Statewide Stories of the Day

Principals will start seeing the same scrutiny as teachers when new evaluation system goes statewide next fall (Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND - Teachers have been under increasing scrutiny the last few years, as Ohio and other states roll out new teacher evaluation plans. That spotlight also is falling on principals. Ohio will require school districts statewide to have an evaluation system for principals up and running by the 2013-14 school year, the same time that the new teacher evaluations take effect. Though districts already evaluate principals to varying degrees, Ohio has edged toward a more standard and rigorous measure of principal quality for a few years. Read more...

Ohio plans tougher high-school tests (Enquirer)

Ohio is ready to swap its statewide graduation test for a series of more rigorous high school exams beginning in 2014-15. The tests are designed to measure student readiness for college or a career, something the Ohio Graduation Test could never do, said James Herrholtz, associate superintendent of the Ohio Department of Education’s division of learning. “The OGT is a low hurdle,” he said. “It was never really designed to measure whether a student is college-ready.” Read more...

Reading guarantee for Ohio 3rd-graders starts with September screenings (Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND — Much of the talk about Ohio's third-grade reading guarantee has centered on whether it's better to hold back a struggling student who can't read instead of promoting him to the next grade. But the new mandate involves a lot more than the retention issue. And some school officials are worried about how they're going to pay for it. Starting this year, school districts and charter schools will have to screen all students in kindergarten through third grade by Sept. 30. Read more...

Westerville phasing out popular magnet schools (Dispatch)

Longfellow Elementary School in Westerville never struggled in academics. Among central Ohio elementary schools in the 2010-11 school year, its state test scores were the highest, and they were seventh-best in the state. Students could land a coveted seat only by winning a lottery. But because of budget cuts, Longfellow closed for good this summer, as did Central College Elementary, another high-performing public school in Westerville. Both will consolidate into Hanby Elementary School. Read more...

Local Issues

Funny Math (The Other Paper)

Calculating data is boring, entering it into a computer system is mundane. Even the word data inspires narcolepsy. Maybe that’s why Columbus City Schools employees allegedly tried to liven up the process a bit by living on the data-entry edge; allegedly fudging attendance figures every June before submitting their State Report Card data to the Ohio Department of Education. After all, there’s surely nothing more thrilling than possibly misleading taxpayers and the state watchdogs in a ploy to enhance district graduation rates. Read more...

NB teachers reject contract (Courier)

NORTH BALTIMORE - A North Baltimore teachers' union recently rejected a contract offered by its school board. Terms were not released. According to the North Baltimore Education Association, teachers have been in negotiations with the North Baltimore school board since May. In June, school board declared an impasse in negotiations until a mediator could be contacted. On June 30, the current contract expired and the teachers' association has been working under the previous negotiated agreement. Read more...

Dayton-area young readers get a boost (Dayton Daily News)

DAYTON — Montgomery County-Dayton region has been selected to join a national effort to improve reading proficiency among third-grade students. The region will become a charter member of the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading Communities Network, a 124 member organization charged with implementing strategies to enhance the reading skills of low-income students. “Until third grade, children learn to read,” said Robyn Lightcap, director for ReadySetSoar, a local organization aimed at improving kindergarten readiness. Read more...

Shawnee High School grads create app for Android (Lima News)

LIMA — First the fun, then the function. That's the idea behind a series of new applications for Android that two 2008 Shawnee High School graduates helped create. The app, “TapDeck,” will be available this month, Adam Kriegel said. The name plays off “tape deck,” and also the company he and fellow Carnegie Mellon University graduates formed, TapAudio LLC. At the moment, a gimmicky tape recorder allows the user to record up to 10 seconds of audio that can be scrambled in a variety of ways, Kriegel said. Read more...