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).

State school board votes to abolish '5 of 8' staffing rule

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The Ohio Board of Education voted on Monday to eliminate school-staffing requirements that critics argue will allow districts to eliminate music and art teachers, librarians, counselors and other staff.

After 3½ hours of public testimony and debate, the board voted 11 to 7 to abolish the so-called “5 of 8” rule.

The decades-old rule requires schools, with some exceptions, to have at least five of the following eight positions for every 1,000 students: art, music and physical-education teachers, counselors, librarians, nurses, social workers and visiting teachers.

“There was ample opportunity for discussion, ample opportunity for amendments. I think it’s time for an up or down vote. Any rule can be revisited at any time,” said Ron Rudduck, a board member from Wilmington.

“We’ve had four or five votes since last year.”

Rudduck and other supporters argued that the mandate was outdated and school administrators and superintendents who sought the change were best positioned to make staffing decisions for their districts.

(Read more at Dispatch.com)

Lawmakers Move to Block Unionization of Ohio's Charter Schools

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Ohio's charter schools are notorious for poor pay and conditions, often treating educators as temporary help. In recent months a number of Ohio's charter school teachers had begun to either contemplate, organize or vote to unionize in order to be able to collectively bargain better conditions and benefits.

It seems the high priced lobbyists that charter operators hired to ward of any meaningful reforms have been busy with a side project to put a stop to employees being treated like professionals. Buried in the Ohio House's substitute budget bill is this little nugget

Excludes community school employees from membership in the State Teachers Retirement System and School Employees Retirement System if the employees elect to organize under federal collective bargaining laws and the community school is subject to those laws.

It is unlikely that employees would organize knowing they would lose their pension benefits - one of the few benefits charters are forced to provide. This is a pretty ugly coercive piece of legislation that serves only to enrich for-profit charter operators at the expense of educators.

If ever you needed proof of what Ohio's charter experiment is really about, this is it.