Education Week - August 30, 2017 - 11

DIGITAL DIRECTIONS > Tracking news and ideas in educational technology
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Sec. 8101

ESSA Language Reflects
Concerns of Ed. Publishers
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

and shared without permission.
Their worries extend to K-12 districts, where some industry officials
see the copying as widespread among
students and teachers in and outside
of school.
An amendment to ESSA including
the copyright-piracy language was
introduced by Rep. Hakeem Jeffries,
D-N.Y., and agreed to by a legislative committee on its way to being
included in the Republican-led drafting of the law. Jeffries argued that
the language would encourage parents and students to learn to respect
the rules of intellectual property and
protect the work of artists and other
creators who do not want their work
illicitly shared.
"In the classroom, children are currently taught that plagiarism is an
ethical violation of academic honesty,"
Jeffries said, according to a record of
his remarks introducing the measure.
"This amendment will hopefully facilitate the extension of this discussion
into the digital era."
Jeffries' office declined requests for
comment on his role in drafting the
provision.

'Very Powerful Lobby'
A number of observers cast doubts
on whether the language was specific
or prescriptive enough to have much
of an impact on schools' or students'
understanding of copyright one way
or another. But even so, some education advocates say its inclusion
demonstrates the ability of big industry groups to put their stamp on
K-12 policy outside their immediate
spheres of influence, when it serves
their interests.
"It's a very powerful lobby, and they
were successful in getting it into the
bill," said Doug Levin, the president
of the consulting organization EdTech
Strategies. But "it feels a little like a
crass attempt to effect a policy aim
through schools."
In one section of the law, a passage says that districts and schools
"shall" provide training and materials focused on using technology effectively-and about the harms of
copyright piracy.
Another reference says districts
may use grants for professional development to help teachers with
technology-based curriculum and instruction-including education about
the harms of copyright piracy.
Organizations that pressed for the
language suggest it was not aimed
at blocking the sharing of education
materials, such as open education
resources, generally defined as materials that either live in the public domain or have been created on licenses
that allow teachers and students to
freely share and modify them.
A number of backers of open resources said they did not see any
specific harm to the use of those

classroom materials from the ESSA
language. (And, in fact, language in
other sections of the law specifically
encourages the use of open materials.)
Cable Green, the director of open
education for Creative Commons,
an organization that issues open
licenses, said his group favors educational efforts to explain the implications of both copyright and open
licensing in schools.
But too often, copyright education
is merely about "telling teachers and
students that they shouldn't illegally
download a song or the latest Warner Brothers film," Green said in an
e-mail.
The film and music industries'
strategy ends up "raising a specter
of infringement and piracy wherever they can, to feed a culture of
fear around engaging in digital content," he said.

Common Violation?
But representatives from the
entertainment and publishing sectors say the ESSA language will
encourage school officials to understand the rules around using and
sharing print and online materials.
"We strongly believe in the importance of digital-citizenship education and specifically, the often-overlooked teaching of digital ethics,"
said Brett Williams, the senior vice
president of public affairs for CreativeFuture, a nonprofit organization that backed the language and
represents hundreds of film, television, music and other groups, in an
email.
For students, Williams said
"knowing their rights and responsibilities as creators and consumers
is an essential 21st-century skill."
In introducing the amendment at
a congressional hearing in February 2015, Jeffries specifically cited
support from the Copyright Alliance, the Recording Industry Association of America, the National
Music Publishers Association, the
Songwriters Guild of America, the
Authors Guild, and the Association
of American Publishers, which, of
all the organizations, plays the
most direct role in K-12 policy and
advocacy.
Education publishers share
those industries' belief in supporting copyright protections and setting parameters around "fair use"
of those materials, said Jay Diskey,
the executive director of the P-12
learning group of the Association
of American Publishers.
The flouting of copyright policy
is "unfortunately commonplace" in
many districts, argued Diskey, and it
has a real impact on the work of publishers. The most common violation
is excessive copying of K-12 texts,
though the behavior can extend to
video, online, and other works, he
said. Diskey said his organization
hears of parents being given lists of

supplies to pick up for school that include reams of blank paper students
should bring with them, for the purposes of copying.

No Mandate
The ESSA piracy language doesn't
mandate school behavior or penalize
schools, Diskey said, but is instead
"purely educational" and meant
to inform educators and students
about "how they should handle trade
works."
There is value in introducing students to rules surrounding copyright,
agreed Levin, a former executive director of the State Educational Technology Directors Association. But he
also believes that K-12 schools are
more aware of copyright and intellectual property than industry groups
acknowledge.
The main thrust of the ESSA language, Levin speculated, is not designed to change behavior in school
buildings at all, but to discourage
illicit copying of music, movies, and
games in home environments-
which amounts to "much bigger business than educational publishing."
Practically speaking, Levin didn't
think there's any way to enforce the
ESSA language on copyright piracy,
even if anyone wanted to. But that
doesn't mean it belongs in the law to
begin with, he said.
Organizations worried about copyright transgressions have adopted
other strategies to encourage the
public and educators to take the issue
seriously.
A variety of groups, for instance,
supported the creation of iKeepSafe, a
curriculum designed to explain copyright principles to K-12 audiences and
others.

402
(ix) are designed to
give teachers of En
glish learners,
and other teachers
and instructional sta
ff,
the knowledge
and skills to provide
instruction and appr
op
riate language
and academic supp
ort services to those
ch
ild
ren, including
the appropriate use
of curricula and asse
ssments;
(x) to the extent appr
opriate, provide tra
ining for
teachers, principals,
and other school lea
de
rs in the
use of technology (in
cluding education ab
out the harms
of copyright piracy),
so that technology an
d technology
applications are eff
ectively used in the
cla
ssroom to
improve teaching an
d learning in the cu
rricula and
academic subjects
in which the teachers
teach;
(xi) as a whole, are
regularly evaluated
for their
impact on increase
d teacher effectiven
ess and improved
student academic ac
hievement, with the
findings of the
evaluations used to
improve the quality
of professional
development;
(xii) are designed to
give teachers of child
ren with
disabilities or child
ren with developme
ntal delays, and
other teachers and
instructional staff,
the knowledge
and skills to provide
instruction and acad
emic support
services, to those ch
ildren, including po
sitive behavioral
interventions and su
pports, multi-tier sy
stem of supports,
and use of accomm
odations;
(xiii) include instructi
on in the use of data
and
assessments to inf
orm and instruct cla
ssroom practice;
(xiv) include instructi
on in ways that tea
chers,
principals, other sc
hool leaders, special
ized instructional
support personnel,
and school adminis
trators may work
more effectively with
parents and familie
s;

When students leaving K-12 systems lack knowledge about copyright
rules and how to use print and online
materials, they put themselves and
their employers at risk, said Marsali
Hancock, a former CEO of iKeepSafe,
who helped launch the curriculum.
Many students today are "absolutely clueless about how to navigate
their own rights as creators and use
other people's creative content," Hancock said. Students and educators
"need to understand what it takes to
use digital content [and] thrive in a
digital environment."

LETTER OF THE LAW:
References to "copyright
piracy" appear in ESSA
sections focused on
technology and parent
outreach.

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