Education Week - February 10, 2016 - 1

Education Week

VOL. 35, NO. 20 * FEBRUARY 10, 2016

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BRE AKING NEWS DAILY

PARCC Scores Lower
On Computer Exams
Discrepancy Raises Questions About Fairness

Charles Mostoller for Education Week

By Benjamin Herold

Sophomore Miguel D'Agostino, 17, looks down the hallway before the start of a learningsupport class at Coatesville High School in Coatesville, Pa.

Equipping Parents on Spec. Ed.
Volunteers Boost Advocacy Skills
By Christina A. Samuels
A Pennsylvania town roiled by a controversy that
led to the resignation of its superintendent three
years ago has found an unusual path back to trust
between the community and its school district: a volunteer effort that so far has helped support dozens of
parents of students who have disabilities.
The chain of events began in 2013, when the
then-superintendent of the Coatesville Area School
District, 40 miles west of Philadelphia, was found
to have exchanged dozens of sexist and racist text
messages with a district staff member.
Meetings held in the wake of that scandal revealed other deep-rooted problems in the 7,000-student school system, including allegations that district officials discriminated against students with
disabilities and minority students.
Cathy Taschner, an administrator in another
district, stepped into the maelstrom when she was
hired as Coatesville's permanent superintendent
in June 2014. The former superintendent, Richard
Como, resigned in September 2013.
During a months-long community listening tour,

Taschner searched for ways to rebuild ties between
the district and the families it serves. Around the
same time, Rob Marshall, a Coatesville native who
was completing a divinity degree, was looking for ideas
to meet a community-service graduation requirement.
Taschner and Marshall found in each other likeminded spirits. From their partnership came Citizens Who Seek Educational Equity, or Citizens Who
S.E.E., a group of volunteers who serve as advocates
for parents of students with disabilities.
The volunteers-educational heavy-hitters who
include the superintendent of another Pennsylvania
district, a retired school psychologist, and a former
youth-justice specialist-sit right alongside parents
at meetings on their children's individualized education programs, or IEPs, helping to hammer out plans
for services and supports for those special education
students.
The volunteers draft letters as needed, asking for
extra testing, school records, or additional meetings
to resolve problems.
And in an educational area that is filled with oftenbewildering requirements, regulations, and timelines,
the volunteers also equip parents with enough knowledge that they can advocate for their own children.
"I feel more empowered in getting the school to do
PAGE 13 >

Students who took the 2014-15
PARCC exams via computer tended to
score lower than those who took the
exams with paper and pencil-a revelation that prompts questions about the
validity of the test results and poses
potentially big problems for state and
district leaders.
Officials from the multistate Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for
College and Careers acknowledged the
discrepancies in scores across different
formats of its exams in response to questions from Education Week.
"It is true that this [pattern exists]
on average, but that doesn't mean it
occurred in every state, school, and district on every one of the tests," Jeffrey
Nellhaus, PARCC's chief of assessment,
said in an interview.

"There is some evidence that, in part,
the [score] differences we're seeing may
be explained by students' familiarity with
the computer-delivery system," Nellhaus
said.
In general, the pattern of lower scores
for students who took PARCC exams
by computer is the most pronounced in
English/language arts and middle- and
upper-grades math.
Hard numbers from across the consortium are not yet available. But the advantage for paper-and-pencil test-takers
appears in some cases to be substantial.
In December, the Illinois state board of
education found that 43 percent of students there who took the PARCC English/language arts exam on paper scored
proficient or above, compared with 36
percent of students who took the exam
online. The state board has not sought to
PAGE 11 >

Federal Trade Regulators Target
Brain-Training Product Claims
By Sarah D. Sparks
So-called "brain training" programs
designed to help boost students' attention and working memory are coming
under scrutiny from the Federal Trade
Commission, as some claims have outpaced both the initial hopes and subsequent evidence.
Last year, the FTC declared open season on brain-training programs, both
those directed at classrooms and for general public use. Last month, it announced
a $2 million settlement and $50 million
judgement for misleading advertising
against Lumos Labs Inc., the creators
of Lumosity, a suite of computer- and
app-based brain-training programs. A

judge found that the company's in-house
research did not prove its video games
could "improve school, work, and athletic
performance" or protect against cognitive
impairments caused by attention deficit
disorders, traumatic brain injury, pediatric chemotherapy, or adult dementia as
its advertisements had claimed.
Earlier in the year, the FTC also settled
with the Texas-based Focus Education,
which inappropriately claimed its Jungle Rangers computer game had "scientifically proven memory- and attentiontraining exercises" that give students
"the ability to focus, complete school
work, homework, and to stay on task."
The Every Student Succeeds Act has
PAGE 12 >

By Daarel Burnette II
There's heated debate nationally over
whether K-12 teachers really are in
short supply and-if so-what's caused
the shortage and how widespread it is.
But in a number of states with dwindling supplies of new teachers, overcrowded classrooms, months-long substitute assignments, and droves of teachers
quitting midyear, activists on both sides
of the issue are seizing the opportunity
to push their policy agendas.
Those divisions are on stark display
in places like Indiana, Oklahoma, South

Carolina, and Washington, where policymakers, including governors and legislators, are floating a variety of approaches
to address the challenge of recruiting
and retaining teachers.
Conservatives and free-market lobbyists, for example, want to completely
eliminate or scale back certification
requirements, expand their Teach For
America corps and other alternative
routes into the profession, and allow
superintendents to sidestep bargaining
agreements to give bonuses to special
teachers in hard-to-staff fields like special education, science, and math.

Liberals and re-energized teachers'
unions want to raise taxes to boost
teacher pay and make significant
changes to states' teacher-evaluation
systems, which they say have gone too
far in their reliance on test scores and
damaged teacher morale.
The slate of legislation aimed at fixing
teacher shortages, constructed by blueribbon panels and outlined in governors'
annual addresses last month, comes
shortly after President Barack Obama
signed the Every Student Succeeds Act,
which hands much of the power over to
PAGE 18 >

Shane Bevel for Education Week

In States Hungry for Teachers, Policy Menu Expands

Shawn Sheehan, Oklahoma's teacher of the year, wants
to see swift action to bolster the teaching force.
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Education Week - February 10, 2016

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