Education Week - June 20, 2018 - 4
NEWS IN BRIEF AMA Adopts Sweeping Policies To Decrease Gun Violence Dan Kirk via Instagram With frustration mounting over lawmakers' inaction on gun control, the American Medical Association last week pressed for a ban on assault weapons and came out against arming teachers as a way to fight what it calls a public-health crisis. At its annual policymaking meeting, the nation's largest physicians group bowed to unprecedented demands from doctor-members to take a stronger stand on gun violence-a problem the organization says is as menacing as a lethal infectious disease. AMA delegates voted to adopt several other proposals presented by doctor groups, such as supporting bans on the purchase or possession of guns and ammunition by people younger than 21; backing laws that would require licensing and safety courses for gun owners and registration of all firearms; pressing for legislation that would allow relatives of suicidal people or those who have threatened imminent violence to seek court-ordered removal of guns from the home. -ASSOCIATED PRESS Proposal to Use Federal Education Grants To 'Harden' Schools Draws Backlash An alliance of U.S. education groups, including the National PTA and the National School Boards Association, expressed shock last week that the Trump administration would let schools pay for metal detectors and police patrols through a $1.1 billion program that the White House and Congress have used to defend their response to an epidemic of school shootings. The concern comes nearly a month after a gunman killed 10 people at Santa Fe High School near Houston, which prompted Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to urge schools to use federal education dollars to "harden" campuses with more armed guards or by altering buildings. At a hearing last week, school police chiefs endorsed some physical safeguards but waved off metal detectors as ineffective. Student Support and Academic Enrichment grants can be used by schools to promote "safe and healthy" students, such as for mental health, but the money is also for bolstering academic programs or technology. The Game of Life Makata Ezeugwa got creative in decorating his mortar board at his graduation from Southwick Regional School in Southwick, Mass. To see more graduates' mortarboard art, go to Education Week's photo blog at FullFrame.edweek.org. -AP After Drawing Criticism, College Board Rethinking Revision of AP World History Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Appeal On Limiting Teacher-Tenure Rights The College Board is considering reinstating some content that was cut from Advanced Placement World History after high school teachers ar- The U.S. Supreme Court last week declined to take up a case involving efforts by Indiana to limit BUILDING ENJOYMENT IN MATH, READING YIELDS TEST GAINS The National Center for Education Statistics finds that across grades 4 and 8 tested in the National Assessment of Educational Progress, students who had positive views of math, reading, or science performed better on those subjects. But the report also found that low-income students, defined as those eligible for the National School Lunch Program, were less likely to report positive views of reading than middle- or high-income students. MATHEMATICS Grade 4 Grade 8 READING Low-income 41% 32% Not Low-income 37 37 Low-income 50 Not Low-income 50 teacher-tenure rights. Without comment, the justices refused to hear the appeal of the state of Indiana and Madison Consolidated Schools, which asked them to overrule a 1938 Supreme Court ruling that held that the state's 1927 teacher-tenure law created binding rights protecting teachers who had earned tenure. The state and the district say the 80-year-old precedent is hampering the state's full implementation of a 2011 Indiana law, known as SB 1, that includes a measure allowing districts to lay off teachers based on performance rather than seniority. Both a federal district court and appellate court had ruled in a recent case in favor of a tenured teacher who had been fired as part of a reduction in force while several nontenured teachers kept their jobs. -MARK WALSH n Significant difference SOURCE: National Center for Education Statistics 4 | EDUCATION WEEK | June 20, 2018 | www.edweek.org 24 29 SCIENCE 29% 26 25 32 Report Roundup gued that the elimination of pre-colonial Africa, Asia, Americas, and the Middle East would hurt children of color. In the spring, the organization announced changes to the test in response to teachers who complained of having to cram too much content into a short amount of time. The idea was to test content from 1450, the expansion of European power, through the present time, beginning in 2019-20. Earlier history would be covered in an untested pre-AP course. Much criticism ensued. At an open forum in Salt Lake City, for example AP history teacher Amanda DoAmaral argued that if the content is not tested, teachers won't teach it. That will hurt "black and brown students," she said. "Their histories don't start at slavery," she said. "Their histories don't start at colonization. I just feel like you're another person of authority telling my students that they don't matter, and you need to take responsibility for that." A high school student's petition to stop the revision, meanwhile, has garnered more than 5,000 signatures. -BRENDA IASEVOLI Arizona Charter Schools Change Policies After Discriminatory Practices Found Documentation and policy changes have occurred at nearly 100 Arizona charter schools following a civil rights group's report that accused schools of having discriminatory enrollment policies, education officials say. In its report from December, the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona found that many charter schools had admission requirements that deterred certain students, including those with disabilities, English-learning needs, poor academic performance, and past disciplinary issues. A state board that oversees charters says that 97 percent of those schools have now been deemed compliant, while the remaining schools are working with board staff to examine if their policies are compliant. The state board has also revised its review and advisory processes to prevent enrollment violations. -AP Visas of Baltimore Teachers to Expire, Leaving Holes to Fill in Shortage Areas About 25 foreign teachers working in Baltimore public schools will be forced to return to their coun- www.edweek.org/go/rr GENDER GAPS "Gender Achievement Gaps in U.S. School Districts" In spite of stereotypes, gender gaps in math and reading aren't universal. The most comprehensive study to date on gender gaps suggests the size and even the direction of the gaps vary from one school district to another. The new Stanford University study comparing gender gaps across nearly 10,000 districts nationwide found no average gender gap in math, but a gap of nearly three-quarters of a grade level favoring girls in reading. School district and community mattered far more than subject, the researchers found. Gaps favoring boys were more common in wealthier districts and communities where there are big gaps in income between men and women generally. In low-in- come communities, girls tended to outperform boys in both reading and math. -SARAH D. SPARKS TEACHERS "Effective Teacher Policies: Insights from PISA" The 19 highest-performing countries involved in the Program for International Assessment vary widely on most teacher policies, but they do have three practices in common, finds a study by the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation. All the highest-performing countries, including the United States, had: * A required, extended period of "clinical practice" during the preservice period or at the beginning of the teacher's career; * Opportunities for professional development tailored to individual teachers; and * Teacher-evaluation practices that prioritize continuous improvement -SARAH SCHWARTZ