Education Week - October 9, 2019 - 6

Two Districts Vow to Sue Juul,
Say Vaping Harms Students

WHAT THE

RESEARCH
SAYS

Incoming Kindergartners Are
Less Ready Than a Decade Ago
"Trends in Children's Academic Skills at School Entry:
2010 to 2017"

Incoming kindergartners in 2017 started school with
lower early-math and -reading skills than their peers
nearly a decade earlier, though some achievement gaps
closed somewhat.
In a new working paper released by the Annenberg
Institute at Brown University, researchers analyzed
the math and reading readiness of more than 2 million
incoming kindergartners, based on their fall performance
on an adaptive test by NWEA, formerly the Northwest
Evaluation Association.
It showed students' school readiness was flat in both
subjects until 2014, then declined by about a quarter of
a standard deviation in math and more than a tenth of a
standard deviation in reading by 2017. Indicators for low-,
middle-, and high-performing students all fell. The gap
between low- and high-income students' readiness closed
during this time, but the readiness level of both groups fell.
Researchers also found incoming classes became more
diverse over time, with the percentage of white students
declining 10 percent in the reading sample and 8 percent
in math. Gaps in readiness that favored girls over boys and
white students over black and Hispanic students narrowed,
but still remain significant.
-Sarah D. Sparks

Preservice Feedback and Practice
Boost Teacher Effectiveness
"Teacher Preparation Experiences and Early Effectiveness"

New teachers face a steep learning curve, but preservice
training that includes observation, feedback, and practice
may give them a boost, finds a new study by the National
Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance.
Researchers surveyed nearly 3,300 4th-6th grade teachers
in 242 districts serving mostly high-poverty and high-minority
children in 18 states. Teachers reported on their preservice
preparation, including their exposure to coursework, class
observation, practice, and feedback on their teaching.
Researchers identified two general focuses of their training:
"creating a productive learning environment," such as
developing a positive class climate and managing student
behavior, and "promoting analytic thinking skills," including
managing class discussions and using assessments.
The study finds that increasing preservice teachers'
opportunities in the first focus area-productive learning
environments-was linked to significantly better teacher
effectiveness, particularly in English/language arts. The gain
was equivalent to about half the difference in effectiveness
between a first- and second-year teacher.
-S.D.S.

Teachers' Preservice Experiences
Teachers rated how frequently they
encountered different learning
opportunities on a scale of 1 to 5.
Observation
6

n Very few (1-2)
n Few (2-3)
n Some (3-4)
n Many (4-5)

PERCENTAGE OF TEACHERS

31%

30%

Practice
7

Feedback
9

26%

SOURCE: National Center on Education and the Economy

6 | EDUCATION WEEK | October 9, 2019 | www.edweek.org

Kansas resolutions set stage for court battle
By Mark Walsh
Amid growing concerns that vaping is epidemic among
young people-and reports of more than 1,000 cases of
illness and at least 18 deaths tied to the nicotine-infused
e-cigarettes-two Kansas school districts have vowed to
sue Juul Labs Inc. and other companies, alleging that their
products are harming students and disrupting schools.
The Goddard and Olathe districts have not filed their lawsuits yet, but resolutions adopted in recent weeks by their
school boards authorizing such legal action may be the tip of
the iceberg. A Kansas City, Mo., law firm working with both
districts is actively recruiting other districts to join the effort.
"We have experienced an exponential rise in incidents
of students vaping and causing a disruption in the learning
environment," said Dane Baxa, the director of community
relations for the 6,000-student Goddard district, which is
near Wichita.
He said the district was approached by the law firm, Wagstaff & Cartmell, which is seeking school district plaintiffs
on a contingency basis, meaning the firm would take a percentage of any money damages won in the suit and thus no
taxpayer money would be spent.
The contemplated legal actions resemble lawsuits filed
against pharmaceutical companies and others responsible
for opioid medications. Thousands of state and local governments have sued opioid providers over the alleged costs they
face to respond to the effects of the addictive drugs.
Last week, the Miami-Dade County school system sued
multiple pharmaceutical companies and other defendants,
asserting that the district has incurred costs such as providing
more in-school nursing, more resource officers, more training, and decreased tax revenues related to the opioid crisis.

Legal Thinking
Heidi Li Feldman, a professor at Georgetown University
Law Center in Washington who is an expert on torts and
product-liability litigation, said it was "a little unusual" for
school districts to be the plaintiffs in matters such as suing
e-cigarette manufacturers.
"In some senses, it's novel. But it's not crazy," she said.
The contemplated lawsuits by the Kansas districts "are
not ungrounded in the way the law conceptualizes the role
of school boards in the educational process. School boards
have affirmative obligations to keep students safe."
Lynn Rossi Scott, a Fort Worth, Texas, lawyer who has
represented school districts for more than 30 years, took a
different view of the Kansas districts' efforts.
"These are the most unusual [proposed] lawsuits brought
by school districts that I've seen in a long time," Rossi said.
She questioned whether the districts would have legal standing to sue since the students who use vaping products are the
real parties alleging harm.
In the case of the Goddard district in Kansas, school
board members were shown a common vaping device
about a year ago, Baxa said, and they were astounded by
how small and easily concealable it was. The board members began to learn about allegations that Juul, the industry
leader, was marketing its products to young people. Over
the summer came a torrent of news about federal agency
warnings over vaping as well as high-profile cases of death
and serious injury.
Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a warning letter to Juul for illegally marketing its
product as a safer alternative to smoking, "and has made
some of these statements in school to our nation's youth,"
according to a statement from FDA acting commissioner
Ned Sharpless.
Over the last couple of years, rates of vaping among teenagers rose dramatically, with 1 of every 5 high school students-or 20.8 percent-reporting in 2018 that they had used
electronic cigarettes in the past 30 days, an increase from 1.5
percent in 2011, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention. The easy-to-conceal practice began

showing up in schools. Principals have reported removing
doors from bathroom stalls and installing devices that detect vaping and alert school administrators. Some have suspended students caught vaping, while others have embraced
prevention and programs to help students quit.
On Sept. 9, the Goddard school board adopted its resolution to pursue a lawsuit. The resolution says that the district
"has, and continues to experience significant problems with
student use of JUUL e-cigarettes," which has "created a
substantial and ongoing disruption of and disturbance to its
educational mission" and "has resulted in the diversion of
substantial resources in an attempt to abate and prevent such
use," and which "poses a significant risk to the health and
well-being of its students."
On Sept. 27, the board of the 30,000-student Olathe district, a suburb of Kansas City, Mo., adopted a similar resolution, with some passages identical to those of Goddard's.
"To protect our students is paramount," Olathe Superintendent John Allison said at a press conference last month.
"Middle and high school students, we believe, have been
targeted by e-cigarette and vaping manufacturers with false
and misleading advertising. Vaping has caused a significant
disruption in our buildings."
The Olathe resolution authorizes Wagstaff & Cartmell and
three other law firms "to investigate and initiate litigation
and file suit against any necessary parties to recover damages
suffered by the district as a result of the manufacture, markings, and sale of e-cigarette and vaping devices, and to seek
all appropriate relief."
Mark Tallman, the associate executive director of the Kansas Association of School Boards, in Topeka, said the rise
in student vaping has become an issue among district and
school leaders rather suddenly.
"There are a lot of concerns, and these two school districts
have apparently decided to go this route," he said.
Juul, based in San Francisco, told Education Week in a
statement, "We have not yet seen the proposed complaints.
... Our product has always only been intended to be a viable
alternative for the one billion current adult smokers in the
world. We have never marketed to youth, and do not want
any non-nicotine users to try our products."
The company, which has an estimated 75 percent of the
market for vaping products, advocates for raising the age for
vaping products to 21 nationwide and has suspended the distribution of flavored Juul "pods."
Tyler W. Hudson, a partner with Wagstaff & Cartmell, said
via email that no school district lawsuits have been filed yet.
"Unfortunately, we are not at liberty to discuss the issues
at this point," he said.
The law firm has a "Juul Litigation" tab on its website,
which invites visitors to "schedule a webinar presentation to
learn how school districts are fighting back to stop the vaping
epidemic."

Risk of Distraction
Rossi, who works for the firm of Brackett & Ellis and is a
past president of the Education Law Association, a professional group, said the districts' resolutions suggest these suits
are being driven by law firms. It reminds her of a period beginning in the 1980s when law firms enlisted school districts
to sue the asbestos industry.
"In those cases, however, there were tangible damages
that the districts could prove," Rossi said. "Districts were
required by federal law and regulations to abate or contain
asbestos, which was very expensive. I think it is going to be
a lot harder to prove damages here [with e-cigarettes], as
there are no federal or state mandates that cause monetary
damages."
She also questioned the resources that such a lawsuit might
cost a district. Even if no taxpayer money is spent because of
the contingency basis for such a suit, the effort might distract
from the district's educational mission, she said.
"Is this really a fight that a school district should take on?"
Rossi said.

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Education Week - October 9, 2019

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