Statewide Education News

Fewer students would pass state’s tougher exams (Dispatch)

If Ohio students had already taken the new, tougher state tests, only about 4 in 10 would have passed math or reading. The Ohio Department of Education plans to publish predictions of how districts might fare on the more-difficult exams on this year’s report cards. It has suggested that school districts look at their own what-if passing rates and ask “Are we ready?” for the new exams, which will replace current ones in three school years. Read More…

Senate bill focuses on historical texts in education (This Week News)

The South-Western City School District will have to revise its social studies curriculum now that an Ohio Senate bill has been approved. Senate Bill 165 requires the State Board of Education to incorporate original texts of the Declaration of Independence and its amendments, Northwest Ordinance, U.S. Constitution and Ohio Constitution into state social studies standards by July 1. At least 20 percent of the end-of-course examination in American government would cover the historical documents. Standardized tests would include the new material by July 1, 2014. School districts would have to adopt an interim form of assessment by July 1, 2013. Read More…

More hold on to substitute teaching licenses (Dayton Daily News)

A significant increase in statewide substitute teacher license renewals indicates that more workers are keeping temporary employment options open while searching for permanent jobs. Ohio Department of Education data show that one-year renewals of substitute teacher licenses increased from 6,569 in 2008 to 8,738 in 2011, a 33 percent boost in three years. At the same time, new one-year licenses issued dropped from 8,578 in 2008 to 6,753 in 2011, signaling that fewer new licensed subs are joining the pool while others are holding on to their substitute option longer. Read More…

New teacher evaluation process in infancy (Wooster Daily Record)

A new ranking system, new academic standards and new assessments are part of the ever-changing world that is public education. Added to the mix is the Ohio Teacher Evaluation System to be implemented in the 2013-14 school year. Schools that receive Race to the Top funds will be the pilot districts for the program. "New ratings, new evaluations," said Triway Local Schools' Superintendent Dave Rice at the March meeting of the board, mean districts have a lot on their plate. Read More…

‘Flipped’ classes take learning to new places (Dispatch)

Math teacher Wayne Tsai advises students while they complete an online exercise through the Kahn Academy at Hilliard Darby High School. Tsai is an advocate of a teaching model called the “flipped classroom.” Since the start of the school year, many of Wayne Tsai’s math students have been watching his lectures at home or in the computer lab. They take notes and jot down questions about his algebra and geometry lessons and then return to Tsai’s classroom the next day, ready to apply what they’ve learned to problems and projects that traditionally would have been assigned as homework. Read More…

Schools to get grade in phys ed (Bucyrus Telegraph Forum)
Ohio adds testing student fitness

The Ohio Department of Education recently stepped out of the classroom and into the gym. The department has graded schools on student scores on tests such as the Ohio Achievement Assessments and the Ohio Graduation Test for math, science, language arts and history for a while. Now the state is requiring schools to provide information on whether students are proficient in other areas -- in this instance, physical education. Read More…

Local Issues

Shelved school plans cost CPS $4.7 million (Cincinnati Enquirer)

Cincinnati Public Schools spent $1.2 million to have a Fairfield architecture firm design the new Quebec Heights school. The technology-rich, LEED-certified, “green” school in East Price Hill was to serve as a community learning center and an anchor for the neighborhood. But in January, months before construction was to begin, the district killed the project due to declining enrollment and lack of money. Now the renderings are shelved. The money is gone. And it’s not the first time. Read More…

Schools re-arrange agriculture classes into ‘pathways’ (Marietta Times)

Local schools are selecting agriculture education "pathways" under new state requirements intended to better assess their programs and improve articulation to colleges. "It's a little clearer what students are learning, what students are coming out with," said Ike Kershaw, assistant director of career technical education for the Ohio Department of Education. Read More…

Suburbs’ schools can play defense (Dispatch)

As the city of Columbus continues to expand into neighboring counties, school districts there might consider joining the Win-Win agreement to protect their territory from being annexed into the Columbus district, a consultant told suburban school officials in 2010. The 1986 Win-Win pact, named after a negotiating technique, allows nine suburban Franklin County school districts to continue to serve areas of Columbus, although they must share revenue from commercial and industrial properties with the Columbus schools. Read More…

Group that helps city's students finish college is moving ahead (Plain Dealer)

An effort to ensure that more Cleveland students graduate from college is well under way six months after local civic leaders and educators decided to team up. And it’s clear that they have plenty of work ahead of them. Only 136 of the 865 Cleveland school district graduates who enrolled in 14 Ohio private and public universities or at Cuyahoga Community College in 2005 had graduated six years later, according to data provided to the Higher Education Compact of Greater Cleveland. Read More…

No longer excellent? (Record Herald - Washington C. H.)

New academic performance grading system that could be in place as early as this year will reduce the number of "Excellent" schools in Ohio from 382 down to just 22. Washington City and Miami Trace Local Schools will be two of those to suffer the downgrade. Under the new system both school districts will go from the former "Excellent" distinction to a "B" under the new letter grading system. "We accept the challenge," said Washington City School Superintendent Keith Brown. "We will do our best to get an A-plus and we will continue our focus to increase the growth of all our students." Read More…

Harrison Hills buses get eco-friendly boost (Times Reporter)

The Harrison Hills City Schools’ fleet of 26 buses will be more eco-friendly thanks to a $55,000 reimbursement grant through the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. Ed Kovacik, the school district’s director of operations, worked to obtain funding through the Ohio EPA’s Clean Diesel School Bus Retrofit Program, which will equip the buses with E-Guardian heaters from Espar. Read More…

Pondering kindergarten (Lima News)

Figuring out the best college for a child can be a daunting task. But today's parents fret over another question years before college even comes up: to send to kindergarten or to wait. Academic redshirting has become a national phenomena of sorts, with much media attention given to the idea of holding children back from kindergarten so they are 6 instead of 5 when they head to school. Read More…