Education Week - December 4, 2013 - 4

NEWS IN BRIEF
California Plans to Expand
Field-Testing to Win Waiver
California, which got into a dustup
with the U.S. Department of
Education over its spring testing
plans, has revised its approach as
part of an application for a federal
waiver.
Golden State officials say they're
now aiming to involve 95 percent of
students in required grades in the
Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium's
field tests in both mathematics
and English/language arts.
The state's previous plan would
have tested students in either
math or literacy, not both. That led
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne
Duncan to threaten withholding a
portion of the state's Title I money.
He wants every student in tested
grades to take either the field test
or California's current test in both
subjects.
-CATHERINE GEWERTZ
Religious Schools Struggle
In Wake of Charter Growth
Religious schools in urban centers
continue to decline, in part because
of competitive pressures from charter
schools, says a new report from
the National Commission on FaithBased
Schools.
Roman Catholic schools have been
hardest hit. Between the 2001-02 and
2009-10 school years, the number of
students in Catholic schools fell by
nearly 9 percent, according to federal
data. The dwindling number of teaching
nuns has also been a factor.
Expanding and creating voucher
programs could be one way to help
sustain faith-based schools, the paper
says.
-KATIE ASH
Bill Would Add Safeguards
To Children's Online Privacy
A bipartisan group of federal law-
makers has introduced legislation
designed to ramp up protection of
students' online privacy.
The proposed Do Not Track Kids
Act would expand the provisions of
the Children's Online Privacy Protection
Act, which became law in 1998.
That law requires operators of
commercial websites and Web-based
services to put in place safeguards
on student privacy when their materials
are directed to children 12
and younger. Under the new legislation,
those protections would be extended
to cover teenagers between
the ages of 13 and 15. It would also
create an "eraser button," allowing
parents and children to strip out
publicly available personal information
"when technologically feasible."
-SEAN CAVANAGH
14 States Hit Hardest
By Sequestration
Fourteen states have been hit
hardest by sequestration-5 percent
across-the-board cuts that affected
districts this year and are slated to be
in place for a decade-largely because
they are more dependent on federal
funding than others.
A report last month by the AASA, the
School Superintendents Association,
found that more than half the districts
in Arkansas, Alabama, Arizona,
Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana,
Missouri, Mississippi, North
Carolina, New Mexico, Oklahoma,
Tennessee, and West Virginia rely on
the federal government for 15 percent
or more of their revenue.
More than 6 percent of schools nationwide
rely on the federal government
for 25 percent or more of their
total revenues. The national average
was 11.8 percent for the 2011-12
school year, according to the report.
-ALYSON KLEIN
Steubenville Schools Chief
Indicted, Placed on Leave
The Steubenville, Ohio, school
board placed Superintendent Michael
McVey and two other employees
on administrative leave Nov. 25
after state authorities announced
the employees were charged with
crimes related to the rape of a teenage
girl in the town.
Speculation has long swirled
that community members failed
to report or covered up evidence of
the crime. Two Steubenville High
School football players were found
guilty of the rape in March.
Mr. McVey was indicted on two
counts of obstructing justice and
one count each of tampering with
evidence, making a false statement,
and obstructing official business. A
principal and two coaches were also
indicted on various charges. One of
those coaches was a volunteer who
PREPARING
FOR TROUBLE
Construction work is
underway on a safe room
for the new Plaza Towers
Elementary School in
Moore, Okla., behind
crosses erected in memory
of the seven students who
died there during a tornado
in May. Once completed, the
safe room will be able to
accommodate all students
at the new school.
REPORT ROUNDUP www.edweek.org/go/rr
SCHOOL SHOOTINGS
"Report of the State's Attorney for the Judicial District of Danbury
on the Shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School
and 36 Yogananda Street"
Collection and Use of Student Data Found to Be Growing in States
An increasing number of states are expanding the
way they use student and school data, according to a
new report by the Data Quality Campaign, a Washington-based
nonprofit that advocates using data to
improve student achievement.
Among the report's findings:
* Teachers this year can access information about
their students through secure websites or portals in
35 states, an increase from 28 in 2011.
* In 17 states, teacher-training programs can tap
into information about how their graduates are performing
in the classroom, up from six in 2011.
* Parents in 14 states can access electronic data
about their children.
* Thirty-one states use data to identify the
students most at risk of academic failure or
dropping out, up from 18 in 2011.
The survey was taken in the summer and includes
results from the District of Columbia and every state
except California, which declined to participate.
The report also highlights challenges for
schools and states handling student data, such
as the need to ensure privacy. Oklahoma, for example,
passed legislation this year establishing
safeguards around the collection and use of student
data.
And several states that had signed up to work with
inBloom, an Atlanta-based nonprofit that collects and
stores student data for districts, have since backed off
because of security concerns. In New York, parents
are suing to stop the state education department from
working with inBloom.
-McCLATCHY-TRIBUNE
A much-anticipated report on the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary
School officially confirms some widely reported details
of the Dec. 14, 2012, massacre at the Newtown, Conn., school and
provides some new insights. But it does not answer the key question
of why the gunman planned and carried out the attack.
Adam Lanza, 20, acted alone when he gunned down 26 people
at the school, the summary report released last month says, and
he used weapons and ammunition that were legally purchased
by his mother. While State's Attorney Stephen Sedensky III
found no clear motive, he found items that suggest Lanza had
a fascination with mass killings, including a computer game
called School Shooting that was found in his home.
The report is the first official information about the police response
to the massacre to be made public. It concludes that Mr.
Lanza had "significant mental health issues that affected his ability
to live a normal life and to interact with others, even those to
whom he should have been close," but mental health professionals
who treated him "did not see anything that would have predicted
his future behavior."
-EVIE BLAD
D.C. CHOICE
"Actions Needed to Address Weaknesses in Administration
and Oversight"
The U.S. Government Accountability Office has issued a report
detailing weaknesses in the management and implementation
of the District of Columbia's voucher program.
"The [DC Children and Youth Investment Trust Corporation,
which oversees the voucher program] needs to improve program
management and operations to assure efficiency and effectiveness,"
the report says. It cites problems with school oversight, policy imple-
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Education Week - December 4, 2013

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