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Articles of Interest
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State & Local Policy
Young adults with autism face big challenges
Virginia Gazette
May 4, 2015
More than 3.5 million people in the United States are affected by autism spectrum disorder. After finishing high school, many of them don’t receive the resources they need to succeed in college or the workforce.
After graduating from high school, young adults with autism are far less likely than their peers to find paid employment, according to researchers.
“Not only was the employment rate low for young people with ASDs when compared with young adults with other disabilities, but pay for jobs – if they got them – was significantly lower compared to young adults with other types of disabilities,” said Anne M. Roux, senior research coordinator at the A.J. Drexel Autism Institute.
Bradford Hulcher, program director of the Autism Society of Central Virginia, has seen how difficult it is for those with autism to land a job. Only one in every five adults with autism spectrum disorder holds a full-time job, she said.
School officials excited about SOL retakes
Richmond Times Dispatch
May 4, 2015
More students will get a second chance at passing Virginia’s Standards of Learning tests this spring, a rare in-year policy change that state and local educators said will improve how academic success is measured.
Elementary and middle school students who fail SOL exams by a slim margin or because of extenuating circumstances will get another shot before the end of the school year.
The move was approved by the General Assembly and signed by Gov. Terry McAuliffe this year. It was supposed to take effect next school year, but the Virginia Board of Education signed off on the immediate implementation in March.
Federal grant will expand preschool program
RVA News
May 4, 2015
Thanks to a $17.5 million federal grant to Virginia’s pre-kindergarten program for low-income children, more than 1,200 additional children will be able to attend preschool in 11 high-needs school divisions beginning next school year.
Henrico County is among the school systems that will benefit from the funding that the U.S. Department of Education recently awarded to the Virginia Preschool Initiative.
The Henrico County School Board voted unanimously last week to accept $2.5 million in grant money, with the aim of establishing 10 more VPI classrooms. This will go a long way toward helping the local VPI program meet demand, said John Montgomery, who chairs the School Board.
“We’ve put together every location and resource we can to support it, but there’s a limit of what can be done locally,” Montgomery said. “It’s undisputed and indisputable that the pre-K program provides a benefit for students. It’s been a real game-changer for a lot of kids, and we’re excited that that more kids will get those opportunities.”
Federal Policy
Study: Far fewer new teachers are leaving the profession than previously thought
Washington Post
April 30, 2015
New teachers are far less likely to leave the profession than previously thought, according to federal data released Thursday.
T en percent of teachers who began their careers in 2007-2008 left teaching after their first year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. But attrition then leveled off, and five years into their careers, 83 percent were still teaching.
That figure — indicating that just 17 percent of new teachers left their jobs in the first five years — stands in stark contrast to the attrition statistic that has been repeated (and lamented) for years: That between 40 percent and 50 percent of teachers leave the profession within their first five years.
Nation’s students flatline in U.S. history, geography and civics education
Salt Lake Tribune
April 25, 2015
History repeats itself, and so have history test scores among the nation's eighth-grade students.
The latest scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress show most students falling short of proficiency standards in U.S. history, geography and civics. The scores remained virtually unchanged from 2010 and 2014.
Localized data were not available Wednesday, but Utah students were expected to be in line with their national peers, according to Robert Austin, a social studies specialist with the Utah State Office of Education.
"It's a good reminder that we still have a lot of work to do," he said.
The NAEP, also known as "The Nation's Report Card," tests a sampling of students across the country. Scores released Wednesday for social studies show a majority or plurality of students earning a "basic," but below-proficient, mastery.
U.S. Department of Education rejects Colorado opt-out waiver request
Denver Post
April 26, 2015
Colorado schools could face financial or other consequences after the U.S. Department of Education rejected the state's request for a waiver to federal education law so it could give a break to districts with large numbers of students opting out of state tests.
In February, the state Board of Education voted to direct the state education department to hold districts "harmless" if opt-outs drop student participation below required levels of at least 95 percent. Districts can face a lowering of accreditation and other sanctions, and schools may be given improvement plans if requirements are not met. After the vote, the department sought to amend its waiver to the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act, or No Child Left Behind.
In response, Assistant Secretary of Education Deborah Delisle wrote Friday to Colorado Education Commissioner Robert Hammond that the law doesn't exempt certain districts from accountability requirements.
The feds' letter adds a wrinkle to a debate about legislation that would allow opting out of state tests. A bill has cleared the Republican-controlled Senate and is scheduled to be heard Monday by the House Education Committee.
New Report Highlights Policy Implications for Accelerated Education
Market Watch
April 30, 2015
New research released today highlights the role that technology-focused accelerated learning programs are playing in transforming the higher education landscape, forcing lawmakers to reconsider legacy policies to foster innovation. The new primer, "Beyond Bootcamps: Policy Considerations for Accelerated Learning," documents the growth of short-term immersive technology training programs, which it defines as "learning accelerators."
The report (accessed at http://ga.co/beyondbootcamps) highlights the sector's robust growth -- with a 175% one-year increase in graduates from 2013 to 2014 -- the common characteristics of immersive programs with strong job placement rates, and the early efforts of state policymakers to regulate this approach to workforce training.
"Innovation is critical to the growth and development of our economy, particularly when it comes to education and workforce training," said former North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue and author of the paper's foreword. "Learning accelerators are a model that should be examined closely and this primer provides an opportunity for policymakers to better understand a new class of institutions and their role in transforming our workforce."
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How serious is our school bullying problem?
One of the key commitments of schools is to provide a safe space in which learning can take place. Any sort of violence on school grounds is a concern, whether physical fights or repeated psychological abuse. Bullying can take either of these forms and a search for solutions to the issue has been longstanding.
We can approach the question of how serious bullying is as a problem today from several different angles. One is how many children report being bullied or bullying others. The charts below are taken from a 40 country comparative study published in 2009 in the International Journal of Public Health and show a a measure of prevalence.
Another way to ask the question is does the public perceive bullying to be a serious problem? We asked that of a representative sample of Virginian's this past year and the results are summarized in our poll snapshot. Finally, we can look at the potential impacts of bullying on a school system, from environment to legal exposure. On the latter we feature Dr. Vacca's April Education Law Newsletter below, which looks at policy implications for school systems of bullying of students with disabilities.
Here's the breakdown of prevalence across 40 countries. The United States is pretty close to the middle of group with 22.2% of boys and 16.6% of girls reporting that they have been victims of bullying. This can be compared to the leading country in mitigating bullying (Sweden - 8.6% of boys and 4.6% of girls reported being a victim) and the country with the greatest incidence (Lithuania - 45.2% of boys and 35.8% for girls).
Many states in the United States, likely motivated by sentiment that bullying is a serious problem, have taken legislative action to combat bullying. The types of action are summarized in the map below.
Cyberbullying is certainly an increasing concern with complex legal implications for school systems, as is summarized by this CQ Research article. If you're interested in reading more, here are a few other links to recent academic research on the issue.
We hope these links are helpful.
Sincerely,
CEPI
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Poll Snapshot: How serious of a problem is bullying and harassment in scholls?
In the last decade, bullying in schools has been a major issue of interest to policymakers. Virginia legislators passed a 2005 provision that required school boards to have programs in place that mitigated bullying and required principals to report any incidents to parents of students who suffered bullying. Legislator activity continued in most recent session with a bill (HB1537) that authorizes principals to contact parents and request that they receive training on preventing bullying.
Given this interest, we asked respondents whether they see bullying and harassment as serious problem in schools. Substantial majorities said they did with 50% saying bullying and harassment was a very serious problem and 37% saying it was a somewhat serious problem. As noted in the graph above, minorities (61%) and women (57%) were more likely to view bullying and harassment as a very serious problem than were whites (44%) and men (41%). Those from South Central and Tidewater regions (56%) were also more likely than respondents from other regions to see the prevalence of bullying and harassment as a very serious problem.
Responses were also different across income, education and party identification lines:
- Respondents from households with less than $50,000 in income more frequently saw bullying and harassment as a very serious problem (57%) than did those from households with $50,000 to $100,000 in income (46%) and those from households with $100,000 or more in income (42%).
- Respondents with a high school education or less were more likely to see bullying and harassment as a very serious problem (56%) when compared to those who had some college (49%) and those with a college degree or more (43%).
- Democratic respondents were also more likely to see it as a very serious problem (55%) when contrasted with Independents (49%) and Republicans (42%).Half of Virginians (50%) think bullying and harassment is a “very serious problem” in schools, with another 37% saying they think it is a “somewhat serious” problem. A majority (56%) also think that bullying and harassment is more of a problem today than it was when they were younger.
The survey also found that a majority (56%) of respondents think bullying in schools is more of a problem today than it was in the past, while 36% think the reverse is true. Only 7% feel that bullying as a problem is about the same as it was in the past.
Similar to perceptions of whether bullying is a serious problem, women (67%) and minorities (63%) were more likely to see bullying as a greater problem today, compared to 52% of white respondents and only 43% of male respondents. Those aged 65 and older also said more frequently (69%) that bullying is more of a problem today. In comparison, 55% of those aged 35-44 and 45-64 and only 48% of those aged 18-34 said the same.
(To read the full results of the poll, visit our website. Question 14 & 15 are cited above - topline results are on page 28 of the 2015 poll with demographic breakouts on pages 52-53.)
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Bullying and Students with Educational Disabilities: Policy Implications
Overview
In Chapter Ten of our textbook my late co-author Bill Bosher and I include bullying as a part of our general discussion of student-on-student harassment. In our discussion we include a variety of cases where courts have held that school officials who exhibit deliberate indifference (i.e., know about or willfully avoid knowing about the possibility of serious harm to a student, but fail to take prompt and appropriate action) may be held liable when a student suffers harm. In these decisions the courts consistently rely on and expand a standard set by the United States Supreme Court in Davis v. Monroe County School Board (1999) where, in a Title IX case, the Court opined that “in the context of student-on-student harassment, damages are available only where the behavior is so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive that it denies its victims the equal access to education….” Subsequent courts applied the Davis standard to situations where the harassment (including bullying) actually created a “hostile learning environment” keeping the harassed student from accessing educational opportunities available to all students and from making “meaningful educational progress.” (See also, Vacca, 2012) In a footnote in our Chapter we make the following prediction: “the same elements of analysis will be used in a claim of student harassment based on educational disability, especially where the student victim has an I.E.P.” (Vacca and Bosher, 2012)
Students with Disabilities and Educational Progress. The primary intent of various federal and state statutes covering students with disabilities is fourfold. First, that students with disabilities not be discriminated against solely because of their disability. Second, that they receive a free appropriate public education (FAPE), including necessary related services, designed to meet their unique needs, in the least restrictive environment (LRE). Third, that they be included (not excluded) in all school (academic, social, and extra-curricular) offerings and activities, to the extent practicable, with their age appropriate peers, in general education settings. Fourth, as the United States Supreme Court opined in Board of Education v. Rowley (1982), that students with disabilities have access to a “meaningful educational program…a program designed to deliver educational benefit to that student.” Thus, the emphasis in post-Rowley court decisions has been on students with disabilities making meaningful and measurable educational progress, receiving some meaningful educational benefit, and not regressing. Where the matter involves the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA 2014), it is the student’s I.E.P. that serves as the fundamental document on which such a determination is made.
Recently I came across a very interesting federal district court case where plaintiff parents claimed that school officials failed to remedy bullying behavior by some students against their son (hereafter referred to as N.M.) and, as such, discriminated against and denied him FAPE under the mandates of special education law (IDEA, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act). The issue analysis and decision have implications for local school system policy.
To read the full brief, visit our website. |
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