Records for Gateway Academy charter school too messy to audit

The financial records of Gateway Academy of Ohio, a Franklin County charter school, are incomplete, unauditable and “inexcusable,” Ohio Auditor Dave Yost said yesterday.

“Just as expected from their students, the school must follow the rules or face expulsion — or, at least the loss of their public funding,” Yost said in a statement about the school for students in grades 7 to 12 at 4500 Kimberly Parkway on the East Side.

Yost’s auditors looked at the school’s books for the period ending on June 30 and found that record-keeping was so bad that an audit could not be performed.

The school must, within 90 days of notification by the auditor, “revise its financial records and provide the necessary data,” Yost’s office said.

If that doesn’t happen, Gateway will be reported to the Ohio Department of Education, which would “immediately cease all state funding to the school.”

Attorney General Mike DeWine could subpoena school officials, requiring them to produce records and explain the confusion.

(Read more at the Dispatch)

7th Grade PARCC Test Reading Level =9.6

The 7th grade ELA team was discussing short cycle assessments last week and was thinking about using the PARCC practice test as an example. We chose to not subject our students to this misery.

One of the passages on the 7th grade PARCC practice test is from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. I ran that text through an online readability formula. The screen capture of the result is below.

I encourage you to read this post about about reading levels and think whether or not it is necessary to subject our 12/13 year olds to three days of PARCC, which is not used to inform instruction or help the student in any way.

Bottom line: The PARCC is testing 7th graders on a 9.6 grade reading level. Why?

(continue reading at Kevin722)

"High-performing" school districts would duck bureaucracy others face, under proposals from Gov. Kasich and Senate Pres. Faber

School "deregulation" proposals from Governor John Kasich and Sen. President Keith Faber offer rule exemptions that would save time and paperwork for all schools in the state

They also create separate exemptions only for "high performing" schools or teachers.

"Why put them through the hoops if they're already making a difference for boys and girls?" state Superintendent Richard Ross asked Monday, as he explained the governor's proposals to the state school board.

In a written statement, Faber expressed the same goal.

"Much has been asked of educators and school leaders over the last several years with the goal of improving student achievement," Faber wrote. "The Senate's goal is to eliminate ineffective or unnecessary state regulations for all schools and provide greater flexibility for high performing schools."

The much-anticipated proposals from Faber, which he promised late last year, are in Senate Bill 3 and will have their first hearing Tuesday before the Senate Education Committee. Kasich's proposals have yet to be drafted into a bill but had some early feedback from the state school board Monday morning.

(Read more at Cleveland.com)

BUDGET BRIEFING: K-12 Education

Innovation Ohio has released a 1 page budget briefing covering the main issues contained in the Governor's two year budget.

The Basics

Governor Kasich’s two-year budget includes additional funding through the state’s formula that funds school districts and charter schools, adding about $700 million more to the amount spent on education. However, the increase is offset by continued reduction ($236 million) in reimbursement payments to districts for lost Tangible Personal Property and Public Utility taxes, as well as increases to charter schools and transportation funding, which is wrapped into the formula funding now.

The bottom line is this: even with the modest increases, more than 55 percent of Ohio school districts will see less direct state aid than they saw in the 2010-2011 budget. Despite a record-sized budget of $72 billion, the net increase for education is only $464 million, which remains below inflationary growth levels. The increases generally happen in poorer districts with the cuts coming from wealthier districts, but there are plenty of examples of poor districts seeing cuts (Symmes Valley) and wealthy districts (Green Local in Summit County) seeing increases.

By the Numbers

• $464 million Net increase to schools out of a record-sized budget of $72 billion (GRF) +$700 million Increase to schools, -$236 million Cut in Tangible Personal Property and Public Utility Reimbursements
• 323 Number of districts seeing cuts in the 2015-2016 school year compared with 2014-2015
• 290 Number of districts seeing cuts in the 2016-2017 school year compared with 2015-2016
• $100 Annual per pupil increase for districts and charters in each year of the biennium
• 339 Number of districts that have less direct state aid than they did 6 years ago

Significant Policy Changes

Cracks Down On Charter Sponsors, But Not Charter Schools. Some of the changes are helpful, but they nearly all focus on the sponsors of charter schools instead of the schools themselves.

Keeps The Straight A Fund. Continues the Straight A Fund at $100 million a year.

Increases Funding For Edchoice. Expands the expansion of EdChoice vouchers from last year, more than doubling the amount and moving funding to the GRF rather than lottery money.

More Than Triples The Number Of Spots For Early Childhood. Increases to 17,000 the number of students in early childhood programs. Would allow some charters to have preschool kids. Still accounts for barely 1/3 of all preschool students.

Reduces Testing To No More Than 2 Percent Of School Time And Gives Flexibility To Districts For NonReading Tests In Early Grades.

Increases Auxiliary Services And Administrative Cost Reimbursement Payments To Private Schools. Again increases the amount of public funds going to private schools.

District-by-District Funding Impacts of Ohio Charter Schools

Innovation Ohio has just released a report looking at the impact the Governor's budget will have distrcit funding when increased charter school payments are factored in.

The Basics
Gov. John Kasich's proposed two-year, $72 billion state budget provides only a modest overall net increase in education funding of $464 million, with fewer than half of Ohio school districts (301 of 609) seeing increased funding in 2017.

However, when funding to charter schools is factored in, one in three of those districts will see their increases erased. After charter school deductions, just 200 out of 609 Ohio public school districts see actual funding increases in year two of the proposed budget.

In the last year for which data is available, $380 million in state funding was redirected from higher-performing traditional public school districts to charter schools with poorer performance grades on the state report card. Over a biennium, that’s $760 million going to worse options for kids, or two-thirds more than the Governor’s proposed $464 million increase in K12 education funding.

By the Numbers

• 301 Districts receiving an overall increase in FY 2017 compared to FY 2015
• 101 Districts where the increased funding is less than the amount the district lost to charter schools in the 2013-2014 school year
• $760 million Minimum amount of money sent to worse performing charter schools from higher performing districts over a biennium, based on 2012-2013 school year data
• $464 million Net increase to school districts through the state’s foundation funding formula in this budget

Their full report with tables showing specific losses to each distrcit can be seen here.

Ohio's new charter school "reform" effort: What's all this talk about sponsors?

Ohio doesn't have a simple plan to weed out its bad charter schools.

The state instead has an indirect strategy.

It puts agencies known as "sponsors," called authorizers in most states, in charge of overseeing charter schools, of fixing struggling charters and of closing the ones that can't be fixed. We'll be hearing a lot about Ohio's 69 sponsors this year, since both Gov. John Kasich and House leadership have made them the focus of charter reform plans.

What are they, exactly? Who are they? And why is Ohio just not cleaning up the charter school mess on its own?

We talked this week to Gov. John Kasich, state Superintendent Richard Ross, and State Sen. Peggy Lehner, who heads the Senate Education Committee, about the state's focus on sponsors.

Kasich and Ross said sponsors are the best way to push for improvements at charter schools quickly, without overburdening the Ohio Department of Education. And the governor said having sponsors overseeing the schools will prevent a future governor from undermining them.

Lehner, a Republican from Montgomery County, thinks Kasich's approach may be too narrow. She said she hopes the Senate will come up with changes for other parts of Ohio's charter system this spring.

(Read more at Cleveland.com)