Ohio Senate leads on reform

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A charter-school-reform bill introduced in the Ohio Senate Wednesday is a marked improvement over a similar measure in the House. Lawmakers should ensure that the bill that eventually is sent to the governor incorporates the rigor of the Senate version.

Senate Bill 148 not only strengthens important provisions that have been watered down in House Bill 2, but enjoys bipartisan support.

The primary sponsor, Senate Education Chairwoman Peggy Lehner, R-Kettering, has stood fast for school reforms despite pushback from those in her party beholden to for-profit charter-school operators, some of whom are major campaign contributors. In this bill, she stands up for taxpayers by insisting on greater transparency and accountability.

Lehner created an informal, bipartisan panel that spent months reviewing the changes needed to rid Ohio’s charter-school system of conflicts of interest and a lack of accountability.

What resulted was a strong bill co-sponsored by Lehner and Democratic state Sen. Tom Sawyer of Akron. Senators who showed their support by attending a press conference included Senate minority leader and Democrat Joe Schiavoni of Boardman and Republicans Frank LaRose of Copley and Shannon Jones of Springboro.

Also showing their support were state Reps. Kristina Roegner, R-Hudson, and John Patterson, D-Jefferson, and Ohio Federation of Teachers President Melissa Cropper.

(Read more at Dispatch)

Ohio House plan to nix PARCC tests risks loss of $750 million in fed money

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Risking the loss of three-quarters of a billion dollars in federal education funding, Republican leaders in the Ohio House have placed language in the two-year budget to ban the use of new student assessments and cut off the money to pay for them.

The PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) tests in English/language arts and math have been under fire for being too hard on students, taking too much time away from classroom instruction and technical glitches with the online exams.

The House version of a two-year state budget prohibits the use of state funds to purchase the PARCC exams.

It also slashes $33.6 million per year from the Department of Education’s budget for assessments and bans the reallocation of other money to pay for assessments.

The proposal does not suggest a replacement for the tests that are required under federal law — and even if it did, the money to pay for them has been eliminated. Ohio spent $45 million on PARCC, which took years to develop and align with new Common Core academic standards.

“We’re trying to send a message that is pretty clear: We need to look at different testing mechanisms for the state,” said House Finance Chairman Ryan Smith, R-Bidwell.

(Read more at the Dispatch)

Ohio Senate bill tackles charter school reform

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The spotlight on charter school reform is about to shine in the Senate.

The Senate version of charter school reform goes further than a bill that passed the House last month, requiring operators to provide more detailed financial reports and placing tighter controls on online e-schools.

Sen. Peggy Lehner, R-Kettering, has held months of meetings with an informal group of state education officials and top charter school advocates to craft a wide-ranging bill that she called the most comprehensive changes to charter school law in 15 years.

It is a law that has been sharply criticized in recent years, including studies commissioned by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, which sponsors 11 charter schools in Ohio, that showed charter students in Ohio are getting less education than those in traditional schools.

Ohio charter school laws are too loose, Lehner said. “We failed to put up the sort of guardrails that would ensure responsible governance.”

(Read more at the Disptach)

Ohio educators give bad marks to new PARCC Common Core exams and other state tests

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Ohio educators aren't happy with the state's new tests - both the Common Core exams from PARCC or other state tests from the American Institutes of Research.

Not teachers.

Not principals.

Not superintendents.

All three groups gave both sets of tests bad reviews in a statewide survey ordered by State Sen. Peggy Lehner as her Senate Advisory Committee on Testing looks at how Ohio should handle testing in the future.

The general public - parents, students and other residents labeled as "Other" in the results - also gave the tests poor reviews.

Lenher commissioned the online poll because she wanted to be sure that the loud complaints she was hearing about the first round of tests were broad concerns, not from just a few energetic testing opponents.

"Do we have a quantifiable way to measure how much of this has been really bad, how much has been minor?" she asked the state school board last month. The survey was her attempt to answer that question.

Lehner was not immediately available for comment, but the poll gives a clear answer: There is broad dissatisfaction with the tests, with how the online tests work and with how much time they take.

(Read more at Cleveland.com)

Local superintendents say future unclear for art, gym class in Ohio

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In many Ohio school districts, gym classes and visits to the guidance counselor could soon be a thing of the past.

This week, the Ohio State Board of Education lifted a long-standing rule setting guidelines for support staff, gym teachers and art teachers. Schools in Ohio used to have to provide have at least five student support personnel from eight categories for every 1,000 students.

Those categories are art, music and physical-education teachers, counselors, librarians, nurses, social workers and visiting teachers.

“It gives districts an opportunity to re-evaluate what is wanting to be offered, what can be offered. Fiscally sound districts like ourselves at this point it gives us the flexibility to maintain staff and to continue with course offerings,” Canfield Superintendent Alex Geordan said.

The classes and support staff all work in subjects that are not part of state mandated testing programs.

“I think they are all important in developing the whole child and they are all important in that aspect of the curriculum, but I do like the aspect of giving local control to the school if they would have to do that. I don’t see a lot of schools cutting those services at this time unless they are in a financial crisis,” Jackson-Milton Superintendent Kirk Baker said.

(Read more at wkbn.com).