflict harm
or distress on the targeted youth including
physical, psychological, social,
or educational harm" and that the
behaviors could be verbal, physical,
or relational. Relational bullying includes
attempts to damage a peer's
relationships or reputation through
ignoring, isolating, or spreading defamatory
information.
What distinguishes the new definition
most from current approaches
is its emphasis not just on repeated
behaviors, but also behaviors that
are likely to be repeated, Ms. Temkin
said.
Making Changes
In response to the uniform definition
and its own internal research,
the Education Department is seeking
to change how it asks students
about bullying in the 2015 edition of
its School Crime Supplement to the
National Crime Victimization Survey,
the agency said in a proposal to
revise the survey. That request must
be approved by the U.S. Department
of Justice and the White House Office
of Management and Budget before
the changes can be finalized.
That survey, one of the country's
largest measures of peer victimization
in schools, currently doesn't
define bullying for participants at
all. Rather, it asks students if, in the
past year, they have been the victim
of seven specific actions-including
threats and destruction of property.
Working with a research firm, the
department confirmed previous research
showing that "respondents'
own concepts of bullying did not
always include all definitional eleRecognizing
that researchers rely on a variety of
definitions of bullying and use different approaches
to measure it, the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention worked with a group of federal agencies
and experts in education and psychology to create a
uniform research definition, which it released this year.
The definition is to be used for research purposes, and
still varies from the ways schools define bullying in
their rules and policies, the agency emphasized.
Under the uniform research definition,
acts of bullying:
" Are unwanted aggressive behaviors" / This
behavior could be online or in person, and it is
committed by "another youth or group of youths
who are not siblings or current dating partners of
the victim." While those peers are also capable
of peer harassment, those actions fall into
another category of behavior, researchers say.
" Involve an observed or perceived power
imbalance" / This power imbalance between the
perpetrator and the victim could involve factors like
social stature, resources, physical size, or influence.
" Are repeated multiple times or are likely to be
repeated" / Many schools consider individual acts
of peer harassment bullying without considering
whether they are part of or likely to be part of a
larger pattern of behavior, which is an essential
part of the uniform definition, researchers say.
ments, such as repetition and power
imbalance," which meant their responses
may have encompassed other
forms of harm from peers, skewing
the statistics.
So that it doesn't lose the ability to
track trends over time using previous
survey findings, the Education Department
is proposing that half of respondents
to the 2015 questionnaire
answer the current questions. If the
agency's proposal to change the survey
is approved, the other half of respondents
would answer those items,
plus follow-up questions about power
imbalance and repetition to provide
new, more specific insights into bullying
trends.
A spokesperson for the cdc said
the agency does not plan to change
the way it asks about bullying on
its Youth Risk Behavior Survey, the
other commonly used national measure,
because that language and the
uniform definition already "align in a
meaningful way."
That survey asks a representative
sample of high school students about
bullying, prefacing its questions with
a statement that bullying "is when
one or more students tease, threaten,
spread rumors about, hit, shove, or
hurt another student over and over
again. It is not bullying when two
students of about the same strength
or power argue or fight or tease each
other in a friendly way."
But that approach is ineffective
because the description differs from
the uniform definition, said Dorothy
Espelage, a professor of educational
psychology at the University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign. And
many students disregard the bullying
definitions provided in such questionnaires,
relying instead on their own
understanding and experiences, she
said.
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Debate Grows Around
Charter School Closure
Editors:
Even charter backers worry
that lax and inconsistent
standards will undermine
public confidence.
1closure.h32
EW STORY
DESIGNERS: WIDTH OF THIS BOX IS KEY.
DO NOT CHANGE WIDTH. (ZTMP NOTE)
Split Erupts
Over NAEP
Exclusions
At Issue Is How Many ELLs,
Spec. Ed. Students to Test
By Nirvi Shah
Despite a pending policy change
aimed at including more students
with disabilities and English-language
learners in the "nation's report
card," the federal agency that administers
the national testing program
appears to be softening the penalty
for states that fail to improve inclusion
rates.
The disagreement underscores
DRUMMING UP BUSINESS: Elementary Principal Joann Riemersma, left, talks with residents in Grand Rapids, Mich., as part of a doorto-door
drive to persuade more families to enroll their children in the city's regular public schools. Faced with declining enrollment
and competition from charter schools, many urban districts are undertaking similar marketing campaigns. PAGE 7
Districts Abandon
Grants Targeting
Teacher Quality
U.S. Education Department
Revises TIF Requirements
By Jaclyn Zubrzycki
Three big-city districts-Chicago,
Milwaukee, and New York-have
terminated federal grants aimed at
promoting performance-based compensation
plans and professional
development for teachers and principals.
Overall,
the 2010 Teacher Incentive
Fund grants to the three districts
would have provided an $88 million
payout over five years-nearly 20
percent of the federal program's fiveyear
budget of $442 million. All three
districts aimed to secure union support
while meeting grant requirements
during the yearlong planning
period permitted by the grant, but
none was ultimately able to accomplish
that task.
In a time of fiscal austerity and attacks
on teachers' unions, getting districts
and unions to work together and
agree on teacher compensation and
evaluation is a challenging task. Recognizing
that challenge, the U.S. Department
of Education has adjusted its
PAGE 20 >
Consortia Provide Preview of Common Tests
By Catherine Gewertz
As teachers begin shaping lessons for the common
standards, many are wondering how to prepare
their students for tests that won't be ready
for at least two years. But sample items being
drafted for those exams offer early ideas of what
lies ahead.
Two large groups of states are using federal
Race to the Top money to create new suites of
exams for the Common Core State Standards.
Those consortia have recently begun work with
private vendors to develop items-questions and
tasks-for the tests. But each group has produced
a range of sample test items to help those
vendors get an idea of what the states want, and
experts say they offer valuable insight into the
tests that are expected to emerge in 2014-15.
"What we are starting to see here are tests
that really get at a deeper understanding on
the part of students, not just superficial knowlPAGE
18 >
the uneasy relationship between
the National Center for Education
Statistics, the federal agency that
administers the national tests, and
the National Assessment Governing
Board, the independent body that
sets policy for the exams. And it reflects
an intensifying debate about
how to ensure that the National Assessment
of Educational Progress, a
congressionally mandated set of tests
designed to take the national pulse
on student achievement, accurately
allows for state-by-state comparisons
of student achievement.
"These issues, as all issues with
students with disabilities and English-language
learners, are hot potatoes,"
said Cornelia Orr, the governing
board's executive director.
Two years ago, nagb adopted a policy
that takes effect in January, during
the next administration of naEp,
to limit how many students with disabilities
and English-learners states
can be cut from the testing pool. The
policy says, essentially, that only students
with severe cognitive disabilities
and English-language learners
who have been in the country for less
PAGE 28 >
> A variety of models
are emerging and
generating lessons learned
for K-12 schools
A Supplement to the October 24, 2012, Issue
Vol. 32 * No. 9
1
In a 2008 study, researchers at
the University of Ottawa in Canada
asked students to define bullying.
While 92 percent of respondents
mentioned negative behaviors, just
26 percent said something about the
presence of a power imbalance, and
just 6 percent mentioned repetition.
EVALUATING
WHAT WORKS IN
Debate Revs Up Around Closing
Low-Achieving Charter Schools
By Sean Cavanagh
One of the most vexing questions
about charter schools-
when low-performing ones
should be shut down-is receiving
new attention, amid concerns
that lax and inconsistent
standards for closing them will
undermine the public's confidence
in the sector.
Over the past few years, a
growing number of researchers,
policymakers, and charter
school backers have called for
removing obstacles to closing
academically struggling schools,
BLENDED LEARNING
though many barriers remain.
Numerous states have approved
laws in recent years that
have raised or clarified standards
for charter school performance,
while also establishing
policies to make it easier for
charters to open and to secure
facilities and public funding.
Even so, state and local policies
vary greatly in their expectations
for charter schools, and
in the standards they set for
authorizers-the state, local, or
independent entities typically
charged with approving charters
PAGE 22 >
FISCAL FOCUS: Presidential candidate Mitt Romney campaigns with
Rep. Paul Ryan in Waukesha, Wis. The choice of Mr. Ryan for the
GOP ticket has elevated education spending as an issue. PAGE 24
Schools' Approaches Differ
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But bullying, which includes shunning
peers and encouraging isolation,
is often more subtle than other forms
of peer aggression, and research
needs to measure that subtlety, experts
say.
"We reduce fighting [in schools],
but we don't reduce the more subtle
bullying, which suggests it's different
than pure peer aggression," Ms. Espelage
said.
Research suggests bullying is a
public-health concern that can have
effects for victims, for perpetrators,
and even for bystanders well into
adulthood.
As the issue grabbed headlines in
recent years, every state except Montana
has implemented anti-bullying
laws, most of which require schools
to adopt policies that outline specific
discipline for perpetrators.
While researchers generally focus
on the perspective of victims, school
policies necessarily focus on objective
behaviors of perpetrators that
can be identified by a third party
and defended in student discipline
hearings, said Nancy Willard, the
author of several books about bullying.
Many schools define bullying
as on or off-campus behavior by one
student that disrupts the learning
environment for another.
That gap between research and
school-level definitions will likely
never fully close, experts agree. But
some coordination will likely be necessary
as state and federal policies
increasingly include measures of
school climate issues in school accountability
plans.
For example, the Safe Schools Improvement
Act of 2013, proposed by
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., would
require the Education Department
to collect and review data about the
effectiveness of school anti-bullying
policies.
Mr. Finkelhor, who still finds flaws
in the new uniform research definition,
thinks schools should step back
from efforts to define and combat bullying
and focus more broadly on all
forms of peer victimization.
The Rules for Engagement blog tracks
news and trends on this issue.
www.edweek.org/go/
rulesforengagement
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Education Week - October 8, 2014

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