Education News for 11-26-2012

State Education News

• Many Ohio 3rd-graders at risk of failing (Chillicothe Gazette)

Thousands of Ohio third-graders face being held back in school if they can’t improve their reading proficiency by year’s end — and the problem could be even worse next year…Read more...

• Schools critics open new front in seclusion-room fight (Columbus Dispatch)

Furthering its quest to end Columbus schools' use of seclusion rooms for disabled students, a state disability-rights group has filed a formal complaint against the district with the Ohio Department of Education…Read more...

• Education conference reflects tough economy (Middletown Journal)

Local school administrators were among the nearly 10,000 education professionals who attended the 57th annual Ohio School Board Association Capital Conference and Trade Show last week in Columbus…Read more...

• District’s financial recovery may take 5 years (Middletown Journal)

Members of the state-appointed Financial Planning and Supervision Commission said it will take three to five years before the effects of Monroe Schools’ passed levy will be seen…Read more...

• State Educators Agree to Replace the OGT (WSYX)

State education leaders have agreed on a plan for replacing the Ohio Graduation Test with a nationally standardized college readiness test, such as the ACT, and 10 subject-area exams…Read more...

Local Education News

• Schools in Singapore may provide lessons for educators here (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

Helen Williams knew little about Singapore before traveling there this spring to learn about its education system. What she had heard were the tales of people caned for minor offenses and stereotypes about Asian schools…Read more...

• Pay freezes, cuts saving millions at local schools (Hamilton Journal-News)

Staff pay freezes have become the rule, rather than the exception, at Miami Valley public school districts…Read more...

Editorial

• Cleveland-area school districts must work harder to keep children who move frequently from falling (Cleveland Plain Dealer)

Students who often change schools -- making them hard to track and harder to teach -- have long been a problem in many Ohio school systems…Read more...

• Fair assessment (Columbus Dispatch)

As Ohio lawmakers work through this lame-duck session, one item on the hurry-up agenda demands attention: revamping the report cards…Read more...

Public Employees saved $1billion for tax payers

A new report has looked at collective bargaining compromises in Ohio and found that public employees have saved their employers and taxpayers a substantial amount of money (over $1 billion).

Among the findings:

• Public union workers have saved taxpayers $1,059,881,500 billion through collective bargaining concessions since 2008.
• Teachers and support staff accepted wage freezes in more than 90 percent of collective bargaining agreements this year – concessions not tallied in this report because they are not yet available.
• Last year, at least 65 percent of public employee contracts included at least 1 year of wage freezes, some furlough days, reduced compensation, rollovers or economic re-openers.
• Some of the lowest-paid public employees – non-teaching personnel such as custodians – have gone up to eight years without a pay increase in exchange for stable health care costs.
• A Warren police officer blames cuts in safety forces for the injuries he sustained while rescuing people from a burning building in which one person died.
• More than two-thirds of all teachers’ contracts increased employee insurance premium contributions or significantly changed their health plans, with the savings often used to improve educational opportunities for students.
• More than 93 percent of public workers already pay for their own pension contribution, with no pick-up from their employers.
• On average, county and state employees pay more than 15 percent for their health care plans.

Public Employees Shared Sacrifice Report

A decade of stalled teacher pay

The OECD has just released a report "OECD Education at a Glance 2011", which can be found in full below. We wanted to bring one particular chart to your attention. The chart below shows that in the US, teacher salaries over the last decade have remained unchanged in real dollars, in stark contrast to most other developed countries.

This news should come as little surprise, as one reads article after article detialing teachers bargaining wage freezes, or at best increases barely enough to keep up with even modest inflation.

OECD Education at a Glance 2011