Education Week - May 6, 2015 - 1

Education WEEk
AMERICAN EDUCATION'S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD * © 2015 Editorial Projects in Education * $4
By Andrew Ujifusa
The push by activists of various stripes
to have parents opt students out of state
exams this spring has transformed skepticism
and long-running anger over the direction
of education policy into a movement
with numbers and a growing public profile.
Whether those activists can craft a durable
and effective political movement remains
an open question.
Advocates, standardized-testing oppoKomal
Bhasin, left, the principal of UP Academy Leonard Middle School in Lawrence, Mass., rallies with teachers before students arrive.
State Takeover Gives Mass. District a Fresh Start
By Denisa R. Superville
Lawrence, Mass.
Principal Colleen M. Lennon proudly
watched over some of her young charges
at the Emily G. Wetherbee School on a
recent afternoon in this struggling city of
77,000, seeing students engage in activities
that are a given in most middle- to upperincome
communities.
They were taking drumming lessons.
Fingerknitting. Practicing cheerleading
stands. Illustrating a short story. And
Science Standards
Pop Up in Districts
By Liana Heitin
While statewide adoptions of the Next Generation
Science Standards continue to prove
slow and steady, some districts are jumping the
gun on their states and starting to bring the
new standards to classrooms as soon as possible.
In
many cases, science teachers themselves
have led this charge.
"I think what you're seeing really is grassroots
support among science teachers everywhere
regardless of what's happening at their
state level," said David L. Evans, the executive
director of the Arlington, Va.-based National
Science Teachers Association, which provided
guidance during the standards' development.
So far, just 13 states and the District of
PAGE 21 >
making fruit salad in a class on healthy
eating.
Just four years earlier, such enrichment
activities were not the norm in Lawrence's
schools, said Ms. Lennon, a veteran school
leader. Then the state of Massachusetts
stepped in.
In 2011-following years of poor academic
performance and weak leadership-state
education officials took what was an unprecedented
step in Massachusetts of seizing
control of the 14,000-student district.
The plan was simple: to provide rigorous
academics and a holistic education
experience. Less than five years later, positive
shoots are sprouting. The percentage
of Lawrence students scoring proficient on
state math assessments increased from 28
percent in 2011 to 41 percent last year, and
those proficient in English/language arts
moved from 41 percent to 44 percent. The
number of Level 1 schools-those that meet
state performance targets and are not among
the state's bottom 20 percent-has risen from
two in 2011 to six in 2014. And in schools that
are labeled as Level 3 or Level 4-still a majority
of the district's 33 schools-students
PAGE 18 >
Undocumented Students Strive to Adapt
Some Schools Help Youths Get
Foothold in Language, Culture
By Corey Mitchell
Washington
Kevin faced a traumatic journey to the
United States in search of a better life.
The 19-year-old undocumented immigrant
from El Salvador faced yet another set of challenges
when he arrived in the United States
last year and enrolled in school.
First came the laughs of classmates poking
fun at his halting English. Then came the
puzzled looks from teachers struggling to understand
those same words.
But a new place in the same place has made
all the difference for Kevin.
The teenager is one of 200 students enrolled
in the first-year International Academy for
English-language learners at the District of
Students in the District of Columbia's
International Academy at Cardozo Education
Campus, immigrants from Central America and
Asia, work on an assignment in history class.
Columbia's Cardozo Education Campus, a
school-within-a-school for students who arrived
in the United States within the past 18
months.
The struggles and successes of Cardozo's
PAGE 14 >
Nevada Exams
Hit Tech Trouble
By Michele Molnar
& Andrew Ujifusa
When breakdowns disrupted Nevada's
online testing last month, state officials
were left searching for answers-and
they blamed a vendor charged with
administering the test, as well as the
consortium of states that designed the
common-core-aligned exams.
But the testing provider accused of
botching the assessments, Measured
Progress, has said the responsibility lies
at least partly with another vendor, the
American Institutes for Research, which
it claims was late in delivering critical
software needed to make sure the exams
could be administered smoothly.
The dust-up is the latest of the battles
that have erupted in a number of states,
including California and New Mexico,
over common-core testing contracts.
PAGE 16 >
nents, and observers continue to debate
the movement's true goals, the disparity
between the proportion of opt-outs and
their broader importance, and how much
the demographics of participating parents
hurt or strengthen the cause.
Recent events in New York state, where
disputes over the fiscal 2016 budget ratcheted
up tensions over the role of testing in
state policy, show how the opt-out campaign
can gain traction. After years of negotiations
and disagreements with the state
over evaluations, the 600,000-member
New York State United Teachers called on
parents to opt their children out of exams
aligned with the Common Core State Standards,
and tens of thousands reportedly
have done so.
And in a sharp counterpoint to socialmedia
monitoring conducted on behalf of
the testing company Pearson to watch for
PAGE 16 >
VOL. 34, NO. 29 * MAY 6, 2015
edweek.org: BREAKING NEWS DAILY
Stormy Assessment Season
Some Balk
As Testing
Rolls Ahead
'Opt-Out' Activists Set Sights
On Hobbling States' Exams
Greg Kahn for Education Week
Erik Jacobs for Education Week

http://www.edweek.org

Education Week - May 6, 2015

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