Education Week - February 24, 2016 - (Page 10)

Research on Deafness Yields Broader Insights SAYING 'YOU' AND 'ME' Studying deaf students can give researchers insights into other cognitive issues, such as autism spectrum disorders. In two prior studies (the first two sets of columns below), researchers found that students with autism spectrum disorders tended to use names when asked to identify a picture of themselves or the researcher, while typically developing students used the pronouns "you" or "me." In 2015, researchers repeated the experiment with deaf students (the third pair of columns); those with autism also used names, even when they were complicated to finger-spell. Interplay of autism, language probed Washington Deafness is the most common sensory problem for U.S. schoolchildren-and one of the most longstudied-yet researchers are only beginning to tease out the effects of sound versus language on deaf children's learning growth. In several new studies discussed at the American Association for the Advancement of Science here earlier this month, researchers examined the ways deafness interacts with other challenges, such as autism, and language and executive function problems. "Research on developmental disorders in signing children is of great importance both for practical reasons and scientific reasons," said Richard Meier, a linguistics and psychology professor at the University of Texas at Austin. "We may be able to ask questions about typical and atypical developing children that we couldn't ask if we only examined typically hearing children." More than 1 in 500 children in the United States is born deaf or hard of hearing, making it the most common congential sensory problem in the country, according to estimates by the National Association for the Deaf, and those children have higher rates of certain other neurological issues, such as autism, than the general population. The National Academy of Pediatrics estimates that 98 percent of newborns receive a hearing test, but only about 1 in 4 with hearing loss are properly diagnosed and given services before they are 6 months old. What happens in those six months? It depends, said Peter Hauser, a clinical neuropsychologist at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. Sound and Language Sound and Language About 5 percent of deaf children are born to deaf parents who use sign language with them from birth in the same way that hearing parents speak to their children from their first hours. Those children, studies have found, typically hit the same language milestones as hearing children: babbling around 10 months, putting together their first words and sentences around 12 to 18 months, and starting to talk up a storm as 2-year-olds. But 9 in 10 deaf babies are born to hearing parents, and it takes many hearing parents months or even years to sign fluently to their toddlers, if they do at all, Hauser and other researchers said during symposia at the meeting. In separate studies, Hauser and Matthew Hall, a linguistics researcher at the University of Connecticut, suggest a lack of early language could lead to long-term problems with attention and self control in children with hearing problems. "Executive function problems are not being driven by auditory deprivation but by language deprivation," Hall said. "By far, the greatest risk 'ME' 'YOU' SOURCE: "Preliminary Findings of Similarities and Differences in the Signed and Spoken Language of Children With Autism," Aaron Shield n Typically developing students n Student with autism spectrum disorder Percent of children with autism using names instead of pronouns By Sarah D. Sparks 80- 60- 40- 20- 0 Jordan, 1989 Lee, Hobson, & Chiat, 1984 Current Study (Hearing students) (Hearing students) (Deaf students) STUDIES OF HEARING AND DEAF STUDENTS Analysis: Ill. Pension Woes Destabilizing Teaching By Stephen Sawchuk Teacher-retirement systems are supposed to provide a measure of security in exchange for years of service. But for new teachers in Illinois, that's looking increasingly unlikely. Nearly a quarter of newly hired teachers will never vest in the state's Teacher Retirement System, a new analysis says. What's more, three quarters won't even make back what they pay into the system. Those statistics are the result of changes made by lawmakers in 2011 to scale back costs, according to the analysis, by Bellwether Education Partners, a Washingtonbased consulting firm. For new teachers worried about the state of their future finances, the question might be: Is anybody in the state legislature listening? The short answer, observers say, is probably not. Current pensionpolicy efforts in the state are focused chiefly on the problem that the teacher-pension system remains more than $65 billion in debt. Though there's a growing awareness of the challenges the pension situation poses for new teachers, "nobody is really thinking about what the long-term impacts are in terms of retention," said Kent Redfield, a professor emeritus of public policy at the University of Illinois at Springfield. "Public policy arguments and long-term effects are probably not going to drive the discussion of pension systems in the short term," he said. Scaling Back Benefits Years of underfunding have left the Illinois teacher-pension system in the worst financial shape in the nation. It is only 41.5 percent funded, a liability that has compounded the state's debts by contributing to lower credit scores and growing interest costs. But the state is also constrained in what it can do to pare back its 10 | EDUCATION WEEK | February 24, 2016 | www.edweek.org pension debts. A series of benefit reductions signed into law in 2013 were thrown out by the state supreme court last year. A parallel reform effort, begun in 2011, put all new teacher hires on a "Tier II" plan with significantly less generous benefits than previously offered. It takes them longer to vest in the new plan-10 years rather than five-and they have to work until at least age 67 to be eligible for retirement, up from as young as 55 under the prior system. So steep are the scale-backs that without adjustments, the Tier II plan could by 2027 fall afoul of federal rules requiring benefits to be at least as good the minimum benefit promised to workers under Social Security, according to news reports. (Most Illinois public employees do not participate in Social Security.) The Bellwether analysis calculates that under the Tier II formula, teachers would need to work 26 years to "break even" on their contributions. And 78 percent of teach- ers will leave teaching before that. Ultimately, that not only puts teachers' financial futures at risk, but it also could have long-term effects on whether the state can ensure a sufficient, stable teaching force, said Leslie Kan, a policy analyst at Bellwether. "It makes it a very precarious situation," Kan said. "The state wants to have a robust teaching workforce but they're reaching a point where teachers are going to push back." The Illinois Education Association declined a request to comment on the Bellwether report. Gov. Bruce Rauner, who has in the past floated the idea of putting veteran teachers onto a plan similar to Tier II, has been unable to reach a budget agreement with Democratic lawmakers, hampering attempts to crack the pensions nut this year. Though he and Illinois Senate President John Cullerton, a Democrat, tentatively agreed to a plan last month to curb public employees' cost-of-living or pensionable salary raises, it has been railroaded by a disagreement over unions' collective bargaining rights. Though involving a distinct retirement system, pension costs have also played a central role in the recent contract disputes between the cash-strapped Chicago district and the Chicago Teachers' Union. Cash-Balance Solution? But some policy analysts say that states like Illinois can fix their pension systems without necessarily having to shortchange newer teachers' financial futures. Both the report from Bellwether-generally seen as a proponent of pension-policy changes- and a separate one by the Urban Institute in 2015 propose shifting from defined-benefit pension plans to hybrid, "cash balance" plans. Like a traditional pension system, such plans would guarantee fixed returns, and contributions would be pooled and managed externally. But as with a 401(k), teachers would not have to vest in a plan and could take their investments http://www.edweek.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Education Week - February 24, 2016

Education Week - February 24, 2016
ESSA Spotlights Strategy to Reach Diverse Learners
Will the Common Core Step Up Schools’ Focus on Grammar?
Disparities in Test Accommodations Eyed
Contents
News in Brief
Report Roundup
S.D. May Restrict Restroom Use For Transgender Students
Conn. Seminars Tackle ‘Religious Illiteracy’ In Classrooms
Seven Studies Comparing Paper and Computer Test Scores
To Offset Poverty, Ed. Groups Urge ‘Whole-Child’ Approach
Research on Deafness Yields Broader Insights
Analysis: Ill. Pension Woes Destabilizing Teaching
Blogs of the Week
Military Eyes Wider Access for Career-Aptitude Test Under ESSA
Scalia’s Death Muddies Fate of Key Cases
Courts Push Lawmakers to the Wall Over K-12 Funding
Blogs of the Week
5 Key Takeaways on Education From White House Candidates
State of the States
Preschool Suspensions Do More Harm Than Good
Personalization Isn’t About Isolation
Letters
TopSchoolJobs Recruitment Marketplace
Why Preschool Matters for Student Success

Education Week - February 24, 2016