Education Week - October 31, 2018 - 4

NEWS IN BRIEF
Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day
O'Connor revealed last week that she has been diagnosed with dementia and would be stepping aside
from public life, including as leader of iCivics, the
organization she founded to improve civic education
for the nation's students.
O'Connor, 88, stepped down from the court in
2006. Upon her retirement, she occasionally served
as a visiting federal appeals court judge and spoke
out on causes such as bringing an end to popular
election of state judges. But her true passion became improving civics.
Her efforts led to the 2009 creation of iCivics, a
nonprofit that promotes learning about government
through online games.
In a letter to the public, O'Connor called for efforts to improve civics education to move to the next
level. To that end, a new organization is being created, called CivXNow.org, that will focus on making
civics a greater priority in schools.
-MARK WALSH

mented immigrants, to vote in a local election in
November.
They are only allowed to vote in the city school
board race, and the fear that their information
may reach U.S. officials appears to be stronger
than the desire to have a say in their children's
education. Only 35 noncitizens had signed up to
vote as of early last week, the registration deadline.
Community groups have been inviting prospective voters to register but also warning them of
the risks. The city election department also has
warnings on its registration form and on fliers
saying voter information would be public and
could be seen by U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement and other agencies. San Francisco is
a "sanctuary city" that otherwise limits cooperation with federal immigration officials.
-AP

Arizona's Final Science Standards
Restore Evolution, Climate Change

Charter schools in Washington state can continue
to receive public funding, the state's high court
ruled last week.
Washington voters first approved the opening of
charter schools in 2012. That law was challenged
by several groups, most prominently the state's
teachers' union.
In a bombshell ruling in 2015, the state Supreme
Court ruled that charters were unconstitutionally funded with money for the state's common
schools-essentially traditional public schools. That
effectively shut down the state's nascent charter
sector, at least for the time being. It was the first
ruling of its kind nationally in the 25 years that
charter schools have been around.
The next legislative session, lawmakers passed a
law to resurrect the state's charter sector. In last
week's ruling, the justices did stike down part of the
law that restricted the ability of charter school employees to unionize. -ARIANNA PROTHERO & ASSOCIATED PRESS

Arizona's school board last weekapproved new
science and history standards, capping a tumultuous few months of policymaking.
The final draft restores language related to the
teaching of evolution and climate change, some of
which had been removed or weakened in earlier
versions of the science standards. Now, among
other references, it requires students to "gather
and communicate evidence on how the process
of natural selection provides an explanation of
how new species can evolve," language that the
Arizona Science Teachers Association had urged
the board to restore.
Controversy erupted earlier this year when
several teachers and administrators said that,
during an "internal review," the state education
department significantly watered down portions
related to evolution. Fears that the standards
would contain unscientific ideas redoubled later
when a creationist was among the group of people tapped to put finishing touches on the draft.
Many attributed the changes to outgoing schools
chief Diane Douglas, who has said she believes
the "strengths and weaknesses" of evolution
should be taught in schools. But she denied being
the force behind the revisions.
-STEPHEN SAWCHUK

San Francisco Allows Noncitizens
To Vote on School Board Races

Hawaii's Supreme Court Bounces
Property-Tax Measure From Ballot

San Francisco will become the largest city in
the United States and one of only a handful nationwide to allow noncitizens, including undocu-

Less than three weeks before this year's election, Hawaii's Supreme Court has knocked off
the ballot a measure that would have instituted

Washington High Court Upholds
Most of State Charter School Law

In 2006, family income explained more of the difference in students' science performance in the United
States than the global average, finds a study of Program for International Student Assessment data.
But the United States has closed that achievement gap significantly.
20

15

LESS

OCED average 14.4

5

0

GREATER

EQUITY

PISA 2006
United States 17.4

10

EQUITY

Percentage
point difference in
achievement gap

PISA 2015
United States 11.4
OCED average 12.9

SOURCE: "Equity in Education: Breaking Down Barriers to Social Mobility," Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

4 | EDUCATION WEEK | October 31, 2018 | www.edweek.org

the first statewide property tax in order to financially shore up its unitary school district.
The state's teachers' union had heavily backed
the measure, staging a statewide protest earlier
this month in order to make the public aware
of what it called desperate conditions caused by
years of budget cuts.
The ballot question would have allowed the legislature to enact a statewide property tax strictly
for the use of public schools. How much money
such a measure would have provided schools
would have been entirely up to the legislature.
But the state's Supreme Court on Oct. 19
agreed with several politicians who had argued
that the question's language was too confusing
for voters.
-DAAREL BURNETTE II

Report Roundup

STRIDES IN CLOSING U.S. EQUITY GAP

25%

Chris Dorst/Charleston Gazette-Mail via AP

Retired Justice, Revealing Dementia,
Steps Away From Civics Efforts

Pumpkin Protection
Students from East
Fairmont Middle School
joined more than 1,000
K-12 students from across
West Virginia in the
Capital City Pumpkin
Drop. It's a contest to
design a container to
prevent a pumpkin from
breaking in a drop from
the top of a cherry picker
truck at Appalachian
Power Park in Charleston.

www.edweek.org/go/rr

TEACHER QUALITY
"The Full Measure of a Teacher"
Determining teachers' impact on test
scores isn't enough to measure effectiveness-policymakers must look also at
how teachers affect their students' behavior, suggests a new North Carolina
study in the journal Education Next.
Using seven years of data on public
school 9th graders who took classes in
which their teachers receive traditional
value-added ratings-English I and one
of three math classes-the author created a math and reading test-score index
and a behavior index that measures students' non-cognitive skills, such as absences and on-time grade progression.
Controlling for poverty and other
demographic factors, the study found

teachers' impact on non- cog nitive
skills, like adaptability, motivation,
and self-restraint, is 10 times more
predictive of students' long-term success than teachers' impact on student
test scores.
-MADELINE WILL
ENGLISH-LEARNERS
"Using Educational Technology: 21st
Century Support for English Learners"
The U.S. Department of Education has
released a how-to guide for educators
who use educational technology to work
with English-language learners.
The five-step guide, which was commissioned by the department's office of
English-language acquisition, or OELA,
offers a list of resources and potential
questions that classroom teachers, Eng-
http://www.CivXNow.org http://www.edweek.org/go/rr http://www.edweek.org
Education Week - October 31, 2018

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