Education News for 02-06-2013

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State Education News

  • Fewer Ohio students getting free lunches (Columbus Dispatch)

    • For the first time in six years, the number of Ohio students qualifying for free or reduced- price lunches has dropped. Still, a celebration seems premature…Read more...

  • Funding data for Kasich school plan not ready yet (Columbus Dispatch)

    • Ohioans still can’t see how their tax dollars will be divided among local school districts under Gov. John Kasich’s school-funding plan…Read more...

  • State education official fired after child porn found on computer (Columbus Dispatch)

    • The Ohio Department of Education said it fired its chief operating officer after learning he was under investigation for possessing child pornography and then finding such images on his work computer…Read more...

  • Be on your best behavior, schools chiefs told (Columbus Dispatch)

    • More than 500 school leaders heard Gov. John Kasich reveal his new school budget and reform plan at a meeting in the Polaris Hilton Hotel last week…Read more...

Local Education News

  • School model catches on in New York (Cincinnati Enquirer)

    • About two years ago, a steady stream of out-of-town educators – school leaders, nonprofit agencies, education groups – started visiting Cincinnati…Read more...

  • Berea High School students demonstrate the dangers of distractions when driving (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

    • Berea High classmates Caleb Samol and Justin Harris discovered their reflexes suffered while trying to hit a flashing target…Read more...

  • Figure in Columbus schools data-rigging to resign (Columbus Dispatch)

    • The man whose name was uttered again and again in connection with Columbus schools’ student-data scandal — Steve Tankovich — resigned yesterday…Read more...

  • TRECA part of shared service, resource center (Marion Star)

    • The boards of directors of the Tri-Rivers Education Computer Association and Northwest Ohio Computer Association recently authorized creation of a collaborative shared service and resource center…Read more...

  • College rules the day at Oyler School (Marketplace)

    • There’s a parade of cute coming down the hallway -- a gaggle of first graders, walking single file, each one wearing a construction paper crown with a Penn State…Read more...

  • ABLE testing procedure changes upcoming (Portsmouth Daily Times)

    • Scioto County ABLE (Adult Basic Learning Exam), announced this week that the current version of the GED test will expire at the end of 2013…Read more...

Education News for 02-05-2013

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State Education News

  • Ohio offers school funding details (Akron Beacon Journal)

    • COLUMBUS: Gov. John Kasich on Monday released the first details of his proposed budget for schools, and the picture remains as murky as it did last week when he unveiled some of his general ideas to school officials…Read more…

  • IN OUR SCHOOLS: Budget overhauls educational funding (Cincinnati Enquirer)

    • K-12 education is one of the biggest priorities in Gov. John Kasich’s $63 billion biennial budget. It’s the second-largest chunk, accounting for almost a quarter of spending. It’s one of only a few categories that saw an increase...Read more…

  • Local educators wait for funding details (Springfield News-Sun)

    • Local superintendents say they remain optimistic as new details of Gov. John Kasich’s education plan emerge but need their individual district’s funding projections — expected later this week — before making final determinations about the changes...Read more…

Local Education News

  • Pickaway County sheriff, schools mapping common response plan (Columbus Dispatch)

    • The Pickaway County sheriff’s office and the county’s school superintendents are developing a common playbook for responding to classroom emergencies...Read more…

  • Logan County school bus rolls; no one seriously hurt (Columbus Dispatch)

    • Some Logan County students had a scary moment when their school bus veered off an icy road and tipped onto its side yesterday afternoon, authorities say...Read more…

  • Galion City Schools tout safety for students on social media (Mansfield News Journal)

    • Police say there is no merit to a second accusation of inappropriate teacher-student relations at Galion schools — days after police arrested a high school teacher on sex charges...Read more…

  • City’s online school expects to grow (Springfield News-Sun)

    • In its first year, Springfield’s online school has about 50 full- and part-time students with hopes to double or triple that number...Read more…

  • Medina City Schools' Claggett Middle School lifts lockdown after bullet was found (Sun Newpapers)

    • A lockdown at Claggett Middle School in Medina was lifted early this afternoon, hours after first issued by district Superintendent Randy Stepp when a .22 caliber bullet was found in the hallway of the school...Read more…

  • Officials discuss school safety (Warren Tribune Chronicle)

    • BOARDMAN - How to prevent tragedies in schools was the topic of discussion Monday among state officials, law enforcement, teachers and school officials...Read more…

  • Officials lead school safety roundtable for area educators (Youngstown Vindicator)

    • Area educators try to identify potential problem students and rely on school resources and technology to make schools safe but acknowledge that nothing will prevent a school shooting tragedy from ever happening...Read more…

  • Chardon high shooting: Judge still not willing yet to move T.J. Lane's trial (Willoughby News Herald)

    • The decision on whether or not to change the location of the trial for accused Chardon High School shooter Thomas Lane III will still be made after an attempt to seat a jury, a judge has ruled...Read more…

Education News for 02-04-2013

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State Education News

  • Governor’s office says school funding plan is a redistribution of wealth, not attempt at adequacy (Akron Beacon Journal)

    • On Thursday, Gov. John Kasich’s education experts stood in front of images on a screen and said they had arrived at a school funding formula that ends the inequity among Ohio’s richest and poorest districts…Read more...

  • Gov. John Kasich's school funding plan might hold little new money for many Northeast Ohio districts (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

    • Northeast Ohio may not benefit as much as other parts of the state from Gov. John Kasich’s proposal to overhaul school funding, a Plain Dealer analysis shows…Read more...

  • Officials seek details of Kasich plan for gifted (Columbus Dispatch)

    • Compared to other states, Ohio’s support for gifted students has been among the best: Only one other state with comparable data gave more money for gifted programs in 2011…Read more...

  • Rules vague on suspending teachers for misconduct (Columbus Dispatch)

    • After being arrested and charged with assault, domestic violence and disorderly conduct, a Westerville teacher paid bond and left jail. Eight days later, when students returned to school from winter break…Read more...

  • Only limit on new voucher is the budget (Columbus Dispatch)

    • Nearly half of Ohio’s 1.8 million elementary and secondary students could qualify in the coming years for tax-funded tuition to private schools under Gov. John Kasich’s plan to expand the state’s voucher program…Read more...

  • Incentives plan raises questions (Columbus Dispatch)

    • The same component of Gov. John Kasich’s school-funding plan that would empower districts to add performance pay incentives for teachers also could push districts to trim teachers from the payrolls…Read more...

  • Public schools would incur some cost of voucher expansion (Dayton Daily News)

    • An adviser for Gov. John Kasich on Friday provided more funding details about his controversial plan to expand the school voucher program in Ohio…Read more...

  • Area school chiefs greet Kasich plan with optimism (Findlay Courier)

    • Gov. John Kasich's school-funding plan was met with optimism and apprehension Friday as area superintendents said they are eager to find out the specifics of the overhaul, which will see the state spend $15.1 billion on schools over the next two years…Read more...

  • Should schools consider arming staff? (Marion Star)

    • Imagine this scenario. A man with a gun enters a school, intent on killing. A locked door doesn’t stop him. He gets through security efforts and starts shooting…Read more...

  • Bullying study: It does get better for gay, bisexual teens (Youngstown Vindicator)

    • It really does get better for gay and bisexual teens when it comes to being bullied, although young gay men have it worse than their lesbian peers, according to the first long-term scientific evidence…Read more...

Local Education News

  • Ex-cop ready to serve if schools sign on to his idea (Cincinnati Enquirer)

    • There has been plenty of talk but little else since Butler County’s sheriff publicly floated the idea of retired cops working as armed substitute teachers…Read more...

  • Groveport schools could try new option for levy (Columbus Dispatch)

    • To solve long-term budget problems, Groveport Madison school leaders have proposed a tax-levy approach that few districts in the state have pursued…Read more...

  • Schools ‘cautiously optimistic’ about Kasich’s funding plan (Middletown Journal)

    • While Butler County school officials are still awaiting more detailed figures next week, overall reaction has been positive to Gov. John Kasich’s new model for school funding…Read more...

  • Tecumseh teachers earn grant support (Springfield News-Sun)

    • Eleven Tecumseh teachers will receive grants to assist with innovative projects for their classrooms that don’t fit in the district’s budge…Read more...

Editorial

  • Finally, a real response to DeRolph (Canton Repository)

    • Mountains of number crunching will necessarily follow the unveiling of Gov. John Kasich’s school funding plan…Read more...

  • Call for early learning funding is good news - and good business (Cincinnati Enquirer)

    • About 90 percent of a child’s brain development happens by the age of 5. About 90 percent of public spending on education goes to the years after age 5…Read more...

  • A Playbook For Ohio Education Initiatives (I Teach Bay)

    • This is Super Bowl Weekend. Analysts have spent two weeks dissecting every possible factor that could impact the performance of either team in the big game…Read more...

Correlation? What correlation?

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Dublin teacher, Kevin Griffin, brings to our attention this graph, which he describes thusly

The chart plots the Value-Added scores of teachers who teach the same subject to two different grade levels in the same school year. (ex. Ms. Smith teaches 7th Math and 8th Math, and Mr. Richards 4th Grade Reading and 5th Grade Reading.) The X-axis represents the teachers VA score for one grade level and the Y-axis represents the VA score from the other grade level taught.

If the theory behind evaluating teachers based on value-added is valid then a “great” 7th grade math teacher should also be a “great” 8th grade math teacher (upper right corner) and a “bad” 7th grade math teacher should also be a “bad” 8th grade math teacher (lower left corner). There should, in theory, be a straight line (or at least close) showing a direct correlation between 7th grade VA scores and 8th grade VA scores since those students, despite being a grade apart, have the same teacher.

Here's the graph

Looks morel ike a random number generator to us. Would you like your career to hinge on a random number generator?

Close failing charters quickly

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Close failing charter schools quickly. That's the message from the latest study. The NTY times reports on a new charter school study that ought to send policy chills down the spines of those advocating for more failed choice

The charter school movement gained a foothold in American education two decades ago partly by asserting that independently run, publicly financed schools would outperform traditional public schools if they were exempted from onerous regulations. The charter advocates also promised that unlike traditional schools, which were allowed to fail without consequence, charter schools would be rigorously reviewed and shut down when they failed to perform.

With thousands of charter schools now operating in 40 states, and more coming online every day, neither of these promises has been kept. Despite a growing number of studies showing that charter schools are generally no better — and often are worse — than their traditional counterparts, the state and local agencies and organizations that grant the charters have been increasingly hesitant to shut down schools, even those that continue to perform abysmally for years on end.

As the Governor advocates for even greater charter school expansion in Ohio, where the experiment has failed even more catastrophically, there needs to be a serious look at closing down failed charters quickly. As the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University study noted

It debunked the common notion that it takes a long time to tell whether a new school can improve student learning. In fact, the study notes, it is pretty clear after just three years which schools are going to be high performers and which of them will be mediocre. By that time, the charter authorizers should be putting troubled schools on notice that they might soon be closed. As the study notes: “For the majority of schools, poor first year performance will give way to poor second year performance. Once this has happened, the future is predictable and extremely bleak. For the students enrolled in these schools, this is a tragedy that must not be dismissed.”

We're not just wasting tax payers dollars that could be better spent in higher performing traditional public schools, we're wasting educational opportunities of students who are attending these failing charter schools.

Education News for 02-01-2013

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State Education News

  • Governor outlines plan for funding education (Akron Beacon Journal)

    • Invited to Columbus on Thursday to catch a sneak peak at the governor’s plan to fund education, Mogadore Superintendent Christina Dinklocker walked away with the same feeling as many others…Read more...

  • Governor's school spending plan puts focus on students (Canton Repository)

    • Funding the student, not the district, is the theme of Governor John Kasich’s education funding plan for the next two years…Read more...

  • Kasich unveils plan to fund, reform schools (Cincinnati Enquirer)

    • Governor John Kasich offered a new way of funding schools Thursday that he says will be more equitable for poor and rural districts and add to the school choices of working class families…Read more...

  • Gov. John Kasich's school plan would dramatically overhaul Ohio's funding formula (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

    • Gov. John Kasich wants a major overhaul of Ohio school funding that focuses on bridging the wide gaps in income and property values among districts…Read more...

  • Study to evaluate ‘green’ school buildings (Columbus Dispatch)

    • Ohio has more environmentally friendly school projects than any other state…Read more...

  • Schools need quicker progress in Race to Top, report says (Columbus Dispatch)

    • Ohio has made some progress in using federal Race to the Top funds to improve schools but needs to move more quickly, a new report says…Read more...

  • Proposed eligibility change seen as long-term boost to school vouchers (Columbus Dispatch)

    • More families probably would take advantage of school vouchers under Gov. John Kasich’s income-based plan, but it wouldn’t immediately lead to an exodus from public schools…Read more...

  • Kasich’s school-funding plan greeted with relief (Columbus Dispatch)

    • Ohio school superintendents were relieved yesterday when Gov. John Kasich told them his two-year school-funding plan would not cut their current levels of state aid. In fact, the $15.1 billion education plan…Read more...

  • OSU wants $100 million for in-state scholarships (Columbus Dispatch)

    • To help make college more affordable for more students, Ohio State is challenging the community to help raise $100 million to pay for scholarships for needy and high-achieving…Read more...

  • Kasich's plan gives more money to schools (Dayton Daily News)

    • Gov. John Kasich’s school funding plan tackles growing disparity between poor and wealthy school districts and allows Ohio students living in poverty to attend private schools with state dollars…Read more...

  • Teachers, parents learn to take aim (New Philadelphia Times)

    • Staring down at the target ahead of her, Tasha McConnnell lifted the small revolver and gently squeezed the trigger…Read more...

  • Kasich school plan prompts optimism for area educators (Toledo Blade)

    • Ohio school superintendents reacted with guarded optimism Thursday to Gov. John Kasich’s school funding proposal, as they hailed a guarantee that no school districts will receive less money under the plan…Read more...

  • Kasich school funding formula gives more to poor, less to rich (Youngstown Vindicator)

    • The state will provide increased funding for poorer school districts statewide through a new formula that takes into account property values and income levels…Read more...

Local Education News

  • Bullying lawsuit dismissed against Mentor school officials (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

    • A federal judge has dismissed a 2010 lawsuit that accused Mentor school officials of ignoring a pattern of bullying…Read more...

  • Local schools optimistic about funding plan )Lima News)

    • Area school officials liked what they heard from Gov. John Kasich Thursday, but say they they still need to see the numbers before declaring a final verdict…Read more...

  • Big Walnut Schools Continue to Focus on Improving School Security (WBNS)

    • Gone are the days that visitors can just open a door and walk into a Big Walnut school building. Visitors now have to check in through a video intercom system…Read more...

  • Area superintendents react to Kasich's plan for schools (Willoughby News Herald)

    • Ohio Gov. John Kasich unveiled a school-funding overhaul on Thursday that he said is aimed at helping students in poor districts compete while introducing changes meant to reward and highlight innovation…Read more...