Education News for 09-07-2012

State Education News

• State might delay planned letter grades for schools (Columbus Dispatch)

Plans to create a new rating system for Ohio schools should be delayed until the investigation into whether districts altered attendance data…Read more...

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2012/09/07/state-might-delay-planned-letter-grades- for-schools.html

• Project targeting school violence (Findlay Courier)

Findlay City Schools and seven Hancock County schools have begun a project to prevent one of the biggest threats to students today: school violence…Read more...

• Nearly 40 Ohio School Districts Plan to Apply for $400-Million (State Impact Ohio)

Thirty-nine Ohio school districts, charter schools and other groups have said they plan to apply for some of the $400 million the federal U.S. Department of Education…Read more...

Local Education News

• Columbus City Schools’ closed meetings questioned (Columbus Dispatch)

The Columbus Board of Education and other district officials have gone into super-secret mode since news broke in June that employees…Read more...

• Teen sentenced to four years for bomb threat to Lima schools (Lima News)

Lima Schools Superintendent Jill Ackerman said Thursday the four-year sentence a teenager received in adult prison for calling in a false bomb threat…Read more...

• Johnstown bus route timing set to begin (Newark Advocate)

Johnstown-Monroe Local Schools will begin timing the routes it uses to take students to private schools next week…Read more...

• Teaching the teachers (People's Defender)

Agricultural education and science teachers from Ohio comprehensive high schools and career technical schools recently participated in the first-ever Ohio Ag-Biotechnology Academy…Read more...

Editorial

• A privilege to help (Columbus Dispatch)

Any parent who has ever gone back-to-school shopping knows how picky kids can be: Shoes and outfits have to be just right. It’s all about looking good and fitting in…Read more...

• District ready for state education reforms (This Week News)

Ohio's education system is experiencing an unprecedented number of proposed and soon to be implemented reforms. Our district welcomes tougher academic standards and higher expectations…Read more...

EdChoice Program Designated Public Schools list

The Ohio Department of Education has just released their EdChoice Program Designated Public Schools list.

The following is a list of schools that have either:
1) been in Academic Emergency or Academic Watch for two of the past three school years (2008-2009, 2009-2010, and 2010-2011) or
2) ranked in the lowest 10% of public school buildings by performance index score for two of the past three school years and are therefore designated for the EdChoice Scholarship Program.

The following students are eligible to apply for an EdChoice scholarship:

• Students currently enrolled in and attending EdChoice-designated public school buildings in their district of residence
• Students enrolled in a community school who would otherwise be assigned to one of the EdChoice-designated public school buildings, or;
• Students currently enrolled in a regular public school in their district of residence or community school who would be assigned to attend one of the EdChoice-designated public school buildings for the upcoming school year. This provision is for students moving from one level of school to the next. For example, public school students moving from elementary to middle school would be eligible to apply if the middle school that they would be assigned to in the fall is designated for EdChoice;
• Students eligible to enter kindergarten in the next school year who would be assigned to one of the EdChoice public school buildings.

Ed Choice Eligible Public Schools

Public school battles city over charter

Excellent read of a NY City schools battle with the city over a charter school

But on Dec. 20, city officials unveiled a holiday surprise. The department said it planned to move a middle-grade charter school — Brooklyn East Collegiate, a member of the Uncommon Schools charter chain — into the space opening up at P.S. 9.

In the four months since, P.S. 9 parents have fought City Hall, scoring a few upset victories. But they have also learned a hard lesson: once the mayor’s people set their sights on a location, the chances of successfully challenging a charter are slim. Supporters of district schools fear that once a charter moves in, it will take over the building. They resent being compared academically, when on average, charters in New York City have fewer poor, immigrant and special-education students.

Even before the P.S. 9 parents got started, they were too late.

To add a middle school, department regulations required P.S. 9 to have filed a letter of intent by April 13, 2010; the final application was supposed to have been filed by July 15, 2010.

A classic Catch-22: There was no reason to apply until space was available, but by the time space was available, it was too late to apply.

[readon2 url="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/11/nyregion/11winerip.html?_r=1&src=recg&pagewanted=all"]Keep reading...[/readon2]