Tougher rules for Ohio charter schools getting widespread support

A legislative hearing on charter-school law broke out yesterday, but a fight did not.

That’s a big change from the typical Statehouse charter-school debates over the past 15 years.

As opponents become more accepting of the role of charter schools in public education, and supporters face a blizzard of reports detailing bad charter schools and weak laws, both sides are largely coalescing around proposed upgrades in accountability and transparency.

House Republicans have proposed a slew of charter-school law changes in House Bill 2, and Gov. John Kasich has proposed even more in his two-year budget.

(Read more at the Dispatch)

Ohio House votes to give students a symbolic "safe harbor" from scores on new Common Core tests

The Ohio House unanimously passed on Wednesday a bill that bans scores from this first year of new state tests using the Common Core standards from being used against students in any way.

House Bill 7 passed the full House 94 to 0, just a day after the House Education Committee backed it 18-0.

It's a mostly-symbolic bill, since the new tests that start being given next week count for little this year. Only high school freshmen could see a tangible impact from tests they need to pass before graduating in four years.

(Read more at Cleveland.com)

HEARINGS BEGIN ON FAILING CHARTER SCHOOLS

The Ohio House has launched hearings on legislation to clamp down on failing charter schools.

House Bill 2 would block sponsors of poor-performing charters from contracting for new locations, increase public access to information about school performance and their backers and require more standards in charter agreements.

The legislation, which had its initial hearing before the House's Education Committee Wednesday, is one of several efforts under way to address charter school accountability. The head of the Ohio Senate's Education Committee has said her chamber also is working on the issue, and Gov. John Kasich included charter provisions in his biennial budget proposal.

Rep. Mike Dovilla, R-Berea, a primary co-sponsor of HB 2, said charter school enrollment has grown from about 2,200 students at 15 locations in 1999 to 120,000-plus students at 400 charters.

"Although community schools provide an important option for many Ohio students, there is an inconsistency with regard to the overall quality of community schools," he said. "Some of Ohio's community schools are among the highest performing schools in the state, having also received national recognition for outstanding academic performance. At the same time we have seen evidence of poor academic performance and fiscal mismanagement driven in part by poor oversight and a lack of clarity of roles and responsibilities, circumstances that HB 2 is designed to address."

Among other provisions, the legislation would block charter schools that receive failing performance index grades from entering contracts with new sponsors without approval from the Department of Education.

(Read more at Crescent-News

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)