Education Week - September 19, 2018 - 1

Education Week
VOL. 38, NO. 5 * SEPTEMBER 19, 2018

edweek.org:

BRE AKING NEWS DAILY

If Democrats
Take House,
What Next?
Congressional Oversight
May Ramp Up for Ed. Dept.

Gretchen Ertol for Education Week

By Andrew Ujifusa

BECOMING BILITERATE: Kindergartner Ava Josephine Mikel and teacher Priscilla Joseph dance to Haitian music during a game of "freeze
dance" at Toussaint L'Ouverture Academy, a Haitian Creole dual-language program at Mattahunt Elementary School in Boston. More dual-language
programs are cropping up in districts around the country. PAGE 8

If Democrats take control of the
U.S. House of Representatives next
year-a distinct possibility, given some
of the latest pre-midterm polling-expect civil rights to grab the spotlight
and for congressional subpoenas in the
name of education oversight to become
more popular.
But Capitol Hill might not see as
much of U.S. Secretary of Education
Betsy DeVos as a partisan punching
bag as some might think.
The bad blood between Democrats
and the Trump administration on education flowed right at the start, when
they clashed with DeVos in a nowfamous confirmation hearing more than
18 months ago. And Democrats have
been scrapping with her and the U.S.
Department of Education ever since,
squabbling over federal education law,
school spending, and more.
But what if Democrats find themselves
the big winners from the November midPAGE 18>

By Christina A. Samuels
Tens of thousands of babies are born
each year to mothers who abused opioids when they were pregnant.
Now, a new study offers a snapshot
of the educational impact of that early
trauma-and a hint of what schools
are already facing and may have to
grapple with for years to come.
Researchers examined the educational status of a group of Medicaideligible children in Tennessee ages 3
to 8. Some of those children were born
with neonatal abstinence syndrome,
meaning that they spent their earliest
days coping with the health effects of
opioid withdrawal. The other children
were not diagnosed with the syndrome.
The children who faced opioid withdrawal as babies were more likely to
be evaluated for special education services and, once evaluated, were more
likely to be found eligible, according
to the report, published in August in
the journal Pediatrics. Most of the
children's disabilities were in five categories: autism, developmental delay,
"other health impairment," specific
learning disability, and speech and
language impairments.
"Educators will not be surprised by
PAGE 12>

New Teacher Side Gig? Online Tutor
Chinese Sites Offer Flexibility, Pay
By Sarah Schwartz
Most days, Lisa Newhouse, a library media specialist with the Upsala Area schools in Minnesota,
wakes up at about 4 a.m., gets ready for work, and
sits at her computer to teach her first students of
the day-who live in China.
Newhouse is one of the more than 60,000 American and Canadian tutors who work for VIPKid, a
Beijing-based online English-tutoring company.
After her one-on-one lessons with the elementary-school-age children in China, Newhouse heads
off to a full day in her district, where she wears
many hats: working in the library, assisting with

technology integration, and managing after-school
programs. Her days are long but manageable, said
Newhouse, who took on the second job, which brings
in about $12,000 annually, to help pay off her student loans.
"I just drink coffee at 2 p.m. and I'm good,"
she said.
Frustrated with their salaries and looking for second jobs they can work around school hours, some
U.S. teachers have turned to teaching Chinese students online for a source of additional income. Peak
tutoring times in China line up with early-morning
hours on the East Coast and in the Midwest.
English-language tutoring has become a booming industry in China, as more parents seek to
prepare their children for a globally competitive
PAGE 10>

Ackerman + Gruber for Education Week

Opioid Epidemic
Raising Concerns
In Special Education

Before dawn, Lisa
Newhouse prepares
to teach a virtual
tutoring session
in China from her
home in Freeport,
Minn. Newhouse
is one of a growing
number of
U.S. teachers
supplementing their
day jobs by tutoring
students online.

Social Media Use
Among Teenagers
Is Rising Rapidly
By Benjamin Herold
Teenagers' use of social media is skyrocketing. But educators should keep in
mind that it's not all bad news.
That is the assessment of a new national survey of 13- to 17-year-olds by
the nonprofit Common Sense Media
and backed up by other experts, who
caution educators not to take too
simplistic a view of students' social
media use.
Seven in 10 teens now say they use
social media more than once a day,
compared with 34 percent six years
ago, according to the report, "Social
Media, Social Life: Teens Reveal Their
Experiences."
But surprisingly, Common Sense
also found that teenagers overall say
using social media makes them feel
less lonely, less depressed, and more
confident. That's especially true for
the children who scored lowest on
the survey's measures of their overall
social-emotional state. And teens say
they're aware of social media's potential to distract and manipulate them,
even if they sometimes struggle to
PAGE 14>

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Education Week - September 19, 2018

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