Education Week - November 13, 2013 - 5

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TEACHER QUALITY
at a provisional level on state performance
reports. A state-appointed
board could take over low-achieving
schools within districts that perform
below the provisional level.
-AP
Wis. Court Upholds Finding
Of Contempt in Union Case
A Wisconsin appeals court refused
last week to suspend a contempt-ofcourt
finding against state laborrelations
officials who continued enforcing
parts of Gov. Scott Walker's
collective bargaining restrictions
despite a prior ruling that the language
is unconstitutional.
The latest ruling means certification
elections for local public-worker
unions remain on hold, and local
municipalities and school districts
must continue negotiating with
their unions. It also shifts the focus
to the state supreme court, which
was expected to hear oral arguments
this week on the constitutionality
of the provisions.
The GOP-controlled legislature in
2011 stripped most public workers
of their collective bargaining rights.
-AP
N.C. Teachers Skip School
To Protest State Mandates
North Carolina public school
teachers upset about higher workloads,
falling buying power, and
lost job security risked their jobs by
skipping work one day last week,
while other educators invited parents
and elected officials to discuss
concerns after classes.
Some teachers called in sick or
took the day off to demonstrate
outside the state Capitol. At other
schools, teachers started the day
carrying protest signs before
classes. Parents and elected officials
were invited to walk into the
schools at the end of the academic
day to discuss educators' concerns
and complaints.
State law bans strikes or work
stoppages by public employees. -AP
School Board Mulls Removal
Of KKK Leader's Name
A Duval County, Fla., school
board member has formally requested
that the board consider
changing the name of Nathan B.
Forrest High School, whose namesake
was the first grand wizard of
the Ku Klux Klan.
Connie Hall submitted a letter last
week formally requesting the Florida
school be renamed.
Supporters of keeping the name
say Mr. Forrest later disassociated
himself from the Klan. Others say
that Mr. Forrest was a slave owner,
a slave catcher, and a leader in the
Confederate Army who helped found
the KKK and that removing the name
would help heal past wounds.
-AP
Popularity of Charter Schools
Grows in California
California added 104 charter
schools to its roster this year, including
19 in Los Angeles, but it still has
some 50,000 students on waiting
lists for the campuses, according to
a report released last week.
In its annual update, the Cali-
fornia Charter Schools Association
said enrollment statewide jumped
10 percent, to 519,000 students, as the
number of charters grew to 1,130, the
most of any state.
The region that includes Los An-
geles, Ventura, and Santa Barbara
counties added 45 campuses, the
most of any area in California. -MCT
Charter Retracts Letter
Threatening Dismissals
The Orange County school system
is investigating a charter school that
wrongly threatened to dismiss students
for failing the Florida Comprehensive
Assessment Tests, or FCAT.
Cornerstone Charter Academy retracted
the threat Oct. 31, blaming a
"poorly written letter" from the principal
to parents. In an Oct. 28 letter,
Principal Renee Pancoast wrote
that students would risk losing their
seats if they failed to perform.
The charter is run by the Miamibased
school-management firm
Academica, which manages more
than three dozen charter schools
in South Florida and has ties to top
state lawmakers.
-MCT
Online Directory Links
Businesses With Schools
More than 300 Frederick County,
Md., business representatives and
public school employees last week
launched the Academic Business
Connection, Partnership Directory,
an online tool that allows schools
to post requests for guest speakers,
field trips, and workshops. Businesses
can offer their resources,
time, and personnel support, as well
as track their community contributions
and employee volunteer work.
ABC is a joint project of the coun-
ty's school system, chamber of commerce,
and business roundtable for
education. The directory is expected
to benefit classrooms by increasing
the availability of timely and handson
educational opportunities, and
businesses can build relationships
to grow their future workforce. -MCT
Calif. District Under Fire
For 'Arab' Mascot
A California high school is facing
pressure from a national
anti-discrimination group over its
nickname, the Arabs, and related
mascot and logo.
In a letter this month to Coachella
Valley Unified district, according to
The Desert Sun of Palm Springs, the
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination
Committee asked that Coachella
Valley High School "immediately address"
its "orientalist stereotyping of
Arabs." According to the group, the
mascot "depicts a man with a large
nose, heavy beard, and wearing a
Kaffiay, or traditional Arab head
covering."
The mascot, alumni say, was chosen
in the 1920s in honor of the
area's reliance on date farming, a
Middle Eastern crop. Superintendent
Darryl Adams said the issue
will be addressed at the Nov. 21
school board meeting. -BRYAN TOPOREK
"Access to Effective Teaching
For Disadvantaged Students"
Disadvantaged students receive less effective
teaching, on average, than other students, according
to a study of 29 large school districts.
Researchers from Mathematica Policy Research,
based in Princeton, N.J., gauged teachers' effectiveness
by their students' test-score growth. They
found that teaching quality varied more from school
to school than it did within the same schools, suggesting
that instructional inequities are mostly due
to which schools students attend rather than the
classes to which they are assigned.
The findings are drawn from three years of testing
data for students in grades 4-8.
-DEBRA VIADERO
MENTORING
"Evaluation of the College Possible Program:
Results From a Randomized, Controlled Trial"
Low-income students who participated in an individualized
coaching program that helped them navigate
the college-application process were more likely to
enroll in selective colleges and four-year institutions,
new research shows.
Christopher Avery, a professor of public policy at
Harvard University, discusses his three-year randomized,
controlled trial of Minnesota's College Possible
after-school program in a new working paper
posted online by the National Bureau of Economic
Research.
While overall enrollment figures for the College Possible
students and the control group were about the
same, students differed in where they chose to go to
school. About 45 percent of students in College Possible
enrolled in a four-year college and 19 percent in
a two-year college. Of their nonparticipating peers,
34 percent decided on a four-year college; 30 percent
chose a two-year school.
-CARALEE J. ADAMS
STATES OF 'OPPORTUNITY'
Children's Odds of Success
Ranked by State, ZIP Code
"Opportunity Index"
For children across the nation, the ability to
live out the "American Dream" may depend more
on their individual ZIP codes than their national
identity, according to the latest Opportunity Index
report.
The index was created by Opportunity Nation,
a bipartisan national campaign made up of businesses,
educational institutions, nonprofits, civic
organizations, and individuals with the mission of
improving economic mobility and closing the opportunity
gap among young people.
Using data collected during the most recent U.S.
Census and other surveys, the report examines-
and grades states and ZIP-code areas on-a variety
of economic, education, and community factors to
measure the condition of opportunity and economic
mobility in the United States, including Internet
access, college-graduation rates, income inequality,
and public safety.
It finds, for example, that even though the national
unemployment rate has decreased by 20 percent
since the first index was issued three years ago,
the nation became poorer over the same period, with
49 states reporting an increase in the percentages
of residents living in poverty and 45 experiencing a
drop in median household income in 2013.
The report also notes that 5.8 million, or 15 per-
cent, of young adults between the ages of 16 and 24
are "disconnected"-neither in school nor working.
Overall, the nation's Opportunity Index score has
risen 2.6 percent in the past three years, from 49.59
to 50.9 out of a possible 100. But the number of disconnected
youth has held fairly steady. -ALYSSA MORONES
While Vermont ranks highest overall on the
latest Opportunity Index, New Jersey gets
top marks for educational opportunity.
OVERALL
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Vermont
Minnesota
North Dakota
New Hampshire
Nebraska
Iowa
Massachusetts
New Jersey
South Dakota
Maryland
Wisconsin
Kansas
Connecticut
Maine
Virginia
Utah
Colorado
Wyoming
Alaska
New York
Washington
District of Columbia
Pennsylvania
Hawaii
Montana
SOURCE: Opportunity Nation
65.9
60.9
60.8
60.7
60.5
59.2
58.9
58.9
58.5
57.8
57.8
57.5
56.9
56.5
56.2
56.2
55.9
55.2
54.7
54.6
54.5
54.3
54.3
53.9
53.8
EDUCATION
62.46
59
53.92
59.92
53.97
56.3
61.19
63.39
49.39
56.68
57.59
53.95
54.79
51.54
54.45
48.34
54.87
47.75
41.87
53.1
48.87
51.24
53.5
50.86
50.73
SCHOOL CLIMATE
"School Violent Crime and Academic Achievement
In Chicago"
Violent-crime rates negatively affect students' test
scores but do not show an effect on overall grades, according
to a study from Brown University.
Research associate Julia Burdick-Will used crime
data from Chicago to find that schools plagued by violence
showed small, but nonetheless significant, decreases
in math and reading scores. Grades showed
no substantial changes, however. The author suggests
that a violent climate diminishes learning, but also
lowers expectations schoolwide, explaining the discrepancy
between test results and grades.
The research appears in the October edition of Sociology
of Education.
-ROSS BRENNEMAN
COLLEGE PREPARATION
"The Condition of College and Career Readiness 2013:
First-Generation College Students"
High school students who would be the first in their
families to go to college scored much lower on the ACT
and are not as academically prepared for postsecondary
education as peers with college-educated parents,
a study released last week found.
Just over half (52 percent) of ACT test-takers who
would be first-generation college students failed to
meet any of the ACT College Readiness Benchmarks,
compared with 31 percent of all ACT test-takers. Nine
percent of first-generation students met all four benchmarks,
compared with 26 percent overall, according
to the study by ACT, the Iowa City, Iowa-based testing
organization, and the Council for Opportunity in Education,
in Washington.
Students who hit benchmark scores in English,
reading, math, and science have a 75 percent chance
of getting a C or higher in first-year college courses in
those subjects.
-C.A.
EDUCATION WEEK | November 13, 2013 | www.edweek.org/go/commentary | 5
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Education Week - November 13, 2013

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