Education Week - April 23, 2014 - 1

EDUCATIONWEEK
VOL. 33, NO. 29 * APRIL 23, 2014
AMERICAN EDUCATION'S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD * © 2014 Editorial Projects in Education * $4
By Alyson Klein
Benjamin C. Owens teaches an honors physics class at Tri-County Early College High School in Murphy, N.C. He says he'll refuse to give up his
tenure voluntarily, even if it means missing out on a salary increase that the legislature put in place to ease the loss of the job protection.
N.C. Districts Sour on State's Anti-Tenure Law
By Stephen Sawchuk
It was supposed to be the spoonful of sugar
to make a bitter medicine-the loss of teacher
tenure-go down easier. Instead, a pay mandate
in North Carolina has ignited debate
about a recent law's ramifications for the quality
and stability of the state's workforce.
As the Tar Heel State lurches toward the
employment overhaul, required under a 2013
measure, districts must offer four-year contracts
worth $5,000 in additional pay to a
quarter of their teachers by July 1. Lawmakers
hope the promise of a raise will persuade eligible
teachers to relinquish tenure voluntarily
before it disappears for all in 2018-19.
From the looks of things, it won't be that
simple.
Administrators' and teachers' associations
alike are protesting the 25 percent quota as
unnecessarily divisive in a state where salaries
have been all but frozen since 2008. Some
districts are requesting extensions in meeting
the mandate; others are vowing not to carry it
out; two are suing to overturn it.
"At our countywide meeting, the district's chief
counsel got up and said, 'There is no fair way to
implement this requirement,'" recounted Benjamin
C. Owens, a seven-year physics and mathematics
teacher in the Cherokee County district
in rural Murphy, N.C. "That to me spoke volumes
about some of the issues we as teachers have
brought to the table with this bad legislation."
The changes in North Carolina are the products
of a 2013 budget measure that does away
with the state's tenure rules. Under the new
policy, all teachers will be instead placed on
one-, two-, or four-year contracts beginning in
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President Barack Obama has reshaped
the education policy landscape
over the past five years by dangling
money-much of it in the form of
competitive grants-in front of cashstrapped
states and districts.
But, as his administration enters its
twilight years, the future is in doubt
for programs that have become brand
names in the world of K-12 policy, including
Race to the Top, Investing in Innovation,
and Promise Neighborhoods.
Lawmakers have grown increasingly
uninterested in funneling scarce federal
dollars to programs closely associated
with a president whose popularity and
influence are on the wane.
It's unclear if those programs will
be around after a new administration
takes over in 2017. And they could disappear
even faster if Republicans gain
control of the Senate in the 2014 midterm
elections, as some political forecasters
expect.
"In general, if Republicans win the
Senate, it's open season on the competitive
programs," said Erik Fatemi, who
until recently served as a top aide to
PAGE 21>
INTERVIEW: U.S. Secretary of Education Arne
Duncan vows to forge ahead on policy. PAGE 18
edweek.org: BREAKING NEWS DAILY
Administration
Facing Hurdles
In Sustaining
Key Programs
DIGITAL DIRECTIONS
Schools Explore Benefits of Peer Counseling
By Evie Blad
Baltimore
When Daymar Frank was in the 9th grade,
his principal knew him as a feisty troublemaker
who teased her about not making
enough money to afford a nice car.
"Daymar's the reason I drive a Cadillac now,"
joked Quinhon Goodlowe, the principal of the
Academy for College and Career Exploration
in Baltimore.
So Ms. Goodlowe was a bit resistant when,
at the end of his 10th grade year, Mr. Frank's
teachers recommended that the school train
him as a peer mentor. But, two years later,
the same tenacity that made the lanky teen
talk back to adults his freshman year has
made him a strong leader to his fellow students,
she says.
Along with another senior, Mr. Frank
leads a group of a dozen 9th graders in a
program called Peer Group Connection,
which is designed to aid in the transition
to high school. Because he's assertive and
aware of his past mistakes, Mr. Frank isn't
afraid to ask group members about their
grades or why they weren't in class that day,
he said. Every 9th grader in the school participates
in Peer Group Connection. Some
groups are led by students who are perhaps
more predictable leaders, like student council
members; others are led by students who
are often overlooked for leadership roles.
Schools in Baltimore, New York City, New
Jersey, and North Carolina have used the
program-created by the Princeton, N.J.based
Center for Supportive Schools-to
boost attendance, academic persistence, and
graduation rates.
At a time when schools are increasingly
recognizing the important role social and
emotional factors can play in academic
success, leaders are wasting a valuable rePAGE
15>
NAEP Outlines
Plans to Deploy
Tablets for Tests
Common Core > www.edweek.org/go/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
VISION MEETS REALITY
Meets
S1
EDUCATION WEEK
EDUCATION WEEK
A Special Report on the Common Core >> www.edweek.org/go/core-in-action
■
APRIL 23, 2014
The Common
Core in Action
The Common Core State
Standards have been
leaving their mark on the
touchstones of American
education for four years
now. But the initial
The COMMON CORE in ACTION
A Supplement to the April 23, 2014, Issue
Vol. 33 * No. 29
VISION
By Sean Cavanagh
vision for the standards-and for assessments
designed to reflect them-is now getting a
bracing splash of reality as states, school
districts, and local communities put them into
action. From a backlash in state legislatures to
resistance in colleges of education, this special
report explores some of the challenges facing the
standards initiative.
See the pullout section opposite Page 14.
The architects of one of the most
highly regarded gauges of student
achievement-the National Assessment
of Educational Progress-are preparing
for a dramatic expansion of technologybased
assessment, while relying on a
strikingly different approach from the
one that will be used to give online common-core
exams in the states.
Federal officials say the plan for administering
NAEP, often called the "nation's
report card," is for the government
to rent tablet computers from a
private contractor for the test, distribute
them to the sample of participating
schools, and retrieve those devices after
the exam.
That strategy has been used in NAEP'S
earlier, less-ambitious forays into
computer-based tests, with the goal of
ensuring that the tests are delivered
PAGE 12>
Erin Brethauer for Education Week

http://www.edweek.org

Education Week - April 23, 2014

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