Education News for 05-31-2012

State Education News

• State Gets Go-Ahead To End Federal Tutoring Program (WBNS)

The state auditor was investigating allegations of fraudulent billing in connection with a federal tutoring program, 10TV’s Kristyn Hartman reported on Wednesday. Officials from the Ohio Department of Education said that they wanted to get rid of the federally funded tutoring program designed to help students at underperforming schools. The Supplemental Educational Services program, part of the No Child Left Behind program, is designed to gives students help outside of the classroom. Read More...

• Educators, Parents Call For Better Funding For Ohio Public Schools (ONN)

Parents and educators from Cincinnati protested in front of the Ohio Statehouse Wednesday afternoon. At the center of controversy Wednesday was an education funding formula that many believe puts some districts at a disadvantage. "We have to raise money by selling wrapping paper in order to have enough pencils for our children to take tests, but literally 20 minutes away every child has a laptop," said Ruth Ann Wolfe. Read More...

Local Issues

• Area educators react to decision on No Child Left Behind change in Ohio (News Herald)

Area educators are expressing mixed reaction to this week's announcement that Ohio schools will be freed from several regulations of the No Child Left Behind Act. The U.S. Department of Education approved the state's waiver application Tuesday. Schools in the state will now be given greater flexibility to meet accountability standards, including removal of some reporting requirements, and they will also have more freedom in use of federal funds, according to the Ohio Department of Education. Read More...

• Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson's bid for local control of charter schools fits national push for accountability (Plain Dealer)

Mayor Frank Jackson's bid for more local control of charter schools in Cleveland wasn't a big reach by national standards. Most states require charter schools -- public schools that receive tax money, but are privately run -- to be created through major educational institutions such as local school districts, universities or the state education department. Read More...

• Utica High School Students To Receive iPads (WBNS )

UTICA, Ohio - North Fork Local Schools officials said that they will lease 560 iPads to students in the next four years, 10TV News reported on Wednesday. According to administrators, the tablets would be paid for using money that would have been used to purchase textbooks and paper. Read More...

• Picture of inspiration goes viral (Dispatch)

By the second lap, Matt Woodrum had slowed down. The fifth-grader with cerebral palsy clearly was in pain. 'You’re not stopping, are you?' his gym teacher asked, already knowing the answer. 'No.' Matt pushed on. The determination that the 11-year-old showed in completing the 400-meter race on May 16 inspired not only his classmates and school officials, but also viewers around the world who have seen the viral YouTube video online. Read More...

• ODE: Monroe taking right path to emerge from fiscal emergency (Middletown Journal News)

MONROE — Monroe stakeholders have taken the right approach to reach financial solvency for the school district, a state education official said. Roger Hardin of the Ohio Department of Education, said he’s seen a series of trends when it comes to dealing with fiscal emergencies in school districts. Read More...

Editorial & Opinion

• New opportunity (Findlay Courier)

Now that Ohio has been granted relief from some federal education mandates, lawmakers and educators need to raise the bar in education. The No Child Left Behind Act, which has been in place since 2001, requires states, among other things, to test students in reading and math in order to receive federal dollars. Those states which don't have a 100 percent compliance rate by 2014 would risk losing federal money. Read More...

• Proficient learners (Beacon Journal)

In 2001, education reformers on Capitol Hill and the White House set a high goal for the nation’s public schools: The No Child Left Behind Act would ensure that every child was proficient in math and reading by 2013-14. States would set proficiency targets and measure districts and schools on Adequate Yearly Progress. Progressively stern interventions awaited districts and schools that failed persistently to make the required progress. Read More...

• Keeping No Child Left Behind waiver is Ohio's next challenge: editorial (Plain Dealer)

It's no surprise that U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan gave Ohio and seven other states a waiver Tuesday from some of the most onerous and unattainable mandates of the No Child Left Behind Act. Eleven other states have gotten waivers -- and more, if not all, probably will end up with them, given the impossibility of meeting the mandate that 100 percent of students test proficient in math and reading by 2014. Read More...

• Get on board (Dispatch)

With the federal government’s decision to free Ohio from the unrealistic mandates of the No Child Left Behind law, state lawmakers have even greater obligation to come to terms with Gov. John Kasich’s efforts to move schools toward academic improvement. Read More...

Education News for 01-19-2012

State Education News

• Superintendent excited to host State of the State address – WTOV 9 Steubenville

In an unprecedented move, Ohio Gov. John Kasich has decided to take his annual state of the state address on the road, to Steubenville. It marks one of the first times the address has been given somewhere other than the State House. Read More…

• Ohio Senate OKs bill targeting cyber-bullying – Youngstown Vindicator

The Ohio Senate over-whelmingly approved legislation Wednesday aimed at combating cyber-bullying among school-children. House Bill 116 passed by a vote of 31-1 and heads to the Ohio House for concurrence on Senate amendments. The legislation was titled the Jessica Logan Act, in memory of a teen from the Cincinnati area who committed suicide in July 2008 after being subjected to in-school and online bullying after a nude photo of her was circulated at her school. Read More…

Local Issues

• Westerville Schools Talks Which Cuts May Be Restored If Levy Approved – NBC 4 Columbus

It's one of the largest school districts in central Ohio and Wednesday night, leaders of Westerville City Schools had the difficult task of deciding which programs are more important than others. If voters approve a levy in a couple months, some programs and jobs that are as good as gone now - may be restored. Read More…

• Plans for new Madison school buildings are catching attention of builders – News Herald

The Madison School District’s plans to build two schools are catching the curiosity of a lot of builders. The district held a pre-bid meeting Tuesday afternoon at which potential contractors could look at the construction documents and ask questions about the project, Superintendent Roger Goudy said at that evening’s school board meeting. Read More…

• Newark High School students offer advice for ACT prep – Newark Advocate

A group of Newark High School seniors dispensed test-taking advice to juniors Wednesday during an ACT Brown Bag Lunch discussion hosted by A Call to College. The college-preparation group hosts ACT workshops and information sessions annually for juniors who will take their first test in the spring. This year, 203 students have signed up for the sessions or said they are interested in taking the test, said Lynn Straker, director of the junior program. Read More…

• Canton McKinley football coach controversy – 19 News, WOIO

Anger is brewing in Canton after the Board of Education fired Canton McKinley Head Football Coach, Ron Johnson. Wednesday January 18^th, community members gathered at 4pm to form rally groups to be deployed all over the City of Canton protesting the BOE's move. Read More…

• Refinancing by TPS saves taxpayers over $6M – Toledo Blade

Toledo Public Schools' recent refinancing of construction bonds saved taxpayers more than $6 million, treasury officials said. The district refunded earlier this month more than $52 million in voter approved bonds that helped finance Building for Success, a decade-long program that involved more than $600 million in renovation, rebuilding, and demolition of buildings. The move let the district reduce debt owed by taxpayers on the project from about $218.8 million to $212.7 million, according to data provided by Paul Overman, TPS treasury management director. Read More…

• Willoughby-Eastlake School District to cut 90 jobs (with video) – News Herald

Because of a failed levy in November, the Willoughby-Eastlake School District announced plans to balance the budget with layoffs and other measures at a public meeting Wednesday night. Hundreds of students, parents and city residents packed the South High School gym to listen to Superintendent Steve Thompson detail the effects of the levy failure, which will include cutting 50 teachers and almost 90 positions total. Read More…

• Rocky River City Schools' 5.9-mill levy will appear on March 6 ballot – Sun News

Voters will have their say on Issue 13, the school district's 5.9-mill continuing operating levy, when it appears on the March 6 ballot. The proposed levy amounts to approximately $4.3 million in additional revenue for the district. For voters, that equates to an additional $15 per month per $100,000 of home valuation, or $180 per year. Read More…

• Four Copley wrestlers disciplined over “horseplay” – Akron Beacon Journal

Four Copley High School wrestlers have been disciplined and four coaches are being investigated following what police call “horseplay” that ensued during an overnighter at the school. The incident took place at an annual wrestling team overnight event supervised by coaches at the high school. Read More…

THE AMERICAN JOBS ACT: IMPACT FOR OHIO

Here's some details from the Presidents recently announced "THE AMERICAN JOBS ACT", and how it will impact Ohio's education system specifically. The entire Docuent can be found here.

The President is proposing to invest $35 billion to prevent layoffs of up to 280,000 teachers, while supporting the hiring of tens of thousands more and keeping cops and firefighters on the job. These funds would help states and localities avoid and reverse layoffs now, and will provide $1,093,800,000 in funds to Ohio to support up to 14,200 educator and first responder jobs.

The President is proposing a $25 billion investment in school infrastructure that will modernize at least 35,000 public schools – investments that will create jobs, while improving classrooms and upgrading our schools to meet 21st century needs. Ohio will receive $985,500,000 in funding to support as many as 12,800 jobs.

SB5 repeal, the difficult second act

Like most compelling stories, the repeal of SB5 will be told in 3 acts.

The first act introduced us to the characters, and the main story element putting those characters at risk, and in confrontation with each other. The antagonists in our story are the Ohio GOP in the form of the legislators and Governor who passed SB5. Pitted against them are our protagonists, the working people of Ohio who will need to fight to preserve their rights to earn a decent living in safe working conditions.

Our protagonists responded to this assault, with over 10,000 volunteers going into their communities and collecting 1,298,301 signatures to place SB5 on the ballot for repeal, setting up the rising tension of act II.

Ordinarily, the second act could be expected to begin with a fight over whether this effort had collected enough signatures to qualify, but having collected over a million more than needed, no one expects this to present a problem.

The next issue to be resolved then will be the formulation of the ballot language. The Ohio Ballot Board will have to decide if the question is posed to voters as "shall the law take effect?” or "shall the law be repealed?" Conventional wisdom suggests it’s easier to get voters to vote “No”, rather than “Yes”, and precedent indicates that’s how the Board will decide the matter. Either option is likely to have little effect on the result.

The story will progress to the repeal campaign protagonists needing to identify and persuade voters, and the antagonists trying all manner of dirty tricks to stop them. So before we look at what that means, let’s take a look at how many voters will likely be needed to vote against SB5 in order for the campaign to prevail. Below is a table of voter turnout going back 15 years. In bold are the off-cycle years, as 2011 is (i.e. none gubernatorial or presidential elections.).

Year	Total Votes	Turnout	Major Issue
2010	3,956,045	49.22%	Gubenatorial
2009	3,292,374	44.64%	Veterans, livestock, casino
2008	5,773,777	69.97%	Presidential
2007	2,436,070	31.34%	Local issues only
2006	4,185,597	53.25%	Gubenatorial, min wage, casino, smoking ban
2005	3,093,968	40.26%	State Bond issue, Reform Ohio Now
2004	5,722,443	71.77%	Presidential, Gay Maririage Amendment
2003	2,614,354	36.62%	State Bond Issue
2002	3,356,285	47.18%	Gubenatorial
2001	2,574,915	36.00%	Local issues only
2000	4,795,989	63.60%	Presidential
1999	2,467,736	34.53%	Local issues only
1998	3,534,782	49.81%	Gubenatorial
1997	3,163,091	45.55%	Bail, Workers Comp
1996	4,638,108	67.83%	Presidential, Riverboat Casino

As you can see these off cycle years have lower turnout with variations that are greatly affected by whether and to some extent, what, state ballot initiatives are present. Ranging from almost 3.3 million in 2009, down to 2.4 million in 2007. It would be wise to think that 2011 will see turnout in the high end, if not the highest. With the GOP and Tea Party failing to get their healthcare countermeasure initiative on the ballot, the turnout battle will be solely fought on the grounds of SB5 repeal.

It would be safe to assume a high turnout – perhaps north of 3.3 million votes, which means the repeal campaign would need 1.7 million votes. The 1.3 million signatures is a great start, and will form the initial base with which to identify potential repeal supporters.

But not all those 1.3 million will be supporters, so in excess of 400,000 more voters will need to be identified – most likely a million more. These voter contacts will require massive volunteer efforts to call (phone bank) and contact in–person (canvass).

These signatories, plus union members and their households, Democrats and Independents (who according to polls favor repeal in the majority) will all be contacted at some point, either by telephone or in person, and most likely both, to determine if they can be relied upon to vote for repeal.

This is why continuing to enter signature data is critical. It is also a huge structural advantage that repealers have over the SB5 supporters – they have no such list from which to draw upon.

As potential voters are contacted they will be graded, typically on a scale of 1-5, on whether they support repeal or not. Those falling in the middle of that range will require persuasion, and that is where the nastiest of the fall campaign will be waged, for the hearts and minds of the undecided voter.

Both sides will be polling to determine what the best lines of attack and defense are. What messages work and what don’t. These polls, unless leaked, will never be made public – but everyone will feel their effects.

Typically one begins to see visible signs of political campaigns after Labor Day. TV, print and mail advertising will begin to bombard voters. The nastiest pieces will be sent via the mail, but in today’s political climate the TV ads won’t be much better.

Repeal supports should expect to see some very ugly TV ads as early as September as the SB5 supporters try and move the polls in their favor. This will be akin to probing the enemies’ lines looking for weaknesses.

In order to provide some inoculation to these inevitable attacks, the SB5 repeal campaign will also try to persuade voters of its case too. First with visibility events, and urging supporters to talk to friends, family, and coworkers, followed by extensive paid media efforts on TV, in print, and mail too.

By the time we reach this point, Act II will be coming to a close and we’ll be entering act III, final act – GOTV, or Get Out The Vote. We’ll discuss that in a later article.

Time is running out to act on the budget

As May draws to a close, we are only a short time away from having the state's biennium budget set in stone. The Senate finance committee will spend most of this week discussing their amendments, with committee and full Senate votes expected next week. From there a likely conference committee with the house will happen.

That leaves precious little time to act to make changes. Contacting law makers is having an effect, as this report indicates

Senators also are working on the teacher merit-pay language, which is similar to parts of Senate Bill 5, the new law that weakens collective bargaining for public workers and likely will be challenged on the November ballot.

Bacon said he has heard some legitimate concerns from area teachers, and there is a focus on altering how to evaluate teachers based on student progress in a given year.

"We have to make sure we're creating teacher incentives without penalizing them for things that are out of their control," he said.

Sen. Timothy J. Grendell, R-Chesterland, who voted against Senate Bill 5, said the merit-pay language should come out while the attempt to overturn the law is ongoing.

"If there is any hope of getting beyond 17 votes, I think that and the prevailing wage are going to be pivotal issues," he said.

You should contact your state senator, either by email or phone. When doing so, address one issue at a time. Correspondence should be brief but contain specific and personalized information on merit pay, school funding or the SB5 provisions in the budget. You should also reference HB153 as the particular piece of legislation.

The best information we have says that we are just 1 vote away in the Senate from removing these onerous provisions from the budget that would harm public education and the teaching profession.

Act now.

The Limits of School Reform

Going back to the famous Coleman report in the 1960s, social scientists have contended — and unquestionably proved — that students’ socioeconomic backgrounds vastly outweigh what goes on in the school as factors in determining how much they learn. Richard Rothstein of the Economic Policy Institute lists dozens of reasons why this is so, from the more frequent illness and stress poor students suffer, to the fact that they don’t hear the large vocabularies that middle-class children hear at home.

Yet the reformers act as if a student’s home life is irrelevant. “There is no question that family engagement can matter,” said Klein when I spoke to him. “But they seem to be saying that poverty is destiny, so let’s go home. We don’t yet know how much education can overcome poverty,” he insisted — notwithstanding the voluminous studies that have been done on the subject. “To let us off the hook prematurely seems, to me, to play into the hands of the other side.”

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