Kasich appointees dominated state school board vote to end requirements for school nurses, counselors and librarians

COLUMBUS, Ohio - State school board members appointed by Gov. John Kasich dominated Tuesday's vote to drop state requirements for school nurses, librarians and counselors and leave staffing decisions to local school boards.

The 11 members of the 19-person board that were appointed into their seats by Kasich voted 10-1 to kill the so-called "5 of 8" requirement the state has had for years.

It's not the final vote on the issue. That will come next year after two required administrative reviews of the change. But Tuesday's vote was a major step toward ending "5 of 8."

The rule requires schools to have at least five student support personnel from eight categories for every 1,000 students. Those eight are: elementary art, music or physical education teachers, school counselors, library media specialists, school nurses, social workers and "visiting teachers."

Debate was heated on the issue, with supporters of the change saying they want to remove state mandates and give districts the ability to set staffing at schools they know better than officials in Columbus. Opponents wanted to keep the rule to prevent less-affluent districts from axing these services when budgets are tight.

(Read more at Cleveland.com)

Principals Reject ‘Value-Added’ Assessment That Links Test Scores to Educators’ Jobs

The Board of Directors of the National Association of Secondary School Principals has given preliminary approval to a statement that rejects linking educators’ jobs and pay to standardized test scores that are plopped into a formula that can supposedly determine exactly how much “value” an individual educator has added to students’ academic growth.

The method of linking test scores to job status and pay is known as “value-added measurement” or VAM, and it has been embraced by school reformers, including the Obama administration, as a prime way to hold educators “accountable” for how well their students do in class. In some states, up to 50 percent of an educators’ evaluation is based on VAM systems. The problem is that numerous assessment and statistics experts — including the American Statistical Association — have said that VAM formulas (there are many) are not a valid or reliable method of assessing the value of individual teachers and principals.

Last April, the Statistical Association, the largest organization in the United States representing statisticians and related professionals, said in a report that value-added scores “do not directly measure potential teacher contributions toward other student outcomes” and that they “typically measure correlation, not causation,” noting that “effects — positive or negative — attributed to a teacher may actually be caused by other factors that are not captured in the model.” After the report’s release, I asked the Education Department if Education Secretary Arne Duncan was reconsidering his support for value-added measures, and the answer was no.

Read more at the Washington Post

Ohio Board of Education backs ending ‘5 of 8’ staffing rule

The Ohio Board of Education moved ahead yesterday with a plan to abolish school-staffing requirements that critics contend would allow districts to eliminate art teachers, librarians, counselors and other staff members.

After more than two hours of debate, the board voted 14-5 to approve a resolution of intent to do away with a state requirement that schools have certain numbers of art, music and physical-education teachers, counselors, librarians, nurses, social workers and visiting teachers.

The decades-old “5 of 8” rule mandates that schools have at least five of those eight positions for every 1,000 students.

The rule now goes through a legislative-review process and returns to the board for final approval in March.

School administrators and superintendents sought the change. Supporters say that it is outdated and that eliminating staffing requirements will give districts more flexibility and control.

Critics say it will encourage cash-strapped schools to eliminate teachers and staff members in areas not deemed essential for state standardized tests.

Read more at the Dispatch

Legislators stall out in dealing with inequities in Ohio schools

Seventeen years after the Ohio Supreme Court, in its landmark DeRolph v. State ruling, proclaimed that the Buckeye State “fails to provide for a thorough and efficient system” of educating its students, evidence continues to mount to support the premise that all public schools in Ohio are not created equal.

New illuminating data substantiates the court’s conclusion that Ohio’s system of funding schools largely through local property taxes is unconstitutional. It comes from an analysis of school curriculum data of all public districts by the state Department of Education.

The analysis concluded that rural districts average fewer than 6.5 high-level courses such as advanced math, specialized language-arts courses and nontraditional foreign languages. In contrast, suburban districts average 26 high-level courses, based on ODE curriculum data.

Read more at The Vindicator

Parents and educators plead with state board to keep requiring school nurses, librarians, counselors and arts teachers

Parents and educators made pleas to the state school board this afternoon to continue requiring a minimum ratio of student support staff to students in all schools.

Arts teachers, special education parents, a Cleveland Heights principal and retired teachers all told the board they wanted the board to drop plans to kill the so-called "5 of 8" rule that requires a mix of librarians, counselors, nurses and arts teachers in schools.

The rule requires five staff from these positions - elementary art, music or physical education teachers, school counselors, library media specialists, school nurses, social workers and "visiting teachers" -- for every 1,000 students.

Two groups of parents planned a 4 p.m. rally outside the Ohio Department of Education headquarters where the board is still meeting. Included in their plans: Displaying "tombstones" for the positions in the "5 of 8" rule that will no longer be required if the board passes its proposal Tuesday.

And some people, including Cleveland City Council, have asked the board to delay any vote on this proposed rule change for 90 days to allow more public input. See council's full resolution below.

Read more at Cleveland.com

Will change to #Ohio5of8 hurt art, music education?

A proposed state rule change will be the beginning of the end for school music and art — or a simple bureaucratic update with no real consequences — depending on which side of the debate to believe.

The Ohio State Board of Education is slated to debate and vote Tuesday on a change to a rule that governs how many music teachers, art teachers, school nurses and other similar support staff a district must employ.

Currently, districts are required to employ five people for every 1,000 students from one of eight areas: counselor, library media specialist, school nurse, visiting teacher, social worker and elementary art, music and physical education.

The state, however, does not track district compliance with this measure and has no real penalties if a district doesn't hire enough of the specialty positions. John Charlton, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Education, said when the rule was enacted in 1983, it was part of the school funding formula and schools lost money if they didn't follow it.

"Right now, there is no real teeth in the law that says there would be any kind of consequence," he said.

(Read more at Cincinnati.com