Education News for 05-31-2012

State Education News

• State Gets Go-Ahead To End Federal Tutoring Program (WBNS)

The state auditor was investigating allegations of fraudulent billing in connection with a federal tutoring program, 10TV’s Kristyn Hartman reported on Wednesday. Officials from the Ohio Department of Education said that they wanted to get rid of the federally funded tutoring program designed to help students at underperforming schools. The Supplemental Educational Services program, part of the No Child Left Behind program, is designed to gives students help outside of the classroom. Read More...

• Educators, Parents Call For Better Funding For Ohio Public Schools (ONN)

Parents and educators from Cincinnati protested in front of the Ohio Statehouse Wednesday afternoon. At the center of controversy Wednesday was an education funding formula that many believe puts some districts at a disadvantage. "We have to raise money by selling wrapping paper in order to have enough pencils for our children to take tests, but literally 20 minutes away every child has a laptop," said Ruth Ann Wolfe. Read More...

Local Issues

• Area educators react to decision on No Child Left Behind change in Ohio (News Herald)

Area educators are expressing mixed reaction to this week's announcement that Ohio schools will be freed from several regulations of the No Child Left Behind Act. The U.S. Department of Education approved the state's waiver application Tuesday. Schools in the state will now be given greater flexibility to meet accountability standards, including removal of some reporting requirements, and they will also have more freedom in use of federal funds, according to the Ohio Department of Education. Read More...

• Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson's bid for local control of charter schools fits national push for accountability (Plain Dealer)

Mayor Frank Jackson's bid for more local control of charter schools in Cleveland wasn't a big reach by national standards. Most states require charter schools -- public schools that receive tax money, but are privately run -- to be created through major educational institutions such as local school districts, universities or the state education department. Read More...

• Utica High School Students To Receive iPads (WBNS )

UTICA, Ohio - North Fork Local Schools officials said that they will lease 560 iPads to students in the next four years, 10TV News reported on Wednesday. According to administrators, the tablets would be paid for using money that would have been used to purchase textbooks and paper. Read More...

• Picture of inspiration goes viral (Dispatch)

By the second lap, Matt Woodrum had slowed down. The fifth-grader with cerebral palsy clearly was in pain. 'You’re not stopping, are you?' his gym teacher asked, already knowing the answer. 'No.' Matt pushed on. The determination that the 11-year-old showed in completing the 400-meter race on May 16 inspired not only his classmates and school officials, but also viewers around the world who have seen the viral YouTube video online. Read More...

• ODE: Monroe taking right path to emerge from fiscal emergency (Middletown Journal News)

MONROE — Monroe stakeholders have taken the right approach to reach financial solvency for the school district, a state education official said. Roger Hardin of the Ohio Department of Education, said he’s seen a series of trends when it comes to dealing with fiscal emergencies in school districts. Read More...

Editorial & Opinion

• New opportunity (Findlay Courier)

Now that Ohio has been granted relief from some federal education mandates, lawmakers and educators need to raise the bar in education. The No Child Left Behind Act, which has been in place since 2001, requires states, among other things, to test students in reading and math in order to receive federal dollars. Those states which don't have a 100 percent compliance rate by 2014 would risk losing federal money. Read More...

• Proficient learners (Beacon Journal)

In 2001, education reformers on Capitol Hill and the White House set a high goal for the nation’s public schools: The No Child Left Behind Act would ensure that every child was proficient in math and reading by 2013-14. States would set proficiency targets and measure districts and schools on Adequate Yearly Progress. Progressively stern interventions awaited districts and schools that failed persistently to make the required progress. Read More...

• Keeping No Child Left Behind waiver is Ohio's next challenge: editorial (Plain Dealer)

It's no surprise that U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan gave Ohio and seven other states a waiver Tuesday from some of the most onerous and unattainable mandates of the No Child Left Behind Act. Eleven other states have gotten waivers -- and more, if not all, probably will end up with them, given the impossibility of meeting the mandate that 100 percent of students test proficient in math and reading by 2014. Read More...

• Get on board (Dispatch)

With the federal government’s decision to free Ohio from the unrealistic mandates of the No Child Left Behind law, state lawmakers have even greater obligation to come to terms with Gov. John Kasich’s efforts to move schools toward academic improvement. Read More...

ALEC and the Invisible Schools with Invisible Success

From a report titled Invisible Schools, Invisible Success

Virtual schools are popular because they are profitable. Estimates show that “revenues from the K-12 online learning industry will grow by 43 percent between 2010 and 2015, with revenues reaching $24.4 billion.”

More than 200,000 K-12 students are enrolled in full-time virtual schools across the country; when expanded to all students enrolled in at least one course, the number explodes to 2,000,000. The more children enrolled in virtual schools, the greater the profit for the companies.
[…]
In December 2004, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) approved the “Virtual Public Schools Act.” That model bill sparked a rush by private companies to embrace virtual schools and virtual learning across the country. Today, there are more than 230 nationwide accredited private virtual schools in the country.
[…]
ALEC is closely tied to the virtual school movement, having pushed its “Virtual PublicSchools Act” on behalf of corporate members of its board since 2005. The law was adopted by ALEC through the work of its Education Task Force,comprised of corporate lobbyists and conservative legislators. According to the Center for Media and Democracy’s website, ALEC Exposed, two of the three co-chairs on ALEC’s Education Task Force work directly for virtual school companies

• Mickey Revenaugh, Co-founder and Senior VicePresident of State Relations for Connections Academy,a virtual school company; and
• Lisa Gillis, Director of Government Affairs and SchoolDevelopment for Insight Schools, part of K12 Inc.

K12 is one of the largest virtual school operators in Ohio. The Ohio Virtual Academy, represent about 26% of K12′s annual revenues. We've previously demonstrated that virtual schools in Ohio are manufacturing profits at the expense of education, primarily by packing their virtual classrooms. These packed virtual classrooms have a significant effect on students

–OVA enrolled a total of 18,743 students cumulatively throughout the 2010/2011 school year with 9,593 withdrawing by the end of the year, for an astoundingly high churn rate of 51.1%

"[…]these cyber schools might as well have a turnstile as their logo for the volume of withdrawals they experience.", noted one researcher.

To highlight the emphasis K12 puts on profits above education, comes this leaked email from their CFO in Pennsylvania

An April 23, 2010 e-mail from Kevin Corcoran to a host of his colleagues is likely the sort that, in one form or another, millions of Americans deal with regularly during the work day.

Bluntly noting “We have not made the progress we need to in this area,” Corcoran adds, “More than $1[million] in funding” is in the balance.”

“Anyone who has not fulfilled their obligation in this area should not be surprised….when it’s time to discuss performance evaluations, bonuses and raises.”
[…]
In the e-mail, Corcoran, who is Agora’s financial chief, was miffed because 81 “IEPs,” short for individualized education programs–basically customized teaching plans for Agora’s growing populace of special education students–hadn’t received the necessary signatures; without them, various school districts would not release reimbursement of $15,000 per pupil (or higher) to Agora, and thus K12, to educate a student populace that have had profound troubles meeting educational expectations.

More concerned about bonuses and raises, than the fact that students have outstanding IEP's that are not being addressed. This is part of the educational mess ALEC has and continues to try to create.

Education News for 05-30-2012

Statewide Stories of the Day

• Federal waiver in hand, state to get tough evaluating schools (Dispatch)

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration gave Ohio extra flexibility to use its own education standards yesterday in exchange for the state using a hammer on school districts to ensure they adequately prepare students for college and careers. Also yesterday, a state study of the Kasich administration’s revised accountability system showed that about a quarter of all Ohio traditional and charter school districts — including Columbus and virtually all urban schools — would flunk. Read More...

• Student pay-to-play fees rise at local schools (Dayton Daily News)

Many area families will have to pay two or three times the amount they paid last year for their kids to participate in school sports and other activities as part of districts’ efforts to cut costs. For the affected districts, the average increase is more than 100 percent. At Beavercreek, Huber Heights, Valley View and Vandalia-Butler school districts — each of which recently announced multimillion-dollar cuts to stem widespread budget deficits — costs will be higher for the 2012-13 than they were this past school year. Read More...

• Ohio granted waiver to federal education law (Enquirer)

Ohio public schools are no longer under the gun to get 100 percent of their students proficient in math and reading by 2014. Ohio on Tuesday joined seven states that won federal approval to waive that requirement and other aspects of No Child Left Behind education law. “This is a major step forward that will allow us to raise the bar for our schools,” said Stan Heffner, Ohio’s superintendent of schools. In total, 19 states have received federal waivers, including Kentucky, which received one in February. Read More...

• Federal government waives No Child Left Behind standards for Ohio (Plain Dealer)

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Education has granted Ohio's request to waive some compliance standards of the 2001 No Child Left Behind law and replace them with benchmarks that Ohio's education department deems more realistic. Ohio's waiver was among eight that Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced today, bringing the total number of state waivers granted to 19. "We couldn't be more proud of the creativity, courage and innovation shown by these states," Duncan told reporters. Read More...

• Middle-schoolers get additional shots at taking high-school courses (Dispatch)

By the time 12-year-old Kallie Boren starts high school, she’ll have enough credits to be a sophomore. She’s set to finish the seventh grade at Pickerington’s Lakeview Junior High School with two high-school credits, for Spanish I and honors Algebra I. She’ll earn four more next school year by taking Spanish 2, honors geometry, integrated science, theater and technology. “I’d like to get ahead when I’m in high school,” she said. “I like the challenge.” Read More...

Local Issues

• High-school students taking courses in Columbus State program must choose major (Dispatch)

High-school students who take classes at Columbus State Community College through a special state program will have to declare a major and follow a program of study starting in the fall. They also will be required to take the courses they need to graduate, such as English, math and science, at their high school before they can take courses in those areas at Columbus State. “We simply want to put students on a clear path to success,” said Karen Gray, Columbus State’s director of dual enrollment. Read More...

• Akron schools’ anti-bullying program dismantled to avoid deficit (Beacon Journal)

Akron Public Schools has eliminated its innovative anti-bullying program to balance the books this year, according to the latest five-year budget projections the school board approved at a special meeting Tuesday. The program is part of the district’s Office of Drug/Violence Prevention, which is tasked with handling the social and emotional problems that can interfere with learning. Akron Public Schools had received funding for the program through competitive federal, state and local grants, which dried up in 2010 for all 50 states. Read More...

• Utica gets iPads for high-schoolers (Newark Advocate)

UTICA - Utica High School students are going to be connected in a new way in the 2012-13 school year. Every student will be given an iPad on the first day of school in the fall. "I think it's the way education is going," Principal Mark Bowman said. "Myself and my staff are very excited, and my students are very excited. Any time you can get kids excited about coming to school, that's great." The North Fork Local School District is leasing 560 iPad 2s at a cost of $74,500 per year for four years, with the option to buy each for $1 at the end of the lease. Read More...

Editorial

• No one is representing the children (Dispatch)

Working in the world of state-level education policy, frustration and disappointment are part of the job. I admit to giving in to frustration and even a little anger over the past year at the all-too-frequent hypocrisy. Everyone always says, “It’s about the kids,” but in reality, policy too often has little to do with children or their well-being. The focus always seems to come down to adults and institutions doing what they do best — protecting their status quo. Read More...

• Out of the loop: The state must talk to Duquesne students' districts (Post-Gazette)

Now that officials have told Duquesne's sixth- and seventh-graders they'll be attending either West Mifflin or East Allegheny schools in the fall, it's time for the state Education Department to talk to those districts, too. It's been clear that Duquesne no longer can provide the education its children require and deserve. With its high schoolers already attending the neighboring districts, extending the arrangement to next year's seventh- and eighth-graders makes sense. Duquesne students should be in classrooms where they can learn and succeed. Read More...

Hard to measure love

Ripped from the comments of this Gates Foundation booster article in the NYT, discussing the measurement of teacher effectiveness

It's almost the end of an exhausting school year, and all I can do is laugh when I read articles like this. I'm supposed to be a "teacher," which I guess means I'm supposed to "instruct" students, and the "effectiveness" of my instruction seems to be what the Gates Foundation claims it's trying to assess. But since I've spent a large amount of my time over the last several months serving as the de facto counselor for teenagers who are depressed, anxious, suicidal, self-injurious, suffering from eating disorders, living in chaotic and destructive family situations, lonely, isolated, scared, and confused, teenagers for whom I am for whatever reason the go-to "trusted adult," I've come to the conclusion that the most important thing I have to offer my students is love. Try to measure that.

Few in the corporate education reform movement grasp this kind of sentiment and reality, which is one reason there is such a large disconnect between those in the classroom delivering education policy and those in the boardroom's making education policy.

How does this manifest itself in the real world? From the Gates article

All along, Gates says, he had been asking questions about teacher effectiveness. How do you measure it? What are the skills that make a teacher great? “It was mind-blowing how little it had been studied,” he told me. So, with the help of Thomas Kane, an education professor at Harvard, the Gates Foundation began videotaping some 3,000 teachers across the country. It also collected lots of other data to measure whether a teacher was effective. All of this work, Kane says, was aimed at “identifying the practices that are associated with student achievement.”

With a wealth of data now in hand, the Gates Foundation was ready for the next step: trying to create a personnel system that not only measured teacher effectiveness but helped teachers improve. Although pilot projects have been announced in four school districts, the one that is furthest along is in Hillsborough County, Fla. That district, which is dominated by Tampa, is in the second year of a seven-year, $100 million grant.

Only 2 years into the pilot program, tension is mouinting in Hillsbrough

Don't count school board member Stacy White as a fan of the teacher evaluation system in Hillsborough County public schools.

"I am not saying that we should not hold teachers accountable," White said today at a workshop on the topic. "But you can put me down as a critic of EET as it stands in its current form."

Empowering Effective Teachers, the evaluation system put in place after the school district accepted a seven-year, $100 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is nearing the end of its second year.

But the controversy around it is not by any means nearing its end.

"Our teachers feel often times that what they have is Big Brother coming in the classroom to watch over them," White said. "Folks view the peer position as the man or the woman in the black hat."

In fact, in some cases the situation is becoming so tense, one teacher has been suspending for protesting

A veteran teacher was suspended Thursday for rejecting the evaluator chosen for him under a Gates-funded initiative that is revolutionizing the way the Hillsborough County School District assesses its teachers.

School and union officials believe this is the first such act of defiance under Empowering Effective Teachers, a complex system of mentoring and evaluation funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The district's action comes just one day after the couple themselves, Bill and Melinda Gates, toured Jefferson High School, where the computer mogul hailed the program as a national model and called its success "phenomenal."

Joseph Thomas, 43, a social studies teacher at Newsome High School, said he refused to schedule a peer observation because he feels the evaluator, Justin Youmans, is not qualified to judge him.

Youmans, 29, has his experience teaching elementary school and sixth grade, according to his school district biography. "He thinks like an elementary school teacher," said Thomas, a teacher for 18 years.

These concerns have also been exressed in Ohio. Who will perform the hundreds of tohusands of observations, and will they be suitably qualified in the subject and grade areas they are observing? This is a big question, and relates directly to scaling the concept of multiple classroom observations. What sounds simple in theory, in practice is complex, expensive, and judging by the experiences in Florida, controversial.

You can't do reforms like these on the cheap, let alone in a revenue declining environemt, yet that is what is being attempted.

Education News for 05-29-2012

Statewide Stories of the Day

• Schools test-drive state's online testing system (Lima News)

LIMA — A colorful pie chart appears on the screen, inviting pupils to create their own colonies, figuring out how best to allocate their resources. On another test question, pictures of state senators appear with information hinting to whether they belong in the North or South. Pupils drag the pictures to the appropriate spots. This is the future of state testing: All online, more colorful, more interactive, more fun. Read More...

• Cleveland schools plan wins legislative support as Mayor Frank Jackson agrees to less control over new charter schools than he sought (Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND — Mayor Frank Jackson scaled back his push to empower a local panel to approve new charter schools to win approval of his far-reaching Cleveland schools plan in the state legislature. Instead the new Transformational Alliance will only be advisory and will review charter school sponsors, or authorizers, and make a recommendation to the Ohio Department of Education, which will have final approval. Read More...

• Anti-truancy effort lauded (Dispatch) County and school officials yesterday touted an anti-truancy program that aims to help chronically absent Columbus students avoid court. The event was meant to take stock of several anti-truancy efforts that affect Columbus City Schools children, including Project KEY, drop-off centers for corralled truants and work by police officers to round up truants, said Edwin England, who helps oversee Project KEY. There’s little data to measure whether some of those programs have helped curb truancy. Read More...

Local Issues

• School adopts drug-test policy (Blade)

TOLEDO — St. John’s Jesuit High School & Academy plans this fall to introduce random drug tests for all students and staff, making it one of the first schools in Ohio to have such a policy. All students and staff could be asked to provide a hair sample for testing, and submission to the tests will be a condition of enrollment, the Rev. Joaquin Martinez, school president, said last week. School administrators have discussed a possible drug testing policy for about two years. It does not include testing for alcohol. Read More...

• 'Shared' treasurers saving school districts money (Dayton Daily News)

Local school district treasurers Dan Schall and Brad McKee are on the forefront of a state effort that aims to reduce costs and increase efficiencies by sharing services across public entities, such as school districts. “The governor really believes that for too long the first options considered to save money are cutting services or raising taxes, but there really is a third way,” said Randy Cole, policy manager with the Ohio Office of Budget and Management. “They can find efficiencies and change the way they perform services.” Read More...

• Licking County School Districts all pass Ohio Graduation Test (Newark Advocate)

NEWARK - Licking County's school districts all passed every section of the Ohio Graduation Tests for the first time this year. Although the results, posted online this week by the Ohio Department of Education, are only preliminary, they are encouraging, Newark Superintendent Doug Ute said. Ute's district sits at 76.1 percent of sophomores passing the science test -- up from 68.8 percent in 2011. "It's higher than it's ever been at this time," he said. "You have to keep in your mind, too, those things could change." Read More...

• Summer school numbers decrease (Journal-News)

Increasing costs of summer courses and more online options have contributed to the shrinking number of students enrolling in traditional summer school programs according to local school officials. Hamilton City Schools has seen its summer school enrollment plummet from 668 high school students in 2008 to 376 in 2011 according to a Hamilton JournalNews analysis. Keith Millard, director of secondary programs at Hamilton City Schools, said there are several contributing factors for the drop off. Read More...

• Decision on drug testing for all Vermilion students could come this summer (WEWS 5 ABC)

VERMILION - A few days after 16-year-old Jessica Fernandez committed suicide by standing in front of a train, an ex-boyfriend is speaking out. The police report states that Fernandez had a drug problem. The report does not say whether drugs had anything to do with her suicide, but James Harwood of Lorain believes it did. “Jessica was a beautiful person,” Harwood said, sitting on his couch with tears in his eyes. The 22-year-old said he is a former addict himself and has been in recovery for some time now. Read More...

• Minerva cuts teaching, bus-driver jobs (Repository)

MINERVA — As a cost-saving measure, 10 teaching positions and two bus driver slots were eliminated from the Minerva Local School District payroll. The school board also eliminated two administrative positions while filling two others. One of the positions filled was treasurer. That went to Larry Pottorf, the school system’s business manager. “The business manager also has a treasurer’s license,” Superintendent Joseph Chaddock said. “So the business manager will become the treasurer and I am eliminating the business manager’s position.” Read More...

• Area students fare slightly worse than 2011 on OGT (Chillicothe Gazette)

CHILLICOTHE - Students in Ross and Pike counties, as a whole, met fewer benchmarks on the Ohio Graduation Tests this year than in 2011, but not by much. Passing the OGTs is a requirement for all high school graduates. Introduced in 2001, the standardized tests met the federal requirement for testing. They're administered each spring to high school sophomores, as well as juniors and seniors who have not achieved proficient scores on one or more of the tests. Read More...

• Schools still face financial challenges (Vindicator)

Youngstown - Even though the city school district’s loss of state money isn’t as large as what was expected a couple of months ago, the school board president said financial challenges remain. “We’re not out of the woods yet,” said Lock P. Beachum Sr., Youngstown city school board president. The board decided late last year to place a replacement levy on the March ballot — seeking less millage than the levy that expires this year. But in February, the board voted to remove the replacement levy. Read More...

Editorial

• Hard-won legislative accord on Cleveland school reform should galvanize local officials (Plain Dealer)

Give Cleveland a chance to reform its struggling schools, which could mean a chance to remake the city. That's all that Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and Cleveland Schools CEO Eric Gordon have been asking for as they seek legislation in the Ohio General Assembly that would, among other things, give a review panel oversight of city charter schools. Fortunately, despite some last-minute controversy about the Transformation Alliance, the mayor's proposed vehicle to monitor Cleveland charters, a deal was finally struck last week. Read More...

• Grand bargain (Dispatch)

With a deal hammered out on Thursday, one of the boldest experiments in education reform ever seen in Ohio is poised to be launched after final approval by the General Assembly in June. It aims to transform the education and prospects of the children of Cleveland, not to mention enhancing the economic prospects of Ohio. If it succeeds, much of the credit will go to Cleveland’s Democratic Mayor Frank Jackson, who exhibited political courage and remarkable political skill in crafting a bipartisan plan that led a variety of special interests to make sacrifices for the common good. Read More...

Education News for 05-25-2012

Statewide Education News

• $700 million in federal education grants coming (Cincinnati Enquirer)

National education groups said this week that they’re putting their money where their mouths are when it comes to improving teacher effectiveness. Cincinnati Public Schools said Thursday it will join the growing cadre of districts applying for the $400 million latest round of federal Race to the Top school reform grants announced this week by the U. S. Department of Education. Read More...

• Late changes stall education bill (Springfield News Sun)

State lawmakers aren’t finished revising Gov. John Kasich’s education reform bill and will continue to hash out their disagreements and attempt compromise after the holiday weekend. Senate Bill 316 was scheduled for a floor vote in the House on Thursday, but there was disagreement about changes that include:
• Raising the minimum reading test score students need to pass third grade.
• Scrapping the report card committee.
• Creating a system of charter schools for gifted students. Read More...

• Five Things You Can Learn Tomorrow About Ohio Teacher Evaluations (State Impact Ohio)

Ohio school districts are in the middle of making major changes to how public school teachers are evaluated. The changes come amid a national push to make teacher evaluation actually count. That means using it to help teachers improve and to tie performance to how teachers are paid and whether they keep their jobs. How important is this change to teachers and principals? So important that about 2,500 of them will descend upon Columbus tomorrow for a conference on what the new evaluations will look like and what they mean. Read More...

Local Issues

• Ohio Graduation Test scores down, but still good (Mansfield News Journal)

Early reports indicate Ohio Graduation Tests scores at all Richland County public schools decreased this year. Lucas High School Principal Eric Teague said he wasn't surprised scores dropped a bit in his district. Last year, scores were phenomenal and students scored a 100 percent in reading, mathematics and writing, he said. Read More...

• Inmates May Soon Work Inside Central Ohio School District (NBC-4, Columbus)

They've been sentenced to years in prison, but inmates may soon be working in and around schools in a Central Ohio district. Leaders with the Fairbanks Local Schools in Union County are currently working on a partnership with the Ohio Reformatory for Women. Read More...

• Lane to be tried as adult in Chardon High shootings (News Herald)

T.J. Lane will be tried as an adult in the Chardon High School shootings, Geauga County Probate/Juvenile Judge Tim Grendell ruled Thursday. Lane is being held in the county Juvenile Detention Center without bond. Read More...

• Special-needs students benefit from work-training program (Vindicator)

A year of hands-on vocational training has helped 10 special-needs students secure entry-level jobs. Corey and Brian Dyer, work-training coordinators for the Mahoning County Educational Services Center, brought the work-training program to Austintown Fitch High School and the Mahoning County Career and Technical Center. Read More...

• Male teachers are rare in elementaries (Hamilton Journal News)

Men make up only 10 percent of the elementary school teachers in Butler County, a trend seen nationally and one that concerns education experts. The Hamilton JournalNews analyzed staff lists in 10 Butler County districts, and of the 1,603.8 full-time equivalent teachers in elementary schools, 164 — or 10.2 percent — are men, according to 2010-11 data from the Ohio Department of Education. Read More...

• Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson's education plan does not get legislative approval, but deal is made to pass it soon (Plain Dealer)

Mayor Frank Jackson did not get final approval from state lawmakers on his education reform plan, but they struck a deal late Thursday that it would be passed soon. Jackson was adamant he wanted his sweeping plan to pass Thursday so he could move ahead with a school tax campaign. Raising property taxes would help offset the school district's projected budget deficit. Read More...

• Cleveland mayor reaches agreement to fix troubled schools (Dispatch)

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson reached an agreement tonight with state legislative leaders on a bill to overhaul his struggling school district. House Speaker William G. Batchelder, R-Medina, said there will be a news conference on Friday to announce the details, but said it is his intent to pass House Bill 525 when the legislature returns to Columbus in mid-June. Read More...