Education News for 04-15-2013

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State Education News

  • Common Core: More thinking, more learning (Cincinnati Enquirer)

    • Eileen Gorman likes to watch her students struggle. The eighth-grade math teacher at Glen Este Middle School in Cincinnati believes they will learn more that way…Read more…

    


  • Ohio 4th for parent involvement in education (Columbus Business First)

    • Ohio placed fourth in a Center for Education Reform ranking of states by several educational quality measures, the Dayton Business Journal reports.…Read more…

    


  • Ohio House school funding plan looked good at first, but the numbers show they’re cutting education (Akron Beacon Journal)

    • With 20 years as one of the state’s most knowledgeable education funding analysts, Howard Fleeter of the Education Tax Policy Institute in Columbus was banging his head against his spreadsheets for much of last week…Read more…

  • OHSAA looks to level the playing field (Canton Repository)

    • As he sat in the bleachers at Triway High School, Dave Rice looked at his high school’s volleyball team.…Read more…

    


  • Double dipping by school workers might make comeback (Columbus Dispatch)

    • After years of debate over the practice known as “double dipping,” it has all but died in central Ohio schools.…Read more…

    


  • Ohio University trustees to vote on 1.6% tuition hike (Columbus Dispatch)

    • Ohio University wants to raise tuition and fees for in-state undergraduate students this fall by $164 per year, to a total of $10,380, under a proposal that the board of trustees is to vote on Friday.…Read more…

  • State, school districts work to collect income taxes in face of underreporting, nonfiling (Mansfield News Journal)

    • Monday is the loathed April 15 deadline for state and federal taxes, but due dates don’t carry the same weight to scofflaws and tax evaders.…Read more…

    


  • A moving target for schools (Mansfield News Journal)

    • No one likes trying to hit a moving target, especially Ohio teachers and school superintendents who have faced a barrage of performance standards since No Child Left Behind was passed more than a decade ago.…Read more…

Local Education News

  • Another round of talks between school district, teachers fall through; strike enters seventh week (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

    • The teachers strike goes on. For the seventh time in six weeks, the bargaining teams for the Strongsville Education Association and the school board met at length at the behest of the federal mediator…Read more…

  • Strongsville teachers, school board teams meet in Independence for another round of negotiations (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

    • Bargaining teams for the 383 Strongsville teachers on strike since March 4 and the school board will meet in the presence of the federal mediator for the seventh time at 1:30 p.m. April 14.…Read more…

  • Unions show solidarity with striking Strongsville teachers at rally (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

    • One day longer. That was the refrain of a cross-union rally held on the Strongsville Commons April 12, as more than 300 people, including members and representatives from more than 15 unions across Northeast Ohio, gathered to show their support…Read more…

  • Strongsville school board will receive additional $3.2 million in revenue (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

    • In the last week, the school district here got a nice surprise from Cuyahoga County..…Read more…

  • For CPS board member, years of tough calls (Cincinnati Enquirer)

    • Catherine D. Ingram was appointed in October 1993 to fill a vacant seat on the Cincinnati Public Schools board of education – a position that was to be on the ballot about three weeks later.…Read more…

  • Contractor: District off on busing comparison (Columbus Dispatch)

    • Private bus contractor First Student says Columbus City Schools’ claim that it could operate 300 bus routes itself next school year and save money doing it is a stretch…Read more…

    


  • District hopes to increase laptop use (Cincinnati Enquirer)

    • The Forest Hills Local School District hopes to get more high school students using their laptops.…Read more…

    


  • Schools head into contract talks with unknowns about funding (Lima News)

    • At first glance, Waynesfield-Goshen schools Superintendent Chris Pfister is feeling much better about the Ohio House school funding proposal.…Read more…

    


  • Coventry High students teach physics, learn creativity with youngsters (Akron Beacon Journal)

    • Andrew Bullock hastily assembled a 12-inch tower of wooden blocks and waited for a group of elementary students to construct a wrecking tower made of Lego pieces.…Read more…

    


  • Next TPS chief looks to shut academic gap (Toledo Blade)

    • Romules Durant — most people call him Rom — was far from destined to be the next superintendent of Toledo Public Schools.…Read more…

    


  • Plain Township school stops ‘mindfulness’ program after some in community raise concerns (Akron Beacon Journal)

    • The Tibetan bell no longer tolls at Warstler Elementary in Plain Township.…Read more…

    


  • Applications come in for South Range open enrollment (Youngstown Vindicator)

    • The South Range Local School District is poring over 70 open- enrollment applications, hoping to bring in new students to help the district keep class sizes up and survive state budget cuts.…Read more…

  • Two women who were Head Start students return the favor to today's kids (Chillicothe Gazette)

    • Head Start, the school readiness program for children from low-income families, left an imprint on two local women that extended well beyond their own school careers.…Read more…

    


  • Stricken mom sees son graduate early in solo ceremony (Columbus Dispatch)

    • When the cancer returned, Darlene Schultz decided: She would see her son graduate from Hilliard Darby High School.…Read more…

    


  • Lima schools looking at carry-over policy (Lima News)

    • Lima City Schools will soon put a policy in place requiring the district to have a reserve fund amounting to at least 10 percent of its overall budget.…Read more…

    


  • Warrensville Heights cheerleading club protests school district fees (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

    • A cheerleading club for girls in this economically struggling suburb has lost its longtime practice space after the Warrensville Heights school district insisted that the group pay hundreds of dollars to use school facilities.…Read more…

  • Former Springboro booster treasurer stole $439,000 (Dayton Daily News)

    • The former treasurer of the Springboro Athletic Boosters Association admitted Thursday to stealing almost $440,000 from the group he helped found 20 years before.…Read more…

    


  • Kalida Elementary earns top honors (Lima News)

    • It took just one attempt for Kalida Elementary School to win an award for providing the highest quality of education to its pupils.…Read more…

    


  • Ashtabula Area City Schools BOE member receives Award of Achievement from state (Ashtabula Star-Beacon)

    • The Ohio School Boards Association (OSBA) annually recognizes board members for their commitment to learning and leadership with the Award of Achievement program and the Master Board Member Award.…Read more…

  • Louisville City Schools seeks emergency funds (Canton Repository)

    • Reductions will happen either way, but a levy passage in May will mean less cuts to an already strapped Louisville school system.…Read more…

    


  • Lorain High students plan international food tasting (Lorain Morning Journal)

    • Lorain High Schools’ culinary arts and junior achievement programs are sponsoring an international food tasting event at Lorain High to promote a cookbook developed by the students.…Read more…

  • Cuts coming to Firelands; Schools to eliminate 8 staff members, reduce hours (Lorain Morning Journal)

    • Firelands Local Schools will cut eight classified staff members and reduce hours for eight others for the 2013-14 school year.…Read more…

    


  • Parent asks school official to resign (Mansfield News Journal)

    • Parent Beth Diesch requested the resignation of board president Susan Shealy at Thursday’s Buckeye Central school board meeting.…Read more…

  • Fenwick students dig ‘talons’ into service work (Middletown Journal)

    • It may only take 45 minutes, but an activity by students and staff at Bishop Fenwick High School is helping to feed hundreds of homeless people.…Read more…

    


  • Leaders for Learning awards presented to 14 Licking County teachers (Newark Advocate)

    • The group of administrators stealthily crept down the hallway of Heritage Middle School, peeking around corners to make sure their appearance at Claire Goins’ door would be a complete surprise.…Read more…

  • City schools hosting ready fair for families (Springfield News-Sun)

    • The Springfield City School District will host its third annual “ready fair” Friday with activities and giveaways that will help parents of young children prepare for school.…Read more…

    


  • Presidential descendant helps mark special day at Oregon school (Toledo Blade)

    • Merrill Eisenhower Atwater drove 12 hours from Kansas City to northwest Ohio, much of it on I-70.…Read more…

    


  • Bedford hires its top choice for superintendent (Toledo Blade)

    • It’s official. Bedford Public Schools has a new superintendent. The Board of Education last week unanimously approved a three-year contract for Mark Kleinhans, the candidate selected as its top choice during a search this year.…Read more…

  • Scott Hunt leaving Perry Schools to become Cardinal superintendent (Willoughby News Herald)

    • Scott J. Hunt will leave Perry Schools to become Cardinal School District superintendent effective Aug. 1.…Read more…

    


  • Niles schools seek 2 levies (Youngstown Vindicator)

    • Two additional school levies are on the May 7 primary ballot in the city, and the school district’s superintendent says their approval is the only way to keep the red ink from getting worse.…Read more…

  • Jackson Milton English assignment grows into fundraiser for animals (Youngstown Vindicator)

    • It looked like a 3-mile run/walk with dogs, but it was really a homework assignment.…Read more…

    


Editorial

  • Most districts understood rules (Columbus Dispatch)

    • There is no harm in the Ohio Department of Education clarifying the rules for how and why schools may officially withdraw students from attendance rolls.…Read more…

    


  • When oversight slips, the taxpayers suffer: editorial (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

    • Only a U.S. District Court jury -- or Joseph Palazzo himself -- can say whether the former technology director of Cuyahoga Heights Schools is guilty of stealing $3.4 million from the district.…Read more…

  • Inadequacy 2.0 (Akron Beacon Journal)

    • The Ohio House put forward its own school-funding plan last week with the aim to rectify shortcomings in Gov. John Kasich’s “Achievement Everywhere” proposal in the biennial budget bill.…Read more…

  • Medina superintendent's too-sweet deal: editorial (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

    • Shame on the Medina City School District's Board of Education and Superintendent Randy Stepp, for the disdain they showed citizens by quietly negotiating hundreds of thousands of dollars for Stepp's bonuses and education expenses…Read more…

  • It’s worth making an exception to keep Hathorn at the helm (Youngstown Vindicator)

    • As a general rule, we are opposed to the retire/rehire policies that have grown in popularity in the public sector as government employees strive to squeeze the maximum in benefits by retiring when they become eligible.…Read more…

Why are we investing more in a failed experiment?

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By Maureen Reedy, former teacher of the year and candidate for the Ohio House of Representatives.

History seems to be repeating itself in the Statehouse. Once again, legislators are poised to pass a state budget bill that continues to take billions of our tax dollars out of traditional public schools to fund for-profit charters that have produced dismal results after two decades of experimentation in our state.

“Let the money follow the child,” is a favorite phrase of Gov. John Kasich and his fellow charter-school fans to craft legislation that diverts more and more of our public funds to charter schools each year.

For two decades, the money has been following Ohio’s children out of the doors of our public schoolhouses and through the doors of charter schools. Despite losing over $6 billion to charters during the past 15 years, traditional public schools continue to vastly outperform their charter-school counterparts.

While 77 percent of Ohio’s public schools were successful last year (rated Excellent with Distinction, Achieving or Effective), only 23 percent of Ohio’s charters were successful (rated Effective or Achieving). So 77 percent of Ohio’s public schools are receiving A’s, B’s and C’s while 77 percent of Ohio’s charter schools are receiving D’s and F’s. And the bottom 111 performing schools last year? All were charter schools.

Graduation rates also should give our legislators reason to put the brakes on funneling dollars to charters: 81 percent of Ohio’s students graduate from their public high schools as compared to a 30 percent to 40 percent high-school graduation rate for charter-school students.

“Following the money” also leads us to family-run charter-school operations with hefty salaries and few education credentials, including multimillion-dollar salaries for the CEOs of Ohio’s two largest charter-school chains, David Brennan of White Hat Management Co. and William Lager of Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow. Our tax dollars also are going to pay for advertising campaigns to recruit students to attend their underperforming charter schools.

Also perplexing are the two sets of rules that seem to exist for public schools and charter schools. Apparently, once public money goes into a charter-school operation, it ceases to be public and belongs to the charter-school corporation.

Brennan of White Hat has refused to open his books to the state auditor for the third consecutive year. We are still waiting to hear exactly what percentage of public tax money is being spent on instructional resources and supports for educating children verses top-level multimillion-dollar administrative salaries, advertising and recruitment efforts in the corporate headquarters of White Hat.

In addition, while Lager of ECOT receives millions of dollars for his annual salary from public funding, his private software company has enjoyed profits of over $10 million in just a single year selling products to his ECOT schools, paid for by our public tax dollars.

Charter schools also are permitted to close their doors and shut down operations when cited for multiple violations, only to re-open the next day under a different sponsor, in a different building under a different name and continue to receive our tax dollars.

As charters close, oftentimes at mid-year, hundreds of children are shuffled back to their public schools without adequate records and a significant loss of instructional time. Just as tragic is the students’ loss of community and social connections, which contributes to academic deficits and delays.

As a parent, taxpayer and 30-year public-school teacher, I have to ask: Why are legislators proposing a budget that does nothing to restore funding for our public schools, but instead increases funding to charter schools? Why are we continuing to invest billions in a failed experiment that weakens our stronger-performing traditional school system and risks the future of Ohio’s children?

Education News for 04-11-2013

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State Education News

Local Education News

  • 14 were interested in Columbus superintendent job (Columbus Dispatch)

    • Columbus City Schools had 14 applicants from across the nation for superintendent when the school board voted to suspend its search on Tuesday evening, bowing to the wishes of Mayor Michael B. Coleman and others.…Read more…

  • Goggin hired as Midview superintendent (Lorain Morning Journal)

    • The Midview school board will hire current Director of Education Scott Goggin as its next superintendent at today’s board meeting.…Read more…

  • Avon Lake High School might cut credit hours (Lorain Morning Journal)

    • It may be easier for Avon Lake High School seniors to receive their diploma in 2014 as school board members consider cutting graduation credit hours from 24 to 21 credits.…Read more…

  • South Range district asks state for more funding (Youngstown Vindicator)

    • The treasurer of a Mahoning County district urged state lawmakers Wednesday to increase state funding for local schools.…Read more…

  • Boardman stadium project gets boost from Home Savings donation (Youngstown Vindicator)

    • Boardman High School boosters are trying to get a new stadium project up and running, despite voter rejection of a bond issue in 2007 that would have provided funding.…Read more…

Fordham hides from facts

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UPDATE: Fordham has now published our comment on their site, for which we are grateful. See the comments to this article for their explanation.

The Fordham Foundation, one of Ohio's more vocal charter school boosters, has a post on their website defending the high number of failing charter schools. The piece is written by Aaron Churchill, someone we have observed stretching facts and the truth before (Fordham loses its bearings). Like his previous piece's error addled analysis, his latest defense of failing charter schools goes to great lengths to obfuscate hard truths using indefensible "statistical analysis".

Rather than write a post here on JTF, we tried to leave a long comment pointing out just some of the errors in the post. Fordham has decided they would rather that comment be hidden and not be published, so we are publishing it below, in response to a Fordham reader asking us to

Aaron states "The chart shows that a nearly equal number of charters reside in the state’s bottom 111 schools"

Let's just assume that is correct. What if utterly fails to recognize is that there are orders of magnitude more traditional public school buildings than charter schools - so the fact that so many charter school buildings appear in the bottom 111 should be disturbing to everyone, not glommed onto as a point of false equivalence. As an overall percentage of school buildings charter schools dominate the bottom rankings.

Let's look at another claim made by Aaron...

"The fact of the matter is that taxpayers spend less on each child in a charter school then is spent on their district peers."

That claim is contradicted by the Ohio Department of Education (link here:http://www.scribd.com/doc/117636411/ODE-Analysis-of-Per-Pupil-Cost-of-Charters-and-Publics).

"The average of total expenditure per pupil for public districts is $10,110.72.

The average expenditure per pupil for community schools is $9,064. When broken out: For e-schools it’s $7,027. For non-eschool community schools it’s $10,165.

So only when one combines the cost of the laughably cheap (and ludicrously underperforming) e-schools do Ohio's charters look inexpensive - and that's using ODE as a source.

Aaron did a good job, as all charter school boosters do, of obfuscating the facts - which is that the vast majority of Ohio's charter schools deliver a poor quality education at an inflated cost.

Let's close them down and concentrate our energy on the schools that 95% of Ohio's students go to, and maybe learn some things along the way from the few charter schools that are getting it right, instead of this constant non-debate and excuse making about the terrible charter schools we all know exist in very high numbers.

Fordham likes to hide behind their advocacy for charter school accountability and quality, but whenever they are pressed on this, they obfuscate the difficult facts and revert to defending the rotten and the failing. They may talk a good game, but in the end they are no less a charter school booster as White Hat owner, David Brennan. Mr. Churchill's post and decision to avoid a discussion on it are further proof of that.

Education News for 04-10-2013

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State Education News

  • Ohio Adopts New Restraint, Seclusion Room Policies For Schools (WBNS)

    • Ohio was a state that had no restrictions on seclusion rooms or restraints in schools. In December, the state created a policy, or guidelines, for districts to follow...Read more...

    


  • School funding plan gets overhaul from Ohio House (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

    • State legislative leaders tossed out a major part of Gov. John Kasich's school funding plan Tuesday and significantly shifted the dollars that individual districts would receive from the state...Read more...

Local Education News

  • National Robotics Challenge returns for 10th year (Marion Star)

    • While much of the robotics buzz locally is centering on the upcoming world robotics championship to be held in California, the event that first spurred an interest locally will enter its 10th year Thursday...Read more...

  • Cuts could hit Head Start (Warren Tribune Chronicle)

    • Students and teachers in Mahoning and Trumbull counties could be affected by a federal funding hit to Head Start programs...Read more...

    


  • Geneva schools to host open meeting on lockdown response (Ashtabula Star-Beacon)

    • Geneva teachers and first responders will team up Thursday to inform parents about new emergency lockdown procedures at every district school...Read more...

    


  • Students earn Junior Achievement experience, honors (Canton Repository)

    • Dozens of area high school students spent Tuesday morning showing what they’ve learned this year about business, and several went home with scholarship money...Read more...

    


  • Fairborn teachers put to the test (WDTN)

    • Fairborn students got an extra day of Spring Break Monday while their teachers had a very serious lesson to learn in the classroom...Read more...

    


  • Bluffton student raises awareness for diabetes, awarded for efforts (Lima News)

    • Jena Diller has no memory of a time when she didn’t have a sibling with Type 1 diabetes. Her older sister was diagnosed at age 12, her younger brother at age 4...Read more...

    


  • New Technology Allows Police To Have Eyes Inside Schools (WBNS)

    • A new tool has turned Baltimore village police officers into “virtual” cops. DARE officer Jason Harget demonstrated how officers can see inside every school in the district from the inside of his police cruiser...Read more...

  • Turnout seen as key to Chillicothe City School's levy success (Chillicothe Gazette)

    • With no other candidates or issues on the May 7 ballot for Chillicothe voters, people pushing for passage of the Chillicothe City Schools’ operational levy realize that getting people fired up..Read more...

  • Pymatuning Valley Local School District classified employee has beef with superintendent (Ashtabula Star-Beacon)

    • A Pymatuning Valley Local School District classified employee says she has been placed on unpaid administrative leave after missing several weeks of work due to being on a mission trip out of the country...Read more...

  • Cleveland School district approves sale of administration building to hotel for $4.5 million (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

    • A St. Louis hotel company will become the new owners of the Cleveland School District's landmark East Sixth administration building after the school board voted 5-to- 3 to accept its $4.5 million bid Tuesday night...Read more...

  • Avon Lake City Schools stress passage of levy (Lorain Morning Journal)

    • As the May 7 primary election quickly approaches, Avon Lake City School board members met yesterday to discuss financials and stress how important the upcoming levy is to success of the district and city of Avon Lake...Read more...

  • 'Do the Right Thing' program returns to Lorain City Schools (Lorain Morning Journal)

    • Lorain City Schools’ “Do the Right Thing” program has returned after more than a year’s hiatus...Read more...

  • Niles McKinley High begins classes in new building (Youngstown Vindicator)

    • “It’s really nice, and I love it,” said Angelisa Beltran, a 17-year-old senior, as she and nearly 675 of her fellow students began their first day of classes in the new Niles McKinley High School...Read more...

  • Youngstown school board rejects funding members' trip to Calif. (Youngstown Vindicator)

    • If three city school board members want to attend a National School Boards Association conference this weekend in San Diego, they’ll have to pay for it themselves...Read more...

    


Bill Gates Dances Around the Teacher Evaluation Disaster He Sponsored

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No one in America has done more to promote the raising of stakes for test scores in education than Bill Gates.

Yesterday, Mr. Gates published a column that dances around the disaster his advocacy has created in the schools of our nation.

You can read his words there, but his actions have spoken so much more loudly, that I cannot even make sense out of what he is attempting to say now. So let's focus first on what Bill Gates has wrought.

No Child Left Behind was headed towards bankruptcy about seven years ago. The practice of labeling schools as failures and closing them, on the basis of test scores, was clearly causing a narrowing of the curriculum. Low income schools in Oakland eliminated art, history and even science in order to focus almost exclusively on math and reading. The arrival of Arne Duncan and his top level of advisors borrowed from the Gates Foundation created the opportunity for a re-visioning of the project.

Both the Race to the Top and the NCLB waivers processes required states and districts to put in place teacher and principal evaluation systems which placed "significant" weight on test scores. This was interpreted by states to mean that test scores must count for at least 30% to 50% of an evaluation.

The Department of Education had told the states how high they had to jump, and the majority did so.

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