Education Week - October 29, 2014 - 5

REPORT ROUNDUP www.edweek.org/go/rr
poor evaluations are grounds for
dismissal passed in 2012 but was
not implemented until last fall.
The teacher was dismissed after
poor evaluations in 2012-13 and
2013-14. But the first rating was
given in a pilot year and did not
adhere to procedures set by the
state, she argued.
The arbitrator ordered her reinstated
with back pay. -STEPHEN SAWCHUK
Workers Under Investigation
Get Bonuses in Ohio District
Columbus schools Superintendent
Dan Good said that Ohio law and
state school board policy required
the district to pay bonuses last week
to administrators who have been implicated
in the district's data-rigging
scandal.
At least five such administrators
received bonuses.
The awards were given for the
2011-12 school year-a period that
was never examined for data-scrubbing
by the state auditor or the district's
internal auditor, though officials
say the numbers were vetted
by the education department. -MCT
ACT Test Sheets Disappear
For 182 Students in Pa.
Test sheets of 182 students who
took the ACT college-readiness exam
last month at Upper Darby High
School in Pennsylvania are missing.
ACT Inc. believes the tests were
sent back on Sept. 15. The ACT-hired
testing coordinator was supposed to
use FedEx, but sent them through
the U.S. mail.
Students can retake the test or
get their money back. The testing
service also will provide students
with a letter, explaining the problem,
to include with their college applications,
an ACT spokesman said.
-MCT
La. District Sells Computers
Containing Student Data
At least two computers from a defunct
charter school organization in
New Orleans that were sold at auction
a week ago contained names,
birthdates, and Social Security
numbers for 210 students.
State education officials said they
were among more than 300 computers,
printers, and other devices
being disposed of by the state Recovery
School District.
State officials learned of the problem
after a buyer noticed files still
on the devices and contacted the
state education department.
-AP
CORRECTIONS
A story in the special pullout section
of the Oct. 22, 2014, issue of
Education Week about a personalized
learning initiative in South
Carolina's Horry County schools
misspelled the name of Socastee
High School.
A story in the same issue about
New York City Schools Chancellor
Carmen Fariña gave an incorrect
title for Patricia Levesque. She is
the CEO of the Foundation for Excellence
in Education.
The majority of states are funding schools
below the levels reached a half-dozen years
ago, before the Great Recession caused significant
budget cuts, according to a report by
a Washington think tank.
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities,
a Washington-based, center-left think
tank, also found that among the 30 states
still below fiscal 2008 levels, 14 have funding
levels that are at least 10 percent lower
than they were back then, after adjusting for
inflation.
The three states with the biggest declines
in funding from fiscal 2008 to fiscal 2015 are
Oklahoma (a 23.6 percent drop), Alabama
DRUGS AND ACCOUNTABILITY
"Medical Adaptation to Academic Pressure:
Schooling, Stimulant Use, and Socioeconomic
Status"
A new study in the American Sociological
Review finds that middle and high school students
from higher socioeconomic backgrounds
are more likely than students in poverty to
"selectively use stimulants only during the
academic year," and are most likely to do so in
states with the most stringent academic accountability.
Authors
Marissa D. King of the Yale School of
Management, Jennifer Jennings of New York
University, and Jason M. Fletcher of the University
of Wisconsin-Madison studied 4 million
patients ages 20 and younger who filled stimulant
prescriptions from 2007 to 2008 for conditions
such as attention deficit disorder.
The study found that while elementary
school students typically fill prescriptions for
stimulants like Ritalin year round, older students
were more likely to do so during the
school year than in summer-and even during
the week than on the weekend.
Moreover, the wealthier teenagers-defined
as those who used private insurance-were 36
percent more likely to fill a stimulant prescription
during the school year than during the summer,
while low-income students-those using
public-health-insurance programs-were only
13 percent more likely to use stimulants in the
academic year than in summer. Those gaps held
even when high- and low-income students used
the same doctor, and widened in states with
high academic accountability.
-SARAH D. SPARKS
ARTS EDUCATION
"Learning From Live Theater"
Students who attended a live theater
performance showed better knowledge of
vocabulary words, more tolerance, and an
improved ability to read others' emotions
when compared with students who did not
attend, says a recent study published by
Education Next.
The researchers, including Jay P. Greene, an
education reform professor at the University
of Arkansas, looked at 49 groups of students in
Fayetteville, Ark.-22 of whom were randomly
assigned to see a production of either "Hamlet"
or "A Christmas Carol" and 29 that did not receive
tickets. The 7th-12th grade students, 670
in all, were asked to fill out surveys about 50
days after the treatment groups saw the plays.
Even though the playgoers scored higher on a
variety of measures, the live play did not increase
their interest in seeing future performances.
-LIANA HEITIN
E-LEARNING
"Level Up Learning: A National Survey on
Teaching With Digital Games"
Digital learning games have officially gone
mainstream, with nearly three-quarters of K-8
teachers saying they use them for classroom
instruction, according to a new national survey.
But the rise of digital gaming within schools
still pales in comparison to the advances seen in
the commercial gaming sector, according to a 67page
report issued by the Games and Learning
Publishing Council, a project of the Joan Ganz
Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, a New York
City-based nonprofit that studies digital media
use and children.
Students are still mostly using desktop and laptop
computers to access digital learning games in
class, and most teachers are still using short-form
games to deliver content and allow students to
practice basic skills, rather than leveraging the
significant learning potential to be found in longform,
multiplayer, and immersive games, the report
found.
-BENJAMIN HEROLD
ACCESS TO EDUCATION
"Opportunity Index"
Opportunity Nation, a coalition of 300 community
organizations, has released its latest Opportunity
Index, a Web-based tool that allows users to see
their community's performance on 16 different
indicators.
For education, the index evaluates communities
and states based on preschool enrollment,
on-time high school graduation rate, and the percentage
of adults older than 25 who have earned
an associate's degree or higher. Other indicators
include economic data, such as unemployment
rates, and community health information such
as the percent of volunteers and access to doctors.
The District of Columbia claimed the top
spot on preschool enrollment, with 76 percent
of 3- and 4-year-olds enrolled. Nevada was
at the bottom, with 32 percent of its 3- and
4-year-olds in preschool. The national average
is about 47 percent.
-CHRISTINA A. SAMUELS
AFTER-SCHOOL PROGRAMS
"America After 3 P.M."
A burst of interest in after-school programs
over the past decade has far surpassed their
growth, shutting out millions of families that
need a safe place to send their children while
parents are at work, concludes a new survey
by the Afterschool Alliance.
The report, based on responses from 30,720
households in every state and the District of
Columbia, found that more than 10 million
Education Spending Yet to Reach Pre-Recession Levels
"Most States Funding Schools Less Than
Before the Recession"
(down by 17.8 percent), and Arizona (17.5
percent lower), the center says in the report
released this month.
That was true for the same three states in
a previous report from the center comparing
spending from fiscal 2008 to fiscal 2014.
Among the states with the biggest per-student
spending hikes from fiscal 2008 to fiscal
2014, North Dakota and Alaska remained
in the top three when comparing fiscal 2008
to fiscal 2015. Where funding has increased,
however, it was generally not enough to make
up for the previous cuts, according to the report.
Still,
the group found that most states
increased their per-student spending more
recently, from fiscal 2014 to fiscal 2015.
-ANDREW UJIFUSA
DECREASE
SPENDING
-23.6%
-17.8%
-17.5%
-16.2%
-14.6%
-14.6%
-14.5%
-13.7%
-13.3%
-12.3%
-11.4%
-11.0%
-11.0%
-10.2%
-9.5%
-9.4%
-9.3%
-8.1%
-8.1%
-6.4%
-4.5%
-3.8%
-3.2%
-3.2%
-2.2%
-2.2%
-0.8%
-0.3%
-0.2%
-0.1%
Ohio
Nebraska
Pennsylvania
New Hampshire
Oregon
New York
Missouri
Minnesota
Wyoming
Maryland
Rhode Island
Washington
Massachusetts
Delaware
Connecticut
Alaska
North Dakota
Oklahoma
Alabama
Arizona
Idaho
Wisconsin
Kansas
North Carolina
Utah
Maine
Mississippi
Kentucky
Georgia
Virginia
South Carolina
Michigan
Texas
Illinois
South Dakota
New Mexico
Florida
Arkansas
Nevada
California
Louisiana
Montana
West Virginia
Tennessee
New Jersey
Colorado
Vermont
0.3%
1.0%
1.1%
1.6%
2.3%
2.4%
3.6%
3.8%
4.0%
5.4%
5.6%
5.9%
6.3%
6.7%
9.1%
16.4%
31.6%
SOURCE: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
children attend after-school programs, up from
6.5 million in 2004, when the Washingtonbased
advocacy group did its first survey.
The survey, released this month, found that
89 percent of parents said they were satisfied
with their child's program, and 83 percent
agreed that having such programs available
helps working parents keep their jobs.
Yet nationwide, there are 19.4 million students-two
for every child enrolled-whose
parents want them in an after-school program
but can't find anything available or affordable.
-KATHRYN BARON
SOUTHERN YOUTHS
"State of the South: Building an Infrastructure of
Opportunity for the Next Generation"
A new report on educational attainment and
achievement among 15- to 24-year-olds in the
South argues that the region needs to build
a new "infrastructure of opportunity" that includes
stronger middle schools, a new "meld"
of high schools and community colleges, and
enhanced prekindergarten programs.
The report from MDC, a nonprofit in Durham,
N.C., originally known as Manpower Development
Corp., ties many of the challenges facing
the South's young people to the two recessions
of the previous decade.
Covering 13 states, the study also highlights
the demographic and cultural changes presented
by that generation of Southerners; for example, of
those ages 75 and older, 78 percent are white, but
among 15- to 24-year-olds, only half are white.
-ANDREW UJIFUSA
Trends in School Funding
Thirty states spent less on schools in fiscal
2015 than they did in fiscal 2008, before the
Great Recession hit. State education spending
is up from 2008 levels, however, in 17 other
states.
INCREASE
SPENDING
EDUCATION WEEK | October 29, 2014 | www.edweek.org | 5
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Education Week - October 29, 2014

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