Yost demands repayment of nearly $300,000 in state money

Ohio Auditor Dave Yost demanded repayment of nearly $300,000 on Thursday from Columbus-area educators who apparently pocketed the tax money meant to benefit students.

In the first case, a would-be charter-school operator received $88,750 for a school she never opened.

According to the annual audit of Ohio’s financial records, Wendy Marshall received the state aid to open the Directional Academy in Columbus in the fall of 2013 under the sponsorship of the North Central Ohio Educational Service Center.

Yost said the misspending was the latest problem in Ohio’s system of privately operated, publicly funded charter schools.

“The system is busted, broken and doesn’t work,” Yost said. “When everyone is responsible, no one is responsible. Ohio’s chaotic supervision of charter schools is inadequate and needs reformed. ”

The audit also uncovered problems at a private school in Hilliard.

(Read more at the Dispatch.com).

Springfield Board votes to opt out of some testing

The Springfield Board of Education voted Thursday night to apply for a waiver to opt out of most state and federal testing requirements.

The district is a part of the Innovation Lab Network, a group of schools that experiment with new student centered learning techniques. Recently a law went into effect that gives the group permission to apply for the waiver.

If Springfield’s waiver is approved by the state, the wave would exempt students from different tests in third grade all the way up to the high school.

Superintendent Dr. David Estrop says some of those mandated tests are redundant and his teachers spend more time preparing the students for tests rather than teaching.

(Read more at wdtn.com).

New school tests spur anger, absences

More area school parents are taking a "none of the above" stance and yanking their kids from what they say is excessive new testing.

And some area school superintendents are joining them by taking rare, public positions in opposition to state education officials' backing of new Common Core-inspired testing for grades three through 12 in Ohio.

The tests, which are new this school year, have triggered various objections. Some parents worry about the new exams' frequency, complexity and what they see as lack of educational value. Others fear schools will share data about their child's performance. Still others worry about the shift away from pencil and paper to using computerized exams.

But the most common complaint is that local school districts are losing their autonomy to state, federal officials and private corporate backers of Common Core, a sweeping set of education reforms that have drawn both strong supporters and opponents in recent years.

Common Core backers tout the new academic standards' uniformity - to various degrees the reforms were adopted by all but four states - and its extensive testing as adding accountability to American student achievement assessments.

Many Greater Cincinnati districts are now putting thousands of students through the new exams that are drawing complaints and accusations of unduly pressuring students.

(Read more at cincinnati.com)

Education Insider: Kasich trades jabs with Fairbanks superintendent

A war of words appears to be brewing between Gov. John Kasich and Fairbanks Superintendent Bob Humble.

It started when Humble offered his thoughts on Kasich’s school-funding proposal, which takes into account a district’s ability to fund its operations based on income and property value per student.

“This is absolutely the craziest, most-goofiest formula I’ve ever seen,” Humble said. “How can a state in the best financial state it’s ever been in be cutting funds to any district?”

Fairbanks in Union County is slated to lose about 6 percent, or $314,000, in state funding over two years under Kasich’s plan.

Humble was dumbfounded by the district’s capacity measure — its ability to pay for its schools — under Kasich’s plan. Fairbanks’ measure ranked above capacity in the New Albany and Olentangy school districts, which have higher median incomes than the mostly farming community. Fairbanks’ figure is just below Upper Arlington’s and Grandview Heights’.

Kasich responded just as harshly, calling out educators for what he said is their “irresponsible” reactions to his plan.

“We need more superintendents who are educators and less superintendents who are politicians,” he said.

(Read more at the Dispatch)

Ohio's School Counselors Could See New Evaluation Standards

A new set of evaluation rules for the state’s school counselors is included in Governor John Kasich’s proposed operating budget. And the Ohio School Counselors Association, or OSCA, supports the idea.

School counselors aren’t evaluated like teachers. OSCA created its own guidelines a few years ago, but assessments are still handled at the local level. Association President Sarah Collins says that means there’s no unified approach, so school counseling programs vary depending on where you are. She points out a counselor’s effectiveness also depends on the demands on them and if they are pulling double duty like filling in as substitute teachers.

“You may have one counselor that has 250 students, which is the recommended ratio by our national organization. There are some counselors that have 1,000 kids, or 2,000 kids in multiple buildings. So how do you evaluate those fairly?”

And she says having set guidelines written into law means everyone would also be speaking the same evaluation language.

“What’s working in your district with this? And what’s working in your district with this? I mean, certainly we know that the resources are probably are never going to be completely an even-playing field. But it at least gives us a starting point for administrators to talk, for superintendent to talk, for other school counselors to be able to talk using common language.”

Collins says her organization will continue working with lawmakers as they consider the rules. If the idea is approved, the state board of education would need guidelines in place by May 2016.

Your charter schools

School choice. Doesn't that sound nice? It seems to ring of sounds we all hold dear: liberty, equality and the pursuit of excellence in education. The sad truth is, however, that Ohio's charter schools are a mess.

According to a study released late last year and commissioned by the pro-charter Fordham Institute, of the 68 criteria on which public and charter schools are compared, 56 of those criteria indicate that charter schools have a negative impact on students versus public schools. For example, the average Ohio charter school student completed 14 fewer days of learning in reading and 36 fewer days in math than the average public school student.

The results are so bad that a member of the pro-charter Hoover Institution told the City Club of Cleveland, "I am actually a pro-market kind of girl, but it doesn't seem to work in a choice environment for education."

Recent Ohio school report cards show charter schools receiving more Fs than As, Bs and Cs combined. Over 60 percent of the state's charter schools earned Ds or Fs last year, according to knowyourcharter.com, which gathers its information from the Ohio Department of Education.

Charter school performance is so bad that even Gov. Kasich has vowed to get tough with underperforming charter schools in 2015.

(Read more at the Sandusky Register)