Advertorials in standardized tests?

A strange story out of New York

At least a half-dozen companies got an unexpected boost in marketing their brands to New York’s children this week — with free product placement on the state’s English exams.

Teachers and students said yesterday’s multiple-choice section of the eighth-grade tests name-dropped at least a handful of companies or products — including Mug Root Beer, LEGO and that company’s smart robots, Mindstorms.

IBM, the comic book and TV show “Teen Titans” and FIFA — the international soccer federation — were also mentioned in the test booklets, some of them with what educators referred to as out-of-place trademark symbols.

“I’ve been giving this test for eight years and have never seen the test drop trademarked names in passages — let alone note the trademark at the bottom of the page,” said one teacher who administered the exam.

How long before corporate education boosters push for companies to pay for advertising within standardized tests?

Education News for 03-22-2013

Local Education News

• Canton schools superintendent outlines reorganization plan Akron Beacon Journal)

A wide-ranging plan for Canton City Schools that would introduce more choice is taking aim at publicly funded charter schools that pull students — and money — from traditional buildings…Read more...

• Conneaut school officials unveil defense plan Ashtabula Star-Beacon)

School officials in Conneaut unveiled their defense plan to parents and the public in case of an armed intruder Thursday night in the first of four meetings scheduled at each of the districts buildings…Read more...

• Educators say “stop the misuse of standardized testing” Athens Messenger)

Those who think there’s an over-use of standardized testing in public schools have signed an online petition…Read more...

• Reform not often demanded of school boards, panel told Columbus Dispatch)

Voters typically don’t replace ineffective school board members and rarely demand reform from failing districts, an education policy expert told the Columbus Education Commission yesterday…Read more...

• Jackson school board member guilty in threats Columbus Dispatch)

A 25-year member of the Jackson City Schools Board of Education has been found guilty of intimidation of a public servant for sending threatening letters to educators and other school-board members in the southeastern Ohio district…Read more...

• Strongsville Mayor's proposed meeting with teachers, school board is shot down Sun Newspapers)

Mayor Thomas Perciak's proposed negotiating meeting between the board and teachers union representatives at 10 a.m. March 22 has fallen through…Read more...

• Parents share concerns over Supt. Hathorn's schools plan Youngstown Vindicator)

Gertrude and Alvin Hosea can live with city schools Superintendent Connie Hathorn’s revitalization plan for the schools as long as their granddaughter gets to stay at Kirkmere Elementary School next year…Read more...

Education News for 03-18-2013

State Education News

• Fund manager bonuses questioned (Cincinnati Enquirer)

Fund managers at Ohio’s state teacher pension system took in nearly $4 million in bonuses last year – with many of the bonuses alone more than the governor’s salary…Read more...

• New superintendents getting smaller salaries (Columbus Dispatch)

So far, all of the new superintendents in Franklin County will start their jobs at a lower salary than their predecessors…Read more...

• Acting state superintendent takes New Albany job (Columbus Dispatch)

Days after being passed over for Ohio schools chief, Michael Sawyers, who has been acting superintendent for seven months, announced yesterday he is leaving the Department of Education for a job in New Albany-Plain schools…Read more...

• When is it bullying? (Mansfield News Journal)

Bullying has drawn increased attention, as some of the nation’s deadliest school shootings have been linked to it…Read more...

• School board president reported neighboring district (Middletown Journal)

Kelly Kohls, president of the Springboro school board, was the first person to ask whether aletter critical of the governor that was posted on the Franklin schools web site and sent to families violated Ohio law…Read more...

• Pecko defends district action on ‘scrubbing’ (Toledo Blade)

Toledo Public Schools Superintendent Jerome Pecko defended how his district handled truancy reports and other data in a written response sent to the Ohio Department of Education over a state investigation involving TPS reporting practices…Read more...

• Area school districts prepare for state tests taken online (Youngstown Vindicator)

Tenth-graders across the state spent much of last week huddled over test booklets, pencils in hand, but in 2014-15 they’ll sit in front of computers instead…Read more...

Local Education News

• Canton City Schools expands focus on early learning (Canton Repository)

When Alicia Paulette first heard about City Schools’ “A Brighter Tomorrow” plan last month, she was excited…Read more...

• Jackson school district moves Jesus portrait (Columbus Dispatch)

A Jesus portrait that has embroiled a southeastern Ohio school district in a federal lawsuit has been moved from the middle school to a high school at the preference of a Christian- based student club that the district views as the picture’s owner…Read more...

• Panel asks: Columbus school board due for change? (Columbus Dispatch)

A mayoral takeover is not the only option for those who want to overhaul Columbus City Schools. Maybe not even a realistic one…Read more...

• Xenia school board censures member (Dayton Daily News)

A Xenia Community Board of Education member said a resolution censuring him that was recently passed by his fellow board members was “wrongful, unfair, and grossly illegal."…Read more...

• Conotton Valley Local considers layoffs amid funding woes (New Philadelphia Times-Reporter)

A month after voting to close one of its elementary schools, the Conotton Valley Board of Education will consider a proposal Monday to lay off or reduce the hours of more than a dozen employees…Read more...

• Demand for at-risk group's services higher than ever (Newark Advocate)

Skylar Tharp has felt the sting of words such as “weird” and “freak."Read more...

• District plans to improve security (Springfield News-Sun)

Mechanicsburg school board members are considering a plan to improve security in the district by installing new cameras and requiring visitors to buzz in at additional entrances to school facilities…Read more...

• Toledo Public Schools system boosts communication (Toledo Blade)

When bad weather hit in years past and Toledo Public Schools canceled or delayed classes, parents and kids had to wait for media reports to cycle through Toledo to learn if there was school that day…Read more...

Editorial

• Charter diversion (Akron Beacon Journal)

Ohio’s charter school program has made remarkable strides as an alternative to the traditional public school system. But from the beginning, the mechanism for funding the rapidly expanding system was — and remains — contentious…Read more...

• Lake Local faces tough decisions (Canton Repository)

The Lake Local Board of Education is facing what every other school district has in the last few years: More cuts to its budget — to the tune of $1.5 million in the upcoming school year — and an attempt to raise more money…Read more...

• New leader, big issues (Columbus Dispatch)

Taking the helm of the Ohio Department of Education now presents unprecedented challenges and opportunities, and The Dispatch extends best wishes to Richard Ross in the top job…Read more...

• School system restructuring deserves state financial help (Youngstown Vindicator)

For the second time in two years, the troubled Youngstown City School District is undergoing a major transformation in an effort to not only stop the exodus of students…Read more...

• ODE's rating system muddies perception (Zanesville Times-Recorder)

The problem with labels is they rarely tell the whole story. In the case of the Ohio Department of Education’s newest label, the story of school performance has become completely muddled…Read more...

Charter school performance crisis

The Ohio Department of education finally released their complete set of school ratings data, so we can once again take a look at the performance of traditional public schools and Ohio's charter schools. Keep in mind as you look at these results that charter schools in Ohio cost $54 more per pupil than traditional public schools, and that 90% of the money going to charter schools that are rated in Ohio go from better performing school districts to poorer performing charter schools on the Performance Index.

So, with that in mind, how do these schools stack up against each other?

The answer is, that charters do not stack up well against traditional public schools at all. Less than 10% of Ohio's charter schools rate excellent or better, compared to 54% of Ohio's traditional public schools. Worse still, at the bottom end, almost 40% of Ohio's charter schools are in academic emergency or academic watch, compared with just over 11% of Ohio's traditional public schools.

These results make it very difficult to justify diverting over $820 million from traditional schools delivering a quality education to charter schools delivering failure.

Standards are now so low in some Ohio charter schools that an investigative report by State Impact has found

Can’t pass the Ohio Graduation Tests? No problem, some charter schools say. You can still graduate.

At some Ohio charter schools, if a student can’t pass Ohio’s five graduation exams — in reading, writing, math, science and social studies — the schools enroll them in a series of correspondence courses through an Illinois-based school. The student then earns a high school diploma from the state of Illinois. Illinois does not require students to pass a state test to graduate.

If there's an education crisis in Ohio, it's with Ohio's charter schools first, and most.

Education News for 03-11-2013

State Education News

• Race to Top grants not worth costs, officials say (Columbus Dispatch)

Requirements tied to federal Race to the Top education grants have become more work than the money is worth, some Ohio school districts say…Read more...

• In some classrooms, social media welcome (Columbus Dispatch)

Jordan Shapiro’s class last week delved into a weighty discussion of Plato’s allegory of the cave and shifting perceptions of reality…Read more...

• Ohio first to target K-3 in voucher program (Dayton Daily News)

Ohio may become the first state in the nation to offer publicly funded vouchers to K-3 students whose schools fail to hit the bar in reading…Read more...

• Emails show data scrubbing analyzed in ’08 (Toledo Blade)

It is well-documented that the Ohio Department of Education long knew — or should have known — about extensive data scrubbing at urban Ohio school districts…Read more...

• Superintendents to testify about state funding (Zanesville Times-Recorder)

After losing $500,000 from state funding budget cuts in the past two years, Morgan Local Schools Superintendent Lori Snyder-Lowe fears what’s to come from other budget modifications…Read more...

Local Education News

• Schools receive their report cards (Cincinnati Enquirer)

Excellent is the rating for the Oak Hills Local School District. The Ohio Department of Education recently released its Ohio Report Card ratings…Read more...

• Dublin chooses new superintendent from suburban Cleveland (Columbus Dispatch)

Dublin schools announced today that Todd Hoadley will be the district’s next superintendent…Read more...

• Amherst schools up security; $250,000 system to include panic button, telephones in every classroom (Lorain Morning Journal)

Amherst schools will upgrade its security system for the next school year to include a panic button in every building and telephones in every classroom…Read more...

• Monroe mulls $740K in savings (Middletown Journal)

Monroe schools could save $740,000 over the next two years by reducing teacher positions, negotiating salary freezes, raising employee health care contributions and eliminating two active buses, according to the results of a year-long performance…Read more...

• Community backs new city schools plan (Youngstown Vindicator)

Many in the community support city schools Superintendent Connie Hathorn’s plan to restructure schools in an effort to boost student choice, cut costs and bolster achievement — although some questions remain…Read more...

Editorial

• School districts to state - We need stable funding (Cincinnati Enquirer)

Last month, Gov. John Kasich made waves with his school-funding proposal. The waves have not ceased ... and local districts are still bobbing up and down in rather deep troughs…Read more...

• How about an Ohio school funding formula do-over (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

Any proposal to change the inequitable way Ohio funds its public schools is sure to sow confusion and dissension. Funding formulas are complicated things…Read more...

• Youngstown school board gets warning from oversight panel (Youngstown Vindicator)

Youngstown schools Superinten- dent Connie Hathorn is seeking a renewal of his contract that expires in July 2014. The chairwoman of the state-appointed Academic Distress Commission…Read more...

On Teacher Quality

Rhonda Johnson, a Columbus City Schools educator and President of CEA has a great letter published on the Reimagine Columbus Education website, that we wanted to share

Our goal as a community must be to have a competent, caring and high-quality teacher in every classroom. Why? Teacher quality is the most important school-based factor in a high- quality education.

To that end, we must invest in high-quality teaching and organize schools for success for all of our students. This trumps other investments, such as reduced class size, overall spending on education, and teacher financial incentives and salaries.

There are clear conditions that must be present to attract and retain high-quality teachers, especially in challenging schools.

Pre-service preparation through appropriate and rigorous experiences at the university, in collaboration with faculty and public school teachers, is crucial. Teacher preparation programs, state departments of education and school districts must engage in residency programs analogous to the residency model in schools of medicine.

School leadership matters . . . a lot. Principal behavior is the primary factor affecting a teacher’s decision to stay at or leave a particular school. In fact, leadership behavior is a stronger predictor of teacher retention than either student demographics or achievement.

Teaching and learning conditions — such as job-imbedded professional development, teaching assistants and administrative support— matter more than individual financial incentives. In partnership with communities, school districts must provide sufficient resources to get the job done — newer technologies, instructional equipment and supplies, and access to social and health services.

Schools must provide the opportunity for teachers to work collaboratively with peers who share the responsibility for every student’s success. Teachers must work with colleagues to analyze student work, plan lessons and build relationships with students and families.

Effective teachers are committed to creative teaching and inquiry learning. Teaching is about discovery, learning and awe, not minute-by-minute curriculum mandates, scripted instruction and testing.

Education policymakers and administrators would be well served by recognizing the complexity of the issue of teacher quality and adopting multiple measures along many dimensions to support existing teachers and to attract new, highly qualified teachers.

Research suggests that investing in teachers can make a difference in student achievement. To implement needed policies associated with staffing every classroom — even the most challenging ones — with high-quality teachers, substantial and targeted investments must first be made in teaching quality.