Education Week - November 14, 2012 - 5

EDUCATION WEEK

NOVEMBER 14, 2012

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the Chicago Sun-Times reports. The protest came hours after the 404,000-student district requested an extension from the state legislature on its timeline for announcing school actions. The Chicago school district is required by a state law to determine by Dec. 1 which schools would close. But on Nov. 2, district Chief Executive Officer Barbara Byrd-Bennett asked to delay the decision until March 31, in order to “launch a rigorous, transparent, and open dialogue with school communities over the next several months to help the district make more informed decisions around school actions and better invest resources.” An editorial in the Sun-Times applauded Ms. Byrd-Bennett for seeking the extension, saying it turned the district’s former approach to closings—announce first, work with the community later—on its head. The Chicago Teachers Union has voted to seek a moratorium on school closings. —JACLYN ZUBRZYCKI quiry-based learning. The research will provide “the first experimental evidence on the effects of taking an inquirybased science course and whether it affects students’ educational progress and success in ... [science, technology, engineering, and mathematics] subjects,” according to a recent press release. The grant from the National Science Foundation will support work by researchers at the University of Washington, George Washington University, and sri International. It will involve 40 high schools nationwide, including more than 4,000 11th and 12th grade students. —ERIK W. ROBELEN TEACHERS
“Beginning K–12 Teacher Characteristics and Preparation By School Type, 2009”

conclusions on a value-added measure that links growth in student achievement to the graduates of particular teacher-preparation programs. —STEPHEN SAWCHUK

attributed, in part, to a teacher attendance gap.” —FRANCESCA DUFFY

HEALTH
“Resurgent Ethnicity Among Asian Americans: Ethnic Neighborhood Context and Health”

FOSTER CHILDREN
“Bridging the Gap”

Troubled Phila. District Borrows for Expenses
Philadelphia’s financially struggling public school system is borrowing $300 million to pay for expenses through the end of the school year. The Philadelphia School Reform Commission said last week the bond sale was a necessary but expensive way for the district to meet its financial obligations as it works on a plan to close about 40 schools and cut labor costs in its $2.5 billion budget. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports school officials found investors receptive to the borrowing, in part because of a new five-year plan and a state program guaranteeing creditors would be paid through state aid funds if the district doesn’t meet its obligations. —ASSOCIATED PRESS

In the midst of a continuing recession, beginning K-12 teachers are considerably more likely to be working multiple jobs, according to new data from the National Center for Education Statistics. The data show that 22 percent of secondary teachers and nearly 24 percent of elementary teachers worked multiple jobs simultaneously as of 2009, compared with only 14.5 percent of those not in teaching. Teachers were also more likely to be enrolled in college or graduate school classes while working, 24.3 percent compared with 21.2 percent of nonteachers. —SARAH D. SPARKS

PREPARING TEACHERS
“2012 Report Card on Effectiveness of Teacher Training Programs”

A report from a Nebraska advocacy group makes a case for improving transition services for students “aging out” of foster care. In most states, a student can age out of foster care at age 16, 17, or 18, regardless of whether he or she has graduated from high school or is ready to transition into adult living. The report by Nebraska Appleseed notes that more than 300 students have aged out of the state’s foster system each year for the last five years, and little more than a third of those received help from the state’s transition program. The group argues that transition programs for students should ensure coordination among housing, financial, and academic supports for these students. —S.D.S.

Higher neighborhood educational attainment and socioeconomic status correlate with better self-rated health among Asian-Americans—but only when they live in Asian neighborhoods, a new study finds. The study was published in the September issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior. It suggests that while most highly educated communities tend to effectively advocate for resources, those resources may be better targeted to the particular needs of Asians in more-homogenous neighborhoods. —NIRVI SHAH

EARLY READING
“Statistical Learning in Reading: Variability in Irrelevant Letters Helps Children Learn Phonics Skills”

TEACHER ABSENCES
“Teacher Absence as a Leading Indicator of Student Achievement”

Two-Year Colleges A Path to Bachelor’s
Starting at a community college is attractive financially, but now research shows it can also be a promising path for students who want to earn a four-year degree. A new report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center released last week finds 80 percent of transfer students with an associate’s degree either graduated or remained in a four-year institution, and 71 percent earned a degree within four years. Among all who transfer from a community college, about 60 percent finished a bachelor’s degree within four years, and another 12 percent were still enrolled but had not graduated. The new figures were based on data from 3,300 participating colleges and universities included in the Snapshot Report series from the clearinghouse. Overall, about one in five community college students transfer to a four-year institution, according to the latest reports from the College Board. —CARALEE ADAMS

CLARIFICATION
A story about state graduationrate accountability in the Nov. 7, 2012, issue of Education Week omitted a second way that Michigan uses graduation rates. In the state’s accountability score card, graduation rates count as 16.66 percent of a school’s overall score.

The Memphis Teacher Residency produces teachers that outperform the average veteran teacher in Tennessee with students in grades 4-8, and in mathematics and science specifically, according to an analysis of teacherpreparation programs released this month by Tennessee’s higher education commission. The mtr, a 3-year-old program that couples an intensive, yearlong apprenticeship for teachers with slimmed-down coursework requirements, and, in social studies, Freed-Hardeman University, in Henderson, were the only two preparers to show positive effects on student achievement and had no negative scores in any subject. Tennessee officials based their

Thirty-six percent of teachers nationwide missed more than 10 days of school during the 200910 year, according to an analysis of federal data by the Washington-based Center for American Progress. The report estimates that teacher absences cost schools “a minimum of $4 billion annually” and cites research linking teacher absences to lower student achievement. Noting that teacher-absentee rates tend to be greater in schools with high percentages of minority students, the report adds that “it’s plausible that [racial] achievement gaps can be

Teaching a variation of traditional phonics can help early readers learn better, a new study says. Researchers at the University of Iowa, in Des Moines, found that varying the consonants in words instead of the traditional use of similar-sounding words with less variable consonants improved learning. The study was published in August in Developmental Psychology. Researchers studied 224 1st graders in Des Moines schools. One group learned using words, such as “maid, mad, paid, and pad,” with many of the same consonants. The other was taught more-varied words like “bait, sad, hair, and gap.” The latter group outperformed the other at reading unfamiliar and nonsense words and applying their skills to new tasks. —JULIE RASICOT

K-12 and College Completion Rates Set Record
“Pew Research Center: Social and Demographic Trends”

CORRECTIONS
• A story in the Nov. 7 edition on the Educare early-childhood model gave an incorrect location for the Washington Educare center. It’s in the northeastern quadrant of the city. • In that same issue, a news brief about federal spending on charter schools misstated a contractor’s role in the inspector general’s audit. WestEd was not a contractor to the inspector general, though data from the San Francisco-based research group were cited in the document.
ELECTION COVERAGE Find complete coverage of the implications of federal, state, and local elections for K-12 education in our special section, Pages 18-23.

AP Science Revisions To Undergo Study
Recently revamped Advanced Placement offerings in biology and chemistry will be the focus of a four-year, $2.6 million research grant looking at implementation and student outcomes. The revised ap Biology program took effect this school year, with the revamped ap Chemistry starting up in 2013-14. Key changes in the science courses include covering less content in greater depth and a stronger emphasis on in-

Record shares of young adults are completing high school, going to college, and completing degrees, according to a new analysis of data from the U.S. Census Bureau. The report from the Washington-based Pew Research Center notes that of the nation’s adults ages 25 to 29, 90 percent have finished at least a high school education, 63 percent have completed at least some college, and 33 percent now hold at least a bachelor’s degree. In comparison, in 1971, only 12 percent of adults in that same age group had completed at least a four-year college degree, 22 percent had finished some college, and 57 percent had completed at least high school. Authors Richard Fry and Kim Parker note that the new levels of education are seen as the

U.S. population is becoming more racially and ethnically diverse, a trend that some experts had predicted might hurt the nation’s progress in educational attainment. The analysis finds record levels of college completion among all groups: men and women; blacks, whites, and Hispanics; and foreign- and native-born Americans. The Pew researchers credit the recent increases in educational attainment, in part, to the sluggish job market from the Great Recession, which prompted more students to pursue higher education. Also, the report says, more young Americans are recognizing the importance of going to college to succeed in an increasingly knowledge-based labor market. The analysis is based on data from the March edition of the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey, which spans 1971 to 2012. –CARALEE ADAMS

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Education Week - November 14, 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Education Week - November 14, 2012