Education News for 06-19-2012

Statewide Stories of the Day

• New approaches urged to get boys to read (Dispatch)

Tyler Teague is the kind of reader educators say is the toughest to reach. The 11-year-old would pick up a book if required by his teacher, but it’s not something he’d do for fun. “It felt like a chore and that you had to do it,” said Tyler, who will attend Hilliard Tharp Sixth Grade School this fall. Educators have long struggled to motivate boys to read on their own. Boys tend to be more active, hands-on learners and would rather clean their rooms than read Little Women, educators say. Read more...

Local Issues

• Fostoria school board OKs insurance contract (Courier)

FOSTORIA - Fostoria school board on Monday approved a contract of about $58,000 with Ohio School Plan, Toledo, for the district's property, fleet, liability and violence insurance for 2013-2015. Separately, the board approved a $50,195 bid from Roppe Corp., Fostoria, and a $45,500 bid from Lakeside Interior, Perrysburg, to replace the carpeted area on the first floor academic wing at the junior/senior high school. Read more...

• Belmont Co. school districts get grant to explore sharing some services (WTOV 9 NBC)

BELMONT COUNTY — As school districts continue to face challenges of budget cuts while trying to maintain programs and state mandates, two Belmont County districts have been awarded a grant allowing them to explore sharing administrative services. The Barnesville and Union Local school districts have been awarded a $100,000 grant that will allow educators to explore sharing administrative services through Project Share. Read more...

• Greenon district to keep salary freeze (News-Sun)

ENON — Greenon school board members plan to vote Thursday to freeze pay for district administrators and central office employees, a continuation of a two-year wage freeze for all district employees that has saved an estimated $460,000 to date. “It’s not a new crisis or a new issue,” said Treasurer Ryan Jenkins. “It’s just us following through with everything we said we would do.” In the spring of 2011, the district’s two labor unions — the Greenon Federation of Teachers, representing certified staff, and the Ohio Association of Public School Employees, representing classified staff. Read more...

• Residents clear about education needs (Vindicator)

Youngstown - Residents of the city are clear about what needs to happen to improve the schools. The next step is devising a plan to get there. More than 115 people attended an education town-hall meeting Monday at Stambaugh Auditorium where the representatives of the Harwood Institute for Public Innovation of Bethesda, Md., discussed the findings of a community-engagement effort launched last February. Read more...

• Cleveland schools CEO Eric Gordon likely to head district until 2015 (Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND - First-year Cleveland schools chief Eric Gordon will likely be back for three more. Today, after a year board President Denise Link and Mayor Frank Jackson consider successful, the school board will consider extending Gordon's contract as chief executive officer through June 2015. Gordon has worked closely with Jackson for the last four months, promoting to residents and legislators a school overhaul plan that lawmakers in Columbus approved last week. He will soon have to shift gears to recommend a tax increase for the board to put before voters in November. Read more...

• Ten lose jobs as Zane Trace board OKs $500K in budget cuts (Chillicothe Gazette)

KINGSTON - Ten Zane Trace employees -- eight of them bus drivers -- lost their jobs Monday after the board of education approved a reduction in force. With a projected $1.28 million deficit looming in 2014, the board moved forward on a series of cuts expected to save the district more than $500,000 annually. Also losing their jobs Monday were a middle school intervention specialist and a custodian. In addition, the board will leave vacant two teaching positions and a custodial position. Read more...

Editorial

• All layered up (Beacon Journal)

The hope of the Kasich administration, which last week released a report on local governments sharing services, is to encourage greater collaboration at the grass roots. To do so holds much potential for reducing expenses and improving services, quite a feat at a time of sharply curtailed state support for cities, counties and schools. “Beyond Boundaries: A Shared Services Action Plan for Ohio Schools and Governments” plows some familiar ground, previous reports establishing the burden created by the state’s overlapping units of government. Read more...

• Controversy over busing in Austintown was avoidable (Vindicator)

There is no denying that public education in Ohio is confronting major financial challenges. Significant reductions in state funding, along with the expansion of charter schools and voucher programs, are forcing districts to reduce spending — without affecting academics. The growing number of systems in state-designated fiscal watch and fiscal emergency illustrates the scope of the problem. Tensions are high, which means that lines of communication among school boards, administrators and the public, especially parents, must be open at all times. Read more...

• Ohio's third-grade reading standard is improved by revision (Plain Dealer)

Education in Ohio got a boost last week, when Gov. John Kasich and Republican lawmakers brokered sensible agreements to help struggling third-graders and impose more accountability on charter schools that cater to teenagers at risk of dropping out. The compromises are in an education reform measure, Senate Bill 316, now awaiting Kasich's signature. Kasich had wanted to hold back every third-grader who scored below proficient on reading. That would have forced an estimated 17,000 students to repeat the grade -- more than teachers could handle or parents would tolerate. Read more...

Education News for 06-18-2012

Statewide Stories of the Day

• State joins school-attendance probe (Dispatch)

Columbus schools officials sought state help yesterday in a probe of possible record-tampering, saying the scope of the issue was larger than previously thought. Superintendent Gene Harris asked the state auditor’s office to conduct a special audit of the district’s enrollment data. Also, the Ohio Department of Education said that because of concerns raised yesterday in a story in The Dispatch and after a request for help from the district, it plans to review the accuracy of Columbus’ attendance figures. Read more...

• More grads not ready for college (Enquirer)

Rayjean Ranford graduated from Woodward High School over a year ago in the top 10 percent of her class. She planned to attend Cincinnati State Technical and Community College for two years, then transfer to the University of Cincinnati for two more. But the 18-year-old single mother fell behind before she took her first college class. Scores on her college placement tests were so low that Cincinnati State assigned her to “developmental” classes in math and English, designed to get her ready for college, but which yield no college credit. She took four. Read more...

• Early interaction helps children learn (News-Journal)

MANSFIELD - If you want your children to succeed in life, read to them, talk to them, play with them, especially in the first three years of their lives. Lisa Cook, early childhood consultant for Succeed and Prosper through Education Ashland, Richland, Crawford (SPARC), and a former teacher and head of school at Discovery School, wants to see parents become their child's first teacher. Cook played some humorous video clips of TV show host Art Linkletter interviewing children about their hopes and ambitions when they grow up. Read more...

• Failed SB 5 still a boon for some schools (Dispatch)

Fallout from the state’s failed attempt to scale back collective-bargaining rights has helped some school districts stretch levies longer than planned, officials say. When the Bexley schools treasurer put the district’s finances into focus recently, he found that the district likely can stay off the ballot until 2014, a year longer than expected. The Westerville district, too, plans to wait a year longer than officials had said. Olentangy is stretching the life of a 2011 property tax by two years. Read more...

Local Issues

• Columbus school district’s attendance data ‘not logical’ (Dispatch)

Columbus fifth-graders come to school nearly every day. But roughly half of them can’t pass their math, reading and science exams. Linden-McKinley STEM Academy has had near-perfect attendance for the past three school years. But only 54 percent of Linden-McKinley students graduate, and fewer than 2 in 5 can pass the state science exam on the first try. If showing up is half the battle in helping students succeed, why aren’t more Columbus schools winning? Read more...

• Scioto Valley schools not betting on set amount from casinos (Chillicothe Gazette)

CHILLICOTHE - School treasurers in Ross County aren't betting on much of a boost from casino tax revenues, which should begin paying out this year. Still, they said any additional funding, no matter the amount, is a good thing at a time when most districts are tightening their belts. Exactly how much money will be doled out to the schools depends entirely on the success of the casinos. In 2009, when voters approved a statewide referendum allowing casinos in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus and Toledo. Read more...

• Lake Erie College camp all business for area high school students (News-Herald)

Beginning Sunday, high school students from the area will have the opportunity to hear from local business leaders during a weeklong, hands-on program. The Learning About Business program at Lake Erie College in Painesville brings 60 students from high schools in Lake, Geauga and Cuyahoga counties to live on campus for one week and work together on a business project. While there, students will hear from area professionals who will teach them various aspects of how to run a business, Executive Director Michael Jablonski said. Read more...

• Demand for vouchers declines in TPS district, reversing trend (Blade)

Demand for vouchers to attend private Toledo schools waned for next school year, abruptly ending a trend of rapid growth. The Ohio Department of Education received 2,023 applications from Toledo students for the 2012-2013 school year in the EdChoice program, which provides scholarships for students to attend private schools if their public school performs poorly on state standards. That's down from 2,068 the year prior, in contrast to two straight years of 200-plus growth in applications. Read more...

Editorial

• Cleveland schools' diversion of bond funds causes taxpayers to get less for their money (Plain Dealer)

Just because it's legal to use Cleveland school construction bond money to repair aging schools doesn't make it right -- or smart. Cleveland voters approved the $335 million Issue 14 in 2001 to deal with aging schools. Since then, 32 of the district's 86 buildings have been renovated or replaced. The projects qualified for a two-for-one match that has brought in more than $422 million from the state, according to district spokeswoman Roseann Canfora. That's a huge jackpot for the city's children. Read more...

• Another win for kids (Dispatch)

It was a good week for Ohio schools at the Statehouse: A day after lawmakers came together to approve a revolutionary plan for Cleveland schools, the General Assembly on Wednesday at long last approved a measure that promises to hold all Ohio schools accountable in some critical areas. Experience shows that, in failing schools, accountability is a necessary first step toward improvement. Senate Bill 316 was subject to months’ worth of contention and horse-trading, and the final product isn’t perfect. Read more...

• School plan not right for all districts (Tribune Chronicle)

A federal program intended to help students who are doing poorly in school turned into a fiasco in Ohio. Now the state is doing what should have been done all along - in effect, telling local school districts they can get the kinds of help they want for such students. As so often is the case with the federal government, the program adopted a one-size-fits-all, strictly controlled approach. It provided federal money to pay for tutors for struggling students, but only by individuals, organizations and companies approved by the state of Ohio. Read more...

Public education - a middle class bargain

The USDA has just released their annual report (issued annually since 1960), "Expenditures on Children by Families". finding that:

• A middle-income family with a child born in 2011 can expect to spend about $234,900 ($295,560 if projected inflation costs are factored in*) for food, shelter, and other necessities to raise that child over the next 17 years.
• For the year 2011, annual child-rearing expenses per child for a middle-income, two-parent family ranged from $12,290 to $14,320, depending on the age of the child.
• A family earning less than $59,410 per year can expect to spend a total of $169,080 (in 2011 dollars) on a child from birth through high school.
• Similarly, middle-income parents with an income between $59,410 and $102,870 can expect to spend $234,900.
• A family earning more than $102,870 can expect to spend $389,670.

For middle-income families, housing costs are the single largest expenditure on a child, averaging $70,560 or 30 percent of the total cost over 17 years. Child care and education (for those incurring these expenses) and food were the next two largest expenses, accounting for 18 and 16 percent of the total cost over 17 years. These estimates do not include costs associated with pregnancy or the cost of a college education or education beyond high school.

Child care and education expenses consist of day care tuition and supplies; baby-sitting; and elementary and high school tuition, books, fees, and supplies. Books, fees, and supplies may be for private or public schools. However, according to the report, child care and education was the only budgetary component for which about half of all households reported no expenditure.

Without a free public education, the educational expense of raising a child would be the number 1 expense by far. Consider that in Ohio, the per student public school cost is ~$10,000. That would cost the typical 2 child family $20,000 per year, for a total of ~ $260,000 for the entire K-12 education - more than the total expense the USDA reports for raising a child!

It's hard to imagine a greater bargain that that.

Here's a look at how costs have changed since 1960

Expenditures on Children by Families, 2011

SB316 analysis Part II

We published our first look at SB316, the mid biennium review education bill, here. OEA has just published their analysis of the bill, which you can read in full, here (pdf).

We'd like to pull out a few sections that go into greater detail than our original analysis, specifically on teacher evaluations and school choice.

Teacher evaluations

• Extends the annual deadline for completing teacher evaluations from April 1 to May 1.
• Specifies that the statutory requirements regarding teacher evaluation in Ohio Revised Code Section 3319.111 prevail over conflicting provisions of collective bargaining agreements entered into on or after the bill’s effective date rather than on or after September 29, 2011. (OEA supports the date change that fixed the back dating issue, but continues to oppose this language and its placement because it restricts educators’ voices in teacher evaluation.)
• Specifies that a teacher be evaluated under the teacher evaluation framework, only if the teacher spends at least 50 percent of their time employed providing student instruction.
• Allows for third-party evaluators, such as Educational Service Centers, to be contracted by the board to perform evaluations (requires that an evaluator must hold a credential from the Ohio Department of Education). Does not require individuals hired by third parties to conduct evaluations to possess a superintendent, assistant superintendent, principal, vocational director, administrative specialist or supervisor license.
• Restores current law allowing teacher evaluations to be conducted by persons designated in a peer review agreement entered into by an employer and its teachers.
• Allows a teacher who is rated “accomplished” to complete a project instead of the second observation of an evaluation.
• Requires only one annual evaluation instead of two for teachers on limited or extended contracts.
• Requires at least three formal observations instead of two observations for teachers who are under consideration for nonrenewal.
• Excludes students who have 60 or more unexcused absences for the school year in the calculation of student academic growth data for an evaluation.
• Requires the State Board of Education to develop by June 30, 2013 a standards-based teacher evaluation framework for state agencies that employ teachers. Further, requires these state agencies to adopt the framework. (Note: Teachers employed by County Boards of Developmental Disabilities will fall under the ODE teacher evaluation framework.)
• Requires the district to annually report the number of teachers receiving each evaluation rating aggregated by the teacher preparation programs for which the teachers graduated and graduation year to ODE. Also requires ODE to establish guidelines for the report and explicitly prohibits using teachers’ names or other personally identifiable information.
• Requires the State Board of Education to adopt a resolution when they update the teacher evaluation framework.

School "Choice"

• Removes provision creating regional gifted charter schools.
• Removes changes to community school sponsor rankings (will likely be addressed in HB 555).
• Specifies that unless the General Assembly enacts performance standards, a report card rating system, and closure criteria for community schools that operate dropout prevention and recovery programs by March 31, 2013, those schools are subject to permanent closure under the existing criteria that applies to other community schools. Stipulates that only the performance ratings issued to schools that operate dropout programs for the 2012-2013 school year and later count in determining if a school meets the closure criteria.
• Allows for single-gender community schools without a comparable school for the other gender.
• Requires ODE to post community school contracts on the Internet.
• Revises the definition of a community school sponsor to explicitly include the local school district boards, educational services centers that agree to the conversion of a school building, and “grandfathered” sponsors.
• Permits a person from serving on five instead of two governing authorities of start-up community schools at the same time.
• Allows a community school to operate in a residential care facility, as long as the school was operating in Ohio prior to May 1, 2005, regardless of whether the school was operating from or in the facility on that date.
• Retains current law on community school sponsorship and trigger for prohibiting an entity from sponsoring additional schools.
• Requires that each time a school district completes an evaluation of a child with a disability or reviews a child’s IEP that the district send by letter or electronic means a notice to the child’s parent about voucher programs.
• Requires the State Board of Education to adopt rules establishing procedures for awarding EdChoice vouchers to students already attending a nonpublic school when the school receives its charter.
• Requires ODE to disaggregate data by grade not age for students participating in the EdChoice Voucher or Cleveland Voucher programs.

SB316 analysis

The education portion of the mid biennium review (MBR), SB316, has now been completed. Below is the synopsis document produced by Ohio's legislative services commission (LSC).

Some of the highlights and lowlights:

• Third-grade reading guarantee – retention

Requires the State Board of Education to determine the "cut" score, progressively adjusting it upwards until the retention requirements apply to students who do not receive at least a "proficient" score. Prohibits the State Board from designating a level lower than "limited." Not later than December 31, 2013, requires the State Board to submit to the General Assembly recommended changes to the scoring ranges of the state achievement assessments necessary for the successful implementation of the common core curriculum and assessments in the 2014-2015 school year.

It's a huge unfunded mandated (only a paltry $13 million was attached to this effort), with only a few exceptions for students carved out. We suspect this provision will be revisited in the very near future once legislators start hearing from angry parents.

Also included int he law is a section that, not later than February 28, 2013, the State Board of Education and the Early Childhood Advisory Council jointly to develop legislative recommendations on the state's policies on literacy education of children from birth to third grade. From birth!

• District and building academic performance ratings

This didn't make the bill. The legislature received a lot of push back from a broad range of interests that didn't like the idea of downgraded schools in short order, right before tougher common core standards were also to be introduced.

• Performance indicators for dropout prevention and recovery programs

These are some of the worse charter schools in the country, not just the state. They have avoided accountability for poor performance for a long time. Initially SB316 contained provisions to hold them accountable, however those provisions were also stripped and replaced with provisions requiring the adoption of performance indicators for dropout prevention and recovery programs operated by school districts and community schools with provisions for a separate rating system specifically for community schools that operate dropout prevention and recovery programs, to be used beginning with the 2014-2015 school year. No rush there, then.

• Reports of district and school spending

This provision initially passed in the original budget has been delayed 12 months.

• Teacher evaluations

This section of SB316 fixed a lot of the ridiculous provisions contained in HB153. You now have to actually be in a classroom at least 50% of the time to be covered, test scores of students who are absent more than 60 days (!) won't be counted, nor those defined as habitually truant. the new law makes quite a few structural changes and some nuanced changes. We urge educators to take a little time to read this entire section (page 19, thru 21)

• Teacher retesting

Remember the provision that would have required all teachers in the bottom 10% of schools to retake the PRAXIS test? That's gone, replaced with a different retesting provision. It now applies, beginning with the 2015-2016 school year, to teachers employed by school districts when the teacher has been rated "ineffective" on evaluations for two of the three most recent years. (Retains the law applying the requirement to teachers employed by community schools and STEM schools when the teacher's building is ranked by performance index score in the lowest 10% of all public schools.) The law also adds that if a teacher employed by a school district passes the required exams, the teacher, at the teacher's own expense, must complete professional development targeted at the deficiencies identified in the teacher's evaluations. The district may terminate the teacher if the teacher (a) does not complete the professional development or (b) receives an "ineffective" rating on the teacher's next evaluation after the professional development.

• Nonrenewal of teacher and administrator contracts

Extends the deadlines for a school district or educational service center (ESC) to notify a teacher that the person's contract will not be renewed for the following school year, from April 30 to June 1.

• Charter schools

There is a host of provisions affecting charter schools starting on page 38 that we are still digesting.

SB316 bill analysis

Education News for 06-15-2012

Statewide Stories of the Day

• Charters face strict standards (Enquirer)

The Ohio General Assembly Wednesday set a deadline of March 31 for lawmakers to figure out how to measure the performance of charter schools that serve dropouts. If the state fails to meet the deadline, perpetually failing dropout schools will be shut down starting in 2015. Until now, they’ve been exempt from academic closure rules. Lawmakers and charter school organizations have been pushing for years to craft an alternate set of accountability standards that accurately measure the performance of dropout schools. Read more...

• Projected deficits reflect funding cuts (Dayton Daily News)

The area’s 10 largest school districts are projecting multimillion-dollar deficits by the year 2016, according to the new five-year forecasts submitted to the Ohio Department of Education. The forecasts, required annually by the state, represent the districts’ general fund monies. They include total revenues, total expenditures and fund balances for the last three fiscal years and the projected totals for the next five years. Read more...

• Gov. John Kasich's administration releases study to help local governments share services (Plain Dealer)

COLUMBUS - Gov. John Kasich's administration on Thursday released a report to municipal groups encouraging them to move more toward sharing resources instead of raising local taxes or waiting for more state funding help. Call it a nudge or more of a shove, but Kasich policy adviser Randy Cole bluntly warned a small group in Columbus that embracing a shared-services approach might be local governments' only saving grace if they want to stay solvent. Read more...

Local Issues

• Schools probe attendance figures (Dispatch)

Columbus schools retroactively alter thousands of student-attendance records at the end of each school year, casting doubt on the accuracy of the district’s state report card, current and former district officials told The Dispatch. The changes would affect attendance rates and test-passing rates because they affect the pool of students who are considered in school-wide totals. They also might have confused Franklin County Juvenile Court officials so much that the court dismissed legitimate truancy cases. Read more...

• Toledo area charter schools make plans to expand, grow (Blade)

At least four new charter schools plan to enter the crowded Toledo education field next year, and an additional school with two sites in the area plans to open a new campus. Schools are planned in a former grocery store, a downtown office building, a once-shuttered Catholic school, and at the former Masonic Temple next to the Stranahan Theater. Combined, the schools plan to enroll hundreds of students, at a time when Toledo continues to lose population. Read more...

• KnowledgeWorks acknowledges it won’t work in Youngstown (Vindicator)

Youngstown - Whatever the immediate future holds for the city school district, it won’t involve KnowledgeWorks. “... our work in Youngstown has effectively been concluded” with the disinterest of the superintendent, Byron McCauley, a spokesman for the Cincinnati-based education reform organization, said in an email. KnowledgeWorks in a February visit to the city advocated what it called a “restart” or complete overhaul of the city school system, which is in academic watch based on the most recent state report card. Read more...

• Putnam County students tech up (Lima News)

OTTAWA — Brad Schmitz, Glandorf, is concluding his fourth year attending a tech camp offered in Putnam County. The tech camp is a free computer camp open to all county students entering the sixth through eighth grades. “When I started I barely knew anything technical,” Schmitz said. “Now I know how to create games, use green screens and do many other things.” Schmitz is one of 28 seventh and eighth graders to attend the summer tech camp at the Putnam County Educational Center this past week. Read more...

• Berea school Treasurer Randy Scherf files lawsuit against district; Ohio auditor releases findings for recovery (Sun News)

BEREA - Berea school Treasurer Randy Scherf filed a lawsuit against the Berea school district in May regarding a dispute concerning health insurance reimbursements. A statement the Ohio Auditor Dave Yost released today deals with a similar issue. The statement said Scherf overpaid himself nearly $28,000 in medical insurance expenses. The July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011 audit showed findings for recovery totaling $31,387, including $27,899 against Scherf and $3,488 in unrelated findings against a former employee for excess COBRA payments. Read more...

• Edison Local Schools sign drilling lease (WTOV 9 NBC)

JEFFERSON COUNTY — Edison Local Schools have signed a lease with Chesapeake Energy, and now they've waiting on nearly $700,000 from the drilling company in July. However, this money isn't surplus -- without it, the schools would be in more financial trouble. "We would be in serious -- even more serious -- financial crisis, and, ultimately, the state would come in and basically do an audit," said Superintendent Dave Quattrochi. Read more...

• 9 laid off Lorain school employees recalled (Morning Journal)

LORAIN — At Thursday night’s Lorain school board meeting, Interim Superintendent Ed Branham announced one person’s retirement and that nine laid off employees will be coming back next year. Six of the nine are being rehired due to teacher retirements, another teacher is coming back because an employee accepted another position, and another will be coming back due an increase in special education enrollment. The ninth recalled employee, Cara Gomez, is a Race to the Top facilitator paid by federal money. Read more...

Editorial

• Got training? (Dispatch)

Learn a skill, support a family: This axiom was true for our grandparents’ generation, and a new study says it still holds. Technical education takes less time, costs less money and can command wages that will match or exceed those of some college degrees, according to the Center on Education and the Workforce at Georgetown University. Don’t believe it? Have you paid someone lately to fix a car or a computer? Read more...

• Education matters (Beacon Journal)

Ohio long has guaranteed that all students will be proficient in reading early in their schooling. Yet years later, too many students do not reach the mark, and their lives are diminished as a result, more often on public assistance, or in prison. On Wednesday, state Rep. Gerald Stebelton, the chairman of the House Education Committee, captured the exasperation of many Ohioans: “We are failing our children.” Read more...

• Education matters - Part 2 (Beacon Journal)

Cleveland’s public schools long have been a drag on the city and region. Once models for urban education, today just 37 of 115 schools, enrolling about one-fourth of the district’s students, are rated “excellent” or “efficient.” To turn the situation around, Mayor Frank Jackson, the only mayor in the state with responsibility for a public school system, abandoned his usual quiet diplomacy to confront festering problems, charter school supporters, members of his own party and the powerful Cleveland Teachers Union. Read more...