Education News for 10-11-2012

State Education News

• Yost has found evidence of deceit in some schools (Columbus Dispatch)

As members of the Columbus Board of Education listened from the audience, state Auditor Dave Yost said that interviews have produced evidence of “mal-intent” behind the changing of student data…Read more...

• More state report card concerns (WKYC)

Cleveland School officials were able to see firsthand more state report card data today. As expected, the district is in academic emergency and could face falling under an academic distress commission's control…Read more...

Local Education News

• Grades mixed on CPS school-choice push (Cincinnati Enquirer)

Cincinnati Public Schools has been working for more than two years to bring successful charter schools into its portfolio. But to date it has zero partnerships to show for it…Read more...

• Frank Jackson and Eric Gordon campaign for tax increase; opponents raise objections (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

Mayor Frank Jackson and schools chief Eric Gordon continue pushing their message that the proposed new school tax is needed to help the schools and, in turn, the city and region…Read more...

• Newark high-schoolers on edge (Columbus Dispatch)

Officials continued to keep a close watch yesterday after a Newark High School student reported that she had been raped before school on Tuesday morning…Read more...

• Children Told To Leave School After District Said They Did Not Prove Residency (WBNS)

Family members said that they provided the Westerville City School District everything it needed for their children to attend. Just more than a month ago, a teacher sent the siblings home with all of their books…Read more...

• CMSD Report Card’s Property Value Implications (WJW)

It is almost report card time for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. A second round of preliminary report card data will be released next week. “(Tuesday) night, the State Board of Education voted to release the spread sheets…Read more...

• TCTC studies land deal for solar project (Youngstown Vindicator)

By the middle of this winter, a crop of solar-collection panels could begin to emerge on 10 of the 30 acres of farmland between the state Route 5 bypass and the Trumbull Career and Technical Center…Read more...

Editorial

• Role reversal (Columbus Dispatch)

Recent developments in Ohio’s public schools make it clear that school boards should be more independent and watchful, not less, to guard against potential problems. More diligence by board members…Read more...

How long one teacher took to become great

A great piece in the Washington Post

A few weeks ago I flew into Buffalo, New York, rented a car, and drove down to northeastern Ohio for a high school class reunion — the 55th — for students I’d taught when they were 9th graders in 1952.

They told me stories about myself, some of which I wish they’d kept to themselves, but what they had to say got me thinking about the teacher I once was.

I have a lousy memory, but it’s good enough to tell me that, notwithstanding assurances that I was their favorite teacher (what else could they say?), I hadn’t really been a good one.

I certainly wasn’t a good teacher in 1952. No first-year teacher is a good teacher.

I wasn’t a good teacher in 1958 either. Some people thought I was; they had spoken sufficiently highly of me to prompt a superintendent from a distant, upscale school district to come and spend an entire day in my classes, then offer me a considerable raise if I’d come and teach in his district.

I did. But I can clearly recall leaning against the wall outside my room during a class change and saying to Bill Donelly, the teacher from the room next door, “There has to be more to it than this.”

The “this” was what I was doing — following the standard practice of assigning textbook reading as homework, then, next day, telling kids my version of what the textbook had covered. Pop quizzes and exams told me how much they remembered. (According to reunion attendees, not much.)

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Education News for 10-10-2012

State Education News

• School report card date set (Cincinnati Enquirer)

Ohio will be handing out state report card ratings for districts and schools Oct. 17, state officials said Tuesday, now that State Auditor Dave Yost’s investigations into enrollment…Read more...

• State to release new report cards (Columbus Dispatch)

A second round of preliminary school report-card data that includes school ratings and attendance rates will be released next week. The State Board of Education voted 12-3 yesterday to make the additional data public…Read more...

• Parent attacks dress code policy (Dayton Daily News)

A Tippecanoe High School student’s mother isn’t happy with the new principal’s interpretation of the dress code…Read more...

• State board to release some report-card data (Toledo Blade)

The state board of education voted Tuesday to release some of the school report card information it has withheld pending a state auditor’s investigation of attendance-data manipulation in some districts…Read more...

• Ohio officials discuss Ledgemont Schools' fiscal emergency (Willoughby News Herald)

Community and staff members filled Ledgemont Elementary School’s cafeteria Monday to hear an Ohio Department of Education official outline the ramifications of the school district’s fiscal emergency status…Read more...

Local Education News

• Riverdale, teachers union reach contract settlement (Findlay Courier)

Contract agreements have been reached between Riverdale school's administration and the teachers union, officials…Read more...

• Schools, families adjust to healthier school lunches (Hamilton Journal-News)

Many students and parents have reacted strongly to National School Lunch Program updates introduced this year that mandate calorie limits and more fruits…Read more...

• Parents cite bullying issue as reason to reject Lima schools levy (Lima News)

Bullying is at the center of an effort to defeat next month’s Lima schools levy. Three families upset about what they say is a bullying problem in the district called a news conference…Read more...

• Switzerland of Ohio schools paring $1M from budget (Marietta Times)

The Switzerland of Ohio Local school district is working to cut $1 million from its budget. The district has already laid off three employees and instituted a teacher hiring freeze…Read more...

• Career center banks on surplus (Marietta Times)

The Washington County Career Center is projected to be in the black for the next five years, even as expenses overtake revenue, according to a forecast approved…Read more...

• Catholic teachers will vote on union (Youngstown Vindicator)

About 100 Catholic elementary school teachers will decide later this month whether to be part of a union…Read more...

Editorial

• Why secrecy? (Columbus Dispatch)

The Dispatch has filed a lawsuit against the Columbus Board of Education for a simple reason: Public meetings should be open to the public. The board has ignored repeated requests by the newspaper to honor that legal requirement…Read more...

Education News for 10-09-2012

State Education News

• New bully-prevention guidelines make their way into area schools (Athens Messenger)

With the passage of the Jessica Logan Act earlier this year, schools across the state are now revising anti-bullying policies…Read more...

• Some standard tests not counted in schools rankings (Chillicothe Gazette)

Every year, Ohio schoolchildren take standardized tests to help determine their progress in key subjects and the effectiveness of education at that school…Read more...

• Columbus City Schools do 180 on data scrubbing (Columbus Dispatch)

Columbus City Schools leaders shifted last week from saying they don’t know whether administrators were changing attendance records. Their new position: They were changing records, and they thought it was OK…Read more...

• Yost: State could save $430,000 a year with access to students’ names (Columbus Dispatch)

The state Education Department could save more than $430,000 each year — and do a better job policing school data — if it had access to students’ names, the state auditor said yesterday…Read more...

• Manufacturing Day raises career awareness (Dayton Daily News)

Six area manufacturers and Miami University joined a national effort Friday to address a skills gap that has resulted in 600,000 unfilled…Read more...

• Excellence expected (Lorain Morning Journal)

In the midst of an investigation into false attendance data, the state has released limited preliminary report cards to school districts…Read more...

• Many local school leaders go without evaluations (Springfield News-Sun)

Half of Clark and Champaign counties’ top school district officials haven’t been evaluated in more than a year, despite board policies in each district…Read more...

• GED test fee to triple starting in January 2014 (Youngstown Vindicator)

If you’ve been thinking about finally earning your GED, now would be a good time to do it. Beginning in January 2014, the cost of taking the test will triple from $40 to $120, and the content will be more difficult…Read more...

Local Education News

• Mayor taps adviser to give briefings on city schools (Columbus Dispatch)

Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman has picked former Ohio Board of Regents Chancellor Eric Fingerhut to advise the city in the mayor’s recently announced initiative to assess and improve the Columbus schools…Read more...

• Growth, loss of state aid spur Dublin schools’ request (Columbus Dispatch)

Enrollment in Dublin schools has grown at one of the fastest rates in central Ohio over the past decade, and so has district spending…Read more...

• Columbus schools: Correct numbers may fuel vouchers (Columbus Dispatch)

Jonathan Beard has a personal stake in the outcome of Columbus City Schools’ data scandal…Read more...

• Kids flood into Whitehall schools (Columbus Dispatch)

Whitehall school officials knew the numbers were off. The state had predicted that the district’s enrollment was on the decline, and it planned to design all five new schools for a smaller student population…Read more...

• ‘Dispatch’ suing over board’s private talks (Columbus Dispatch)

The Dispatch Printing Company sued the Columbus Board of Education yesterday, saying the board violated Ohio law when it barred the public from meetings to discuss a student- data scandal…Read more...

• Westerville schools chief plans to retire (Columbus Dispatch)

The chief of Westerville schools will retire at the end of this school year, he told members of the school board yesterday…Read more...

• Worthington schools’ spending up, but less than area average (Columbus Dispatch)

The Worthington school district spent more money last year on fewer students and teachers than it did a decade before, but the spending increase has been lower than the average for area districts, a Dispatch analysis of state and district data shows…Read more...

• Schools talk cyberbullying, implement hotlines (Dayton Daily News)

School districts across the Miami Valley are beefing up their anti-bullying policies and hosting school and community events this month to educate students and families about the dangers of bullying…Read more...

• Marion school chief: No feedback yet on attendance probe (Marion Star)

Marion City Schools has not received any feedback from the state regarding "questionable attendance policies and practices," its superintendent…Read more...

• State continues probe of Hamilton’s attendance data (Middletown Journal)

Investigators from the state auditor’s office will be in Hamilton Monday to finish a probe into whether three local schools scrubbed attendance data, possibly to improve their report card ratings…Read more...

• Learning center challenges students (Toledo Blade)

Springfield Middle School student Koceila Beddek bent over the NASA space map, adjusting tiny mirrors to direct the laser across the room and hit the moon…Read more...

• Chardon Healing Fund strategic planning meeting looks at future plans (Willoughby News Herald)

The Chardon Healing Fund recently held a Journey to Healing strategic planning meeting to share information with community members on the various healing supports and services currently available…Read more...

Editorial

• A Common Core of knowledge (Akron Beacon Journal)

Put a bunch of West African immigrants in a room, let them get comfortable after a drink or two, and before long they begin to swap stories…Read more...

• Policing Ohio's online courses (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

It's time the state legislature created a far more transparent and accountable system for Ohio's online programs and schools…Read more...

• Auditor's findings must not sink Cleveland schools levy (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

Cleveland's schools have been tortured by a steady drip of bad news, some of it self- inflicted, but voters must keep the faith and support Issue 107…Read more...

Romney’s plan would cut education, drastically

During the last Presidential debate, Mitt Romney surprised a lot of watchers by claiming, “I’m not going to cut education funding. I don’t have any plan to cut education funding.”

But according to his own plan, that claim doesn't hold water, as Innovation Ohio point out, after looking at his plan

But that’s exactly what his plan proposes. From “The Romney Program for Economic Recovery, Growth, and Jobs”:

Reduce federal spending as a share of GDP to 20 percent – its pre-crisis average – by 2016.

Even while it cuts total spending to 20 percent of the nation’s economy, compared to 23 percent today, the plan also promises to increase the rate of growth in GDP, but also increases spending on defense and holds Social Security and Medicare harmless. To make the numbers work, Romney has admitted it will require nearly $500 billion in annual cuts by 2016.

That kind of money is not going to come exclusively from eliminating Big Bird.

Innovation Ohio and the Center for American Progress have calculated that the plan will result in across-the-board cuts to remaining federal programs equal to 11 percent in 2013, and averaging 39 percent a year over the next decade.

What does that mean for education?

According to the Ohio Department of Education, in 2011, Ohio school districts received $1.7 billion in federal education funding.

In 2013, this means Ohio schools would be cut by $189 million. Over the decade, schools would see $669 million less, each year, under the Romney plan.

We know candidates often try to put their plans in the best possible light, but Romney’s claim he won’t cut education doesn’t hold up.

The (real) looming teacher crisis

“Reform movements in education are notorious for their tendencies toward presentism–for painting the past in the darkest possible light in order to stress the urgent need for rapid and major transformation of the status quo”–Sedlak & Schlossman, 1987

Unfortunately, economic decline has opened policy windows for educational reformers to wreak havoc on public education, impacting all public school educators. In this environment, there are clear winners and losers; individuals who are losing during this time are recent college graduates. From the Economic Policy Institute:

As more and more teachers are cut from the public sector, public schools are left with a teacher shortage. During typical decline, student enrollment decreases which sparks school closings and teacher cuts. However during current decline public school enrollment is projected to increase nationally, by about 6%. Consequently, classroom student-teacher ratios are at risk of increasing if jobs continue to be slashed. More importantly, preservice and beginning teachers are being stranded on the sidelines without employment opportunities. I wonder how teacher certified college graduates have managed to stay current with educational trends if they have not found full time teaching jobs over the past 2-3 years? Will these recent graduates ever be able to find jobs in education if they haven’t found full time employment in the past two years? I suspect that college graduates who were aspiring to become teachers but who have no found full time employment have moved onto other professions. For public schools teachers who are in the profession, I predict the following will be important to keep in mind going forward:

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