Statewide Education News

‘No Child’ left behind? Ohio seeks waiver from federal law (Dispatch)

Ohio schools wouldn’t be judged by whether all students pass state tests if federal officials grant the state’s request for freedom from the No Child Left Behind Act. Instead of inching toward the requirement that 100 percent of students be “proficient” on standardized math and reading exams by 2014, Ohio would require schools to show improvement among all students, regardless of race, family wealth or other factors. Students still would need to take and pass tests and graduate on time. But Ohio’s system of holding schools accountable would change dramatically. Read More…

Schools making progress in Race to the Top (Chillicothe Gazette)

It's a transformational time for Ohio's kindergarten-through-12th-grade schools. By 2014, all English and math classes will be operating under new curriculum standards because of a voluntary federal program the state adopted. By the 2013-14 school year, all teachers must be paid based on merit, using a teacher evaluation system that has yet to be established. Read More…

Local educators concerned about evaluation standards (News-Sun)

SPRINGFIELD — A new law that requires student performance to count as 50 percent of a teacher’s evaluation seems like a good idea in theory but is more complicated in practice, local educators say. “To measure this is virtually an impossibility given the current environment we’re in,” said Northwestern Local Schools Superintendent Tony Orr. “I think there are an awful lot of question marks out there.” Read More…

Speaker touts inclusion program (Blade)

In many schools, students with disabilities are seen as a burden, an extra cost. Schools for years tucked them in "resource rooms" or bused them to faraway locations. They weren't expected to excel, Richard Villa said, were rarely expected to contribute. The students were kept out of sight, and schools could pretend they weren't there. "As long as you can send away anyone that challenges the status quo," he said, "the status quo never has to change." Read More…

Students’ use of Web for classwork can get sticky (Dispatch)

Some students took on the voice of Martin Luther King Jr. Others wrote defiant statements as if they were Rosa Parks. But other students’ posts on Twitter sounded less like an assignment to write as a civil-rights leader and more like other posts on social media: Their comments were laced with pop-culture humor and hashtags usually used to evoke a laugh. One student wrote: “ #thatawkwardmomentwhen that white guy doesn’t hear me call shotgun on the bus ” — an attempt to speak as Parks. Read More…

National Stories of the Day

States Try to Fix Quirks in Teacher Evaluations (NY Times)

Steve Ball, executive principal at the East Literature Magnet School in Nashville, arrived at an English class unannounced one day this month and spent 60 minutes taking copious notes as he watched the teacher introduce and explain the concept of irony. “It was a good lesson,” Mr. Ball said. But under Tennessee’s new teacher-evaluation system, which is similar to systems being adopted around the country, Mr. Ball said he had to give the teacher a one — the lowest rating on a five-point scale — in one of 12 categories: breaking students into groups. Read More…

Local Issues

Girls make peace, now urge others to curb bullying (Chillicothe Gazette)

NEWARK - Breonna Helmondollar and Saige Perrin didn't get along with each other at the beginning of the school year. The Par Excellence Academy fourth-graders tried to avoid each other as much as possible -- difficult in a small classroom -- and frequently argued. "There was a camp for Breonna and a camp for Saige," school administrator Gisele James said. "Each of them felt the other one was trying to attack them." That changed just before Christmas break, when the girls met in James' office and talked about their issues. Read More…

Between the Lines: School transformation plan (WKYC 3 NBC)

CLEVELAND - Cleveland mayors back to Mike White have been in charge of Cleveland's school system. Now Mayor Frank Jackson is offering the boldest transformation plan ever to come out of City Hall. He needs changes in state law to do this. The mayor can expect pushback from teachers who are upset they were not consulted and view this as Senate Bill 5 "light." He's hoping for Democratic and Republican lawmakers to introduce this. Read More…

Mt. Healthy district says financial forecast is bleak (Enquirer)

Even if voters approve a levy, officials at the Mount Healthy City School District say the district will have to make cuts for the 2012-13 school year. The passage or failure of the levy on the March 6 ballot will determine how deep the cuts will be. This is a familiar scenario for the district. School officials made cuts every year but one since 2003, when the district last passed a levy for additional revenue. Read More…

London Schools Looks To Slash $500,000 From Budget (WBNS 10 CBS)

LONDON - London City Schools officials proposed a number of cuts to reduce its budget, 10TV News reported on Friday. According to the Madison Press, the district proposed eliminating 21 supplemental contacts, including some coaching positions. The proposal also calls for an increase in sports fees for participants and fewer trips for the school band. The cuts would amount to $500,000 in savings. Read More…

Fairfield schools may outsource bus service (Enquirer)

FAIRFIELD — An aging fleet and no money to buy additional buses has prompted Fairfield City Schools to look at contracting out some or all transportation services. “If we wouldn’t have reduced service (this year), we would not be able to serve high school students without buying buses,’’ said Chad Lewis, assistant superintendent for business. “We would have had one spare bus.” In a cost saving move, the district eliminated busing for students in grades 10-12 and revamped its remaining routes. Read More…

Westerville schools’ finances scrutinized in levy debate (Dispatch)

Before November, the most-recent levy defeat for Westerville schools had been seven years ago. Between the bookends of those failures, voters agreed to two operating levies and a capital-

improvements issue. Meanwhile, the district’s spending increased by $7.7 million more than inflation, not including capital costs and debt payments. Read More…

Editorial

Misdirected (Dispatch)

The chaos surrounding the $26 million renovation of Indianola Middle School resulted from the failure of Columbus City Schools leaders to remember whom they are supposed to serve: the taxpayers and students of the district. Instead, they awarded this contract to an architect unqualified to handle a project of this scope on his own and who violated the contract by failing for months to tell the district that his partner, a construction-services firm that was to do the bulk of the work, had withdrawn from the project. Read More…

Illusion left behind (Beacon Journal)

It is 2012, and Ohio is nowhere near meeting the deadline to have 100 percent of its students proficient in math and reading within two years. No state is, and none will. The proficiency requirement in the federal education law, No Child Left Behind, is quixotic and a major reason President Obama has offered to waive the mandate along with others, releasing 10 states this month to pursue more realistic and achievable goals. The Ohio Department of Education is finalizing its application for another round of waivers. Read More…

Don’t tie the teachers’ hands (Tribune Chronicle)

One concern in most states is how many days children spend in public school classrooms. For various reasons, including inclement weather, many school systems don't meet state-mandated requirements for instructional days. An obvious answer to that, implemented in many states, is to provide more flexibility in setting school calendars. Now a few Ohio legislators want to place a new restriction on school calendars. Public schools should not be permitted to open for the year before Labor Day, they say. Read More…