Where the polls stand - Post Debate

Almost a week after the first debate, while the race has narrowed marginally, the national and statewide polling continues to show President Obama in a strong position.

In the Electoral College, Real Clear Politics calculates that the President has a lead of 251 (down from 265) votes to Mitt Romney's 181 (down from 191), with 106 in toss-up status.

The NYT polling analyst, 538, shows President Obama projected to win the Electoral College 307.6 - 230.4

In Ohio, the Presidents polling average lead is down from 5.6% to a still healthy 3.0%

This slight softening of polling in Ohio, has President Obama still projected to have a 79.1% chance of prevailing.

With early votiung underway, Boards of Elections are seeing high turnout

COLUMBUS DISPATCH // New Early-Voting Site Has Critics, Fans on First Day

Many people interviewed at Franklin County’s in-person absentee-voting center on opening day yesterday said that uncertainty surrounding the voting hours leading up to Nov. 6 and the change in the early-voting location have disenfranchised voters…

Yesterday, 1,396 people voted. In 2008, the previous presidential election year, 725 showed up on the first day of in-person voting.

TOLEDO BLADE // Turnout For the First Day of Early Voting Nearly Double of that of 2008

The first day of early voting in Lucas County is over, and the turnout was nearly twice that of the first day of early voting in 2008. It was an overwhelmingly Democratic day. Of the 928 voters, 696 were Democrats, 40 were Republicans, and the rest, 192, were members of other parties or were not affiliated with a party. There was a similar balance in favor of Democrats on the first day of early voting in 2008, when President Obama won in Lucas County and Ohio.

DAYTON DAILY NEWS // Voters Turn Up to Cast Ballots Early

Montgomery County had 695 voters while Champaign County had just 88. In Butler County 540 voters cast ballots. Clark County, which has been a battleground for Republicans and Democrats, had a higher first-day voter turnout - 380 - than larger counties like Warren and Greene, which had 282 and 354 respectively.

“I was just surprised; we didn’t have this (turnout) in 2008 that I recall,” said BOE Deputy Director Sally Pickarski. “It’s been fairly steady all day.”

AKRON BEACON JOURNAL // Early Voting Draws Crowd In Summit County

By the end of the day Tuesday, 1,035 people had voted early in Summit County, more than twice the 458 people who cast absentee ballots on the first day of early voting in 2008, the previous presidential election year. About 75 voters had to stand in the rain outside the board Tuesday, waiting their turns.

IndeOnline (Massilon) // Early Voting Doubles in Stark from Four Years Ago

“It’s been busy all morning,” said Mullane, as voters created a buzz outside her office. “In comparison to 2008, in-person early voting has more than doubled.”

CINCINNATI ENQUIRER // Early Voters ‘Making A Statement’

Within the first hour, nearly 100 people voted at the elections board’s Downtown office. By the time the office closed at 5 p.m., the total had risen to 816, about 27 percent higher than 2008’s 644, according to elections board director Amy Searcy.

Assessing Ourselves To Death

I have two points to make. The first is something that I think everyone knows: Educational outcomes, such as graduation and test scores, are signals of or proxies for the traits that lead to success in life, not the cause of that success.

For example, it is well-documented that high school graduates earn more, on average, than non-graduates. Thus, one often hears arguments that increasing graduation rates will drastically improve students’ future prospects, and the performance of the economy overall. Well, not exactly.

The piece of paper, of course, only goes so far. Rather, the benefits of graduation arise because graduates are more likely to possess the skills – including the critical non-cognitive sort – that make people good employees (and, on a highly related note, because employers know that, and use credentials to screen applicants).

We could very easily increase the graduation rate by easing requirements, but this wouldn’t do much to help kids advance in the labor market. They might get a few more calls for interviews, but over the long haul, they’d still be at a tremendous disadvantage if they lacked the required skills and work habits.

Moreover, employers would quickly catch on, and adjust course accordingly. They’d stop relying as much on high school graduation to screen potential workers. This would not only deflate the economic value of a diploma, but high school completion would also become a less useful measure for policymakers and researchers.

This is, of course, one of the well-known risks of a high-stakes focus on metrics such as test scores. Test-based accountability presumes that tests can account for ability. We all know about what is sometimes called “Campbell’s Law,” and we’ve all heard the warnings and complaints about so-called “teaching to the test.” Some people take these arguments too far, while others are too casually dismissive. In general, though, the public (if not all policymakers) have a sense that test-based accountability can be a good thing so long as it is done correctly and doesn’t go too far.

Now, here’s my second point: I’m afraid we’ve gone too far.

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Education News for 10-05-2012

State Education News

• No local districts cited in state auditor's report (Findlay Courier)

The state's auditor on Thursday announced his office has found that five Ohio school districts have used questionable attendance policies and practices…Read more...

• Toledo schools cited for attendance practices (Toledo Blade)

Eight Toledo Public Schools improperly "scrubbed" truant students from attendance rolls, according to a preliminary report…Read more...

• Parents concerned about manipulated school records (WKYC)

The Ohio State Auditor says Cleveland and four other districts in Ohio appear to have manipulated attendance figures -- so that lower scoring students were not counted in State Report Cards…Read more...

• Probe finds improper enrollment data from Campbell schools (Youngstown Vindicator)

The Campbell schools superintendent says the district is cooperating with the state auditor’s office after an investigation revealed improper enrollment records may have influenced state test scores…Read more...

Local Education News

• Kent schools to implement new safety plan (Akron Beacon Journal)

Community leaders, school officials and fire and law enforcement representatives met with parents, students and residents…Read more...

• Audit isn’t definitive, Harris says (Columbus Dispatch)

Columbus schools Superintendent Gene Harris said a critical state audit released yesterday doesn’t substantiate that her schools changed student data to improve their report cards…Read more...

• State questions Marion City Schools attendance practices (Marion Star)

Superintendent James Barney said Marion City Schools did not enroll any students violating its attendance policy to an alternative school to improve its school report card…Read more...

• Healthier school lunches leave some students hungry (Springfield News-Sun)

Many students and parents have reacted strongly to new guidelines for the National School Lunch program mandating calorie limits and more fruits and vegetables, saying the meals are unappealing or leave kids hungry after eating…Read more...

• CMSD: Audit ‘Does Not Mean We Cheat’ (WJW)

The Cleveland Metropolitan School District has responded to an interim report released on Thursday which named the district as one of five that “improperly withdrew students from enrollment” in a way that skewed results of school attendance…Read more...

UPDATED: Auditors Interim Attendance Report Released

The Auditor of State has released his interim report on the school attendance erasures issue.

The first observation from reading this 57 page document, is that very few schools have been completely investigated, and of those that have, little if any wrong doing has been found.

Instead what has been discovered are significant levels of bureaucratic oversights, in many cases excused by the complexity of the system designed by multiple layers of state and federal law.

The practices of Toledo are a good example

After news reports that Columbus CSD altered student attendance data, Toledo CSD publicly announced they too scrubbed attendance data. Toledo CSD officials indicated they understood these practices (i.e., removing students with a high number of absences) to be allowable. AOS met with representatives of Toledo at which time Toledo CSD explained its practice of removing students with five consecutive days of unexcused absences and a total of 20 unexcused absences throughout the school year. Toledo CSD has been using the “5/20” rule for withdrawing students since 2001. However, until 2005, Toledo CSD actively removed these students throughout the school year. In 2005, Toledo CSD lost several high‐level administrators to Cleveland MSD. Toledo CSD subsequently hired new administrators and in 2006 the local report card ratings fell since the “5/20” rule for withdrawing students was no longer in place. After realizing lower report card rankings, Toledo CSD administrators decided to reinstitute the “5/20” rule for withdrawing students in the following school year. However, instead of withdrawing students throughout the school year, Toledo CSD waited until after they received the first report from the Secure Data Center from ODE during the reporting period projecting the district’s report card rankings. Toledo CSD informed AOS that they removed all students that met the 5/20 criteria, regardless of assessment test score results for the affected students. However, AOS is still investigating these claims and will report its results later.

Cleveland's prevalent practices of removing truants also appears to fall into this category of bureaucratic non compliance, rather than "cheating"

Based on the information gathered to date, it appears evident that none or virtually none of the student files previously requested will include necessary supporting documentation related to the attendance event causing the student to be pushed to the State during the 2010‐2011 school year. Additionally, it appears Cleveland MSD potentially removed truant students under code 71 without full completion and documentation of truancy due process.

Again, the auditor has yet to fully complete an investigation of this district, noting "AOS is currently obtaining electronic data in an attempt to determine the impact of Cleveland MSD processes and procedures on accountability reporting and we will report results in a later report."

In Marion, another district the Auditor looked at, again no wrong doing was found

During the course of testing, AOS noted numerous instances of students being automatically transferred to the Marion Digital Academy during the 2010‐11 school year. As such, these students were included on the list of those students being pushed to the State and excluded from District report card results.
[...]
AOS identified 46 students transferring to Marion City Digital Academy during the 2010‐2011 school year with no parent or guardian initiation or approval included in Marion CSD’s student files.

Just more bureaucratic mis-steps. And more in Campbell City Schools

AOS tested Memorial High and Campbell Middle Schools at Campbell CSD (Mahoning County), identifying 11 (High School) and 29 (Middle School) students, respectively, that did not have supporting documentation available in the student files to support breaks in enrollment related to the following withdrawal reasons: Verified Medical, Truancy, Expulsion, and Homeschool.

And once again the Auditor notes, "AOS is continuing to investigate these retroactive withdrawals and will report further results later."

Forgive us for being unimpressed both with the how these interim findings are not matching up with a lot of the breathless allegations of "cheating" claimed by some in the media, and also by the sloth like progress being made by the Auditor of state.

It appears that the vast number of attendance erasures might in fact be legitimate, but simply not supported by documentation, as districts had poor policies and procedures in place to record and store the documentation. Furthermore, ODE, despite it's claims to the contrary have not been clear on what is required

The results of our statewide assessment indicate that there are a number of areas requiring centralized, improved ODE guidance and immediate clarification. ODE should use this report as a management tool to identify critical Accountability systems and weaknesses requiring enhancement to aid Ohio schools in Accountability determinations and reporting.

The Auditors list of recommendations is replete with calls for legislative changes, indicating that the current system is inadequate, and not the fault of districts

To strengthen and foster consistency in the reporting of approved homeschooling, ODE should consider requesting the General Assembly to amend the authorities and powers of ESC’s to approve homeschooling for all Ohio school districts, including city and exempt village districts.
[...]
The General Assembly should provide authority for ODE to collect personally identifiable information, such as student names, to enable ODE to work cooperatively with the Ohio Juvenile Court system and DYS tracking and reporting truant students.
[...]
The General Assembly should establish a single statewide student information system so that all data is uniform, uniformly reported, and accessible for data mining. Alternatively if such is not feasible the General Assembly should require ODE to approve the Student Information System used by each district in the state to ensure it meets requirements.
[...]
EMIS monitoring functions should be performed by an independent agency or commission appointed by the General Assembly.

Not mentioned anywhere in this report - how any of this has adversely affected student education. Neither does the Auditor indicate what the cost might be both to districts and to the state if full compliance and his recommendations were implemented.

UPDATED

Acting State Superintendent Sawyer just released the following statement

Good morning:

As anticipated from our communication yesterday, here is a link to the Auditor of State’s Interim Report on Student Attendance Data and the Accountability System released this morning. The report also is available here on our Quick Links page. We are pleased that the report shows that most districts visited to date by the auditor’s staff are compliant with legal and reporting requirements. However, as the report indicates, the investigation is ongoing and the Auditor’s Office will continue to review attendance data for all schools. Regardless of your participation to date in the ongoing investigation, I encourage you to read the interim report to reinforce the attendance policies, administrative guidelines and reporting requirements required by your school or district.

Next Monday during their regularly scheduled meeting, the State Board of Education will hear a report from the Auditor of State’s Office, which will result in discussion related to the impact of the interim report findings and the Local Report Cards. I will update you next week on the status of the Local Report Cards and access to the Secure Data Center.

Thank you,

Michael L. Sawyers
Acting Superintendent of Public Instruction

Final Interim ADM Report 10052012

Education News for 10-04-2012

State Education News

• Auditor reports altered school records (Columbus Dispatch)

The first 10 Columbus schools examined so far by state auditors all show evidence of “scrubbing” student data, potentially to improve their state report-card standing…Read more...

• Ohio Teacher of the Year: Top teacher is inspiration (Columbus Dispatch)

Mike Morbitzer has been in on the surprise before when his wife, Carole, won awards for teaching and volunteer efforts…Read more...

• State Auditor To Release First Results Of School Attendance Scandal Audit (WBNS)

State Auditor Dave Yost said that he plans to release the results of the first 100 schools audited as part of a statewide school attendance scandal involving the Columbus City School district…Read more...

• Chaney STEM gets statewide attention for accomplishments (Youngstown Vindicator)

While the Youngstown City School District still has a way to go before it earns an excellent rating on the state report card, it can revel in the fact that the Chaney Science…Read more...

News from ODE

• What's the Latest on Teacher Evaluation? (National Council on)

With so much change happening in states across the country when it comes to the policies governing teacher evaluation and tenure, it can be hard to keep up with it all. But fear not: we did the tracking so you don't have to…Read more...

Local Education News

• Nurses group wants schools to be able to act quickly in food allergy emergencies (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

When a child suffers a severe allergic reaction, treatment must be delivered quickly. If not, the child could go into a coma or even die…Read more...

• Students get early start at teaching (Mansfield News Journal)

First-year education majors at Ashland University are teaming with middle-schoolers from Ashland City Schools to promote leadership, mentorship…Read more...

• District disputes feds harassment claims (Springfield News-Sun)

Northeastern Local Schools disputed Wednesday a federal statement that accused the district of failing to adequately respond to and prevent racial harassment of black students…Read more...

• Ledgemont School District's finances (Willoughby News Herald)

An official from the Ohio Department of Education will come to Thompson Township Monday to discuss the Ledgemont School District's financial situation…Read more...

• A standout in the Cleveland schools (WKYC)

As we move closer to the election, the Cleveland Metropolitan School District waits to learn whether voters will say "yes" or "no" to a sweeping change…Read more...

Editorial

• Skewed priorities (Columbus Dispatch)

An interim report from Ohio Auditor Dave Yost confirms that officials at 10 Columbus middle schools altered school-attendance records without explanation, bolstering suspicions…Read more...

• Education needs to see results (Marietta Times)

For many years, the name of the game for public colleges and universities has been FTE - that is, the number of "full-time equivalent" students they have enrolled…Read more...

Education News for 10-03-2012

State Education News

• Field trips might as well be ancient history (Cincinnati Enquirer)

No one saw it coming at the time, but when then-President George W. Bush came to Butler County in 2002 to sign the historic No Child Left Behind act…Read more...

• State releases preliminary schools report (Portsmouth Daily Times)

After weeks of delay, the Ohio Department of Education has released the preliminary 2011- 12 Local Report Cards…Read more...

• Feds find district failed to stop discrimination (Springfield News-Sun)

A federal investigation found that the Northeastern Local School District failed to adequately investigate, effectively address and prevent recurrences…Read more...

Local Education News

• Reading instructors in short supply (Columbus Dispatch)

The Columbus schools will face a shortage of teachers certified as reading-intervention specialists…Read more...

• Big cuts predicted if levy fails (Toledo Blade)

If the Perrysburg Schools levy fails in November, students may need to make their own way to school, spend a shorter time in a bigger class…Read more...

• Cardinal Autism Resource and Education School in Mentor flourishing (Willoughby News Herald)

The hallway at Cardinal Autism Resource and Education School is silent thanks to special soundproofing around classroom doors…Read more...

• Clergy comes together to support Cleveland (WKYC)

Members of the Cleveland clergy came together Tuesday afternoon to show their support for the Cleveland school levy/Issue 107…Read more...

• Lack of nurses, social workers in schools (WKYC)

Through budget cuts, the Cleveland School District has cut nurses and eliminated social workers all together…Read more...