Rhee-ality check

You know a report titled "Rhee-ality check: the Failure of Students First" is going to be interesting, and indeed it is, opening with

Since its launch two years ago, StudentsFirst has made bold predictions about the organization’s impact on education policy, and what it will accomplish across the country.

This is the first report of its kind to examine whether this education advocacy group founded by Michelle Rhee has made progress toward its key goals. Gathered here for the first time is a body of evidence, data, and analysis showing that Students First has given its donors and supporters a poor return on their investment.

StudentsFirst has failed to live up to expectations in four main areas: fundraising, leadership, electoral politics, and grassroots organizing. These failures are described in detail below. A national education advocacy group with such a track record of ineffectiveness is not what Rhee’s investors signed up for.

Here's the full report

Rhee-ality check: the Failure of Students First

This report seems to fit in with a previous post, "THE END OF MICHELLE RHEE?", given how ineffective the organization she has created truly is.

May 2013 School Levy Results

The results below are preliminary. A high number of levies passed or failed by less than 2%, with some seperated by just a handful of votes (the Dispatch is reporting that a recount is likely in Groveport as their levy is now failing by 16 votes). A number of these results then, are subject to change before the results are finalized.

Based on these preliminary results, just shy of 60% of all school levies passed yesterday, with a 90% passage rate for renewals and a somewhat higher than normal passage rate for New money requests.

New renewal	Failed	Passed	Pass %
New	50	36	41.9%
Renewal	5	46	90.2%
Over all	55	82	59.9%

Here are the results of the May 7th 2013 school levy elections, currently reported

County	District	Type of issue	Result	N/R	For	Against
Allen	Apollo JVSD	Bond - School	Passed	N	58.0%	42.0%
Allen	Bluffton EV	Income Tax (Permanent	Passed	R	77.2%	22.8%
Allen	Elida Local	Permanent Improvement	Passed	R	60.6%	39.4%
Allen	Elida Local	Emergency Operating	Failed	N	46.8%	53.2%
Allen	Lima City	Emergency Operating	Passed	R	67.3%	32.7%
Ashland	Hillsdale Local	Current Expenses	Passed	R	72.1%	27.9%
Ashland	Loudonville-Perrysville	Emergency Operating	Passed	R	55.2%	44.8%
Ashland	Loudonville-Perrysville	Permanent Improvement	Failed	N	46.2%	53.8%
Ashtabula	Ashtabula City	Emergency Operating	Failed	N	48.4%	51.6%
Ashtabula	Jefferson Area Local	Current Expenses	Passed	R	58.1%	41.9%
Athens	Trimble Local	Permanent Improvement	Failed	N	48.9%	51.1%
Auglaize	St. Marys City	Income Tax (Current	Failed	N	39.7%	60.3%
Auglaize	Waynesfield Goshen	Permanent Improvement	Passed	R	64.6%	35.4%
Belmont	Bellaire Local	Emergency Operating	Failed	N	44.7%	55.3%
Belmont	Bridgeport EV	Current Operating	Failed	N	41.9%	58.1%
Belmont	St. Clairsville-Richland	Current Expenses	Passed	N	70.2%	29.8%
Carroll	Brown Local	Bond Issue (Building) &	Failed	N	49.2%	50.8%
Carroll	Carrollton EV	Emergency Operating	Failed	N	40.6%	59.4%
Champaign	Urbana City	Operating Expenses	Passed	N	75.9%	24.1%
Clark	Clark-Shawnee Local	Operating Levy	Failed	N	49.8%	50.2%
Clark	Greenon Local	Building & Current	Failed	N	46.1%	53.9%
Clark	Springfield City	Bond Issues (Building &	Passed	N	57.6%	42.4%
Clark	Tecumseh Local	Emergency Operating	Failed	N	31.0%	69.0%
Clermont	Milford EV	Current Operating	Passed	N	59.8%	40.2%
Columbiana	Columbiana EV	Bond (Building &	Failed	N	42.1%	57.9%
Columbiana	Salem City	Permanent Improvement	Passed	R	74.4%	25.6%
Columbiana	United Local	Permanent Improvement	Failed	N	41.1%	58.9%
Crawford	Galion City	Current Operating	Failed	N	33.8%	66.2%
Cuyahoga	Brecksville-Broadview	Current Operating	Passed	R	61.4%	38.6%
Cuyahoga	Brooklyn City	Bond (Building) &	Passed	N	57.6%	42.4%
Cuyahoga	Lakewood City	Current Operating	Passed	N	68.4%	31.6%
Cuyahoga	Westlake City	Current Operating	Failed	N	49.6%	50.4%
Darke	Mississinawa Valley	Building & Permanent	Passed	R	67.6%	32.4%
Delaware	Delaware City	Bond (Building &	Passed	N	60.6%	39.4%
Erie	Edison Local	Emergency Operating	Passed	N	52.0%	48.0%
Erie	Perkins Local	Permanent	Passed	R	51.4%	48.6%
Erie	Perkins Local	Emergency Operating	Failed	N	35.5%	64.5%
Fairfield	Walnut Township Local	Income Tax (Current	Passed	N	51.7%	48.3%
Franklin	Groveport Madison	Emergency Levy	Passed	N	50.2%	49.8%
Fulton	Swanton Local	Bond (Building) &	Failed	N	45.2%	54.8%
Geauga	Ledgemont Local	Operating Levy	Failed	N	40.2%	59.8%
Greene	Fairborn City	Emergency Levy	Failed	N	34.1%	65.9%
Hamilton	Forest Hills Local	Bond (Building &	Failed	N	45.0%	55.0%
Hamilton	Oak Hills Local	Operating Levy	Failed	N	45.2%	54.8%
Hancock	Cory-Rawson Local	Income Tax Current	Passed	R	58.0%	42.0%
Hardin	Ada EV	Income Tax Current	Passed	N	55.1%	44.9%
Hardin	Upper Scioto Local	Permanent Improvement	Failed	N	48.5%	51.5%
Hardin	Upper Scioto Local	Emergency Levy	Passed	R	55.4%	44.6%
Henry	Napoleon Area City	Income Tax Current	Failed	N	46.8%	53.2%
Holmes	West Holmes Local	Emergency Levy	Passed	R	67.4%	32.6%
Huron	Monroeville Local	Building &	Passed	R	51.0%	49.0%
Huron	Willard City	Permanent	Failed	N	39.4%	60.6%
Jefferson	Buckeye Local	Emergency Levy	Failed	N	34.5%	65.5%
Jefferson	Indian Creek Local	Bond (Building &	Failed	N	37.9%	62.1%
Jefferson	Jefferson County JVSD	Current Expense &	Failed	N	46.6%	53.4%
Knox	East Knox Local	Current Expense &	Failed	N	45.0%	55.0%
Knox	Mount Vernon Local	Emergency Levy	Passed	N	65.7%	34.3%
Lake	Kirtland Local	Emergency Levy	Passed	R	53.4%	46.6%
Lake	Mentor EV	Operating Expenses	Passed	R	73.2%	26.8%
Lake	Mentor EV	Permanent	Passed	R	73.1%	26.9%
Lake	Painesville City	Current Operating	Passed	R	58.8%	41.2%
Lake	Willoughby-Eastlake	Emergency Levy	Failed	R	46.7%	53.3%
Licking	Johnstown-Monroe	Emergency Levy	Passed	R	65.4%	34.6%
Licking	Lakewood Local	Emergency Levy	Passed	R	59.7%	40.3%
Licking	Licking Heights Local	Emergency Levy	Failed	N	38.9%	61.1%
Licking	North Fork Local	Income Tax Current	Failed	N	46.6%	53.4%
Logan	Benjamin Logan Local	Emergency Levy	Failed	N	49.5%	50.5%
Logan	West Liberty Salem	Income Tax Current	Passed	N	66.1%	33.9%
Lorain	Amherst EV	Permanent Improvement	Passed	R	61.0%	39.0%
Lorain	Amherst EV	Emergency Levy	Passed	R	62.0%	38.0%
Lorain	Avon Lake City	Emergency Levy	Passed	N	52.2%	47.8%
Lorain	Columbia Local	Current Expenses	Failed	N	44.3%	55.7%
Lorain	North Ridgeville City	Emergency Levy	Passed	R	64.4%	35.6%
Lucas	Oregon City	Building & Permanent	Passed	R	61.0%	39.0%
Madison	Madison-Plains Local	Permanent	Failed	N	43.9%	56.1%
Mahoning	Boardman Local	Permanent	Passed	N	50.1%	49.9%
Mahoning	Boardman Local	Current Operating	Passed	R	60.5%	39.5%
Mahoning	Jackson-Milton Local	Permanent	Passed	R	57.4%	42.6%
Mahoning	Jackson-Milton Local	Operating Expenses	Passed	R	57.3%	42.7%
Mahoning	Poland Local	Emergency Operating	Passed	R	65.4%	34.6%
Mahoning	Springfield Local	Building & Permanent	Passed	N	61.1%	38.9%
Medina	Black River Local	Emergency Operating	Passed	N	51.1%	48.9%
Medina	Cloverleaf Local	Emergency Operating	Failed	N	49.3%	50.7%
Mercer	Celina City	Income Tax Current	Passed	R	67.4%	32.6%
Mercer	Marion Local	Emergency Levy	Passed	R	61.2%	38.8%
Miami	Covington EV	Building & Permanent	Passed	N	51.6%	48.4%
Miami	Milton-Union EV	Current Expenses	Passed	R	58.2%	41.8%
Miami	Piqua City	Emergency Levy	Passed	R	64.5%	35.5%
Miami	Tipp City EV	Emergency Levy	Passed	N	51.4%	48.6%
Monroe	Switzerland of Ohio	Operating Expenses	Failed	N	48.9%	51.1%
Montgomery	Brookville Local	Current Expenses	Passed	R	68.8%	31.2%
Montgomery	Brookville Local	Current Expenses	Passed	N	50.0%	50.0%
Montgomery	Centerville City	Current Expenses	Failed	N	49.3%	50.7%
Montgomery	Jefferson Township	Bond Issue (Building) &	Failed	N	23.8%	76.2%
Montgomery	Valley View Local	Current Expenses	Passed	N	54.8%	45.2%
Morrow	Cardington-Lincoln	Income Tax Current	Failed	N	49.1%	50.9%
Muskingum	East Muskingum Local	Emergency Levy	Passed	R	76.8%	23.2%
Muskingum	West Muskingum Local	Emergency Levy	Passed	N	55.9%	44.1%
Noble	Caldwell EV	Replacement and	Passed	N	57.3%	42.7%
Portage	Kent City	Current Expenses	Passed	N	61.0%	39.0%
Preble	Twin Valley	Income Tax Current	Failed	N	48.4%	51.6%
Richland	Mansfield City	Emergency Levy	Passed	R	72.2%	27.8%
Ross	Chillicothe City	Emergency Levy	Passed	N	50.6%	49.4%
Sandusky	Clyde-Green Springs	Emergency Levy	Failed	N	38.4%	61.6%
Sandusky	Gibsonburg EV	Income Tax Current	Failed	N	47.5%	52.5%
Seneca	Bettsville Local	Income Tax Current	Passed	R	53.3%	46.7%
Seneca	Fostoria City	Necessary Requirements	Passed	N	59.0%	41.0%
Shelby	Fairlawn Local	Emergency Levy	Passed	R	66.4%	33.6%
Stark	Canton Local	Bond Building &	Failed	N	49.6%	50.4%
Stark	Fairless Local	Emergency Levy	Failed	N	39.0%	61.0%
Stark	Louisville City	Emergency Levy	Passed	N	62.0%	38.0%
Stark	Marlington Local	Bond (Building) &	Failed	N	43.8%	56.2%
Stark	North Canton City	Permanent	Passed	N	57.8%	42.2%
Summit	Barberton City	Emergency Levy	Passed	N	54.6%	45.4%
Summit	Coventry Local	Bond (Building) &	Passed	N	55.2%	44.8%
Summit	Cuyahoga Falls City	Permanent	Failed	N	42.8%	57.2%
Summit	Manchester Local	Current Expenses	Passed	R	72.0%	28.0%
Summit	Mogadore Local	Current Expenses	Failed	R	40.6%	59.4%
Trumbull	Brookfield Local	Current Expenses	Passed	R	50.1%	49.9%
Trumbull	Champion Local	Emergency Levy	Passed	N	51.6%	48.4%
Trumbull	Girard City	Emergency Levy	Passed	N	62.1%	37.9%
Trumbull	Lakeview Local	Emergency Levy	Passed	R	61.6%	38.4%
Trumbull	Maplewood Local	Emergency Levy	Passed	R	65.0%	35.0%
Trumbull	McDonald Local	Operating Expenses	Passed	R	63.5%	36.5%
Trumbull	Newton Falls EV	Emergency Levy	Failed	N	37.9%	62.1%
Trumbull	Niles City	Emergency Levy	Failed	N	29.9%	70.1%
Trumbull	Niles City	Permanent	Failed	N	30.6%	69.4%
Union	Marysville EV	Current Operating	Passed	R	78.8%	21.2%
Van Wert	Van Wert City	Income Tax Current	Passed	N	59.7%	40.3%
Warren	Carlisle Local	Operating Levy	Passed	N	53.4%	46.6%
Wayne	Orrville City	Current Expenses	Failed	N	40.6%	59.4%
Williams	Millcreek West Unity	Emergency Levy	Passed	R	70.2%	29.8%
Wood	Bowling Green City	Current Expenses	Failed	R	34.6%	65.4%
Wood	Elmwood Local	Income Tax Current	Failed	R	41.5%	58.5%
Wood	Elmwood Local	Income Tax Current	Failed	R	41.7%	58.3%
Wood	North Baltimore Local	Current Expenses	Passed	R	53.0%	47.0%
Wyandot	Carey EV	Bond (Building) &	Passed	N	64.4%	35.6%

Close failing charters quickly

Close failing charter schools quickly. That's the message from the latest study. The NTY times reports on a new charter school study that ought to send policy chills down the spines of those advocating for more failed choice

The charter school movement gained a foothold in American education two decades ago partly by asserting that independently run, publicly financed schools would outperform traditional public schools if they were exempted from onerous regulations. The charter advocates also promised that unlike traditional schools, which were allowed to fail without consequence, charter schools would be rigorously reviewed and shut down when they failed to perform.

With thousands of charter schools now operating in 40 states, and more coming online every day, neither of these promises has been kept. Despite a growing number of studies showing that charter schools are generally no better — and often are worse — than their traditional counterparts, the state and local agencies and organizations that grant the charters have been increasingly hesitant to shut down schools, even those that continue to perform abysmally for years on end.

As the Governor advocates for even greater charter school expansion in Ohio, where the experiment has failed even more catastrophically, there needs to be a serious look at closing down failed charters quickly. As the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University study noted

It debunked the common notion that it takes a long time to tell whether a new school can improve student learning. In fact, the study notes, it is pretty clear after just three years which schools are going to be high performers and which of them will be mediocre. By that time, the charter authorizers should be putting troubled schools on notice that they might soon be closed. As the study notes: “For the majority of schools, poor first year performance will give way to poor second year performance. Once this has happened, the future is predictable and extremely bleak. For the students enrolled in these schools, this is a tragedy that must not be dismissed.”

We're not just wasting tax payers dollars that could be better spent in higher performing traditional public schools, we're wasting educational opportunities of students who are attending these failing charter schools.

November 2012 School Levy Results

It was a good night for a lot of school levies. Requests for new money were passed at rates 10% higher than last November's levies efforts, and renewals held steady at their normal 85% rate.

The biggest news, perhaps, was the passage of the Cleveland school levy 57-43. It's been a long time since Cleveland has produced such strong support for their schools, and that support now needs to be rewarded with a plan that delivers a quality education.

New renewal	Failed	Passed	Pass %
New	76	45	32.2%
Renewal	10	60	85.7%
Over all	87	105	54.7%

Here's the full list of results.

County	District	Result	N/R	For	Against
Allen	Apollo Career Center	Failed	New	46.0%	54.0%
Allen	Elida Local	Failed	Renewal	40.0%	60.0%
Allen	Lima City	Passed	New	55.0%	45.0%
Allen	Shawnee Local	Passed	Renewal	62.0%	38.0%
Allen	Spencerville Local	Passed	Renewal	57.7%	42.3%
Ashland	Ashland City	Passed	New	56.1%	43.9%
Ashland	Hillsdale Local	Failed	New	42.7%	57.3%
Ashland	West Holmes JVS	Passed	Renewal	59.6%	40.4%
Ashland	West Holmes JVS	Passed	Renewal	58.5%	41.5%
Ashtabula	Ashtabula Area City	Failed	New	42.7%	57.3%
Ashtabula	Grand Valley Local	Failed	New	43.2%	56.8%
Ashtabula	Jefferson Area Local	Failed	Renewal	49.5%	50.5%
Ashtabula	Jefferson Area Local	Failed	Renewal	46.2%	53.9%
Athens	Athens City	Passed	Renewal	65.3%	34.7%
Athens	Trimble Local	Failed	New	46.9%	53.1%
Belmont	Bellaire Local	Failed	New	42.7%	57.3%
Brown	Western Brown Local	Failed	New	43.0%	57.0%
Butler	Monroe Local	Passed	New	54.7%	45.3%
Carroll	Brown Local	Failed	New	48.5%	51.5%
Champaign	Urbana City	Failed	New	42.0%	58.0%
Clark	Clark-Shawnee Local	Passed	Renewal	56.3%	43.7%
Clark	Greenon Local	Failed	New	44.9%	55.2%
Clark	Northeastern Local	Failed	New	40.0%	60.1%
Clark	Tecumseh Local	Failed	New	43.8%	56.2%
Clermont	Batavia Local	Passed	New	50.4%	49.6%
Clermont	Milford EV	Failed	New	49.3%	50.7%
Clermont	West Clermont Local	Failed	New	39.7%	60.3%
Clinton	Blanchester Local	Passed	Renewal	69.6%	30.4%
Clinton	East Clinton Local	Failed		38.3%	61.7%
Coshocton	Coshocton City	Passed	Renewal	61.7%	38.3%
Crawford	Galion City	Failed	New	32.4%	67.6%
Cuyahoga	Bay Village City	Passed	New	60.4%	39.6%
Cuyahoga	Brooklyn City	Passed	Renewal	61.2%	38.9%
Cuyahoga	Cleveland Municipal	Passed	New	56.6%	43.5%
Cuyahoga	Euclid City	Passed	New	50.1%	50.0%
Cuyahoga	Fairview Park City	Passed	Renewal	65.6%	34.5%
Cuyahoga	Maple Heights City	Passed	Renewal	59.8%	40.2%
Cuyahoga	North Roylaton City	Failed	New	47.2%	52.8%
Cuyahoga	Richmond Heights	Passed	New	51.3%	48.7%
Cuyahoga	Rocky River City	Passed	New	55.0%	45.0%
Cuyahoga	South Euclid-Lyndhurst	Passed	New	53.8%	46.2%
Cuyahoga	Strongsville City	Passed	New	50.0%	50.0%
Erie	Edison Local	Failed	New	44.7%	55.3%
Erie	Sandusky City	Passed	New	57.2%	42.8%
Fairfield	Walnut Township Local	Failed	New	37.9%	62.1%
Franklin	Dublin City	Passed	New	54.4%	45.6%
Franklin	New Albany-Plain Local	Passed	New	50.2%	49.8%
Franklin	Upper Arlington City	Failed	New	45.1%	54.9%
Franklin	Worthington City	Passed	New	62.3%	37.7%
Franklin	Worthington City	Passed	New	53.4%	46.6%
Geauga	Cardinal Local	Passed	Renewal	57.8%	42.3%
Geauga	Chardon Local	Failed	New	48.3%	51.7%
Geauga	Ledgemont Local	Passed	New	50.1%	49.9%
Geauga	Newbury Local	Failed	New	43.4%	56.6%
Geauga	West Geauga Local	Passed	New	50.3%	49.8%
Greene	Beavercreek City	Failed	New	49.7%	50.3%
Greene	Cedar Cliff Local	Passed	New	61.8%	38.2%
Greene	Fairborn City	Failed	New	45.7%	54.3%
Greene	Xenia Community City	Failed	New	34.4%	65.6%
Greene	Yellow Springs EV	Passed	New	67.1%	32.9%
Guernsey	Cambridge City	Passed	Renewal	62.1%	37.9%
Hamilton	Cincinnati City	Passed	Renewal	67.2%	32.9%
Hamilton	Finneytown Local	Passed	New	56.0%	44.1%
Hamilton	Mt Healthy City	Failed	New	45.7%	54.3%
Hamilton	Northwest Local	Failed	New	45.5%	54.5%
Hamilton	Reading Community	Passed	Renewal	71.4%	28.7%
Harrison	Conotton Valley Union	Failed	New	43.1%	56.9%
Henry	Napoleon Area City	Failed	New	44.6%	55.4%
Holmes	West Holmes Local	Passed	Renewal	60.2%	39.8%
Huron	Monroeville Local	Passed	New	53.4%	46.6%
Huron	Norwalk City	Failed	New	45.3%	54.7%
Huron	Williard City	Failed	Renewal	42.3%	57.7%
Jefferson	Buckeye Local	Failed	New	38.0%	62.0%
Jefferson	Edison Local	Failed	New	44.5%	55.5%
Jefferson	Indian Creek Local	Failed	New	46.3%	53.7%
Jefferson	Jefferson County JVSD	Failed	New	49.6%	50.4%
Knox	Centerburg Local	Passed	Renewal	62.2%	37.8%
Knox	East Knox Local	Failed	New	39.8%	60.2%
Knox	Mount Vernon City	Failed	New	48.9%	51.1%
Lake	Kirtland City	Passed	New	50.1%	49.9%
Lake	Painesville City	Passed	New	50.3%	49.7%
Lake	Willoughby-Eastlake	Passed	Renewal	59.8%	40.2%
Licking	Johnstown-Monroe	Passed	Renewal	53.1%	46.9%
Licking	Licking Heights Local	Failed	New	37.9%	62.1%
Licking	North Fork Local	Failed	Renewal	42.2%	57.8%
Logan	Indian Lake Local	Failed	New	37.7%	62.3%
Logan	West Liberty-Salem	Passed	New	53.1%	46.9%
Lorain	Amherst EV	Passed	New	52.1%	47.9%
Lorain	Avon Lake City	Failed	New	47.2%	52.9%
Lorain	Avon Local	Passed	New	59.9%	40.1%
Lorain	Clearview Local	Passed	New	52.2%	47.8%
Lorain	Columbia Local	Passed	Renewal	54.6%	45.4%
Lorain	Columbia Local	Passed	Renewal	55.0%	45.0%
Lorain	Elyria City	Failed	New	46.6%	53.4%
Lorain	Lorain City	Passed	New	54.2%	45.8%
Lorain	Lorain County JVSD	Passed	Renewal	60.1%	40.0%
Lorain	Midview Local	Failed	New	38.7%	61.4%
Lorain	North Ridgeville City	Passed	New	56.6%	43.4%
Lorain	Oberlin City	Passed	Renewal	67.4%	32.6%
Lorain	Oberlin City	Passed	Renewal	69.2%	30.9%
Lorain	Wellington Exempted	Passed	New	59.1%	40.9%
Lucas	Anthony Wayne Local	Passed	Renewal	61.7%	38.3%
Lucas	Ottawa Hills Local	Passed	New	65.7%	34.3%
Lucas	Toledo City	Failed	New	47.6%	52.5%
Madison	Madison-Plains Local	Failed	New	45.8%	54.2%
Mahoning	Boardman Local	Passed	New	53.3%	46.7%
Mahoning	Jackson-Milton Local	Failed	New	32.8%	67.2%
Mahoning	Jackson-Milton Local	Failed	Renewal	49.4%	50.6%
Mahoning	Poland Local	Passed	New	55.0%	45.0%
Mahoning	South Range Local	Passed	Renewal	57.6%	42.4%
Mahoning	Springfield Local	Failed	New	47.7%	52.3%
Mahoning	Youngstown City	Passed	Renewal	60.2%	39.8%
Marion	River Valley Local	Passed	Renewal	54.5%	45.5%
Marion	Tri-Rivers JVSD	Failed	New	41.4%	58.6%
Medina	Black River Local	Failed	New	37.6%	62.4%
Medina	Black River Local	Failed	New	35.9%	64.1%
Medina	Cloverleaf Local	Failed	New	46.7%	53.3%
Medina	Medina City	Failed	New	47.8%	52.2%
Mercer	Celina City	Failed	New	32.5%	67.6%
Miami	Miami East Local	Passed	Renewal	52.7%	47.3%
Miami	Milton-Union EV	Failed	Renewal	49.9%	50.1%
Miami	Newton Local	Passed	Renewal	54.0%	46.0%
Monroe	Switzerland of Ohio	Failed	New	38.8%	61.2%
Montgomery	Centerville City	Failed	New	49.5%	50.5%
Montgomery	Huber Heights City	Failed	New	38.3%	61.7%
Montgomery	Jefferson Township	Failed	New	48.7%	51.3%
Montgomery	Miamisburg City	Passed	Renewal	57.2%	42.8%
Montgomery	New Lebanon Local	Passed	Renewal	57.7%	42.3%
Montgomery	New Lebanon Local	Passed	Renewal	59.2%	40.8%
Montgomery	Valley View Local	Failed	New	46.9%	53.1%
Montgomery	Vandalia-Butler City	Failed	New	45.5%	54.5%
Montgomery	West Carrollton City	Failed	New	48.4%	51.6%
Morrow	Cardington-Lincoln	Failed	New	34.7%	65.4%
Muskingum	West Muskingum Local	Failed	New	44.9%	55.1%
Ottawa	Port Clinton City	Passed	Renewal	55.8%	44.2%
Perry	New Lexington City	Passed	Renewal	55.5%	44.5%
Portage	Aurora City	Passed	New	51.2%	48.8%
Portage	Crestwood Local	Passed	New	53.9%	46.1%
Portage	Field Local	Failed	New	47.6%	52.4%
Portage	Rootstown Local	Passed	Renewal	59.7%	40.3%
Portage	Waterloo Local	Failed	New	43.0%	57.0%
Preble	Tri-County North Local	Passed	Renewal	66.0%	34.0%
Putnam	Ottawa-Glandorf Local	Passed	Renewal	65.1%	34.9%
Putnam	Pandora-Gilboa Local	Passed	Renewal	58.8%	41.2%
Richland	Mansfield City	Failed	Renewal	48.6%	51.4%
Richland	Shelby City	Failed	New	32.8%	67.2%
Ross	Zane Trace Local	Passed	Renewal	57.2%	42.8%
Sandusky	Bellevue City	Passed	Renewal	52.6%	47.4%
Sandusky	Clyde-Green Springs	Passed	Renewal	54.5%	45.6%
Sandusky	Fremont City	Passed	Renewal	56.4%	43.6%
Sandusky	Woodmore Local	Passed	Renewal	57.3%	42.7%
Scioto	Green Local	Passed	New	51.8%	48.2%
Seneca	Bettsville Local	Failed	Renewal	49.6%	50.4%
Seneca	Mohawk Local	Failed	New	38.8%	61.2%
Seneca	Tiffin City	Passed	Renewal	62.0%	38.0%
Shelby	Fairlawn Local	Failed	Renewal	48.8%	51.2%
Stark	Canton Local	Failed	New	48.3%	51.7%
Stark	Louisville City	Failed	New	48.9%	51.1%
Stark	Marlington Local	Failed	New	39.5%	60.5%
Stark	Marlington Local	Passed	Renewal	59.4%	40.6%
Stark	Massillon City	Passed	New	50.1%	49.9%
Stark	Minerva Local	Passed	Renewal	53.6%	46.4%
Stark	Tuslaw Local	Passed	Renewal	62.3%	37.7%
Summit	Akron City	Passed	New	59.5%	40.5%
Summit	Barberton City	Failed	New	45.4%	54.6%
Summit	Coventry Local	Passed	Renewal	60.5%	39.5%
Summit	Hudson City	Passed	Renewal	65.7%	34.4%
Summit	Nordonia Hills City	Failed	New	40.1%	60.0%
Summit	Norton City	Passed	New	53.4%	46.6%
Summit	Stow-Munroe Falls City	Passed	Renewal	57.6%	42.4%
Summit	Tallmadge City	Failed	New	38.8%	61.3%
Summit	Twinsburg City	Passed	New	53.9%	46.1%
Summit	Woodridge Local	Passed	New	55.5%	44.6%
Trumbull	Brookfield Local	Failed	New	39.4%	60.6%
Trumbull	Champion Local	Failed	New	48.6%	51.4%
Trumbull	Howland Local	Passed	Renewal	60.2%	39.9%
Trumbull	Joseph Badger Local	Passed	Renewal	51.9%	48.2%
Trumbull	Mathews Local	Passed	New	50.2%	49.8%
Tuscarawas	Buckeye JVSD	Passed	New	54.5%	45.5%
Tuscarawas	Dover City	Passed	Renewal	55.8%	44.2%
Tuscarawas	Dover City	Passed	Renewal	53.8%	46.2%
Tuscarawas	New Philadelphia City	Passed	Renewal	64.6%	35.4%
Tuscarawas	Strasburg-Franklin	Passed	Renewal	59.6%	40.4%
Tuscarawas	Tuscarawas Valley	Passed	Renewal	61.9%	38.1%
Union	Marysville EV	Failed	New	41.7%	58.3%
Van Wert	Vantage Career Center	Passed	Renewal	67.4%	32.6%
Warren	Carlisle Local	Failed	New	49.0%	51.0%
Washington	Warren Local	Failed	New	38.7%	61.3%
Wayne	Orrville City	Failed	New	38.1%	61.9%
Wayne	Triway Local	Passed	Renewal	59.5%	40.5%
Wood	Bowling Green City	Failed	New	47.7%	52.3%
Wood	Perrysburg EV	Passed	New	51.3%	48.8%

Education News for 10-17-2012

State Education News

• Cuyahoga Heights schools' former employee stole almost $4.2 million, state auditor says (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

Nearly $4.2 million was stolen from the Cuyahoga Heights school district by its former technology director…Read more...

• Cheating shows charters, testing failed, author says (Columbus Dispatch)

School cheating scandals aimed at improving high-stakes student-proficiency test results are a symptom of a failed reform plan that is wasting billions of dollars…Read more...

• State finally releases school and district grades (Columbus Dispatch)

The Ohio Department of Education released school and district grades for the 2011-12 academic year today, a couple of months late…Read more...

• Online academy takes learning beyond school day (Hamilton Journal-News)

An online school is expanding Hamilton students’ technology knowledge and helping teachers provide more specific remediation…Read more...

• Schools have a role in shaping healthy habits (Newark Advocate)

Jane Krueger’s class at John Clem Elementary School looked more like a school dance than a physical education class as students grooved to the beat…Read more...

Local Education News

• Columbus City Schools: Schools treasurer urges $25M in cuts (Columbus Dispatch)

Columbus City Schools need to cut $25 million from next school year’s budget or risk running out of money, Treasurer Penny Rucker warned school board members last night…Read more...

• Northridge good now, could be in debt in 2015 (Newark Advocate)

The Northridge Local School District is expected to be in the black until 2015, but the district likely will need levy funding to avoid a deficit in three years…Read more...

• TPS drops to academic watch on report card (Toledo Blade)

Toledo Public Schools lost its continuous improvement ranking on Ohio school report cards and slipped into academic watch…Read more...

Editorial

• Ohio schools should have their own EpiPens (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

The Ohio Association of School Nurses is busy writing what it hopes will be lifesaving legislation -- a bill that would require schools…Read more...

• Classroom crime (Columbus Dispatch)

A scandal that landed a former Texas school superintendent in prison — for arranging for test scores of low-performing students to disappear from his district’s records — shows the gravity of the alleged data rigging…Read more...

Charters and their supporters failing our kids

ODE has finally released the full school report card, though only in spreadsheet format, and it comes with a warning

ODE will not publish PDFs of the Local Report Cards until the investigation by the Auditor of State is concluded.

We thought it would be useful to compare how effective traditional public schools were versus their charter school counterparts. The results are staggeringly bad for charter schools

Report Card Rating	Traditional Schools	Charter Schools
Academic Emergency	3.4%	18.8%
Academic Watch	4.6%	15.6%
Continuous Improvement	10.4%	27.3%
Effective	21.4%	15.6%
Excellent	41.0%	7.4%
Excellent with Distinction	14.4%	1.1%
Not Rated	4.8%	14.2%

61.6% of all charter schools in Ohio are less than effective, while that can only be said of 18.4% of traditional schools. If the purpose of charter schools was to be incubators of excellence, they are doing a very poor job, with only 8.5% of them hitting the excellent or better rating. Indeed, if you truly want to see excellence, you have to look at traditional public schools, where over 55% are rated excellent or better.

If "school choice" organizations in Ohio had any integrity, the choice they would be urging in almost all cases, would be for parents to choose traditional public schools. In the vast majority of cases, their advocacy of charter schools are an advocacy of miserable failure, at huge tax payer expense.

Diane Ravitch spoke to this issue in Columbus yesterday

Proficiency testing and charter schools were billed in the late 1990s as solutions to a broken public-education system. Now, they are part of a failed status quo, said Ravitch, 74, an author and U.S. assistant secretary of education under President George H.W. Bush.

Proficiency tests have changed — from something that assesses students to something used to punish teachers and schools, said Ravitch. And after a decade of poor results from charter schools, she said, the charter movement and high-stakes testing have proved to be failed national experiments.

Also at the same event, Greg Harris, the Ohio director of the 65,000-member charter-school advocacy group StudentsFirst

...charters were supposed to provide an experiment in innovation, and though many have failed, many others are working.

“The parents are making these choices” to go to charters, Harris said. “These are parents from high-poverty backgrounds who are making major sacrifices to get their kids out of failing schools.

“We agree with her that bad charter schools should be closed, but why close good ones?”

Parents are often steered into these choices by corporate education reformers and their boosters, like StudentsFirst, the most ironically named group of all. And when parents aren't being steered into wrong choices, it's because they are using factors other than quality to make their decisions, as we noted in this article.