OSU Professor of educational psychology Eric Anderman
How to reduce cheating in 100 seconds
in Article
21 tough questions about school reform
in Article
Via the Washington Post, civil rights activist James Meredith, asks 21 tough questions about school reform
1.) Children’s Rights: Do you believe that every child in the United States has the right to an excellent public education delivered by the most qualified professional teachers; an education aggressively supported by the family and the community, and an education based on the best research and evidence?
2.) Parent Responsibilities: Would you support the idea of public schools strongly encouraging and helping parents to: be directly involved in their children’s education; support their children with healthy eating and daily physical activity; disconnect their children from TV and video games; and read books to and with them on a daily basis from birth through childhood?
3.) Educational Equity: Do you believe that America should strive to deliver educational equity of resources to all students of all backgrounds and income groups?
4.) Testing Reforms: Much of current education reform policy is built on the idea that the U.S. must catch up to nations that achieve high scores in the international PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) tests, like Finland, South Korea and Singapore. But since these nations rely on few if any of the reform strategies being promoted in the United States, like cyber-charters, frequent high-stakes standardized tests linked to teacher evaluation, teacher bonus pay, vouchers, and hiring teachers with no experience and no advanced degrees in education – - why would the U.S. implement these strategies without first field-testing them thoroughly?
5.) Teacher Qualifications: If a critical factor in the success of the highest-performing education nations like Finland, South Korea and Singapore, and of high-performing American private and parochial schools, is a highly professionalized, highly experienced and highly respected teacher force, why is the United States pursuing policies to de-professionalize the public school teacher force, including sending recent college graduates into our highest-needs, highest-poverty schools with five weeks of training, no education degree and no experience? What is the hard evidence that such policies improve student outcomes, versus teachers with at least 2 to 5 years of experience and advanced degrees in education?
6.) Evidence for Classroom Products: What rigorous, independent evidence supports the use of computer products to deliver academic benefit to K-8 students as support to, or replacements for, flesh-and-blood teachers? Specifically, what computer products have such evidence of improving student outcomes, when fully tested versus classrooms without such products, and versus classrooms without such products but with more experienced teachers?
7.) Taxpayer Spending on Products: Would you support requiring computer software and hardware companies to fund rigorous independent research to validate the delivery of academic benefit to K-8 students by their products, before billions of dollars of taxpayer money is spent on buying such products?
8.) Taxpayer Spending on Testing: According to one estimate, American taxpayers spend about $20,000,000,000 annually on standardized tests like multiple-choice “bubble tests” but many teachers and students are saying they are hijacking huge amounts of school time that should be used for authentic learning, and thereby seriously damaging our children’s education. What evidence is there that the money and time being spent on high-stakes standardized tests is improving student outcomes and delivering academic benefit to students?
9.) Dangers of Linking Standardized Testing to Teacher Evaluation: A number of experts assert that students standardized test data should not be linked to teacher pay or evaluation because the data can be highly unstable, volatile, misleading or invalid for such purposes and will incorrectly penalize teachers of both high-achieving and high-needs students; arguments presented, for example, on this fact sheet from the Center for Fair & Open Testing, or FairTest.
What is your point of view on this – are these experts correct or incorrect?
10.) Advantages for Students: If the children and grandchildren of people like President Obama and American politicians and business leaders enjoy the benefits of private schools with highly experienced teachers, small class sizes, frequent diagnostic testing and assessments designed by their teachers, rich and full curricula including the arts and physical activity, regular recess, and a minimum of standardized “bubble” tests, should we strive to give the same advantages to all public school students? If not, why not?
[readon2 url="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/06/12/james-meredith-asks-21-tough-questions-about-school-reform/"]Continue reading...[/readon2]
Rhee-ality check
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You know a report titled "Rhee-ality check: the Failure of Students First" is going to be interesting, and indeed it is, opening with
Since its launch two years ago, StudentsFirst has made bold predictions about the organization’s impact on education policy, and what it will accomplish across the country.
This is the first report of its kind to examine whether this education advocacy group founded by Michelle Rhee has made progress toward its key goals. Gathered here for the first time is a body of evidence, data, and analysis showing that Students First has given its donors and supporters a poor return on their investment.
StudentsFirst has failed to live up to expectations in four main areas: fundraising, leadership, electoral politics, and grassroots organizing. These failures are described in detail below. A national education advocacy group with such a track record of ineffectiveness is not what Rhee’s investors signed up for.
Here's the full report
Rhee-ality check: the Failure of Students First
This report seems to fit in with a previous post, "THE END OF MICHELLE RHEE?", given how ineffective the organization she has created truly is.
Education News for 06-05-2013
in Ed News
State Education News
- Senate, House school funding plans incomparable (Akron Beacon Journal)
- Ohio could get millions in early-education funds (Columbus Dispatch)
- Lawmakers applaud plan to fix Columbus schools (Columbus Dispatch)
- Ohio lawmakers push voucher expansion (Dayton Daily News)
Ohio senators on Tuesday released more details about their proposed budget for school funding…Read more...
Ohio would receive $103 million in federal funding during the first year of President Barack Obama’s plan to provide preschool for every 4-year-old child in the country…Read more...
A Senate committee vetting a bill meant to help fix financial and ethical problems within Columbus City Schools praised local leaders yesterday who testified in support of the legislation…Read more...
Ohio GOP senators proposed several changes to state education funding in the latest round of revisions to the state two-year budget bill…Read more...
Local Education News
- City schools still target of deception lawsuit (Columbus Dispatch)
- Fairfield County school districts that shared superintendent going their own ways (Columbus Dispatch)
- Gee’s sudden departure confounds interim superintendent plans for Columbus schools (Columbus Dispatch)
- TPS revised audit projects fewer possible savings than draft report (Toledo Blade)
- 4 speak at Supt. Hathorn's hearing (Youngstown Vindicator)
- Niles schools need funding help from state (Youngstown Vindicator)
The civil lawsuit that accuses the Columbus school district of deceiving the public about schools’ true academic standing appears to be moving forward…Read more...
Two rural school districts in Fairfield County that currently share a superintendent are hiring separate leaders…Read more...
The Columbus Board of Education was hours away yesterday from hiring Ohio State University Provost Joseph Alutto to a one-year contract as an interim superintendent that would have cost the district…Read more...
A revised performance audit of Toledo Public Schools recommends changes that could save the district $91 million over five years, $10 million less in savings than a draft version projected…Read more...
Just four people spoke at a public hearing on a request by Superintendent Dr. Connie Hathorn to retire and then be rehired by the school district…Read more...
Frank Danso, interim superintendent of Niles schools, hopes a funding bill that passed the Ohio House will help his financially strained district overcome its deficit, but two area legislators are unsure…Read more...
Editorial
- Paying for education (Akron Beacon Journal)
Richard Ross, Ohio’s superintendent of schools, once described school-funding debates in Ohio as the education version of Groundhog Day…Read more...
So-called "right to work" Hot Potato
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The House Manufacturing and Workforce Development Committee, chaired by Rep. Schuring (R) held the first reading of HB151 and HJR5 - the anti worker so-called "right to work" legislation. They heard from the bills sponsors, Rep. Roegner (R) and Rep. Maag (R).
The hearing room was packed to capacity by opponents of the bill, indeed so many people were in opposition to this bill that they filled two additional overflow rooms, and left some standing in the hallways listening over a speaker system.
As expected, Rep. Roegner and Rep. Maag gave misleading and highly selective testimony, that failed to stand up to questions from the committee. Often they had to fall back upon "feelings", "beliefs" and ad nauseam recitation of the word "freedom" like they were auditioning for the role of William Wallace in an off-Broad St. production of Braveheart.
Rep. Tom Letson (D-Warren) said Ohio law already allows employees to choose not to belong to unions and instead contribute "fair share" payments. "It seems as though the freedom you are espousing here is already in the body of the law," he said, suggesting the proposal was redundant.
The Democrat's statement drew a roar of applause from the audience, prompting Chairman Schuring to slam the gavel and warn spectators to observe proper decorum or be ejected from the room.
Rep. Roland Winburn (D-Dayton) questioned whether the measure would allow workers who choose not to pay union dues to benefit from the union's representation and called it "a right-to-freeload law more than the workplace freedom law."
Rep. Patterson said he believed allowing individual workers to "cut their own deals" with management effectively undermines the efficacy of collective bargaining and asked the sponsors if they thought the measure would weaken labor unions in the state.
The true facts regarding so-called "right to work" laws and their impact on working people and the economy are clear
The hearing was more notable for what didn't happen, rather than what did. Not a single Republican questioned their colleagues about their proposed bill, despite intense questioning by the Democrats on the committee. It was also apparent that there were few, if any supporters of the bill at the hearing.
The lack of a convincing case for the bill, a lack of support in the Republican caucus, and widespread opposition led the chairman to declare the bill dead in his committee
The chairman of a House panel that heard testimony on controversial right-to-work legislation Tuesday said there would be no further hearings on the matter in his committee.
Chairman Rep. Kirk Schuring (R-Canton) said after the hearing that members of the panel had unanimously agreed not to continue deliberations on the proposals.
"I've surveyed the committee and for a wide variety of reasons, the committee has determined that it would not be appropriate to have additional hearings on the legislation," he said in an interview.
"My individual thoughts are that I've been in the legislature now for 20 years and I have not had one union shop - an owner of a company that is a union shop or an executive from a company that is a union shop - has come to me and asked for this type of legislation," the chairman said.
"So I think it's something that does not need to be addressed at this point in time. There are a whole host of other issues regarding our economy and how we can improve the economic climate in this state that we need to address."
The chairman's comments reflect the radioactive nature of the issue currently for majority Republicans who saw an attempt to curb union collective bargaining thrown out by voters last session (SB5, 129th General Assembly).
With that, the Republicans in the Ohio House passed this hot potato to their Tea Party grassroots activists. Signature collection by right wing extremists now being the only route left for this legislation to move forward. With that signature collection deadline fast approaching, and reports that the Tea Party are struggling to collect those signatures, it is unlikely a so-called "right to work" amendment will find its way onto a ballot this year. This Leaves next year (when the governor and most of his legislative pals are up for reelection) as the next possible date, followed shortly afterwards by the lame duck session of 2014.
But for now, it doesn't look like anyone wants to be left holding this anti-worker, deceitful hot potato.
Education News for 05-31-2013
in Ed News
State Education News
- Ohio's school spending could shoot up (Cincinnati Enquirer)
- School aid would be boosted under Ohio Senate proposal (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
- Ohio Senate ups education funding in budget (Columbus Dispatch)
- Schools challenge families to scale back on tech use (Columbus Dispatch)
- ODOT grants will help kids get to school more safely (Columbus Dispatch)
- Senate funding plan aims to assist Ohio education system (Lorain Morning Journal)
- Bill with similarities to "Cleveland Plan" could soon pass for Columbus schools (Ohio Public Radio)
- Senators say their school funding plan is constitutional (Ohio Public Radio)
- State Senate plan for 2-year budget not as good for TPS (Toledo Blade)
- School funding plan in the works could increase dollars for some districts (Youngstown Vindicator)
Ohio public school funding would grow by 11 percent over the next two years versus 2012- 2013 spending levels, the largest percent increase in education spending in at least a decade, under the proposal Senate Republicans…Read more...
Ohio Senate leaders this afternoon proposed boosting basic state aid to districts from $6.3 billion this school year to more than $7 billion…Read more...
Most Franklin County school districts would see state funding increases averaging nearly 9 percent per year under Senate-proposed changes to the new two-year budget…Read more...
Her daughter yearned for the television, her son for his iPod. Both parents felt disconnected without phones and computers. But for one week they left electronics untouched.Well, at least the kids did…Read more...
The Ohio Department of Transportation has approved $7.2 million in projects to improve safety for students getting to and from school…Read more...
A substitute version of Ohio’s school funding plan proposed by the Senate would increase aid for state education $717.4 million over the next 10 years…Read more...
It’s been a rough school year for Columbus City Schools. The district is under investigation by the State Auditor’s office and the FBI for tampering with student attendance data and grades. And the struggling district has a history of less-than-stellar…Read more...
Ohio Senators are calling their new budget plan “a work in progress” but they are touting it as a major improvement in funding for Ohio’s public schools…Read more...
Senate Republicans on Thursday said they will pump $717 million more into basic aid for K- 12 schools during the next two years in the budget they plan to approve next week…Read more...
Senate Republicans unveiled a new school-funding formula Thursday that likely will change as it moves through committee deliberations and passage in the Senate…Read more...
Local Education News
- Clear Fork to improve school routes (Mansfield News Journal)
- Brecksville-Broadview Heights educators hoping to expand EdCamp (Sun Newspapers)
The Ohio Department of Transportation said Thursday it will dole out $7.2 million for 58 different Safe Routes to School projects in Ohio communities…Read more...
A pair of Brecksville-Broadview Heights educators once again are teaming to host a free conference about education…Read more...