Education Week - September 25, 2019 - 1

To inspire and empower.

Vol. 39 * Issue 6 * September 25, 2019

edweek.org

Sports Events
Pose Risks
For Violence
By Arianna Prothero
& Denisa R. Superville
There's just enough of a breeze on a Friday night in
mid-September to animate the U.S. and Texas flags
standing sentry at Comalander Stadium on the outskirts of San Antonio. The wind carries relief from
95-degree heat, as well as sounds of the marching band
warming up on the field, to the hundreds of patrons filing through metal detectors at the stadium's entrance.
A few attendees-most here to see the home squad,
the Roosevelt High School Rough Riders, take on the
visiting Bulldogs from Alexander High School in Laredo-approach with clear plastic bags, but most come
carrying only what fits in their pockets. In a routine that
is standard at airports, government buildings, and professional sporting events, they dump their effects into
plastic bins and walk through the metal detector. Workers in neon green shirts pull some people aside to swipe
a wand up and down their sides.
To make sure no one gets into the stadium with a
weapon, Karen Funk, the North East Independent
School District's athletic director, has taken a few
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Callaghan O'Hare for Education Week

San Antonio, Texas

Police officer Jason Guel monitors the crowd during a Theodore Roosevelt High School football game in San Antonio, Texas. The North East
Independent School District is using stricter security measures at school sporting events to increase safety and prevent violence.

Sex Abuse Probe Is 'Wake Up Call' for Districts
By Stephen Sawchuk
A historic agreement overhauling the Chicago
district's sexual-harassment and -assault policies
raises a troubling insight for K-12 districts nationwide: Chicago's dysfunction in responding to sexual violence in school is probably not an anomaly.
The findings from the probe released Sept. 13
by the U.S. Department of Education's office for
civil rights document a complete breakdown of
Chicago's systems for protecting students from
sexual harm. But many other districts also ap-

pear to be failing to meet even basic requirements
under Title IX-which governs sex discrimination
in K-12 schools and in colleges-to appoint a coordinator and publicize their resolution processes,
experts say. They, too run the risk of attracting
similar bad press and, more importantly, failing
to support vulnerable students in their care.
In most districts, those observers point out,
Title IX coordinators juggle their duties alongside
several others, and few of them get any intensive
training on how to follow the law-or do right by
students dealing with traumatic life events.

Comic Books Bring Color to Math Class
By Catherine Gewertz
Math teachers: What if you could use the colorful stories of comic books to teach multiplication, prime numbers, and linear equations?
Would you?
What's that you say? You don't think there
are any comics-based materials for math? You
say you're jealous of your language arts and social studies colleagues when they use smashhit graphic novels like Smile, Dog Man, and
Maus? You envy your science colleagues when
they reach for books like The Manga Guide to

Physics and The Cartoon History of the Universe?
Most math teachers don't think that engaging, visually appealing books like these are an
option for them.
"Are things like that really out there?" said
Brandi Green, who teaches math at SharonMutual High School in rural Mutual, Okla.
"Because I'd love to use them."
In the past 15 years, comic books and their
longer cousins, graphic novels, have hit the big
time in language arts and social studies classes
and, to a lesser degree, in science. But they're
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"It should be exceptionally concerning because, yes, we expect the larger school districts
that have more budget for more central-office
personnel, they should at least have the awareness and wherewithal to have somebody appointed and trained and knowledgeable about
these federal guidelines and mandates," said
Elizabeth J. Meyer, an associate professor of education foundations, policy, and practice at the
education school at the University of Colorado
at Boulder. "For a district of that size to be out of
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Managing the Money
Money fuels the daily operations of every school
and district, but funding fights often take place
far from the classroom. This Education Week
special report focuses
on what those on the
hot seat are doing
to make sure the
taxpayer's dollar gets
spent in a way that
advances learning.
See the pullout section
opposite Page 10.

School Quality
A Family Issue
For the Military
By Daarel Burnette II
Montgomery, Ala.

Chief Master Sgt. Stephanie Patterson, an instructor at Maxwell Air Force
Base here, found it impossible to ignore
the news reports about the surrounding
Montgomery, Ala., schools: the abysmal
outcomes, the bickering school board
members, the accreditation battles, the
financial distress-and then, last year, the
state takeover.
So next summer, Patterson will move her
daughter, now an 8th grader at the federallyrun K-8 school on the air base, to Greenville,
S.C. She'll live with her father and attend a
high school "with more electives and opportunities," said Patterson, who eventually
plans to join them.
That sort of wrenching parental decision-a choice made by more than half the
faculty and students at Air University on
Maxwell Air Force Base last year-reflects
a recruitment and retention concern for the
Air Force and other branches of the military, pinpointed in a speech by Lt. General
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Education Week - September 25, 2019

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