Education Week - October 22, 2014 - 5

| TRANSITIONS |
Archdiocese of Cincinnati, according
to spokesman Dan Andriacco.
The contract, which prohibits
"homosexual lifestyles," abortion,
artificial insemination, and
public support for any of those
causes, has divided some of the
region's Catholics. The contract
for the 2014-15 school year was
drafted after the archdiocese in
2010 fired an unmarried teacher
who became pregnant by artificial
insemination. A federal court last
year ruled in that teacher's favor,
ordering the archdiocese to pay
her $171,000.
-AP
NSBA Ends Partnership
With Tobacco Company
The National School Boards Association
will immediately stop its
work with the R.J. Reynolds' Right
Decisions, Right Now youth antismoking
program, the organization
said last week, just days after
it first announced the partnership
with the tobacco company.
The association's decision came
the same day that U.S. Sen. Richard
Blumenthal, D-Conn., urged
its members "to see through this
sham and reject the deal."
A press release from R.J. Reynolds
described Right Decisions,
Right Now as a free, common-corealigned
online program and "a successful,
evidence-based curriculum
designed to educate middle school
students about the dangers of tobacco
use and offer ways for them
to lead a healthy lifestyle."
The nsba did not cite a reason for
ending the partnership.
-E.B.
Parents May Be Liable
For Fake Facebook Page
A Georgia appeals court ruled
last week that parents of a 7th
grader who created a fake Facebook
account mocking a classmate
REPORT ROUNDUP www.edweek.org/go/rr
SMALL SCHOOLS
"Headed to College: The Effects of New York
City's Small High Schools of Choice on
Postsecondary Enrollment"
New York City's small high schools raise
graduation rates and boost college enrollment-at
a lower cost per graduate-than
the city's larger high schools, according to
findings from an ongoing longitudinal study.
Since 2002, New York City has closed 31
large, struggling public high schools and replaced
them with small schools. The findings
released last week by mdrc, a New Yorkbased
research group, look at 84 of the city's
123 academically nonselective "small schools
of choice," which serve mostly low-income
students and those of color.
The study compares the academic outcomes
of students who attended a small
school with those of their peers who lost the
admissions lottery and enrolled in another
high school. (The study is supported by the
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which
underwrites some coverage of college- and
career-ready standards in Education Week.)
The report concludes that the small
schools raise on-time graduation rates by
9.4 percentage points and boost college enrollment
by 8.4 percentage points. Fortynine
percent of the small-school students
enrolled in postsecondary education after
graduating on time.
-MADELINE WILL
COLLEGE-GOING
"High School Benchmarks Report"
How many graduates from a particular
high school go on to college depends largely
on the school's poverty level and whether it
is public or private, while location is not as
much of a factor, new research reveals.
This information comes from a report
released last week by the National Student
Clearinghouse Research Center in
Herndon, Va. The analysis of 3.5 million
students in 50 states encompasses about
25 percent of all high school students.
It shows that, while 73 percent of students
from high-income, low-minority, suburban
schools enrolled in college right after graduation,
the college-enrollment rate at lowincome
schools ranged from 47 percent to
58 percent. Once income was controlled for,
there was no difference in college-going rates
between urban, suburban, and rural highminority
schools.
-CARALEE J. ADAMS
DISTRICT MERGERS
"Anticipating the Consequences of School
District Consolidation in Major
Metropolitan Areas"
Consolidating large school districts in
Texas would increase costs and cause student
performance to fall, according to a
study by researchers from Texas a&m and
Utah State universities.
The study was done for the Texas
Education Agency to find out if merging
large districts would lower the perstudent
cost of education. Researchers
looked at the state's five largest counties,
which include major cities such as Dallas
and Houston.
The study said those districts are already
optimally sized. Consolidating them would
reduce school choice and costs would rise, the
study argues, because districts might operate
less efficiently with more bureaucracy and
less competition.
STEM PREPARATION
"Work to Do: The Role of STEM Education in
Improving the Tri-State Region's Workforce"
Opportunities to learn about science, technology,
engineering, and mathematics-or
stem-subjects are lacking at rural schools
in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio, according
to a new report.
The study from the Pittsburgh-based
Chevron Center for stem Education and
Career Development found that there is a
shortage of qualified stem workers across
the region.
The authors say that the shortage may be
due to several factors, including a lack of students
prepared for high-level stem coursework,
teachers inexperienced with teaching stem,
and shrinking education budgets that have
made stem a lower priority.
-JACKIE MADER
EDUCATION WEEK | October 22, 2014 | www.edweek.org | 5
Study Ranks Local Schooling Foundations
"Stepping Up: The Top Education Foundations in the Nation"
Local K-12 education foundations with $2 million or more in annual revenues
topped a performance ranking of these nonprofit organizations that support individual
school districts.
Foundations with smaller treasure chests were also recognized in the report, which
-MADELINE WILL
was released in September by a private consulting group.
The foundations' performance
was measured
according to
eight key indicators
which the Tampa,
Fla.-based Dewey &
Associates extracted
from the Form 990s
that nonprofits are
required to submit to
the Internal Revenue
Service. The rankings
were based on annual
revenues, revenues
per student, total assets,
assets per student,
investment income,
total program
expenses, expenses
per student, and volunteers.
Among
the top 10,
four are Florida-based
foundations, and two of
the organizations-those in Omaha, Neb., and San Francisco-are aligned with districts
that have smaller student populations. (Omaha is the 98th largest district in
the country, and San Francisco is 72nd.)
In the nation's 100 largest school districts, K-12 education foundations spent
more than $110 million on grants and programs for teachers and students. They
raised more than $230 million to enhance public education, and they have assets
of $322 million, which is a measure of their long-term sustainability, according to
the study.
Dewey Caruthers, the author of the survey, said he chose to base rankings on financial
information from the foundations' irs filings because they provide objective data,
but he recognizes, "It could lead people to believe, 'It's all about the money.' " In fact, the
more money a foundation has, the more it can devote to program offerings, scholarships,
and other contributions to K-12 education, he said. Further, he said, a betterendowed
foundation is sometimes more likely to have its assets invested for income
and sustainability-although not always.
-MICHELE MOLNAR
are potentially liable for negligence
for not forcing him to close
the account once they learned of it.
The 7th grader and a friend at
Palmer Middle School in Cobb
County targeted a female classmate,
then created a false Facebook
account in her name. They
manipulated a photo to make her
look heavy, and added information
that she was gay, held racist
views, took illegal drugs, and was
being treated for a mental-health
disorder.
The school notified the parents
about the page, which remained
active for nearly a year until Facebook
deactivated it in 2012.
During the 11 months the false
profile could be viewed, the court
said, the 7th grader's parents
made no attempt to view it, and
"took no action to determine the
content of the false, profane, and
ethnically offensive information."
-MARK WALSH
Brad Smith, the superintendent of the Ogden
district in Utah, has been named the state's new
schools chief.
A lawyer, Mr. Smith has been Ogden's
superintendent for three years, and before that,
was a member of the district's school board.
Joe Willhoft, the executive director of the Smarter
Balanced Assessment Consortium for the past five
years, will retire Dec. 31.
He will continue with the consortium as a senior
technical and strategic adviser and as a member
of its technical advisory committee. Tony Alpert,
sbac's chief operating officer, will replace him.
| OBITUARY |
Julie Bennett/
Montgomery Advertiser/AP-File
Paul Hubbert, a two-time candidate for
governor of Alabama who transformed
an association of school teachers into
one of that state's most potent political
forces, died Oct. 14. He was 78.
A spokeswoman for the Alabama
Education Association said he was
hospitalized Oct. 6 for injuries suffered
in a fall, and his condition worsened.
Mr. Hubbert led the aea from 1969
until his retirement in 2011.
-ASSOCIATED PRESS
TOP LOCAL FUNDERS
Ten local education foundations from five states topped
a Florida consulting group's new performance ranking.
1 Pinellas Education Foundation (Florida)
2 Clark County Public Education Foundation (Nevada)
3 Omaha Schools Foundation (Nebraska)
4 Denver Public Schools Foundation (Colorado)
5 Philadelphia Education Fund (Pennsylvania)
6 Hillsborough Education Foundation (Florida)
7 The Fund for Public Schools (New York)
8 The Foundation for Osceola Education (Florida)
9 San Francisco Education Fund (California)
10 Foundation for Seminole County Public Schools (Florida)
SOURCE: Dewey & Associates

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Education Week - October 22, 2014

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