Statewide Education News
- At-risk students hard to grade (Dispatch)
- Ohio schools: Achievement tests can bring on stress (WKYC)
Advocates for charter schools serving students at risk of dropping out say they shouldn’t be held to the same standards as traditional schools. Lawmakers studying a plan to impose a tougher rating system on schools and school districts agree, but they aren’t sure how best to judge dropout-recovery schools. “You just can’t lump them in with every other school,” Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Peggy Lehner, R-Kettering, said yesterday after hearing testimony from supporters of the schools. Read More…
This time of year, teachers and students often get stressed out over testing. So what advice are schools and doctors giving families to make sure students are at their best for the testing that started this week? Here are some tips from Dr. Ellen Rome, a pediatrician at the Cleveland Clinic. Read More…
Local Issues
- Breathalyzer Now In Use In Central Ohio School District (NBC-4)
- School district says privacy cloaks seclusion-room data (Dispatch)
- YEA chief to teachers: Expect layoffs (Vindicator)
- Superintendent roundtable discussion (13 ABC WTVG)
- Hamilton charter school finds new campus (Hamilton Journal News)
One central Ohio school district is taking a unique approach to better identify students who drink before school or school functions. Thanks to a grant, Pickerington Local Schools has an alcohol testing device, or a breathalyzer that can be used at anytime. “There's always been rumors, 'Oh, they've got a breathalyzer,’” said Pickerington High School North Principal Cindi Goldhaber. Read More…
The Columbus school district denied yesterday that it is blocking a state agency’s attempts to investigate the district’s use of seclusion rooms for special-needs students. In an answer to a federal lawsuit filed in early March, the district said it turned over documents that were pertinent to a mother’s allegation that her autistic son was so terrified when placed in a cell-like room that he stripped naked and urinated. Read More…
The president of the city teachers’ union cautioned members to prepare for layoffs and advised some to begin looking for new jobs. “The board will be changing the posting dates and the method of posting” for positions, Will Bagnola, president of the Youngstown Education Association, wrote in an email last week to the membership. “The board will not be honoring seniority in filling vacancies and assigning YEA members; board-action on a RIF [reduction in force] will not be done by April 30th; and, our class sizes will be increasing.” Read More…
Three northwest Ohio superintendents sit down with 13 ABC regarding the new state ranking system. Read More…
The Richard Allen Academy, a private charter school located on the city’s East Side, has found a new home in the former St. Julie Billiart School on Shuler Avenue. Academy officials hope the move will help attract more students. The charter school needed to find a new home after its current campus at 299 Knightsbridge Drive was purchased last fall by Miami University Hamilton. Read More…
Editorial & Opinion
- Another glimpse into Ohio’s lax oversight of charter schools (Vindicator)
The Liberty Board of Education’s experience with two “conversion schools,” essentially charter schools that were operated by a public school district, provide an insight into an inherent lack of oversight that has plagued far too many of Ohio’s experiments in alternative education. This week, the first good news about what had been the Liberty Early Academic Resource Nest and Liberty Exemplary Academic Design schools came from the Portage County Educational Services Center, the current sponsor of the schools. Read More…