Education News for 09-25-2012

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State Education News

  • No charges for former leader of Ohio schools (Columbus Dispatch)

    • Prosecutors won’t press criminal charges against former state schools Superintendent Stan Heffner…Read more...

  • SAT reading score hits 40-year low (Columbus Dispatch)

    • Reading scores on the SAT for the high-school class of 2012 reached a four-decade low, putting a punctuation mark on a gradual decline…Read more...

  • Booster clubs funds face state scrutiny (Dayton Daily News)

    • School booster and parent teacher organizations are about to come under increased scrutiny from the Ohio Attorney General’s Office…Read more...

  • Attendance records being examined at 6 schools (Dayton Daily News)

    • State auditors are examining student attendance records in six Miami Valley school districts as part of a statewide probe into possible data tampering…Read more...

  • Five-year-olds put to the test as kindergarten exams (Reuters)

    • With school in full swing across the United States, the littlest students are getting used to the blocks table and the dress-up corner…Read more...

Op/Ed

  • What It Means to 'Believe in Teachers' (Education Week)

    • Last month, in his much-lauded speech to the Republican National Convention, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie made "we believe in teachers"…Read more...

Local Education News

  • School board takes next step toward busing pact with city (Chillicothe Gazette)

    • The board approved an agreement with the Ohio Department of Development for a Local Government Innovation Fund grant that will pay for environmental site studies…Read more...

  • Dublin teachers forgo some pay hikes (Columbus Dispatch)

    • Dublin teachers and school administrators are giving up base-salary raises for next school year but will continue to receive step increases…Read more...

  • State report card ranking may drop (Findlay Courier)

    • Findlay City Schools will most likely lose its "excellent" rating and instead earn a lesser "effective" rating on the state-issued report card…Read more...

  • In Cincinnati, orchestrated academic support boosts students from cradle to career (NBC News.com)

    • Eight-month-old Calvin Boggs Jr., grinned when social worker Heidi Sullivan pulled a cardboard book emblazoned with the face of the character Thomas the Tank Engine out of her bag…Read more...

  • Mathews seeks levy to avoid projected deficit (Warren Tribune Chronicle)

    • Mathews Board of Education is asking voters for a new five-year, 4.65-mill levy district officials said is needed to help avoid a projected deficit…Read more...

New study - Charters cut costs to make money

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Seems obvious that charter school teachers work longer hours and are less experienced. How else can charter school management companies make a profit?

Charter school teachers tend to have fewer years of experience, and work longer hours than their counterparts in public, non-charter schools, a new analysis suggests.

Yet by another measure—the hiring of teachers from "highly selective" colleges—both charters and traditional public schools lag well behind the private school norm.

Many of those findings are consistent with past research, notes the author of the paper, Marisa Cannata of Vanderbilt University, whose work is included as part of a newly published book, Exploring the School Choice Universe: Evidence and Recommendations. But the analysis provides fresh insights into who goes to work in public and private sector schools, and what kinds of conditions they encounter when they get there.

Some are even going to crazy lengths to maximize profits, as Stephen Dyer discovers

There is an amazing story out of Florida now posted here and here that delineates just how outrageously high K-12, Inc. schools' student-teacher ratios are. K-12, Inc. runs Ohio Virtual Academy, with educates about 10,000 Ohio students.

Just a few tidbits. The heads of schools are told that they should have the following ratios in the following grades:

K-8: 60-72:1
9-12: 225-275:1

That's right. K-12, Inc. thinks it's a good idea to have kindergartners in classes as high as 72:1 and high school kids in 275:1 classes.

We really don't need research anymore, just look at any of these companies 10k financial filings.

Education News for 09-24-2012

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State Education News

  • Extent of student-data scandal still unknown (Columbus Dispatch)

    • On a tight departure-and-arrival schedule, principals rotated in and out of the data czar’s office each year…Read more...

  • School districts find organized opposition is increasingly common (Columbus Dispatch)

    • There are some people in Upper Arlington who say that on Nov. 6, they will vote no on the school district’s tax request. That’s not new…Read more...

  • State will measure physical education (Columbus Dispatch)

    • Next year’s state report cards will feature a new measure for Ohio schools: how their students are doing in physical education…Read more...

  • Schools pile up millions in legal bills (Dayton Daily News)

    • Consulting with school attorneys is a necessary but unpredictable expense, local school officials say, that can cost tens of thousands of dollars for a single case…Read more...

  • Superintendents fight Ohio’s ‘Third Grade Guarantee’ (Washington Post)

    • The Chicago teachers strike was the biggest action that we’ve seen against aspects of modern school reform, but people in other places are fighting too. Here’s a report from Ohio…Read more...

Local Education News

  • Coleman to help, not lead, schools (Columbus Dispatch)

    • Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman plans to lend his leadership to the Columbus City Schools, including helping to select a replacement…Read more...

  • 'Brain drain' has attention of educators (Marion Star)

    • Data to support that Marion County residents who graduate from universities and colleges move out of Marion County after they graduate is hard to come by…Read more...

Editorial

  • Better school lunches (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

    • While some kids may groan or even hold lunch boycotts, the United States Department of Agriculture's new focus on fresh fruits and vegetables in school lunches…Read more...

  • Outing evil (Columbus Dispatch)

    • Americans have been shaken in recent years when details have come to light of revered institutions covering up the sexual abuse of children…Read more...

  • Helping hands (Columbus Dispatch)

    • Mayor Michael B. Coleman and City Council President Andrew J. Ginther are stepping up to help the Columbus City School District through a difficult time…Read more...

  • Rejecting test scores as a core value (Los Angeles Times)

    • It wasn't about money. It was about respect. That's what Chicago teachers union president Karen Lewis kept reminding the public…Read more...

Where the polls stand - 6 weeks out

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With just 6 weeks of campaigning left, the President continues to hold a strong position.

In the Electoral College, Real Clear Politics calculates that the President currently holds the edge with 247 votes to Mitt Romney's 191, an increase of 10 votes for the President since last week.

In Ohio, all polling continues to show the President with a small, but significant lead.

The NYT polling analyst, 538, also shows President Obama with a large projected win in the electoral college

In Ohio, President Obama is projected to have a 76.5% chance of prevailing - his largest margin to date.

Not included in these analysis is a just released poll by Ohio's newspapers, which showed the Presdient leading Mitt Romney 51-46. The very same poll also confirmed polling trends that Sen. Sherrod Brown leads Josh Mandel by a sizable margin 52-45

Lessons from the teachers strike

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When an article concludes with this line, we're going to recommend you read the entire piece.

As both policy and politics, the demonization of teachers unions is a dead end for improving American education. Working with, not against, teachers is the more sensible way to better our schools.

No one trusts Gov Kasich with ed policy

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"A new poll shows the majority of Ohioans strongly support their local schools, want funding cuts restored to local schools and governments, and oppose public funding for private and parochial school tuition." ~ that's how a new poll just published describes its findings with regards to education in Ohio.

The poll was commisnios by the Ohio schoo administrators, OSBA, OASBO and BASA.

The poll found that no one trusts the Govenor nor his legislture on education issues.

When it comes to education policies, which of the following would you say that you have the most trust and confidence in to make good decisions? Is it the ...(randomly rotated).....

Governor, State School Superintendent, State Legislature or your local School Board?

63.9% Local School Board
14.5% State School Superintendent
7.4% Unsure/no answer
6.6% Governor
3.3% State Legislature
2.9% Other (volunteered)
1.3% All/combination (volunteered)

Just as bad perhpas is how the Governor and his education privatization policies are being viewed

The poll found nearly two-thirds of Ohioans oppose using public funds to pay tuition for students to attend private and parochial schools.

And finally, despite a constant drumbeat regarding school report cards, people have very mixed views

Fifty percent of Ohioans said it is a good idea to use student test data to rate the quality of school districts, and 41% said it was a bad idea.

Forty-eight percent of Ohioans said their district’s local report card rating was “somewhat” influential

Corporate education reformers are severely out-running where public opinion is at.