Education News for 01-09-2012

Statewide Education News

• Reviews mixed 10 years after sweeping education reform (Enquirer)

Former Hamilton High School Principal Tracey Miller remembers it like it was yesterday. It was a few days into the new year in 2002, right before students returned from Christmas break. Miller was one of a few people working when the phone rang. He expected it to be a telemarketer. Instead, he found a U.S. Secret Service agent on the other end of the line. “He said ‘I want to talk to you about President Bush visiting your school,’” said Miller. “I thought it was a joke.” Read More…

• Open enrollment allows students to cross school district boundaries -- in some cases (Plain Dealer)

In half of Northeast Ohio's school districts, the doors of the local public school are firmly shut to keep out any child who doesn't live in the district. Some of them offer rewards to tipsters who expose families illegally using the schools without being subject to district taxes. A demand for tuition payments -- or even prosecution -- can follow. That's what happened to Kelley Williams-Bolar of Akron, whose arrest for sending her two daughters to Copley-Fairlawn schools captured the attention of school choice advocates across the country last year. But in the other half of the region's districts, the schoolhouse doors swing wide open to children who live outside the boundary lines -- and officials happily take the money that transfers along with them. Read More…

• Open enrollment hurts some schools in funding (Middletown Journal)

BUTLER COUNTY — Ohio’s open enrollment policy allows students to take advantage of academic programs not offered at their home schools, but it’s also costly for districts. Seven of Butler County’s 10 public school districts accept open enrollment students. Only Fairfield, Lakota and Ross schools do not. “A district may have a certain academic program that a student wants to go to,” Ohio Department of Education spokesman Patrick Gallaway said. “There are cases where one district adopted a pay-to-play policy on sports so some students went to an adjacent district where they didn’t have to pay.” Read More…

• Rules in place for districts' 'calamity days' (Daily Record)

WOOSTER - "Snow day," a popular term based on the most typical reason school is called off, will no doubt soon be a well-used phrase once again. This year as every other, rules and regulations are in place to handle what the state formally calls a "calamity day," available for more than just adverse weather. "Snow days are typically what they would be used for, but there could be other issues a district could face," said Patrick Gallaway, associate director of communications for the Ohio Department of Education. They don't just apply to severe weather conditions, he said. Read More…

Local Issues

• Most local charter schools focus on a niche (Dispatch)

There are charter schools that serve immigrant students. Children with autism. Students interested in art or science or martial arts. Although Columbus started slowly as a home to charter schools, experts say the metropolitan area now is a 'mecca' that hosts one of the most-diverse ranges of charters in Ohio. Central Ohio has 81 charters. Only 21 are traditional; the rest range from schools that serve dropouts to ones that focus on using new technology. Read More…

• Homeless Kids (Marietta Times)

The number of homeless children in the U.S. increased by 38 percent from 2007 to 2010, with Ohio's population of homeless children jumping by nearly 13,000 during that time, according to a recently-released report. During the 2010-2011 school year, there were a reported 63 homeless children in the Marietta City school district, a number that is on the rise. The National Center on Family Homelessness report "America's Youngest Outcasts 2010," released in December, says more than 1.6 million children, or one in 45, are homeless annually in America. This equates to more than 30,000 children each week and more than 4,400 each day. Read More…

• School income tax collections up in the county (Newark Advocate)

NEWARK - Licking County schools are on pace to collect more in income taxes this fiscal year. Although the county's five districts with income taxes saw drops from 2008 to 2009, collections are on pace to rise significantly for some. Newark collections fell from a high of $8.4 million in 2008 to $7.2 million in fiscal year 2011. Midway through the current fiscal year, the district is on pace to collect $8.2 million. Read More…

• Bullied Teen Speaks Out (ONN)

HAMILTON - Courtney Lyn Bacher never thought that she would be physically attacked or verbally assaulted by a bully at her high school. "I was by myself, when I had four guys come up and yell at me calling me names. I couldn't escape. I felt like I wasn't worth anything," Bacher said. The bullying began in eighth grade but it escalated during Bacher's high school years. Bacher posted a video sharing with friends and strangers how the abuse affected her, reported ONN's Lot Tan. Read More…

Editorial

• Pilot programs for evaluating Ohio teachers, if done well, could yield great benefits (Plain Dealer)

In contrast with the fireworks and ultimate failure of public employee reforms drawn up in Statehouse backrooms, Ohio education officials are tackling another politically sensitive issue -- teacher evaluations -- with restraint and transparency, in consultation with school districts and teachers. Read More…

• The right choice under their noses (Times Reporter)

Three Tuscarawas County school superintendents were hired last summer, all from outside their school districts. Sometimes, school boards have to cast a net outside the district to get just the right person for the job. But in an ideal situation, a replacement can be groomed from within. And that’s exactly what happened when the Garaway Board of Education last month agreed to replace retiring Superintendent Darryl Jones with someone who worked in the same building, High School Principal Teresa Alberts, the only candidate considered. Read More…

Education News for 12-30-2011

Statewide Education News

• Lake, Geauga counties, area schools feeling squeeze (News-Herald)

As the economy tries to rebound from a recession, Lake County government continues to see operating revenues decline due to flat sales tax revenue, property values that declined by 10 percent and meager earnings on investments that used to generate millions of dollars. Commissioner Daniel P. Troy said the county has done nearly all that it can to cut expenses and that has meant a reduction in the number of employees who are paid through the county's general fund. Read More…

• Launch nears for Youngstown teacher’s new app for grading tests (Vindicator)

YOUNGSTOWN - Elijah Stambaugh wasn’t a teacher for long before he realized a fundamental flaw in the education process. “Students in some classes score very low, and others score very high,” the former Stambaugh Academy seventh- and eighth-grade math teacher said. “I was looking for tools to better analyze students’ strengths and weaknesses.” So Stambaugh came up with an idea for a test-scoring software application to help teachers better organize and analyze their teaching tendencies. Read More…

Local Issues

• Truancy Decrease May Help Lessen Crime (WBNS 10 CBS)

COLUMBUS - Police said that a decrease in truant students has helped Columbus’ crime rate, CrimeTracker 10’s Jeff Hogan reported on Thursday. Five years ago, Columbus police created a special unit to track down truants. That unit now has 10 officers. “If we can get the kids back in school and get them on the right path at an earlier age, we'll prevent them from either being a victim -- or a suspect,” Sgt. Kevin Corcoran said. About 10,000 students have been picked up by police since 2007, police said. Read More…

• Homeless shelters seeing most children ever (Marion Star)

MARION - Local and national agencies are reporting an increase in homelessness among children as the economy continues to struggle. The National Center On Family Homelessness recently released its report "America's Youngest Outcasts 2010," which estimates one in 45 children in America are homeless within a year's period. That's a 38 percent increase when compared to the 2007-10 economic recession. The Marion Shelter Program is seeing a similar trend as its women and family homeless shelter served 116 children in 2010. Director Chuck Bulick said that was the most in the program's history and said he expects to meet or exceed that number in 2011. Read More…

Editorial

• Building agreement (Dispatch)

Gov. John Kasich has asked Ohio’s 37 public colleges and universities to figure out how to divvy up the state’s slim budget and submit a single wish list for campus construction and repairs. Positioning the schools to cooperate rather than compete is astute. University leaders are best-positioned to evaluate the hard choices that must be made, since they live with the problems daily and will have to live with the decisions long-term. And by making colleges sit down together to determine priorities, they cannot help but gain a better understanding of the needs of their sister institutions. Read More…

• For public schools, the year brought big cuts (Post-Gazette)

In public education circles, 2011 was the year that officials quickly learned how to do more with less. No relief was provided from the federal No Child Left Behind mandate that the state's 500 school districts continue to move students toward proficiency in math and reading. Yet, the state budget provided nearly $900 million less in funding for public schools. Read More…

Education News for 12-19-2011

Statewide Education News

• Teacher evaluations tested (Dispatch)

This is what schools are learning about Ohio’s new teacher-evaluation system: It is time-consuming. It is much more complicated than the old one. And it has potential to help teachers improve. Statewide, 138 school districts or charter schools — a total of 265 school buildings — are using new evaluations this school year as part of a pilot program of the new Ohio Teacher Evaluation System. About 20 districts and charters in central Ohio are test-driving the new system, including Canal Winchester, Columbus, Hilliard, Pickerington and Worthington. Read More…

• Growing STEM teachers (Enquirer)

UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS — Teaching physical science, Jordan Woods says, is the easy part. But it’s more difficult to learn to manage a classroom of ninth-graders at the Hughes STEM high school. “It was definitely the teaching part I needed help with,” said Woods, a 21-year-old from Independence who graduated in June from the University of Cincinnati with a degree in neuroscience (and also is planning her upcoming wedding). She originally wanted to be a doctor before changing her career plans. Read More…

• Kasich’s new school-funding formula delayed (Dispatch)

Shortly after taking office this year, Gov. John Kasich scrapped his Democratic predecessor’s school-funding fix and pledged to replace it with his own formula for distributing tax money to schools. Kasich vowed to direct more money to classroom instruction, better serve the individual needs of students and expand school options by allowing more tax dollars to flow from traditional public schools to charter and private schools. A “bridge” formula was put in place for this school year, with promises of a new funding model for 2012-2013. Read More…

• Student homeless rate up 82 percent (Dayton Daily News)

Area school officials say the foreclosure crisis and job losses are causing more students to become homeless. There were 21,849 homeless students attending public schools in Ohio during the last school year. That’s up 82 percent from 2005-06 when there were 11,977 homeless students, according to data school districts reported to the Ohio Department of Education. Paul Schneider, liaison for the McKinney-Vento Homeless Children and Youth program in Springfield City Schools, believes home foreclosures are behind the rising numbers. Read More…

• Teach for America aiming to be in Ohio in the fall (Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND-More than $2 million in grants will help bring Teach for America teachers to Northeast Ohio schools by the fall. The money from the Cleveland, George Gund, Nord and Stocker foundations, along with a contribution from the Lennon Trust, will pay for the national program to recruit and train highly educated college graduates who majored in subjects other than education and help them move to the area. Read More…

• Ohio’s new schools going green (Journal-News)

Ohio leads the country with more green-school projects under way than any other state, the U.S. Green Building Council said in a report released last week. The Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit released its first Best of Green Schools list recognizing recipients from across the country — from K-12 to higher education — for a variety of sustainable, cost-cutting measures including energy conservation. Read More…

• Districts lack minority teachers (Dispatch)

There were few other black teachers in Upper Arlington schools when the district hired her in 1979, but Kim McMurray Rhodes thought that, as time went on, there would be more. She never imagined that by the end of her career there would be fewer. “I was just breaking the mold. That’s what I was doing, and thinking I was opening the door for more and different minorities,” said McMurray Rhodes, 57, who retired in 2006. Read More…

Local Issues

• Staff exodus costs Toledo Public Schools $11M (Toledo Blade)

Tense contract negotiations in Toledo Public Schools and a controversial state law led to a mass employee exodus this year. More than 400 employees retired from the 4,500-employee district between January and August, causing severance payouts to more than double those in prior years. The retirements continue to have both financial and academic effects, district officials said. Read More…

• City schools may shop for ESC services (Chillicothe Gazette)

CHILLICOTHE - The Chillicothe City Schools Board of Education today could take the first step toward terminating its contract with the Ross-Pike Educational Service Center for special education services. The move is little more than a formality at this point, but Chillicothe school officials have indicated they might look to other ESCs if they can negotiate the same level of services at a lower cost. According to the biennial budget bill, which gives school districts more freedom in choosing an ESC, a district must notify its current ESC by Dec. 31 if it's even considering a switch. Read More…

• Despite reports, schools say hazing problems rare (Dispatch)

Officials for many local school districts say they have policies and procedures in place to deal with hazing, but they say it’s not a problem they deal with often. In Westerville, where four high-school basketball players were charged this week with hazing, school officials couldn’t recall such an incident in recent times. “This is the first time we filed charges” for hazing, said Westerville Police Lt. Tracey Myers. “ It’s not something we come across often.” Read More…

• Charter School opposition; Lorain School board passed a resolution against school vouchers (Morning Journal)

LORAIN — It has been an issue that has evoked a lot of strong emotions from those in public education, it’s Charter Schools. The Lorain School board passed a resolution Wednesday stating their opposition to pending legislation that would allow students to receive vouchers to attend charter schools. According to the school district, the legislation would allow any public school student to request an education voucher, with the only stipulation being that the family income is less than $95,000 a year. Read More…

• Swanton Local teachers authorize issuing strike notice (Toledo Blade)

SWANTON - Teachers in the Swanton Local Schools have authorized their union's bargaining committee to send a 10-day strike notice to the board of education, but the actual notice has not been given. The action Thursday by the 88-member Swanton Education Association came two days after the board declared negotiations with the union at an impasse and imposed terms of its last offer. Steve Brehmer, a spokesman for the teachers' union, said union officials would wait until two new members join the board in January before calling a strike. Read More…

Editorial

• Straight from the source (Dispatch)

A bill calling for the study of foundational historical documents, such as the U.S. and Ohio constitutions, the Declaration of Independence and the Northwest Ordinance, in Ohio schools will ensure that students will be exposed to the building blocks of American history. Such a law hardly should be necessary. It should go without saying that students need to understand the ideas expressed in those documents, which motivated and guided the founders of our state and nation. Read More…

How Blueberries changed a corporate reformer

Via out friends at American Society Today, comes a short video of how a teacher in the audience changed a corporate education reformers mind. The video starts out slow, but the pay-off at the end is well worth it.

I was dead meat, but I wasn't going to lie to the lady. I said "ma'am I would send them back"

Not a young women, she sprang to her feet, she points her finger at me. She says "that's right, you would send them back. We can never send back the blueberries our suppliers send to us".

"We take 'em big, small, rich, poor, hungry, abused, brilliant, homeless, with bad vision, poor hearing, bad teeth, creative, cautious, frightened, with ADHD, English as a second language - and that's why it's not a business - it's school!"

Yeah - Blueberries Pal! Blueberries!