Education Week - May 15, 2013 - (Page 1)

Education Week VOL. 32, NO. 31 • MAY 15, 2013 ▲ AM E R ICAN E DUCATION’S N EWS PAPE R OF R ECOR D • © 2013 Editorial Projects in Education • $4 edweek.org: BREAKING NEWS DAILY Standards Supporters Firing Back Bugle Call on Common Core Supporters of the Common Core State Standards are moving to confront increasingly high-profile opposition to the standards at the state and national levels by rallying the private sector and initiating coordinated public relations and advertising campaigns as schools continue implementation. In states such as Michigan and Tennessee, where common-core opponents feel momentum is with them, state education officials, the business community, and allied advocacy groups are ramping up efforts to define and buttress support for the standards—and to counter what they say is misinformation. Supporters assert that the common core remains on track in the bulk of the states that have adopted it, all but four at last count. But the pressure is on for common-core champions to make sure their message gets through. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington last month that the private sector had to snap out of what he portrayed as its lethargy and to prevent states from reverting to inferior standards, as he contended states did a decade ago under the No Child Left Behind Act. “I don’t understand why the business community is so passive when these kinds of things happen,” he said. On May 1, former Michigan Gov. John Engler—now the president of the Business Roundtable, a Washington-based group of business leaders—took to the radio show of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a fellow Republican, to defend the standards. And soon thereafter, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, another Republican, reiterPAGE 18 > Shawn Poynter for Education Week By Andrew Ujifusa COST OF CUTS: Teacher Kim Moore works with Janiya Hobby at the Claxton-West Head Start Center, in Knoxville, Tenn. Automatic federal budget cuts under sequestration are being felt at Head Start centers in Knoxville and elsewhere across the country. PAGE 17 FOCUS ON: SUPERINTENDENTS DIGITAL DIRECTIONS Wanted: Schools Chiefs for Big-Name Districts E-Rate Program Seen as Too Lean For a Digital Era By Jaclyn Zubrzycki Districts across the country, including some of the nation’s largest, are facing a spate of superintendent vacancies. Schools chiefs or interim superintendents will be leaving this year or next in at least 17 wellknown districts, including Baltimore; Boston; Clark County, Nev.; Indianapolis; and Wake County, N.C. And while school officials in some places, such as Baltimore, Boston, and Oakland, Calif., have indicated they intend to continue on paths laid out by their departing leaders, the turnover elsewhere may signal major changes—and go hand in hand, in some cases, with a shift in district priorities or governance restructuring. For example: •In Indianapolis, the search for a superintendent comes after a school board election in which numerous visions of the district’s future were floated. •In Camden, N.J.; Memphis, Tenn.; and Prince George’s County, Md., the turnover at the top is accompanying dramatic changes in governance, still coming to terms with the Common Core State Standards in math and literacy—organizers of the standards-development process are preaching a go-slow approach to science. States should “have the courage to be patient,” said Stephen L. Pruitt, a senior vice president of Achieve, a Washington-based organization that managed the development of all three sets of standards. “They shouldn’t be rushing to implement the [science] standards. They should do it in their time, and when they’re ready.” By moving at a deliberate pace, Mr. Pruitt said, states and districts “have this opportunity to PAGE 12 > PAGE 16 > PAGE 10 > Capacity Issues Confront Implementation of Standards With the completion of new standards intended to reshape science education, the real heavy lifting now begins. First, states must decide whether to adopt the Next Generation Science Standards developed by a coalition of 26 states and several national organizations. Already, though, considerable focus is turning to laying the groundwork for the biggest task of all: bringing the standards to life at the classroom level. The capacity challenges for states and school districts are immense as they contem- plate taking on the new standards, which call for bringing greater depth to science understanding and asking students to apply that knowledge through the practices of scientific inquiry and engineering design. The standards have major implications for critical levers in the education system, including teacher education and professional development, curriculum and instructional materials, and assessments. Addressing all that will take substantial time and money. Mindful of the huge task ahead, and the full plates of educators and systems—especially with most states and thousands of districts By Alyson Klein As school districts strive to put more technology into schools to support 1-to-1 computing initiatives and prepare for the commoncore online assessments, the federal E-rate program is in danger of becoming as outdated and insufficient as a sputtering dial-up connection in a Wi-Fi world. While the program can boast great success since its inception— just 14 percent of schools were connected to the Internet when the E-rate was launched in 1996, compared with near-universal access today—it is now at risk of buckling under the weight of districts’ technological demands in the age of laptops, tablets, smartphones, and 24/7 online activity. The strains are likely to get even more acute as most states prepare to give assessments aligned with the Common Core State Standards. Those tests, slated to debut in 2014-15, will require hefty con- SCIENCE IN PRACTICE: FIRST OF TWO PARTS By Erik W. Robelen Demand for Funds Rising http://www.edweek.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Education Week - May 15, 2013

Education Week - May 15, 2013
Standards Supporters Firing Back
FOCUS ON: SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENTS: Wanted: Schools Chiefs for Big-Name Districts
DIGITAL DIRECTIONS: E-Rate Programs Seen as Too Lean for a Digital Era
SCIENCE IN PRACTICE: Capacity Issues Confront Implementation Of Standards
Contents
News in Brief
Report Roundup
Bar for Teacher Exams Set Low In All States, Federal Data Show
Mobile Apps Aim to Deepen Lessons From Field Trips
Studies Link Early Spatial Skills To Math Achievement
Blogs of the Week
INDUSTRY & INNOVATION: MOOCs Provider Targets Teacher Education
SCIENCE IN PRACTICE: Informal Sector Seen as Ally in Science Initiative
Head Start Centers Feel Sequestration Pain
Arizona ELL Battle Carries On, Despite Ruling
Policy Brief
Impact Mulled on Waivers, Grants
LISA MADIGAN & JOHN SUTHERS: Moving Beyond Punishment: Treatment Is Key to Keeping Schools Safe
SARA MARTINEZ TUCKER: We Must Create Opportunities for STEM Learning
JENNIFER JENNINGS: An Apology To Secretary Duncan
Letters
TopSchoolJobs Recruitment Marketplace
RONALD J. BONNSTETTER & BILL J. BONNSTETTER: We Need a New Approach to Principal Selection

Education Week - May 15, 2013