Education Week - February 15, 2017 - 1

Education Week
VOL. 36, NO. 21 * FEBRUARY 15, 2017

edweek.org:

BRE AKING NEWS DAILY

State Leaders
Hit the Books
New Faces in Key K-12 Policy Slots

T.J. Kirkpatrick/Redux for Education Week

By Daarel Burnette II
At a pivotal time for state education policy, half
the nation's state legislatures have at least one
new education committee chairperson this year,
and a quarter of state schools chiefs are less than
a year into the job, according to an Education
Week analysis.
This year's large freshman class of key education
policymakers has advocates and
district leaders on edge as state ESSA RULES:
leaders scramble to finalize the Republicans in
accountability plans due by next Congress target
fall under the Every Students regulations.
PAGE 12
Succeeds Act.
The plans cut across the policy
arena, and state officials have plenty of flexibility to chart their own courses, while still making sure they live up to the federal education
law's requirements. Those new to the job have
a steep learning curve and-as suggested by
the controversy over the qualifications of newly
confirmed U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy
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ON DECK: U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos prepares to address staff members at the Education Department a day after being

sworn in. DeVos struck a conciliatory tone in her first remarks as education secretary following her contentious confirmation battle in
the U.S. Senate. "We can all work together to find solutions," she said. PAGE 12

HOW STATE SCHOOLS CHIEFS STACK UP
OF 51 STATE CHIEFS
HAVE NO CLASSROOM EXPERIENCE*
10 OUT

Mistrust in School Can Have Lasting Negative Effects
Teachers' 'Wise Feedback'
To Students May Help
By Evie Blad
When students believe schools are unfair
places, their loss of trust can lead to a lack
of engagement that affects them for years,
researchers say.
Students who perceive a lack of justice
or disparate treatment for certain racial
groups may respond with defiant behavior.
And discipline for that behavior may

cause them to become further disengaged
from school, fostering a spiral of defiance
that may lead to poor outcomes, such
as less likelihood of college enrollment,
researchers from the University of
Texas at Austin and Yale and Stanford
universities write in a paper published
last week.
Black and Hispanic students, who often
bear the brunt of inconsistent school discipline, are less likely than white peers to
trust their schools, the researchers found.
Relationships between students and educators are key to interrupting that cycle or

stopping it from beginning in the first place,
the researchers suggest.
"Wise feedback"-interactions that
show teachers have high standards for
students and believe in their potential-
can increase their trust, they found in a
smaller, simultaneous experiment. Their
findings, published in the journal Child
Development, fit into a growing body of
research that emphasizes the positive
effects of building trusting relationships
between students and their teachers and
ensuring supportive and fair treatment in
PAGE 10>

Amid Subtly Shifting Test Landscape,
Support Slips for Common-Core Tests

DATA SNAPSHOT

By Catherine Gewertz

WHAT TESTS ARE
STATES REQUIRING
THIS YEAR?
See data, Page 8,
and complete
results online.

After seven years of tumult and transition
fueled by the common core, state testing is
settling down, with most states rejecting the
federally funded PARCC and Smarter Balanced assessments, and nearly one-quarter
embracing the SAT or the ACT as their
official high school test.
Education Week's third annual survey
of states' tests found a landscape far more
stable in 2016-17 than it was in 2014-15,
when dozens of states had tossed aside
their old assessments to try the new arrivals designed by two big consortia of states,
the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consor-

*New Hampshire interim as of
Education Week deadline

TIME IN OFFICE

1 year or less: 14
1-2 years: 22
2 years or more: 15

*Includes District of Columbia
SOURCE: Council of Chief
State School Officers

DIGITAL DIRECTIONS

FCC Yanks Report
On E-Rate Success
By Benjamin Herold

tium and the Partnership for Assessment of
Readiness for College and Careers, to align
with the Common Core State Standards.
There was a flurry of interest in those tests
in the first few years, with 45 states planning to use them. But by now, 28 have since
opted for other tests.
The national survey also shows a steady
increase-four more states than last year-
in the number of states that require all
students to take the ACT or SAT collegeadmissions exam in high school. A dozen
of those states use those tests to measure
achievement, the same number as last
year, but a big jump from years ago, when

The Federal Communications Commission has
rescinded its own report documenting the success of
the E-rate program, a multibillion-dollar initiative led
by the agency that has helped tens of thousands of
schools and libraries obtain high-speed internet access.
The report will have "no legal or other effect or
meaning going forward," according to the commission's order.
The move prompted a warning from a key Democratic senator and sharp criticism from education
and open-government groups.
"While new FCC leadership may have new policy
directions, the public record should not be permanently altered," the American Library Association
said in a statement. "We urge the reversal of the

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Education Week - February 15, 2017

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