Head count shows 'unusually high' discrepancies at charter schools

When state auditors made a surprise visit to a Youngstown charter school, they found staff members but no students. Not one.

The students, auditors were told, had been dismissed at 12:30 p.m. after taking a practice graduation test. The Academy for Urban Scholars Youngstown said it had 95 students.

A report released yesterday by Ohio Auditor Dave Yost found significantly lower attendance at half of the 30 charter schools where auditors conducted unannounced head counts this past fall.

The report raises questions about whether the schools receive more tax money than they are entitled because the state relies on student enrollment — reported by the schools — to calculate aid. The privately operated, publicly funded schools get nearly $6,000 per student each year.

“I’m really kind of speechless of everything that I found. It’s quite a morass,” Yost said during a Statehouse news conference.

Among those with the widest gap was Capital High School, 640 Harrisburg Pike, Columbus. The school reported 298 students; auditors counted 142, fewer than half.

School officials did not return a call from The Dispatch yesterday; however, they told auditors that their average daily attendance was 55 to 60 percent, fairly consistent with what investigators found.

Gateway Academy on Kimberly Parkway North in Columbus reported 100 students but auditors counted 52, with 20 students absent.

“They came during lunch, and we only had two classes” in session. Many students were at lunch, some outside the building, said Hydia Green, Gateway principal and superintendent. “To get a true count in my building, you need to come after lunch.”

Classes start at 7:30 a.m. at the school serving students in grades 7 to 12, but many arrive late. To accommodate them and others, the school offers blended learning, in which students can get their lessons online, Green said.

Ohio has about 300 charter schools. Of the 30 examined,

16 had enrollment discrepancies of more than 10 percent.

(Read more at the Dispatch)

Toxic Testing. Hyperbole or Actuality?

Submitted by a Hilliard City School teacher

Toxic testing. Hyperbole or actuality? You decide. Merriam-Webster defines toxic as “containing or being poisonous material especially when capable of causing death or serious debilitation.” Students have taken tests since the invention of school. So what’s with the “toxic” label you’ve heard recently? It cannot be understated that teachers do not abhor tests. Tests are an integral part of the learning process, helping teachers to understand where their students are with presented concepts and helping to inform continuing instruction. Assessment is essential to a teacher’s purpose. We want to know whether students “get it” or not.

However, children today face a barrage of tests, both standardized and teacher-created, that reaches a level of absurdity. Beyond the tests teachers create for their students, there are: Common Formative Assessments (in each core subject with Pre and Post tests), district level diagnostic tests (MAP, SRI, etc.), SLO tests (in every “non-tested” subject with Pre and Post tests), and who could forget the impending PARCC Assessments? This year, students will face two testing sessions of PARCC in Reading and Math, while some grades also face PARCC-like tests in Science and Social Studies. This grueling testing schedule leaves precious little time for the learning that is supposedly being measured.

It is not just the increase in the number of tests, but the lack of valuable, if any, information useful to teachers sounding the alarm. Teachers receive a Scaled Score (in the case of OAAs) that tells them nothing more than whether a student passed or failed, and whether by a little or by a lot. Even this useless information does not arrive until the summer after the students have moved on to yet another year of testing. If the results did tell teachers something of value, there is nothing they could do to help those students. It is an exercise in futility.

Despite the lack of instructional value in state test results, students are subjected to high-stakes decisions based upon them. School districts, forced to comply with mandates, assign students who scored below a set Scaled Score (again in OAAs) to remedial classes or in the case of third graders, retention. There are high-stakes for high achieving students as well. Often, cut-off scores are used as prerequisites for placement in advanced classes. Additionally, high school students are required to reach a minimum score to be eligible for a diploma. These stakes are real, and their toll is high.

Within this toxic sludge of tests, students are being smothered and their education is being stolen from them.

Biggest Obstacle to Ohio Charter Reform in Two Charts

Yes, there is hope that Ohio will finally get its act together and clean up our charter school laws. However, here are two charts that suggest it's going to be harder than having a few influential people say the right things.

What do you notice about the patterns between state money going to charter school operators and their campaign contributions? That's right. The pattern is strikingly similar. The more state money goes to these big operators, the more campaign contributions politicians receive.

Over at www.KnowYourCharter.com, we just did a report that outlines the issues here, as well as delineating some examples in the recent past of these big contributors getting what they want. We must remain vigilant and look out for any exemptions, grandfathering or delays in implementation of these new charter reforms, whatever they look like. They must apply to all charters, operators and sponsors. Now. And without exception.

(Read more at 10th Period).

Ohio auditor to report head counts from 30 charter schools

State Auditor Dave Yost is preparing to release results of head counts of students taken during unannounced site visits to 30 Ohio community schools last fall.

Yost says the attendance checks conducted on Oct. 1 came in response to reports of irregular attendance and enrollment practices within several Ohio community, or charter, schools.

He plans to go over what he found on Thursday, as well as making recommendations to both charter school sponsors and the Ohio Department of Education, which oversees their operations.

The event comes as Republican Gov. John Kasich (KAY'-sik) and state legislative leaders have said they'll pursue revisions to Ohio's charter school laws after a series of negative reports.

FEDERAL JUDGE ORDERS IMAGINE SCHOOLS TO PAY $1 MILLION FOR “SELF-DEALING”

A federal judge in Missouri blistered Imagine Schools, saying the lease it forced on a local school it managed constituted “self-dealing.” The judge ordered Imagine to pay the school more than $1 million.

School board members at the now-closed Missouri school sued Imagine, insisting that it acted in its own best interest, not the best interest of the school.

The facts of the case mirror arrangements in Ohio and other states where Imagine schools pay exorbitant rent to an Imagine subsidiary, SchoolHouse Finance. The high lease payments leave little money for classroom instruction and help explain the poor academic records of Imagine schools in both states.

(Read more at ProgressOhio)

Student Testing Time in Ohio May Drop

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSPD) -- The time students spend taking standardized testing could soon be dropping in Ohio.

A report from the Ohio Department of Education included recommendations to reduce testing by nearly 20 percent. Many of the changes would require the Ohio General Assembly to act.

"I am committed to improving testing efficiency and reducing the testing burden on students while maintaining accountability in our schools," said Richard Ross, superintendent of public instruction at the Ohio Department of Education.

ODE surveyed several districts, teachers, and stakeholders and found that the average Ohio student spends nearly 20 hours each year taking tests. Students use up another 15 hours doing practice tests.

"Testing serves an important purpose for monitoring and improving student learning," Ross said.

Under the proposal, students would spend no more than 2 percent of their school year on testing and 1 percent on practice tests. The state would also do away with the fall third grade reading test, but test students over the summer if they are found to need it. Students would also no longer be mandated to take math or writing diagnostic tests before third grade.

(Read more at wspd.com).