Education News for 01-12-2012

Statewide Education News

• Ohio education in top 10 nationally despite a so-so grade (Dispatch)

Ohio’s grade on a national report card this year slipped to a C-plus, down from a B-minus, but the state inched up to the 10th best school system in the nation. Ohio was 11th in last year’s report. Read More…

• Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson is crafting a plan for the Cleveland schools and Gov. John Kasich is poised to help make it happen (Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND - Mayor Frank Jackson is working on a plan to make the Cleveland schools academically successful and financially stable, a task that will require changes in state law and that Gov. John Kasich said "could set a standard for the whole state." Jackson declined Wednesday to discuss details of his plan, saying that would be premature. But he said several times that guaranteeing the success of the Cleveland schools will require both local and "systemic changes" - a term he regularly uses when talking about needing revisions in teacher work rules and pay structures for the district. Read More…

• Talks between city, school key to success (Newark Advocate)

NEWARK - A successful school system is key to improving the city of Newark, Mayor Jeff Hall said Wednesday evening. "I'm a firm believer that we need to raise our kids educated," he said. "The graduation rate, that's why you're here. That's the name of the game." Hall has been talking with Newark City Schools leaders since being elected in November and said communication between the city and district is essential. He met Wednesday with the district's Graduation Rate Committee, which is filled with district officials, board members and community representatives. Read More…

Local Issues

• Springfield faces funding cuts (WTOL 11 CBS)

SPRINGFIELD – The Springfield school district is cutting back nearly $1 million after facing funding cuts and increasing costs. The district is dealing with a deficit of nearly $700,000 for the next school year, causing them to submit a plan to the state outlining proposed cuts if finances don't improve. Schools are feeling the effects of tighter budgets, and Springfield schools are dealing with less money from property taxes, cuts in state aid and unfunded mandates. The district's superintendent, Kathryn Hott, says that the district has already made millions in cuts, but more are still needed. Read More…

• Richmond Heights Schools move toward accreditation (News-Herald)

The Richmond Heights School Board has taken the first step toward accreditation for its schools with a new mission and vision statement. The statements which were approved this week is one of several requirements of AdvancED, an organization that helps districts achieve the necessary steps prior to accreditation — a voluntary step districts may take to ensure quality performance. The mission and vision for Richmond Heights Schools were created by district leaders, and state that the district will “Learn, adapt and excel in a changing world,” and that it is “A community committed to student success through creativity, collaboration, critical thinking and communication.” Read More…

• Teachers, one-by-one, rally at board meeting (Tribune Chronicle)

NILES - One-by-one, 181 teachers stood at a microphone Wednesday at the meeting of the Niles Board of Education and urged schools Superintendent Mark A. Robinson to return to the negiotiating table. Members of the Niles Classroom Teachers Association have been working without a contract since Aug. 28. Negotiations between the union and the board broke down Dec. 1, when the negotiating committee gave what Robinson said was their ''last, best offer.” “We are projecting a deficit of $375,000 by the end of June,'' Robinson said, ''and an approximate $2.5 million deficit by the end of the next fiscal year in 2013.” Read More…

• Grants to teachers to help students with phonics, fitness (Newark Advocate)

The Granville Education Foundation has awarded funding for two grants for its 2011 Fall Grants to Granville teachers. The first grant, for $851, written by Emily Goins and Ruth Ellen Kozman at Granville Elementary School, will fund the purchase of materials for "Phonics of Reading" for GES. The second grant, for Granville Middle School, was submitted by Sue Borchers, Ralph Hicks and Craig McDonald to fund the purchase of a Concept 2D Rower for the school's Fit 4 Life program. Read More…

Editorial

• The best teachers impart lessons that truly profit students (Plain Dealer)

Everyone knows that children who fall behind benefit from a teacher who can help them succeed and raise their scores. But economists Raj Chetty and John N. Friedman of Harvard University and Jonah E. Rockoff of Columbia University have found that the best teachers can also improve students' earnings. That news ought to inspire Ohio school officials who are working on a state-mandated plan to use test scores, value-added measures and classroom observations, along with other tools, to evaluate teachers. Read More…

Education News for 01-11-2012

Statewide Education News

• State sets Race to the Top pace (Dispatch)

Despite a change of administration and decisions by some districts to abandon the effort, Ohio is on track to implement sweeping reforms to its public-school system, according to an initial assessment of $4 billion Race to the Top grants. In first-year progress reports, the U.S. Department of Education was largely complimentary of the efforts made by the 11 states and District of Columbia to meet individually set goals for improving student and teacher performance. Read More…

• Niles schools edge toward fiscal emergency (Vindicator)

NILES - The Ohio Department of Education may place the Niles schools under fiscal emergency by the end of this month unless the district can produce a plan to eliminate its projected deficits. Niles schools have been under fiscal watch since 2003. A letter to Superintendent Mark Robinson from the finance office of ODE warns that “under the current Fiscal Watch guidelines, your district could be placed in Fiscal Emergency for failure to submit an acceptable financial recovery plan.” “If they aren’t happy with what I give them, they could place us in fiscal emergency by the end of January,” Robinson said. Read More…

• Anti-bullying bill clears Ohio Senate committee (WTOL 11 CBS)

COLUMBUS - An Ohio House bill that would expand policies against bullying in schools and online has cleared a Senate committee. The Senate Education Committee on Tuesday approved House Bill 116 known as the Jessica Logan Act. The proposed legislation is named for a Cincinnati teenager who hanged herself in 2008 after weeks of bullying at her school. State Sen. Joe Schiavoni says the bill includes several concepts from a similar bill he has proposed to address bullying. Read More…

• Wanted: 2,000 tutors (Enquirer)

Education groups Thursday will kick off the second year of a massive campaign to recruit 2,000 volunteer tutors – enough to help every child in Cincinnati Public Schools improve reading and math scores. The Be the Change campaign and volunteer celebration kicks off 11 a.m. Thursday at Rothenberg Academy in Over-the-Rhine. Volunteers do not have to attend the kickoff to apply; they can also apply online, by email or phone. Tutors are asked to commit to one hour of tutoring a week. Training is provided. Read More…

Local Issues

• Hamilton school district looks to focus on improving academics through technology (Journal News)

HAMILTON — At the 2012 organizational meeting of the Hamilton City School District Board of Education, Superintendent Janet Baker said that with the district’s master facilities plan winding down, the district will be able to focus more on improving academic achievement. “A district committee is working with a technology and planning consultant with the goal of creating a comprehensive five-year technology plan,” she said Tuesday night, reporting that a committee met last week for the second time to work on the plan. Read More…

• Accounting error might lead to more cuts (Newark Advocate)

GRANVILLE - Granville's new board of education got some grim news Monday night at its first meeting. Board members learned the district's funding shortfall is worse than projected, although not enough to seek another new property tax levy sooner than expected. District Treasurer Mike Sobul said because of an accounting error in 2011 resulting from a keyboarding mistake in the district office, $396,000 in property tax revenue mistakenly was reflected in the general operating fund instead of the debt service fund, where it was supposed to be. Read More…

• West Carrollton school district reallows non-school activities (Dayton Daily News)

WEST CARROLLTON — School buildings, closed after school to non-school programs following a Nov. 8 levy defeat, have reopened in the West Carrollton school district. District officials agreed to reopen the buildings after determining it was illegal to close them to recreational sports organizations and other non-school groups, officials said Tuesday. “Basically you have to keep your buildings open,” Superintendent Rusty Clifford. Read More…

• Little Miami schools get back on financial feet (Enquirer)

HAMILTON TWP. — Buses will soon begin rolling again in Little Miami Schools, but restoration of other student services and programs – after years of historically deep budget cuts – are farther down the road, school officials said during Tuesday evening’s board meeting. The dubious distinction for the Warren County school system as the most financially distressed in Southwest Ohio will continue through 2012 despite voters in November approving a long-sought tax hike. “We’re sort of standing in a hole right now,” Little Miami Interim Superintendent Greg Power said. Read More…

• Amherst schools cut jobs, close Shupe (Morning Journal)

AMHERST — The Amherst school board agreed to close Shupe Elementary School as a part of its plan to cut $2.5 million from its budget. The board approved cutting $1.55 million from the budget to help deal with the deficit predicted for 2012-2013 school year. With the closing of the elementary school, the district will have to restructure its lower grade levels, according to Superintendent Steve Sayers. Powers Elementary will have pre-kindergarten through second grade, while Harris Elementary will house the third and fourth grades, according to Sayers. Read More…

• East Holmes BOE outlines ways to cut costs (Times Reporter)

BERLIN — About 75 people attended the East Holmes Board of Education meeting Monday, in which a proposal to cut about $1.1 million in spending was outlined. The plan included $600,000 in cuts that were necessitated by the defeat of an emergency operating levy last November and another $500,000 in cuts that will take effect if a 3.77-mill emergency levy is defeated March 6. Read More…

Editorial

• Troubled kids (Dispatch)

Any seasoned teacher can attest that the school struggles of many kids are rooted in emotional and behavioral problems. The longer those problems go unaddressed, the worse everything else is likely to get. That makes two central Ohio programs promising: One requires bullies — and their parents — to confront the ugliness of their actions. Another offers intense therapy for preschoolers, whose behavioral issues are derailing their school careers before they start. Both programs, if successful, would provide a major collateral benefit, as well: making school better for everyone else. Read More…

• Test in November (Beacon Journal)

The Akron Board of Education acted wisely in pulling its request for a property tax increase off the March 6 ballot. The school board has opted instead to place the tax request on the ballot for the general election in November. The decision to wait carries some risk, to be sure, because it gives the board only one shot this year to raise new money that would be collected beginning in 2013. With all that is at stake in the district, school officials need time to ensure they have their ducks in a row if they hope to succeed in persuading voters to raise their property taxes. Read More…

UPDATED: Oops, You're fired!

If you read a lot of corporate education reform "studies" as we do, there's one common theme running through most of them. Much like Mitt Romney, they would really like to fire people, teachers specifically.

The rate at which they want to fire teachers varies, some only want to fire 1 in 20, others would really prefer to fire 1 in 5. The Governor himself would like nothing more than to fire some teachers too (though taking his axe to the states education budget is already doing the heavy lifting)

"We pay good teachers more, but I'm going to suggest that we hold all teachers accountable. Teachers who can't teach shouldn't be in the classroom. ... If we've got teachers who can't do the job there's no excuse for leaving them in the classroom."

The latest round of this fad came in a much ballyhooed study, with front page New York Times treatment.

The New York Times published an article on a new National Bureau of Economic Research study on the long-term effects of high value-added teachers on their students
[...]
After a discussion on the costs of keeping a minimally effective teacher, one of the authors, John N. Friedman, remarks, “the message is to fire people sooner rather than later.” His co-author, Raj Chetty, goes further: “Of course there are going to be mistakes—teachers who get fired who do not deserve to get fired.”

That's an uncharacteristic moment of truth. In the desire to fire lots of teachers using unproven data models and evaluation rubrics, there's going to be some collateral damage. Sure you may have spent tens of thousands of dollars, and years of your life earning your degrees so you can pursue your passion, but if some secret proprietary data model says you've got to go, well, them's the breaks, and besides, there's always some casino dealer TFA recruit with 5 weeks of training to ride to the rescue on their white horse.

Nobody want's to see chronically bad teachers in the classroom, but why don't these corporate backed studies and reforms first turn to employing policies to improve struggling teachers abilities, instead of immediately reaching for the ejector cord? Where are the think tank studies on what an effective intervention program would look like? Where's the money for professional development? The Governor, in his own words says he wants to pay good teachers more, when is that going to happen? It's all stick and no carrot.

Who would want to work in a profession that treats its workforce in such a callous and arbitrary manner?

When it comes to increasing the effectiveness of the teacher workforce, school districts should first give an ineffective teacher a chance and the necessary supports to improve. If the teacher does not improve, the district should fire her. But if a teacher can be fired—or believes that she could be— due to a statistical error, the impact on the quality of teaching workforce could be disastrous. Why would a bright young professional choose a career where she could be the mistake?

That's a big important question. It's also a question we have an answer to. Michelle Rhee's legacy of firing "ineffective teachers" is now in plain view, and the view isn't pretty

If you haven't read it already, I highly recommend Washington Post reporter Bill Turque's analysis of Michelle Rhee's legacy one year after she left the D.C. public schools. Turque writes about the "churn and burn" in the D.C. teacher corps since the introduction of the controversial new IMPACT teacher evaluation and merit pay system: One-third of all teachers on the payroll in September 2007 no longer work for the district, and inexperienced teachers are more clustered than ever in low-income schools and neighborhoods. We know this is problematic because DC's own data shows that 22 percent of teachers with six to 10 years of experience are rated "highly effective," compared to just 12 percent of teachers with less than six years experience.

Policies the describe the need to fire lots of people will have a significant, negative, first order effect on the entire workforce. In the end, perhaps like Mitt Romney, those proposing such solutions just like to fire people.

UPDATE

Speaking of liking to fire people. Wow

Education News for 01-10-2012

Statewide Education News

• Biden, education chief to visit Gahanna school (Dispatch)

Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan are scheduled to speak at 12:15 p.m. Thursday in a town hall-style meeting at Gahanna Lincoln High School, White House and school officials say. The topic will be college affordability — a White House news release said more than two-thirds of Ohio college students take out loans to pay for school and graduate with an average debt of more than $27,000. Biden and Duncan are expected to lay out — in an election year for their boss with swing-state Ohio as the backdrop — what President Barack Obama’s administration has done to hold down college costs. Read More…

• New sex education standards released (News-Herald)

WASHINGTON — Young elementary school students should use the proper names for body parts and, by the end of fifth grade, know that sexual orientation is “the romantic attraction of an individual to someone of the same gender or a different gender,” according to new sexual education guidelines released Monday by a coalition of health and education groups. The non-binding recommendations to states and school districts seek to encourage age-appropriate discussions about sex, bullying and healthy relationships — starting with a foundation even before second grade. Read More…

• Waiver for gym class? (Tribune Chronicle)

WARREN - Kathy Woods is hoping to secure more time for her daughter: Time the Warren G. Harding High School freshman can spend studying, earning high school credits, finishing necessary tasks. "There's only so much time in a day," the Warren woman said recently. "When your child is active in school, sports and extracurricular activities, their days fill up quickly." Woods has asked the Warren City Board of Education to consider adopting a policy that would allow students who participate in athletics to forgo the physical education classes each student must take to graduate. Read More…

Local Issues

• Miffed tutors blame district for delaying students’ help (Dispatch)

A federally funded tutoring program for Columbus students is months behind schedule as the district tries to prevent fraud. The district’s tough approach to checking out tutoring vendors has meant that thousands of students have yet to receive any help, 2 1/2 months after tutoring could have begun. The vendors are crying foul, saying the delay is costing them business and hurting the district’s chances of improving reading and math scores. Read More…

• Lorain school board looks at another round of budget cuts (Morning Journal)

LORAIN — The Lorain school board will decide on another round of budget cuts Wednesday in its quest to drop $12.5 million from its budget. At Wednesday’s school board meeting, Interim Superintendent Ed Branham is expected to recommend $5.2 million in cuts, according to Branham. In October, the district approved cutting $1.5 million in expenses before the 1.5 percent earned income tax levy failed in November. Read More…

• Westerville, Dublin schools study budget cuts (Dispatch)

Two school districts have added details about plans to make budget cuts because their tax issues failed on the November ballot. In Dublin last night, the district’s school board outlined plans for bigger elementary classes next school year, along with shorter days and reduced busing for high-schoolers. Members of Westerville’s school board presented a framework to decide which programs will be saved if voters approve a March levy. Read More…

Editorial

• Online textbooks could work for California (L.A. Times)

It's time for college textbooks to catch up with the 21st century. Online, open-access textbooks that rely heavily on information in the public domain would not only cost students a fraction as much, but they also could be readily updated and easily customized to individual professors' courses. That's a big deal considering that many of the most commonly used traditional textbooks cost more than $150. Buying used books isn't the option it used to be because professors often demand the latest version even when the changes are minimal. Read More…

New criteria for dropout schools proposed

Charter operators have long used a loophole in Ohio's lax charter laws to skirt and avoid accountability. Some of those loopholes are getting smaller. Gongwer

Dropout recovery charter schools have long been shielded from Ohio's closure laws for poor performance but the Department of Education revealed details Monday on how it might fairly grade those schools.

Advocates for the schools that serve students age 17 to 22 who either dropped out of school or who are at risk of doing so have said their institutions should be graded differently from traditional schools because they work with challenging student populations.
[...]
ODE staff laid out eight criteria by which they said the state could score the dropout recovery schools in an equitable manner.

The eight criteria are as follows:

• Academic growth, If this standard were adopted, however, it would only apply to students who are engaged and participating a certain number of days out of the year.
• The schools' graduation test passage rate as a cumulative rate. It would not be the same indicator as for traditional schools, which is first-time passage of the test in 10th grade.
• The schools' extended graduation rate. Designed to give schools credit for graduating students in four years, five years, six years, seven years."
• Credits earned as an indication of progress toward a diploma.
• College and career readiness with the former including apprenticeships and two-year and four-year degrees.
• Community collaboration. A measure of working on an individualized education plan for these students and measuring whether those (plans) exist for students.
• Sustained enrollment and attendance, which addresses that challenge of getting students to participate.
• Sponsor rating, which would attempt to address the uniqueness of dropout recovery schools in their mission and population.

Only time will tell if these criteria are meaningful enough and vigorously pursued to have any meaningful impact on students academic achievements.

What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland's School Success

Everyone agrees the United States needs to improve its education system dramatically, but how? One of the hottest trends in education reform lately is looking at the stunning success of the West's reigning education superpower, Finland. Trouble is, when it comes to the lessons that Finnish schools have to offer, most of the discussion seems to be missing the point.

The small Nordic country of Finland used to be known -- if it was known for anything at all -- as the home of Nokia, the mobile phone giant. But lately Finland has been attracting attention on global surveys of quality of life -- Newsweek ranked it number one last year -- and Finland's national education system has been receiving particular praise, because in recent years Finnish students have been turning in some of the highest test scores in the world.

Finland's schools owe their newfound fame primarily to one study: the PISA survey, conducted every three years by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The survey compares 15-year-olds in different countries in reading, math, and science. Finland has ranked at or near the top in all three competencies on every survey since 2000, neck and neck with superachievers such as South Korea and Singapore. In the most recent survey in 2009 Finland slipped slightly, with students in Shanghai, China, taking the best scores, but the Finns are still near the very top. Throughout the same period, the PISA performance of the United States has been middling, at best.

Compared with the stereotype of the East Asian model -- long hours of exhaustive cramming and rote memorization -- Finland's success is especially intriguing because Finnish schools assign less homework and engage children in more creative play. All this has led to a continuous stream of foreign delegations making the pilgrimage to Finland to visit schools and talk with the nation's education experts, and constant coverage in the worldwide media marveling at the Finnish miracle.

So there was considerable interest in a recent visit to the U.S. by one of the leading Finnish authorities on education reform, Pasi Sahlberg, director of the Finnish Ministry of Education's Center for International Mobility and author of the new book Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn from Educational Change in Finland? Earlier this month, Sahlberg stopped by the Dwight School in New York City to speak with educators and students, and his visit received national media attention and generated much discussion.

And yet it wasn't clear that Sahlberg's message was actually getting through. As Sahlberg put it to me later, there are certain things nobody in America really wants to talk about.

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