Christmas Holidays edition of education news

Statewide Education News

Preschool grant is a boon to Ohio: editorial – Plain Dealer

The federal government's decision to give Ohio nearly $70 million to improve preschool for disadvantaged Ohio youngsters easily earns an A. It was the largest of nineRace to the Top Early Learning Challenge prizes recently given to states after a competitive process. Now Ohio must plan for the long haul to get the most value out of the money. Read More…

New effort to make kids college-ready – Columbus Dispatch

Teachers in elementary, middle and high school often team up to help students prepare for the next level. In a new twist, some high-school teachers in Columbus City Schools will be paired with college professors to ensure that more students are college-ready. Read More…

Athens Meigs Resource Center Looks At Shared Services Possibility – WOUB - Athens

Every day, school districts in the 18 counties in the region send out busses to take kids to school, traveling more than 330,000 miles. The cost is enormous and it's something Rick Edwards knows all too well. Edwards is Superintendent of the Athens Meigs Educational Resource Center. "What we're looking at is, is there a way for us to leverage the mileage, the cost, the square miles, and all those aspects, to leverage a more efficient operation and reduce costs while serving school districts and students better in the region," says Edwards. Read More…

Ohio gets Race to the Top grant – Marietta Times

Funding focus on better access to and quality of early learning The latest federal Race to the Top funding received by Ohio will focus on improving access to and the quality of early childhood education, something local educators agree is vital. Research has been "overwhelmingly conclusive" in showing that students who learn basic concepts prior to kindergarten require less intervention as they get older, said Warren Local Schools Superintendent Tom Gibbs. Read More…

Local Issues

Cincinnati among districts moving away from isolating grades 7-8

Educators have long known that the middle school years are critical for a student’s academic development. What’s not known is the best way to group those students to get the most out of them academically. Studies on which system works best are inconclusive, at best. When Cincinnati Public Schools announced this month that it would expand Western Hills High School to grades 7 through 12, it was the district’s latest attempt to boost middle school achievement through grade reconfiguration. Read More…

Gifted students in Reynoldsburg ‘adopt’ one another to demonstrate their support and remain connected – Columbus Dispatch

Katie Samuelson sees her sisters in class and her moms at recess. All through school, she runs into other relatives — brothers, aunts, uncles and grandparents. By getting “adopted” by sixth-graders this year, Katie and other fifth-graders at Reynoldsburg’s Gateway Academy have a place in a family tree that teachers say stretches at least seven years. Read More…

Schools count a win – Columbus Dispatch

Hundreds of people gathered in Linden 10 years ago this month to take a leap of faith — breaking ground on the first new school building in the Columbus City Schools in more than a quarter century.

A band played and schoolchildren sang as construction of the $10.5 million Linden Elementary School was launched, replacing two buildings constructed in 1905 and 1920. The new building at 2626 Cleveland Ave. was designed to show wary voters that the district could manage a huge school-reconstruction plan being pushed by the state, which was offering a 30 percent funding match. Read More…
Free lunch participation skyrockets in past decade – Oxford Press

The number of Butler County children receiving free or reduced-price lunches in the United States Department of Agriculture National School Lunch Program has doubled over the past decade. In a March, 2001 report by the Ohio Department of Education, 10,326 county school children were participating in the program, 20 percent of the 51,003 children enrolled in public schools. In September, 2011, the ODE reports that 22,371 children, 38 percent of 58,119 students, are now receiving free or reduced-price lunches. Read More…

Voucher expansion opposed – Marion Star

Elgin and Ridgedale local school boards passed resolutions this week opposing House Bill 136. The bill would expand the state's school voucher program so students in any school district could receive public funds to pay for private or parochial school tuition. Read More…

North Royalton's Early Childhood Center readying for all-day K – Sun News/PD

Parents of incoming kindergartners have a choice to make for the next school year. Members of the school board approved the establishment of an all-day, tuition-based kindergarten option for the 2012-13 academic year. The Early Childhood Center, housing district preschool and kindergarten education, will designate two classrooms for the all-day program. Read More…

Editorial & Opinion

Ethnic and cultural changes in schools offer challenge, opportunity

The growing diversity of central Ohio’s population means that schools continue to change. It’s up to families and school officials to take advantage of the opportunities this presents, even as they deal with the challenges. Read More…

State leads the way in early childhood learning – Chillicothe Gazette – Op-ed

Democrats and Republicans don't agree on much these days. But there is one thing on which they do see eye to eye: the value of early childhood education. Once an afterthought of America's education system, early learning now is front and center as educators, governors and legislators grapple with ways to better prepare children for a lifetime of success. Read More…

Schools are mired down by mandates – Tribune Chronicle - Warren

In some state legislatures and Congress, it has been suggested one means of holding down spending would be to require that when new programs are mandated, budgets for existing ones be pared down. Taxpayers can afford only so much, after all. Perhaps state legislators should consider a similar strategy for public schools. Read More…

Team effort can lift poor black kids – Columbus Dispatch – Op-ed

Forbes writer Gene Marks got the Bill Cosby treatment in the blogosphere last week for his column titled “If I were a Poor Black Kid.” Marks describes himself as a “middle-aged white guy who comes from a middle-class white background.” He admitted that he knows nothing about being poor and black in America, and the solutions he proposes to help kids in West Philadelphia rise above their dire circumstances are not new. Read More…

Quality of a school is in the eyes of the beholder – Columbus Dispatch LTE

I thank Chester E. Finn Jr., president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, for his kind words about my part in contributing to Ohio’s school-choice movement (“Schools of choice need to be schools of quality,” Forum column, Dec. 14). Of course, the real heroes are the parents, students and staff, who have continued to believe in spite of enormous ridicule and unwavering criticism. Read More…